I went to see Ben Stein's movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed [Web site], this afternoon. It was well-constructed, and his interviews were well-done, showing respect for the evolutionists he interviewed and asking the hard questions of the intelligent design representatives he interviewed.
You should see this movie.
The movie is not about Creationism. The movie is not about the theory of intelligent design. The movie is about academic freedom.
Students are being oppressed in this country by those who would deny our God-given right to ask questions (partially guaranteed by the First Amendment in the redress of grievances clause). It is not whose idea is right or wrong or valid or invalid. It is that we have the right to ask questions. It should be self-evident that God has given us the right to ask questions about anything and everything. It is most profitable to us if we ask questions in humility and in the search for truth, but we can ask any question.
Except in the classroom. In the classroom, the Right of Inquiry is being denied.
That is why this movie is important. We need to be aware that the Right of Inquiry is being denied, and we need to demand that institutions and governmental bodies respect our rights of inquiry and discourse. We need to demand that theories be taught in the context of discourse and rigorous criticism.
I do not believe Creationism should be taught in a classroom funded by taxpayers. I do not believe that Intelligent Design Theory should be taught as the only theory of the origin of life. I do not believe that Neo-Darwinian Evolution Theory should be taught as the only theory of the origin of life. I believe that these theories should both (or in concert with other theories) be honestly discussed as theories put forth by their respective authors, honestly criticized in a discourse of examination and inquiry, and honestly set to rest at the end of the unit or class as exactly what they were at its beginning: theories. And let the students decide for themselves what theory they feel has the best basis in fact, evidence, logic, and their own personal worldview. Anything less is a disservice to science and to the students of our educational institutions. To teach one theory and only one theory in a classroom is to preach a dogma, not to teach an informative course in science or anything else that falls under the heading of education.
Any theory that cannot exist in an environment of discourse, criticism, and inquiry is not a serious theory. In the words of Charles Spurgeon, "Truth is a strong tower and never requires to be buttressed with error."

This evening, there was at OWC's Arts Center a lecture by Nancy Pearcey on the cultural implications of the evolution theory. This was part of the reason I chose to watch the movie today. The newspaper indicated that the movie was the subject of the lecture. It was called "Beyond Expelled"
One of the interesting things she pointed out is that roughly 80% of this country believes that an intelligent designer (either through guided evolution or through direct creation) was involved in the origin of the forms of life we see in the world today. Only 10-20% believe evolution without any supernatural force is the source of today's diverse world of life. And then she said something I thought was noteworthy:
"The public schools have a responsibility to respect the public."
Now, if 80% of the nation believes there was a designer involved, why do the school systems teach as though it were uncontested a theory of naturalistic forces without the input of a designer?

Something that occurred to me while she was speaking was the realization that the environmentalist who fights to protect the planet from polluter-humans and the amoral business that pours toxic sludge into the rivers both take their worldview from the same place. Darwinism is the belief behind both the personification of the environment, or less extremely, the dignity of the environment, that the environmental movement holds central and the contextual erasure of the exploitative business or social pragmatist. They both rely on this idea of man as an evolved animal who has no higher spiritual calling than to either fulfill his animalistic passions or to protect nature as an example of all that is pure and natural.
Neither the environmentalist nor the unscrupulous corporate raider has respect for both human freedom and dignity and for stewardship of the earthly realm. In fact, I would suggest that only a worldview based on the Bible (an economic model of Biblical capitalism, which relies on both stewardship and individual self-determination) can respect both humanity and natural stewardship.
In other words: If there is no creator, if we came from non-living matter purely by chance or natural laws, but either way without a creator, then we have no responsibility to each other as humans with dignity, nor do we have anyone to be responsible to in the question of whether to practice good stewardship of the land, because without a creator, we have no one to be stewards for... and since I have already said that without a creator there can be no responsibility to each other, there is likewise no responsibility to hold the land in stewardship for our descendants. This is the logical consequence of a worldview wherein people came from evolutionary processes alone.

By the way, she also mentioned in passing the practice in many schools of telling children that all ideas have equal validity. This is a precept of postmodernist philosophy. I immediately thought of this comic: Hard Onions: Marketplace of Ideas
So, go see the movie, and check out the writings of Nancy Pearcey.

