Health Care - Access, Access, Access (updated)

Health Care - Access, Access, Access - NYTimes.com

Nicholas D. Kristof wrote a great article yesterday on Health Care. What is striking to me is how a Christian heart of compassion ought to have a passion for increased access to health care. The link between increased access to health care and decreases in infant mortality and mortality in childbirth and pregnancy mandate Christian support for increased access to health care. This is a no-brainer.

So the question is. Why are conservative christians against health care reform? I think this is another case of ideology getting in the way of practical solutions to real life problems of human suffering.

Kristof does make one misleading statement about low abortion rates in Germany. The abortion rate in Germany is even lower than stated in Kristof's article. Germany has 35% the per capita abortions compared to the United States BUT the real reason appears to be that abortion is very restricted in Germany. Abortion is technically illegal with many loopholes in the first 12 weeks but still far more restricted than in the USA. Germany does have the oldest universal health care system in Europe.

Nonetheless, the benefits of universal health care on the well being of the society makes support for universal health care a moral mandate especially for Christians.

A Life of Being Surprised By God

I have once again been surprised by the unbelievable grace of God. Lately, I have noticed that my prayer life is at a very low ebb. I know as well that as I look at my life, I have quenched the Spirit. My experience of God is suffering as well. Lately, I have been reflecting on the fact that not only is my spiritual condition low but my faith in a better spiritual condition in the future is quite low.

So in the last few days, I have been asking the Lord, “Can you help me out even though I have no faith and no merit to commend Your response? It is almost if I am praying, “Lord, help me out here but I will understand if you don’t”. So what I decided to do was to go through a time of praying and blessing whoever comes to my mind. ….These are very tiny little random prayers of forgiveness and blessing. I also spent some time (very little time like 10 minutes) reflecting on how God has shown compassion to me in my life. I have been doing these tiny prayers of giving and receiving compassion for about two or three days….

Well, today at work I have been surprised, once again, by the clear presence of God. For me this experience feels like being in the zone feels to an athlete. If you have ever played basketball for example, there are times when everything just seems to go in. It is uncanny. As the game progresses, you just seem to get more and more confident. Athletes call this being in the zone. Well, today, I am experiencing this but with respect to being kind and joyful. Then, as always happens in such situations, the moment I reflect and say to myself, “Wow, I am in a loving, joyful place. I love this feeling”. At that moment, I sense the presence of God and the clarity that, “Oh my Lord, this is You. This is the answer to those prayers”. The Spirit bears witness with my spirit that God is a God who answers small weak prayers and the result of this grace is a joy unspeakable and full of Glory.

I have had this happen literally every time. I find that every time I move a little toward God in the exercise of faith in the Grace of God in Christ and obedience to the simple path of unconditional love that He surprises me with an unspeakable joy. So truly I can say, faith in the Christ and His path of love is the key to life.

Joshua Redman Trio - Los Angeles - "Identity Thief"

My son and I and a few of his friends saw Joshua Redman last night. It was absolutely wonderful.

One thing I could see is that Joshua Redman plays without any self-consciousness. This one thing makes music so freeing. We are free to be in the moment.

There is always discussion of who is the greatest jazz player of our era. For me, what makes Joshua Redman in this conversation is his melody writing. His tunes are as beautiful as Mozart. For artistic expression and melody, Joshua Redman is as good as it gets.

David Hightower - Sax Concert

Last night was a big jazz night as David had a concert with his high school jazz band and then we went to see Joshua Redman

David's solo is the second solo (Tenor Sax)

Alister McGrath - Science and Religion

Alister McGrath

I am planning on reading Alister McGrath on Science and Religion. It is important in our time to do a much better job at reconciling the truth of science with the truth of Christianity.

Biblical Worldview and Kingdom Theology

Recently, I have been attempting to study the difference between N. T. Wright and John Piper’s perspective on justification. This discussion involves the discussion of many biblical terms including salvation, justification, and the righteousness of God. In my mind, it appears that there are more foundational understandings about the biblical worldview which must be discussed prior to placing these terms into the story of redemption.

