Restoration and Salvation

Yesterday, I came across a post on my Twitter feed about Tiger Woods and I was intrigued. The reason I read the post is because they are a blog that focuses on “scandalous movement of radical grace in life and leadership”. I absolutely love this idea and subscribe to it wholeheartedly but I have one problem that I’m starting to observe… there is no Jesus. Let me explain with my comments on the blog.

“Mike, I had the chance to experience both you and Jud at Catalyst a few years back and I was amazed and intrigued by both of your wants for radical grace. I also know that we [as Christ followers] are called to be a people that [prayerfully] forgive and move forward towards restoring others to where they once were, I respectfully have a different take on the Tiger Woods scandal. Tiger is definitely not Saul, but not quite David either and I too am praying for a roaring redemption with him family and return to the game. The key, I think, is his Buddhist faith. Everything he said was consistent with his renewed devotion to that – it is basically “I have to work harder and be more disciplined to renounce the desires of the flesh and make myself a better person”. Admirable, and I personally believe he meant every word, but it was a bit empty because there is no room for forgiveness, atonement, redemption in that worldview. Ultimately, I am praying for Tiger to see the truth that Christ brings to ones life. While I appreciate those who were there to support him [in the front row] and weep for the pain brought on by him to his wife and kids, we as believers need to pray not just for restoration but salvation in [Jesus] Christ.

Tigers restoration without salvation [in Christ] is useless. What do you think?

Do you call you call yourself a Christian?

Every week I read multiple Blogs and Bloggers opinions and I can tell you that there are some very interesting ones out there. This week I ran across an old blog from man named named John Smulo. He wrote a post entitled “Five Reasons I Hate Telling People I’m Christian”. As I read this simple post I was struck with this thought, I usually agree with most of his post this one I did not. So I wanted to spend some time giving my “Six Reasons I Love Telling People I’m Christian”.

It is conversation stopper, instead of a conversation starter.	When I say, “I am a Christian,” I’m not shouting “I’ve been saved!” I’m whispering, “I was lost. That’s why I chose this way”
It communicates something other than what I mean.	When I say, “I am a Christian,” I don’t speak with human pride I’m confessing that I stumble, and need Christ to be my guide.
I’ll lose out on potential friendships because of the stereotypes this word conveys.	When I say, “I am a Christian,” I’m not bragging of success I’m admitting that I’ve failed and cannot ever pay the debt.
‘Christian’ is associated with a lot of things, but almost none of them have anything to do with Jesus Christ.	When I say, “I am a Christian,” I don’t think I know it all I submit to my confusion asking humbly to be taught.
It provokes hurt, anger, and angst for people who’ve had painful experiences with Christians.	When I say, “I am a Christian,” I’m not claiming to be perfect My flaws are far too visible.
	When I say, “I am a Christian,” I still feel the sting of pain I have my share of heartache which is why I seek His name.

Despite the all of the preconceived notions that coincide with the word “Christian” I truly believe that it is my job to represent the one who saved us. The first known usage of the term can be found in the New Testament, in Acts 11:26: “the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” The term was thus first used to denote those known or perceived to be disciples of Jesus Christ. In the two other New Testament uses of the word (Acts 26:28 and 1 Peter 4:16) it refers to the public identity of those who follow Jesus. I think that the word should be redefined and fought for by those of us who follow Christ. Because of my skin color many people have presuppositions on who I am and what I do/ sound like. It may not be fair but I refuse to accept those false assumptions as true, neither should we do that with Christ name. This is just my opinion I could be wrong!

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? With whom? Please comment below…..

If you have 10 minutes please..

If you have 10 minutes today please take a minute and look at this video. While doing it ask yourself this question…

What would you do if you were sailing over the place where your four daughters had drowned?

Horatio Spafford wrote this song…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUu2C6kLu8]

Please use this video and our media content to help raise awareness and resources for those who are suffering. One of the many things that I learned at my time at WFC is that those indigenous to the country are usually best suited and most knowledgeable of the pressing needs. We all know that the local Church is the hope of the world because through us Jesus is shared. For more information on what to do please go to Ch urches Helping Churches.com.

Actually Help Haiti!