Edited to add:
Freedom of Inquiry means being able to follow the evidence wherever it leads.
There is a false dichotomy between science and religion. I believe honest scientific exploration in search of the truth will always lead to a deeper understanding of the truth of God's word.
Freedom of Inquiry means encouraging questions and seeking of the truth.
Students have the right to know that what they are being taught is accurate. How can they discover that if they can't ask questions about the validity, truth, and accuracy of what is being put forth?
"The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." --Albert Einstein

One day, we will have to tell our children the truth about the environmental movement.
We will have to say:
When I was younger, we allowed a massive, unlawful cartel to control the world price of oil and damage our economy. Even though the cartel set the world market price for oil by curtailing its production whenever the price got too low for their tastes, we blamed others for the price.
We blamed the SUV owners, saying their excessive consumption drove up demand and created high prices. We blamed BP, Citgo, Shell, and Exxon for making a profit, even though their profits were only about four to eight cents on each gallon of gasoline. We ignored other things that drove up the price, like the many federal, state, and local gasoline taxes, to focus mainly on the corporations that refined and transported our fuel at meager levels of profit, and we taxed the oil companies heavily because we felt they made too much profit.
When the price reached $4.00, it was the realization of the pre-2000 dream of environmentalists, who wanted to see the price of gasoline go so high that people would stop buying it. $4.00 was a common price listed as the "no way" point back when gas was $0.99/gallon.
We refused to do anything about the price of oil and gasoline because we were following a mandate from the environmental movement that we had to eliminate our use of fossil fuels. We didn't drill for the oil we had to force the world market to correct its price, and we didn't pursue non-food crop-based fuels, such as hemp. We drove up the price of corn that could feed people in order to make ethanol, even though growing, refining, and transporting the stuff used more energy than it created, and even though it required high amounts of fertilizer and pesticide.
And because we refused to do anything about the price of oil, we followed the environmental movement's advice to conserve energy by changing our light fixtures from incandescent bulbs to fluorescent tubes, even though the compact tubes brought mercury or similar toxins into our homes and created a massive problem in proper disposal of the spent lamps.
And we gave away our freedom to climate control our homes, letting someone at a remote location control the thermostats in our houses so we wouldn't use as much electricity.
Loss of freedom and damage to the economy are the results of the policies put forth by the environmental movement. Eventually, we're going to have to be honest about this and tell our children that this is what it was doing to us. Why can't we be honest about it now and find a better solution?
Look around. Think through what the policies advocated by the environmental movement will eventually do to our nation. Then look around at the political candidates and see which ones have a record most closely aligned with the environmental movement. You can be sure that they favor policies that will have these effects:
- Higher fuel prices - Burning anything (except an SUV, it seems) is bad in the eyes of the environmental movement.
- Hamstrung economic growth - Taxing the oil companies (which are most likely in your mutual fund) hurts investors, which limits the amount of money available to start businesses, which limits the number of jobs that are created, which hinders the economic growth.
- Higher food prices - One of the environmental movement's sacred cows in this country right now is ethanol made from corn or sugar cane, even though most other nations have abandoned ethanol as more resource-intensive than petroleum. Candidates favoring ethanol from food crops favor higher food prices, which means more hungry poor in the USA.
- Less freedom - The environmental movement wants to tell you that you can't choose to spend your hard-earned money on electricity to cool or heat your home to the temperature that makes you comfortable. Candidates who support the environmental movement don't support your right of self-determination in small things... what makes you think they'll support it in large things? Maybe you've heard of the concept of faithfulness with little being an indication of worthiness to manage much?
- Hare-brained solutions and computer models that don't match facts and logic - Compact fluorescent tubes use less energy than incandescent bulbs, but they contain toxic chemicals: not a sensible solution. Candidates supporting the environmental movement follow the theory of massive man-made global warming, even though the science doesn't back the theory (maybe you read a few news articles about the drop in temperatures over the last year that wiped out a century's temperature rises, to name only one of many problems with the theory)... and even though following the theory requires steps hurtful to our God-given rights.

The environmental movement has failed us, and it is time to abandon it. We need to focus on being good stewards of the resources God has given us and stop blindly following this navel-gazing warm fuzzies movement. Environmentalism is fatally flawed. Stewardship is sound both ecologically and economically, as well as theologically and logically.
We must do a better job of taking care of God's green earth -- but we won't do that by joining the environmental movement in poorly-considered plans based on questionable science.
Consider this when you choose a political candidate this November. Think about what you'll tell your children.

I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding in our society about the meaning of the word hypocrite.
From its misuse in popular reference, I observe that many people think a hypocrite is someone who says one thing and does another. Certainly, that is a small part of the meaning of this word, but if that were all, there would be no point in having the word, because we already have a word for that: human.
Yes, every human whose father and mother were born on this planet has said things and then done different things. No human alive today has ever been completely consistent in words and actions. And you wouldn't want to meet someone who did, because there are often good reasons for changing our minds and not following through on something we said we should or would do.
No, there is something much more important in the meaning of the word hypocrite.
To understand this, we need to go back to the root of the word. The ways we use and misuse words changes over time, but however we twist the meanings, the words themselves will always convey to some their original meaning, and it is often useful to return a word to its proper meaning, because words have no purpose if they do not clearly and properly convey information.
Now, this word hypocrite comes from a Greek word that means actor. And therein lies its true meaning.
A hypocrite is not someone who says one thing and does another. A hypocrite is someone who does wrong and pretends to be doing right. It is easy to confuse the two, but there is a huge difference. Saying one thing and doing another may in many circumstances (either because the situation has changed or because it is realized that following through would be worse than not doing what was promised) be helpful to all, but pretending to be doing good while behaving wickedly is never helpful.
A hypocrite is a pretender, not someone who strives for a good goal and misses the mark. We are all human, and we all make mistakes. No one can consistently do good and never do anything wrong. The tendency, though, is to expect this of others and to pretend that we are always right. And by judging the foibles of others who are trying to do right, we ourselves become the true hypocrites, pretending and deceiving ourselves that we are better because we don't talk about the good we're trying to do.
The truly righteous people acknowledge that they are no better than anyone else, try to do right, and don't, when they do something wrong, pretend in self-righteousness that they are doing right.

