Children playing with clay make snakes, horses, fish, and other creatures – it’s fun and easy. In Genesis, God does the same thing when creating humanity from the dust of the earth. But there comes a point when God does what we can’t: “God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” Genesis 2.7).

Some etymology: inspire is Latin from “in” (meaning, into) and spirare (meaning, breathe) which combines to be: to breathe into. God breathed into – God took something that was inside God and put that into people. Wow!

Some call that the soul – that part of our human nature that yearns and turns to God. This innate desire for a supernatural being is one thing which separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. To my knowledge, we have not discovered any animals who built shrines dedicated to a higher being. Only people do this because, in my opinion, we have been “breathed into” by God with a soul, a part of God which longs to rejoin God but is separated for the length of our humanity.

Golgotha is a hill just outside Jerusalem’s walls where criminals were executed. Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross on that place. By the way, the word excruciating has the etymology “ex” (meaning, out of) and “crux” (meaning, cross) – the Romans devised crucifixion as the most painful way of death because it keeps the person alive, and experiencing pain, as long as possible.

While on that cross, “Jesus cried out in a loud voice saying, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ With these words he breathed his last.” (Luke 23.46). Jesus’ spirit left him and he died – Jesus expired. The origins of “expire” are of “out of + spirit.” When that part of God which resides in our human frame leaves, we die. We do not know where the spirit goes but we presume it returns to its owner, to God – where else would it go?

God took part of God’s self and placed it into humanity. God is inspired into each one of us; while we live we have part of God in us (that does not make us gods, though). When we expire, our soul returns to its creator; when we die, our eternal spirit goes back to God (that doesn’t make us gods, either). It is comforting to me to know that a “Steve-tinged” part of God will live for eternity just as right now a God-soaked soul lives temporarily in Steve.

Lead On!

Steve

The 10-40 Window refers to the area located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator that in 1990 was purported to have the highest level of socioeconomic challenges and least access to the Christian message and Christian resources on the planet. The 10/40 Window concept highlights these three elements: an area of the world with great poverty and low quality of life, combined with lack of access to Christian resources. The Window forms a band encompassing Saharan and Northern Africa, as well as almost all of Asia (West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia and much of Southeast Asia). Roughly two-thirds of the world population lives in the 10/40 Window. The 10/40 Window is populated by people who are predominantly Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Animist, Jewish or Atheist. Many governments in the 10/40 Window are formally or informally opposed to Christian work of any kind within their borders. (Source: Wikipedia)

Go to your closet and pull out some clothes. Now look at the tags to see where your clothes are “Made In.” Odds are that the majority of your clothes are made in a country located in the 10-40 Window. The cheapest labor in the world is located in this geographical area and thus many, if not most, of the human sweatshops with underpaid women and children are found in this geographical band.

Think about it, the clothes on your back are made by some of the poorest people in the world. They have may have no understanding that what they made with their hands will end up in an average American home (which they would call a palace). To gain a fuller understanding of this dichotomy, go to www.globalrichlist.org and key in your annual salary – you will probably be in the top 1% of all wage earners on the planet while the person who fabricated your clothes is in the bottom 10% of all wage earners.

Here’s my challenge to you

• Pray for the person who made your clothes. You will never ever know who made your clothes but God does. That person needs to know God in a personal way just like you do and is probably not a Christian nor even knows who Jesus is. Chances are that no one in the world is praying for that person. That person is, more than likely, a woman or child (under age 18), with limited education and financial means living in what we would call a hovel or shack and probably eats one or two meals a day. The clothes this person makes are probably better than what they are wearing. Pray for this person – they need your prayers.
• Pray for the Christian nationals in that country. There are Christians in every nation and almost every people group in the world. That means the person who made your clothes may, at some point in her (or his) life hear about Jesus from a Christian from their own country. However, many of the countries in the 10-40 Window actively persecute Christians so they must be very careful about where and how they tell the story of Jesus. Pray for those Christians who live and work and worship in conditions which we cannot imagine.
• Pray for missionaries working in that country. Almost every country has missionaries from another nation who have given up their “normal” life to go far away to live out God’s love and tell the story of Jesus. The person who made your clothes will probably never meet a Christian missionary but through circles of influence the missionary’s work may impact that person or her family.

