New Blog: ManofDepravity.com

Interesting

2009-03-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

It is funny to me that I still get hits on my new blog from this blog. In fact, there are still people to subscribed to this blog too.

I have zero plans on doing anything with this blog, but you are welcome to come join me at my new one.

http://manofdepravity.com

Hey

2008-03-11T21:43:00.001-07:00

If you are getting this in your rss feed then you need to delete this blog from the feed and subscribe over at manofdepravity.com

That is my new blog page and the only one I blog on now.

Thanks for reading!

Moving Time

2008-02-04T20:17:00.000-08:00

Well the time has finally come to unveil the new blog. Make sure to subscribe there and change your links to that url as well. It took a lot of confusion, help from Vin, talking with customer support with several companies, and lots of reading....But I think everything is ready to go. It shows you that anyone can set this stuff up because I'm not all that fluent in computer language.

So head on over HERE and enjoy!

Big Changes

2008-02-03T00:04:00.000-08:00

I'm planning on rolling out a brand new blog sometime this coming week. It will be a new domain, new look, new host...the list goes on. So you can be looking forward to that.

21st Century Problem

2008-02-01T19:01:00.000-08:00

In my theology class today my professor talked about some of the issues facing the church (meaning the body of believers). In his opinion, the biggest obstacle in the 20th century was answering how God could allow such grievous suffering. With tragedies such as the Holocaust, and dictators such as Fidel Castro this was certainly not an easy question to answer.

He feels that now the biggest challenge to the church is the idea that there are many ways to get to heaven. Not only is this something held by several religions already but many Christians would even say that Jesus isn't the only way. This could be called a form of universalism and it is very dangerous.

Fortuitous Bouncing

2008-02-01T12:55:00.000-08:00

It was this week that I realized that being an adult isn't that cool. Well I guess I'm not really an adult, but being in real life out of college (I know I'm in college but I commute and its grad school so it isn't the same) isn't all it is hyped up to be. How did I come to this conclusion? Well, my brother and sister and mom got 2 days off of school this week because of snow. At our place we got a little dusting that I showed a picture of earlier this week. I still had to do homework, I still had to work, no matter if school was closed or not, it didn't matter. Being an adult is no fun, I can't even enjoy the snow.

This paper just figured out that college students are walking away from Christianity. What a shocker!!!
An interesting CNN article on the world's major religions and how they view the environment.
I've spent a fair amount of time following this election process so far. By far the best coverage on tv and the internet is CNN. It is not even close. They are fair and objective in their analysis and I have learned tons from watching. They know their stuff.
A golfer who is ranked 22nd in the world thinks he is the ONLY one who can challenge Tiger. Apparently he is delusional as well.
Barack raised $32 mill....that is a lot of change.
An interesting and thought provoking blog on church leadership and management.
This is an honest look into the conflict in Kenya.
My biggest complaint about Oregon winters: If it is going to be 35, it might as well get down to 30 and snow.
I guess the new type of model is supposed to look more like normal people.
I've been planning to delete my personal Myspace account, but I've run into a few loopholes that Myspace has in place. Hopefully it is something I can fix early next week. I'm just pissed that I missed out on the national delete your Myspace account day.

Irresistible Revolution .10

2008-01-31T09:58:00.000-08:00

Research has shown that the more a person goes to church, the more they are likely to be sexist, racist, anti-gay, for wars and committed to a local church. Shane questions what Bible we are teaching. It is these things that cause many people to think of Christians as hypocrites instead of audacious lovers of people. Brennan Manning says, "The greatest cause of atheism is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny him in their lifestyle. This is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." So how can we reverse this? Shane gives a few examples that can help us envision how to live as followers of Jesus who are full of grace.

1. If terrorists are beyond redemption, he says that we can rip out half of the New Testament, since half of it was written "by a terrorist who became an extremist for grace."
2. Shane tells the story of a woman he met in Iraq whose son and husband was killed by an Iraqi police officer. In court the woman told the judge that she simply wanted to officer to know grace and love. She asked that he be ordered to come to her home in the slums 2 times a month.
3. Spin magazine did a feature on Shane and the community he is a part of named The Simple Way. He said after the feature ran he received hundreds of letters from non-Christians who were intrigued by the God he followed and many other letters from Christians who were upset that he would do an interview with such a secular magazine. It was at that point that he knew he had done the right thing.

