Ben There, Done That

PDYM Day 1, Wrap-up

2009-03-24T22:45:00.001-07:00

I am tired. But it's a good tired. The kind of tired where you lay on your hotel room couch pull-out bed, with those bars running underneath your chest, gut, and legs, and you still smile, droopy eyes and all.

Day one at PDYM was a glorious return to the conferences of yore. :) Smaller crowd, "youth group" feel of programming, incredibly passionate worship, and the personal touch that Saddleback is absolutely the best at--all reasons why attending this conference is THE way to use your limited training budget dollars in the future.

Our group had a special moment when our very own Sue-Ellen MacInnes won the award for the most "seasoned" youth worker in the whole conference! She actually grabbed the microphone that was in Katie Edwards' hand (see my facebook for the pic) and I was just a little worried she was going to take the program over! ;) Love you, SEM!

In the morning, I have the distinct, if nerve-wracking, privilege of sharing a little bit at the morning main session about my journey in implementing PDYM throughout my years in youth ministry. Thanks to all of you team members of our various ministries through the years who blessed me with a little feedback over the weekend about your recollections of our ministry development together.

So it's back to my Word document for the morning session for a while and then a little shut-eye before we dive into the "meat" of the conference tomorrow.

One last thing--shout outs to my new friend Jeffrey from Post Road Christian Church in Indianapolis, IN. Welcome to PDYM, buddy!

Good night, and I'll catch a lot of you in the morning!

SOLI DEO GLORIA

-Ben

PDYM Day 1, Coming Up!

2009-03-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

I am SO excited about today! I haven't missed a PDYM Conference since 2002 and every one has been amazing! I am actually in youth ministry today because of Doug Fields' leadership and the encouragement of the PDYM Community. Every Conference has been a thoroughly refreshing time of learning, relaxing, and team-building, and this year promises to continue that great tradition.

If you are new to the PDYM Conference (or just need frequent reminders, like me), I have a few pieces of advice for you:

1. Do NOT get caught up in the grandeur of The Refinery. Yes, it is an amazingly sweet youth facility that none of us will ever have anything close to--which makes it a great place for a conference! But the heart of PDYM always has been, and will continue to be, about God's people fulfilling God's purposes, regardless of size, space, and setting. Truth be told, I kinda miss the days of meeting together in room 404 in the creaky old portables on the Saddleback campus. I'm sure the youth of the congregation REALLY appreciate their new digs, but for the rest of us it does run the risk of clouding the message of the conference. Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, and Evangelism, and developing a church culture that encourages leadership in those areas, can be and is being done by people around the world in every kind of setting imaginable, with every level of resources (including nothing). I know it will be hard, but look beyond the amazing architecture, environmentally-friendly construction, and ultra-cool building materials, and hear the heart of the Saddleback/PDYM team: it's all about the people of God relying on the power of God to help them fulfill the purposes of God in their time and place in history.

2. Don't think that you have to do everything that you hear taught at the conference this week as soon as you get back home to your church. IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! Building a healthy, balanced, biblical purpose-driven youth ministry takes TIME. Especially if you are new to the PDYM family, go ahead and tell yourself that it's going to take at least five years to begin to see the kind of healthy youth ministry that you hear about this week becoming fully formed at your church. Take in all the teaching, enjoy the fun elements of the week, soak up the beautiful sunshine, spend a few extra moments alone with God every day, and begin to patiently plan to implement God's purposes in your ministry in an intentional and determined way for as long as God has you serving where you are at. We usually over-estimate what we can accomplish in the short-term and under-estimate what we can accomplish in the long-term. Take one day/one step at a time, keep the goal in mind, and enjoy the journey!

3. Don't plan to do this alone--the conference or your ministry! Find some people this week who you can buddy around with to process all that you're learning, ask questions of, and just encourage. And take that value home to your church. Get a LOT more people involved in the lives of your students, even if you think there's really no "need" for more adult involvement, yet. As you begin to see a healthy youth ministry taking shape where you're at, God will begin to send you more students. Plan now to be ready for them--to be able to offer them the kind of personal care, attention, and mentoring that every one of them needs.

I am SO excited to be here this week with my team from my church. I hope you'll take some of these thoughts to heart, that you'll have an amazing week, as well, and that the Kingdom will be advanced by those of us who gather together this week!

SOLI DEO GLORIA

-Ben McClary
PDYM State Mentor: Utah

A prayer for God's People to share this Election Eve

2008-11-03T13:22:00.001-08:00

Our Father, Your Name is above every other name. There is no god like You.

May Your Kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. This little corner of the earth, the U.S., has been trusted with much, but we live among a people with unclean hearts and minds, and serious injustices.

Please help Your Church to grow in righteousness. Help us to be disciples and to make disciples through loving sacrifice.

Whoever is elected the next President, I pray that You would give him wisdom and grace. I also pray that Your people, trusting in You, would speak the truth to those in power...with words and actions. I pray that we would regain the prophetic strength that is rightly ours in Christ, through obedience and the Word.

We pray also for the many victims of 'choice'. We live in a culture that idolizes our own rights, freedoms, choices, which has led to poverty, injustice, and the deaths of many - especially the unborn 'least of these'.

Please help us to remember our allegiance to Your Kingdom, and to help us to serve the U.S. in a way that is befitting aliens and strangers. Help us to minister meaningfully, to speak boldly, to act mercifully and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. May our living sacrifices and good deeds cause others in this nation to glorify You and to follow Your Son.

We can imagine it. And You can do way more than we ask or imagine.

Hear our prayer.

Amen.

A Wasted Vote

2008-10-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

A Wasted Vote

by Chuck Baldwin
October 10, 2008

When asked why they will not vote for a third party candidate, many people will respond by saying something like, "He cannot win." Or, "I don't want to waste my vote." It is true: America has not elected a third party candidate since 1860. Does that automatically mean, however, that every vote cast for one of the two major party candidates is not a wasted vote? I don't think so.

In the first place, a wasted vote is a vote for someone you know does not represent your own beliefs and principles. A wasted vote is a vote for someone you know will not lead the country in the way it should go. A wasted vote is a vote for the "lesser of two evils." Or, in the case of John McCain and Barack Obama, what we have is a choice between the "evil of two lessers."

Albert Einstein is credited with saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. For years now, Republicans and Democrats have been leading the country in the same basic direction: toward bigger and bigger government; more and more socialism, globalism, corporatism, and foreign interventionism; and the dismantling of constitutional liberties. Yet, voters continue to think that they are voting for "change" when they vote for a Republican or Democrat. This is truly insane!

Take a look at the recent $700 billion Wall Street bailout: both John McCain and Barack Obama endorsed and lobbied for it. Both McCain and Obama will continue to bail out these international banksters on the backs of the American taxpayers. Both McCain and Obama support giving illegal aliens amnesty and a path to citizenship. In the debate this past Tuesday night, both McCain and Obama expressed support for sending U.S. forces around the world for "peacekeeping" purposes. They also expressed support for sending combat forces against foreign countries even if those countries do not pose a threat to the United States. Neither Obama nor McCain will do anything to stem the tide of a burgeoning police state or a mushrooming New World Order. Both Obama and McCain support NAFTA and similar "free trade" deals. Neither candidate will do anything to rid America of the Federal Reserve, or work to eliminate the personal income tax, or disband the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Both Obama and McCain support the United Nations. So, pray tell, how is a vote for either McCain or Obama not a wasted vote?

But, back to the "he cannot win" argument: to vote for John McCain is to vote for a man who cannot win. Yes, I am saying it here and now: John McCain cannot win this election. The handwriting is on the wall. The Fat Lady is singing. It is all over. Finished. John McCain cannot win.

With only three weeks before the election, Barack Obama is pulling away. McCain has already pulled his campaign out of Michigan. In other key battleground states, McCain is slipping fast. He was ahead in Missouri; now it is a toss-up or leaning to Obama. A couple of weeks ago, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida were all leaning towards McCain, or at least toss-up states. Now, they are all leaning to Obama. Even the longtime GOP bellwether state of Indiana is moving toward Obama. In addition, new voter registrations are at an all-time high, and few of them are registering as Republicans. In fact, the Republican Party now claims only around 25% of the electorate, and Independents are increasingly leaning toward Obama.

Ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama is headed for an electoral landslide victory over John McCain. John McCain can no more beat Barack Obama than Bob Dole could beat Bill Clinton.

I ask, therefore, Are not conservatives and Christians who vote for John McCain guilty of the same thing that they accuse people who vote for third party candidates of doing? Are they not voting for someone who cannot win? Indeed, they are. In fact, conservatives and Christians who vote for John McCain are not only voting for a man who cannot win, they are voting for a man who does not share their own beliefs and principles. If this is not insanity, nothing is!

So, why not (for once in your life, perhaps) cast a vote purely for principle! Vote for someone who is truly pro-life. Someone who would quickly secure our nation's borders, and end the invasion of our country by illegal aliens. Someone who would, on his first day in office, release Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean and fire U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton. Someone who would immediately, upon assuming office, begin leading the charge to dismantle the Federal Reserve, overturn the 16th Amendment, expunge the IRS, and return America to sound money principles. Someone who would get the US out of the UN. Someone who would stop spending billions and trillions of dollars for foreign aid. Someone who would prosecute the Wall Street bankers who defrauded the American people out of billions of dollars. Someone who would work to repeal NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, the WTO, and stop the NAFTA superhighway. Someone who would say a resounding "No" to the New World Order. Someone who would stop using our brave men and women in uniform as global cops for the United Nations. Someone who would stop America's global adventurism and interventionism. Someone who would steadfastly support and defend the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

"Who is this person?" you ask. Go here to find out:

www.baldwin08.com

As John Quincy Adams said, "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."

Praise the Lord

2008-10-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

Psalm 147:1-11 (NIV)

1 Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise Him!

