Faith & God

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Are You a Christian?

Are you a Christian?

Sometimes the answer is obvious. Sometimes it’s not.

If you have a vibrant, intimate relationship with God, where you hear His voice and tell Him your innermost thoughts, where you rely on Him to guide you and strengthen you as you live your life completely entwined with His, loving and serving others… then I’d feel pretty confident agreeing that you are a Christian.

If your claim to faith is based on being born to Christian parents, or into a “Christian” nation, but you never read a Bible or pray, you never go to church (on only on Easter), you have no interest in God whatsoever and are pretty satisfied with that state of affairs, well, you might want to read the fine print on your fire insurance policy (start with Matthew 7:23 or Luke 13:27).

Most of us who call ourselves Christian fall somewhere between these two examples. At some point in our lives, we’ve prayed the “sinner’s prayer” acknowledging our failings and subsequent need for mercy and forgiveness. We own a Bible and read it at times. We go to church, unless there’s a big game on. (If we’re super spiritual, we only skip church if our team is in the playoffs.) We can speak fluent “Christianese.” And we pray for God to help us, especially if life isn’t going our way at the moment. God is in our lives, but is He in charge?

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Easy Money

You’ve seen the ads: makemoney-online

I always assumed such things were scams, and ignored them. Then an acquaintance got sucked in, and I decided to do a little research. Are any of these offers legitimate? Can you really make money stuffing envelopes, typing, or commenting on blogs? Thankfully, several well-known sites have done the research on these claims, so I didn’t have to. Here’s what they found.

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The Spiritual Value of an iPhone

product-hero-iphone4-1Glenn Packiam is one of the pastors at our church, and a very wise man of God. I’ve recommended both his books (Butterfly in Brazil and Secondhand Jesus) in previous posts; this time I want to direct you to his blog.

Everything Glenn writes is gold—but this post I’d rate as platinum—or iridium! He has managed to take something we can all relate to and use it to convey a priceless spiritual truth. And he did it in under 200 words. You gotta read this!

Practicing the Presence of an iPhone

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Don’t be a sucker

The internet is a strange and wonderful place. You can find information on pretty much anything, from how to blow your nose (over 100,000 Google results!) to a life-sized photograph of a blue whale. And everyone knows that mixed with the fascinating facts and helpful tips is an tremendous pile of pure, er, nonsense.

I recently came across a website that might take the award for “most audacious” among the myriad of con artists trying to swindle suckers out of their cash. These guys should receive a Pulitzer prize for their skill at sounding scientific while spouting unbelievable quantities of double talk.

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What Should We Then Eat? (Part 2)

refrigeratorStanding in front of the open refrigerator door, you survey the contents. What do you want to snack on? In today’s globalized world, this is a complicated question. In April I commented about our nutritional choices. Today I’m more interested in the environmental repercussions.

How is the food grown? What fertilizers are used? Are the plants sprayed with pesticides? And are organic growing methods automatically better? How about the use of fossil fuels to transport food over long distances? Or the energy and other resources used in processing, preserving, and packaging those convenience products? If you believe all the hype, you could be convinced that an environmental apocalypse is just around the corner, all because of our food choices.

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Book Review: Trusting in His Goodness

Trusting cover-1Can you trust God?

That’s the question this book raises—is God someone we can trust, not only when things are going well, but when life is one catastrophe after another? In the midst of our pain and trials, can we depend on God to come through for us?

Rather than spouting off unsatisfying pat answers, authors Mimi Wilson and Shelly Cook Volkhardt take the reader through a series of easy-to-understand lessons—digging into scripture to find God’s promises, and illustrating each point with examples from their own experience or the experiences of those they know. You feel that you’re sitting at the kitchen table, having tea together, while they relate what they’ve learned in the valleys of their lives.

The truth of God’s goodness, the very essence of His character, forms a firm foundation for a series of practical applications anyone can relate to.

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What do you want to be when you grow up?

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

How many times were we asked that as kids? And how many kids announce that they want to be a “nobody” when they become adults? We want to be astronauts, firefighters and doctors, or perhaps president. In many Christian families, the goal is more spiritual: pastor or missionary. The bottom line is, everyone wants to be significant.

I was raised with the message that “I could be anything I wanted” when I grew up. Of course that’s ridiculous. I’m such a klutz, I fell off my stool in art class in 8th grade (and the social fail of it obviously scarred me for life). Clearly, I wasn’t going to be a professional athlete… or a whole host of other things.

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Leaving Your Comfort Zone

Misty2Ahhh. My own bed. My own pillow. All my stuff, just where I left it. Familiar food in the fridge, a choice of clothes in the closet, and an extremely disgruntled cat demanding to be catered to. I’m dead center in my comfort zone.

After two back-to-back trips, one to Arizona and one to Puerto Rico, we’re finally home after more than three weeks of almost solid travel. The trips were great, but it sure feels good to be back.

My husband and I love to travel, and try to take advantage of every opportunity to do so. But that’s not true for everyone. One of Pete’s college roommates made it to the ripe old age of 22 having never left the state of California.

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Oblivious

“Oh! Flowers! How long has that been there?” It had just registered with my absent-minded husband that a pot of blooming daffodils was sitting on our normally empty stair landing. It had been there for several days, but I was still impressed. Usually he doesn’t notice such things at all.

Let’s just say that Pete isn’t the most observant guy around. This used to bother me greatly. I would buy a new outfit (a very rare occurrence, since I really hate to shop). When exaggerated mannerisms didn’t work, I resorted to more desperate ploys. “Sweetie—notice anything different?”

He would invariably answer, “Nice haircut.”

It got to be a joke. Rearrange the living room. “Nice haircut.” Paint the white hallway a lovely shade of peach. “Nice haircut.” Replace the photographs in the frames over our couch. “Nice haircut.”

In fact, the only change I could make that wouldn’t elicit “nice haircut” was to actually cut my hair.

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Supporting Short-term Missions

k at elephant temple

Karin at elephant god temple in Nepal

 

Dear Friends and Family,

  • Would you contribute to my ministry trip? I’m going to the Philippines this summer.
  • I need to raise $1500 to go to Afghanistan.
  • My church is sending a team to the Dominican Republic to build a church building—can you help?

Yup, the letters are arriving right on schedule, as both teens and older adults are making their plans and raising prayer and financial support. We always set some money aside in our giving budget to support these short term mission efforts, partly because we believe they will make a difference in the area where they will be working, and largely because it is a life-changing experience for the fledgling missionary. There is a vast gap between hearing about the world and seeing it with your own eyes.

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