Well, tomorrow is a fun day. I will be sending my first letter to Hawa in Sierra Leone. She is the li’l gal over there in Africa who I am now sponsoring through World Vision.
I wrote my letter to Hawa while my girlfriend wrote a letter to the kid she’s sponsoring through Compassion International. We made it like a date. We went, had dinner at Café Brazil in Dallas, and wrote our letters and talked about what we were writing. Doing something like that together is a great way to spend your time with your significant other.
But if you don’t have a significant other, do it with a friend. Even better, a group of friends! Or, if you don’t have any friends, do it by yourself. However you do it, just do it. It’s a manageable and enjoyable way to serve others. If you’re not a Christian, you can at least appreciate the idea of helping others; if you are a Christian, you are commanded to help others.
In his latest book, Forgotten God, Francis Chan says:
“It really is an astounding truth that the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. He lives in me. I do not know what the Spirit will do or where He’ll lead me each time I invite Him to guide me. But I am tired of living in a way that looks exactly like people who do not have the Holy Spirit of God living in them. I want to consistently live with an awareness of His strength. I want to be different today from what I was yesterday as the fruit of the Spirit becomes more manifest in me.
I want to live so that I am truly submitted to the Spirit’s leading on a daily basis. Christ said it is better for us that the Spirit came, and I want to live like I know that is true. I don’t want to keep crawling when I have the ability to fly.”
That is encouraging, and convicting, to those of us who claim Christ as Lord. If He is our Lord, then we need to live like it. We need to live like we know what that means. That means, in part, that we have the Holy Spirit living in us. And with the Holy Spirit living in us, we can attack hunger, suffering, and injustice all around the world without fearing our time constraints, our finances, or our perceived lack of ability. As Christians, we need to lead the charge.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
go, get outta here!
Hello, all. I just sent out a fun email regarding a mission trip I’m going on. Me and some folk from my church are headed to Costa Rica to work with a church down there that we have a pretty strong relationship with. I don’t even know how many years our church has been working with them, but it’s been a while.
We (my church, I’ve never actually been) normally go in July-ish. This time we will be going December 16-23, and we are going to see a lot of what this church does. They have four or five missions they have started across their beautiful country, and we get to see like three of ‘em in one trip! It is going to be a great chance to strengthen our church’s relationship with theirs, and for those of us going to get a good introduction to international missions.
Missions is what God wants us (Christians) to do. He tells us we should be going and making disciples, and that we need to go all over the world. The whole world needs Him. And if we want to be a part of what He is doing, then we need to go tell them all about Him! It’s the best thing we can do in our life. He is the greatest gift in the world, and He offers Himself to everyone freely. And while it is Him that does the seeking of the lost, and the offering, and the saving, it is us that gets to be a part of that when we obey. If we love Him, which we should because He loves us, and if we love them, which we should because He loves them, then we need to tell them. Everyone.
And we do that through missions. We go to Costa Rica, we go to Africa, we go next door, we go wherever God asks. But no matter what, we go.
I will be writing about this trip, hopefully, and I hope everyone will enjoy the reading and that God will use it for His glory. Peace, love and soul train! Psalm 116:7
We (my church, I’ve never actually been) normally go in July-ish. This time we will be going December 16-23, and we are going to see a lot of what this church does. They have four or five missions they have started across their beautiful country, and we get to see like three of ‘em in one trip! It is going to be a great chance to strengthen our church’s relationship with theirs, and for those of us going to get a good introduction to international missions.
Missions is what God wants us (Christians) to do. He tells us we should be going and making disciples, and that we need to go all over the world. The whole world needs Him. And if we want to be a part of what He is doing, then we need to go tell them all about Him! It’s the best thing we can do in our life. He is the greatest gift in the world, and He offers Himself to everyone freely. And while it is Him that does the seeking of the lost, and the offering, and the saving, it is us that gets to be a part of that when we obey. If we love Him, which we should because He loves us, and if we love them, which we should because He loves them, then we need to tell them. Everyone.
And we do that through missions. We go to Costa Rica, we go to Africa, we go next door, we go wherever God asks. But no matter what, we go.