Internet Efficiency

2008-01-30T09:02:00.000-08:00

Last week I wrote about how great iGoogle is. The biggest reason I thought it was so good is that it makes me more efficient on the internet. I wanted to let you know of a few other things that do the same for me.

If you use Internet Explorer or Safari you need to switch to Firefox. 75% of the readers of this blog use either IE or Safari, but neither of those even comes close to what Firefox can do for you. The ability for 3rd party themes and extensions on Firefox makes it so much better. From spell check, to awesome browser looks, Firefox is incredible. It is like comparing Facebook from when it first came out to where it is now. Not even close.
A few weeks ago Mr. Whittaker talked about something he uses called Morning Coffee. It is a Firefox extension that basically allows you to load all the websites you check in one window in different tabs. I've been using it for just over a week and it is a-mazing and you have to try it.
A website called Readburner lets you look at the most popular blog items that have been shared within Google Reader. So for those of you who use Google Reader, go to this site and add your shared url so that there is more diversity of the kind of things that are most popular.
If you have problems or questions with these, either email me or leave a comment with your email and I'll try and help you out.

What makes you more efficient on the internet?

Irresistible Revolution .9

2008-01-29T18:39:00.000-08:00

Chapter 9 of Irresistible Revolution is essentially a look at modern versus post modern.

Shane says that modernity is a joining of people who have it all together, while post modern is a joining of people who know they don't. This divide is played out in all areas of faith. Iraq to some is what America deserved (he quoted Jerry Falwell for this), but Shane quotes Mark 10:18 to respond to Falwell's opinion. During the great persecutions it was written that for every one Christian that was killed there were at least 10 converts. Shane believes that Christianity spreads rapidly when it is killed by evildoers without retaliation.

I know a lot of you who have followed this are thinking Shane is really liberal. I'd like to share this quote from chapter 8. "Conservatives stand up and thank God that they are not like the homosexuals, the Muslims, the liberals. Liberals stand up and thank God that they are not like the war makers, the yuppies, the conservatives. It is a similar self righteousness..."

A powerful story he alludes to is his relationship with the father of a girl who was killed in the Oklahoma City bombings. At the first the father was bitter and angry, very angry. However, the father always remembered his daughter saying "execution teaches hatred." This father traveled the country, after McVeigh had been sentenced to death, speaking about the message of his daughter. He believed that the death penalty was teaching people that we believe some people are beyond redemption, a message unsupported by Scripture in his mind.

Claiborne is not shy about tackling just about every sensitive subject in politics and society in this book. I commend him for that. Whether you disagree or not, it is much better to discuss than to suppress your thoughts.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about the validity of the death penalty. It is something I have supported my whole life. I always felt that some people had simply done something too wrong. It is at this point in my life that I am saddened by that mindset that I have been a part of. From a national standpoint I see some sensibility to it, but in a human and Christian standpoint I see no sensibility at all. The wages of sin is death, one sin or many sins, but it is never too late for grace to reach someone. Do you think Jesus would support the death penalty?

If You Were Wondering

2008-01-28T08:55:00.001-08:00

In Oregon it doesn't take much for school to be late or closed. Some of my siblings and mom are busy celebrating a day off in Salem and up in my neck of the woods, school is either 2 hours late or closed. The funny thing is....that picture is how much snow we got. Basically everyone outside of Oregon thinks this is a joke, but it is not. It doesn't take much here. Pretty funny eh?

Who Knows

2008-01-27T21:07:00.001-08:00

Maybe it is because snow is in the forecast, or the Super Bowl being a week away, or Tiger dominating this weekend, or just because I'm a nice guy....but tonight I feel like being generous. Anyone who links to me, I'll link you right back. If you are thinking..."why on earth why would I want a link on your page"....I can think of no good reasons. But maybe you are in a good mood too and want to link up.

So there you go...link to me and I'll link back. If you are in a feed, you gotta come over here and send me an email or just give me a comment. If you already have a link and I know you...you won't get cut, don't worry.

Irresistible Revolution .8

2008-01-27T16:09:00.000-08:00

Chapter 8 of Claiborne's book is titled "Jesus Made Me Do It." This chapter focuses on some of Shane's experiences upon his return from Iraq. It is essentially a chapter on living in our comfort zones.

