Support For Jackie Pullinger and St. Stephen's Society

Many people have been asking me how they can financially support the work that Jackie Pullinger and others are doing for the poor in Hong Kong.

Jackie herself has asked that no one send money to her if they are not first helping their own poor. This means she would prefer that you discover who your poor are, those who live in poverty in your own city and your own community, and help them and love them and serve them first of all.

If, in addition to serving the poor in your community ("Your Poor"), you would like to send financial assistance to Jackie and those who are helping her to serve the poor in Hong Kong, here are the instructions for doing so:

"For those sending checks from the United States, you can send them through the Desert Vineyard Christian Fellowship, 1011 E Avenue I, Lancaster CA 93535, USA. These checks will need to be made out to the Desert Vineyard with a note that they are designated for us (St. Stephen's Society).

"These donations are tax deductible through the Desert Vineyard. Be sure to address all correspondence to the attention of CAROLYNE GUY."

HOLY WEEK UPDATE

I've posted some images and details of our Good Friday and Easter services at The Mission over the weekend.

It was an awesome time to reflect on the sacrifice of our Lord and to celebrate the wonder of His resurrection under the wide open sky in the park together.

Photos and details
HERE

Kingdom Contrast

The world we live in is upside down from reality. Reality, the way things really are, is seen in The Kingdom of God.

Here are the contrasts we see between the World and God's Kingdom:

Generosity is defined in the World as: "How much we give"
Generosity is defined in God's Kingdom as: "How much we hold on to"

Love is defined by the World as: "What you can do for me"
Love is defined in God's Kingdom as: "Unconditional, sacrificial service"

Friendship is defined by the World as: "How you make me feel or look"
Friendship is defined in God's Kingdom as: "I am willing to lay down my life for you"

Greatness is defined by the World as: "What I've accomplished and how much I am honored"
Greatness in God's Kingdom is defined as: "How much I have humbled myself and served others"

Righteousness is defined in the World as: "What I have done to deserve it"
Righteousness in God's Kingdom is defined as: "What Jesus has done for me"

-kg

NON-CON: DE-BRIEF

It's impossible for me to summarize all the amazing stuff that God did on Saturday at our first-ever Non-Con here in Costa Mesa, but let me simply say that it was off the charts, over the top, 100% amazing and more than I could have ever hoped for or dreamed of or imagined.

How's that?

I'd like to ask everyone who attended to send me an email about what God did in your life this weekend, and any photos you took during the day or thoughts you could share with everyone else will be posted over at www.Non-Con.com over the next few weeks.

I want to thank David Ruis, Jackie Pullinger, John Thomas, Cindy Rethmeier, Crissy Brooks, Marti Clark, Spencer Burke, Paul Martin, Scott Laumann, Heather Wright and Bill Burgess for their investment in this day and their part in facilitating what God wanted to do in the lives of everyone who was there.

Many people came up throughout the day and at the end of the day to thank me for putting this together and many asked about how they could do something just like it back home.

Watch for a "Start Your Own Non-Con" resource coming soon, either here and/or over at TheOoze.com going forward.

I can honestly say that all of the most amazing stuff that happened was absolutely nothing to do with me or what I had planned to happen. God showed up in powerful ways and totally blew us all away with His amazing presence, love, heart, and blessing.

People were challenged, inspired, tweaked, humbled, broken, encouraged and set free.

I can't even begin to entertain the possibility of doing another one next year, or to talk about the possible "Art-Con" later this Fall. Right now I'm simply astounded by what God did on Saturday and excited beyond words about what He will continue to do in the lives of each of us as we return to our mission field, our lives, our churches, and start to practice what God has shown us is right.

More later...

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I Have A Super Power

My youngest son, David, is ten years old.

He has a way of pausing for a moment in mid-sentence and spouting off a sentence bristling with simple genius.

One day he was sitting at the kitchen table doing his math homework. Suddenly he looked up for a moment as if he were contemplating an insect's upside-down journey across the ceiling and then he said, "Hey Dad, did you know that any number you multiply by 5 is the same as taking half of that number and adding a zero?"

I stopped sipping my coffee and mentally attempted to refute his simplistic theory. "Let's see, half of 4 is 2, so 5 times 4 would be...20. And half of 10 is 5 so, 5 times 10 would be...50," I said, to my own amazement.

David got back to working on his math again and said, "Yeah, but it only works on even numbers."

I tried the odd numbers next. "Well, half of 3 is 1.5, so 5 times 3 would be...15. Hey David," I said, "It still works with odd numbers. You just move the decimal place over one space to the right."

I was dumbfounded at my son's accidental genius. As a college graduate who is over 40 years old, this mathematical truth had never occurred to me. Not once.

A quick check of my son's math book revealed that he had actually dreamed this up on his own, and after quizzing my wife I discovered that she hadn't taught this to him either.

My son is a genius.

The other day he had another little epiphany. This time it was a spiritual one.

He came into the room and said, "I used to think I had a super power, when I was little. But I could never figure out what it could be." We waited for the punchline to this observation and he matter of factly concluded, "But last night I remembered that I have the power to encourage people and make them feel better. It's my spiritual gift from the Lord. So, I do have a super power, but it's from God."

And then he went back to playing with his Bionicles.

Our house church has made it a priority this year to help each person in our group discover their spiritual gift. We've realized that, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians, God has built us into a church. He's made us, on purpose, a diverse group of people, each with different gifts and talents and interests and abilities.

Because each person performs a specific function within our body, we need each other.

So, if you're part of the Body of Christ, you have a spiritual gift. That gift is specifically given to build up the Body. This means that you matter. You have something each of us needs in our own personal spiritual development.

You, as my son David would say, have a Super Power. Now you need to learn how to use it so that everyone else in the Body can function the way God intended.

Here's a pretty comprehensive listing from scripture regarding the various spiritual gifts that God has given to build and encourage His Church. Which ones do you have?

BIBLICAL LISTINGS OF THE 28 SPIRITUAL GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT
*Ephesians 4:11 - Apostles; Prophets; Evangelists; Pastors; Teachers.

*1 Cor 12:8-11 - Word of Wisdom; Word of Knowledge; Faith; Healing; Miracles; Prophecy; Discerning Spirits; Tongues; Interpreting tongues.

*Romans 12:6-8 - Prophecy; Service; Teaching; Exhortation; Giving; Leading; Acts of Mercy.

*Miscellaneous - Administration (1 Cor 12:28); Hospitality (1 Pet 4:10); Celibacy (1 Cor 7:7); Martyrdom (1 Cor 13:3); Prophesying in Song (1 Chr 25:2 & 7); Prophesying with instruments (1 Chr 25: 1 & 6); Craftsmanship (Ex 31:3); Dream interpretation (Gen 41:12)

"If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body." - 1 Corinthians 12:19

As we each begin to discover our spiritual gift (or gifts) we can better understand our place in the rest of the Body of Christ.

I personally believe that there are probably even more spiritual gifts than these listed for us in the Bible. Again, variety seems to be God's forte. The list could be endless.

So...what's your Super Power? And more importantly, are you currently free to use it the way God intended?

-kg

Author Struggles to Stay Removed from Slave Trade

Read the complete story
HERE

(From the link above)
"With $50 and a plane ticket to Haiti, one can buy a slave. This was just one of the difficult lessons writer Benjamin Skinner learned while researching his book, A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery."

"Though now illegal throughout the world, slavery is more or less the same as it was hundreds of years ago, Skinner explains...Something disturbing has changed however — the price of a human. After adjusting for inflation, Skinner found that, 'In 1850, a slave would cost roughly $30,000 to $40,000 — in other words it was like investing in a Mercedes. Today you can go to Haiti and buy a 9-year-old girl to use as a sexual and domestic slave for $50. The devaluation of human life is incredibly pronounced.'"

Slavery is alive and well in 2008...

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Ben Stein Presents: "Expelled"

This video clip for the new independent film "Expelled" (produced and narrated by actor Ben Stein) is well-worth your time and attention.

Here

I've studied extensively and even taught seminars on the evidence in favor of intelligent design, as well as the various pseudo-scientific data used to support the theory of Evolution. This film will bring some much-needed light to the back-room politics involved with those scientists who dare to question the popular opinion of the scientific community on issues of origins.

Spread the virus.