2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the exiles of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

4 He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.
5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.
6 The LORD sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground.

7 Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp.
8 He covers the sky with clouds; He supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call.

10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor His delight in the legs of a man;
11 the LORD delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.

We're "back" and celebrating what God has done.

2008-10-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

Read this in my devotion time this morning and it echoes my heart. :)

Psalm 126:1-4 (CEV)

1 (A song for worship.)

It seemed like a dream

when the Lord brought us back to the city of Zion.
2 We celebrated with laughter and joyful songs.
In foreign nations it was said,

"The Lord has worked miracles for his people."
3 And so we celebrated
because the Lord had indeed worked miracles for us.

4 Our Lord, we ask you to bless our people again,
and let us be like streams in the Southern Desert.

Jesus for President?

2008-09-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

As we draw closer to the presidential election this year, as happens every election season, the volume really gets cranked up in the political 'dialogue'. Coworkers, friends, and family members have yet another litmus test by which they can judge one another and quarrel endlessly. It really can be very unhealthy if one lets it!

In fact, I have found myself tending to get way too emotionally charged over the whole process and I don't like it! It's one thing to have strong convictions and be able to state those convictions and engage with those who see things differently, but it's another thing entirely to paint everyone who doesn't see things the way you do as "the enemy".

As Christians, when we tie our hopes and dreams to temporal government or political candidates, we do a disservice to the cause of Christ. Look at how Jesus' responded to political pressure in His day:

"Jesus saw that they were ready to take Him by force and make Him their king, so He went higher into the mountains alone. That evening His disciples went down to the shore to wait for Him. But as darkness fell... Jesus still hadn't come back." -John 6:15-17 (The Living Bible)

"'Jesus said, 'My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were, My servants would fight... My Kingdom is from another place.' 'You are a king, then!' said Pilate. Jesus answered, 'You are right in saying I Am a King. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the Truth. Everyone on the side of Truth listens to Me.'" -John 18:36-37 (New International Version)

It's no surprise to anyone who knows me well that I strongly dislike the policy positions, political philosophy, and duplicitous character of Barack Hussein Obama. A myriad of critiques on all of those issues can be found all over the Web and there is no chance that I would ever vote for him. But I'm also not the biggest fan of John McCain. He was near the bottom of my list among the Republican primary field and I had basically decided not to vote for him before he added Sarah Palin to his ticket. As far as I am concerned, she is the best thing about his ticket and I believe that she would make the best President of all four of this election's major party candidates.

But my mind is not made up. How the candidates respond to the national issues that we face from now on up to election day will weigh heavily on my decision. There is still a fairly high probability that neither of the 2-party/media monopoly candidates will receive my vote. Chuck Baldwin, of the Constitution Party, has the best conservative principles of anyone in the race but, at this point, less than 1% of the voting population will ever hear anything about him before they read his name for the first time on their ballot on election day. Ron Paul did just threw his support behind Chuck, however, so that may help get him a tiny bump in the exposure game. Either way, even though I do see exercising the great privilege that we have to lend our individual voices to the selection of our national leaders, my sights are set on a far grander, larger, and eternally-lasting destiny.

Sure, I believe that Barack Obama would be the biggest presidential disaster in the history of our country. But John McCain, Chuck Baldwin, or anyone else who might end up holding great temporal power will also have failures of leadership, make mistakes in important decisions, and leave our nation with unresolved problems. Regardless of how much we like or dislike the particular parties or candidates in any election, we are, by defintion, always going to be voting for the lesser of the evils. No political party or candidate is going to change the world forever or bring about what God can and will through His Kingdom. And through the millenia, the Body of Christ has endured governments and leaders far worse than the worst we could end up with after this single election cycle. But in such highly-charged political climates as we find ourselves today, it's even more important to remember that Jesus is the King of all Kings and that every other leader, including the POTUS, pales in comparison, and that they will ALL one day bow their knee and confess that Jesus is LORD.

"Listen, God! Please, pay attention! Can you make sense of these ramblings, my groans and cries? King-God, I need your help. Every morning you'll hear me at it again. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on Your altar and watch for fire to descend. You don't socialize with Wicked, or invite Evil over as Your houseguest. Hot-Air-Boaster collapses in front of You; You shake Your head over Mischief-Maker. God destroys Lie-Speaker; Blood-Thirsty and Truth-Bender disgust You. And here I am, your invited guest—it's incredible! I enter Your House; here I am, prostrate in Your inner sanctum, waiting for directions to get me safely through enemy lines. Every word they speak is a land mine; their lungs breathe out poison gas. Their throats are gaping graves, their tongues slick as mudslides. Pile on the guilt, God! Let their so-called wisdom wreck them. Kick them out! They've had their chance. But You'll welcome us with open arms when we run for cover to You. Let the party last all night! Stand guard over our celebration. You are famous, God, for welcoming God-seekers, for decking us out in delight." -Psalm 5 (The Message)

New Home Address/Phone

2008-09-10T21:11:00.001-07:00

Hello, friends!

We have been in Utah for 6 days, now, and just got our Internet connection up and running last night. Here is our home contact information:

1550 S 1000 E, #1904
Clearfield, UT 84015-1670
801-774-0860

We will be in CA late Sunday night, Sept. 28 thru Thursday afternoon, Oct. 2. We'll be posting pics/videos of our new surroundings sometime in the next few days!

New Youth Ministry!

2008-08-15T18:24:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends!

I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but I have some good news to share! We are moving back West in just a couple of weeks! Not quite all the way to California, but back to a mountainous high desert state, anyway.

Starting Monday, September 8th, I will be the new Youth Pastor at Roy Christian Church in Roy, Utah, about 35 miles north of Salt Lake City. Here's our new office contact information:

Roy Christian Church
4347 South 1900 West
Roy, Utah 84067
801-731-4378
www.roychristian.org

I will post our home contact information as soon as I have it verified. We have applied to an apartment and should have that confirmed early next week. We'll still be accessing the same email accounts and our Facebook pages regularly, so keep in touch! And if you ever want to take a little road trip to beautiful northern Utah (just 10 hours from Hemet, CA!) to ski or whatever, we'd love to have you visit us!

We appreciate your prayers and support of our family over these difficult past couple of years and we look forward to sharing good news on a more regular basis.

Blessings,

Ben

The Case Against Barack Obama

2008-08-05T07:57:00.000-07:00

It would be nice if people who think they are for Obama would actually do ANY research about him. Sure he's sexy and a smooth talker and has a nice shiny white smile and puts very dramatic pauses in every. single. sentence. he utters, but his policy positions (when he manages to take some in-between all of his run-of-the-mill political pandering) are straight-up Marxist. Do a little homework, people...

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27865&s=rcme

On the road for CA!

2008-06-25T18:25:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends!

It's 9:15 pm here in Dayton, OH, and we'll be driving away in about 10 minutes for Indianapolis, where we'll spend the night at my brother's house, and then tomorrow we set off on our 5,000 mile, 2 1/2-week road trip across America and back!

We'll be in Dodge City, Kansas over the weekend and then we'll pull into Hemet, CA Tuesday evening, July 1st.

Sunday, the 6th, I'm preaching at West Grand Baptist Church in Corona, CA, and then we're headed to Huntington Beach afterwards for some good clean SoCal fun!

My cell # is 317-987-7150, so call if you want to see us while we're out!

We'll be leaving SoCal Wednesday AM (butt early) to drive to Denver, CO and spend a full day there before finishing up our trip on Friday/Saturday, July 11/12.

I'll be visiting with a few churches on this trip, both in person and via phone, so please pray for our safe travel and that some good conversations happen, leading us to our next full-time youth ministry position this summer!

We look forward to hearing from you...

-Ben, Telah, Joshua, Zeke, and Hannah

Obam on Taxes

2008-06-09T17:54:00.000-07:00

Obama: More Taxes, Rights for bin Laden

Wednesday, February 27, 2008 9:12 AM

By: Ronald Kessler

Two events made Condoleezza Rice switch from being a registered Democrat to a Republican.

The first was when she watched the 1984 Democratic National Convention that nominated Walter Mondale for president. Rice, who grew up during segregation, was turned off by an endless refrain of appeals to “women, minorities, and the poor, which basically means helpless people and the poor,” she has said. Rice decided she would “rather be ignored than patronized.”

The second event was Jimmy Carter’s professed shock at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, demonstrating naivete and spotlighting his feeble approach to national security. The spectacle sickened her.

Substitute the name Barack Obama for Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter and you have a good summation of this presidential candidate’s approach.

To be sure, Obama is a master at seeming to appeal to all sides. But his voting record makes it clear he is a doctrinaire liberal who sees minorities as victims and the government as the solution to all problems — except when it comes to protecting us from terrorist attacks.

According to the National Taxpayers Union, Obama has proposed at least $287 billion a year in new government spending. He also co-sponsored a Senate bill to spend at least $845 billion a year to fight global poverty.

Obama would pay for these increases with much higher taxes, including by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire in 2010.

Americans for Tax Reform gives him a lifetime rating of 7.5, compared with 82.7 for John McCain. Indeed, the National Journal has ranked Obama the most liberal senator for 2007.

“He’s a bleeding heart liberal, but he’s smart enough not to put it in people's face right now,” says Republican Illinois State Sen. Bill Brady, who worked with Obama in the Illinois State Senate and calls him that body’s most liberal member.

When speaking out against tax cuts, Obama has likened the Ownership Society, which includes such measures as personal Social Security accounts, health savings accounts, incentives to expand home ownership, and tax cuts to encourage growth of small businesses, to “social Darwinism.”

Speaking to the National Women’s Law Center in November 2005, Obama said, “The idea here is to give everyone one big refund on their government — divvy it up into some tax breaks, hand them out, and encourage everyone to use their share to go buy their own healthcare, their own retirement plan, their own unemployment insurance, education, and so forth.”