Microsoft has announced that Windows XP(tm) will no longer be available for most platforms and users after June 30th. This move makes sense for them, but it's not necessarily beneficial to their customers.
Luckily, there are options. ( Read more... )

Politics is a touchy subject with some people. And with many, it is the realm of emotion rather than reason.
With some politicians throwing around words like hope, change, and future without giving any clarification for what they mean by these words, I thought it would be a good idea to examine the possibilities and the mindsets that I've observed in recent months.
I think it fitting to begin with the future. Politicians love the future. After all, if all your promises are about the future, you don't have to actually do anything about them, because the future is always yet to be. The future is nebulous, unclear, and unpredictable. This is appropriate, because political promises tend to be the same things. I don't trust people who talk about the future in vague terms. If you want to talk about the future, put it in firm language so I know what you really mean to do.
Hope is a wonderful thing, but we need to have real hope, not throwaway hope. We need the kind of hope that is mentioned in Jeremiah 29:11, where God says His plans will give us a future with hope, that is, something real to look forward to. We need to avoid making political decisions based on throwaway hope, like when we look at the dark clouds and say, "I hope it doesn't rain." When we say that, we don't expect it to stay dry, and we don't really mind if that throwaway hope is not fulfilled. It's not real hope, and we don't care much whether it comes to pass. In fact, we expect that it will not be realized. This is a terrible way to make important decisions, because we have more at stake than whether we will have our picnic cut short by a rain that does us no more harm than making us wet.
No matter what anyone says, humans don't like change. We often feel there is no guarantee that the change will be for the better. Except when a politician talks about it. This is a good time to be wary. Pin people down. "What changes are you suggesting?" After all, someone who promises change can fulfill that promise by locking every person into an isolation cell. It's change, but do you support it? Change for the sake of change is not good. Changes need to happen as a logical solution to a problem. If the change is not adequately considered, it may do more harm than good. And question assumptions about what needs to change and why. It may be that someone has a vested interest in a change that hurts other people.
Of course, the most disturbing thing I've seen lately is not with the politicians themselves but with the voters. Many voters have been getting excited about candidates who say they will give them things ... things that are not really in their legitimate power to give ... things the Constitution doesn't grant the federal government power to enact.
Be careful, voters.
The road to totalitarian dictatorship is reached often through the side street of 'bread and circuses'. Be wary of anyone who promises to give you things that are not rightly yours. Government is supposed to protect your ability to use your gifts and talents and efforts to make a good life for yourself with what God has provided. Government is not supposed to give to some at the expense of others. It is supposed to protect and give equally to all (roads, etc.).
"In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, 'Make us your slaves, but feed us.'" --Dosteovsky's Grand Inquisitor
"The mob is traitor to the people." —Victor Hugo

Worrying is worthless.
I spent the whole year worrying, and nothing I worried about happened. It's not even as though there were things I worried about and because of the forethought was able to prevent. The things I worried about didn't happen. And God took care of me. I'm sure there are many things I'm not even aware of that could have happened that God prevented.
But going back to the things I worried about that didn't happen, I can say this. All the worrying has done in this year is rob me of joy and sleep and make me feel older.
I should not worry. Jesus said, "Take therefore no thought for tomorrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Therefore, that is, since God watches over the grass of the field and the birds of the air, and since we are worth much more than these things, Jesus is saying, don't borrow troubles from tomorrow. You'll have to cross the bridge when you come to it, and there's enough bad stuff in today for today. The bad thing about borrowing trouble from tomorrow is that tomorrow will forget you borrowed from it and pay you what the day demands even though you got an advance, so by worrying ahead of time, we must face our worries again if they do come to pass. And if they don't come to pass, we've worked ourselves into a tizzie for nothing at all.
Don't worry. God loves you, and God takes care of his children.