To many the big question facing the reader of the bible is how do I know that if I die tonight that I will go to heaven? Instead,  N. T. Wright insists the actual biblical question is "how do I know if I am a member of the covenant people through whom God is going to bless the whole world"? If you asked a 21st century conservative evangelical it is not likely that they would ever wrestle with whether they are part of the community through whom God is going to “set things to rights”. Isn’t  the world running headlong into hell while the church limps its way into heaven? Nothing is being "set to rights" as N.T. Wright insists. These two views of history and redemption are quite at odds. To the conservative evangelical, God’s plan is to rescue people out of the temporal world and into a life of hope for eternity. But to the biblical writers and Jesus Himself, God's plan of redemption is to build a beautiful community on earth, the church, that displays his glory and the power of the gospel? What is at odds here are two different worldviews. What is really in conflict are two differing understandings of where the story of redemption is being acted out. Is the story a story about hidden souls being redeemed in a sort of hidden way or is the story being played out in a very visible reality on earth between two very visibly distinct communities, the church and the world? Is the glory of God clearly seen in the community of the elect or is it hidden and secret?

The picture below depicts the difference quite clearly.

In this illustration, the greek or gnostic view sees the good life and the good existence as the life in heaven. In contrast, the life of earth is fallen and broken. These two aspects of reality are unchanging or static. Heaven good. Earth bad. To obtain the good life, the kingdom, one must be taken out of the life of earth to the life of heaven. As believers, according to this view, we are to expect very little out of this life but we hope for eternity in heaven.

On right in this illustration, we have a less greek and more biblical worldview. This understanding of redemption sees God's plan to bless all the people groups of the world, through faith in Jesus. N.T. Wright sees this as the covenant to Abraham. This blessing is something that God has promised to perform here on earth through His covenant people. The purpose of life is not to usher souls into a status of being qualified for heaven but to bring people into the life of the covenant and to participate in the life of the Kingdom of the Christ. We urge others to enter this life of the age to come knowing that one day, at Christ's return, our kingdom life will be had in full.

What is at stake is essentially a gnostic or mystic worldview or a biblical worldview of a full bodied hope. If we understand the story of the bible to be the unfolding of God's covenant people here on earth and the bringing of the elect into the kingdom here on earth awaiting the return of the king, then we approach terms like salvation and justification quite differently than if we see the purpose of life only the work of saving souls for a future heavenly existence.

From this worldview, it becomes much simpler to reconcile the teachings of Jesus regarding the kingdom and Paul's teachings concerning how a person is justified, i.e. how a person has assurance that they are a member of this community of the elect. Terms like salvation and justification simply mean different things if seen in the context of a kingdom worldview.

Best Song Ever - Dave Matthews Band - "Why I AM"

My kids joke cause I always say, 'This is the best song ever" about every great song. So here is the first of a series...

The is the best song ever both lyrically and musically.

Thematically, it is about seeing the value of living in light of death. The GrooGrux King is his late band man and the song is a reflection on living life to the fullest as a celebration of the life of his friend.

Also, there is definitely commentary on worldliness and futile pursuits like "us and them" and petty conflicts when in reality we all go to one place - death. So it is about perspective.

Musically - pure jam!!!!

N. T. Wright - Justification God’s Plan and Paul's Vision - Part 2

In the opening pages of his response to John Piper’s critique, N. T. Wright tries to explain his perspective on the tenor of the dialogue between himself and his reformed critics.

Wright describes a scene where we are attempting to explain to a man who “by some accident of education” had never heard that the earth revolved and rotated. You expalin the solar system and planetary motion with props and passion over a glass of wine. The next morning you wake up to the other man’s persistent knock. He takes you to a hilltop over looking the ocean. He returns to the topic of the previous night and then the great evidence arises in the east and he turns and says, “see I told you. There it is before our eyes. Do not let all these new ideas confuse you when the fact is so clear and simple and is right there plain for all to see.” Confident that he is the defender of the truth against silly sophistication, he looks at you with a look of almost pity.


