Posts tagged: perspective

What Does It *Mean* For Christ To Be Your Treasure?

June 12, 2009, by No comments yet

This is a short video from Sermon Jams featuring a sermon snippet from a modern-day hero of mine: John Piper (who is on twitter!).

Listen to him spell out Paul’s teachings about displaying Christ as your treasure!

How much is a trillion dollars?

February 6, 2009, by No comments yet

Check out this post from the ‘Between Two Worlds‘ blog, shedding some light on how much money our government wants to borrow from future generations.

Here’s a telling snippet:

Adjusted for inflation, here are some other massive expenditures:

  • * The Marshall Plan ($115.3 billion)
  • * The space race ($237 billion)
  • * The Korean War ($454 billion)
  • * The New Deal ($500 billion)
  • * The invasion of Iraq ($597 billion)
  • * The Vietnam War ($698 billion)

Perspective from a friend

September 17, 2008, by 1 comment

My good friend Tricia and her husband just moved to Thailand with hopes of seeing children come to know Christ.

It’s especially interesting for me to read about their adventures because a couple of years ago I was with Tricia in Central Asia for a year and we learned a lot from each other as we adapted to life in a new culture.

If you haven’t made it over there yet, you should visit their blog and tell them you’re praying!

A few days ago, she had an especially thoughtful post.

Here’s a excerpt:

I also find myself a little bit resentful that I can just go down the street to the ‘mall’ to go to Starbucks or McDonalds, KFC or Burger King. Then, I find myself pretty thankful for the convenience of being able to buy the same toiletries and groceries here, more or less. One of the reasons that I wanted to come here was to live life more ‘simply’. I found myself so much closer to the Lord in Uzbekistan, when I wasn’t surrounded by all the ‘stuff’ that America has to offer. I really hope to find that here, even though it is not as simplistic here as Uz. Probably, this is more of a heart issue than anything else anyway.

We also went to a church here last night, and I found myself very critical of how they did things in a ‘third-culture’ environment. I kept thinking, “This is not how we did things in Crusade… Is this really being sensitive to the Thai culture?… This seems like an American church transplanted to Bangkok…” Whoa, Tricia… “Judge not, lest you be judged.”

Perspective

September 16, 2008, by No comments yet

Take a minute and read this article about human rights in Uzbekistan, a country of 30 million people run by a ruthless murderer.

Here’s an excerpt:

The case against Turgunov sends a chilling message to other activists that working for justice is a dangerous business in Uzbekistan. Despite the recent release of several other activists, new cases like this one show that any government critic will be dealt with harshly.

Got a minute?

August 14, 2008, by No comments yet

’cause if you do, I’d like to share a couple of neat opportunities with you…

When I went overseas, I had about 11 weeks to find enough folks to commit to giving about $1,200 a month for at least a year while I was gone. Once I had been gone for a couple of months, a good bit of my support dropped off. I ended up having to watch my finances very carefully, and I still spent a lot of my own money.

The day I got home, I pretty much had nothing in the bank, and I actually owed some money to cover travel expenses for getting home.

Missionaries shouldn’t have to deal with that.

Fast-forward to today: God is good and He takes care of me. Steph and I are ironing out some financial rinkles and God is teaching us in the process. But I want to introduce you to three friends who are now in the shoes I was in a couple of years ago:

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1) Meet Tricia and Matt. Tricia is my sister from another mother. She was with me in Uzbekistan, and is one of the awesome-est (yes, I just made that a word) people you’ll ever meet. Since we’ve been back, she and Matt got married and started a life together.

In a couple of weeks, they will be moving to Thailand to spread the Gospel. They will earn their place in the culture by teaching english to elementary school students at this school. Once they arrive in the country, their expenses will be paid as part of their teaching positions, but they are responsible to cover all of their travel expenses, which will be several thousand dollars.

Up until now, Tricia has been working at a church, and Matt has been working part-time while going to seminary. This is another way of saying, “These kids have been living on a string and a couple thousand dollars doesn’t come easy.” If everyone who looked at this blog yesterday gave 20 bucks, we could pay for their whole trip. Please pray about it and let me know if you wanna help!

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