In Philadelphia's Love Park, Shane would hang out with homeless folks and pass out food often. The city then passed a law making it illegal to sleep in the park, to ask for money in the park, and illegal to hand out food in the park. He pondered what it meant to submit to authority and still uphold to God's law of love. He answer this question by having a church service in the park. They sang and prayed and even shared in the breaking of bread and communion together. Soon after communion they continued by bringing in pizzas, and even after that everyone slept in the park overnight. During the night the police came and arrested everyone.

In court, Shane wore a shirt that said, "Jesus was homeless." The judge asked him about it and Shane quoted, "foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." The judge later sided with Shane and his friends stating that "if it weren't for people who broke unjust laws, we wouldn't have the freedom that we have."

Shane ends the chapter by saying there are safer ways to live than by being a Christian. It was a radical love that Jesus brought to this earth and following it is a high calling.

I have one problem with all this. That is that it is far different to fight to have an unjust law removed then it is to purposely break the law. I just cannot think of how Shane saw this as submitting to authority and also honoring God.
That being said, he is right about Christianity not being easy. I experience easy Christianity everyday. Seminary, working at a church, being married to a Christian, and etc. This isn't reminiscent of the difficulties Jesus and the apostles encountered when bringing the message of good news to the world.

Fortuitous Bouncing

2008-01-25T23:02:00.000-08:00

The talk of the week around here is about how cold it has been. Sure temperatures in the 20s and 30s is cold for here, but comparatively it is nothing. The Packers/Giants game was played in a wind chill in the -20s. My grandparents in Minnesota said they barely got above zero everyday for the past week. So to all Oregonians: it ain't cold.

This guy says politics and religion don't mix.
I've been a big Myspace hater for a while. I have an account that I hardly ever use and I have been looking for a reason to delete it and then I read this. I am pretty sure I might go along with this...should I?
Barack did a Q/A session with Christianity Today and they did ask the tough questions.
The Dem debate this week was so much better than last week.
Donald Miller had a cool article featured on CNN.com.
The same church that likes to protest Iraq war veteran funerals is planning to protest Heath Ledger's funeral. Anyone else want to show up and punch some people in the face?
The new Passion cd is coming out soon. SWEET!
Some good thoughts on how often to introduce new music in church.
A good blog on what Huckabee would need to do to win nomination.
This was the American Idol highlight of the week for me. Hands down. "I'm going to be the next World Idol." Haha.

Fridays are for New Music

2008-01-25T13:14:00.000-08:00

It has been far too long since I've introduced you all to some new music. I am a big Hillsong fan. I hardly ever buy their albums though because there are just too many to keep up with. I usually wait to see what are the best 2 or 3 songs from each album and roll with those for congregational worship. Brooke Fraser is the newest addition to the Hillsong crew of Darlene, Marty, Joel and others. She wrote two great songs on United's latest album: Hosanna, Lead Me to the Cross. For those of you who know me...it takes a great woman vocalist for me to enjoy a female singer, and Brooke is that for sure. I work with Kyle, who is a worship pastor in Newberg, OR, and he told me about a song Brooke leads on the newest Hillsong cd. I checked it out and it is legit. It has been in my head all week. So enjoy the song and her talking about how it came to be. It is called "Lord of Lords."

Irresistible Revolution .7

2008-01-24T20:47:00.000-08:00

Let's take a look at chapter 7 of Irresistible Revolution. This is easily my favorite chapter but is also probably the most controversial. Claiborne goes into detail about his thoughts on post 9/11 in America and also his time spent in Iraq after the war had begun.

Around 9/11 the media commended America for rallying together. Clairborne has a different take. He felt that conservatives rallied around war and liberals started protesting, but the cross was covered by the flag. Church community was lost for patriotism. "People longing for a savior placed their faith in the fragile hands of human logic and military strength, which have always let us down." He felt that 9/11 wasn't a tragedy of lost lives but of misplaced love towards the borders and allegiances of the world.

Claiborne went to Iraq because he felt that America was teaching the myth of redemptive violence: that it can produce good (Matthew 26:52). He went to Baghdad in March of 2003 where he spent a month. A powerful story he tells is after a church gathering of Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodoxes. The bishop who organized it talked to Shane about the Christian church in America. When Shane explained that many Americans supported the war so that Iraqis could be liberated the bishop said, "But we Christians do not believe that. We believe 'blessed are the peacemakers.' We believe if you pick up the sword, you die by the sword. We believe in the cross."

Some Iraqis Claiborne encountered referred to US leaders, such as George Bush, as "Christian extremists" while we consider all the terrorists "Muslim extremists".