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MOST CHRISTIANS WRONG ABOUT HEAVEN

According to N.T. Wright

Full Story:
HERE

And
HERE

(From the first link above)
"...but conservative Christian readers often scrunch together two very different things. One is going to heaven after you die, and the other is the resurrection of the body as the final destination. Many conservatives are puzzled when I tell them that there's not very much in the New Testament about going to heaven when you die, and that where you do find material in the New Testament about going to heaven when you die, this is a temporary thing. What really matters is resurrection, or Life After Life After Death." - N.T. Wright

Now that someone of Wright's calibre has fired the opening shot I have to say that I agree with him and it has always puzzled me why so many Christians talk about "Heaven" and living eternally in a mansion on a cloud in some quasi-spiritual plane of existence.

According to the Scriptures, our ultimate destination is the New Heaven and the New Earth. The plan seems to be that Jesus comes to live with us, we don't go to live with him.

I'm pretty sure N.T. doesn't mention this other part, since I've never heard anyone else express this opinion, but it's my conviction that when we die we are all instantly transported to the Judgement Seat. I know, that's at the end of all time, yet when we die we leave the time-stream and enter the realm of Eternity which is outside of time and space.

This means, if I'm right, that when you die you'll see Napolean, Moses, Paul the Apostle, Elvis and your Grandma and all of you will look at each other and say that you've "just arrived" at that same moment...because you have.

Love to hear what others think about this...

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JACKIE PULLINGER IN CHARISMA MAGAZINE

With the Non-Con only a week or so away I thought it was fascinating that Jackie Pullinger, one of our main session facilitators at the event, is featured in this month's issue of CHARISMA Magazine.

Take a look:
HERE


For those who would like to support Jackie Pullinger's work in China-
Tax-deductible contributions to St. Stephen's Society can be made online at christianlifemissions.org or mailed to P.O. Box 952248, Lake Mary, FL 32795-2248.

Human Slavery In America - 2008

*A spin-off article from this week's [Subversive Underground]

It's very shocking to realize that human slavery is alive and well in the United States of America. Many people believe we abolished slavery as a practice hundreds of years ago, but the reality is that human trafficking is going on right now, in your city, possibly even in your neighborhood.

"The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency estimates that 50,000 people are trafficked into or transited through the U.S.A. annually as sex slaves, domestics, garment, and agricultural slaves."

"The United States is a source and destination country for thousands of men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. Women and girls, largely from East Asia, Eastern Europe, Mexico and Central America are trafficked to the United States into prostitution. Some men and women, responding to fraudulent offers of employment in the United States, migrate willingly-legally and illegally-but are subsequently subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude at work sites or in the commercial sex trade. An unknown number of American citizens and legal residents are trafficked within the country primarily for sexual servitude and, to a lesser extent, forced labor."

*Read the full story linked
HERE

The link above contains a long list of recent examples of human slavery in America today. Just read through a few of those and ask yourself how this could happen in our Nation today. Ask how it escapes the notice of our media. Ask why it is not an issue in our ongoing Presidential election. Ask what you and I can do to help these people in need.

AROUND THE WORLD
The facts are sobering. There are 27 million people around the globe who are trapped in forced labor at this very moment. Some are children between 7 and 12 years of age. Some of them are enslaved in America today, forced to work as prostitutes out of massage parlors, on the streets of your city, or even out of homes in neighborhoods like yours and mine.

IN MY OWN BACK YARD
Just about a year ago the Orange County Police Department broke up the largest human trafficking/forced prostitution ring in the history of this region. I remember it because it was just weeks before the Freedom Day on March 25th at Vanguard University where hundreds gathered to protest slavery and bring attention to this very real problem.

America is one of the top markets for human sexual slavery. Anaheim, the home of Disneyland, is one of the largest markets for human trafficking in the Nation.

If you want to know how you can help please visit
StopTheTraffik
-kg

THE KINGDOM REALITY

The Kingdom of God is the present reality which breaks into this illusion of ours intermittently, like very bad cell phone reception. It’s God’s way of saying, “Can you hear me now?”

In fact, experiencing and living in this Kingdom Reality is, in itself, an exercise in the Kingdom principles of “Letting Go” and “The Power of Weakness”. When we give up on our strength and wait for God’s power to come and to move it’s a testimony of our trust in His promise to us that “Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar like Eagles”, resting and gliding under the power of the wind of the Holy Spirit.

Waiting and trusting in His power, not our own, taking confidence in His strength, not ours, is a demonstration of The Power of Weakness in action.

For us, this coming, advancing, intermittent reality is counter-intuitive. We’ve been born into this illusion – falsely labeled “Reality”- and have been immersed in this do-it-yourself mentality all of our lives. We need to learn to “Re-Think” everything – or as Jesus said, to “Repent,” (Metanoia = Rethink), “for the Kingdom of God (Heaven) is near” (Or, “It is within our grasp, our reach, and close enough to touch.”)

It is very much like taking the red pill and finding ourselves wide awake in a reality which is upside down and backwards from the world we have been born into. At first we reel with the vertigo of a world where up is down and the first are last. Those who humble themselves are exalted, the greatest is the servant of all, and those who lose their lives find everlasting, eternal life, even though they die daily. This is the Kingdom of God.

Welcome to reality. Because this upside down world, we quickly discover, is NOT upside down, it is right side up. We have lived so long, head over heels, immersed in an illusion of selfish fulfillment and a pursuit of more, more, more, that we need to detoxify our minds and hearts and flesh in order to remain in God’s Kingdom Reality.

Jesus announced this Kingdom, told us how to see it, how to walk in it and remain in it, and gave us the best news possible: We could enter and begin living in Reality anytime we wanted to.

In the Kingdom of God there is just one King; God Himself. He is a good, loving, kind, and wildly, unpredictably, sometimes uncomfortably intimate, inclusive and wonderful King, and Father, and Friend.

His Kingdom is a place where His perfect will is always done and those who rest in His will are refreshed and delighted and fulfilled and at peace and overjoyed. They are children born into the poverty of excess wealth and selfishness who have been adopted into a new Family of the unending wealth of generosity and the joy of always having enough to share and give away.

This is reality. Before God made this vast oasis called “Space and Time” there was no space or time. Everything was perfectly “Now” and Eternally present with Him. This is the only reality there has ever been. God’s Kingdom was, and is, and is to come.

Our temporary stay in this unusual experiment called “Time and Space” will eventually expire and the temporary Kingdoms of this Earth will soon fade away. The Kingdom of Pleasure will fall to the ground. The Kingdom of Greed will perish. The Kingdom of Exploitation and Oppression and Excess and Fashion and Wealth and Flesh, will all crumble and burn and disappear into oblivion. Only one Kingdom will remain and that is the Kingdom which was here “In The Beginning” – which has even now come, and which we can enter today. And, one day, soon, this Kingdom will break forever into this illusion we drift through for the moment, and overtake all we see and know.

Are you ready to enter this Kingdom? Are you ready to begin living under the awesome rule and reign of The King? There’s just one thing, before you take that leap, before you swallow the red pill, that you should know, so that you can count the cost. Those who enter the Kingdom can only step across the threshold if they pay the price. It’s really nothing when you think about it, when you compare the amazing riches of God’s Eternal Kingdom with the tokens and trinkets of our counterfeit reality. The price of admission, the way to step across, is to let go of this world.

Just as you were born naked and weak and vulnerable and empty-handed into this world, so you can take nothing with you into God’s Kingdom. It’s called being “Born Again”.

The things of this world are not truly treasures. When you die they will stay here anyway, and just as you can take nothing with you beyond the grave, you can take nothing with you when you step into God’s Kingdom.

Jesus only asks for one thing- It’s called Everything.

But what you gain, what you receive in exchange, is beyond anything you can dream of or hope for or imagine. The Kingdom of God, when you see it, when you really understand it, you will gladly rush out to sell all that you have, as quickly as possible, to step across the threshold into Heaven.

This is the moment where many people stop and turn back. Their grip on this world, or its grip on them, is so strong that they can never let go of their tiny, petty lives in this place in order to receive real life and treasure in God’s Kingdom.

If we have really seen the Kingdom, if we really understood and believed that this Kingdom was real (in a way that nothing else can ever be “real”), then we would rush quickly to surrender all that we have and all that we are in order to receive the treasure that does not rust or face or disappoint.

"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." - Luke 9:24

“The Kingdom of God is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:44)

All God wants is all of you. All He asks is that you Trust Him and Believe Him and surrender your meager treasures and petty personal kingdoms in exchange for His Kingdom. God wants to be your God. He wants you to be one of His People.

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” – Jesus (Luke 9:23). There is no other way but the Cross.

Jesus says it is very hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom.” Who then can be saved? His disciples asked. “With man this is impossible,” Jesus replied, “But not with God; all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10: 23-27)

Will you let go? Will you surrender it all? Will you seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness? This is the only question we need to answer in order to step across the threshold into the amazing reality of God’s Kingdom.