How N. T. Wright Flanks Piper on the Right
What is it in the self-satisfied traditionalist that stands in the way of learning? The first few chapters in Wright’s justification attempt to convince the traditionalist to consider that maybe there exist strongholds that are impeding their ability to see scriptures clearly. If we can all agree on a few hermeneutical principles, maybe some progress in the dialogue can be made. So here are the principles as I see them that Wright suggests:
We must look at everything Paul says. If our system cannot explain or account for some passages, then we must be open to a new perspective which can actually account for the entire system of Pauline thought. This suggestion is fundamentally conservative in that this principle is appealing to scripture. A good understanding of scripture must be able to assist in understanding other scriptures.
A sub set of this principle would be that in order to understand a passage we need to be able to understand the entire argument of the passage and how that passage fits in a larger argument.
As an illustration of this point, Wright uses the analogy of building a puzzle using all the puzzle pieces. If we refuse to use all the puzzle pieces and then force ourselves to make a picture out of the puzzle pieces remaining, we will not get a good picture or a clear understanding of the intended scene. So too, if we do not take every passage into account, we will not be able to understand the entire picture of Pauline thought nor will we have much success or assurance that we understand what little bits we do think we have pieced together.

A second principle is that it is important to look to scriptures and the world of scriptures as opposed to tradition and the world of the 16th century and the thought patterns of the 16th-17th centuries as the authority in scripture interpretation. This point is so obvious and humorous at the same time. Wright is clearly flanking Piper on the right. Is it conservative to point the believers to the 1st century or the 16th? To scripture or tradition? Should we illuminate Paul with the world of Paul or the world of Calvin and Luther?
A great example of this principle is Luther’s own appeal to scripture and the world of scripture to make one of the key revelations of the reformation. Luther appealed to 1st century usage of the word metanoia. Luther insisted that a more accurate translation of Pauline though would be “to repent” and not “to do penance”. On what basis could Luther make this argument but to go back to scripture and the use of such word elsewhere in the first century. Wright is out reforming the reformed purists by using examples of how the reformers did exactly what he is doing, (i.e. looking to scriptures as the final authority as against our traditions.
A last example of this is to make the distinction between the questions we are attempting to answer via the text and the questions Paul was trying to answer via his text. ewvery generation has its controversies and every generations theologies are an attempt to answer these controversies. But isn’t it more important to understand what Paul problems Paul was trying to solve when he wrote the text. The aim is to avoid eisegesis and get back to exegesis.

If we are honest, each of Wright’s principles are an appeal to true scriptural conservatism as opposed to a conservatism that attempts to conserve tradition. Indeed, N. T. Wright is flanking John Piper on the right.

next post: A little more on worldview (like this old post)

N. T. Wright On Justification - Part 1

NT Wright On Justification - Part 1

I am reading N. T. Wright’s book on justification and John Piper’s critique of N. T. Wright as well and John Owen’s original work on “Justification by Faith” (or here). My goal is actually personal in that I believe my own spiritual growth needs a big dose of grace. As we receive grace, we become more gracious. I have six children and I need a lot of grace to remain gracious. I find good exposition to be sanctifying and inspiring for me.

My blog plan is that while I read I will summarize and make comment.

The first thing one must understand and appreciate is how remarkably conservative N. T. Wright is. Many conservatives seem to paint Wright as a theological liberal but in the pantheon of New Testament scholars N. T. Wright is stand in the solidly if not even extremely conservative camp. In fact in this book, Wright’s approach is to flank Piper and co. on the right. It is Wright who appeals to scripture as opposed to tradition. On this note and with many illustrations, Wright begins his book, as he must begin all his more thorough works, with an appeal to method and an explanation of the role worldview of the many actors in hermeneutic process.

An Appeal to Method and the Role of Worldview

This section and a far more expounded discussion of method (see The New Testament and the People of God) is extremely important to understand thoroughly. The basic point is so simple. The reader must be very aware that, as a subject, he or she plays a role in the reading of the text. If one is humble in light of this awareness, the reader will seek all manner of evidence in an attempt to get to the mind of the author of the biblical text. What we are after is not our experience of the text or confirmation of our previously held convictions regarding the meaning of the text. We are always after the illusive meaning of the text itself. Therefore, it is vital that we tough the world that the author touched by immersing ourselves in the world of the author. This process is called contextualization. Is it not more important to learn about the world of Paul, than the world of the reformers if we are after and seeking to understand the bible. This process of radical doubt concerning our own preconceptions and even doubt about our traditions is the basis of conservatism and sola scriptura.

