Free Books!! And Good Ones Too!!!

You've heard me talk about how amazing the book, Red Letters is. . now you have a chance to get a copy FOR FREE! Also, you'll get a copy of the book, The Art of Listening Prayer.

2 things. . .you've got to have a blog and you have to promise to blog about what you learned while reading! Got it? Now go to Tom's Blog and order your FREE books today! Let's do this together. . .I just emailed in for my free copy of Listening Prayer since I already have Red Letters! We can blog together what we are learning! Go to Tom's Blog NOW!!!

Sunday Lessons. . .RL4?

I had a WONDERFUL birthday weekend! There will be pictures to come. It turns out we were not going away to a hotel like my husband had told me. . .instead, our amazing friends who had moved to Arkansas 2 years ago suprised me and flew in! We actually switched houses with my in-laws b/c their's is bigger! We had so much fun getting to know their new little man (they have a 5 month old who I had never met before!) and enjoying each other's company! I'll tell you lots more when I have pics to use too!

Instead, I thought I'd blog a bit about what we learned this Sunday in church. I teasingly added the RL4? to my title here b/c our sermon yesterday was so in line with what I've been reading! This month's series is on "Tough Questions". Pastor Jon encouraged us to ask the tough questions of God. Why? so glad you asked. . he gave us 3 key reasons.
1. Asking questions acknowledges the limitlessness of God and the limits of man. If we could or have figured it out, then God's not all that big. It's a great thing to struggle through questions or situations with God b/c it causes us to go back to the truth that He is bigger than us.

2. It acknowledges the complexity of this world. This world if full or real issues and real people. Many times, we avoid asking the tough questions b/c we want simplicity. Simple Answers, no struggles. . easy! It's much more difficult to really ask these questions. . .the one our pastor posed is "How do I stand for marriage with one man and one woman and at the same time show my unconditional love for a homosexual friend?"

3. It creates appropriate tensions in life: asking these questions keeps us seeking and growing.

His point is that the Bible isn't super clear on everything. At one point Jesus overturned tables in the face of sin and called the Pharisees a brood of vipers while on the other hand taking a woman caught in the act of adultery and telling her he did not condemn her. To know what our reaction should be to anything, we have to walk in the tension. Living in this world brings up sticky situations that don't have clear answers. For instance, I got an email from a pastor in Liberia this week. His question? When a man comes to faith in the Lord Jesus, what do we do when he has multiple wives? That's a tough question.

This all ties so much into my last post on Red Letters. I had not struggled with the questions on AIDS for so long b/c of the work in it. . b/c I wanted simple answers. . .and sometimes b/c I just didn't want to hurt for others. But, the fact is: This is the REAL world. There are complex issues and the great thing is we serve a complex God! Walking that struggle and asking those tough questions as I read and prayed was an amazing experience, and not one I'm done with yet. The sermon ended with this challenge. "There is danger in NOT asking tough questions. The danger lies in wasting energy, making bad decisions, living life out of our fear, not growing where we should be. If we are unwilling to ask, we live in danger of keeping truth at a distance and the God of that truth at the same time. What tough questions do you need to ask God? What area of your life or issue do you need to wrestle through with Him and live "in the tension"?

RL3: Consequences and Compassion

This may be a SUPER long blog! I have finished Red Letters and am now halfway through Children of Hope by Vernon Brewer (request your free copy online). I have so many thoughts running through my mind that this should probably be 3 or 4 posts. . but, they all run together so it's either a full on conversation (no kids, no interruptions. . yeah right!) or a super long blog! I also am not promising that this will flow well or make sense! Yep, I process through writing and my head is full now, so I'm going to write. . .that doesn't mean it will all make sense yet. . that's what the writing is for ~ to help me make it make sense!

