The LOVE of Money is the Root of all Evil.

In my Missions A3 class on Friday we watched a video of a sermon by John Piper called "Proclaiming the Excellencies of Christ, Not Prosperity, Among the Nations." This Sermon was mainly talking about how we, as American Christians, sometimes think that becoming rich is what is most important in this life and that the one way to get rich is to believe in God, and believe that He can make you rich. This way of thinking is so wrong. In fact, the bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil. Piper goes on to boldly state that no one who is rich can be a good Christian. I personally disagree with this statement wholeheartedly. I know lots of rich people who have committed their lives to Christ and are living a life that pursues Him in all things. Also I believe that God has blessed certain people with money so they can use it for good, such as funding missionaries/mission trips, providing money for churches, donating money to Christian organizations ect. Without money in the Christian world, many outreaches would never get done because of lack of funding. However on the other side of that argument money is a huge temptation to those who already have it and to those who desperately want it for the wrong reasons. It is impossible to say that everyone who has money is bad, and they cannot be a true Christian who actively loves God. It all depends on how one responds to having money.  Do they give portions away to churches, charitable organizations, or missionary ventures? Do they crave more money and more stuff? Do they horde it all for themselves? If they do the later, they love money, and God says that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil, but he does not say that MONEY is the root of all evil. Therefore I hold my opinion that one can be rich and a good Christian as long as they are in love with God and not their money and stuff.

Best Friday Night I Have Every Spent

Two days ago the assignment for our Missions A3 class was to go to a Christian Community Center and help out wherever we were needed for a required time of 2 hours. We arrived at the Community Center having no idea of what to expect, what we were going to be doing, who was going to be there, or who we would be helping, so needless to say I didn't really have any expectations about it at all. As we pulled up in the parking lot we saw a group of African American boys playing basketball (THEY WERE SO GOOD) and I have to admit I felt really out of place and intimidated because pretty much for the first time, I was the minority. We checked in and entered the Community Center and all eyes were on the out of place white kids (us). After we were instructed on what to do (kitchen work, coloring with kids, cooking, ect, which was all scheduled to happen later), we split up and started to meet and interact with the kids that were already there. A friend and I walked over to a row of kids sitting on the edge of a skate ramp and introduced ourselves. We shook all of their hands and at first we were all a little uncomfortable, but soon we became relaxed when a girl (who's name I am struggling to remember) and I challenged each other to try riding a skateboard with the other kids. As we were having fun and connecting over how bad at skateboarding we were, one of the African American kids whose skateboard I had borrowed mentioned how he had never seen so many white kids at this church before. I simply responded with "Well, there is a first time for everything!" and smiled so he would see that I wasn't offended, because he looked a little uneasy after he said it and realized that I heard him. This particular indecent made me realize how I had never been a minority before, and how theses kids probably felt we were intruding on their territory, which made me feel even more threatened. This feeling of being threatened was replaced with a wanting to show these kids, who probably had not had too many positive experiences with white rich Christians, that not all of us were bad, racist, selfish people. So that became my mission for the night: to get to know as many kids (of a different race) and show them we are not too different from them.
Each time I introduced myself to someone I was always a little nervous, worried about what they were going to think of me, but after the night was over I never regretted introducing myself to anyone because all the kids were nice and pretty accepting of strangers like me. I absolutely loved meeting the younger kids because they were so young and close to Jesus that they were blind to race. They didn't know about our differences or anything, they just  knew we were there to play with them, and they LOVED IT. This reminded me that Jesus wants us to love like little children because they are oblivious to differences such as race or ethnicity or political preference. It was extremely refreshing to experience this oblivious, race-less love because I am so used to having a conservative, old-fashioned black and white view of life influencing me.
Later on, after I had served on kitchen duty, my best friend and I walked over to a girl about our age and started a conversation with her about the church/community center. She was really sweet and easy to relate to and talk to so we got into a deeper conversation pretty quickly. (I wasn't there for this part, however I really wish I could have been, I was talking to and connecting with a younger girl) She admitted to my friend, unashamedly, that she thought us rich white kids were going to be super stuck up and spoiled and rude and she wanted nothing to do with us, but we had proved her wrong. She said we were pretty cool, and to that, I would say MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Almost all of my class ended up staying for almost 5 hours at the community center/church instead of the required 2 hours because it was so much fun and so rewarding. I was originally planning on going to the community center for the required 2 hours and then hang out with friends right after I was able to leave, but I decided that giving my time to underprivileged kids to help them realize not all white rich Christians are rude, stuck up spoiled and racist was a better use of my time and MUCH MUCH more satisfying.

"Israel's Missionary Call" by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.