In Washington, he said, “They call this the Ownership Society. But in our past, there has been another term for it — social Darwinism, every man and woman for him or herself.”

In other words, instead of helping people to help themselves and grow the economy at the same time, Obama’s approach would keep them dependent on government handouts, encouraging them to think of themselves as victims. When it comes to keeping America strong against terrorist threats, it’s quite a different story.

Like a 6-year-old kid who wants to be friends with everyone on the block, Obama has said he would offer prompt negotiations with anti-American despots. More frightening, Obama voted last August to give Osama bin Laden and other terrorists the same rights as Americans when it comes to intercepting their overseas calls in order to pick up clues needed to stop another attack.

Obama recently avoided voting on extending the Protect America Act, thus putting America at risk when immediate interception of terrorist communications is required.

Obama would withdraw immediately from Iraq, leaving that country to morph into a haven for al-Qaida and a staging ground for attacks on America.

While Obama has portrayed himself as a candidate for all Americans, his closeness to his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, tells a different story. For more than two decades, Wright has been Obama’s friend and sounding board, a man he consults before making important decisions like whether to run for president.

In December, Wright praised Louis Farrakhan as a man who epitomizes greatness. Farrakhan has blamed blacks’ troubles on Jews, America, and whites, whom he calls “blue-eyed devils.”

Obama’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago espouses what it calls the Black Value System. While the Black Value System encourages commitment to God, education, and self-discipline, it refers to “our racist competitive society” and includes the disavowal of the pursuit of “middle-classness” and a pledge of allegiance to “all black leadership who espouse and embrace the Black Value System.”

The Black Value System defines “middle-classness” as a way for American society to “snare” blacks rather than “killing them off directly” or “placing them in concentration camps,” just as the country structures “an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons.”

Contrary to Obama’s portrayal of himself as a unifier, on every bipartisan effort in the Senate to forge compromises on tough issues, Obama has been missing in action.

In sum, Barack Obama’s voting record, the comments of his close friend and sounding board, and his own statements suggest that the dazzling orator from Illinois represents everything that Condoleezza Rice rejected about the Democratic Party.

If Obama is his party’s nominee, we will all applaud the symbolism of a black man achieving so much. But if they are aware of his radical agenda, it’s doubtful most Americans will buy entrusting the country’s future to him.

Faced with a press that adores Obama, the question will be whether Republicans can portray the stark difference between the man and the myth.

Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com. View his previous reports and get his dispatches sent to you free via e-mail. Go here now.

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Obama on Abortion

2008-06-09T17:50:00.000-07:00

Obama Is the Most Pro-Abortion Candidate Ever
By Terence P. Jeffrey
CNSNews.com Editor in Chief
January 09, 2008

Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion presidential candidate ever.

He is so pro-abortion that he refused as an Illinois state senator to support legislation to protect babies who survived late-term abortions because he did not want to concede -- as he explained in a cold-blooded speech on the Illinois Senate floor -- that these babies, fully outside their mothers' wombs, with their hearts beating and lungs heaving, were in fact "persons."

"Persons," of course, are guaranteed equal protection of the law under the 14th Amendment.

In 2004, U.S. Senate-candidate Obama mischaracterized his opposition to this legislation. Now, as a presidential frontrunner, he should be held accountable for what he actually said and did about the Born Alive Infants Bill.

State and federal versions of this bill became an issue earlier this decade because of "induced labor abortion." This is usually performed on a baby with Down's Syndrome or another problem discovered on the cusp of viability. A doctor medicates the mother to cause premature labor. Babies surviving labor are left untreated to die.

Jill Stanek, who was a nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill., testified in the U.S. Congress in 2000 and 2001 about how "induced labor abortions" were handled at her hospital.

"One night," she said in testimony entered into the Congressional Record, "a nursing co-worker was taking an aborted Down's Syndrome baby who was born alive to our Soiled Utility Room because his parents did not want to hold him, and she did not have the time to hold him. I couldn't bear the thought of this suffering child lying alone in a Soiled Utility Room, so I cradled and rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lived."

In 2001, Illinois state Sen. Patrick O'Malley introduced three bills to help such babies. One required a second physician to be present at the abortion to determine if a surviving baby was viable. Another gave the parents or a public guardian the right to sue to protect the baby's rights. A third, almost identical to the federal Born Alive Infant Protection Act President Bush signed in 2002, simply said a "homo sapiens" wholly emerged from his mother with a "beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord or definite movement of voluntary muscles" should be treated as a "'person,' 'human being,' 'child' and 'individual.'"

Stanek testified about these bills in the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee, where Obama served. She told me this week he was "unfazed" by her story of holding the baby who survived an induced labor abortion.

On the Illinois Senate floor, Obama was the only senator to speak against the baby-protecting bills. He voted "present" on each, effectively the same as a "no."

"Number one," said Obama, explaining his reluctance to protect born infants, "whenever we define a pre-viable fetus as a person that is protected by the Equal Protection Clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we're really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a -- a child, a 9-month old -- child that was delivered to term. That determination then, essentially, if it was accepted by a court, would forbid abortions to take place. I mean, it -- it would essentially bar abortions, because the Equal Protection Clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an anti-abortion statute."

That June, the U.S. Senate voted 98-0 in favor of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act (although it failed to become law that year). Pro-abortion Democrats supported it because this language was added: "Nothing in this section shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand or contract any legal status or legal right applicable to any member of the species homo sapiens at any point prior to being born alive as defined in this section."

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer explained that with this language the "amendment certainly does not attack Roe v. Wade."

On July 18, 2002, Democratic Sen. Harry Reid called for the bill to be approved by unanimous consent. It was.

That same year, the Illinois version of the bill came up again. Obama voted "no."

In 2003, Democrats took control of the Illinois Senate. Obama became chairman of the Health and Human Services committee. The Born Alive Infant bill, now sponsored by Sen. Richard Winkel, was referred to this committee. Winkel also sponsored an amendment to make the Illinois bill identical to the federal law, adding -- word for word -- the language Barbara Boxer said protected Roe v. Wade. Obama still held the bill hostage in his committee, never calling a vote so it could be sent to the full senate.

A year later, when Republican U.S. senate candidate Alan Keyes challenged Obama in a debate for his opposition to the Born Alive Infant Bill, Obama said: "At the federal level there was a similar bill that passed because it had an amendment saying this does not encroach on Roe v. Wade. I would have voted for that bill."

In fact, Obama had personally killed exactly that bill.

(Terry Jeffrey is the editor in chief of CNSNews.com.)

Obama on Euthanasia

2008-06-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

For more information: Derrick Jones, (202) 626-8825, mediarelations@nrlc.org

CALLOUS IN CLEVELAND:
Obama debate comments on Schiavo send dangerous
message to disabled community

WASHINGTON – During last night's Democratic presidential debate in Cleveland, Senator Barack Obama called his vote allowing the parents of Terri Schindler Schiavo access to the federal courts in the fight to save their daughter's life "a mistake." He further called his "inaction" in not stopping the bill "costly."

In response the following statement may be attributed to David N. O'Steen, Ph.D, National Right to Life executive director:

Senator Obama's remarks show a callous disregard for persons with disabilities who are being denied the full protection of the law. Calling his actions 'costly' further adds insult to injury.

His comments demonstrate a worrisome trend with regard to treating persons with disabilities. By applying a "quality of life" test, disabled patients across the country are in danger of being denied life-saving care and food and water. There is an assumption being adopted that if a patient is disabled and unable to speak for themselves, they would be "better off dead."

People with serious illnesses and persons with disabilities should be fearful of Barack Obama ever being in a position to make health care policy for our nation.

The National Right to Life Committee is the nation's largest pro-life group with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide. National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect those threatened by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Music video set to Cake's new title track "Comfort Eagle"

2008-06-08T16:18:00.001-07:00

Obama's ideology explained fully

2008-06-08T16:17:00.001-07:00

President B. Hussein Obama? Part 1 of 2

2008-06-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

President B. Hussein Obama? Part 2 of 2

2008-06-08T16:13:00.001-07:00

Pastor vs Politician

2008-06-08T16:10:00.000-07:00

My shortest job, yet!

2008-05-22T07:22:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought I couldn't get a job with any shorter tenure, I've done it! One whole day! :) A week ago Tuesday, I spent the day landscaping with a company that recently did the yard of a friend of our family. She knew that I was looking for some fill-in work until I find my next ministry position, so she asked her landscaper if he needed any help on his crew, and he did. So she gave him my number and he called and I worked. Then I didn't hear from him for a whole week. Just yesterday, he finally called me back to let me know that he hired someone on full-time who has previous professional landscaping experience, so he wouldn't need me, any more. Ta-da! One whole day on the books!

But seriously, it was hard work and I'm not sure how long I would have lasted at it, anyway. I have recently entered a blitzkreig phase of SoCal Inland Empire ministry job hunting, reconnecting with some old networking friends out there and adding smoe new ones, which has been fun, so I'm hoping something will 'pop' out there by the end of June so we can get back 'home'! Thanks for your prayers and your friendship.

Until next time...

Psalm for the Day

2008-05-19T05:28:00.001-07:00

Psalm 101 (New Living Translation)

A psalm of David.

1 I will sing of your love and justice, Lord.
I will praise you with songs.
2 I will be careful to live a blameless life—
when will you come to help me?
I will lead a life of integrity
in my own home.
3 I will refuse to look at
anything vile and vulgar.
I hate all who deal crookedly;
I will have nothing to do with them.
4 I will reject perverse ideas
and stay away from every evil.
5 I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors.
I will not endure conceit and pride.

6 I will search for faithful people
to be my companions.
Only those who are above reproach
will be allowed to serve me.
7 I will not allow deceivers to serve in my house,
and liars will not stay in my presence.
8 My daily task will be to ferret out the wicked
and free the city of the Lord from their grip.

Wrote this last night...

