Category: faith

Facing the Lion

Our series next month at encounter will deal with “Facing the Lion” based loosely on a book by Mark Batterson, In the Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. Batterson shares this Lion Chaser’s Manifesto today on his blog:

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshiping what’s right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don’t try to be who you’re not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away.

Chase the lion.

What do you find yourself running from? What’s holding you back from being yourself? Where can you expand your horizons?

Go into all the world

Fellow UMHB Crusader, Erin Rigsby has been serving in Jos, Nigeria for over four years now as a nurse for street children.
She was recently interviewed by the Missionary Talks podcast.
Missionary Talks interviews missionaries all over the world about their ministry and how they were led into their particular area and field.
Check out the Missionary Talks blog for more interviews.
Or follow Erin’s journey on her blog.

Rock & Roll stops the traffic*

My mate Thomas over in Glasgow is helping push a concert featuring Klearkut, Ashley Ballard, Yvonne Lyon and The Glasgow Gospel Choir on Nov. 20th. The cause – STOP HUMAN TRAFFICKING. I can’t make the show, but maybe Elijah and his bride and Erikito and her husband can make the show.

Here’s a brief history:

In 2001 the chocolate industry committed to eradicate the worst forms of child labour. In 2007 the world is still waiting.
Nearly half the world’s chocolate comes from cocoa plantations in the Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa
Twelve thousand children have been trafficked to work on these cocoa plantations.
We want all chocolate companies to be able to give us a traffik free guarantee: that the cocoa beans which make their chocolate have not been harvested by trafficked children.
Download resources for you and your community to fight for a traffik free guarantee on chocolate at www.stopthetraffik.org/chocolatecampaign

It’s amazing to think that human trafficking and slavery still takes place today – but it does – even in the “Good ole’ U. S. of A.”
in fact KERA’s Think had a full hour dedicated to the issue on yesterday’s show. Host Chris Boyd spoke with Journalist John Bowe. His new book, “Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy” (Random House, 2007), exposes a practice which fuels the low prices that benefit us all.

In the interview Bowe makes the statement that most slavery in the U.S. isn’t as much about saving money – as it is about how we view others. When the cost of pesticide increased 1 cent per pound, the growers simply increased the cost of oranges. Yet when the workers asked for a pay increase of 1 cent per pound, which would have doubled many of their yearly incomes, the growers said, “No. We can’t do that.” When asked why not, the growers responded, “Look my tractor doesn’t tell me how to farm.”

Yet we (myself included) let these atrocities continue when we make uninformed buying decisions. When will it stop?

* I wonder how many people will recognize this blog post title (leave a comment if you do).

CWF in Nigeria

Just found a news story out of Abuja, Nigeria about my bros in the CWF touring Nigeria over the next week or so.
Remember them in your prayers…

A team of ten American wrestlers, led by Coach Rob Vaughn, will begin a twelve day tour of Jos, Plateau state in a bid to attract youths to the sport as an alternative to other form of violence.
Coordinator for the program, Kyle Abts of the Light House Sports Outreach based in Jos says of the program:
“These are wrestlers trying to reach out to young ones with a message and that message is that wrestling can be practiced as a clean sport.
“What they are trying to introduce is the opposite of what we know today as the WWE in America. While that has a lot of evil and negative side to it and is all about money, this brand is trying to provide youths with alternatives that will not only make them more economically empowered but also more constructive to the society,” he said.
The team goes by the name of Christian Wrestling Federation.
A total of six centres will be used during the event. Today, they will be at the Azi Nyako youth centre in Dadin Kowa. Other venues are Bukuru Mini-stadium, Jos Township stadium, University of Jjos Permanent site, St. Louis College and Dogon Dutse.
The national coordinator of LSRO, Geoffrey Bottson disclosed that the wrestlers will be wrestling themselves and putting up demonstrations for the youths. Youths who are interested will also be taught this new ‘safe’ style of wrestling.

Here’s just one of the places they’re scheduled to wrestle in:

The Jos Township stadium
Wish I could be there with them but looks like God had other plans in mind.

The Gospel according to William Shakespeare

I just finished Searching for God Knows What.
Where to begin? Wow. You’ll just need to buy the book and read it for yourself. Seriously – just click the link and buy it straight from Amazon. It’s easy. They’ll ship it right to your home or office.
But enough of that. You’re interested in the title to this post – otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this.
I feel like maybe I’m spoiling the book here, but in the final chapter of Searching for God Knows What, Donald Miller suggests that the poet and playwright William Shakespeare may have been more of a prophet that we’ve given him credit for.
Granted I would say prophet is probably a strong word – but I can agree with modern day preacher (for his day).
Continue reading The Gospel according to William Shakespeare