Three cups of tea...please

What an amazing man and mission....one of the best and most hopeful things I have heard about Afghanistan. May his tribe increase. My favorite moment: The Taliban playing on the school playground swing set....violence is truly the fruit of a failed imagination.

http://castroller.com/podcasts/BillMoyersJournal/1415219

The Conscientious Objector review

Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation. -Psalm 91:14-16

I'm not a big fan of quoting scripture in war...but, if ever it seemed appropriate, this verse fits the story retold above. I watched this documentary last night and have to say, it was one of the most moving stories of faith and war, I've seen. The story of a courageous Seventh Day Adventist man who chooses to serve his country in WW2 without a gun.

It's an inspiring story that shows the cost and the witness of one man's attempt to reconcile his faith and duty to country. It's full of miracles and moving testimony from WW2 veterans who served together with Desmond Doss. This is a must see film, if the issues of faith, violence, patriotism and duty matter to you.

Soldiers of Conscience

I watched this last night. I thought it was one of the best, balanced and brutal dialogues about war and killing, pacifism and patriotism that I have seen. I am thinking about showing it as part of our Christ & Culture nights.

Converted or Killed...?

"But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison...Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." -Acts 8:3 & 9:1-5

Imagine if in our day...God raised up another Middle Eastern force of global missionaries; handpicked from a group of fundamentalist, religious extremists...who are also breathing threats and murder.

Saul was such a man...and God changed Him from the inside out...and Saul...became known as Paul. Not a murdering religious zealot who would gladly stand over the infidels as they were stoned to death...but Paul, the self sacrificing missionary who would become the Apostle to the Gentiles. Eventually he would give up his own life for the gospel of Jesus, as a martyr for the faith he once persecuted.

But...for there to be a Paul...there also has to be an...Ananias.

In Acts 9:10-19 we have the story of how God used a disciple named Ananias to embrace and empower Paul through forgiveness, prayer and ministry.

At first Ananias was nervous about God’s call to him to reach out to this well known, violent religious fundamentalist. How could God be calling him to cross paths with one of the most violent religious aggressor against the fledgling church?

How could God be calling Ananias to endanger himself?
Would God require Ananias to risk imprisonment and possible death?

Yes.

As a result...God moved through Ananias obedience and Saul’s vision was restored and he was baptized. Out of those baptismal waters...came the Apostle Paul. A new man...with a new heart and charged with a new mission.

I believe that this world needs less people who think with “Bullet’s & Ballots” and more who embrace a mission minded God. The church is charged with finding her Saul’s who are destined to become Paul’s and more than likely the most influential and misisonminded will come from among the most radical and terrifying opponents of Jesus.

Behold...the mission field of God...who will go?


In the last 25 years, more than 100 times as many American Christians have gone to the Middle East to serve their country in a military capacity than have gone to the Middle East to serve the King of kings by proclaiming the gospel of peace!

In North Africa, there is still roughly one missionary for every two million Muslims.
In northern India, it is roughly one missionary for every five million Muslims.
Globally, it averages out to be one missionary for every one million Muslims.


ABCs of Global Missions
World A
Unreached people -- 24% of the world's population -- receive 1/2 of 1% of dollars given to Christian missions

World B
Unevangelized World -- 43% of the world's population -- receives 5% of dollars given to Christian missions

World C
Christian World -- 33% of the world's population -- receives 94.5% of dollars given to Christian missions

Just maybe...if we would have been as zealous for the mission of God among the least reached peoples of this world...we wouldn’t be where we are today, Geo-politically?
Maybe the blood of the innocents lies not on the hands of the military but on the folded and slumbering hands of God’s inactive soldiers of the cross?

Maybe the hope of the planted isn’t in the hands of the Generals but instead in the pews of our churches?

Saul...where are you?

Ananias...where are you?

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Answers to objections to going into Missions by John Piper: here
Strategic World Missions Map to plan your mission: here

The Martyrdom of Perpetua....

As I'ved been doing my studies on the early churches predominant position on war and peace...you cannot get very far before the Coliseum becomes a powerful entity in the discussion. Violence in a culture and the love of watching or participating in violence rises to the surface.

As one moves from the furit of war...and follows the limbs, then arrives at the trunk and continues down the tree into the dirt to the roots that lie below...one is confronted with the violence that lies within us. That sinfulness is what always creates the evil that is without us.

It was the transformative issue that the teaching of Christ had upon the early disciples. What He taught changed the way they lived. Their hearts and minds changed. They literally repented of living the "way they had before". They actually got new minds and hearts...and that radically altered they way they treated one another.