2008-04-20T12:18:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends,

It has been one full week since I went on my LifePlanning retreat with Dan Webster (http://www.authenticleadershipinc.com), so I guess it is about time that I report to you about my experience! I have spent this past week reflecting on what came out in the process and trying to arrange what I can to begin to “live into” this life that I am “meant to live”.

Before I got my LifePlan scheduled, the best description of my life would have been “in a funk”. After more than a year of sending out resumes for many youth ministry jobs, giving many interviews, and experiencing many rejections, I began to tire of the process. More significantly, I began to question whether God was trying to tell me something—something like “you’re not supposed to be in youth ministry, any more.”

I had actually begun to try and transition my life towards something else—anything else—so that we could re-start our life as a family. On the job front, I started selling health insurance last summer, when the severance pay from my last ministry job ran out. I didn’t like the job, but it offered the best income potential of any of my immediately available options. When we finally sold our house in Indianapolis in December and moved in with my parents here in Dayton, Ohio, my already-declining insurance sales fell off even more. And then, just a few weeks ago, the insurance office that I had been working out of severed its ties with the company whose products I had been selling. So it was back to the drawing board, again, for more “what the heck am I supposed to do with my life?”

Well, enter, again, the National Youth Ministry Conference (http://conference.youthministry.com). For each of its first two years in existence, it has been a very significant week in my life! Last year, just after being released from my last youth ministry job, it is where my friend Doug Fields connected me with Mark DeVries and his Youth Ministry Architects consulting company, for whom I’ve been working part-time for almost a year, now (http://www.ymarchitects.com). This year, the connection that was made was with Dan Webster.

I had been reading the book on the LifePlanning process, written by its creator, Tom Paterson, off-and-on, for a few months, before the conference (http://www.amazon.com/Living-Life-Were-Meant-Live/dp/0785271953). And it just so happens that Dan Webster has done more LifePlans than anyone else besides Tom, himself. And a majority of Dan’s professional experience has been in the world of youth ministry! There could not have been a better person for me to end up sharing a breakfast table with in a little hotel meeting room across the street from the conference location. After several emails between Dan and Doug and I, we finally got my LifePlan scheduled for last week.

I drove up to Holland, Michigan (about 4 ½ hours from here in Dayton) on Tuesday and, after a little adventure of switching hotels, got settled in and ready for the 2-day process. Wednesday—Day 1—was the longer of the two. By the end of that day, my life was written out, in lists and graphs, on giant sheets of paper, all over the walls of Dan’s basement. On day 2, we tackled some nagging thoughts and questions that I had and then proceeded to map out, as best we could, a plan for living out the natural implications of all that we had pulled out of my heart, head, and history.

The cliff notes version is that youth ministry is still where I belong. So I have, again, renewed my search for another full-time local church youth ministry position. I have sent out a couple dozen resumes, already, this past week, to churches in Washington, Oregon, California, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, and Florida. I have already heard back from a few that the positions have been filled already, and from a couple that want to take the “next step” with me, but the majority have not responded, at all. That was one of my frustrations with the search, before, was not even knowing if I was being considered, anywhere, or not. No matter—this time around, I’ll just keep working on my end until I have a job!

Here’s where we are, in the mean time. We have been living with my parents for about 4 ½ months, now. While it has been a great blessing to be with them and to not have to worry about coming up with most of our living expenses, it is obviously not the kind of arrangement that any of us wants, long-term. My mom had a feeling, when we moved in, that we would be with them for about 6 months. I have also had a sense, from the first of the year, that we would be moving on to our next place in late spring or early summer. And Dan said that he would be surprised if I am not in my next youth ministry position within the next 2-3 months. Hopefully, all of our intuitions being tuned in to the same thing, we will all be right!

I thank you, again, for your friendship and for your prayers for my family and me, especially during this turbulent time. And I look forward to sharing, someday soon, our exciting news that we are serving, again, in full-time youth ministry! Please keep in touch and we will try to do the same!

We’re Better Together,

-Ben

LifePlan, Day 1

2008-04-10T03:52:00.000-07:00

I just woke up here in Holland, Michigan, ready for day 2 of my LifePlan. The results of day 1 are... wait for it... *drum roll*...

"I should be a youth pastor."

I know, I know--groundbreaking stuff. : P

It is kind-of nice, though, to have that kind of confirmation from someone with the leadership pedigree that Dan has. He's actually setting me up for an interview with a church here in his area, when we're done tomorrow afternoon, which will, if nothing else, at least give me a little more practice at explaining myself and my approach to ministry for another church leader, and what my expectations are of a church body and leadership team that I might consider joining.

Tomorrow morning, we'll be tackling a potpourri of questions/subjects that I will bring to the table regarding my concerns about my vocational calling (redundant, I know) and how/when/where I should begin working to fulfill it. Then we'll be plotting out, as much as we can, a 5-year plan for how I'm going to "live into" God's calling for me. So I'm looking forward, more, to tomorrow, where I will, hopefully, get more "rubber meets the road" stuff to start working on as soon as I get "home". (Lots of ,,,commas,,, and "quotes" in that paragraph *L*)

CA is still tops on my list of where I'd want to serve, and that will certainly be one of our discussion topics for the morning. Telah asked me, earlier this week, if I had to choose between moving back to CA and not doing YM full-time or doing F/T YM somewhere else, what would I choose. I told her "I don't know". That's what I'll be wrestling with over the next several weeks, I guess. And even if we don't end up moving back to CA, right now, there's certainly nothing that takes that off the table for us in the future. Since almost all of our best friends live there in SoCal, we'll just keep praying that God allows us to both follow my calling AND be near you guys sooner rather than later!

I'll be sure to give you the latest when I get home tomorrow evening--thanks for your continued prayers, friendship, and encouragement.

Sponsor me for Hackfest '08!

2008-04-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hey, friends!

Today I got signed up for the annual Hackfest golf tournament fundraiser for Fireproof Ministries, the parent ministry of several great organizations, the most famous of which is xxxchurch.com!

I would love to be able to list you as a part of my fundraising support team!
My goal is to see how much I can raise in sponsorships per hole we play on Monday, May 5th. And our goal is to play 100 holes of golf! So if you would like to pledge $1.00 or 50 cents or even 25 cents a hole, Fireproof would be very grateful!

You can read more about Hackfest HERE. Send me a MySpace message, comment this blog, or email me to let me know how much I can put you down for! All donations are tax deductible.
I’m looking forward to the event and I hope you’ll be able to partner with us!

-ben

Samson was a bad dude!

2008-04-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

Don't believe me? Read the Bible book of Judges, chapters 13-16. It's short, bloody, and would make for quite a Hollywood blockbuster!

YOU can make a huge difference with a small investment!

2008-03-30T21:54:00.001-07:00

Hello, friends!

We just came across one of the raddest websites ever, today! I have to share it with you and invite you to join us on this adventure!

For starters, I think that most of us here in the relatively filthy rich USofA would like to be able to do something to give practical help to people in the "developing" world, right? (a.k.a. the "Third World", where 2/3 of the inhabitants of our planet live.) If you don't, then you need to make a serious gut-check of your priorities, especially if you are a follower of Christ.

Anyway, many of us have taken the step of sponsoring a child from one of these countries through the wonderful work of organizations like Compassion International and World Vision. If you have not done that, yet, I strongly recommend it! To completely alter the life of a child on the other side of the globe, and the future of their whole family, just by investing $1 a day? How can that not be on the top of your "to do" list? Anyway, I digress…

One of the many kinds of projects that organizations like these undertake is the process of giving what are called "microloans". As the saying goes, "better to teach a man to fish than to just give him a fish". It is critically important, for the long-term health and development of a community, that the people who live in the community be able to develop skills and invest in business for themselves, in order to become self-supporting. (And then, in turn, they actually become able to support many of their own fellow citizens, and the blessing grows). A "microloan" is a loan of just a few hundred dollars, to an eager entrepreneur, that they can use to invest in equipment or supplies for running a business of their own that will benefit themselves and their community.

The way these microloan projects are funded within large charitable organizations is pretty efficient. But it is also somewhat impersonal. You donate money to these worthy groups and then they use your money somewhere in the world to help someone in need. And while they do report on what they're doing, all over, you never really know what difference your money, specifically, made (with the exception of child sponsorship).

Here is where this brilliant website that I encountered today comes in. It is a website where you can sign up to personally give a microloan directly to a third-world businessperson to help them improve the quality of life for themselves and their community! While they are charged a small amount of interest, you receive no interest for providing the loan. The interest that is collected by the financial partners who actually process the loans and get the funds distributed to your investees, is used to administrate these programs and keep them running.

Social and financial commentators everywhere are hailing ventures like this as a terrific way for the "average" person to do something tangible about poverty in the developing world. You can read more at the following website (of course, poke around and read all you can):

www.kiva.org

http://www.kiva.org/lender/bendmc

One of the most fantastic things about this microloan process is that you can be an investor in a third-world business for as little as a mere $25! There is probably not a single American who could not spare that much to give practical, tangible, measurable help to someone on the other side of the world who needs little more than an opportunity to improve their own life situation and that of their family and their community. So, my first challenge to you is to invest on your own! Register with www.kiva.org, select an entrepreneur, and give them a $25 boost (or however large a piece of their business you'd like to finance) towards their future!

If you don't want to sign up to be a financier, on your own, though, or if you would like to contribute both individually and corporately, I would love to invite you to contribute to a pool of funds that we can invest, as a group. If you would like to invest $5, $10, $15, or $20, I would be thrilled to collect all of those smaller investments, add them to my own, and offer complete financing to an eager third world businessperson in need of our help!