N. T. Wright illustrates this principle with many illustrations but these will have to wait for tomorrow....

How To Survive a Mid-Life Crisis

(this is part of a larger essay...It starts by explaining why the ego of a person starts to fight for survival in the mid forties)

What is a Mid-life Crisis?

The human self develops a heightened view of itself which he or she desires to project out into the world. For men, this projection of the ego is accomplished through achievements. Throughout life, a tension exists between what the person is in life in the present, his status and accomplishments, and what he would like to be or thinks he ought to be recognized as. This psychic tension must be resolved. Throughout life, we most often resolve this tension of our current position and circumstances and what we desire to be by projecting our vision of our self out into the future. We may not be accomplished and strong and victorious but we can conceive that we one day might accomplish all that our ego sets out to do in the world.

A crisis occurs at 45-55 when a man realizes that the resolution of his shame and pride, the desires of the self, through the acquisition of a preferred future is not likely. Time is running out. At this point in life, the strategy of using a projection into the future of a better you or better position or circumstances is no longer tenable. The psychic tension is irresolvable using the future projection method. It is not likely that the self will be able to affirm itself through future accomplishments. The ego begins to go into crisis. If a man is not well practiced in the process of voluntary death to self, he will not know how to put his ego to death. Instead, his ego will fight to create, before time runs out, the preferred future or vision of himself. The ego refuses to die and begins to seek affirmation in manic fashion.

Death to Self

When encountering a person or developing a relationship with a person, if one is well versed in the problem of human pride, it is not difficult to predict that this man will have a mid-life crisis. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to follow me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Everyday provides opportunities to die to self. Life is social and men are constantly managing their place in the politics of their social networks and relationships. The disciple hates this jockeying and managing one’s power and position and the perceptions of others. To live on a spiritual basis is to actively cease participation in this worldly dynamic. When a person disrespects us, which happens many times in a given day, we actively allow this person to hold this opinion. We forgive and we cease managing people’s perceptions. We are not in management. Only God is in management. It is easy to see and observe if a person knows this practice of death to self. Death to self has thousands of permutations because life provides thousands of opportunities and different circumstances to die to self, to allow our ego to be humbled both before others and before ourselves. But most men are continually acting according the to the worldly system through which the individual attempts to project himself as successful, mature, wise, healthy and kind.

‘Wow, he is skilled and together. I wish I was like him”. This is how every man wants to be perceived, and in the minute relationships of life, at home, at work, in church, we size up ourselves and the other men. In each encounter with another person, egos are present and seeking power and recognition of some sort. This is the process which the disciple of Jesus is actively disengaging from. The disciple must be aware of the process, and, in this awareness, it is easy to observe other men acting out according to the desires of the pride and ego. So it is easy for a follower of Jesus to be aware of whether another man is attempting to follow the teachings of Jesus in the midst of our interactions with them or whether they are following the motivations of their self, their ego. Are we “denying our selves, taking up our cross, and following Jesus” or are we following the desires of our self?

So here is the first key to surviving a mid life: We must start learning how to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus in the small areas of life, many years before we reach this critical age of our mid-forties.

Learning to Deny Self Daily

1. Seizing the Opportunity (in the moment): The Actual Game
2. Silencing the Self
3. Asking for power and faith to deny self - Mediating the situation with the presence/intimacy with Jesus Christ.
1. Strength to resist the persistent ego (refusal to die)
2. Faith to see it as the cross (obedience to God)
3. Compassion for your adversary (he is sick; this battle is sick; the whole war is sick)
4. Comfort and affirmation as a child of God
4. Death to Self in the Big Opportunities (reflection) : Practice
1. Sober moment of reflection
2. Thorough inventory

Rigorous Honesty - Enabler to Discipleship

The Enabler of Rigorous Honesty

The key enabler of discipleship is a friendship of rigorous honesty. Though the discipleship process is fundamentally informal in that we do not go through a book or a set of principles in a formal order, the process does have a few key characteristics. The key characteristic that is most central is that the relationship is one of rigorous honesty. The two or three people that make up this intimate friendship are rigorously honest with each other. The reason that rigorous honesty is so central is because of the nature of discipleship itself.

