A friend of mine raised some questions about Ephesians 5:22-33 on her blog yesterday, she asked for my response so I thought I’d share my thoughts here as well….
Everyone loves to use this passage for one reason or another… but we leave off the entire first part of Chapter 5.
Continue reading Wives submit to your husbands
My friends Kari McHam and Jana Vanderburg have an amazing ministry they head up — Porcelain Dolls — in which they minister to the women involved in Waco’s adult entertainment industry.
Each month they put together gift bags and deliver them personally to the three strip clubs in Waco. Like many small ministries, Kari, Jana and a few others have been shouldering the financial burden of this ministry on their own.
Kari shared this over the weekend on Facebook…
Continue reading Grace wears Stilettos
I chatted with my friend Ted Blair this past week for the podcast.
Ted just spent most of 2009 battling Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer.
He’s now seven months in remission.
Continue reading Three simple reminders
Resurrection announces that God has not given up on the world.
He’s only just begun!
over at the podcast, we’ve just released a FREE e-book, redemption stories.
(I say “we” but Stewart did most of the hard work in bringing it all together and doing the layout.)
The e-book includes stories, pictures and verse, but all of them tell a story — a redemption story.
We received great input from Adele Sakler, Ben & Joy Thomas, Laura Bridge, Jason Duke, Adam Howie, Christine McIntosh, Trent Yaconelli, Emma Boyd, Angus S. Mathie, Paula Spur, Avril Cutler, Emma Boyd and Rob Griggs-Taylor.
Every submission was wonderful but these few paragraphs from Ben Thomas really grab me…
John Wesley said, “catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn”. This reminds me of Jim and Patty. Ten years ago, their neighbors wanted their boat. Today, they are a inspiration to hundreds of others in our community of what God can do when you allow Him unrestricted access to your life and resources. Our lives may become less predictable, but as our desires slowly start melting away and blending into God’s desires, our hearts become oddly comforted by the uncomfortable.
I think being a fixer means being okay with these messy, imperfect situations. Doctors mustn’t be squeamish, mechanics mustn’t be afraid to get oil on their pants. Being fixers with Jesus means we’ll encounter questions we can’t fully answer and pain that can’t be explained away by pat answers and bumper stickers. Often, the fix is simply our presence, reassuring the broken world around us that “no, God has not forgotten about you”.
Its hard-wired in us all to fix something. If you want a neat and tidy situation to fix, you should probably stick to fixing up your kitchen. If you’re up for something a bit more adventurous and long lasting, consider following this Jesus character, who invites us into a Fixers’ Collective called the Kingdom of God, where we’re invited to enter into the broken mess and tell a story about a God who loves the unloveable, reassuring them that “it’s okay” because “you’ll get better soon”.
I hope you’ll take some time to download the book, read it, chew on it and then share it with friends.
Thanks again to everyone who took part!
Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken…. – Rich Mullins
Where have you seen Jesus lately?