Some might say Marti’s DNA is all about relationships. But working together in pairs and groups is a part of all of our DNA. Relationships provide the support we need to thrive. They are always based on the connections that hold us all together.
Looking to understand what’s keeping “spiritually open non-Christians” away from church, Barna Research gave this non-Christian demographic a list of statements pertaining to Christianity and the church to discover which statements resonated most. Barna’s data reported: “The most popular response by far was 51% of U.S. “spiritually open non-Christian” teens and adults completely agreed with the statement, ‘I prefer to distance myself from the politics of the Church.’”
George Barna’s research group recently did a study on “Spiritually Open Non-Christians.” Why is this important? Because people come to a religious discussion currently with lots of preconceived ideas about Christianity and Christians. With non-Christians, one mustn’t be naive and fail to realize that being a Christian today comes with a good deal of social, political, religious, racial, even economic baggage. So studies that help us understand what non-Christians are thinking helps us know where and how to begin the conversation. It’s like listening first to determine where someone is coming from. Of course these are broad generalizations we’re listening to, but they give us an idea what people are thinking.
I’m sure you have seen pictures of the devastation wrought by the wildfires that swept through the historic town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, Hawaii. Someone said the destruction in some areas was similar to pictures of the aftermath of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nothing left standing. It’s hard to imagine that kind of devastation in an area usually known as an island paradise.
Yesterday’s Catch, “I can’t believe I’m getting away with this,” deserves more scrutiny. It’s a feeling of astonishment that should permeate all we do, if, in fact, we are walking with Jesus. It’s a statement common to living a life of grace, and if it doesn’t strike a chord, then maybe we are living a life short of what it could be.
Think about Gideon charging down the mountain with 300 men, a torch in one hand and a horn in the other, reaching the camp of 120,000 Midianites who, by the time they get there, are already almost all dead from killing each other in widespread panic. Can’t you imagine him looking at his horn and his torch and all these dead Midianites thinking, “I can’t believe I’m getting away with this.” Or how about young David, after felling Goliath with a stone from his slingshot, and grabbing Goliath’s sword that he could barely lift to lop off his head thinking, “I can’t believe I’m getting away with this.” Or Samson killing a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. Or Daniel, lying down in the den of lions burying his head in the soft mane of the king of beasts who should have been having him for lunch, thinking, “I can’t believe I’m getting away with this.”
Marti counsels people all the time with amazing insight into their problems and just what is needed to break free of their bondage, and I know she often thinks, “I can’t believe I’m getting away with this.”
Don’t you think you are getting away with something when God’s Holy Spirit empowers you beyond your natural abilities? When are you sure you are over your head in His gifting? This is how we know that our faith is not in vain.
I am outside while I am writing this on our brick patio when I look down and see a sprig of ivy lying there. I reach to pick it up, only to discover it is not just lying there as I thought, it is rooted there, growing up between the bricks (see picture). If that little sprig of ivy could talk, you know what it might say: “I can’t believe I’m getting away with this.”
“When you feel like the luckiest guy around, you don’t get sour.”
Is this the comment of someone who just won the lottery? Or a sports team that just won the World Cup by a millimeter? No. It’s the comment of our friend, Dan Russell from last week’s BlogTalkRadio interview, on how he feels every day of his life. Having survived a massive stroke in miraculous fashion, he merely thanks God for every day.
Too many teachers and not enough truth
Too many preachers and not enough proof
You’ve got to find it …you’ve got to find it yourself
None of these people can give you any help
from the song, “Too Many Teachers” by John Fischer
I scare myself sometimes. It comes from having a prophetic gift. Mine is particularly related to my songwriting. I will be writing a song and a phrase or a couple of lines will come to mind that will cause me to pause and wonder “Where did that come from?” And then, because I don’t quite understand it, I will try to discard it and attempt something else, but then I have the strongest sense that it is right, and something prevents me from abandoning it. So I leave it in and soon it becomes part of the song that can’t be changed. And the reason I know it’s prophetic is that years later, that very statement takes on new significance that I couldn’t have known about when I wrote it.
Excessive attachment to political parties agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one party against another, and opens the door to foreign influence and corruption. – George Washington
Where is George when we need him? We were much higher minded when we founded this country than we are now. We knew that freedom wasn’t just about our own personal rights. It was about our rights and everyone else’s. And that kind of freedom comes with responsibility not autonomy. There is a phrase used often in the Old Testament to explain what happened when the nation of Israel went off track. “And everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” That’s a sure fire way to bring a nation down.
Think of what God got when He got us. As Dan Haseltine of the rock group Jars of Clay once observed, “Look at the marriage of Jesus… the one with the bride who sleeps around, never listens, disowns, scorns, dishonors, runs away, intentionally proves to be more interested in anything but her husband, is selfish and bears the children of every affair and the scent of every escapade. It was a marriage that killed Jesus. And it was the Gospel that brought Him back to life to love once more.”
Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor died today; she was 56. Cause of death is uncertain at this point, but if you read anything about her life, you realize that life itself could have caused her death because her life was tragic. When you find someone like this, you can’t help but feel compassion. She was abused by her parents, she had three children all from different fathers and never had a stable marriage. Her son committed suicide when he was 22. She struggled with mental illness and had a penchant for stealing things which led to eighteen months in an asylum. Her mother was killed in a car accident when she was eighteen which might have come as a relief due to the violent trauma she experienced from her mother’s hand. “Our family is very messed up. We can’t communicate with each other. We are all in agony. I for one am in agony.”
John Fischer The Catch 