Discipleship is the process through which Jesus expands his rule and reign over the motivations of our inner person or spirit. Our spirit is here defined as the hidden driving forces that motivate our behaviors. For example, I find myself being over bearing and easily disturbed by the rowdy behavior of my children. I try to be more patient but I find myself speaking forcefully to my children to get them to behave. I easily lose my patience. My behavior problem is my speaking forcefully and even out of disgust, but this is not my motivational or spiritual problem.

In the context of my intimate friendships, the discipleship process, we would discuss why I behave the way I do. My impatience is merely a fruit of my spiritual condition and motivation. If I attempt to fight the impatience with my children directly, I will always fail because I am not dealing with the root cause, the motivation or spirit behind the behavior. Our problem is ultimately a spiritual problem and therefore requires a spiritual solution. My fruit is easily observable and therefore easy to confess, but the real sin beneath the surface is my own little secret. This inner life motivation is both much more difficult discern and when discovered much more difficult to admit. At this point, in order to grow and in order for Jesus to rule over my heart, I need to be rigorously honest with myself and let the Holy Spirit guide me to discern my spiritual condition. In fact, I might need my friends help as well, but they need to be gentle about it.

So, continuing this example, I would quiet myself and answer the “why” question. Why do I get so easily disturbed by my children’s energetic behavior? The fact is that I am embarrassed. They are violating a social rule. Well-behaved children are orderly, and good parents have well-behaved children (or so the social rule says). I do not want to be judged by others. I fear their judgments, and so, I am willing to violate meekness in order to get my children to obey the unspoken social rules. As a result of this motivation, I lose my patience and show disgust for my children’s behavior out of a spirit of fear of people’s opinions of me as a skilled parent. I want to be seen as wise and mature and functional and therefore I shame my kids. I am trying really to put on a show before others as a neat and tidy family. It is all motivated by hypocrisy, pride and fear of people not love for my kids.

The fact is that this understanding of family and parenting is a fairy tale of how life works and living in a fairy tale of religion is a horrible burden for children to be raised under. Such a religion of social norming pressures is bad religion. Do I really want to raise my children under this toxic legalism? If I do not want my children to be raised under this fear of people’s judgmentalism, then I need to confess the driving motivation of fear of other people’s opinions and realize that this is the real motivation for my impatience. I need to describe this condition of my heart to my friends and surrender this pettiness as the root of so much of my religious life. I want to be seen by others as mature and together, and this insecurity and fear is the real reason that I get impatient with my kids. God deliver me from acting out of this fear, help me to see it and direct my children with love, patience and meekness, not fear and impatience. Admitting that I am so petty and motivated by other people’s opinions is a blow to my ego and quite humbling to confess before my friends, but these are the sinful motives that Jesus wants to deliver us from through the process of discipleship.

In the above example, I hope I have illustrated the role that rigorous honesty plays in the discipleship process. Rigorous honesty is the confession not of our behavior but our inner motivations or our spirit, the driving force behind our behaviors. It is far more revealing and difficult to say that much of my religion is for show and that I am driven by my fear of people’s opinions than to simply state the obvious: that I get impatient with my kids. The deeper confession of our real motivation requires a death to self. My projection of my desire to be seen as mature is crucified by the act of confessing that in reality I am a religious hypocrite who is often motivated by a desire to appear mature and in order to keep up this act I shame my kids. The very act of confessing this motivation reveals my spiritual poverty which is the very thing my ego is trying to hide. Rigorous honesty is the taking up of the cross and crucifying my ego and how I want to use religion to appear to have dignity and spiritual health. The fact of the matter is none of us have any spiritual dignity or health apart from abiding in grace and an awareness of our own spiritual poverty. Herein lies the cross and the self-denial that is required for Jesus to rule over our hearts. Rigorous honesty is the cross of discipleship. It is this process of rigorous honesty that our ego resists, but it is precisely this rigorous honesty that enables the process of discipleship.