I was extra tired last night, so I did what I sometimes do when extra tired. I didn't read on where I was but flipped over to the psalms or the proverbs. Last night, it was proverbs. In Chapter 13, I ran into a very familiar verse: "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." (v12)
Now, I'd always thought of this verse, when I tried to apply it to my life, in relation to my future wife. But I was thinking last night that it could relate to my writing.
Certainly, my heart has been sick, for fear looms up on me, especially death without having done much for the Kingdom. I had been thinking of hope deferred in the search for my wife, but what of my writing? Has not that been deferred? Have I not delayed in bringing its publication to pass? And is not that a means of furthering the Kingdom? Is this delayed hope the cause of my heart-sickness?
I do not know, but I think it right I should focus my energies on these four goals now and forward; 1, to publish my first novel, 2, to help churches put forward a sincere, professional, and elegant face, 3, to get out among people to increase my exposure to potential mates, and 4, to finish my degree. But above all, to follow God's will. For I am chasing a tree of life.
Verse 19 says desire accomplished is sweet to the soul. I would taste that sweetness continually in seeking God's will and blessing others. Let it be so, O Lord. Let it be so.

Do you think I'm a strong man? Do you think I have all my ducks in a row? Do you think I am a spiritual giant?
I hope none of you think I am any of those things, because I'm not.
I'm a scared and frightened little child. I'm insecure and uncertain of myself and my future. I'm not strong or secure, and I'm tired of pretending. It's stupid to pretend, because my strength doesn't matter. It's God's strength that will carry me through whatever I face in my life.
You might wonder why I would pretend to be strong in the first place, knowing that God's strength is best displayed when I am weak. It's quite simple. I want to be strong for my wife. I want to be attractive to her as a protecter and provider. But that's silly; the woman I want to marry will be more impressed that I rely fully on God for my strength and my ability to protect her and provide for her and our children than she would be by my strength were it a hundred times the average man's.
So I should not pretend that I am a paragon of strength or that I can provide for anything in my limited energy. All people are dependent on God's loving providence to deliver into their hands the means to feed and clothe themselves honorably. Some people cheat to acquire their livelihood, but they are definitely not relying on God for their provision, and those who willfully sin to get their bread and clothing and more than they need cannot reasonably expect God's protection from calamity.
But I digress.
I am not strong. I am weak. I am a frightened little child lost in a wood. I am nothing and know nothing. If there be any good thing in me, it is what God has given me, and it is not of myself.

I finished The Code of the Woosters: Jeeves to the Rescue tonight, and while it was a trifle predictable (or else I have powers of deduction that made it predictable to me), I nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed it. However, when I say predictable, I mean that I knew what was going to happen a few sentences before it happened, and that this happened several times, not that I knew everything five steps ahead of where I was. The ending provided a few twists and turns, and while I felt sorry for the policeman, I did not feel too sorry. All in all, a delightful book, and I thoroughly enjoyed Wooster and Jeeves as characters, as well. The book had me laughing uproariously several times as I was driving down the Interstate. Fortunately, these outbursts of laughter did not cause me to lose control of my vehicle nor necessitate pulling over to the shoulder. I highly recommend it, though perhaps it would be better to begin with an earlier work in the series. I did not, unfortunately, see any other books of this sort on the library's cassette-based books shelf.

A minor note on the crochet front. I have completed another random square. I think I have almost mastered the art of turning corners. Still, I think my best square came by beginning at a corner and moving outward along two sides rather than trying to keep four corners square by going around in a squared spiral. I also toyed a little with a design I saw on a pillow, which I am trying to duplicate. Unfortunately, I did not look closely enough at the design before starting, and it turned into a cup shape rather than a flat square made of little triangles. Ah, well. You live and learn, and maybe you pull out all your stitches and start anew, the wiser for the mistakes. :)

The world attempts to tell us that hate and selfishness are the ways to live. These are lies. Don't believe them. Love and giving generously to others are the stepping stones to a life well-lived. Gentleness and love should be our goals, and in most cases our means. Other means are necessary some times, unfortunately, but we ought to minimize their use, for they are not profitable.

I am half-way through Ben Hur, a magnificent tale of a man's journey of faith. Good stuff.

Yes, we should pray for our elected officials. These are the people who have some influence over how easily we live as we want. Man can be free in any condition, but when the leaders are righteous, living a free life is easier. So I think it is important that we pray for our officials.
We should pray that our leaders will have understanding hearts, that they will follow God's will, and that those who refuse to lead righteously would be removed from their offices and be replaced with those who will lead righteously. I would also recommend that people pray for good things and not for evil for those who dissagree with them. It is best not to pray for something evil to happen. Pray that wicked plans would fail or as the psalmist wrote, that the wicked will fall into their own traps, but don't pray for someone to become sick or to be the victim of a crime.
I would recommend that we pray for our elected officials at least once in a while, but certainly no harm can come from praying for them every day.

