Jan. 30th, 2009 from Crisis Response International on Vimeo.

Pray for Haiti...Relief for Haiti

As you may know the largest earthquake ever hit Haiti on Tuesday, Jan. 12th, registering at 7.0. This region is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and has been completely devastated. Officials are calling for International Relief agencies to mobilize volunteers to assist in the overwhelming task of bring emergency relief. Latest reports are that more than 100,000 are presumed dead and many are still trapped in the rubble. The need for search and rescue, first aid, and immediate relief is growing. God is calling forth His church to be light in this nation's darkest hour. CRI believes that through acts of compassion, we will see the love of God spread through this nation and the harvest will come in.

Presently CRI is collaborating efforts with Haitian national churches to bring relief and mobilize volunteers to the area. This is a tremendous opportunity to bring the Love and hope of Jesus Christ into this hurting area. Reports on CNN last night stated that people were screaming in the streets "Jesus is coming back and they were calling on God for help."

Our first team has arrived in Port Au Prince, Haiti and is making an initial ground assessment. We have rented vehicles and will be traveling with suitcases of supplies and medical items. We have a school in Porto Prince that we will set up operations out of and we will mobilize other teams over the next few days, weeks, and months. We have teams standing by and ready to deploy. Supplies are beginning to come in. (Taken directly from CRI website)

Want to help? Check out this link to find out how.

 

So if you have not noticed I have neglected this blog for some time now. There must be some reason for this. One may be the whole facebook thing has me taking the time usually used for blogging and instead posting quick little updates as they happen. My intention for this blog is to, in the near future post more thoughts and studies. From the looks of things it would seem that I do not think too much anymore. Nope, still thinking just not putting out on the internet.

This Will Change.. So keep checking back.


chuck

Things to think about while I ponder about things.....Mental Multi-Tasking

O.K. I am not too sure that I can go with this one. I am all for napping on long flights. I'm not too sure that it's a good idea for pilots...read here.


That's what I say...read here

Do we really want this kind of technology in the hands of some guy wanting to power his huntin' cabin? read here

These are fom Guatemala City. The side that rarely makes the news here. pictures here

I am writing more and will post more soon. These are things that I have been thinking about as a result of surfing the web.

"The authors argued involuntary birth-control measures, including forced sterilization, may be necessary and morally acceptable under extreme conditions, such as widespread famine brought about by "climate change."


This is the face of eugenics. This is Obama's Science Czar, John Holdren.

Read article here.

Living a Life Worth Giving

Matt 26:6-13 (NKJV)
6 And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. 8 But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste? 9 For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor." 10 But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. 11 For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. 12 For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. 13 Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her."

One has to wonder what was going through the mind of this woman. It is pretty safe to say that she first saw Jesus and then, after gazing from afar, runs home to get the most precious thing she had to give, perfume. Imagine the range of emotions she must have felt from first glance to running back home, to picking up the perfume, “ Oh, this will show Him” she thinks to herself. As she slides into Simon’s crowded house, she pulls out the jar of perfume and starts to pour it all out on Jesus. The mental picture I get is one of tears flowing down her face as she pours the most costly thing she owns on a Savior who is giving all for her. At that moment she realized that she had worth. It didn’t matter what the others said. All that mattered was that she was living her life in the moment for Him. She was living a life worth giving.

Like that woman, we all have something to give, something of great worth. Great worth costs much. Through out the ages many people have gone before us willing to pour out their lives as an offering to other people. Most of these people are nameless. Sure, it doesn’t look like the woman pouring expensive perfume on Jesus. However, it looks the same in that it is selfless giving of one’s life for the sake of others.

Friends, we are all called to help one another. Our lives are the most costly thing we have. Our life is our greatest worth. There is so much more to this life than the things we accumulate. Our Savior paid the greatest price to save us. Our lives are extremely valuable. Great worth costs much. How much are you willing to spend? I believe Jesus made this very point when He told the rich young ruler how he could get into heaven.

18 Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 19 So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. 20 You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother.' " 21 And he said, "All these things I have kept from my youth." 22 So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 23 But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. Luke 18:18-23 (NKJV)

The world, right now, has more needs unmet than met. One third of the world population controls a majority of the world’s wealth. Funny thing about wealth is that we tend to have this separation anxiety in regards to it.

What are you going to sell?

Is this a call to a life of poverty for everyone? No. However, it is a call for everyone to take their most precious gift, life, and give it to others. Our life is not one of sitting quietly and doing nothing, but a life of focused abandonment for a God who did the same.

I believe that Jesus gave me life. It is of great worth. It was meant to be lived, not for myself, but for others. Like the rich young ruler, we are called to live a life worth giving.

The needs are there. How then shall we live? Better yet, how then shall we give?