I use this example as one of many that I could use. We all have sexual problems and the root motivations of these problems is all tied up in a sordid lot of motivations that are quite alarming to us when we allow our motivations to come into our awareness. We all get angry and resentful for all sorts of reasons. We are motivated by a million forms of self-centered fear.

So how are we to lead?

Here is the great lesson. First, this process of discerning our real motives and exposing them to the light of our own awareness and the rule and reign of Jesus is a process that the disciple needs to maintain throughout his or her life. Life is filled with trials and these trials lead us into anger and self-pity and a myriad of other sinful attitudes. Because this process is on-going Christians need these discipleship relationships in their life throughout their life. I personally call and meet with my ministry partners multiple times a week for honest discussion about my spiritual condition. Because of this on-going need and because this process is to be the life of the church, any effective leadership team needs to maintain relationships immersed in this level of rigorous honesty. For, if the discipleship method of the church is one of rigorous honesty with respect to our hidden motivations, those calling others into discipleship must be thoroughly acquainted with this process. How often the church’s leaders who design the discipleship process of the church are themselves unaware of their own spiritual condition and unable to discern the motives that drive their behaviors. We do not live in such a level of honesty pursuit of God to model this process to others but to understand discipleship and know the process intimately. With such a thorough commitment and understanding of what it means to have one’s spirit under the dominion of Jesus Christ will greatly affect the tenor of all a leader teaches and preaches. Unless the ministry leaders of a congregation themselves are transparent and rigorously honesty, there is no way to build a disciple-making community.

Barnanke 01/04/2009 - Regulation Not Monetary Policy Most Surgical Means to Prevent Housing Bubble

C-SPAN Video Player - Bernanke Calls for Regulation First, then Interest Hikes

This speech by Bernanke is very simple to understand. His speech has two parts to make his ultimate point.
1. He compares the actual target rate with the rate suggested by the Taylor model. He modifies the Taylor Model with consideration as to whether variations in inflation are considered temporary or permanent. IF we make this adjustment then the actual target rate was pretty much in line with teh suggestion of the Taylor Model.
2. He shows that this "good" monetary policy if the only variable in influencing housing prices, we see that housing prices significantly out paced the influence of monetary piolicy (i.e. interest rates). In fact we see that LENDING PRACTICES, appear to have generated the new demand for homes and the subsequent housing bubble. The introduction of proliferation of esoteric products which offer exceedingly low initial payments account for the greatest shift in housing prices and thus the housing bubble.
3. Therefore to avoid the housing bubble, which led to the most significant economic crisis in modern history, the primary cause was LENDING PRACTICES. Therefore, regulation of lenders would have been the most effective tool in avoiding the housing bubble.
4. Therefore, regulation of lending practices must be implemented if we are to avoid a recurrance of the recent economic problems.

brad

We are all Tiger Woods

WP: Tiger does not stand alone - Washington Post- nbcsports.msnbc.com
This is a really good article about Tiger's all too human problem.

Sarah's Piano Recital

David's Piano Recital

What Makes the Good News Good? Seeing the Glory of Christ" :: Desiring God

Video of What Makes the Good News Good? Seeing the Glory of Christ

This is a good sermon on what we are trying to preach this weekend.

1. The Gospel of the Kingdom is the promise that in Christ the quality of life of heaven is available now
2. The Cheif characteristic of heaven is the presence of God
3. The chief characeteristic of the quality of life of heaven is direct, intimate relationship with God
4. The kingdom of God is available means intimacy with God is available.
5. The Gospel promises intimate relationship with God. (John 17:3; John 4; Romans 8:15-17)
6. This relationship with God is life transforming . (2 Cor 3:16-18: Phil 4 (cast anxiety....)

