respond to Leaanna

That is so true Leaanna, about the poor and even being homeless just once would be quite an experience. I have never thought like that before, but I have wondered how the homeless even in the USA do it from day to day. I have seen people wanting rides, with a dog, and yet all they want is food and/or a ride somewhere. Especially in MN, it is amazing how people survive in the cold winters. God has blessed us with a roof over our heads, work, food, cars, heat, etc; and yet we see that we struggle to get by!!! We are always wanting more, spending money on thing that we do not need but we want!

poverty: a blessing in disguise?

The pastors son at my home church, and also a friend of mine, has told me before that one thing he someday wants to do is live as a homeless person. Thinking about this, I asked him why and he answered with: homeless people are some of the most humble people, some of the most thankful people, some of the kindest and most loving people, not to mention they have some cool stories to share. And you know, he's right. Now certainly I am not saying that poverty is a good thing; it is a characteristic of our fallen world. However, is it a blessing in disguise? One living in poverty may very well learn things, life lessons, that take most people a life time to learn. They may very well be some of the most humble and loving people on this planet. I'm not really sure where it is I'm going with this thought, but it is something that is on my mind from time to time.

selfishness begets poverty

so this morning I'm riding over to chapel with Sarah and as we pass one of the gated communities here in Rochester she points out this enormous house that is valued at around 5 million dollars. Their driveway is heated(so that ice never forms on it)! She shared with me how a company she works for, Red-Nose Lighting, decorated their house at Christmas time this year for $3 grand. and as I'm hearing this and seeing this house, I'm thinking...here these people are living in this enormous house with a heated driveway and yet there are still so many people out in this world that are homeless, starving, sick, and dying. and then this gets me to thinking, so many times I think about how I have to scrape by just in order to get my bills paid and sometimes it is so frustrating and stressful but how much more do I have then those living in a third world country?. I have things that some of them only dream about.
Remembering the time I spent in India last spring I can recall how little most of those people had and yet they were still so willing to share it with us; and how small their homes were and yet they would pack people in for prayer and service meetings.
When you think about it, if the wealthy in this world would live more like the average person and even if the average person would give up a little extra cash instead of splurging on something frugle...we could end poverty. But we are too selfish and so I don't see poverty ever being ended. I just don't see mankind being that selfless. It's definately a tragedy that plagues mankind.

poverty

Poverty – according to dictionary.com, “the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor; indigence”. Poverty is a huge thing in the world today. I hate that people get paid millions of dollars doing what they love, while people are starving/dying everyday. With the money that some people make could probably feed the world.
WCCO today actually talked about poverty - http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_048151748.html
WATCH THE VIDEO – in our own state this one guy is making a huge difference in Africa, saving people’s lives and making it more of a clean area to live. This guy started building wells for cleaner water for the people down there. The people used to drink water that cows stood in and just water from a stream. If one state can do this, what would happen if all 50 states did this all over the world?
That is why I love mission work. I am going on my second mission trip (first to Haiti and second to the other side of the Island Dominican Republic). Being a Christian and going on mission trips are awesome and really prove to the poor that you are there to help. Taking mission classes really changed my view on people that live in poverty. The people do not really like us taking pictures because we use those pictures to show how poor they are and how lucky we are. They dress their best to go to church because wearing your best shows honor to God. We dress in whatever we want to go to church because we are lazy, tired, feel that whatever we wear will not dishonor God. I think we should dress up for church. Church is a place where we go to honor and worship God as a family.
57 million people in the world died last year because of poverty, but we have doctors, dentists, food, etc that we have. God created this world for us to love one another not hate or be greedy. I am a poor (in the USA) married college student and we have adopted a child from Bolivia (pay only $36 a month) to help a child get education, food, etc. If every family in the USA did the $36 a month this world would be a healthier/loving world.