Feel free to email me at pastorbenjammin@hotmail.com if you would like to commit some amount to this project and I will write your amount down as part of our "circle of friends" investment group. You can then mail me your investment, as you are able to (if you don't have my current mailing address, I will email it to you when I receive your pledge email). On May 1st, 2008, I will invest the total pledged amount, whether I have received all pledged funds yet, or not, in a business that is awaiting startup funds, at that time. I will email everyone who has invested in our pool as to where our money has gone so that you can join us in praying for our entrepreneur, their family, and their community, and follow their progress on the website.

Remember, you will not earn any interest in your investment, but you will earn the sincere gratitude of someone you will probably never meet, the fulfillment of having given a gift that will keep on giving, and the smile of our Heavenly Father.

Please read up on this fantastic opportunity and, even if you don't end up investing in our little group, or through this website at all, do SOMETHING to share from the abundance God has given you with those who need it most.

I look forward to hearing your stories of how God uses whatever you invest in His purposes and I hope that many of you will join us in this fun little investing adventure!

We're Better Together,

Ben & Telah McClary

Wisdom of a Homeless Woman

2008-03-29T08:33:00.001-07:00

I was just reading through my old blogs and I came across this quote I thought would be good to share, again.

"You know, there’s two things I never forget when I’m having one of my panic attacks and the whole world gets dark and I can’t remember anything else. I remember my name and I remember that I love God and that God loves me." –Teresa Caropino, a homeless woman I met on the street in San Jacinto, CA in January, 2006

Terrorists and Peacemakers

2008-03-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

This story just deserves a re-printing, especially considering the stark differences, with regards to this issue, in particular, between our current presidential candidates. A friend of mine from high school posted this. Poignant, brilliant, funny, sad, true, and prescriptive!

The PeaceMaker (a true story we haven’t reached the end of)

This brief blog entry takes you through a series of negotiations over time between peacemakers and terrorists:

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of a line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker introduces himself. The terrorist kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker asks, "why did you kill my friend?" The terrorist kills him and rapes his wife.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker says, "Stop that!" The terrorist kills him, rapes his daughter and kills his wife.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker says, "I’ll pay you $1000 if you stop attacking us." The terrorist agrees to the deal, takes the $1000, and kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker appeals to the United Nations. The United Nations says the peacemaker is at fault. The terrorist kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker now has a gun, and threatens to use it. Other peacemakers start chanting the old 60’s whine, "Can’t we all just get along?" The peacemaker hesitates. The terrorist kills him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker tries to convince his peacemaker friends that the terrorists aren’t going to respond to negotiations, but they insist that if he kills the terrorist, it’ll just make the other terrorists mad. The peacemaker reluctantly agrees to try negotiating again. The terrorist kills him, his entire family and his neighbor’s family.

A heated debate now ensues between the peacemakers who want to be nice to the terrorists and the peacemakers who believe that there can never be peace until the terrorists are all dead. While they are debating, the terrorists kill 15 more peacemakers.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker asks himself, "Which is more important: being liked by everyone, or protecting my family?" The terrorist pulls a knife to kill the peacemaker, but the peacemaker pulls a gun and kills the terrorist first. The United Nations condemns the peacemaker’s disproportional use of force. Many of his peacemaker friends turn against him.

A peacemaker walks up to the left side of the line. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line. The peacemaker apologizes for what his friend did to the other terrorist. The terrorist kills him, his entire family and his neighbors, and threatens to destroy the city as soon as they develop a bigger weapon.

A peacemaker refuses to meet at the line because every time a peacemaker goes to the line the terrorist kills him. A terrorist walks up to the right side of the line and fires rockets into the peacemaker’s town. The United Nations condemns the way the peacemaker provoked the terrorist by refusing to come to the line and meet with him.

Generations pass and not much changes until one day when the son of a peacemaker decides that the old strategy simply won’t work.

He walks up to the left side of the line a little early. As the terrorist approaches the right side of the line the peacemaker shoots him. Another terrorist approaches to replace the first, and the peacemaker shoots him too.

This scene plays out several more times. Then a terrorist approaches carrying a white flag, but he also has weapons. The peacemaker shoots him. A terrorist next approaches with a cease fire resolution from the UN. The peacemaker shoots him also. A large group of terrorists approach and the peacemaker shoots them all and drops a nuclear bomb on the city they came from.

The peacemaker continues killing the terrorists until the terrorists are all dead.

There is finally peace on earth and the United Nations takes the credit.

LifePlanning

2008-03-29T05:41:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends and family!

I have the very exciting privilege, in just ten (10) days, of going on an intensive 2-day LifePlanning retreat. If you are not familiar with the process, you can read more about it at http://patersoncenter.com/process/lifeplan/process/.

I also have the distinct privilege of having my LifePlan done by a gentleman named Dan Webster, a veteran youth pastor (Crystal Cathedral, Willow Creek, et al) and leader of leaders who you can read more about at http://www.authenticleadershipinc.com/bio.php?PHPSESSID=c33714cbcacf20f76987f5caeec4c519.

The basic premise of this process is that God has a Plan for every Life! And under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the leadership of a seasoned, wise, godly facilitator, you can get a very clear picture of the LifePlan that God has in store for you, so that you can direct your thoughts, energies, hopes, dreams, and plans in that direction, so as to live the life that you were meant to live, find the most satisfaction and fulfillment possible in your life, and contribute most effectively and powerfully towards fulfilling God's Kingdom purposes with your life.

It has been a trying past couple of years for my family and me. We have had 1 baby, sold 2 houses, lived in 3 states, resided in 4 different homes, and tried 5 different jobs! It has been draining, in every conceivable way, and we have become pretty confused as to what, exactly, it is that God is calling us to do with the rest of our lives. That is where you come in! As one of our friends and loved ones, we are asking that you would help cover this important 2-days that I am about to spend with your prayers.

I will be arriving in western Michigan on Tuesday afternoon, April 8th for a relaxing evening and, hopefully, a good, long night of sleep, in order to begin the intense life-unpacking process at 8:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time) on Wednesday, the 9th. The first day will be quite a long one and then Thursday, the 10th will run until about 2:00 PM. The 2-day intensive event will be immediately followed by six (6) months of weekly checkups and additional training and coaching with Dan, by phone.

I thank you so much for your love and friendship to me and my family and I thank you, in advance, for your prayers as I embark on this anticipated life-changing journey. Feel free to reply back with any questions or encouragement! :) I look forward to sharing with you what God reveals to me about my family's future, through this event.Have a great weekend and God bless!

We're Better Together,

Ben

Is it all downhill from here?

2008-03-26T07:17:00.001-07:00

So, my life took another bittersweet turn this week. The insurance office that I have been working out of is severing its ties to the company whose products we sell. That means lots of things for me, not the least of which is that I will no longer be getting commission advances (how I get paid) from that office. It also means that a guy who has been with the company for several years and has risen to the level of a regional branch manager has determined that there is no future with the company--something I have thought for several months, but didn't want to deal with because that would mean starting the whole process of looking for another job, again.

So, by default, I am back to being without a paying job and having to reassess my life and figure out what to do, from here. Which brings me to a depressing thought that has been recurring in my mind for several months, now...

While I did just post a few days ago that "if you're in a dark place, just hold on!", I think this other thought can exist, just on the other side of the same mind. And while I do believe it's true that God will ultimately deliver His people from all of their pain, worry, difficulty, etc., I think that really only happens on the other side of eternity. THIS life is basically a crap-shoot.

So here is my recurring thought. At the end of every person's life, when they look back on all their years, it only makes sense that some season of their life will stick out as having been the "best time of my life". Right? Which means, by definition, that, even though they couldn't know it at the time, none of the rest of their life, after that high point, was ever going to be as good as that brief period was.

So the question that has haunted me is, "Have I already passed my high point? Is it all down-hill from here?" If that is the case, then I've got an awful long and drudging 40-50 years left to plod through.

I'd appreciate any comments, insight, counter-points, perspective, encouragement, or commiseration that any of my friends might have to offer on this thought. In the mean-time, I'll be doing things like filling out WalMart job applications online...

Happy Easter!!

2008-03-23T07:09:00.001-07:00

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!

In terms of what it celebrates, this is by FAR the greatest holiday of the year!

"If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is worth nothing, and your faith is worth nothing. And also, we are guilty of lying about God, because we testified of Him that He raised Christ from the dead. But if people are not raised from the dead, then God never raised Christ. If the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith has nothing to it; you are still guilty of your sins. And those in Christ who have already died are lost. If our hope in Christ is for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone else in the world.

But Christ has truly been raised from the dead--the First One and proof that those who sleep in death will also be raised. Death has come because of what one man did, but the rising from death also comes because of One Man. In Adam all of us die. In the same way, in Christ all of us will be made alive again."

-1 Corinthians 15:14-22 (New Century Version)

It's GOOD NEWS! Actually, GREAT NEWS! Tell someone this week!

God's blessings

2008-03-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him." -1 Corinthians 2:9 (NLT)

It is more than encouraging to know that God always has the very best in mind for His children who love Him. As those of you who have kept in touch with us know, these past two years have been a trying time for our family. But God has given us a sense of peace that those clouds will clear by this summer. We are excited and eager to see what He has in store for us. We are looking at some pretty good housing options back in Southern California. We are also beginning work on plans for a new youth-ministry-oriented business venture, that we will let you know about just as soon as more comes of it. And I am getting ready to go on an intense LifePlanning retreat, where a very wise, seasoned, godly, well-trained, youth ministry guru will help me un-pack my life story, up to this point, and help me identify God's LifePlan for me, so that I can focus the energy of the rest of my life towards fulfilling that LifePlan.

If you are in a dark season of life, right now--hold on!

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him." -1 Corinthians 2:9 (NLT)

Good News!

2008-03-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

"All who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you." -Galatians 3:27-29 (NLT)

Everything else falls into proper perspective when we realize that we who have been adopted as sons and daughters of God are heirs of an amazing inheritance that can never be taken away!