Therefore..
1. Believe in the promise of life transformation through relationship with God
2. Pursue intimacy with God.

amen
brad

Todd Hunter Explains What is Wrong with Emergent

Todd Hunter Interview where he says the following:

In the interview, Todd Hunter mentions “two big problems” with the Emerging movement. (I have my own problems with the movement but we’ll discuss those at another time). Todd’s problems with the Emerging movement are:

“First, the emergents are so sensitive to issues of community, relationship, egalitarianism, and being non-utilitarian in their relationships, that evangelism has simply become a synonym for manipulation—a foul ball, relationally. If you and I were work colleagues and I built a relationship in which I could influence your journey toward Christ, that would be considered wrong in these circles. I cannot be friends with you if I intend to lead you to Christ. “

As Todd points out, the Emerging Movement isn’t something you can “broad-brush”. It’s much too slippery to get a handle on enough to make any real, substantial criticisms, (which is one of my problems with it, but I digress).

In Todd’s response I would tend to agree, as he states it, but I would also agree with those who feel it’s manipulative to make friends for the purpose of evangelism. I guess I would amend Todd’s statement to say, “I cannot be friends with you only because I intend to lead you to Christ.” It’s the recruitment motive that bothers me, and I think a few others, when it comes to targeting people as conquests rather than learning to love people no matter what their faith, or whether or not they eventually become followers of Jesus. I think what has to be intentional is our love of others, not evangelism itself. I believe in intentionally loving someone and praying for God to reveal Himself to them, but I do not believe in intentionally targeting someone simply to convert them to my faith.

One helpful question I believe we should ask is, “Am I willing to be someone’s friend for the rest of my life, even if they never convert to my faith?” If at any point in the relationship I would abandon the friendship and move on to a better prospect then, I believe, we’re not really fulfilling the Lord’s command to love others. Love isn’t conditional. It should remain and be sustained regardless of whether or not it is reciprocated. Love should continue apart from agreement on matters of faith.

Todd’s second problem is the one I take the most issue with.

“Second, after 10 or 12 years of the emerging church, you have to ask where anything has been built. Evangelism has been so muted and the normal building of structures and processes hasn't moved forward because there's no positive, godly imagination for doing either evangelism or leadership.”

Thanks for saying this for all us who value the proclam,ation of the Gospel and the use of wise method as opposed to the emergent organic way.

Bono - Rebranding America

This Bono Article explains why the president might be able to have great effect on global peace by attacking extreme poverty and fulfill his commitment to

“... support the Millennium Development Goals, and approach next year’s summit with a global plan to make them a reality. And we will set our sights on the eradication of extreme poverty in our time.”

Surfacing the Problem by Knowing the Destination – The Ultimate Goal

But the Wedding is in New York
Picture a man preparing for a trip to New York. He begins planning maybe a few months in advance. He books a room. He books a flight. He packs his bags. He prepares the agenda for the event when he arrives at his destination. In this case, the man is very excited about the trip because he is going to be the best man in his best friend’s wedding. He has prepared a speech and prayed that he will be a blessing to his friend. He has even prayed for his friend’s marriage that the couple will find purpose, friendship, and satisfaction in raising a healthy family together.
Our traveler rides to the airport with his wife and is filled with a sense of peace and confidence. This is going to be a great wedding, he says to himself. His flight is flight 87 for New York. He checks his bags and finds the gate. He sits next to another man in the waiting area. He gets his boarding pass and boards the plane. The planes are all lined up waiting their turn to accelerate down the run way.

The planes on this runway are all 737s and they take off to the East and fly over the Los Angeles basin before realigning themselves as needed for their ultimate destination. Our traveler has taken this flight before and likes to look out the window over the great deserts of Arizona and Texas as the flight takes its path to the South before heading up the East coast to New York. This particular flight lands in New York near sunset and the view coming up the eastern seaboard and into Manhattan is profound. After flying over 2,000 miles of desert and then the farms of the Eastern United States, the astute passenger can see the great massive city in the distance. As the plane draws nearer, you realize there are 8 million stories in this city. You feel as if you can see into the apartment windows and into the lives of the various cultures of New York: a Puerto Rican family here, the famous Italian and Irish districts there, Harlem and the birth of Jazz to the North of the city, wall street and the New York stock exchange. I picture the history of so many of the American people groups. My mind thinks of African Americans listening to a Joe Louis fight around a radio with hope of freedom and dignity. As the plane enters the city and fly’s out over the Atlantic, the statue of liberty comes into site.

