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Opening my email every day is an adventure. I’m want to share with you two of them I received yesterday from brothers in Africa because they give us an incredible perspective of what God is doing elsewhere in the world. The first is from South Africa and some people I stayed with one weekend in August. I met the woman in this report. She had been born and raised in a satanist cult as a breeder of human sacrifices and escaped a couple of years ago and became a follower of Jesus. But they never let go easily of those they claim as theirs:

This email came from a brother in Ghana in a response to my Jake Colsen site:

I’m sure your prayers would be appreciated for both of these groups of brothers and sisters…

Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Barna’s Revolution has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

Is there a revolution afoot in the body of Christ. George Barna seems to think so and in his latest book, Revolution, he describes a large and growing group of committed Christians who have given up on the traditional congregational model of Christianity. And instead of calling this an unhealthy trend that needs to be reversed, he embraces it as a movement that will in the next 20 years radically alter what we call church. Wayne and Brad examine the contents and conclusions of his book, recognizing both the encouragement it can provide for those thinking outside the box, and the dangers it offers to reorganize something in human terms, that only God can accomplish.

If you’d like to post comments or questions about this show, please do so on the God Journey Blog so that others can read them there as well. Thanks! I know it is sometimes easier to respond here, but then others on that website don’t get to interact with your comments or questions. Thanks!

Perspective

Those of us who live in the developed west have such a skewed view of the world and its reality. I find lists like this to be extremely helpful in seeing things more the way God does, than our own national interests ever let us do.

If you could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be:

• 57 Asians


• 21 Europeans


• 14 from the Western Hemisphere


• 8 African


• 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.


• 80 would live in substandard housing


• 70 would be unable to read


• 50 would suffer from malnutrition


• 1 would be near death


• 1 would be near birth


• 1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education


• 1 would own a computer

One of the things that astounded me while touring the Apartheid Museum in South Africa was how 20% of the population could actively discriminate and oppress the other 80% in their own land. They had all the wealth, health care and benefits while people across the street had virtually nothing.

Look at these statistics again. How is that not true now of those of us who have adequate (dare we say abundant) housing, education and health care? How would God have us live financially in a world so devastated by need and where resources are distributed so unfairly? What are our responsibilities help others who do not have the advantages we do? Surely our world is horribly out of synch with the heart of the Creator, and what a great day it will be when he comes to set right all that has tormented the people he loves.

I know this is an uncomfortable perspective for us (see yesterday’s blog), but sometimes that’s good exactly what will bring us perspective. I don’t share it to provoke guilt, which would be worthless anyway. But in view of all that the Scriptures teach about looking out for the poor and oppressed, this might be a perspective we desperately need as we pray and listen to Father’s heart and see how he would have us to live in the world with generosity toward others.

One of the lists I subscribe to on the Internet is the Daily Dig, from the Bruderhof communities. It offers a thought-provoking quote every day and most of them are incredible. I got this one today. Can you imagine Plato sharing something so brilliant?

As I read that this morning, I thought back through the Gospels and how many people came face to face with the light of God in the glory of the Son. some embraced that light and all it would reveal in them. Others stole back into the shadows not willing to see God for who he really is, nor to comprehend his work in them. The Pharisees refused to answer Jesus’ question about John’s authority because they were unwilling to face the anger of the crowd. Yet, Zaccheus embraced it even when his thievery would be clear to all.

Isn’t it incredibly odd that we find more comfort in the dark, where our illusions can live, rather than love the light and whatever it might reveal? I even think many theological arguments are ways to spin the darkness rather than come face to face with God. But when this God is your loving father, there is nothing left to fear, even our temptations and failures.

The test of discipleship is not how much we can keep up with all the disciplines nor all that we think we can do for God. The real test of discipleship is loving the light enough to keep crawling into it against our inclination to retreat back into the fake safety of the darkness.

Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Children Unplugged—The Squel has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

They couldn’t resist! Brad and Wayne had so much feedback from their previous podcast on being involved with children outside the box, that they wanted to share some of it with you and continue the dialog. As you will see, this is not just an issue for parents, but for all of Father’s family. Responding to children as a vital part of our lives and our engagement with the body will not only enrich them, but ourselves as well.

If you’d like to post comments or questions about this show, please do so on the God Journey Blog so that others can read them there as well. Thanks! I know it is sometimes easier to respond here, but then others on that website don’t get to interact with your comments or questions. Thanks!

In response to a recent blog entry, I got a comment from Chris. He asked, Wayne, I was reading the “sorry” post on your blog the other day and I was just curious what you do to “keep up with your life in Him”?