On Monday, I was having some pain in my leg, and I began to worry about it. I asked some friends to pray for me that the pain would be nothing serious and that I wouldn't freak out.
My mom showed me a week-long series in Daily Guideposts 2007 on worry.
May 7: "Next to me, an older gentleman stretched his arms to the ceiling and announced to no one in particular, 'If I knew life was going to turn out this good, I never would have worried so much!' .... I happened to know that his life was not without difficulty." --Edward Grinnan
In the May 9 entry, Grinnan recounts a lesson given him that worry is a self-focused activity and that it blocks positive thoughts we could be having, including a focus on God. He points out that worry is heavily related to control. I think that may be why I worry so much. I like to be in control, and I'm usually not in control of anything. I should not worry.
In the May 11 entry, Grinnan mentions something that can help us to not worry: "Enthusiasm is one of the greatest blessings we can receive-- and, I'm beginning to think, the perfect antidote to worry."
So think on the good things, be excited about good things that can happen, and don't worry. These are hard instructions to keep, but if we did, we'd be much happier.
I continue to covet your prayers, because I am still having some pain in various places. I think it is from a little bit too much exertion one day this weekend and from being tired from not sleeping enough. Please pray for me that that is what I am experiencing (I may also have caught a touch of a summer cold), and that I don't worry. And don't you worry. And pray that I get the rest and whatever else I need to be healthy.

  Jesus' call to serve is that we see others, that we reach out to others, and that we invite them to serve Jesus.
  Consider the call of Levi, also called Matthew. Tax collectors in Jesus' day were more hated than tax agents today generally are. In the Roman Empire, tax collectors had a set amount they had to send to their superiors, but they often overcharged those in their dominion to line their own pockets, something that is not prevalent in the U.S.A., at least. In those days, it was nearly ubiquitous. So, tax collectors were hated and considered common, so Matthew was, but Jesus wanted him. Jesus wants each of us, no matter how much our society thinks we are worthless. Jesus wants you to be in a relationship with Him.
  But understand the costs. Jesus' call cost Matthew a lot, but it changed his life. He became a giver rather than a taker. He gained a new life and a new job that involved clean hands rather than deceit. He got peace of mind. And he got something else, something unexpected: He got immortal and world-wide fame.
  But the reason we should do missions is not any of these things we might get from answering Jesus' call. We need to do missions because Jesus calls each of us to do missions. He doesn't call everyone to go to Africa. He doesn't even call everyone to go to another country. But He does call everyone to missions.
  Every member of the Body of Christ needs to be involved in missions in one or more of three ways:
  Praying. Every member of the church is able to pray for those involved in local, national, and foreign missions. If you're not doing either of the other two things, you need to be praying. If you are otherwise involved, praying is a good thing to do, as well.
  Paying. The work of the Kingdom is not profitable. The gifts of God are very costly, up to and including His only begotten Son. Mission work tends to be more expensive than monetarily rewarding. Mission teams and individual volunteers need financial support so they can do mission work. Individuals living abroad need support so they don't have to spend part of their time putting food on their own tables. What they do is important, and they should have their needs provided for by the Church, particularly by their home church. Some people are called to go into the business world and earn as much money as they can, so they can give as much away as they can. Those who write out the checks serve a vital role in missions. It shouldn't be the only role, but their wages help others who have no money to go.
  Playing. Actually going on mission teams or serving as individual volunteers. Everyone understands this, because this is where the rubber meets the road. But do we really understand this? There is something for almost everyone in missions. Even if you can't give up three years to go to Honduras or somewhere-- Even if you can't swing a hammer or saw a board-- Even if you can't teach a class--- Even if you have no money to spend on missions-- --you can do something. There are opportunities to do missions in a variety of ways, wherever your talents are. And even if you think you have no talents, there are small jobs that contribute in big ways.
  Here are some of the things you could do in missions, starting with some big ones: Swing a hammer. Measure boards. Cut boards. Paint walls. Paint pictures. Teach a class. Referee a game. Sit and talk with someone. Listen to someone. Hold someone's hand. Watch the kids while parents do work or attend a class. Count adhesive bandages into groups of six. Sort buttons. Measure and cut fabric. Write a note and mail it. Compile health/school/sewing/layette kits. Smile.
  In missions, there are players, payers, and prayers. Are you doing something for missions? What on earth are you doing for heaven's sake?

  This segment was informed by a sermon by John Wesley Spivey, and by a talk given by Nick Elliott on the 3 P's of Missions.
If you want more information about things you or your church can do in missions, leave a comment, and I'll direct you to resources about what interests you.

  We need to remember as we do missions that missions is not for ourselves. If we are doing missions for some benefit to ourselves, we are doing missions for the wrong reasons. Even if our hope is for our church, that is still something for ourselves, our group. And that is not the point of the Church.
  "The Church is the only society on earth that exists for the benefit of non-members." --William Temple
  We need to live out that description of the Church, because if we do missions, or really anything, for the purpose of attracting members to our congregation, we are missing the point of missions. The point of missions is not to bring people to our church but to the Church, that is, to Jesus Christ and a disciple relationship with Him. We are to make disciples, and it should not matter in the least to us whether those disciples attend First Church, South Street Church, Westside Church, or Community Church. It should only matter to us that they become disciples of Jesus.
  Many churches today have fallen into a worldly trap of doing missions and ministries as a means of attracting new members for their rolls. We need to be doing missions for the right reasons.