Consequences~ One of the first things that hit me in Red Letters is the concept of "victims" of HIV/AIDS. I think one of the reasons the church has been slow to act IS because AIDS can be viewed as a consequence of someone's action b/c it is sexually transmitted. This goes along the line of "why give condoms to kids in schools". . .basically, if we run in and "fix" the problem or find a cure for AIDS, are we just removing consequences? Now, you may not be one who ever felt this way and I may even offend you for saying it. However, I think this may be one of the biggest hindrances for getting "the church" involved in this crisis. To tell you the truth, I was hoping that Tom Davis would tackle this in the book b/c it was a question of my own heart. I do not ever want to step in God's way. Often, in this country, I believe that we try too hard to make people happy and too quickly remove consequences to that end. Initially, this made me uncomfortable with the AIDS crisis. A number of things touched me as I questioned this. . first, though, let's go with the assumption that EVERYONE who has AIDS got it from sexual promiscuity (not the case, but we'll go into that in a minute). If this were the case, would we still be called to help? The answer seems to be a resounding YES! If we look over Jesus life, we find him spending time with and even helping many sinners. Healing their bodies and restoring their souls. He granted forgiveness to the thief on the cross minutes before his own death. In fact, if we were so bold as to want everyone to "pay" for their sins, we would be quite unhappy if the Lord Jesus did this himself to us. That's what forgiveness and redemption are all about. Here's another thought. . .what if. . . think about it what if. . .the Lord was using AIDS as a discipline tool. Remember now, discipline and punishment are different. Discipline is something God uses to pursue us. To cause us to turn to Him. To change our ways to look at the Father. To get our attention. What if God were using the AIDS crisis to turn people to HIM. Possibly as OUR (the Church) opportunity to go into a place that has been held by Satan is so many way and speak His LOVE through offering hope and healing! What if? Right now, the church has been turning down that opportunity. Think of a man. Yep, the man who got AIDS b/c he went out and raped a woman or had sex with multiple women or any number of things. . .what if AIDS caused him to go looking for help. He got sick and he needs help now. IF, the Church were using our opportunities wisely. . we'd be there! We'd be there to offer the "cold cup of water" that Jesus talks about. We'd be there to offer healthcare or homecare or any number of things and maybe, just maybe have the opportunity to offer true healing in the form of introducing him to the healer!

So, all of the above assumed that people are getting HIV/AIDS because of their lack of self control. This is not the case! Over 90% of newly infected children are born of HIV infected moms. These children made NO choice. Violence against women is very high in Africa. As is unfaithfulness. Many women are getting HIV after their husbands come home with it. These women did not choose it. The saddest spread of HIV / AIDS is purely the work of Satan himself. Over 80% of those infected, seek help from traditional African healers. You know what many witchdoctors tell their "patients" and is now spread as a lie across Africa? That if you have sex with a virgin, you will be cured! Literally, men are going through villages raping women and even little girls to GAIN their cure. In the process, they are leaving behind wounded women and children, not just emotionally but literally. These girls made NO choice. They are literally victims! Then, there are those who are getting the disease because of their actions to keep themselves alive. With no food and no money, there are many young girls (often times single moms with children to care for or young orphan girls) who sell themselves for food. Tom tells the story of one young, orphan girl who at the age of 10, after waiting until she had not eaten for days; finally heads to the men. Hoping against hope that they will have pity on her and simply give her the food, she loses her innocence that day and loses her future in what she contracts. The other victims of HIV / AIDS do not have the disease itself. These are the children whose parents do. These are the children who are being left homeless and orphaned at such a young age. There are whole villages where there are no parents. Children raising children. The adults in many communities are simply overrun. The phrase "it takes a village" was born in Africa and these villages are doing all they can; but, a family can only take in so many children while living in abject poverty themselves! Over half of the population of Swaziland is in danger of being wiped out. Over a third of the adults in Zimbabwe have the disease. This disease is destroying villages, cities and whole nations. It is wiping out the work force, the farming industry and even the teachers.