You can stay here, on this side of reality, where you are safe and miserable, in your tiny kingdom where your will is what matters. Or you can sell it all, exchange the handful of crumbling mud for real treasure which lasts forever.

Is your kingdom so wonderful? Aren’t you tired of wearing the crown? Haven’t you suffered long enough under your own rule and reign?

When you are ready to set fire to your kingdom, and surrender your lordship, and dance as the flames consume your empty way of living, He is ready to invite you to experience Reality, today.

There is only One King, and He is good. He really wants what is best for you, and He can, above all, beyond any other, be Trusted. His Name is Faithful and True.

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father but by me” – Jesus (John 14)

-Keith Giles

Here and Not Yet: The Kingdom Under The King's Command

Last night our house church group shared stories of times when God healed us or family members without our asking, and even bestowed spiritual gifts upon some of us out of clear blue sky.

The Kingdom seems to break into this world at the sole discretion of The King. There's nothing we can do to make it come or to coerce the King into action, and yet paradoxically we are commanded to pray, and Jesus said that our faith does play a part in our healing.

I do believe that following Jesus is about living in the tension between the "Here" and the "Not Yet" aspects of the Kingdom of God. It keeps us totally dependent upon God for everything.

"Without me you can do nothing" - Jesus

-kg

Christian VS Christ-Follower (Part 1)

Thoughts on The Kingdom of God

This Sunday our house church, "The Mission", will have our very first "Subversive Seminary"- our first ever all-day teaching seminar on a single subject.

These will be co-lead by myself and three other leaders in our church. Our first topic will be "The Kingdom of God".

I'm very excited about this, mainly because the Kingdom of God is such a central concept to Christianity and understanding Jesus.

I've written at great length over the last several years about the Gospel of the Kingdom (the only Gospel Jesus ever preached) and how crucial it is to understand this idea.

Looking forward to the Non-Con on March 15th, David Ruis will be kicking things off with a great overview of the Gospel of the Kingdom. He's one of the best I've heard when it comes to providing a clear picture of what the Kingdom is and how we encounter the Kingdom in our everyday life.

With all of this resurgence lately regarding the Kingdom of God I will follow the current "Ministry To The Poor" series over at the [Subversive Underground] with a more detailed discussion of the Kingdom of God. In fact, I've already written the first installment of that possible series so after this Sunday's "Subversive Seminary" at "The Mission" I'm sure there will be more to write about for a second or third follow-up article on the subject.

If you're curious about what I'm talking about and want to better understand the Gospel of the Kingdom and the only Gospel Jesus ever preached, just search "Kingdom of God" here (see that search box at the top left navigation bar?) and also over at the link at the left for [Subversive Underground].

I specifically recommend reading "The Return Of The King" and "The Gospel Is Not About Going To Heaven When You Die", both found over at the [Subversive Underground] link at left.

My next two books, "The Power of Weakness" and "The Top 10 Things Every Christian Should Know (But Probably Doesn't)" will both deal very specifically with the Gospel of the Kingdom. I can't wait to unleash those two later this year.

David Ruis and Todd Hunter have both agreed to contribute forwards to these two projects, which is even more reason to look for these books when they eventually release here (via the Lulu.com link at left also).

We only have a few weeks left until the NON-CON. I can't wait! Being there with David Ruis, Jackie Pullinger and my good friends Crissy Brooks, Jared Rowland, John Thomas, Cindy Rethmeier, Scott Laumann, Heather Wright, Marti Clark, Paul Martin and Spencer Burke will be amazing. I know God must have great plans for this day because I tried to cancel it a few months ago and God wouldn't let me.

Now I'm just praying that I can get all of the logistical things in place for the big day.

-kg

Rest In Peace, My Brother - Larry Norman 4/8/47 - 2/24/08

Larry Norman, the father of what we have come to call "Contemporary Christian Music" passed away this week.

You can read a touching last post from his deathbed at his website
HERE

I wasn't a big fan of his music. I don't own any of his albums. I couldn't sing one of his lines if I tried.

But, this man was a pioneer who took music about Jesus to the mainstream. His first three albums were on what we would call "Secular" labels. He never liked the Christianized version of the record industry he inspired. For that I applaud him.

As I read his final words, dictated from his deathbed earlier this week, I couldn't help but become tearful. Perhaps because a dear friend of mine is sitting in CCU right now on a ventilator at a nearby hospital. Perhaps because I wonder if I'll have the privilege of dictacting my last words the day before I die. Or maybe because Larry is my brother in Christ and I love him, even though I've never met him.

When one part suffers, we all suffer together.

Pray for his family.

Rest in peace, Larry.

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NON-CON 08 - OFFICIALLY SOLD OUT

As of today the first ever Non-Con is offically SOLD OUT!

When I first had the inspiration for this one-day "non-conference", just over a year ago, I had no idea we'd really be able to find 100 people who would want to be part of something small, intentional, conversational, interactive and simple.

I am so excited about what God will do on March 15th.

Can't wait...

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ETERNAL LOVE

ETERNAL LOVE by Keith Giles

We know from God's Word that there was a time when reality as we know it did not exist. In Eternity, a reality which is reality itself, God existed eternally prior to the Creation of all things.

At the point of Creation, which is something slightly easier for our minds to conceive, something came into being which never existed before- Time and Space.

If the angelic beings existed prior to the creation of Time and Space, they would have looked upon it as something wildly unique and utterly strange. To a being for whom Eternity is commonplace, the concept of a miniature reality with a beginning, middle and end, populated by organisms bound by this space, and limited by time, it would have been a wondrous and completely awe-inspiring work of genius. And it was.

For us, mortals bound by the limitations of space and time, and largely unable to conceive of a reality beyond this one that has eternally existed, it is the idea of Eternity that seems strange and foreign and utterly confusing in many ways.

"How could God have always existed?" one of our children asked out loud recently in house church. None of us had an answer for that, but we all could share the wonder expressed by the question.

As a young boy, about nine years old, I can remember lying on my bed and pondering just this question. I surmised that it was impossible for God to have always existed and therefore someone had to have created God. But who? I decided to call that person "King" and in my imagination I placed him as the creator of "God". This satisfied my imagination for about thirty seconds because I quickly asked myself, "Then who created King?" The conundrum was endless, I realized and so I quickly reverted back to the idea that, yes, God was eternally existant all along because there must be some being who created everything and yet who, himself, did not need to be created.

Just a few weeks ago I was thinking about how God can never have a new idea. It hit me because I had read a statement in a book I was reading about how God had supposedly "discovered" something new. I immediately dismissed this statement as false since it is impossible for God to have a new thought that He hasn't already had from Eternity. God doesn't learn because He already knows all things. This is why we say that God is Omniscient. He knows the end from the beginning.

As I thought about this inability for God to have a new thought I realized that this meant that the idea of me, and of you, and of everyone who had or will ever live on this Earth, was also Eternal. This concept riveted me for several minutes.

Could it really be possible that, in the numberless eons previous to the creation of the entire known Universe of space and time that I was a completely, fully realized idea in God's amazing mind?

This means that, not only will I spend Eternity with God in the flesh after my life here is over, but that in some ways I have always been in the heart and mind and imagination of God...even before I was born on this Earth some forty odd years ago.

You were also in God's imagination for Eternity. He knew you, even before he formed you in the womb. You are his beloved and he gladly created everything that we know and experience, even knowing that it would cost him great suffering and unimaginable pain on the cross in order to make a way to be with you forever.

You are so loved!

-kg

IF YOU CAN'T VOTE FOR SOMEONE BECAUSE OF THEIR RACE...

PLEASE DON'T CALL YOURSELF AN AMERICAN

This news story (linked and partially quoted below) was something I couldn't help but comment on.

No matter who you intend to vote for in the upcoming Presidential election, please do not make your decision based on whether or not the candidate is the proper race. To do so is to turn back the clock and revisit the most shameful elements of our history as a nation of racists, bigots and morons.
-kg

**
Rendell: Race Factor Could Hurt Obama
FULL STORY

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Ed Rendell, one of Hillary Rodham Clinton's most visible supporters, said some white Pennsylvanians are likely to vote against her rival Barack Obama because he is black.

"You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate," Rendell told the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in remarks that appeared in Tuesday's paper.

Embezzlement: The Corporate Sin of Contemporary Christianity

This short booklet, written by pastor and theologian Ray Mayhew, was largely instrumental in leading my wife and I start a house church two years ago which would give away 100% of the offering and tithe to the poor in our community.

The online link to this article has disappeared for some reason, and there has been a resurgence in this conversation about the money people give to the Church and the proper use of this money, both here and over at theOoze.com so I'm offering this PDF article free to anyone who wants it.