There are many types of missions. Some are highly visible, like Paul's journeys to other nations, preaching and bringing people to Jesus. Some are also visible, such as construction projects, where there is a building for years afterward attesting to the work done there on behalf of Christ and His Kingdom. But some are less visible and often overlooked. Some missions help people but don't directly relate to the Kingdom or to souls, but we need to remember that these missions are important, too. Paul talks about planting seeds, watering plants, and reaping. Some helping missions meet people's needs without any direct relationship to salvation or Kingdom-building. But these are still important, because they most directly embody the Spirit's love, because they seek to do good to others without any form of repayment. Some people think doing good to others should be dependent on their acceptance of Christ or on their listening to the Gospel. This is wrong thinking. We should do good and show love because we follow Christ. If we are only doing good to others to get them to listen to our doctrine, we are not showing love but seeking some benefit for ourselves. Let us seek to do good to others to show love, unconditional, not dependent on their agreeing with us on any thing. Beloved, let us love one another.

  In addition to the variety of places people can serve in missions, there is also a variety of different works people can do. Each person is given talents, abilities, and passions by God for different types of work. As I Cor 12:27-30 tells us, the Spirit gives different tasks and abilities to different people, but we are all one Body, and we should not begrudge others their gifts and callings. We ought to work together, each doing what God is leading, all working toward the common goal of building up the Kingdom.
  Let each person use his or her talents and abilities to share God's love and grace, like a candle giving light to the place where it is. But Paul goes on after that passage to point out that the greatest gift is simply loving others. If we love one another, as Jesus commands, people will know that we belong to Christ.

  One of the most important things to remember about missions is that we do not forge a path into uncharted territory, taking the Lord with us. When we go into places away from our home, we are joining Jesus in work He's already doing.
  I once heard an excellent paraphrase of Psalm 59:10, which was, "My God, in His lovingkindness, shall meet me at every corner." Every time we approach a corner and don't know what's around the bend, God is there providing for us. Every time we come to a corner and feel trapped, God is already there providing for our needs. Psalm 139 tells us in verses 7-13 that no matter where we go in the world, even to the heights and depths of heaven or hell, God will be with us.
  I mention this because I know there are times we forget it.
  I heard a story a few years ago about a mission team that went to Poland. The story was told to me by a Pole, and he said that when they arrived in the airport in Warsaw, they were wearing shirts that said something like "Bringing Christ to Poland". He said the sight of it made him sick. I can well understand his feeling. Christianity was adopted in Poland in A.D. 966, over a millennium ago.
  And even if the team had been going somewhere with no formal history of Christianity, they still would not be taking Christ anywhere He had not already been. Christ precedes us in missions. Christ is at work wherever He calls us. We need to remember that we are not the root of God's grace, from which we take and spread it abroad. Nor are we the vessels where God's grace ends up, to be stored and enjoyed. We are conduits, the branches (Jn 15:5) that carry God's grace from the root to the leaves like water; living water flows through us, and while it nourishes us in passing, it does not stop in us: we pass it on.
  Remember, when you go out in missions, that you are not taking Christ anywhere. You are following Him.