Some thoughts:

Christian extremists seems quite a bit strong to me. The United States was originally attacked.
The last chapter talked a lot about how issues don't have faces for a lot of people. They lack a humanity. The war in Iraq is largely that way for me. Sure I have some friends who have been there on one or two tours of duty, but I don't know any Iraqis. It was this side of the war that had no face for me and a face that Claiborne brought light to.
I don't want this to be a forum for whether the war is just or not.
It scares me to think about the people who have been killed innocently in this war that believe in Jesus. Or even those who don't believe in Jesus but have nothing to do with this war. These people are just as real and alive as our neighbor.
The questions that this brings up are difficult for me to find answers to.
I wonder when Jesus would say it is ok to go to war.

Going Green

2008-01-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

I was listening to Jim Rome on the radio today. He brought up some interesting information that was included in the divorce papers for Shaquille O'Neal and his now ex-wife. The biggest shocker of all the info was that he spends $24,000 on gas......a MONTH. Yeah...a month. I wonder how it is even possible to spend that much on gas.
Jim spends a lot of his show reading listener emails. Here are some in response to this that were hilarious. Enjoy.

Dear Jim-
That is a lot of gas. Can we invade him?

Regards,
W

Dear Jim-
We are glad that Shaq is supporting us.

-The Middle East

Irresistible Revolution .6

2008-01-22T22:46:00.000-08:00

Chapter 6 of Shane Clairborne's Irresistible Revolution is titled "Economics of Rebirth." He gets started quickly by saying in the 2nd paragraph, "Layers of insulation separate the rich and the poor from truly encountering one another. There are obvious layers like picket fences and SUVs, and there are more subtle ones like charity. Tithes, tax-exempt donations, and short-term mission trips, while they accomplish some good, can also function as outlets that allow us to appease our consciences and still remain a safe distance from the poor."

He gives a quick discussion to the verse that most people use on this subject: "The poor will always be with you." Those are the words of Jesus. Claiborne believes the common exegesis of this verse is incorrect. It is usually taken to mean that there will always be poor people and that we need to focus on others. Claiborne says that Jesus is saying this in a leper's home after he has had his feet anointed with expensive perfume by a poor woman. The poor were all around Jesus when he said "the poor will always be with you." Claiborne believes this is a verse pointing the church to her true identity; that she should always be near those who suffer. Claiborne uses a great quote from Gandhi. Gandhi was often asked if he was a Christian. In response he would say, "Ask the poor. They will tell you who the Christians are."

Early Christians had a mindset that if a child starved while a Christian had extra food, they were guilty of murder. A lot of people have a problem with a gospel of prosperity and people have problems with a gospel of poverty, so Clairborne proposes a gospel of abundance rooted in a theology of enough. His main verses for this are Proverbs 30:8-9. As Gandhi says, "there is enough for everyone's need but not enough for everyone's greed."

I know in my own life that I have many layers of insulation that allow me to be comfortable. I guess I don't even know where or how to begin to break those down, which leaves me changing nothing.

Do You iGoogle?

2008-01-22T16:24:00.000-08:00

I've been using Google stuff for a while. I remember getting Gmail and everyone asking what Gmail was. Lately I've moved into using Google Reader, Google Calender, Blogger, Google Books, Google Maps, and I could go on. If they ever move into creating hardware and software it could be scary because their stuff is that good. Try anything else in any of these categories and I guarantee Google's will be as good or better.

I'm not writing this to provide a guilt trip for those of you who haven't experienced this Google magic... instead I wanted to reference one of their newer ideas. This has put Google way over the top for me. It is iGoogle. It is basically a google homepage with whatever I want. I go to one web page and I get my email, rss feed (reader), calender, ESPN headlines, weather, news headlines, and anything else I want to add. Because I use so many Google programs I am able to have them all in one place with iGoogle. It is amazing. It has made me so much more efficient on the internet. If you aren't using this, you need to try it out.

From Sales to Ministry

2008-01-21T19:47:00.000-08:00

One year ago today I started work here. I haven't worked there for over 7 months now. Most of the readers of this blog know about my decision to pursue a life in Christian ministry instead of business so I won't go into detail about this right now.

I remember my first day quite well even now. I showed up at 7am and met a lot of people. On Mondays we would have branch meetings. This consisted of all the sales managers on my team (most of which I didn't know yet) and the branch manager (who I had interviewed with). The meeting started at 7:30am.