For your free PDF of this inspiring and thought-provoking article, please email me at "elysiansky" (at) hotmail (dot com) with the subject "Emblezzlement" and I will email you a copy of this, free of charge.

If you do read this article, please post your reactions or comments here, or reply back to me via email and let me know what your thoughts are. I'd love to know.

Peace,
Keith

OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD

So busy at work these days, but my mind is constantly plotting and pondering.

Here's what's on my mind and most likely to formulate into an article down the line:

*Preaching: It's not that I don't believe in it, it's just that I have really very little faith in the ability of preaching to motivate people to change their life. Most people sit and listen to a sermon and go home the same as before and repeat it over and over again, week after week. Yet, I often speak or preach at other churches and events, so it's not that I think it's completly worthless. I just wish there was a better way to teach people and to inspire them to move forward in their walk with Christ. At our house church I never preach and yet our people are growing and learning and stepping out of their comfort zones. More on this later...

*Constantinian Church: Once again I am faced with my misgivings concerning traditional church and the way this model inhibits real community, vulnerability and transformation. Still struggling with how to respond to this.

*Heretical Televangelists: Why is it that this guy can get on television and twist the words of Jesus into something he absolutely didn't say or teach, and yet still be the most popular and beloved "Christian" pastor in America? What am I supposed to do about that? Is the best response to keep silent and pray for him privately, or to speak out and sound the alarm that this person is mis-representing the words of Jesus and turning the Gospel into something unrecognizable as being "Christian"? Still working this one out...

*The tithe and the offering belongs to the poor, the outcast and the marginalized. My personal faith has been challenged due to this conviction and our house church was founded on the desire to give 100% of the offering away to the poor in our community. How do I speak out about this without alienating or "attacking" those in the traditional church? How do I share my deepest convictions without causing division in the Body? Not sure about this one either...

More later, I promise.
kg

MEGA-BRAIN DUMP

File this under: Too much good stuff to share in one day and no time to write a response to any of it.

Here's what I've found interesting online or in my inbox today that I would like to share with my faithful readers...both of you...and you too Mom.

MASSIVE NEWS BRAIN-DUMP:
"Christian hackers attack MySpace page"
What wouldn't Jesus do?
By Iain Thompson

Radical Christian hackers have been waging an online war against atheism.
The hackers repeatedly attacked MySpace's Atheist and Agnostics Group page, deleting groups and members and renaming the site 'Jesus is Love'.

MySpace shut down the group last month despite having promised to keep it up after earlier hack attacks.

The site was put back up in February, but some members are still being barred and some discussions are lost. MySpace has yet to comment on the issue.

MySpace was acquired last year by News International, which is owned by born again Christian Rupert Murdoch.

READ MORE HERE
**
WHAT DO YOU EAT IN ONE WEEK? (And How Much Do You Spend?)


Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11

CLICK HERE FOR SLIDESHOW

**
DAN WARD'S GREAT IDEA: "GIVE AWAY YOUR REFUND CHECK TO HELP THE POOR"

My friend Dan Ward had a great idea about how to spend his upcoming tax refund check from George W. Bush- GIVE IT AWAY TO HELP THE POOR!

Dan says: "Maybe this makes me a communist, but I'm not sure economic stimulation is all it's cracked up to be (I think economies work best when they're left alone, and allowed to self-correct). Or maybe that makes me a free market capitalist? In any case, what's more economically stimulating than helping those at the bottom of the spectrum? More to the point, I think serving the poor, hungry and needy is more important than boosting middle class economic fortunes. I hope others will join in."

READ DAN'S BLOG HERE
**

WAL-MART RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING 38,000 PEOPLE PER MONTH OUT OF POVERTY…IN CHINA!

Between 1990 and 2002 more than 174 million people escaped poverty in China, about 1.2 million per month.[1] With an estimated $23 billion in Chinese exports in 2005 (out of a total of $713 billion in manufacturing exports),[2] Wal-Mart might well be single-handedly responsible for bringing about 38,000 people out of poverty in China each month, about 460,000 per year.

There are estimates that 70 percent of Wal-Mart's products are made in China.[3] One writer vividly suggests that "One way to think of Wal-Mart is as a vast pipeline that gives non-U.S. companies direct access to the American market." [4] Even without considering the $263 billion in consumer savings that Wal-Mart provides for low-income Americans, or the millions lifted out of poverty by Wal-Mart in other developing nations, it is unlikely that there is any single organization on the planet that alleviates poverty so effectively for so many people.[5] Moreover, insofar as China's rapid manufacturing growth has been associated with a decline in its status as a global arms dealer, Wal-Mart has also done more than its share in contributing to global peace.[6]

How can this be, given the vast and growing literature documenting Wal-Mart's faults?

IS IT TRUE?

**
IS GLOBAL WARMING MAN'S GREATEST GLOBAL CRISIS?
OR IS IT POVERTY?

"Finally, and most important—we can’t predict the future, but we can know the present. In the time we have been talking, 2,000 people have died in the third world. A child is orphaned by AIDS every 7 seconds. Fifty people die of waterborne disease every minute. This does not have to happen. We allow it.

What is wrong with us that we ignore this human misery and focus on events a hundred years from now? What must we do to awaken this phenomenally rich, spoiled and self-centered society to the issues of the wider world? The global crisis is not 100 years from now—it is right now. We should be addressing it. But we are not. Instead, we cling to the reactionary and antihuman doctrines of outdated environmentalism and turn our backs to the cries of the dying and the starving and the diseased of our shared world.

And if we are going to remain too self-involved to care about the third world, can we at least care about our own? We live in a country where 40% of high school graduates are functionally illiterate. Where schoolchildren pass through metal detectors on the way to class. Where one child in four says they have seen a murdered person. Where millions of our fellow citizens have no health care, no decent education, no prospects for the future. If we really have trillions of dollars to spend, let us spend it on our fellow human beings. And let us spend it now. And not on our impossible fantasies of what may happen one hundred years from now.

Thank you very much.
-Micheal Crichton

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE
**

LOVE LANGUAGE

There's a great book called "Love Languages" by Gary Chapman, PHD which I highly recommend for anyone in a committed, romantic relationship or marriage.

In the book, Dr. Chapman identifies five known "Love Languages" that each of us respond to and "speak". The five languages are:

1) Words of affirmation
2) Quality time
3) Gifts
4) Acts of service
5) Physical touch.

Each of us can probably look over this list and identify at least one, maybe two areas where we feel most loved when on the receiving end of these languages.

For me it is Words of Affirmation and Gifts.

The problem is that if your primary love language is "Gifts" the chances are great that this is how you will express love to someone. However, if that person's love language is "Physical touch" or "Acts of Service" you'll be wasting your time.

This causes a lot of unnecessary frustration in marriages especially where the man can knock himself out with acts of service to his wife (doing the dishes, dusting the living room, keeping the yard clean, etc.) and yet in her mind he doesn't love her because he doesn't say "You're so beautiful" or "You make me happy".

Understanding your own love language is very important, and making sure that you discover your spouses love language is even more important. There's nothing worse than going through life thinking you've expresed your love for someone, only to discover that they aren't getting the message because you're not saying it in a way that they can understand.

GOD'S LOVE LANGUAGE?
Did you know that God has a love language too? He does. The scriptures are full of direct quotes from God where He specifically tells us what it means to love Him.

Do you want to know what God's love language is? Do you want to make sure that you're expressing your love to God in the best way possible; in the exact way that He has revealed to us?

Some of us think that singing songs to God for hours and hours will express our love for Him. Certainly it's not a bad thing to do that, but God is pretty clear that all that singing isn't really what He's looking for.

"Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps." -Amos 5:23

In this verse, God makes it clear that singing, by itself isn't enough. He goes on to call for His people to show compassion to the poor around them and to work for justice to rescue the oppressed in their community.

"But let justice roll on like a river; righteousness like a never-failing stream" - Amos 5:24

Jesus makes it clear that, if we love Him, we will obey His teachings.

"If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching...he who does not love me will not obey my teaching." – JESUS (John 14:23-24)

Jesus also made it clear that when we show love to the poor, the outcast, the weak, the broken, the forgotten, the lonely of this world, we are expressing our love for Him at the same time.

"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." - Matthew 25:40

God has revealed to us that the best way to show Him that we love Him is to love others.

LOVE IS THE GREATEST
When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'" (Matthew 22:37-40)

Jesus makes it clear that loving God and loving our neighbor are connected. Notice how he says, "And the second is like it". This means that if you do one (Love God) you will naturally do the other (Love your neighbor)...and if you love your neighbor you are pleasing God by obeying Him and putting into practice the very thing that He says makes it known that you really love Him.