With that in mind, have a most excellent day! :)

Devotional thought: A growing faith

2008-03-09T21:06:00.001-07:00

Friday, November 23, 2007

"Every teacher of religious law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old." -Jesus (Mt. 15:52, NLT)

Sometimes I think we, as believers, can get to different points of spiritual conviction or challenge in our life and think, "Because I have not already been doing this thing that I have just become convicted of, that means that I have wasted my entire life up to this point! I have to change everything about myself or else my life will have been of no value, whatsoever!" Okay, so maybe nobody else ever feels that way, but I often do. I came across this verse in my devotional reading this morning, and it just stuck out to me. I don't know if it's because I've never really paid any attention to it, before, I've never read it in this particular translation before, or what, but it gave me some hope, so I thought I'd share it, for whoever else it might help.

When God challenges us with some new level of obedience, some new step of faith He wants us to take, or some change in our character that He wants to affect, He's not saying that we've been totally depraved up to this point in our life and now it's time to finally "get it right". The teachers of religious law in Jesus' day were doing a good thing! They were teaching people God's Word, and the instructions of other basically godly men, in order to help people live the life that God wanted them all to live. But then God showed them an even better way. He showed up in the flesh and said "follow Me".

Our Enemy, on the other hand, wants to take every good thing God does in our life and twist it so that we find it working against us. That's what the word "wicked" means, is "twisted". When God shows us a new level of obedience that He wants us to step up to, the devil says, "see--you're worthless--you're not doing it right--you CAN'T do it right!" But God is simply saying, "I have a new level of adventure to take you on with Me."

As a much more well-known passage of Scripture reminds us, "God causes all things to work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose." This promise is not limited to just the bad things we go through in life! It also applies to the less-than-perfect efforts we have made for the Kingdom and the immature or under-developed works we have attempted. So just keep obeying what you know God is calling you to do TODAY. We will never be perfect, until that day we see Him face-to-face, so be wary when you think that you have "arrived" and you are doing everything right. Humbly live the best life of faith that you can, today, and be eagerly expecting God to teach you new things, not to call into question that which you do today, but to simply add to it.

"Every teacher of religious law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old." -Jesus (Mt. 15:52, NLT)

Observations on Youth Ministry

2008-03-09T21:03:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Here are three summary bullet-points from the end of the chapter on "Spiritual Seekers and Religiously Devoted Teens" from the book "Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers".

1. Certain religious traditions in the United States appear... capable of eliciting serious, multifaceted religious devotion in their teenagers. Conservative Protestantism... seem[s] especially likely and Catholicism appears particularly unlikely to produce highly religiously devoted teenagers.

2. Very many religiously disengaged American teenagers appear to be religiously disconnected for what seem to be rather vague or unremarkable reasons. Many cannot explain their disengagement from religion; many seem simply to have drifted. Only a minority of them report definite skepticism, disbelief, or dislike of religion, as explanations for their personal religious disengagement. In other words, many religiously disengaged U.S. teens may in fact have fairly low levels of commitment to and investment in their religious disengagement, and so may be more susceptible to religious engagement by proactive religious agents than may be commonly supposed.

3. In the absence of parental encouragement by example to attend religious services, religious congregations that offer teenagers organized youth groups--particularly those with full-time, paid, adult youth group leaders--seem to make a significant difference in attracting teens to attend congregational religious services. Well-developed, congregational-based youth groups with established youth leaders likely provide teens who lack active parental support appealing doorways into and relational ties encouraging greater religious participation in the life of religious congregations.

As many of you know, it's been quite an awkward time these last few months, looking for a new youth ministry job and wondering, yet again, if this is what God wants for me. So many current commentators have drawn down the value of the "institutional church" and we've been through enough difficulty in them, ourselves, to seriously consider doing something totally different. But just this week I've been invited to fly to another state to talk to them about their youth minister position, which was the first time that's happened in over a year. And then, today, I came across this impactful paragraph in a book that I'm reading for my Master's Degree, titled, "Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers". It's a pretty long, relatively dry, statistics-laden unpacking of a four-year (2001-2005), nation-wide extensive survey of teenagers from all walks of life, to try and get as accurate a picture as possible of what the spiritual landscape looks like among teenagers in our country.

When you combine this quote with our hearts to be about caring for spiritual "orphans and widows", I am encouraged, again, in what I have been called to and hope to continue doing, vocationally. Here's the quote:

"Only the presence of a full-time [emphasis theirs] youth minister in the congregation, compared to no designated youth minister at all, significantly increases these teens' (those who attend without their parents) attendance. Congregations with only volunteer and part-time youth ministers are not significantly different than those with no designated youth minister in increasing the attendance of teens who do not attend with their parents." (pp 113-114)

Could the results of a comprehensive national survey be any more clear about one of the key things that has to be done to reach teens who are outside of Christ? I guess I won't feel as bad about continuing to look for this kind of employment and throw my life into it...

Here we go!

2008-03-09T21:02:00.001-07:00

Friday, May 04, 2007

Well, Telah and I are heading to the hospital in about a half-hour here in Mooresville for the arrival of our little Hannah Grace into the bright, loud, cold world! We're excited (a little nervous) and are very blessed to have my brother and his wife here watching our boys and my parents and youngest brother on their way over today, as well. We'll get pictures and updates on MySpace throughout the "festivities" today. :) If you're reading this blog, we love you and can't wait to introduce Hannah to you in person!

What Happened to the Church?

2008-03-09T21:01:00.001-07:00

Thursday, February 22, 2007

A very wise and godly friend of mine posted the following blog recently. I thought it was valuable enough to re-post for more of us American Christians to read...

I am growing weary. Here is my knee-jerk, my rant, my thoughtless thoughts.

Western Christianity is broken.

The vast majority of people who claim to be Christians are standing on the shoulders of their pastors, their televangelists, their grandparents. The great minds of Tim Lahaye and Max Lucado.

Then there's this monstrous wave of people that have grown up in a world where Christianity holds authority as well as a paper towel holds 3 cups of water. They don't trust it, they fear it, and they haven't heard a good reason to accept any bit of it as true.

The Western Church, in the meantime, shouts louder, holds its rallies, and builds these monstrous monuments to Jesus, thinking that he's going to be pleased.

Do the post-Christians, the pagans, the unbelievers hear these shouts, see the rallies and gaze at the monuments with admiration? Or just a fascination. Hey, check out these flat-earthers..these leechers...these superstitious folk.

Or maybe more fear. Hear that rhetoric? These people want me and my friends to be eternally tortured in a lake of fire. They want me to stay at home and have babies instead of doing what I love. They want me to leave the person that I love. They want to take over my country, take away the rights of foreigners and sympathizers, and they want to destroy the way of life of any infidel.

Then there's this third group. This is where I find myself.

Gazing at my leaders and trying to raise the alarm. Am I getting a response?

Nobody wants to study anymore. Oh, they'll study whatever some wealthy, middle-class church is doing to bilk the guilty and exert their influence. But the beloved Bible that they all worship is used only to prove to themselves what they already believe.

What happened to nuance? What happened to history? What happened to humility?

I keep saying...everything we know might be wrong. Maybe God is trying to tell us something.

"Try harder."

"March faster."

"Shout louder."

I can't do it.

I don't think I can continue pretending that these uneducated, unthinking, uncritical middle-class capitalist copycats are spiritual leaders.

Oh, they'll tell us what to do with our bodies, our money, and our mouths. But few would risk their reputation or status to humbly face the truth. To admit that maybe our building campaign was building where moths and rust destroy. And that maybe...just maybe...God wants us to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly.

It seems that no-one wants to re-think. They know exactly how God feels about a variety of subjects. They know What Jesus Would Do. They just KNOW.

It's so much easier to just believe. To just go along. To just trust the leadership.

It's a lot harder to take the time to question the arguments.

To study the scriptures they pretend to love.

To hold the hand of the poor, broken and discriminated against.

It's a religion for the easygoing. You can listen to the Eagles, succeed in business, enjoy a happening worship show, drive home in a Lexus and retire in comfort.

Meanwhile, I see in my mind's eye this poor, Palestinian Jewish peasant saying, "My kingdom is not of this world."

There is a way that seems right to a man. But in the end, it leads to death.

Are you going to accept it? Are you going to stay that way? Are you going to keep going and keep going until the desire to ask "Where are we going?" is finally dead?

My days among the complacent are numbered. My heart longs for something wilder and freer and purer and fuller.

I'm waiting for the Holy Spirit to sweep out the Church the way a flash flood might sweep away all the trinkets and knock-offs from a hotel gift shop.

Drive a bulldozer through this kitschy megamall.

This house used to be a house of prayer.

Hard-Core

2008-03-09T20:53:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Scripture:

"I am not only willing to be put in jail for the Lord Jesus. I am even willing to die for Him." -The Apostle Paul, in Acts 21:13 (Contemporary English Version)

Observation:

There are so many posers in our world that want everyone to believe that they are "hardcore". What that typically means is that they are ready, willing, and eager to get into a physical altercation with anyone over anything at the drop of a hat. Or sometimes it means that they are ready, willing, and eager to engage in highly risky and pointless stunts to draw attention to themselves and achieve some inane sense of fame and self-importance. This club is made up almost exclusively of narcissistic, insecure, overgrown children. Not so the Apostle Paul. He lays it all out on the line, to be sure—willing to be put in jail and die—but not for fame or notoriety or to "out-do" anyone. He is ready, willing, and eager to surrender his life, should that be necessary, for preaching and teaching about, and living for the glory of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. There is no self-promotion here. There is no superficial thrill-seeking/thrill-inducing motivation. There is simply a deep commitment to God's Truth, personified in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Application:

I want to be hard-core! By that, I don't mean that I want to be featured in an MTV special. Far from it. I want to live my life out loud so that everyone who comes in contact with me or anyone who knows me is presented with the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And I want this kind of life to soak so far into my bones that, when faced with the choice of continuing to live out the Jesus-life or be thrown into prison or even be executed, my natural, unforced response is "I am not only willing to be put in jail for the Lord Jesus. I am even willing to die for Him!" How is this kind of radical commitment developed? By obeying Jesus in the small things—the daily opportunities to live life God's way or the world's way—the regular, "routine", parts of life where we are most tempted to think, "it's such a small thing, it doesn't really matter." I want that kind of life.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to be hard-core for You. I don't want to be pushy or irritating, annoying, or exasperating—I just want to be wholly devoted to You and to learn how to live and speak in your truth and love to everyone, all the time. Please help me remember that each moment I am given is a test, a trust, and a treasure. I want to invest each moment into that which will give me a return of life in all its fullness. Amen.