I leave you with these lyrics from the song, Kiss Your Feet, by John Mark Mcmillan. I was listening to the song when I started to write this.

I dreamed I kissed your feet
Between the cigarette butts
On the side of fourteenth street
I got down on my hands and my knees
With an alabaster jar

Whose Servant Are You?

This is a true story. The names (except mine) have been changed to protect the humble.

It was a day like any other day in the hot Kansas City summer. One only had to look at the streets, and for only seconds at a time with out proper eyewear, to see the waves of heat reaching towards the blue sky. The 98% humidity left one feeling as if they needed a shower seconds after leaving the comfort of air conditioning. It was here, in the land of blistering heat and pit stains that we made our home. My name is Chuck, and this is my story.

I was on a mission that hot summer day, to find a broken toilet at the huge complex known as IHOP, the International House of Prayer, not the pancake place. Ok, the toilet wasn’t hard to find, and the complex was more of a strip mall converted into a ministry center that focuses on 24/7 prayer and worship. The toilet wasn’t really broken it just needed a battery for the automatic flush valve. I was told that a man named George would be able to direct me to the aforementioned toilet.

I walked into the Prayer Room lobby and made my way past the throngs of visitors and interns, to information desk where a precious saint, Judy, was working. I told her my business, and asked where I might find George. She directed me to the end of the hall to the janitor office.

Right up to the moment I opened the door I had no idea who George was. As I opened the door I looked over and saw George Malone, a fairly well known worship leader, sitting at the desk. I knew who he was and I wondered why he was sitting in the janitor office talking on the phone. I chalked it up to quirky artistic types, and waited for him to get off the phone. He got off the phone and I asked him if he knew where I could find George.

“That would be me.”

"No, really, I was told to find George; that he would tell me…” I didn’t get the chance to finish when he interrupted.

“Which toilet to fix?”

“Um, yeah.” I said as I think this guy is operating in a high level of the prophetic.

He told me to hold on for a second, as he got up from the desk, put on some latex gloves, gathered a bucket with cleaning supplies and a toilet brush and said, “ Follow me.”

He showed me to the ailing toilet, and I did what was needed. As I was replacing the battery George started cleaning the other toilets. I was amazed. Here was this guy who travels all over the world doing missions and playing music and he's in Kansas City cleaning toilets.

George doesn’t know this, but that act of service made an indelible mark on my soul. Up to that point I had read of people doing such things, and knew of a handful of unknown leaders doing acts of service, but never anyone of his caliber cleaning toilets. I don’t know what I thought, as if someway we, as Christians, pay our dues and then don’t have to do the dirty work anymore. Leave that for the interns and lesser known. Wow.

Being the servant, it is the model of leadership that Jesus gave us.

John 13:5-15 (NKJV)

⁵ After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. ⁶ Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” ⁷ Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” ⁸ Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” ⁹ Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” ¹¹ For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.” ¹² So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³ You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. ¹⁴ If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵

If you want to offend some Christians just say this: Jesus came to serve us.

What greater service than to die for our sins. What greater service than to heal the sick, make the blind see, the cripple walk and set captives free.

The kingdom of God is an inside out upside down kingdom where the first on earth are last. It is where one dies to gain and loses all to win. Where the least of these here are leaders there. The meek shall inherit the earth.

So, whose servant are you?

Been Too Long

I have been out of the loop so to speak for quite a while. Life interrupts things like blogs from time to time. I have had lots to write about, but not the time to do so. One side result of neglecting these things has caused me to forget the original thought and in trying to catch that again, I find it is lacking. So, to keep from posting something stale, I will start (or restart) with fresh thoughts and words.

So here ya go.....

Wow, this whole Obama school speech twaddle makes me think that our government is doing something really bad that they don't want known hence the argument over a political non issue like a speech to school children. Are we supposed to believe that teachers are against Obama? Didn't they support him in the election? It's a "Oh, look a bunny!" diversion tactic if you ask me. Just sayin'

Sometimes, God, I feel like I'm living in a bone grinding mill
And every time I hear the sound I can barely stand still
It's a thing I can't quite make out sometimes but it seems to keep getting louder-
One more body from the valley of the dry bones getting ground up into powder
Against Your holy will

Oh, God, it hurts so bad to love anybody down here
Why don't You come and help me out?
Cause I can't even see clear

18 Bullet Holes- Waterdeep

Playing With Blogger

As you may have noticed I have changed some stuff on this blog. These changes in no way reflect anything other complete boredom on my part. The picture is from Memorial Day 09 in KCMO. The Fox News feed is from Google. The words of a bored man are from me.

I would like to sit down and write for a bit, but my apartment is taken over by children hopped up on sugar. WOOT!

I'll let them stay up until 2am and then wake them up a 6am. That will ensure a smooth and easy day.