What are YOU thankful for?

We in America are in the top one percent of the wealthiest people in the world.
This thanksgiving, would you take a moment and reflect on all that God has given you?
Lest we forget our own wealth and become absorbed with our own problems.
Let these pictures remind you of the work waiting to be done.







Take a moment to remember your blessings, and those who are waiting to be blessed.

This is the sound of the Underground....

I’m sick of the hypocrisy in the church today.
All the Christians who sit back and talk
Why to do they let the problems go?
Just sit back, relax and enjoy the show

In a world where AIDS and poverty thrive
Can the gospel truly survive?

If we are the future as many will claim
Why is it our parents who get all the blame?
All I’m saying is its time for a change
We have to get into action and stop playing this game

People don’t get it when you try to reform
All people see is a youthful drive
Those people think they know whats going on inside

This isn’t a plea for emotion or rage
This is a statement of mission for life

And this is the sound of the underground
The whisper of history shaping
Foundations shaking
Revolutionaries dreaming once again
Mystery is screaming in whispers
Conspiracy is breathing...

This is the sound of the underground.

The Cross of Christ

Philippians 3:10
"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death."

The Cross of Christ is the central act, even the central message of this revolution.
Only when we focus on the "man of sorrows, familiar with suffering." can we truly change the world around us.

Only by proclaiming the Cross of Christ can we faithfully present Christ to the world. We must preach accomplished salvation if we are to be truly radical for Jesus Christ.
As Bonhoeffer said in the Cost of Discipleship, Grace without the Cross is a useless religion not worth preaching. IT is a plague across our land, and it must be refuted, simply with the message of the Cross.

Only when we proclaim the words of Isaiah will we see true change.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

The revolution must be based on a call to repentance and faith, centered upon the redemptive substitutionary death of Christ on the Cross, not on a hope or prosperity Gospel. We will not change the world preaching the Kingdom of God (as important as the kingdom is). We will not change the world preaching the ability of the cross to save.n We can only change the world with the message of the Cross.

115,000 orphans and this is a "Christian" country?

"America has nearly 115,000 orphaned kids in foster care waiting to be adopted. Some wonder how this is possible in a country with Christian families. Surely, there are 115,000 missional families in America, right? Missional families, for example, embrace the redemptive mission of God and practice "true religion" in their local communities (James 1:27). Missional Christians in America could eliminate the foster care system tomorrow if we would stop "shootin' up" with the American Dream (heroine) in order to get high on a lame life lived for the sake of comfort and ease."

Anthony Bradley in his blog made a pretty convicting argument for the sad state of American Christianity.

"The Washington Times reports that there are about 65 million evangelicals in America. So, again, why are there 115,000 orphans in America's foster care system? Does this mean that there are 65 million people missing huge sections of their Bibles? Would someone please alert Crossway and Zondervan!
Here's the deal: pagans were introduced to Jesus because Christians were taking care of the needy in obedience to Scripture. Taking care of the needy is not done only for the sake of evangelism. Practicing "true religion" is an extension of the kinds of Kingdom-oriented, salt and light, truth-bearing, grace-filled, Jesus-loving people who live to treat other people the same way God treats them (Ephesians 2:8-10).
We were all orphans and God adopted us in his family, remember? "Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.' The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children" (Rom 8:14-16). As such, the best possible home for an orphan is in a home where a family is following Jesus together as former orphans themselves.
If your church is not cultivating an ethos that practices "true religion" it may not be missional at all. It may be dying or sinking into a consumeristic, entertainment quicksand where people come to have their "felt needs" stroked. Your pastor might wear "cool" clothes, have a "cool" blog, or be in the process of trying to make God and Jesus androgynous but God seems to care that his people are being led by capable men who lead the rest of God's people in bringing the Kingdom to their local neighborhood in all its forms.
While not all Christians are gifted or equipped for taking in orphans it's pretty convicting that 65 million American evangelicals can't rescue 115,000 kids from an unstable hell. If the pagans in our neighborhoods aren't struck by how our churches are applying the Word of God to the needy it's possible that we aren't the real deal yet. May we all pray that our churches are soon as mature as James commends. The revolution continues. . ."

Anthony recommends:
Bethany Christian Services (a Christian adoption agency operating in the US and abroad; www.bethany.org)

Luther?

There is a post coming very soon.
Being looking for the Manifesto.
I would like to see it change the Church the way another one did 490 years ago.