  Missions is important. Every member of Christ's universal Church is called to some form of missions, whether it is full-time service in a particular field, summer mission trips, or praying daily for missionaries in the field.
  Missions is such an important part of the Church that we would be doing a great disservice to the work of the Kingdom if we went out in missions ill-prepared or with wrong motives. And yet, that is what we as individual congregations often do. This is unacceptable.
  We need to understand first that right motives don't always translate to right actions. Proverbs 27:14 says that we can bless people in the wrong way and have our actions counted as a curse. If we do not understand what we are doing, we can easily do more harm than good. Proverbs 27:7 tells us that one who is full despises even the sweetest things, which reminds us that we need to make sure the needs we're trying to meet are the needs people actually have. And Proverbs 27:12 says, "A prudent man forseeth evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished."
  Let us be wise, let us forsee the possible evils of doing missions with wrong motive or wrong preparation, and lets us avoid the danger.
  First, we must have the right motives in doing missions. We oughtn't do missions to increase our church membership. We oughtn't do missions to make ourselves feel good or to get a blessing, though that often accompanies mission work. We oughtn't do missions to make ourselves feel better about our circumstances. We ought to do missions because Jesus calls us to it, because we are reflecting God's love, and because we have the Spirit of Love in our hearts.
  Second, we must have the right attitude. We are not better than the people we meet in the mission field. We are not inherently smarter, nor do we know everything. We are not experts on the culture, no matter how long we've been working there. We don't know better than the locals. We have the same number of right ideas and wrong ideas as everyone else, really; Really. We are in missions to share God's love, and part of love is respect. We need to have an attitude of respect, because whether the local customs are right or wrong, they are the local customs. Yes, we should exhort people to righteousness and away from sin, but no, just because they do things differently doesn't make them wrong. Our attitude must show that we know the difference between actual sin and cultural differences of opinion.
  Third, we must be well-prepared for the missions we undertake. If you aren't going to take the time and effort to learn how to properly move about in another culture, stay home. If you aren't going to take the time and effort to learn how to properly do what you're going to do, stay home. It is better that you stay home and do no missions than that you go off ill-prepared and break something that was livable as it was. To go on a mission, individuals need to have training in how to approach a different culture. Training is important.
  Fourth, we need to listen to the local people. They've lived in their culture their whole lives. If they tell us something, we need to listen. We don't need to do anything we feel is counter to the will of God, but we need to listen and fairly evaluate what we are told. The simple pass on ignoring the warnings, and they are punished for it.
  Finally, in all that we do for God in missions, we need to think about how we are treating people and ask ourselves whether we would want to be treated that way.
  Missions is crucial to the Kingdom. We need to do it. We need to do it correctly. It's vitally important that we do.

  Jesus was very clear about the scope of the Church's mission field. It is four-fold, and most of us have heard what these four locations mentioned mean in numerous sermons. Jerusalem, of course, is our local community. Judea is locations near us or in our own country. Samaria is the places we'd rather not go, where there are people we don't necessarily like. And the world encompasses all mission fields.
  And the Church universal is doing a fairly good job of reaching most of these areas. But our local churches are mostly failing. Yes, some churches are sending out missionaries. Unfortunately, many churches are picking one of the four areas and neglecting the rest, particularly Samaria. I know of no translation or paraphrase that uses the word "or" during Jesus' words in Acts 1:8, and the KJV has the word "and" three times. This is not a list of choices. Each local congregation ought to be doing something for each of the four areas Jesus outlined for the mission of the Church.
  Each congregation should be doing something locally, something in other areas of their home country, something among those who would normally be considered their enemies, and something in other parts of the world. Does this mean every congregation needs to provide full support for half a dozen full-time missionaries in each of these areas? No. But each congregation should be sending out as many mission teams as it can properly equip and fund, and it should be sending them to a variety of locations, not just to one, and certainly not just in their local communities. Missions in other places is important for many reasons, one of which is that by visiting people in other cultures, even if that culture is just on the other side of our home state, we gain an understanding that ours is not the only right way, nor is our way necessarily the best. It is important that we learn this and that we see that people in other cultures are very much like us, in spite of our differences, especially with those we would not normally choose to be in our social groups.
  God wants us to see and to remind each other that we are all alike before Him. We are all infinitely precious to the Father. We all have hopes and dreams and fears and needs, and we all need a savior from our sins and a friend in time of trouble. We are all the same underneath our cloaks of color, culture, and clothing.
  It is important that every local congregation support in some way the mission of God in their own Jerusalems, Judeas, and Samarias, and in the uttermost parts of the world.
  Is your church being a witness to Christ in all of these places?

  Missions truly is the heartbeat of the Church. Christ commanded us to go forth and bring people to Him in the Great Commission. So every church ought to be going forth to do missions. But we also need to remember that missions is like a heartbeat. In the book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit, we find that the apostles went out and preached and did good works, then came together for times of fellowship, resolution of questions, edification, preparation, learning, and renewal.
  The apostles neither disbanded from each other permanently nor cloistered themselves to enjoy the heady experience of the Spirit's filling. They went out, and they came back. They scattered, then gathered, then scattered, then gathered, like a heart contracting and relaxing.
  Unfortunately today, many of our churches are having heart attacks as they gather in their relaxing phase and never contract for the scattering phase. Like a heart that stops contracting to spread oxygenated blood through the body, some of our congregations are watching their ministries wither and having no idea why.
  It is because they are not doing what a heart does: gather the blood, spread the blood through the body. They have stopped in mid-cycle. The time has come for the Body to jumpstart its hearts. The time has come for our congregations to remember why they gather. It is not so they can be filled and fed for their own benefit. It is so they can be filled and fed to have the strength to take with them into places far from the heart and impart some of that life-giving strength to those who have no access to the heart.
  The heart only gets what it needs when it pumps blood to the rest of the body. The local church only gets what it needs when it sends members outside itself to do the work of the Kingdom. A heart that only contracts and never gathers will die. A heart that only gathers and never contracts will die. A church that only gathers and never sends missionaries will die. Missions is the heartbeat of the Church. Make sure your congregation is beating. It needs both phases, and both phases need to be strong.
  The local church needs to gather to build up the members, but it also needs to send its members out into the world to create disciples. If it's not doing both of those things, look out. It may be having a heart attack.

