Cwillz Spills

I forgot to do the Giving Highlight last month.  I chose another micro-finance related organization to give to.  I really like this concept.  Before I tell you about Five Talents, I should give an update on the loans I made through Kiva a few months ago.  All of the loans have gone into repayment, which means that I am starting to get money back.  So basically the people who needed it have used it and have started to make enough money to support themselves/their families and repay me.  The money they have paid back I have re-loaned, which will hopefully create another sustainable job for someone else.  The cycle continues.

I chose to give to Five Talents because of they address more than the economic/systemic issues of poverty by wokring also for spiritual development. Also, they make online giving easy via credit card!

From thier website:

Five Talents’ mission is to fight poverty, create jobs and transform lives by empowering the poor in developing countries using innovative savings and microcredit programs, business training and spiritual development.

Also, a YouTube Special for you:

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

I have been ‘doing’ the Book of James recently for my quiet times. Parts of this little book are frighteningly surprising to me. Get this: I can remember teaching from James at least 4 times during high school and possibly my first year of college.  I should know what it says.

I didn’t spend much time studying James as a part of my courses at Taylor (I can only remember one time, and that was really about the controversy involving Martin Luther and sola fide).  When I started to spend time in it recently I really wasn’t expecting to find (that much) new content.  wrong.

That words of the book have not changed (in fact the notes I took in the margins during high school are still in my Bible). So why does it seem so….new?

Never before did I truly consider myself rich and when I read the Bible. I thought that this term referred to people like Oprah, Donald Trump, or Bill Gates.  FACT: If you have means of reading this post, you are probably rich too.

Isn’t it crazy how I am have read those 5 chapters probably 100+ times and have still missed so much of what it actually says?

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

I got a job. Now I can / should give away some money.

Where should it go? Where do you give to? How do I get there? What are the biggest needs?

Comment so we can spotlight some places that could use it.

While in Montego Bay, Jamaica I met a man named Michael. The first time we interacted with him he was yelling at us something about how white missionaries come to the island, use the beach every day and never clean it up. He continued on his way spouting off something about colonization and how there can be no peace without justice.

I went back to where we saw him first and waited. Eventually he came back and we started a real conversation. That led to a few of our students becoming his friends and sharing time, clothes, and food with him.

Michael and I talked and sat along the Hip Strip during our short week on the island. One topic was violence and how the rasta fight with words instead of weapons. He reminded me over and over of the prophesy of weapons being pounded into plowshares.

“A knife is better than a gun because it can be used to peel fruit.”

Tonight I watched Lord of War starring Nicholas Cage. I would highly recommend this movie because of the moral choices that it presents. I won’t ruin the plot, but one of the biggest ideas of the movie is honesty and the difference between legal and right.

I am disturbed by the movie, because I know that it represents something true. Arms dealers or traffickers exist, but only because of war. Why does war exist?

I came back to my room and started praying. Something like this is what came out of me:

“I have seen innocent blood shed, even though it is a movie, this is my world. Why, God? Jesus, is this the “year of the Lord’s favor?”

Over the weekend I talked at our Spring Christian Ed retreat about the Exodus and the movement of God in the life of the individual and in societies. During that talk I presented the way Jesus began his ministry, which was by reading this in a synagogue in Capernum:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
Because He has anointed me
To Preach the Good News to the poor
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
To release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Over the summer, I was praying about hunger. I asked God why it existed, I dared to ask God why He would let it happen

It is hard to describe, but the answer to that prayer was sorrowful.
“My children go hungry because my other children let them.”
Mother Theresa must have listened to the same voice for she said, “As long as there are empty mouths in the world, the Eucharist is incomplete.”

God has and will give his family more than enough. We just wont share. We have our own peace, but will not share.

Why do I go through a day and not ask where the clothes that cover my flesh come from, who worked to make them? How can I drink my coffee without thinking of who picked it, and whether or not they can live off the wages they earned? Why do I believe the lie that it is not my responsibility to make sure those people are getting what they deserve?

When have we given enough? When can we feel good about ourselves? When we all have enough, when we all have peace, when God is feared.

I found this on PreachingToday.com’s Series about money.  There is more research out there suggesting similar conclusions.  We should tithe out of both obedience and love.  

Tithing Christians Would Meet Global Need
A husband and wife team of researchers, the founders of Empty Tomb, Inc., in Champaign, Illinois, have tracked American and American Christian expenditures as well as global needs. John and Sylvia Ronsvalle have estimated that $70-$80 billion a year could meet the most essential human needs around the world. “Projects for clean water and sanitation, prenatal and infant/maternal care, basic education, immunizations, and long-term development efforts are among the activities that could help overcome the poverty conditions that now kill and maim so many children and adults.”

The Ronsvalles go on to write: “That figure of $70-$80 billion may sound like anything but good news. God may be generous, you may agree, but has he been that generous? Consider this: If church members in the United States would increase their giving to 10 percent of their income, there could be an additional $94 billion available for overseas missions.”

In addition to providing the $80 billion a year needed to eliminate world poverty, tithing Christians would also provide the $7 billion needed to provide primary education for all children, and the $5 billion needed to end the preventable deaths of children under 5.

As I got into bed tonight, I thanked God for my comforter. It seems like a small thing, but I love being wrapped up like burrito in it. Then I remembered to pray for those don’t have bedding and need it.

Over the summer I read something that said something to the effect of, “As long as there are empty mouths in the Body of Christ, the eucharist is incomplete.” While I think that Christ’s death was enough to buy me into being able to be in God’s family, I see the point.

As I write, I can see the faces of Christians that I have taken communion with that did without basic necessities today. I am compelled to write that I am ashamed that my truest brothers and sisters do not have enough.

I have two comforters on my bed. Most of the time the smaller of the two is pushed to the side against the wall.

The Lord is clear that nothing I have I have because I have earned it, or by some way am entitled to it. Job’s cry for mercy was met with a threatening truth. “I made you from dust, you will be dust again” and “Where were you when I hung the stars?”

How about this for haunting: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?.”

I have pity, but I know how quickly it will be gone by the time I finish my breakfast tomorrow and am worried with not being late to class (again).

I understand why it seems no one does anything. We have never thought seriously about our own survival. Gross, Sick, Untrue.

May God grant us the mercy of being moved to care for our fellow believers. OUR FLESH AND BLOOD IN CHRIST.
Come quickly Lord.