It was the first day for me and one other girl. Our branch manager apologized to us for what we were going to hear...and what began was a expletive filled tirade about how poorly the team had been performing. It was lasted 15 minutes or so. He complained not so much the actual sales results but the work habits that were permeating the office. I didn't act shocked, but I was. I knew what I was getting into and that it was going to be a tough, no nonsense environment...but this was a strong welcome to the business world. Cuss words don't intimidate me but him yelling and throwing things was like the kind of things you see in movies. I thought wow...I guess it has begun already. That was my first day of after college "real world."

Have you ever had a rude awakening on the first day of a new job?

Irresistible Revolution .5

2008-01-21T08:58:00.000-08:00

Chapter 5 of Irresistible Revolution gives an overview of the beginnings of the community that Claiborne helped start called The Simple Way. It is also an overview of his experiment of monasticism. He begins the chapter by telling us that Christians have not shown the world another way to live.

He talks a lot about the wording "come and see," a phrase that Mother Theresa would always use when people would ask about what she did. The only way he knows to invite people into the Christian faith is to invite them to come and see how they live at The Simple Way as they try to be an incarnation of the body.
Claiborne believes that helping the poor is considered commendable, but joining them is considered radical. Catholic bishop Dom Camara says, "When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint. When I asked why people are hungry, they called me a communist."

In American it is popular today to try and do church in a way like the early church. What I mean is that it is popular in ideology to try and do church like in Acts. Claiborne describes this as "the story of a people who were together and were of one heart and mind, sharing all in common." There aren't many churches today who want to approach church in a way like Acts presents...that "do" church like that.
As Claiborne describes the difference between most faith communities and The Simple Way he tells us that most communities only tell us what they believe, "but they do not tell us how their beliefs affect their lifestyle."

Most churches are known by their doctrine, not by the way they live. I wonder how we can change this, because I do see the importance and value of doctrines, but I also see how they confine churches into certain categories. I see doctrines as being important to believers but mostly unimportant when it comes to reaching the lost.

Sunday Rundown .1 .20 .08

2008-01-20T17:29:00.000-08:00

Well it was my first Sunday leading at Sunset. I had played a few other weekends and led on a few songs but today the 11am service was my baby (with the help of Jay on choosing some of the songs). For those of you who do not know (probably most of you) the 9am service is more traditional and the 11am service is more modern. Obviously the 11am service is a good fit of my skills and tastes.

All Because of Jesus (B) Steve Fee
Let God Arise (B) Chris Tomlin
-Small talk by me on Exodus 16
You Never Let Go (A) Matt Redman
The Stand (A) Hillsong

Special- Offering (F) Paul Baloche

The message was on Matthew 25:31-46...on serving the poor and those in need.

Response- God of Justice (We Must Go) (F) Tim Hughes

Overall I thought the service went about as well as it could have. All Because of Jesus was a new song but I think its one that will catch on when we do it again because its just a great song. I liked that the first two and last two songs of the main set were in a same key. It made transitions quick and easy. One of my biggest worship pet peeves is awkward down time, and using similar keys is one easy way to transition. Using God of Justice at the end worked perfectly...it is such a great song and fit the theme just right. It was really nice to lead one service instead of two. If a lot went wrong in the one service I probably wouldn't be saying that, but being able to put all my energy into one service made me more effective I think. All in all...a great weekend.

Fortuitous Bouncing

2008-01-18T17:16:00.000-08:00

Another week in the books...well I have to work tomorrow, but Friday still feels like the end of the week. I'm leading worship on Sunday at Sunset for the 11am service and Ron is speaking on serving the poor and oppressed. Pretty good timing considering the series on Irresistible Revolution and the topics it brings up.

I'm going to see Cloverfield tonight...I'll let you know if it is any good.
I watched the democratic debate on Tuesday night in Vegas....BORING. They chose all the topics that they mostly agree on. Who wants to hear politicians agreeing for 2 hours?
Speaking of politics...people have always said politics and religion don't mix. This article says they do.
This makes God Tube look pretty smart.
A school district in Maryland is trying to teach that it is innate to live a homosexual life.
Ross Perot on the Presidential candidates.
I guess this Sunday is "Sanctity of Life" Sunday. Two blogs at Jesus Creed raised some great conversation.
Huckabee insinuated that the Constitution is unbiblical. What do you think?
Here is a list on what worship is. I think it is pretty solid.
My first worship rundown in FOREVER is coming Sunday.
After 4 hours of American Idol this week..."We're Brothers Forever" was definitely the highlight.