"If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."
- 1 John 4:20-21

However, if Jesus boils down the Ten Commandments into just two commands, we are still faced with the reality that if we are powerless to keep the Ten, we are just as powerless to keep the Two.

LOVE IMPOSSIBLE
Keeping the Law is impossible for me, as someone who was born with a sinful nature (read the book of Romans for Paul's amazing thesis about this). This means that keeping the Law is something I can only hope to accomplish if I am transformed by God into a "new creature".

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" - (2 Cor 5:17)

The only hope we have to keep the Law is to allow the Holy Spirit to transform us from within into the sort of people who are capable of keeping the Law. The only hope we have to ever become like Jesus is to die, like He did, upon a cross which declares that we surrender our lives in order to receive a new life that is "others-focused" and marked by sacrificial love.

BECOME A GOOD TREE
Jesus tells us that the only way for a tree to produce good fruit is to be that kind of tree. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.(Matthew 7:17-18) For us, as sinful creatures trying to love as Jesus loves we soon discover that it's as impossible as making our Pecan tree produce Grapefruit. It just won't work.

Paul makes it clear (in 1 Corinthians 12 and 13) that Love is a spiritual gift from God. Unless God gives us the supernatural gift of Love, we cannot try hard enough on our own to produce it.

So, let us learn to practice the language of love that God has revealed to us as being Divine. To do this, we must daily surrender our lives to God and lean upon Him for strength, for hope, and especially, for love.

"Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:27)

-kg

NON-CON - ONLY 21 SEATS AVAILABLE

Even though this conference in still more than a month away, we've only got 21 seats left as of today (2/04/08) at 2:22pm.

I'm very excited about this conference and can't wait to see what God has in store for all of us.

We'll be joined by Jackie Pullinger, David Ruis along with Cindy Reithmeier and John Thomas leading worship. I'll be leading one of the three main dialog sessions, and our workshop leaders include Spencer Burke, Paul Martin, Crissy Brooks, Scott Laumann and Marti Clark.

This will be an exciting day to explore God's heart for others, learning to "be" the Church, living missionally and discovering the Kingdom of God together.

If you haven't registered you need to hurry up before all 100 seats are taken.

More info and online registration here:
http://www.Non-Con.com

If you're curious...
NON-CON ATTENDANCE BY STATE
WA 2
CA 65
CT 3
TX 4
AZ 1
OK 1
NY 1
77 TOTAL

GUYS- 36 /GALS- 43

Even if you can't attend, please pray for this special day together in March.

I'll provide a complete de-brief here and over at the Non-Con site the week after it's over. MP3's and Podcasts might be available of most sessions, if everything goes as planned. I'll have to see about hosting those and making them available to everyone.

More later...
kg

If You've Ever Wondered What "Injustice" Is....

This is injustice:

Poor Haitians Resort to Eating Dirt
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hcJ474CjaJGOUznskl4ZgTHdpxUAD8UFQVR00

It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.

The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.

"When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day," Charlene said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the slim 6 pounds 3 ounces he weighed at birth.

(MORE IN LINK ABOVE)

**COMMENTARY:

When I read something like this I wonder why our nation does nothing to assist these people trapped in unbelievable, horrific poverty?

If we will send troops to Iraq to rescue people from a genocidal dictator's rule, why wouldn't we send food and resources to help women and children who are literally eating dirt to survive?

"He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" -GOD, speaking of King Josiah in Jeremiah 22:16

I cannot understand how we can have a President who, by his own admission, follows Christ, and yet our Nation turns a blind eye to the suffering in Uganda, Darfur, Kenya, Haiti, and Rwanda.

Those nations are undergoing massive genocide, horrific poverty and their people are committing unspeakable atrocities. Still, in most cases our government could more successfully stop the violence, end the poverty and bring relief to the suffering in these nations than we could ever hope to duplicate in the Middle East.

"All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." - Galatians 2:10

Perhaps the reason why we don't send troops to these nations or exert great political pressure on these corrupt Governments is because they are not oil-rich nations whose stability directly impacts our own fragile economy?

In the end, our interests are selfish. We don't really care about those people in Iraq who are suffering, we care about Americans who need gas to fill their Lexus SUV tomorrow morning.

Those people who are living in Hell on Earth over in the Sudan, or Haiti, or Uganda? Our Government can only respond, "Let them eat dirt."

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 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? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth."
-1 John 3:16-19

This underscores why I am convinced that no real, lasting change will come to our Nation, or to the poor among us, or to the suffering abroad in other Nations, by political means. Justice is something we, the people of God, are called to bring. The Church, the people of God, have the power to move on behalf of the suffering in this world...down the street in the projects, and across the sea in the shanty towns.

Today the American Church has too closely alligned herself with political platforms and conservative candidates. We have lost our ability to act independently, with true compassion for others. We need to awaken from our slumber and move with compassion to ease the suffering and bring the Kingdom of God to those who are in need.

"He has shown you, Oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you? To love mercy, to do justice and to walk humbly with your God." - Micah 6:8

We are called, as followers of Jesus, to act on behalf of those who are suffering injustice. Yes, we must pray, but we also must tell others about this suffering. We must ask our pastors to spread the word from the pulpit. We must find a way to send help to those who are so poor they are literally eating the dirt from the ground to live one more day.

"Now this is the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were proud and did detestable things before me. Therefore, I did away with them as you have seen."
-Ezekiel 16:49

Whatever you do, please don't look away. Please don't do nothing.

Can anyone find a Christian charity that is in Haiti now offering relief to these people? How about a secular charity? How about three people with a single engine Cessna and a box of dried rice?

Anyone?

kg

How To Start A Ministry To The Poor In Your Community

For the last five years or so I've been leading teams of people to go out into the community and serve the poor. Over time I've learned a lot, and I thought it would make sense to publish what I've learned online so that others can benefit from my experience.

A lot of what I've learned I learned from doing it wrong the first few times. The rest I gleaned from people who were much more experienced than I was at the time, and from watching others do it and deciding that wasn't the way for me.

So, there's enough material here to fill up at least three, possibly four, articles on the subject. I started sketching out some basic ground rules for serving the poor, and then put together some tips for how to minister to people. After that I listed out the types of ministry that can be done in your community and then culled ideas from other ministries like Sjogren's and Soul Survivor, and a few others.

This series could end up being very long, but hopefully very valuable to anyone who wants to start serving the poor where they live, and/or for someone who wants to start a ministry with their small group or church.

Of course, I've already started putting together a book about Compassion Ministry called "Secret Service: Developing A Heart Like Jesus" which will undoubtedly benefit from this upcoming series when all is said and done.

At the moment, over at the [Subversive Underground] (my free, weekly e-newsletter) I'm finishing up a series on the subject of Trust and how fundamental it is for us to not only understand it, but to have it towards God.

After that series is done (next week), I'll start this new series "How To Start A Ministry To The Poor In Your Community".

I hope to provide some practical guidance to ministry towards the poor and assist people in getting involved in their community- sharing the love of Jesus with the least among us in tangible ways.

To sign up for the [SU] see the link at the left and make sure you don't miss it.

-kg

THE GOSPEL IS NOT FOR SALE

Mmmm.....Crucifixion Never Tasted So Good

Another reminder why we need to

DESTORY THE CHRISTIAN SUBCULTURE
Part 1: http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=1837
Part 2: http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=1893

and CONSUMPTION, EXPRESSION AND IDENTITY
http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=1894

kg

ONLY 43 SEATS LEFT FOR THE NON-CON

As of today there are only 43 seats remaining for the Non-Con Conference on Saturday, March 15, 2008.

Anyone thinking of attending should quickly register today before it's too late.

Visit the main website for online registration and details at:
http://www.Non-Con.com

ABOUT THE NON-CON
[Subversive Underground] Presents
"The Non-Con '08"
Saturday, March 15, 2008

More of a conversation than a conference.

With facilitators Jackie Pullinger, David Ruis and Keith Giles
With worship leaders Cindy Reithmeier and John Thomas

Only 100 people, in a circle, engaged in open dialog about issues of social justice, missional life, Being Church, the Kingdom, the Arts, and more.

Shared meals. Simple worship. No hype.

More info at:
http://www.Non-Con.com

I Dream Of A World Where Even Stuffed Long-Arm Kung-Fu Monkeys Love Jesus

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried...