I will be writing about this trip, hopefully, and I hope everyone will enjoy the reading and that God will use it for His glory. Peace, love and soul train! Psalm 116:7
Sunday, November 15, 2009
readers be ware
oh yes, my keyboard is now working suffciently. after an hour on the phone with dellsupport, i have full use of my letter-studded pad here, and can once again write! of course, now i have no more excuses.
my plan? to write more about charities n such. i want to tell you all about the options out there and tell you about the ones i know of through experience. and believe me, there are waaaay more out there than i am actually a part of. so, there is plenty of material. ;)
my most recent experience is sponsoring a child in sierra leonne. i will tell you all more about that over the next however-long. but as a brief overview:
her name is hawa mama (i know, awesome). she is a little gal in sierra leonne, a country recovering from some horrible civil war violence. if you have ever seen "blood diamond", it was a lot like that. only worse from what i hear. i adopted her through world vision, and have been very impressed so far with the amount of info and support i have recieved from them.
i will end this entry here, but there should be plenty more soon!
my plan? to write more about charities n such. i want to tell you all about the options out there and tell you about the ones i know of through experience. and believe me, there are waaaay more out there than i am actually a part of. so, there is plenty of material. ;)
my most recent experience is sponsoring a child in sierra leonne. i will tell you all more about that over the next however-long. but as a brief overview:
her name is hawa mama (i know, awesome). she is a little gal in sierra leonne, a country recovering from some horrible civil war violence. if you have ever seen "blood diamond", it was a lot like that. only worse from what i hear. i adopted her through world vision, and have been very impressed so far with the amount of info and support i have recieved from them.
i will end this entry here, but there should be plenty more soon!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
just do it
This was a good weekend. If you follow me on twitter (@los_lupe) then you know I went to something called the Right Now conference. It was a great experience with like a thousand (I am bad at estimates) other Christians listening to speakers like Kay Warren, Francis Chan, Matt Chandler, Donald Miller, Anne Jackson, and Tim Ross (those are the ones I heard, but there were more). We were also led in some great worship by Kari Jobe. She was a bouncy gal with a big voice, and she sure seemed to love her some Jesus.
As did all of the speakers. God put some great words on their hearts, and used them to get those same words to those of us at the conference. That’s what God does, he works things out so that the right people hear the right message from the right mouths. From Kay I was reminded of the pain out in the world, and that I need to set aside my own personal kingdom and serve His. Franky Chan reminded us that we can’t do anything, but God can do anything and he does it through us. He made us His righteousness, and offers us Himself. Read 2 Peter 1:1-5 (where Chan’s sermon came from), it’s good stuff. Then Chandler made us laugh occasionally, and hard, as he reminded us of the Resurrection and just what it meant. He reminded us how God took our sins on the cross, all of them, and rose victoriously from the dead. He reminded us that nothing we do surprises God and that he took care of it all a couple thousand years ago. He reminded us just how amazing the Resurrection is; not just in how it happened, or that it happened, but what it accomplished. Sin lost. When we look to Jesus in his life, death, burial, AND resurrection, ,sin loses it’s grip on our lives. Donald Miller took us to school and explained how the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet is an analogy (or metaphor, I can never remember) for what it means to become a Christian. He pointed out that this is a relationship. That we give up ourselves to take on a relationship with Christ, and we are made new in this relationship. Tim Ross (I know, out of order) reminded us all that the Bible says we need to die. He says that people who are still alive aren’t living. It’s when we die to ourselves that God begins to use us. Finally, Anne Jackson is why I am writing again. I listened to her talk on using social media to spread His word. She talked about the importance of a blog in reaching others with Christ’s message through the art of storytelling. With a blog, or twitter, or whatever, we followers of the One True God, can tell others of the work He is doing all around the world. We can use blogs to inform each other of the pain in the world. We can use blogs to mobilize Christians to do what Jesus told us to do, love others! But we have to actually write. And we have to do it well.