Haiti just suffered the worst earthquake they’ve seen in the last 200 years. This is a tremendous opportunity for the Church (you guys) to share from our abundant resources to help bring comfort to the Haitians in the midst of such acute suffering.

Here are a few organizations that are mobilizing to help Haiti, any of them would be great to partner with:

The Courageous Church is trying to fill a immediate (as in yesterday) need of high power, military-grade laptop computers. They also will helping to facilitate new adoptions (not already in progress) of Haitian orphans. Do you feel CALLED to ADOPT Haitian orphans? Donate by clicking HERE! or send a check or money order please consider overnighting it via FedEx, etc. and send it to:

Courageous Church
190 Centennial Way
Atlanta, GA 30313

Compassion International has 65,000 sponsored children in Haiti.

World Vision has sponsored children in Haiti & is doing disaster relief work. They also have a program for churches to get involved, “Promise Packs.”

Samaritan’s Purse is providing disaster relief supplies. They hope to have 6,000 temporary shelters up in a couple weeks & by the end of next week will be providing 500,000 gallons of clean water daily.

Convoy of Hope has a warehouse there & feeds 7,000 children daily. They are providing food & disaster relief supplies. Here are some photos of their work so far.

World Hope is mobilizing their staff in Haiti & will be coordinating volunteers and volunteer groups from the U.S. (once emergency needs have been met).

May God test you!?!?

Recently, I was listening to the podcast from Cornerstone Church Simi Valley and Pastor Francis Chan asked a very intriguing question.

If Jesus stood up on stage and said:

Plan A: This year I will give you everything you want. You will prosper, your family will prosper, you will get whatever you want but by the end of this year you will not be any closer to me.

Plan B: This year will be the hardest year of your life. You may lose your marriage, job, and children. You will struggle in everything you do especially when it pertains to your relationship with God but by the end of the year you would be closer to me [Jesus] that you could ever imagine.

Which you would you choose?

I only ask this because I know that I’d want to choose Plan B but I’d most likely choose Plan A.

Why is that?

Why is it that when someone sneezes we ask God to bless him or her? Aren’t we already blessed? We:

Live in America
Make more money than most of the world
Won’t die or get sick by drinking dirty water
Have access to education
Relatively healthy
Etcetera

I’ve just noticed that we are very blessed and maybe need God to test us instead. Most of us could use God’s testing, including myself, and would not enjoy the testing but the outcome. The problem is that God gives us a choice on whether or not we want to submit to His will for our lives. So I wanted to wish you something that may cause you much harm but in the end will also bring you closer to the joy of the Father and His glory. May we choose Plan B and may He test us and do so deeply.

Really? Really? We can’t do better?

Some things I’ll never understand if I live to be a 100 and this is one of those things…Why do a cartoon that has absolutely nothing to do with religion or Christianity need a Jesus voice? And out of all the people in the world guess who the voice of Jesus will be? You got it! Lil’ Wayne, he will be providing the voice of Jesus in the new cartoon “Freaknik.”

In order to understand this you must understand what “Freaknik” was you should understand its origins. Freaknik was an annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, primarily of students from historically black colleges and universities, begun in 1982. Atlantans’ reception of the festival was mixed. In its heyday, the fest attracted upwards of 250,000 revelers to the city. Many residents attended and enjoyed Freaknik, and others complained about traffic congestion due to street parties. City leaders eventually took measures to curtail Freaknik’s accessibility, and hence its popularity. As a result, Freaknik moved to Memorial Drive in Dekalb County then Daytona Beach, Florida and was shut down soon after there arrival for spinning out of control.

The show, which is a 1-hour musical, will be airing on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim in March and is said to feature many guest rapper’s, including Lil Wayne as the voice of Jesus Christ, who will be performing a music video for “Ghetto Commandments.”

The creative director of Adult Swim, tried to explain the shows concept and the rappers involvement. “Basically it was a Black Spring Break that went down in Atlanta and got shut down back in ‘98 or ‘99. So the show is going to resurrect that, and it’s going to be starring T-Pain and Lil’ Wayne and all these other artists like David Banner and some other dudes. It’s all drawn, and T-Pain plays the ghost of Spring Break, the Spirit of Freaknik. He brings this party back to Atlanta and the artists have done all this music for it, and it’s amazing.”