-kg

The More People You Reach The More Likely It Is That You're Reaching The Wrong People

Who vs. how many.
*from Seth Godin's blog today

**
Seth Godin is one of my morning ritual blog reads each day. His insights into guerilla marketing, the cult of advertising, the change in the wind, and uncommon sense keep me grounded and help me realize that much of what I have suspected about our society, our christian sub-culture and our churches is evidenced in the very fabric of our society as a whole.

In short, the Church has become "of the world but not in it". As Christians we are more a product of our culture than agents of change within this culture.

Seth's quote today underscores the problem we've adopted from taking our cues from Big Business leaders rather than from our founder (Jesus).

Jesus is always attracting a crowd and then doing all he can to either thin the crowd or to escape them and find real followers in another town.

Jesus wants followers, not spectators. Jesus wants disciples, not believers. Jesus wants people who will put his words into practice, not people who will memorize those words and repeat them behind closed doors to others who already know the message.

Christian leaders in the 20th, and now the 21st, Century were enamored by the "Bigger is Better" approach to ministry. Putting more butts in the seats equated with success. Growth became the new Holy Grail of ministers across the fruited plane, and the size of your congregation became the new yardstick of a healthy church.

As our focus turned to attracting crowds we soon learned to identify the myriad challenges associated with putting butts into our seats. Eventually we surrendered our pulpits to a Gospel of positive thinking and reduced the dangerous words of Jesus to self-help rhetoric for improving your lifestyle and personal happiness.

As our Churches focused on getting more, our people began to pick up on the message and began to pursue getting more too. Soon televangelists emerged to offer up what our itching ears wanted to hear about how Jesus wants us to be rich and have all we want because we are, after all, "King's Kids".

What gives me hope these days is the fact that twenty or thirty individuals have emerged from the shadows over the last few years to email me and share with me their unrest at this State of the Modern Church in America. They have walked away from the private club mentality of Traditional Church and embraced a pioneer calling to go outside the four walls of Christendom and discover that being the Church is far more important than attending one.

You don't know their names. You won't find their books at the local Christian Bookstore. They will never grow famous and the churches they've planted will never advertise on Christian Radio or on the local billboards near the freeway. Yet in the Spirit, these unknown followers of Jesus are slowly being joined by hundreds and hundreds of others around this Nation, yes even around the World, as the Holy Spirit begins to call them out of the "Pattern of Church" and into the freedom of "Being Church" with others in their living rooms, in parks, in coffee shops, in lunch rooms, and anywhere God calls them to live out the Gospel...which is everywhere.

Jesus wasn't interested in the large crowd, he was always interested in the one person who the crowd pushed aside. He sought out the woman with the issue of blood. He singled out Zacheus and escaped the crowd by joining him for dinner in his home. Jesus gave us a fine example to follow, and the Disciples followed through when they planted hundreds of simple, house churches across Jerusalem, Judea, Corinth and beyond.

The early church grew one person, one family, at a time. They valued each person for who they were. They ate together. They shared everything with one another. The loved one another. Growth wasn't their goal, it was love. And yet, growth was the natural by-product of this love and simple obedience.

For 300 years the Church practiced being family throughout the known world. In spite of persecution, secret meetings, lack of evangelistic crusades, absence of witnessing tracts and zero marketing the early church grew from 25,000 in AD 100 to about 20,000,000 by AD 310.

While our Churches have focused on becoming Bigger over the last several years, they've ironically become more empty at the same time. In a crowd of hundreds of worshippers, many are feeling isolated, ignored and forgotten.

We've grown larger Churches where many feel anonymous and lonely. We call ourselves a family but no one knows our name. We call each other "Brother" and "Sister" in Christ, but we have no one to share our pain with.

Last Sunday our house church, "The Mission", celebrated our two year anniversary. If I've learned anything over the last two years it's that everyone matters. The definition of "Church" is simply the people of God plus the Holy Spirit and time to listen to one another and share all that we have.

Let's go and "Be the Church" now. However you meet. Wherever you gather. Let us not forsake the calling we have to live out the Gospel in our daily lives.

"To get something you've never had before you will have to do something you have never done before." I'm not sure who said that, but I know it is true. If we expect to experience Church in a different way, I am convinced that we will have to do (and be) Church in a different way too.

-kg


Seth Godin's blog entry is here:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/the-more-people.html

Trackback-
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2123/25143690

Trust: The Key To Everything

The other day a friend of mine made the comment that trusting God seems to be the hardest thing for us to do, even as followers of Jesus who should find it easy...or at least fundamental to our daily practice.

Several thoughts splinter outward from the impact of this statement. First, I wonder why it is that we find it so hard to trust God. Second, I wonder if this isn't the central key to everything.

WHY IS IT HARD FOR US TO TRUST GOD?

There are several possible reasons for this. One being that we may have a problem with trust in general. Meaning, all of us have been manipulated by the media, society, politicians, teachers, lovers, parents, etc. all of our lives. After a while we simply lose the ability to completely trust anyone or anything 100%.

There is no logical reason not to trust God. After all, if you could name only one being in the entire known Universe whom you should be able to trust with absolute certainty, it is God.

The question then becomes, if we can't fully trust God with our everyday life, why not? What is it that prevents us from trusting God? Why is it so hard? What can we do that will make us more capable of trusting God with everything?

More on this later this week over at the [Subversive Underground]...

keith giles

THE ONE THING

Let me start out by saying that I have nothing against worshipping God in song, nor do I have any particular beef with any group of people who love to spend hours and hours singing songs to God in arenas packed with thousands of people. There's nothing wrong with gathering together to worship God in song. Nothing at all.

What I do have a problem with is the idea that if I spend hours and hours in God's presence worshipping Him in song that I will somehow be transformed into a more devoted follower of Jesus. It's a lie.

The only thing that will make me a more devoted follower of Jesus is simply to obey His teachings in my everyday life.

Jesus was pretty clear on the idea that if you love him you will do what he says. Obedience, according to Jesus, is the best measure of whether or not (and how much) you actually love him.

"If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching...he who does not love me will not obey my teaching." – JESUS (John 14:23-24)

So, when I see a worship conference with the name "One Thing" being advertised it sort of irks me because the suggestion is that this is the one thing we are called to do as followers of Jesus. Yes, we are expected to worship but what does that look like?

According to Romans 12 our "spiritual act of worship" involves becoming a "living sacrifice" where our entire lives are surrendered to Jesus, not just our lips.

I can find two places in the New Testament where the phrase "One Thing" is used; once by Jesus and once by Paul.

Jesus uses it when he tells the Rich Young Ruler that there is "one thing" he lacks and instructs him to sell all he has and give it to the poor and follow Jesus. In that case the "One Thing" was a heart of compassion for the poor and a willingness to surrender everything for the sake of Christ.

Paul uses the phrase in Galatians 2:10 when he reports that the "One thing" that Peter and the other Apostles expected of him was to remember the poor. It was also the "one thing" he was most eager to do.

Service and worship are linked together in Scripture. Worship is more than singing songs and crying and jumping up and down to declare with your lips that God is good. It's also, Biblically, about surrendering your whole life to God (Romans 12), and about caring for the poor (Amos 5, Isaiah 58, James 2:14, 1 John 3:17-18, etc.), and about obedience to God and to Jesus' words (John 14:15; Matthew 7:24, etc.)

So, while I applaud the idea of gathering to throw ourselves into hours of singing songs of devotion to God, (and I really do), I also want us to remember that the kind of worship God is seeking asks more of us than a few hours of song. He asks us for our whole life, and he wants that life to be surrendered to him in obedience, and he wants that life to be spent on the poor and the needy.

Jesus and Paul both agree that "One Thing" is needed, and that's a heart for the poor and a desire to please God through our obedient hearts.

kg

CHRISTVERTISING - The Future of Our Christian Subculture?

Christvertising
http://www.christvertising.com

FRIDAY NEWS ROUND-UP

The following news stories touched a nerve in me today.

First, read this:
Scientists: Time Itself May Be Slowing Down
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/scientists-time.html

"A group of scientists from the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, and Spain's University of Salamanca have offered a different idea. Maybe it's the passage of time itself that's slowing down, they say. The distant galaxies only look like they're accelerating because our deep-space telescopes are essentially looking back in time to see them, to when time was going faster. "

and then read this:
The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom (Paperback)
http://www.amazon.com/Science-God-Convergence-Scientific-Biblical/dp/076790303X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198861969&sr=8-3

Schroeder is an Israeli physicist and scholar of Genesis who maintains that a properly understood Bible and a properly understood science provide consistent sets of data. In recent decades, scientific discoveries in cosmology, paleontology, and quantum physics do not demonstrate or prove the activity of God, but they do remove conflict with that activity.

