No Time Like the Future

Thought for the day. Something that's been on my mind.

Is it possible to organize and arrange your life, work and religion in such a manner as to remove any and all opportunity to demonstrate "love of neighbor?"

I will testify that it is.

The Ragamuffin Man

Sometimes I feel "led by the Spirit" to the bookshelf. A couple of months ago, my boy Matt left me a copy of Ragamuffin Gospel on the way out. I finally picked it up last night and read well into the night. Its an excellent challenge so far. Brennan Manning is prone to quote the heavy hitters, so his thoughts are strong. I felt like someone grabbed me by the shirt-collar, lifted me up and slapped me a few times. "Grace!" Slap. "Mercy!" Slap.

Has anyone else read RG?

"Because," the man said, "when I look at that God, the God of Abraham, I feel I am near a real God not the sort of dignified, business-like, Rotary Club god we chatter about here on Sunday mornings. Abraham's God could blow a man to bits, give and then take a child, ask for everything from a person, and then want more. I want to know that God."

Awe, Shock & Wonder

Marq posted this on his site from theResurgence:

These numbers are astounding to me. Awe. Shock. Wonder.

- Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches. (Another way to look at this is 18,000 a year.)

- Fifty percent of pastors' marriages will end in divorce.

- Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.

- Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.

- Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.

- Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.

- Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.

- Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.

- Eighty percent of pastors' spouses feel their spouse is overworked.

- Eighty percent of pastors' spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.

- The majority of pastor's wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day they entered the ministry.

Don't laugh but I went to a seminary (of sorts) for a few months. Not once did I glance out knowingly to my classmates (wink) and believe that 80% would throw up their hands within 5 years. Of the ones that hang around and survive into their 6th, 7th or 8th years, 80% of their wives would wish they would work in another "field." Of the 20% that do remain, over 1/2 would quit if they could do something else. Who knew that of my class of 50, 20 would have affairs? Or that 35 would have Depression? Or 25 would get a divorce? Or with all the training 8/10 would still feel grossly inadequate to minister?

Yet, I sit here, reading my Bible only in preparation for my studies, struggling with endurance, not knowing the language, failing morally, battling contention and my family torn between ministry and secular work.

And I am not even a pastor.

Typhoon

As you think of them, please pray for the people on the coast of China who were just nailed with yet another typhoon. This season has caused around 800 deaths and nearly 200 are still missing. Especially pray for the city of Wen Zhou (pronounced roughly One Joe), which has more believers per capita than just about any city in China.

You can read a little bit here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14284650/

It's All Greek to Me

I was Skypin' with my friend, Mark and he related to me a humorous experience with his family.

Wanna hear it? Here it go:

Mark and his two brothers would often congregate at the farm of their late father and the four of them would invariably become engaged in some good ol' Bible conversations. The "Iron sharpening iron" variety. As you would expect among 4 preachers, one of the brothers would hasten to use his knowledge of the original Greek and Hebrew languages to support his hermeneutic and other theological positions. One day this became particularly annoying to the father who found his own arguments utterly untenable in the light of his "ignorance" of Greek. At one point in their discussion, he rose from his chair, went into the adjacent room and returned with a Big Chief tablet and a pencil. Extending the writing pad to his son, he said "Please write for me, 'The rabbit ran down the road'... in Greek." Of course, this son was unable to write the sentence. The wise old man quickly reasoned, "Since you are unable to write even such a simple sentence in Greek, let's just use English."

As Mark would tell it, apparently this method of leveling the playing field worked on more than one Greek "scholar."

Freedom of the Will

After 5 years of Big Red Firewallin,' Blogspot is no longer blocked in C-h-i-n-a. May it continue in peace.

Google on.

Selah

Yeah, buddy!

Brandon and Rena gotta a newbie. Her name is Selah Naomi. She was born on the 7th.

So cute.

The Second Coming of Clark

[high above the city]
Superman: Listen. What do you hear?
Lois Lane: Nothing.
Superman: I hear everything. You wrote that the world doesn't need a savior but everyday I hear people crying for one.