Irresistible Revolution .4

2008-01-17T21:51:00.000-08:00

Chapter 4 of Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution is titled "When Comfort Becomes Uncomfortable". It outlines a lot of his time working at Willow Creek Community Church and living in the suburbs of Chicago. He finished some of his education at Wheaton and also worked with Axis, which used to be the name for the 20s group at Willow. During his time at Wheaton he established a relationship with Rich Mullins, who was on a one year sabbatical in order to write a musical inspired by the life of St. Francis of Assisi.

During an all campus chapel meeting Rich spoke and I was really struck by what he said that got him basically banned from speaking at Wheaton again. "You guys are all into that born again thing, which is great. We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me that I have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy too...But I guess that's why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest."

His time at Willow was right after his time in India and Shane spent a lot of time working through how there could be such a divide between the wealthy church that is Willow and the lepers in Calcutta. Tony Campolo (Shane's adviser while he went to Eastern College) says, "Jesus never says to the poor, 'Come find the church,' but he says to those of us in the church, 'Go into the world and find the poor, hungry, homeless, imprisoned,' Jesus in his disguises."

Shane ends the chapter by saying, "We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor."

This was a heavy, convicting, and hard to read chapter. That is a good thing. At least it was a good thing for me. I don't have answers to the questions that statements like these make. Well I could give answers but they aren't very good.
How do we respond to this?

Less=More

2008-01-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

Most of you know I've been going through the book Irresistible Revolution. So far the book has has given a picture of different events in Shane Claiborne's life that have shaped him. Last night he spoke at Matt and Rhett's church. This is like two worlds colliding...the message of less is more meeting some of the most affluent people in the world.

As most of you know I am always interested in stuff on the concept of the emerging church. I've read some interesting things this week on that.
Wess Daniels has a great post trying to categorize some of the minds that are leading this idea called the emerging church. I found it interesting that he included Rob Bell in a category because Bell has been quoted as saying that the emerging church is something he is not a part of. That it is, "just a conversation." I guess it could be possible to be a part of something without knowing it...but that would be a little weird. Overall I think his four different categories make a lot of sense.
Rhett also touches on some of these things here.
I encourage you to dive into some of these topics and gain some knowledge. A few years ago the question was whether the "emerging church" was for real. I think it is proven that it is, because now it seems every church in America wants to try new ways to reach young people. I have 2 problems with this.
1. When did the emerging church become a young person movement?
2. It has always been difficult to get young people in church...changing a few things in churches doesn't make it any easier.

Another great post discusses the video I posted on the emerging church a while back. He has a different opinion then I did about it...and he might be right.

On a side note. Rose and I would appreciate some prayer. She is going through some job difficulties which is something we really can't afford to have happen.
I'll post on chapter 4 of Claiborne tomorrow.

Irresistible Revolution .3

2008-01-15T19:14:00.000-08:00

Chapter 3 of Irresistible Revolution is titled "In Search of a Christian". This is really a chapter on Shane's experience in India. He was able to get the phone number for Mother Theresa. When he reached her, he asked if he could come and work with her for a summer. When asking her what to should bring she replied, "God takes care of the lilies and the sparrows, and God will take care of you. Just come."

Shane tells the story of a man he met in India named Andy. Andy was a wealthy German businessman. His life changed when he read the gospel. "It messed everything up." Andy sold everything he had and moved to Calcutta and by the time Shane was there, Andy had not been back to Germany since he had arrived ten years before. Shane was on a journey to find purpose, to find what Christianity could look like when lived out. He had found that in the person of Andy.

During his time in India, Shane worked mostly with a society of outcast lepers. He was told by one of the lepers that most of them don't know the words "thank you" because they have never needed to say them. We see in Jesus that it wasn't what he did, but how he did it. "Jesus healed the sick, but they eventually caught some other disease. He fed the thousands, and they next day they were hungry again. But they remember his love. It wasn't that Jesus healed a leper but that he touched a leper."

I see two main points to this:
1. As he left India and his time with the community of lepers he felt like he was going back to his homeland (the US) full of lepers. We are country full of people who are numb.
2. It was never what Jesus did but how he did it. Just as God looks at our heart, it matters less to Him what we do, but rather how we do it.