Surgery? Piece of cake! : )

2008-03-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Hey, gang,

Thank you all who prayed for my surgery. It went VERY well. I didn't sleep much last night--got to bed late and then didn't want to oversleep and miss my surgery appointment, so I slept lightly. So I got up around 4:30 this morning. We had about a 45 minute drive ahead of us and had to be checked in at the hospital by 6:00.

The main thing that I have been a little nervous about leading up to this surgery was the anesthesia. Not that I didn't want to be kept from the pain of the surgery, though! :) Just the idea of giving control of my consciousness over to a stranger and a chemical cocktail before undergoing an invasive act upon my body that had a number of possible risks, which are all rattled off by the doctor and end with "death", was a little unnerving to me. The second issue I wondered about was "how much will it hurt when I get out?"

Well, before we headed out the door, I got online to do my Bible reading (http://www.enewhope.org/bible/) and one verse just jumped off the page at me.

"I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, O LORD,
make me dwell in safety." -Psalm 4:8 (NIV)

How's that for a Word from the Lord?! :)

So that definitely helped me relax, just being reminded that God is in control and I'm in His hands.

So we got to the hospital (Clarian North is VERY nice), registered, waited a few minutes, went back to the prep area, got dressed, waited a few minutes, then it was off to the O.R.! It was a pretty surreal feeling as I could remember those parts of my surgery way back when I was 5 years old, after having broken my left arm. There was the strange sensation of lying on my back and gliding down a series of hallways (that doesn't happen every day), the odd realization that with every corner we turned, there were more and more people dressed in blue scrubs, caps, and facemasks, and less and less of anyone else, and then the final oddity of getting off the bed in walking into a large room of people waiting for me like in some very strange cross between an alien abduction probing session and a death row execution. The big disc lights were on and focused on the very narrow bed in the middle of the room. I laid down and immediately the surgery team was all over me like flies on a corpse. The anasthesiologist was hooking up my IV and oxygen, one nurse was strapping me down to the table, another was placing monitor probes in my chest, and yet another was taking my vitals, etc. I tried to joke around with them about their almost ferocious efficiency, but that's about all I got out before the noxious fumes took my body over.

The next thing I knew, I was opening my eyes as if after a deep sleep, but I swore it had only been like 5 minutes! I felt 100% fine, stretched, and said "hi" to the nurse who happened to be right there taking some readings off my monitor. She asked how I was feeling as I sat up, rubbed my eyes, and yawned, ready to get on out of there. She started the paperwork, ran through my follow-up schedule and post-op care/therapy routine, and called in another nurse to give me a quick crutches lesson. I got out of bed, got dressed, started sipping some water, and have felt great ever since!

The instruction they gave me was that I could put weight on my leg as soon as I felt up to it, so I really haven't used my crutches, yet! I feel 100% fine--no pain, no awkwardness, and no difficulty walking. But you can rest assured that I am taking it slow and cautious. I got home before 11:00 this morning and I'll just be hanging out at home today, doing practically nothing, and then going on our pastor/intern retreat the next two days. So thanks, again, for praying for me and I'll keep you posted on my progress, including when I get out running, again! :)

The Love of a Father

2008-03-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Hey, guys,

I had to do staff devotions today for our church staff meeting, so I figured I'd just share what I shared today (through tears) with my coworkers. Hopefully it will be an encouragement to you.

-Ben

Today is my son Joshua's 7^th birthday. I cannot believe that it has been that long that he has been with us. It scares me how short the time is until we won't have him in our home any more. He graduates in just a little over 10½ years, which means we are about 40% of the way through our time of raising our first child. Most people don't think in those kinds of statistical terms, but since I'm kind-of anal, that's always where my mind goes.

Anyway, I remember when I was young hearing lots of youth workers who were parents talk about how you really understand God's love for us a lot better when you have children of your own. I have definitely come to experience what they were all saying about that correlation.

I think our concept of God is shaped by all sorts of influences as we go through life, starting very early. In general, I think we probably form our concept of God based on our experiences with any person in a position of power or leadership, and particularly within the church. If we're constantly hearing from those in charge only that we are sinners who need to repent, we begin to get an image of God as a condemning God. If we constantly hear messages that we need to work harder, try harder, and do more, we begin to develop a picture of a demanding God. If we feel like our lives are scrutinized by other people and every little thing that we do is observed and commented on by someone, we begin to develop a picture of an overbearing God. And if we feel like significant people around us in our lives really don't care much about us or that we matter to them, we can easily develop a picture of God as a distant, uncaring God.

But the image of God that the Scriptures are constantly reminding us of is that God is our Father. As we all know, even this can have a negative connotation for those who do not or have not had a good relationship with their own father. But even if you have a very good father, as I am blessed to have, when you become a father, this idea starts to become a lot clearer.

In Hebrews 1:5 (LB), it says, "God never said to any angel, 'You are My Son, and today I have given you the honor that goes with that Name.' But God said it about Jesus. Another time He said, "I Am His Father and He is My Son." I think I kind-of understand what God is saying here. I'll never forget the day Joshua was born. There have been few occasions on which I have cried so much. But even fewer on which I have been filled with so much joy. That first day, a little description of my son just welled up out of my heart as I held him in my hands:

My son, my son! Yeshua Binyamin! Mr. Blue Eyes.

To this day, when I'm cuddling with my Joshua and scratching that same little head that I once held in the palms of my hands, I repeat my phrase of adoration for him.

My son, my son! Yeshua Binyamin! Mr. Blue Eyes.

That passage in Hebrews mentions that God feels that way about His One and Only Son Jesus. But the truth is that He feels that way about all of us who have been adopted into His Family, too!

Romans 8:28-30 (CEV)

"²⁸ We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love Him. They are the people He called, because that was His plan.
²⁹ God knew them before He made the world, and He decided that they would be like His Son so that Jesus would be the Firstborn of many brothers.
³⁰ God planned for them to be like His Son; and those He planned to be like His Son, He also called; and those He called, He also made right with Him; and those He made right, He also glorified."

It was an interesting time just before our second son, Zechariah ('Zeke'), was born, 2 ½ years ago. Telah and I had spent 4 ½ years loving Joshua with our whole heart and we wondered between us, "Would we be able to love another child as much as we loved Joshua?" Well, it didn't take long to figure out the answer to that one. It's truly a mathematical paradox when 100% divided by 2 still equals 100%! We love our sons equally and unconditionally. And I think that's a great illustration of how God's love for His One and Only Son gets shared with us, His brothers and sisters. There is no loss of love, no diminishing of the love we receive. God's love divided by ALL of us in His Family still equals God's complete love!

Romans 8:31-39 (CEV)

"³¹ So what should we say about this? If God is with us, no one can defeat us.
³² He did not spare His own Son but gave Him for us all. So with Jesus, God will surely give us all things.
³³ Who can accuse the people God has chosen? No one, because God is the One who makes them right.
³⁴ Who can say God's people are guilty? No one, because Christ Jesus died, but He was also raised from the dead, and now He is on God's right side, begging God for us.
³⁵ Can anything separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can troubles or problems or sufferings or hunger or nakedness or danger or violent death?
³⁷ … in all these things we have full victory through God who showed His love for us.
³⁸ Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers,
³⁹ nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I'm sure some important preacher coined this phrase, but it became the standard invitation in my last youth ministry. Whenever I wanted to communicate the love of God that draws people to accept His gift of eternal life that can be offered because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, I would have our students close their eyes and listen to me as if I were speaking for God, Himself (which we are, as believers, authorized to do—see 2 Corinthians 5:18-20) and I would simply say, over and over,

"There's nothing you could ever do that would make me love you less!"

What a powerful statement! What a life-changing love! Can you imagine not wanting to give your life to, listen to, and follow a God who loves you like that? I know I have done plenty of things in my life that have been both unlovely and unlovable. "Yet the proof of God's amazing love is this: that it was while we were sinners that Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8, Phillips) When we hear a voice of accusation and condemnation against us, we are not hearing from our heavenly Father.

Revelation 2:10-11 (NCV)

"I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: 'The salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have now come. The Accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accused them day and night before our God, has been thrown down. And our brothers and sisters defeated him by the blood of the Lamb's death and by the message they preached."

Romans 8:1-2 (NLT)

"There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death."

Romans 8:15-16 (WOTS)

"What you were given was the certificate of being a son or daughter and by His Spirit we get to call the Totally Awesome God, 'Dad'! And somehow His Spirit inside us whispers, 'It's kosher.'"

Wondering if God loves you today? He does. And if you've accepted His adoption of you into His Family by accepting what Christ did for you on the cross and going through the watery re-birth called baptism, then you're His child! He's your loving heavenly Father! What kind of relationship do you think He wants to have with you? One where He nags you all the time about what's wrong with you and tells you how bad you are and makes you feel like dirt? I don't think so. That's not the voice of God, but of God's Enemy. God, the perfect heavenly Father, doesn't treat His children that way. I'll just sum it up like this—when I get off of work in just a few hours, I can't wait to get home and take my sons out to dinner. Then we're going to carve pumpkins together, eat some more cake & ice-cream, and open up a couple more presents.