Now, go to your closet (I’m pretty sure you didn’t do it the first time I asked). Get two or three items and pray. Hold those clothes in your hands and think about the person who first held your clothes. Imagine her (or his) life and her calloused hands; think about how she provides for her family and children; picture her each morning preparing breakfast for her family and then coming home each evening to fix the evening meal and take care of her children’s needs and finally her own before going to sleep to repeat it all again, day after day.

Hold your clothes in your hands and that laborer in your prayers.

Lead On!

Steve

(Reposted from 2009.)

This blog is not financial in nature – just spiritual.

Advent is the time of the Christian calendar that is a time of mental and spiritual preparation (“waiting”) for Christmas – the anniversary of the birth of Jesus the Christ. Many churches have the practice of lighting candles during the four Sundays before Christmas and then, on Christmas Eve, lighting a fifth candle at the center of the wreath holding the other four. The fifth candle is always the Christ candle.

As I sat in worship yesterday and watched a couple light the first Advent Candle, I commented to my daughter, age 10, about the different symbolisms Christian worship has attached to these four candles. The most popular are the Christian Concepts:

• Hope
• Joy
• Peace
• Love

But we also have the people associated with Christmas:

• Shepherds
• Wise men
• Angels
• Mary and Joseph

Another version is for the animals present on Christmas Day:

• Sheep
• Donkeys
• Cattle
• Camels

Yesterday I thought of a variation I’d never heard before – the cities in the Christmas narrative:

• Nazareth – where Mary & Joseph were living
• Bethlehem – where Jesus was born
• Jerusalem – where Mary, Joseph, and the Magi passed through
• Babylon – where the Magi came from

The church has five main functions:

• education (see in teaching the Christian concepts),
• worship (seen in the actions of the people at the nativity),
• service (seen in the humble but important work by the animals),
• evangelism and fellowship (seen in the cities where so many people live).

Here is a direct link from the purpose of the church directly to the Christmas story. But too many times we focus only on one aspect when the story is so rich with other details. As Christians we need to dig deeper into this story – God’s incredible story – to see the phenomenal nuances.

Lead On!
Steve

I can prove that God exists: Is there a church in your neighorhood? If so, then God exists.

Let me explain. Most churches (about 90% and maybe higher) are so poorly run that if they were a for-profit business, they’d go out of business within a matter of months.

• churches don’t have a business plan,
• the leaders don’t generally understand finances,
• CEOs don’t want to know who their major customers are,
• the employees typically give things away rather than ask customers to pay for things,
• even the customers expect to be given things just because they say they’re a member,
• and so on – you get the idea

Churches are bad businesses. They don’t get the concept of running like a business and most don’t want to even have the term “business” associated with them. Churches have all the trappings of a business: employees, customers, and transactions (tangible, intangible and financial) between the parties. But churches still don’t want to operate like a business: market focus, strategic staffing, and ROI on physical assets.

See, if God did not exist, almost all churches would go belly up within six months. Because God exists, God keeps churches afloat despite all human endeavors to mess things up by operating “like a church.” So, because churches continue to exist, God exists. Case closed.

Lead On!
Steve

From the list below (see “Christian Advent”) there is a ready-made outline for the four Sundays of Advent.

On the first Sunday, the church can focus on the Christian concepts at the manger (peace, love, joy and hope) and what those mean to us in the form of Christian education and implementation of that knowledge.

On the second Sunday, the church can focus on the animals at the manger (donkey, cow, sheep, and camels) and their attitude of uncomplaining service and how we as Christians should imitate their humble service to God.

On the third Sunday, the church can focus on the people at the manger (shepherds, wise men, angels and Mary & Joseph) and how they worshipped a new-born baby and only Mary really, really knew the full story (Joseph had to trust Mary). How does the church today really, really worship God and is it worthy of Him?

On the fourth Sunday, the church can focus on the cities of the Christmas story (Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Babylon [where the Magi came from]) and how the church using evangelism and fellowship to reach out to those people who do not know the Christ story.

Each Sunday, focus on one part of the mission of the church by focusing on one part of the Christmas story. There are so many aspects to this concept that ministers have a wealth of material. But please, keep it simple – God’s revelation through Jesus is not complicated.

Lead On!
Steve