Schroeder is very lucid in explaining difficult scientific concepts, such as the passage of time according to the theory of relativity, and religious data, such as the original Hebrew words. Schroeder's careful and responsible handling of the data on origins from science and Genesis 1, combined with a fresh, judicious correlation between the two, is compelling.
**

NEXT:


`Gospel of wealth' facing scrutiny
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071227/ap_on_re_us/prosperity_preachers
By ERIC GORSKI, AP Religion WriterThu Dec 27, 2:56 PM ET

The message flickered into Cindy Fleenor's living room each night: Be faithful in how you live and how you give, the television preachers said, and God will shower you with material riches.
And so the 53-year-old accountant from the Tampa, Fla., area pledged $500 a year to Joyce Meyer, the evangelist whose frank talk about recovering from childhood sexual abuse was so inspirational. She wrote checks to flamboyant faith healer Benny Hinn and a local preacher-made-good, Paula White.

Only the blessings didn't come. Fleenor ended up borrowing money from friends and payday loan companies just to buy groceries. At first she believed the explanation given on television: Her faith wasn't strong enough.

"I wanted to believe God wanted to do something great with me like he was doing with them," she said. "I'm angry and bitter about it. Right now, I don't watch anyone on TV hardly."

(more in link above)

COMMENTARY:
I cannot tell you how much this sort of thing pisses me off. I know more than one elderly woman who has to live on hand-outs because she sends checks for hundreds of dollars to these hucksters and charlatans. Then they call us in tears wondering why God hasn't healed their illness or pain. They have been so deluded into believing this Gospel of Gain and it makes me sick.

If you read the entire story linked above you'll see where one of the Televangelists says that their brand of theology must work because they themselves are filthy rich. All that proves is that if you're the person telling others to believe your bullsh*t and mail you checks for hundreds of dollars you can get rich. It doesn't work for those poor saps who believe your twisted doctrines and go broke supporting your 20 million dollar spending habit.

This theology doesn't work for the millions of poor and diseased in India, Africa, Bangledesh, Nepal, etc. It only seems to work in capitalist, materialistic USA where the Gospel of Jesus has been hijacked and perverted into the most anti-Kingdom message you could possibly imagine.

Jesus was poor. He was born into poverty. The Scriptures could not be more clear on this. Jesus was homeless. Paul was homeless. The Gospel is about giving things away, not hoarding wealth for yourself. The early church sold property and liquidated wealth to care for the poorest of the poor around them; not just the Christians. The leaders of the Church took the money laid at their feet and distributed it to the poor and the orphan and the widow and the leper. They did not keep it and purchase goodies for themselves or enrich their lives here with the offerings of their flock.

In America we say, "Come to Jesus and you'll get a better job, you'll have a happier family and you'll make more money." In the rest of the World the Gospel is communicated as, "Come to Jesus and you may lose your job. Your family may be imprisoned. You may be tortured. Your life here may be difficult."

Excuse me, I'm going to go puke now.

**
kg

Our Christmas Miracle

by Keith Giles

Our flight out of Little Rock was delayed over an hour. This meant we'd miss our connecting flight out of Dallas by almost forty-five minutes. Our options were limited. According to the American Airlines representative we could either fly to Dallas and take our chances on stand-by flights or we could spend the night in Little Rock and try again on Sunday.

Looking at my two elementary-aged sons standing huddled together with my wife and her sister beside the boarding gate I decided to take our chances on stand-by in Dallas, even though it might mean splitting up our group on separate flights, or possibly spending the night in a Dallas hotel and flying out on Sunday morning.

Our house church had scheduled a massive Christmas gift-wrapping and distribution party for the next day. If we ended up staying in Dallas we'd miss the whole thing, and half of the gifts were in our house which would mean they wouldn't be available to wrap or to pass out to the children who were expecting them.

We boarded the flight to Dallas and breathed prayers for a miracle.

In Dallas I sprinted off the plane and was shocked to learn that our flight was still in the gate. Even though it should have left orignally at 5:50pm, (and it was now 7:15pm), the flight was now scheduled to leave at 7:25pm. Just ten minutes.

We were standing in terminal B and our flight was leaving out of terminal D in just under ten minutes. I told my family to do their best to keep up and then began running my guts out to reach the gate for our plane before it left the terminal.

After the first half mile I was feeling the burn. By the second half mile I was beginning to wonder if there was any sense in continuing to run. Soon I was completely unable to run due to exaustion and my pace had slowed to a fast walk.

Finally, I arrived at the gate. There was no one around other than one AA employee standing beside the Gate door which was open. There were no passengers anywhere. I managed to sprint the final few yards and handed her my boarding passes. She checked me onto the flight and instructed me to board the plane because it was leaving the gate any moment. I informed her that there were four other people right behind me who needed to be on that plane with me before I could board.

A few seconds later my family was in view. They ran the final steps and we checked onto the plane.

As we collapsed into our seats the pilot came over the intercom and apologized for not leaving the gate earlier because, although they had been ready to leave several minutes ago, there was a strange aircraft sitting right behind us that was blocking our exit. As soon as the aircraft moved out of the way, our plane could taxi out of the gate and leave. He apologized again for the unnatural delay.

My wife and I looked at each other and smiled through our breathless gasps for air. A few seconds later our plane began to back out of the gate.

We were going home.

-kg

Join the Subversive Network

This week's subscribers to the [Subversive Underground] got an inside peek at a project I was working on a few years ago designed as a carrier signal for the subversive message of the Kingdom.

(Hint: You can read all about it over at http://subunderground.blogspot.com or by clicking "Subscribe to the [Subversive Underground] link at left).

Even though I still plan to put much of this subversive campaign into practice here in Orange County one day, I felt compelled this week to share the details of the plan with the 187 people on the [SU] list. Perhaps someone in our little subversive network has the means and the passion to duplicate this plan in their own city or community? Maybe my ideas will spark new ideas in their minds that will play out differently, but no less subversively and creatively?

For the longest time I've held back from using this blog and the accompanying [Subversive Underground] e-newsletter as a means of activism. Other than the occassional event like "SendGapClothesBack.com" or the "End Slavery Now" campaign, or perhaps the upcoming Non-Con gathering, I've resisted the temptation to mobilize people to specific action.

I'm not even 100% sure that this week's [SU] will inspire anyone to do anything at all. Perhaps not. But still, the possibility is there and I do have the hope that the nearly 200 people who have subscribed to my weekly articles would feel the same way that I do about the Kingdom, the Gospel, and have a desire to make a real difference in their community.

Surely some of them must share my ideas or they wouldn't continue to remain on the list week after week.

My basic premise has always been that, for those who truly see The Kingdom, the Gospel is already more subversive than anything you or I could dream up. I've also assumed that those who read my articles and newsletter would already be involved in subversive dialogs with friends, or engaged in serving the poor, or living out the Gospel in tangible ways.

I've always loved the concept of a covert "Shadow Network" like the one employed by the fictional crime fighter "The Shadow". This nebulous assortment of operatives predated the Internet and could be mobilized with just a phone call to do the bidding of "The Shadow" in order to defeat the forces of darkness and multiply the reach of the mysterious crime fighter. In recent times comic book writer Warren Ellis would steal the idea and re-name it "The Global Frequency" but sans crime-fighting, gun-wielding hero.

In the real world there have been wonderful subversive experiments such as www.GodStillLovesUs.org and my own www.parabolicjournal.com while filmmakers have lead the way with websites supporting the Blair Witch project and The Matrix in order to drum up viral marketing and spark interest in their films.

What would a Kingdom campaign look like? Is there a way to intrigue everyday people into a dialog about the Gospel as Jesus did using stories and allegory and creative inspiration? I believe so.

Maybe the faithful 187 subscribers to the [Subversive Underground] have not acted yet because they have not been properly activated? If I were to activate them, what would they do? What could we accomplish?

Perhaps we'll see if anyone who reads this week's [SU] feels compelled by the Holy Spirit to take a subversive approach to communicating the Gospel of the Kingdom. If so, then maybe the activation is already underway? If not, then perhaps our time has not yet come.

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

kg

ANGELS AT THE DOOR

ANGELS AT THE DOOR
By Keith Giles

It was Christmas week and I was in San Antonio, Texas visiting my sister-in-law. Her church was taking bags of groceries to a local housing project and my wife and I had brought our two little sons along with us to take part in the outreach.

After a quick prayer lead by my little seven-year-old, each of us took a grocery sack and started towards a row of houses across the street.

We knocked on the door and it was opened by an elderly Hispanic woman who looked at us with more than a bit of apprehension. After we introduced ourselves we told her we were offering a free bag of groceries as part of a Christmas outreach from an area church. She invited us inside and thanked us for the food, telling us that she was very hungry.