Those factors combined leave my "maybe it's just the consequences of their actions" thoughtline obsolete. It does not matter. . maybe it is.. .often times it's not. Either way, I/We have an opportunity to make a difference. To share Jesus in a practical way that MAY lead others to a SAVING knowledge of who He is! However, that is hard! Yep, it hurts. I wept reading this book and am continuing to weep reading Children of Hope. Putting faces on these stories makes it real. Vernon Brewer quoted adoptive mom and author Mellisa Fay Greene (author of There is No Me Without You):

I lived in a very small house with my mother," my daughter tells me. "My
mother was very beautiful. She had long, long, long shiny hair that
fell to her waist. We had two things in our house. We had a shelf and we had a baby bed. The bed is too small for my mother, she has to sleep by pulling up her legs. I don't remember when my mother was not sick. I don't really remember my father, sometimes I think I remember him, reading a newspaper. My mother taught me to read when I was four. . .when I was five, I was the one taking care of my
mother. If she needed something, I go to the store for her. When she needs juice, she gives me the coin and I go to buy the juice for her. One time I saw at the store
little sparkly clips shaped like butterflies for your hair. I wanted those clips very much, but I bought the juice for my mother instead. At home, I told my mother about the clips, and she said yes! My mother always said yes. I ran back and I bought the butterfly clips! But, one day a taxi came and I think my mother dies in the taxi. People took me away and they didn't let me go into the house to get the butterfly clips and I never saw my house again. But why did my mother have to die?

One day about four months after arriving in Atlanta, Helen collapsed in my
arms, suddenly stricken with the memory of her late mother. I held her as
she writhed, wailing "Why she had to die?"A few moments later, she said
between sobs, "I know why she died. She was very sick and we didn't
have the medicine."

"I know," I said, "It's true. I'm sorry"
By then, I was well versed in the AIDS orphan crisis, but it floored me that
she captured it with such accuracy, brevity and grief more powerfully than
any of the thousand pages I had read on the subject.

"I wish I had known you then" I told the child in my arms. "I wish I could have sent her the medicine"

I know that was long, but it struck a chord in me. "I wish I had known you then" What a statement. We don't help b/c they are faceless. The stories and statics can be stuck back in some part of our brain. Why would we take them out to dwell on them? They hurt so badly. They don't have a face to us, we don't HAVE to feel that pain. Not like Melissa. . it's her daughter that hurts now. I sit and weep while reading these books, but I've not held a child in my arms who sobs when the medicine that could have kept her mom alive cost $.40 a day. I have never hurt like that. . .maybe if I did, blogging and reading wouldn't cut it for me. . .maybe those questions of "should we help" would not even have been thoughts in my head. So, I for one, will choose to hurt. I think I need that hurting (what little I experience without living in it and breathing it and holding their little bodies) to give God the room to move me.

The questions is SHOULD we hurt? Do we really have to go there? To answer this question or to just get you thinking, I want you to PLEASE go to Amber's blog right now and read what she wrote about compassion. I was tempted to just copy and paste it b/c I think it's that vital of an insight.

I encourage you to struggle through these issues. Ask the questions. Let God search your heart. Don't just choose to relegate it to a part of your brain that lets it be JUST knowledge or facts. I don't know what God will call us to, but I know we need to be willing and ask Him.

RL2: Think on this. . .

I was just reading Missy's post on Red Letters. She quotes from the book of Matthew saying, "

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will
sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before
him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates
the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on
his left. 34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are
blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since
the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you
invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked
after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'37"Then the righteous will
answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give
you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or
needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go
to visit you?'40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did
for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Did you notice the part in BOLD? I did. . for the first time. He didn't say, "Come, you who blessed my Father" but "come you who were blessed by my Father." Then he goes on to share what those people's lives were like. We so often think of feeding the poor and hungry as ministry (which it is). . .I'm just wondering if we need to redefine this. We think of it as work. Worthwhile work b/c it blesses the heart of God. . .but, work nonetheless. In fact, some may be hesitating to even read this book or think on these issues b/c of what it may cost them or what God may call them to (I know I find myself at times wanting to put it down). Maybe my definitions are wrong. The KING said, "you who are blessed BY my Father" and described a life of service. The life of service IS a blessing! That's what the KING says. Is that how I think of it? I need to dwell on this a bit. . . .what about you?