Denominational Battles

Well, when I was just a kid my family went to the Greenwood Community Church in Greenwood, Indiana. Once the church got rather incredibly large we went to it's sister church, Franklin Community Church in Franklin, Indiana. Around the age of 10 my family moved to Wisconsin and attended the Church of Christ in Janesville, Wisconsin where Jon Grice was Pastor(my father had been friends with him here at MBC). We were members of that church for many years. I guess you could say I grew up in that church. I was there 4-12 grade. However, during my Senior year in highschool I also started attending the Seventh Day Baptist Church in Milton, Wisconsin with a friend and became a member there my Freshman year of college. I still attend that church whenever I am home. My parents have now been going to Saunders Creek Community Church for the past few years and I attend there with them when I am home as well. When I am asked what denomination I am, I reply...I am not a denomination, I'm a Christian. Honestly, I think all these different denominations are ridiculous! Every church I have attended, although there have been very minor differences in things such as communion or baptism practices, the core beliefs are the same. And I firmly believe that even within a denomination people will differ in their beliefs. We are called as Christians(followers of Christ), not as Church of Christ'ers' or Baptists or Protestants or Catholics or Lutherans and so on, but as one holistic group. We are called to be united and to reach the masses with love. Instead, with all these different denominations, we are competeing to see who's got the higher membership count or the better building or the more "cool" programs. It's ridiculous and it certainly is not accomplishing what we were commissioned to do.I have learned from my classes here at Crossroads and in my life experiences that there needs to be some serious unification amongst Christians both within each denomination and amongst the denominations. Now, although I firmly believe this, at this point in time I am still working on developing ideas of how to accomplish this. I do know that there needs to be prayer, confession, and humility amongst all Christians for this to even begin taking place. It needs to be an individualistic thing just as much as a holistic thing. You can't change the group if there are unwilling participants. So I guess, at this point in time, prayer and working on yourself is the first step.

Christians in Media

Christians are portrayed horribly in Media. Almost all shows that we watch you hardly ever see people going to church, praying, and/or talking about God; there is a lot of using God's name in vein and people talking about the Bible,but that does not mean that they are Christians. Almost everyone knows what the Bible is but some follow it, some believe it, and others want nothing to do with it.
I was watching the show "House" (it is about very smart Doctors that can basically find what is wrong with clients and cure them) and this nun had came in because her hands were allergic to something and then she start seizing after getting a shot. Afterwards she was talking to one of the doctors about God and the Doctor sad that before becoming a doctor he went to seminary but then dropped out. He then told the nun his favorite passage and she told him hers. Later she had almost started to stop believing and thought that it was her time to go, then the doctor started praying for her. This doctor never followed up with his faith later on in the show, never talked to anyone about himself and his believes. The woman Doctor on the other hand had lost her husband 6 months into the marriage and doesn't believe because of how soon her husband died.
Some movies I think do portray good Christians like "Passion", "Walk to Remember", and the "Nativity". Of course two out of those 3 movies are based on Jesus' live. In the news, it seems that the only time that the church, Christians, or God/Jesus are mentioned is because of a bombing, building project, or a miracle. Christians are portrayed very poorly in the Media. People mock us in almost every show. It is not ok to sleep with multiple people, even though everyshow practically shows that! In the news, WCCO talks about the Christian Prison mission loses state subsidy http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_040104438.html. I guess our good deeds and trying to help people that had a rough life is not good enough to keep prison mission running. That mission helped inmates for a life after jail. It helped and showed them how to live a good life and to change for the better. Several states were doing this, but just because Texas wasn't paying in and a federal judge in Iowa halted the program because it was a separation of church and state, this Christian mission has to halt! I think that is crap, to fair at all. Christians were helping people, putting their time away from family and work to try and change people's lives; make violence start to diminish.
Not all Christians are perfect, in fact no one is perfect. Christians do cheat, beat, etc., but we also ask for forgiveness, we try to do the right thing, we try and live how Christ lived. But life is not easy there are obstacles in everyone's way no matter how easy/hard we think our lives are. Some music that we listen to on the radio is either against Christianity or against it. For example KROC 106.9 plays almost anything new even some new christian music as long as people like the beat, not so much the words. When listening to music we should be listening to the words to know what the artist is trying to portray through that song.

Jesus Camp cont.

The movie gave a lot of statistics which I liked and learned from. At the bowling alley, i thought it was also neat to see a 9 year old girl preach to an older lady about God and telling her that God has a great future for her if she wants to go in that direction. I just believe that children are still learning more about their religion and about God/Jesus, I do not think that they have the experience and the knowledge to go out and preach to others.

The red tape on the kids mouth "LIFE" - really disturbed me.

Becky (pastor)-"Devil uses tactics to tempt us, sin designed to destroy you" The devil thing I believe to be true, but the whole thing is not designed to destroy us, God gave us sin because we need not obey His law in the Garden of Eden; therefore sin is life and without sin then you are basically Jesus, Mary, etc. (few of them in this world).

At the camp they talked about Harry potter and if they talked about that in the Bible Harry would be put to death. Warlocks are enemy's of God. I think you can let your children watch Harry Potter but you have to be able to let them know that witches/warlocks are not real, you can not fly, no such thing as magic. Ghost stories are not really of course because there is no such thing as a ghost. But, do ghost stories dishonor God? As for the Bible, it talks about miracles. With miracles comes the power from God (belief, prayer, etc.).