I’ve not done a very good job of telling the story of this weekend. And I don’t know if I will in the future with other stuffs, but I’ll try. I’ve said this before, and I may have to say it again, but I’m gonna try once again to keep at this.
One thing I would like to say is, help someone. Help someone in need. That was the cool thing about this whole conference. I have been to plenty where we talked about the importance of assisting those in need, but then we all go home and go back to our luxurious lives (if you live in America and have a job, you are living a life of luxury compared to the hurt around the world). At this one, we took a break from listening to put together equipment packages for World Vision to give to caregivers of AIDS victims. There were representatives from different organizations that go and help those in need. They did some great recruiting to find people to give and to go. Compassion International got sponsors for nearly 200 children around the world. You can do the same for like 40 bucks a month. I am about to sign up with World Vision to sponsor either a child, or even a whole family. Just do something! By eating a few sandwiches instead of an expensive meal, we can keep a kid from dying. It takes so little effort from us in America to do so much around the world. As Christians, it is our responsibility.
This wasn’t the best post, but I meant it. And it’s getting a little long, so I’ll end it. Maybe I’ll be able to come back and be a little less rusty and tell a much better story, but for now, go do something!
As did all of the speakers. God put some great words on their hearts, and used them to get those same words to those of us at the conference. That’s what God does, he works things out so that the right people hear the right message from the right mouths. From Kay I was reminded of the pain out in the world, and that I need to set aside my own personal kingdom and serve His. Franky Chan reminded us that we can’t do anything, but God can do anything and he does it through us. He made us His righteousness, and offers us Himself. Read 2 Peter 1:1-5 (where Chan’s sermon came from), it’s good stuff. Then Chandler made us laugh occasionally, and hard, as he reminded us of the Resurrection and just what it meant. He reminded us how God took our sins on the cross, all of them, and rose victoriously from the dead. He reminded us that nothing we do surprises God and that he took care of it all a couple thousand years ago. He reminded us just how amazing the Resurrection is; not just in how it happened, or that it happened, but what it accomplished. Sin lost. When we look to Jesus in his life, death, burial, AND resurrection, ,sin loses it’s grip on our lives. Donald Miller took us to school and explained how the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet is an analogy (or metaphor, I can never remember) for what it means to become a Christian. He pointed out that this is a relationship. That we give up ourselves to take on a relationship with Christ, and we are made new in this relationship. Tim Ross (I know, out of order) reminded us all that the Bible says we need to die. He says that people who are still alive aren’t living. It’s when we die to ourselves that God begins to use us. Finally, Anne Jackson is why I am writing again. I listened to her talk on using social media to spread His word. She talked about the importance of a blog in reaching others with Christ’s message through the art of storytelling. With a blog, or twitter, or whatever, we followers of the One True God, can tell others of the work He is doing all around the world. We can use blogs to inform each other of the pain in the world. We can use blogs to mobilize Christians to do what Jesus told us to do, love others! But we have to actually write. And we have to do it well.
I’ve not done a very good job of telling the story of this weekend. And I don’t know if I will in the future with other stuffs, but I’ll try. I’ve said this before, and I may have to say it again, but I’m gonna try once again to keep at this.
One thing I would like to say is, help someone. Help someone in need. That was the cool thing about this whole conference. I have been to plenty where we talked about the importance of assisting those in need, but then we all go home and go back to our luxurious lives (if you live in America and have a job, you are living a life of luxury compared to the hurt around the world). At this one, we took a break from listening to put together equipment packages for World Vision to give to caregivers of AIDS victims. There were representatives from different organizations that go and help those in need. They did some great recruiting to find people to give and to go. Compassion International got sponsors for nearly 200 children around the world. You can do the same for like 40 bucks a month. I am about to sign up with World Vision to sponsor either a child, or even a whole family. Just do something! By eating a few sandwiches instead of an expensive meal, we can keep a kid from dying. It takes so little effort from us in America to do so much around the world. As Christians, it is our responsibility.
This wasn’t the best post, but I meant it. And it’s getting a little long, so I’ll end it. Maybe I’ll be able to come back and be a little less rusty and tell a much better story, but for now, go do something!
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