RL1: Globablization

RL1? You may be wondering. . .that stands for Red Letters 1. I'll title them that so I can go back and check them easily! Ok, I started reading and couldn't put it down. Actually, that's not totally true. I wanted to put it down a number of times, and even had to take breaks while reading b/c it is such heavy material. . .but, I kept reading and am loving the book. I have just finished the first 4 chapters. . .There is so much to post about already! I think instead of posting about each chapter, I will post every few days with thematic posts re: what I'm learning. . .It's hard even now to figure out what to post on first. . .

So, let me start with Globalization.

Globalization is the concept that b/c of technology and trade, our world is shrinking. We can ship things overnight across the world. Not only CAN we know about other places in the world more easily now, but b/c of things like outsourcing, those places actually become crucial to our world here. This concept is probably easier for those in the business world to understand. They are often times checking other gov't financial markets, even placing calls to business partners overseas. For a stay-at-home mom, this may not be as much of a reality. But, I see it as an opportunity! I have actually been thinking about this a LOT lately and Tom Davis touched upon it in his book. It used to be that "they" lived in another world. Whoever THEY was, we didn't really understand that world. Even growing up. . .I was passionate about missions and wanted to read every missionary book I could get my hands on. However, b/c it was a book, just like any history book I could read, it still felt removed. Now, however, that is all changing for me. I am LOVING getting to know people all across the world. I have friends all across this nation and am checking blogs every day for missionaries throughout Africa. This has made me, for one, much more global minded. I don't think a year ago, I would have had any clue about the politics of Kenya and am now following them daily.

This struck me yesterday in church. We were singing a song about the various nations crying out to God in praise. I loved kneeling there in church and feeling like I was before the throne room and lifting to Him along with some of you guys: 2 kids in Liberia longing to be home and their family in CO waiting anxiously for them. 3 kids in Liberia waiting to come home to a family and desperately needing the healing of Jesus from the loss of their birth mom, the children in the slums of Kenya who are hungry today, the island in Uganda whose food supply is running out. . .and doing it all knowing that those very same people were being lifted up that morning across the world. It was a very cool moment for me. A recognition of how close we really are. . .of how eternity will really be. He sees us all! This world IS small for Him! ok, it may not be big for you, but it brought tears streaming down my face!

How does this correspond with the "Red Letters" theme? Well, now when I read about the AIDS crisis, it's not just "them". "They" aren't dealing with something that I will never hear about. Their stories are the ones I could read about. They are the kids that Amy and Bethany in Uganda or Daniel and Margeret in Kenya are touching and holding every day. They are the kids that Darbi is going to serve. They are more than just stories. They need my Jesus. My Jesus may be calling me to help them. . .and, with gloabalization this is even easier to do. . .So, I think the first step is opening my heart and choosing to care. . .choosing to hurt for them. And knowing, in the midst of that, it is beautiful. It is beautiful that we get to know a little more of our savior when we choose to care and hurt and help others. He said, "whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me" He is actively involved. We can be impacted by our choice to care b/c it will bring us closer to Him.

Start Reading. . . .

Take the weekend to start reading, girls! Yep, the book club has begun. We'll start with the first chapter of Red Letters: Living a Faith that Bleeds. I'll post my thoughts on the first chapter early next week and give links to all my blog friends who are posting on it too. If you don't have a blog, feel free to leave your comments here!

Red Letters

My friend, Jamin, just wrote about this book on his blog. It looks amazing. It's called Red Letters: Living a Faith that Bleeds. I just ordered in on amazon for 8.20 + shipping. I thought you guys might be interesting in ordering it or checking it out at your local library and reading along. I know I'll probably be posting on it a lot! Check out Jamin's thoughts on it and Join Me!