Why is it important to ME to grab hold of God's challenge of having a "mediatorial role in proclaiming His name among the nations" (Kaiser 16, Perspectives)
It is important to me that I spread the Word of God to people  around the world because of two things: First, God put us on the earth with the purpose of bringing Himself glory by all peoples of all nations knowing and praising Him, and secondly because I love God so much, I know that He is real, and I don't want people to miss out on the life of love they could lead. Kaiser, the author of the article "Israel's Missionary Call", asserts that we, as Christians, should bless others by showing God's love and grace o them because he has been so loving and gracious to us. This relates to my second reason, that I want to spread the Word of God because He has done wonderful things in my life, and I don't want others to be left out of this wonderful opportunity at a heavenly eternal life. In that same way, God doesn't want ANYONE to miss out on knowing Him, and He doesn't want to miss out on knowing ANYONE. He desires all of us, weather we are 'good people' or 'bad people'; beautiful or not beautiful; smart or dumb; screw ups or perfectionist. Therefore it is important to me to spread the Word of God because it will bring Him more glory, and because I love Him so much, that I think everyone should get to know and love Him too, so they can be happy and live happily FOREVER after.

"The Living God is a Missionary God" by John R. W. Scott

The other day in Practical Missions class A3, we read a chapter entitled "The Living God is a Missionary God" by John R. W. Scott from a text book called Perspectives. This text discussed how God is on a mission to bless us, all of us, all of His children. In the discussion following the reading of this chapter it was stated that "we should be Global Christians of a Global God. Not 'American Christians' of an 'American God'. We are all believers of the same God." To me this means we as Americans and coincidentally Christians (but not 'American Christians') should reach out to Christians in other countries and help them, care for them, and have community and contact with them because we are all children of the same Father, and He has no denomination, therefore we do not either. This fact can be hard for us to swallow because we tend to think that God is just like us and we give Him humanly qualities, but God is really indescribable. We are incapable of comprehending what He is physically like. Therefore, because He is not like any certain people group, we are not entitled to discriminate or exclude any group of people from God's love. With this in consideration, we can begin to feel the true brotherly and sisterly bond with all Christians and we can begin to be Global Christians of our Missionary God.
         This passage form Perspectives helped me to see that I can trust God to lead my life. Scott explains the promises God made to Abraham, one of them being that he and Sarah would have many many children even though they were very old (like 80) and Sarah was never able to have children in the past. Abraham believed God despite all the odds stacked up against them. Abraham and Sarah trusted that God knew what He was doing, and eventually God delivered His promise. He blessed Sarah and Abraham with many children and they both lived to be even older. The lesson from this deliverance of promises is that God fulfills everything He says He will do, but He will do it on His own time, and in His own ways.

Psalm 96:1 "Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth."

Today in Practical Missions A3 we analyzed Psalm 96 and Isaiah 58. Psalm 96 really stood out to me, particularly verse 1 and 2 "Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord praise His name." This passage challenged me to think: Is the 'song' that I am 'singing', the life that I am living, praising God? I would like to be able to say of course! But unfortunately some of the things I do are contradictory to what I should be doing or should be acting. For example, I am having particular trouble with forgiveness, patience, and prioritizing my life (putting God/The Word first). Not so much forgiving, as forgetting. This passage can be read as King David worshiping and praising God, but it can also be taken as a passage that causes one to reevaluate one's life. Everything I do in my life should be a reflection of my heart, which loves God and knows all the teachings of His ways, yet as a Christian I forget how I should act. I am taking steps to help me better prioritize my life. For example, I just recently established an accountability partnership with one of my best friends. Hopefully this partnership will help my 'song' become a praise and worship 'song' about God.

Spread the Gospel and When Necessary Use Words

I am creating this blog mainly because it is a class assignment for my Practical Missions class but also to record my experiences in my spiritual life through the way of performing and studying mission work and community service. Things you will find in this blog include the matters which God places on my heart through out my walk with Christ this year. Hopefully the things I discuss can relate to those who read this. Other things you will find on this blog include things I learn in my missions class that I think are interesting, or my opinions about what I have learned.
Missio Dei translated means the "mission of God". To me that translates as the mission of spreading the Word of God, the good news about Jesus Christ. There are many different ways to accomplish this mission, but my favorite way can be summed up in a quote by St. Francis of Assisi "Spread the Gospel and when necessary use words". I like this quote because I am often a shy person and I feel awkward just striking up a conversation with someone about God, Jesus and their salvation; I am more comfortable serving someone out of love for them and showing them Christ through my actions and everyday life. Eventually, people will notice that there is something different about me, something different about the decisions that I make, the way I treat people and the way I act in situations. This way people end up asking ME about my faith and God, which makes me feel more comfortable. Also this way, they are more receptive to what I have to say, because they are truly curious and want to know what the deal is, instead of me forcing them to listen to my preaching. The problem with this is that I don't feel like I am making that much of an effort to spread the Word, because I am not feeling proactive, I am not taking myself out of my comfort zone just because I am afraid of rejection, and that seems selfish and cowardly. The up side to this method is that my actions can at least plant a seed in a person, and God can take it from there. I am by no means a christian who has it all figured out, and spreading the Gospel is one thing that I have struggled with my whole life, maybe this class will help me.
My expectations for the Practical Missions course is to learn about missions taking place in the world today, some famous missionaries of today and from the past, mission work happening in my immediate area, and how i can get involved in mission work today. Also I hope that I can benefit spiritually from this class and to gain experience in the mission field.