Standing in her tiny living room, I asked her if we could pray with her for anything. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and said, "The other day I was so lonely and down. I asked God if He was real to send me an angel so I'd know that He had not forgotten me." She stopped to look at my wife and two little boys and then turned back to me with tears welling in her eyes. "But He sent me four angels," she said.

We were all in tears as we held hands and prayed for Gods blessing in her life, for healing to her body and for her Grandchildren, and then we said goodbye, going next door to pass out another bag of groceries.

Such a simple act of kindness made a wealth of difference to a total stranger.
I will never forget that day, or that woman we prayed with. I know my two little sons will never forget it either.

It's moments like these that Jesus smiles on His children and rains down grace on His people. It's what we were made for.

Even the most casual reading of the New Testament Gospels reveals a Christ who was full of compassion for the poor.

In Mathew, chapter six, Jesus instructs his disciples on the finer points of how to give to the poor with the assumption that they would, of course, be about this practice. "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Jesus (Matthew 6:3)

It's with the same assumptive reasoning that he follows this up by saying "And when you pray" in the very next verse. His assumption was that His followers would be about doing these things.

1 John 3:17 says it even more strongly- "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?"

How can the love of God be in him?

Every single day, something like forty thousand people die of starvation and malnutrition in this world of ours. That's about twenty-seven people per minute. Even more alarming is the knowledge that, out of these, twenty of these are under the age of five. My youngest son is five.

I read a commentary recently that compared this number to the dropping of the first atomic bomb every three days.

Boom.

The question is not whether or not people are hungry in the world. The facts are clear. People are most certainly in need, and not just in those Third World countries either.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had previously reported, based on a survey conducted in 1999, that ten percent of all U.S. households, representing 19 million adults and 12 million children, were "food insecure" because of lack of resources. Of these 10.5 million households, 3.1 million suffered from such severe conditions that USDA's very conservative measures classified them as "hungry." Five million adults and 2.7 million children live in these hungry households.

No, the question is not whether or not people are hungry, the question is whether or not God's people will rise up and do something about it.

I find it more than a little disturbing that every time Jesus tells a parable about someone who ends up in Hell, its because they were completely apathetic towards the poor around them.

For example, at the Judgement Seat described by Christ in Matthew 25, the goats are rejected because they were able to call Jesus Lord but had no compassion for those around them who were in need. In fact, seeing people hungry, naked, poor, and alone didn't seem to bother them at all.

Now, I'm not saying that if you don't serve the poor you're going to hell. But, Jesus does seem to use this as a sort of litmus test for those who truly belong to Him. Compassion for the poor is often used in scripture as evidence of salvation.

There's probably no better section of scripture to illustrate this point than in James, the second chapter, verses 14 to 19; "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, You have faith; I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder."

The demons believe in a way you and I can't. They've seen God with their own eyes. They've heard the actual, audible voice of Jesus. They don't just believe; they know. But this belief doesn't have the power to save them or change them. It's belief without any corresponding action.

Demons believe, but they don't comfort the sick in hospitals. They don't knock on doors and hand out free groceries to the poor, but those who name the name of Christ can't help but serve those in need with complete joy.

True faith always involves action. Faith is doing something about what you believe.
God's Word is clear as crystal on this issue; Those who call themselves followers of Christ must look with compassion on these who are in need.

Peace (on Earth),

kg

*NOTE: This article originally appeared in the print version of RELEVANT Magazine a few years ago.

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING

Try to spend your money buying food and necessities for people who are really in need this Holiday season rather than buying something unnecessary for someone who doesn't need anything new.

Our family has made a point of reducing our Christmas gift purchases to only one gift for each person and one small gift for parents. All other spending will be to buy food and clothes for people who are in serious need of assistance and toys for the children who live in the motel in Santa Ana where we minister.

Christmas is about giving, and we should start with those who are truly in need.

Merry Christmas.

Peace (on Earth),
Keith

PS- This Sunday is the "Gap Protest" at stores in SF, NY, Miami and Costa Mesa, California. Join with hundreds of others as they give back their Gap, Inc. clothing made by children kept as slaves in India.

More info here:
http://www.SendGapClothesBack.com

Church Spends $1.3 Million On Christmas Pageant

Just imagine how many homeless families could be cared for, fed, given shelter and have the Gospel message demonstrated to them for what it cost to put on a show like this.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/ChristmasCountdown/story?id=3974590&page=1

Makes me remember why I left the traditional church in order to give 100% of the tithe to the poor instead of spending on over the top distractions for the Saved.

kg

SUBVERSIVE BLOG EVOLUTION

SUBVERSIVE BLOG EVOLUTION
by Keith Giles

I've been reading quite a bit lately about viral marketing, guerilla marketing, New Media, Web 2.0, and a lot of marketing-related articles dealing with the future of advertising trends.

I started asking myself, "Why does anyone read a blog at all?" and then specifically, "Why does anyone read THIS blog?" I have to confess I really don't know. Feel free to comment below if you have any insight to share.

I myself only read a handful of blogs. Most are written by friends of mine like Lisa Wahrmund, or Lito Bujanda-Moore, or Mike Burns and a few are blogs from marketing gurus like Seth Godin or from comic book industry people like Heidi MacDonald or creators like Brian Wood or artists like Eric Canete (for his usually daily art updates), or Paul Pope, or Derek Hess.

The only blog I read that is like mine is Mike Burns. Most of the blogs I read are to inform me about a friend's life, to catch new ideas on marketing, to view new art from a favorite artist, or to get news updates that I can't find on a mainstream website.

So, again, I ask, "Why does anyone read my blog?"

Some people, I know, read my blog because they are sent here by a link off one of my articles over at TheOoze.com or Ginkworld.net, and maybe a few others get here from a link off another person's blog (but my guess is that's rare).

HISTORY LESSON
When I started this blog I think it was mainly to serve as an online repository of my articles which had been previously published on RelevantMagazine.com as part of my (then ongoing) column "Subversive". If you go waaayyy back on the "Archives" of this blog, for example, you'll find that the first 40 or so entries are all reprints (some with dead links and graphics) of articles from those Relevant Magazine columns. It was only after that was accomplished (and the column at RM ended) that I realized that, somehow, there were people actually READING my random posts here on the Christian subculture, discipleship to Jesus, Compassion Ministry and the Gospel of the Kingdom (and later, House Church).

Out of this blog grew the weekly e-newsletter [Subversive Underground] and out of that grew my first two books (see links at left).

Eventually I think this blog came to represent my attempt to communicate the subversive nature of the Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus preached. I genuinely feel that I have a calling from God to write about what it means to follow Jesus. This is my ministry (along with the [SU] and my books, and The Mission house church).

I would love to think that, in some small way, I am part of a larger movement. I would like to believe that somehow my blog, my articles, my writing, is part of God's plan to motivate a generation of "Jesus Followers" who take the words of our Lord seriously enough to actually put them into practice.

I'm not the one who sets any agenda. I feel like I am part of a bigger agenda, God's agenda, for ushering in a wave of change within the Body of Christ.

THE ROAD FROM HERE
If I had the bandwidth here's what I'd love to add to the online Subversive Universe one day:

1) Podcasts- I know I'm late to the party here, but I think it would be great if I could put together a semi-regular Subversive podcast. I've been encouraged to do just that by several friends of mine but I've not stepped into this yet because, mainly, I don't have the time…or a microphone for my laptop. I also don't want to do it if it's cheesy or crappy. I would also prefer to do it with a group of people having a conversation rather than me in my bedroom talking to myself. So…maybe next year, who knows?

2) Webzine/Moblog- This would be a web magazine on the subjects I care most about written by myself and several other bloggers and writers. So, I'd create a different blog-based webzine where other writers would regularly contribute articles on justice, discipleship, house church, Christian subculture, etc. I'd love to get contributors like Mike Burns, Crissy Brooks (MIKA CDC), Neil Cole (CMA Resources), David Ruis, John Fischer (see below), and others to post regular articles to a single webzine.

3) "Manifesto": Monthly One-Day Discussion Groups- This would be a way to gather a handful of people locally to get together for coffee and inspired conversation on topics like the house church, missional life, compassion ministry, impacting the culture, the Arts, etc. Sort of an open source "Non-Con" if you will.

THE REALITY
Of course, the problem is that I am only one person. My ideas outstrip my ability to actualize them. I have a full-time job as an editorial copywriter, a wife and two children, two house churches to pastor, and several book projects in progress, all in addition to this blog and the weekly e-newsletter.

My plate is full right now.

Maybe in 2008? Or 2009?

We'll see….
kg