Cwillz Spills

To give is both a privilege and a duty, and it is downright fun to point attention to people who are doing great things and then play a role.

This month we decided to give to New Life International, an organization that is spreading the Gospel while and by providing the basic necessity of clean water. 

The rationale for giving here is easy: About a sixth of our neighbors in the world do not have access to clean water. 

You should know that Jesus says this in Matthew 25:

4″Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

 37“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

 40“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

 41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

 44“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

 45“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

 46“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

If you are looking for a trustworthy place to do things for the “least of these”, New Life International is a solid choice.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

During our high school guy’s small group, we were we talking about Philippians 2.  Jesus, in the nature of God becomes man.  Beauty. True humble, selfless beauty. 

In order to help them grasp the passage, I asked the students to imagine what it would be like to be God.

“Friggin a flying white horse!,”  Bryce proclaimed with wide eyes and pure wonder in his eyes.

“Yes, with a flowing mane of justice!,” added Alex almost immediately. 

I love my students.  AND, maybe smell a small group seal cooking.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

I have been getting a bunch of bottle caps on my desk because I announced that I am saving for free stuff from Pepsi.  Dauthan asked me what I was going to do with the caps. 

Of course he was really asking what I was going to buy with the Pepsi(t) points, but I was a jerk and said “recycle”.  Then in a different conversation, Carol told me that you are not supposed to recycle the caps.  Who knew?

I figure that I will continue to recycle the caps just in case they can be processed.  If not, I will add it to the “jobs I created” list. 

Saving for the belt buckle.

May the Lord’s will be done,

Heaven help us!!– its almost time to pick a president.

A friend recently posted on the politics of Jesus. It was so good that I want to respond.  Earlier this year I posted about how humbling ourselves to the will of God is the way that Jesus would vote.   A few more thoughts:

Jesus’ purpose did not fit the political structures. A major part of Jesus’ ministry was that people tried to push him into being the political Messiah of Israel.  They expected to be re-established as a nation and out of Rome’s hand.  Judas may have thought he was advancing the Kingdom by forcing Jesus into the political system.  Oops!

Didn’t Judas know that Jesus had a different purpose for being on the earth? He could have had all of the Kingdoms in the world during His lifetime, but he turned it down in obedience to the Father.

OK, so Jesus was not a politician. Is the Kingdom he brought/declared/taught/will bring a political Kingdom? How do those of us who are a part this Kingdom do this politics thing?

There have been times of intense emphasis on different principles from the Kingdom that have missed the mark of the purposes of God, both to the left and to the right.  I firmly believe that Kingdom people are to be involved in politics, but only as an expression of their allegiance to the will of God.  A good example of this is the life of Daniel.

Righteous and Justice, both personal and social are all part of the Good News for the Kingdom.  Living them out will result in a more correct world.  We will do well to search the scriptures for God’s heart.  We get to cast one vote.  The questions we should be asking are: who is God? If God wrote laws what would He be concerned about? What is righteousness/justice?

Once we take a long look at that, we can choose the people who will represent that heart the best.

Further reading by better thinkers:

The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder

Jesus for President by Shane Claibourne

The Great Awakening by Jim Wallis

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

In our high school guys’ small group, we have been studying the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7).  We do it in chunks, starting out time together by reading through an entrie passage, and discussion it verse by verse.  

So we got to this part:

 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!

“But wait!,” one student said, with a crinkled forehed. “How can someone drive out a demon if the aren’t really a Christian?”

Think quick, think quick, they want answers–do you have them?? Jesus’ words negate the belief system we have about salvation, or at least what we tought about demons. Evidently, being a “Christian” maybe doesn’t guaruntee salvation in the way we oversimplify it to. Or maybe we don’t adequately teach aout spiritual warfare.  Either way, we often had to re-think our beliefs. 

The more I read the less the systems make sense.

Jesus said it.

This election has turned depressing for me, and I think that many people feel the same way.  The hard part of it is is that in February, I wanted to see a McCain / Obama race.  This is my second election to vote in, and early this summer I felt as if I was going to get to vote for the better of two goods and not the lesser of two bads as I felt last election.  That was easier to see before they entered into a struggle for votes.

The primaries and pre-primary debates were fun to watch because of the ideas and sense of togetherness that competetion within the same parties could bring. It was great to watch people sharpen themseles and share the distinctive ways they saw issues.  These were days where talking about politics had a general sense of “Yes, but [the issue is different/can be best addressed this way/is not that simple]“.

The past few weeks have turned from “yes, but…” to “no, and [some insult to the other party or candidate/you kicked your dog as a kid]“.  This is getting old.  I wanted these candidates because they are thinkers and moderates who I think will acutally represent the American people.

Arguing ad hominem over commercials is damaging.  I wish both Barack and John would become a little more “elitist” and not stoop so low to cut each other.  In my opinion, they are going to need each other over the next 4 years.

There are somethings that we have in life that we guard, fight for, and work for even if we do not know it.

One morning about 10 months ago, I was having breakfast with a friend who is a few years older than I and he asked me this question.

What do you hold most sacred?

I gave him some supposed-to-be funny (non)answer.  I wasn’t ready to answer the question. When I looked at his face to see if he was smiling I could tell that he asked me in sincerity and I felt badly for treating it lightly.

I have asked some of my students, coworkers, and friends this question, yet only recently discovered one thing that I hold most sacred: hope.

Hope is the one thing that if I lose, I am done. If we lose, we are done. When I see it in others, I secretly or publically applaud and celebrate. When I see other lacking it I suffer or offer my own.  I hold this sacred.

What do you hold most sacred?

Right now I live a little less than three hours away from my fiancee. We recently met up for a mid- week date in Shelbyville, KY at a little coffee shop called 6th and Main. We only had a few hours together and since the coffee shop is all we knew about this pleasant town, we spent a good portion of the evening strolling through the downtown area.

We are eagerly anticipating the time when we will have our own place, be married, and can be together. We were looking for a place to sit and talk with relative safety and privacy. Passing by a doorway of one of the buildings, she joked innocently that we could pretend to be homeless and just chill in the doorway.

Within the next ten steps we came across a small loading dock that indented into a building. It was the kind of place that would be a perfect shelter for someone who needed it. Perhaps it should not have surprised me to see a worn out mattress resting against the wall of the small area. Sobering.

Homelessness, like AIDs, is still not on the funny list. Yet. However, The Kingdom of God is changing all that. One day we will remember only vaguely what it meant to live with unrighteousness or injustice, and we will laugh freely in celebration of the completion of the work or redemption over both sin and death. Let us live towards that goal.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

I just read a very good article about the role of family in the Christian life and wanted to share.  Specifically, the article calls for Christ-followers to (re)embrace the concept of being single for parts or all of life in order to dedicate themselves to the Kingdom. 

The article also challenges the ideal of family.  It implies that the family is more of a means to and end (support for activity with the C(c)hurch) than an end (insular place of rest to be gaurded).  Something to chew on there.

To me it comes down to this: whether married or single celibate are you living your life for the glory of God?

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

Thats why I have not posted. Sorry, its gross.

Vuelve ud. tomorrow

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