Thank You, God, for being our loving heavenly Father who wants a relationship with us.

Best news I've heard in a long time...

2008-03-09T19:30:00.001-07:00

Monday, April 24, 2006

Hey, I just ran across this funny site called

humanforsale.com

So I did the little survey and this is what they said:

"You are worth exactly $2,186,770."

Best news I've heard in a long time...

I'm willing to go at a discount. Any takers? :P

Life in the Details

2008-03-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

Friday, March 31, 2006

I saw a bit of a common strain running through today's devotional reading at http://www.enewhope.org/bible/ . See if you can pick it out from these three selected verses:

"After Abimelech's death, Tola, the son of Puah and descendant of Dodo, came to rescue Israel. He was from the tribe of Issachar but lived in the town of Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. He was Israel's judge for twenty-three years. When he died, he was buried in Shamir." –Judges 10:1-2 (NLT)

"Those who are wise must finally die, just like the foolish and senseless, leaving all their wealth behind." –Psalm 49:10 (NLT)

"Stephanas and his household were the first to become Christians in Greece, and they are spending their lives in service to other Christians. I urge you, dear brothers and sisters, to respect them fully and others like them who serve with such real devotion." –1 Corinthians 16:15-16 (NLT)

Fairly random verses, huh? Here's what jumped out to me: the brevity of life. Imagine rescuing your entire nation from its enemies and ruling them faithfully and well for six terms as President. You'd think there would be some grand record of you and some legacy that would shine forever, right? Nah. How about, "The son of so-and-so came from this little foreign town and led the country for 23 years and died." That's it? Really? Truthfully, the quest for "significance" in this world is a vain pursuit. James Dobson says, "Given enough time, all of your trophies will be trashed by someone else."

Or, as the psalmist puts it, everybody dies and their world fades out of memory, whether they were important or not.

So what is important? Paul seems to indicate it in the third passage. "Spending their lives in service to other Christians" = "respect them fully".

There's another passage of Scripture not in today's reading that sums up these ideas:

"Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." -Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (NIV)

So don't worry about trying to "make a name for yourself". After all, "All people are like the grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass dies and the flowers fall." (Isaiah 40:6-7, NCV) Just concern yourself with honoring God in the small details of your life. After all, our lives are just made up of lots of seemingly insignificant details. But none of them is insignificant to God. And whether the world says that we are something "special" or not, that's what God says. And He will judge all of our actions to see if we are spending our lives in real devotion to Him. So today, honor God in the details!

THE Church

2008-03-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

I had this thought at church this past Sunday morning. I had slipped out of the service during the prayer time right before communion, as I had consumed two large coffees right before service and couldn't "hold it" any longer. But, since our new worship facility has a speaker system throughout the building, what was happening in the auditorium was being wired into the restroom, so I was still audibly involved in what was happening.

The prayer, ensuing song, and communion thoughts were, as they often are, about how the body of Christ was given to invite people into the Body of Christ (though in much more artful verbiage). And it got me thinking, since I have been working pretty hard to network churches and ministries together for a couple of years, now.

It seems to me that most ministers (and most Christians, in general, I think) have, at least at one point in their ministry, if not many times over, wrestled with the idea of networking with other churches (Christians). And it seems like the debate is always the same:

"It would be good to connect with other area ministries, but I'm so busy with what's going on in my own church. Maybe I'll go to some event where other local ministries are represented once in a while, but it's not something that I can really commit myself to, because I've got too many other responsibilities."

And, as I meditate over the idea that Jesus gave His body and blood as the seed to grow His Body on earth, it struck me--Why is this issue even up for debate by any minister or church (or individual Christian)?

We know that the REAL Lord's Prayer is found in John 17, where Jesus prays for those disciples who would follow after Him.

"I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in Me because of their testimony. My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as You and I are One, Father--that just as You are in Me and I Am in You, so they will be in Us, and the world will believe You sent Me."

It seems like the conventional wisdom in interpreting this verse is, "we just need to keep in mind that we're a part of something bigger than ourselves." REALLY? Is that all that Jesus is saying here? "Be conscious of the theoretical concept that there are others out there, somewhere, who believe in Me, too." Is that what Jesus REALLY had in mind? Is that what He was REALLY saying?

I think it's pretty clear that that's an absurd interpretation based on our own sinful pride and independence. We all too often desire to be the kings of our own kingdoms and not recognize that we are all servants of THE KING OF KINGS. Can you imagine the heart of God as He listens to our words (and our thoughts) on connecting with, loving, and working with other believers--especially right in our own community? "It's not really THAT important. I mean, they don't even believe all the right things like I do, so maybe they're not even Christians at all. Besides, I'm just way too busy."

How the heart of God must grieve--His children refusing to recognize their kinship within and obligations to the Body! Jesus prayed that we would be one "JUST AS YOU ARE IN ME". Are we saying that Jesus was not, in fact, God in flesh--but that He just had a theoretical understanding of who God is and that they had similar missions? Because that's how we think of and treat the Body of Christ! (outside of the couple hundred we sit-n-sing with every Sunday).

And what did Jesus say would be the result of His Body being one? "The world will believe You sent Me." I think it's painfully obvious that one of the major reasons that people do not believe in Jesus is because of the Church! You ask the average Joe on the street why he doesn't go to church or believe in Jesus and one of the answers that you will frequently hear is "They can't even get their own stuff together--always fighting with each other and stuff. Why would I want to have anything to do with that? I've got enough drama in my life as it is." And they're right. I find myself, more often than not, agreeing with irreverent bumper stickers like "Jesus, save us from your followers" (including me), and "Focus on your own d**n family".

I say all this, not in a finger-wagging way, but in a head-hanging way. I have been a part of the problem for a LONG time. And it is my sincere desire to be a part of the Body, instead. I don't hate the Church, as some self-proclaimed "postmodern prophets" probably do. I stand proudly with the leaders of my elder generation who believe fervently that "The Church is the hope of the world." Some people, considering themselves purists, bristle at that statement, thinking, "That's not true! JESUS is the hope of the world." And I agree. But the BODY OF CHRIST is the Church. And having LESS connection with the organizational structures within the Church is not the answer. We need perpetually MORE connections, both at a personal and corporate level! We need to be as much one within the Church as Jesus and the Father are. Is there any way that can be said of us? Is there any way it can be said that it's truly even our goal? Here's the payoff if it is: "the world will believe." If it's not, we'll continue to see the opposite.

Any other believers want to truly be one? I don't know all the answers, but I can say with all my heart that's what I want. Let's do whatever it takes to help each other, and the rest of the Church, to get there.

We're Better Together,

Ben McClary

"All the believers met together constantly and shared everything they had. They sold their possessions and shared the proceeds with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity--all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved." –Acts 2:44-47 (NLT)

The greatest of these is love...

2008-03-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

The love chapter was in this morning's devotional reading. (Set your Internet Explorer homepage to http://www.enewhope.org/bible/ to read a chunk of Scripture every morning that will take you through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice in a year! It automatically updates with the next passage of Scripture every day—it couldn't be easier to start a good devotional reading habit than with online devotions!) 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the most famous of all the passages in the Bible. But even after having been a Christian for 22 years, now, God's Word still speaks to me in new ways all the time. One little verse in this chapter jumped out at me this morning.

In the New International Version, it reads, "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,^[b] but have not love, I gain nothing." I like the way the Living Bible puts it: "If I gave everything I have to poor people, and if I were burned alive for preaching the Gospel but didn't love others, it would be of no value whatever." For the past several months, I have found myself really disliking our materialist American way of life. I have idealized in my mind what Jesus told the rich young ruler to do—to sell everything I have and give it to the poor and then run off to some foreign place to tell people about Jesus. And anyone or anything that is the opposite of these aims (amassing more money & "stuff", making a comfortable little domestic life, etc.) has really angered me. But this morning, as I was reading, I realized (was reminded?) that even these great social aims of helping the poor and taking the Gospel where it is most needed, perhaps even in hostile territory, are meaningless unless the messenger is filled with, motivated by, and expressive of unconditional, selfless, gracious love. "It would be of no value whatsoever." Wow.

Well, that hasn't been my motivation. I want to know what's right and do what's right and, in those "most important" of ways, be superior to those who don't. Rather pharisaical, I suppose. I recall my friend Matt's words at his going-away party as he left just a couple weeks ago for a year-long stint on the foreign mission field: "Missions are not the chief goal of the Church—worship is." And he's right. Missions—helping people, teaching people, evangelizing people, are not supposed to be a competition where we see who can help the most, teach the most, save the most. They are a means to an end—to invite as many others, because of our love for Christ, to join us in loving Him because He first loved us. It's all about love.

Now, love will motivate us to do some pretty "crazy" things, won't it? But they aren't crazy at all in the eyes & heart of the one who is filled with love. But it's a much different thing than doing "crazy" things to demonstrate some sort of adventurousness of character or superiority of obedience. Giving what I have to the poor and risking martyrdom for the sake of Christ are not the goals of the Christian life, but love is. Love may act itself out in those ways, but they are secondary to actually having a heart that is devoted to God and to other people.

As Forrest Gump would say, "that's about all I have to say about that." I do want to end with some of this passage in 1 Corinthians 13, from the Living Bible, that just really hit me hard this morning. May we all pursue this kind of love—the love that motivated God to create the world and Jesus to die for it. Love one another as He has loved us.

"If I had the gift of being able to speak in other languages without learning them and could speak in every language there is in all of heaven and earth, but didn't love others, I would only be making noise. If I had the gift of prophecy and knew all about what is going to happen in the future, knew everything about everything, but didn't love others, what good would it do? Even if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, I would still be worth nothing at all without love. If I gave everything I have to poor people, and if I were burned alive for preaching the Gospel but didn't love others, it would be of no value whatever. Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong. It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out. If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost." -1 Corinthians 13:1-7 (Living Bible)