Missions?

This speech was done about a month ago. A friend of my brother's posted it awhile back and it started some good discussion. I'm presenting here, again, for a couple of reasons.

1)I don't believe we are currently fighting a war on terrorism. We are fighting a war on poverty. This strictly between the "haves" and the "have nots." Unfortunately the world view on our country is not the same as the citizens of this country. Many people see us as a greedy, consuming people who care nothing about who is in our way of our goal, whatever that may be. If we used some of our resources to help some of these people we could help tremendously. (Not relying on our government of coarse, we all know how they spend their money). It is very difficult to hate or bomb someone who just fed you. Who just built a new school in your village. Who just saved hundreds or thousands of people with a simple vaccine. Unfortunately our government does not see this, and we lose more soldiers and resources in a fight that can not be won by violence.

2)Before I get to my second reason, watch this...





The world has a warped view on Missionaries, or "Missions." In fact, even though I grew up in a Baptist church, I don't think I really understood the concept, or more accurately understood why? Why? When we have our own country in need. There are people who have an overwhelming urge to sell their positions and move to a different country to make a difference in peoples lives, who do not have the same liberties as we Americans do. My brother Aaron is one of these individuals. I can not tell you how proud I am. Why? I could never do this myself. He and his family are moving to Texas for some training, then proceeding to Mexico to live. To help people who are less fortunate. He believes, as do I, that he will be able to make an impact and change peoples lives.

Bono's call is to Africa. My brother Aaron's is to Mexico. God bless you both. You are in my prayers.

Why do Bad things happen to Good people?

That is the age old question. For centuries people have been asking that very question, and I believe no real satisfactory answer has been found. I'm not going to try and convince you or myself that I have the answer, but I have thought about this. I believe in God, and His Son Jesus. I try to live my life by Jesus' teachings, but even I find this a very tough subject.

A little over a week ago, Paradox, my church, asked this question. We have started a four week series on the question, "Why?" Though it would be a lot easier to just stream a podcast of it here, I actually have some thoughts on this as well. To steal a tidbit of my friends message, I believe the real question here, or at least the first question we need to ask is, "Who, or what is good?"

My God says He is Good. So, if He is good, what am I? I hesitate to use the word "evil" so I will say, non-good. If I were to say I am good, that would imply, on some level, that I am equal to my God. If I am equal to my God, even in a small way, what is the point in worshiping Him at all? He wouldn't be a God at all. My Creator has to be better than me in every way, or there is no point.

Now the human part of me does not think that is good enough. Too simple of an answer, so I looked for something else. That something else came into my life almost seven years ago. Her name is Kirsten. Ever since the day she could do things for herself she did bad things. Taking cookies after I told her she couldn't, going into my room when she knows she is not allowed. I never had to teach her to do bad. It came natural. I did however, have to teach her to do good. So, if we are good, and are born good, shouldn't we automatically do good from day one. Our environment and our nurturing would be the cause of our own bad behavior, right? Not so, watch any child grow, and you will see, that is not true.

I know that this does not answer the question, but it brought a lot of clarity for me. Why does God allow for bad things to happen? I don't know. As I said before, I'm not going to begin to even try to understand the mind of an infinite being. My little finite mind would literally go insane with the attempt. What I do know is that, it is very easy to blame the bad things on God. We do it all the time, but when the good things happen...God is forgotten.

Exploitation

News has been unavoidable lately. I try to stay away from or just simply ignore celebrity rants, most of them have no clue what they talking about anyway, but this latest tidbit is just to stupid to ignore. There is a growing theory that 9/11 was an inside job. They are even filming a documentary on it. There is no evidence to support this mind you, but they are running with it anyway. Is it not bad enough that we rushed into war as it is, lets make all the deaths of Americans completely pointless.

The latest tragedy at V Tech is being exploited as well. What is with all the focus on the killer. Television and paper news are trying to understand this young man's head. Completely ignoring the victims and their families. We can still do something for the people still alive. Who cares what this sicko was thinking before he committed this heinous act? Then my favorite, just yesterday Tom Leykis decided to use this tragedy to push his atheistic beliefs. Reveling in cutting down people who believe in God.

So yay, to the Hollywood bumpkins who use various platforms to preach their filth irregardless of the facts. Yay, to the government who finds the need to shove democracy down everyones throat. And yay, to the National Media who give more attention to the killer than the victims and their families, cause it makes for better ratings.

You all make me sick.