I love the ingenuity that is happening around the world to help meet the needs of real people in creative ways! Amazing!
“The 1999 Columbine shootings happened near my home in Denver, and in the aftermath I was invited into the community of first-responder youth workers, to come alongside them as a resource and a friend. In the 15 years since that mass murder, we’ve been force-fed a regular diet of school shootings, and I’ve connected with many more youth workers who’ve been caught up in the swirl of violence.
“And then, two days ago, my 15-year-old daughter Lucy was at the other end of a hallway from Karl Pierson, an angry teenager with a shotgun, bent on killing his debate coach who works in the Arapahoe High School library…
Read the rest of Rick’s story here.
The Rev. Billy Graham is near death, and it won’t be much longer before he succumbs to old age and goes “home to be with the Lord,” his grandson, Will Graham, said this week.
“I wish [God] would give him strength, but I don’t think he needs strength anymore,” Mr. Graham said, to the Christian news site, Assist News Service. “It’s time to go home.”
Read more here.
An excellent piece by Ted Haggard. Yep. Ted Haggard …
“Joel Hunter, pastor of Northland Church, and Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, both had sons take their own lives this year. I know of five other wonderful Christian families that also had sons who took their own lives. Some researchers are reporting that the suicide rate among Evangelicals is the same as that of the non-Christian community. How sad.
“Back in my NAE days, I knew Joel and Rick. They are both sincere, wonderful believers with ministries that are admired. I also knew some of the parents of the kids who took their lives here in Colorado Springs. Good families.
“The news about Pastor Isaac Hunter breaks my heart. Great speaker, lover of God, and my guess is he loved the church. But he, like all of us, fell short. In the midst of divorce with accusations swirling, he resigned from the church he founded. He gave it his best shot, and his heart was broken. This makes me sick to my stomach. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sick that he fell short, that’s a given for everyone except Christ Himself, I’m sick that our message did not …
Read the full article here: Suicide, Evangelicalism, and Sorrow.
Received this from a fellow pastor today. So good!
“Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you” (Hosea 10:12).
“The fallow field is smug, contented, protected from the shock of the plow and the agitation of the harrow…. But it is paying a terrible price for its tranquility: Never does it see the miracle of growth; never does it feel the motions of mounting life nor see the wonders of bursting seed nor the beauty of ripening grain. Fruit it can never know because it is afraid of the plow and the harrow.
“In direct opposite to this, the cultivated field has yielded itself to the adventure of living. The protecting fence has opened to admit the plow, and the plow has come as plows always come, practical, cruel, business-like and in a hurry. Peace has been shattered by the shouting farmer and the rattle of machinery. The field has felt the travail of change; it has been upset, turned over, bruised and broken, but its rewards come hard upon its labors. The seed shoots up into the daylight its miracle of life, curious, exploring the new world above it. All over the field the hand of God is at work in the age-old and ever renewed service of creation. New things are born, to grow, mature, and consummate the grand prophecy latent in the seed when it entered the ground. Nature’s wonders follow the plow.”
A.W. Tozer Paths to Power, 31-32.
“Lord, make me a cultivated field. I suspect the price will be high, but I long to bear fruit for Your glory. Do the hard work of the farmer in my life today. Amen.”
These guys are gonna rock the house at Youth Winter Fest in just one month! If you’re 7-12th grade, make sure you’re coming! If you want to bring a group we still have some room, so feel free to contact me.
Sweet video of French drummer Julien Audigier playing drums using nothing for amplification except for echoes off of a the environments in which he plays. He stresses that there is no artificial reverb added.
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