I thought that was a great question, so I took a stab at an answer. Maybe you’ll find it of interest and help answer it for your life as well. Here’s how I answered Chris:

How would you answer that question? What do you do to “keep up with your life in him”? You can add your thoughts to the comment section below. You’ll never know how your insights might really encourage someone else.

The November 2005 issue of BodyLife is now avaialable at the Lifestream website.

The lead article is called “Tree Town” and is a bit of a different article than we normally do in this publication, but I think it makes some essential points for people who want to live deeply in the life of Christ. The second article, “Breaking Free” is a first-hand look at someone freshly breaking free from the bondage of religious thinking and beginning to find real freedom in their relationship with God as Father. Some of you may have already seen this on the blog or heard our podcast about it, but I thought some of those folks who might have missed it, would find it as encouraging as many of you have. If you’d like to give us any feedback on this issue that others might enjoy as well, please feel free to use the feedback section here.

There are also some other goodies there for you to enjoy, including some life-changing letters from some of our readiers and a look at some of the new resources we’ll have available here in the near future. Blessings on you all.

I just finished reading George Barna’s lastest book, Revolution, which is sure to cause a stir in Chistendom. Barna, head of a polling firm on Christian issues, identifies a growing segment of the Christian population who are deeply committed to Christ but live that faith outside of the traditional congregation. He says 30% of committed Christians now live that way and in the next 20 years that will increase to 70%.

It’s an interesting book in terms of the demographic trends he identifies and certainly some will use it to try to fuel an anti-institutional ‘movement,’ and you all know how I feel about movements. This book will give validation to those looking beyond traditional congregations to live out their passion for Jesus, and that may be a positive thing for many. He debunks some sacred myths in Christendom:

Here are some other quotes I liked, even though his term Revolutionaries leaves me more than a bit unsettled, especially when he capitalizes it. It appeals to the wrong motivations in people, that Jesus needs to free us from if we’re ever going to be a reflection of his in the world.

And this:

And this:

And this:

But I am not in agreement with all of his assessments and conclusions. Though he talks some about the importance of intimate relationship with God, he is far more focused on what Christians should be doing. We’ll get into some of that on the podcast later this week. You can see a summary of the book at his website, or you can order the book from Amazon.com. If you have comments, questions or observations you’d like us to interact with on our podcast later this week on this topic, please leave them on the The God Journey Blog.

Sunday and Monday an amazing thing will happen in my country.

The body of a woman whose one, quiet act of defiance sparked the civil rights movement in the United States will lie in repose in the Capitol Rotunda. This high honor has been almost exclusively reserved for government officials and military leaders. She will be the first woman to ever do so and only the second African American.

I was elated to read that in the paper this morning. Here was a common person who never set out to be a hero. One afternoon in 1955, weary from her job as a seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man who wanted. The segregation laws at the time required blacks to yield their seats to any white person standing and move to the back of the bus. She simply refused. “The real reason of my not standing up was I felt that I had a right to be treated as any other passenger. We had endured that kind of treatment for too long.” For her simple protest she was jailed and fined $14.00. That sparked a boycott of the bus system in Montgomery Alabama that lasted for more than year and that launched the modern civil rights movement that brought greater equality in our country across racial lines.

What a great reminder of the avalanche of events that can come from one common person’s passion for justice and their willingness to risk themselves in doing so! Mostly people just quietly go along even when they know something isn’t right. I admire Rosa Parks for standing up to the status quo by remaining in her seat that day. Now she looks like a hero. I can’t imagine what she looked like then. Surely most of the whites would have turned on her for breaking the law and delaying their bus ride home. The bus driver probably screamed at her, and even some of the blacks might have called to her to just move and not make any trouble.

But she wouldn’t be denied. She paid for it then. But in doing so she opened a door of freedom that others have streamed through with joy. It’s not easy being the one to expose the king’s nakedness, but a little bit of truth goes a long way.

Our culture rarely honors those who truly deserve it. On Sunday and Monday this week we’ll get it exactly right. A 42-year old common woman, wearied of the abuse her people suffered, did what was in her heart to do and helped transform a nation. Hopefully her example will inspire many of us to go and do likewise!

Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Children Unplugged has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

Most people who find themselves bored with the Sunday morning production, often keep going because they feel it is important for their children. How will their children survive spiritually without Sunday schools and youth groups? In the latest podcast Wayne and Brad examine children unplugged from organized religion. The question might now be how can they survive without it, but will they ever thrive within it? Young children and older teens alike are finding that thinking outside the box can be a wide open door to let them experience the life of Jesus with even greater reality and engagement.

If you’d like to post comments or questions about this show, please do so on the God Journey Blog so that others can read them there as well. Thanks! I know it is sometimes easier to respond here, but then others on that website don’t get to interact with your comments or questions. Thanks!