jeff’s blog

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”

Isn’t it interesting
that we have so many Ambassadors
sitting in Churches.

And
so few,
so very few
in a world
that is lost,
so lost?

“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him?

And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him?

And how can they hear about him

unless someone tells them?”

this was post-africa, one of my first expressed frustrations at a culture that claims to be evangelistic but in practice seldom moves outside of its own walls except in defense of its own agenda.

i suppose this one hits me now on two fronts. first, there remains an agitated frustration in my soul when it comes to the prevalent hypocricy in my Christian subculture. how do we expect people to find the love of Christ if we’re not showing it to them? how can we honestly expect people to think and act like we do when they are, in fact, lost people?

but more importantly now, this comes home to me in a personal way. it is easy enough to blame my culture - there is certainly plenty of blame to go around. but i often find it more difficult to blame myself. i am the man, standing before nathan, guilty of the very thing i deplore.

may we all strive to live lives, engaging the world around us instead of sitting idly by as the ship sinks around us.

this particular moment comes back to me now, on this day for some reason. i was driving home for Christmas listening to one of my favorite WW episodes when a particular scene struck me in a certain way for the first time:

Josh
So this is gonna be my reaction every time I hear music?

Stanley
(with a chuckle) No.

Josh
Why not?

Stanley
Because we get better.

Whatever the wounds of the past or the state of the present, the wonderful promise and beautiful hope for each of us is that we get better.

My prayer for you is that in your pain, whatever it may be, you will find healing, if only in small steps, and that with each step, you will draw closer to the eternal healing of God almighty.

an amazing dialogue off of last night’s west wing:

Chinese Ambassador
You know what I think about a lot when I’m having these kinds of discussions?
C.J. Cregg
What sir?
Chinese Ambassador
Capitalism vanquished Communism. Obliterated it. And here we are having a discussion where you are trying to restrict our markets.
C.J. Cregg
We’re trying to address a humanitarian situation in the Sudan.
Chinese Ambassador
Exactly. But you have always taught us that liberty is the same thing as capitalism - as if life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness cannot be crushed by greed. Your “American Dream” is financial - not ethical.

May God bless your journey.
May he bring you to new and wonderful places,
full of life and mystery.
May you learn
the power,
the provision,
the wisdom,
and the love
of a God who
made you,
cherishes you,
and desires to wrap you in His arms,
complete,
until the end of time.

the top ten things i learned at medina:

1. welding rods are hot after you use them. don’t burn yourself.
2. deer like to run out in front of you. hitting them is not cool, but so long as you don’t do too much damage to your car, sam can fix it.
3. never use a ball peen hammer in car repair when a sledge hammer will do the job.
4. goats are cute. sheep are annoying. angora goats are ugly. pigs are loud. cows poop a lot. (note: i knew these things before, but was reminded of them).
5. sitting on wooden bleachers for several hours is uncomfortable. sitting on wooden bleachers for 4 hours while waiting for everyone else to show up is not only uncomfortable, but boring as well.
6. coffee is good. decaf folgers crystals are bad.
7. my coffee cup is much better than styrofoam coffee cups. it keeps coffee warm for a long time, where as styrofoam keeps coffee warm for about 10 seconds.
8. relationships are more important than rules (didn’t do such a good job on this one this week…)
9. people surprise you a lot. people who you think might not be receptive of certain ideas often are.
10. good leaders make a trip worth going on. they take care of business and take care of their people. props to matt and lance.

it was a serious blessing. pictures can be found here.

check out shannon’s post here for a rather good reflective look at growing up in general.

By the time we become adults we realize that Disneyland is nothing more than a well marketed amusement park with mediocre rides & over priced soft drinks. But a child still knows how to expect, to long for something. A child has not been broken of the belief that just around the embankment there lies a joy worth waiting for.

…

Somehow — despite our expectations — these places do manage to change us. The difference, however, between the child and the adult is that of expectations not personal transformation. The child expects something unreasonable (lifelong happiness from an amusement park), and the adult is unwilling to expect anything for fear of disappointment.

An absolutely fantastic lesson on New Year’s Day. Moving, poetic, and extremely forceful, it stood in sharp contrast to the previous sermon I’d listened to that began with the premise “this the first of 365 evil days in 2006.” Dr. Greene’s brilliantly crafted message was a wonderful start to a new year, and should definitely be listened to.

You may note on the right a new category: required listening. If you’ve been here a while you will probably have listened to everything that is in there now, but hopefully more will be added soon (like today.)

From time to time I’ll post lectures or sermons or courses I’ve found to be particularly enlightening on a subject, or just something in general I think everyone should listen to.

weeklong journals are available here sorry there have been infrequent updates as of late. travelling and being busy have kept me … well… busy.