  This segment was heavily informed by a Bible study lead by Dr. Bill Mallard.

  The Bible is clear that God is interested in having a relationship with all nations. In Genesis, when God is making a promise to Abraham, God says "I will make the a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing" (Gen 12:2); The whole book of Jonah is about God's care for a Gentile city, even though God's prophet wants nothing to do with telling them to turn to God; Proverbs has a number of things to say about helping others: In 3:27, we find instructions to give to others when it is in our power, and in 11:26, we find that people curse a man who withholds resouces but bless one who is willing to sell to those who need them.
  There is clearly a concept in God's will of our being blessed so that we will have what we need to bless others. We are blessed that we might be blessings to those in need around us.
  God wants us to be thankful for what we have, and part of our gratitude needs to be sharing with those who do not have the types of blessings we have received. They will have other things they need to share with us, and they can't do that unless we go and share of what we have. All peoples are created in the image of God, so all have something to teach and to share with others. Some have physical resources, some have spiritual wisdom, some have intense devotion, and all of us need to share with those who do not have what we have and to allow them to share with us what they have.
  I am very fond of an illustration I once heard somewhere about God's grace and the vitality and effectiveness we have depending on what we do with it. The illustration is of the Jordan River. It flows into two large bodies of water, the Sea of Galilee and the Salt Sea, also called the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee is a vibrant body of water where many people catch fish for their livelihood. The Dead Sea is so salty that no fish live in it. The difference between these two is that the Sea of Galilee has an inlet and an outlet. Water flows in and then out, continuing to bring life to the land downstream, until it reaches the Dead Sea. This body of water has no outlet river. Water comes in and seeps into the ground around the sea.
  We are like these two seas, and our vitality and effectiveness depends a lot on whether we catch and hold and hoard God's blessings, or enjoy the blessings and send them on to others. We are to be like the Sea of Galilee. We are to be conduits or pipes through which God's grace flows to others. We are not to be like the Dead Sea. We are not to be jars that capture God's grace and try to hold it in for ourselves.
  Consider one more passage from the Bible. Luke 12:16-21 reminds us that God does not want us to store up earthly blessings. Our path is clear. If we have more than we need, we should look for someone who needs what we have that we do not need. Better still is to share of what we need with those who have less of it and trust in God to provide for us.
  This is missions.

Here are some notable parts of my journal of the trip to Poland:
  "I've been thinking a lot about single-field missionaries, those lovely people who visit a place and fall in love with it and its people and go back year after year to the same place. I've never really been one of those. I've been a lot of places. This thinking seems to be leading somewhere for me.
  I also reflected that I do have a fierce love of the people in Poland. One of the things I have often prayed in recent weeks is that our team do no harm to the people in Poland, to the reputation of our church or Pastor Kris' parish in Poland, to the relationships between Poland and its Methodist churches and the UMVIM churches in the States. I am at enmity with harm."
  "While I was looking through my devotional book, I ran across a note I'd written on an entry. I had prayed that God would bring me to live out my love of the English language by teaching it OR guide me in a different direction. And I just laughed. How often do we ask God to do this or that, I reflected, and God answers with AND instead of OR? After all, here I am in Poland teaching English, AND God has led me in a different direction, Journalism or something else in Communications."
  "I'm having stronger wonderings about where God is calling me.
  I think that I'm being called to a ministry of drawing people out into the mission field. Obviously, my going many places is not going to make a huge difference, but if I can get many people to go many places for God's mission in the world, that will make a huge difference."
  "Late in the evening, I found myself rattling around and thinking about a calling to draw others into missions. Missions is important, and more important is doing missions the right way."
  We got back on Monday. On Wednesday, there was a meal and presentation by the Peru team, which had left and returned shortly before the Poland team went over. It was interesting to me to see how the light of missions was in the eyes of the team members. That excitement was good for me to see, but I didn't put it there.
  I think that's the first thing God wants me to realize about getting others involved in missions: I can't do it.
  See, I've been trying for years to get my church more involved in missions. But it was another missionary from our church who got this Peru team started. And it was that trip, not mine, that gave them that excitement for God's work.
  The second thing I think God wants me to understand is that it's okay that I can't do this.
  My job is to do what He's called me to do. The results are up to God, so the results are not my responsibility. My responsibility is to do the task God gives me to the best of my ability.
  This idea is a bit freeing, because I don't have the slightest idea about what to do first or next. But it's also scary, because I can't cling to my inability to decide the outcomes for myself, lest I should lose sight of the importance of doing the task God has given me.
  I think my first step, then, is to sit down and make notes about all the things I know about missions. I expect this will take a humblingly short amount of time.
  I wish you well. May God richly bless you.