I remember when I first visited New York with my soon to be wife. We rode the subway into the city from JFK airport. We got off the subway and walked up the stairs to the streets. When I stepped out onto the street, I could not control the emotion as I began to cry. The massive skyscrapers are like no others on earth. The racial tension is palpable. The story of humanity is distilled in every scent and every sight.

All these memories fill our traveler’s mind as he prays for his family back home. The plane hovers over the LA basin and begins to gain altitude. With his eyes closed, he hears the pilot speak over the PA system as the plane backs to the North. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to flight 87. We will be landing in San Francisco in 56 minutes”. Our traveler’s eyes dart open as he realizes, he isn’t going to New York.

The Meaning of the Parable
God puts in our hearts a visions for the great city. He has shown us that we can arrive at our destination just as the first century church did. Our model is Acts chapter two. We are part of a great story of each generation struggling to build a community immersed in the presence of the Holy Spirit and directed into holiness by the teachings of Jesus. Contemplation of this purpose and the hope of arrival is in itself life transforming and filled with peace and joy.

As communities begin to launch down the run way toward their destination, they all look similar. The accelerate down the same runway all headed in the same direction. This is Christianity. We all have the same faith in Jesus as our savior. We all have the same ticket. We are all on flight 87. BUT the fact is we all have different visions of where we are going. Some understandings of the ultimate destination are quite mature and biblical. Some are merely going on a vacation. But ultimately, it is the pastor, the pilot in this analogy that will determine the ultimate destination.
Not to offend any Bay Area residents, San Francisco is a beautiful city and all, but it ain’t New York City. The Transamerica building isn’t the Empire State Building. Oakland isn’t the Bronx. Berkeley isn’t Greenwich Village. There is a Broadway street in San Francisco but it isn’t the Broadway. So too if we seek to become like the successful church down the road, we will not find ourselves in Acts 2.

Acts 2 or The 20th Century Models
There is only one destination for the New Testament church and that is to model itself in principle after the prototype church of Acts chapter 2. The New Testament has a wonderful statement that teaches us to look to God’s model and not each other as our goal. Paul said of some early Christians, “They compare themselves with themselves and have no understanding”. It is not unless we seek as our destination the New Testament ideal that we will travel in the proper direction and find unity in the body.

The first and most important key to understanding the Acts Chapter 2 community is that the Holiness and beauty of the Acts 2 community is impossible to attain naturally. As we set the target or the preferred future to which we are going to strive to enter, the vision must elicit the response, “We can’t get there from here”. A key principle of faith is that apart from God it is impossible to get from “our here” to “God’s there”. This is true in our individual lives and it is just as true as we set our vision for our corporate life. So often, we settle for less than God’s vision because we cannot see how the community we are part of could ever get from here to there. So instead, we set more “practical” goals. We choose to attract people through natural means. We use good music, a naturally charismatic speaker. We avoid challenging the listeners with the uncompromised biblical standard of sacrifice. We catter to people’s natural inabilities and

The Standard of the Acts 2 prototype is so beautiful that this ideal reveals to us our wretchedness and sin. It is the uncompromising contemplation of this biblical model of community that brings us to a place of mourning and spiritual poverty. In the Acts 2 church no one had any needs that were not cared for. In our communities, if a man loses his job is it not possible that he could lose his home as well. Is there not someone in the church to pay his mortgage for a time and another to offer him a job? Is this love the norm in our community? If it is not, then contemplation of the biblical model drive us to ask why is this not our experience and what do we need to do to align our lives with the kingdom model.

Does the lady in the pew next to us in church know how to get to our houses? Are our lives and our communities intimate enough that we take our meals together and meet regularly in one another’s homes? Is such intimacy threatening to us? If it is, can we say that the gospel has set us free from shame? Are we free from the curse in Adam if we still hide and live guarded lives?

peace,

Fear of Man and Fear of God - Piper

This is very good. Set aside 45 minutes. This sermon is about death to the real root cause of unbelief - ego.