The gospel was so real...they even gave up their own lives...as entertainment for the blood thirsty masses. And like Perpetua...took the sword of the soldier...and put it to thier own neck in acts of utter submission to the eternal justice of God.

They didn't even love their own lives....and this faith...turned the world upside down.

Read about Perpetua's last stand in the Roman Coliseum...here: The Martyrdom of Saint Perpetua

Veteran's Day...

Prayers to all serving....that they would have these kind of moments soon.

Band of Brothers...Why We Fight.

This episode in the Band of Brothers series, hit me like an emotional ton of bricks. I think it was more powerful than Schindlers List for me. I found myself truly getting angry at various points during the episode. The scene in the Cheese and Bread shop after the Allied Forces discovered the concentration camp was most visceral to me. Knowing that many of those German towns people knew of the atrocities outside their city got me wanting that solider to pull the trigger on the baker who was throwing a fit because the soldiers were taking food for the victims. I also felt the anger of the soldier cussing out the captured SS soldiers that were being marched down the highway. I felt the horror of new recruits discovering the houses of dying and dead in the camp...over and over, it was a emotional ride. What a hard hitting series, I dont think anything compares to it.

On a negative note...I was disappointed by the sex scene that came out of nowhere in this episode, no chance to edit or turn...just in your face...that was over the top. I understand the desire to explore the complex relationships between the conquered and the conquering and the ecstatic liberated people, the divorcing homeland spouses and the soldiers loneliness and the abuse of it all...but this scene was tackless. Other than that and the rough language throughout the film...I give this series 5 stars, two thumbs up etc..etc...it is the best war movie/series that I have seen.

And "The Pacific" looks like its going to be an excellent follow up to Band of Brothers, I cant wait to see it.

Where Icarus burns...

"A person may plan his own journey, but the LORD directs his steps." -Proverbs 16:9

Lately I've felt like the journey wearied Homer in the Odyssey. Stones are flying and this ship is tossed here and there by the endless battering of circumstances and challenges. I've set a course and this vessel has been under a squall of internal and external tempests, that at times, appears to be busting me open.

It's one thing to aim at the man you desire to be, envision the journey you long to pursue and...actually getting there.

Life throws all kinds of things at you and how you choose to respond, unfolds the man you become by the grace of God. That process will take you to the dark marrow of manhood. It will break you open, test your mettle, expose your humanity. It's a pummeling process that teaches a man how to kneel...and how to stand.

These are the days of testing...you will wrestle with everything under the sun: trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, death, life, angels and demons, the present, the future, powers, heights and depths...all will seek to "conquer us" (Romans 8:35-39); and in some seasons it seems as if you are wrestling with God himself:

"He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness. He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head. He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree. His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies."-Job 19:8-11

I cling to the promise that in all these things...we will overwhelmingly conquer (Rom 8:37)...at times that seems fairly grandiose to claim...but it is a cold, hard verse, to either believe or reject. I'm struggling to embrace it in light of the challenges in my path.

This warrior poet's plea...

"Embolden this, my weakening hand,
frail heart or mind be armored,
Courage and faith fail me not,
in tempests or assaults.

Heed not, do I,
be it to mists, darkness, flame or thunder'
Flinch neither from pain, blood, sweat or toil.
Hold the ground before the mouths of leviathan
and stingers of Apollyon.

Ascend not to unbeckoned heights...where Icarus burns,
Or depths where prophets in sovereign bellies...churn.

Fidelity forever...let my future be sure;
In lions dens, or furnace fire,
on rooftops of gardened achievement,
or forbidden desire.

Eyes be clear, amidst tears and fall,
Clarion voice, celestial light's call,
Darkened charts, no sailors worry,
compassed course, faith's daring journey."

Who are the sons of God...?

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God" -Jesus (Matthew 5:9) (via)

Christianized Militarism...

"Having found the atomic bomb, we have used it. We shall continue to use it...It is an awful responsibility which has come to us. We thank God that it (the atomic bomb) has come to us instead of to our ememies and we pray that he may guide us to use it in His ways and for His purposes." -President Harry Truman, after dropping the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Jan. 9th, 1945 (quote from Jesus for President)

I am currently reading "Jesus for President" and throughly enjoying the engaging and thought provoking material. I find the quote troubling as a follower of the Prince of Peace and the One who will eventually burn in fire every "warrior's boot used in battle ad every garment rolled in blood" (Isaiah 9:2-7). I encourage you to read the book if you find yourself struggling with where faith and politics merge.