(USA) War Cry Oct, 28, 2006

That's My wife and son on the cover. If you don't always read the WarCry (I'm Guilty) read My wife's article.

The Racial Make up of Jesus, and what it means to us.

The other day o walked out of the Subway to the sounds of an Militant black man explaining that Christianity is a white Man's Religion worshiping a white man's God. as i continued to walk down the street i encountered a Woman dress head to toe in white explaining Jesus was indeed Black himself because he came from Ethiopia.

In the past I have ignored any of "special revelation" Whether it came from these or any other extremists groups. I have always simply accepted that Jesus was a Jew. But how pure was his heritage. Matthew seems to go to great lengths to point out the those none Jews in Jesus Family Tree.

Matthew 1:1-6

1A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
4Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
6and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife,

If you are like me you probably skip over those verses every time you get to them. I had never heard of Balam or his donkey until my third year of college because i could never make it past the first chapter of Numbers for just that reason.

But Matthew put it there for a reason and he has deliberately included the names that we read while he has left many out.

OK SO what's the Point?

The point is... They weren't Jewish (at least not by birth.)

Tamar and Rahab were Canaanites, Ruth was a Moabite and Bathsheba was a Hittite.

So What’s the point?

The roots of Jesus' family tree descend into the most sinful depths of ancient middle and near eastern history.

so what's the point?

Jesus wasn't just a Jewish Messiah? the blood he shed for the world was also from the world!!!

So what's the point?

Well its not a revolutionary discovery but it is pretty cool.

A Citadel or a Parish?

On most occasions I support the Military language and symbolism of the Salvation Army. I am even Proud of it. We are at war with sin and its effects on our world. And there is nothing symbolic about that war. It is war in the realist sense. It is dangerous and there are causalties. There are victories and there are losses. Just mentioning victories and losses floods my mind with memories of both.

However, Historicly we have refered to our corps (church/mission station) as a citadel. This is a term I fear may have become a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy. The Following definitions are from dictionary.com

citadel
–noun 1. a fortress that commands a city and is used in the control of the inhabitants and in defense during attack or siege.
2. any strongly fortified place; stronghold.
3. (formerly) a heavily armored structure on a warship, for protecting the engines, magazines, etc.

The Term Citadel is reflective of what many of our corps have become. A place of protection used to either to retreat to or control from. Ultimately, i don't care what any of it is called as long as the work is getting done but... We have not been called to fight from a fortified postion. Sadly most of our ministry is done not by our "Regular soldiers" but by employees. (I know Larry this shouldn't be sad we have many wonderful employyes but it is sad that "our forces" are not in the war to which they have enlisted)

Could you imagine the resources that would be freed up and how much more would be accomplished if the work of the army was done by its soldiers?

In the more litergical churches especially the Roman Catholic, the concept of Parish is used. The parish is not the Church building but the Community in which that building resides. There is a sence of responcibility to that community. Oh, what a difference we could make if we could get our entire corps to start viewing their community as their responcibility.

Are we White Castle Christians?

Tonight I took my son for a special "treat". We went to White Castle and As i sat their pounding another nail into my coffin i realized something, White Castle burgers are terrible. I mean they are not just bad in the sense that all fast food is pretty bad. These things are just foul they. they are nasty. bordering on not fit for human consumption. But... where else could i take my son out to dinner and have the entire meal for both of us only cost only 3 bucks. Thats right 3 bucks including the drinks. thats less than a starbucks coffee!!!.

I thought about complaining, bringing my burger to the counter and explaining that my bun was soggy and the onions apear to have eaten their way through the "meat". But i am sure they would have just laughed at me. They know their food's bad. They have no desire to make it better. Their entire bussiness plan rests on their food being bad. They sell substandard food which allows them to keep their prices considerabley lower than anyone elses. Then they keep their restruants open in areas where the are lots of people all the time, and they never close. what's more, people don't just eat it they grow to like it and even crave it.

I was thinking do we take the WhiteCastle approach to the Gospel? Do we off a substandard version of christianity that requires little of people, and at the same time makes the Fat and out of shape?

While becoming a Christian is easy sometimes we conveniantly forget how much work the Christian live requires.

Faith and football

/>




Besides making the winning touchdown this game will always be special to me. It was a blessing on so many levels. Let me explain:

Our Director of Outreach Josh Jones has been taking an intentionally organic but extremly active approach to ministry. He moved into Stapleton 4 months ago when he took the job he stands out like a sore thumb, but he has quickly become a recognizable part of the neighborhood. He can be found playing basketball on any given day in the local parks and he actually holds his own. anyway he convinced a group of neighbor hood teens to come out for a backyard rules tackle football game. Then he convinced myself our Youth Outreach person "Aaron Moore and Our cook "Terrence" to come out and play against these "kids".

This was the first time i have done anything athletic since having my aorta replaced 2.5 years ago and needless to say my wife was a little concerned. but once the smack talk started i was in. I figured a bunch of 16 year olds can't handle 4 reasonably healthy men. well after almost 3 hours we were we were any thing but healthy.

The score was tied Josh called a huddle while lying on his backand we got made the play i scored the winning touchdown.

I am blessed because just over two years ago i was lying in a hospital bed wondering if i would wake up after a risky heart surgery and here i am play takle football, but that is the side story the true mircle happened the next day. We had our second sunday evening Praise meeting (we recently added a second sunday worship service on sunday evenings) and everyone who was at the game (most had never attended church before) came to our worship service.

1 Corinthians 9:27 Says:
No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

It has been 5 days: The side of Josh's face is black and blue. Our cook can barely walk Aaron has a cut on the inside of his mouth and is walking with a paquiliar limp, and every muscle in my body is sore but boy am i enjoying the prize. Winning was great too but what a church service we had the content of the service however will be fodder for another blog.

Some thoughts on the Sermon on the Mount (particularly the command to turn the other cheek.)

There is a historic cycle of oppression. As the oppressed find freedom and gain power they become the oppressor. That is the only way humanity has seen power modeled.

So here Jesus comes along and preaches something truly new and radical. Turn the other cheek give your clothes away.

And when we read this we quickly ask well he didn't mean that literally.

"If some one hits me I am gonna hit him back."


You can hit your oppressor back (or whatever form the retaliation takes)and no one is going to fault you for it. But when you model truly and yes literally the teachings of Christ you will impact the world

When. Dr. King organized non violent resistance he succeeded where others had failed he took Jesus to his world

When the 13 year old Amish girl called out kill me kill me hoping to save some of he classmates she modeled Jesus to her world.

When Jesus prayed father don't hold this against them they don't have a clue what they are doing for the very people who butchered and murdered him he was being a living example of his own words. And he impacted the world.

Did he mean it literally? Yes! Does it sound impossible? yes!!!

If anybody ever told being a Christian was easy they were lying to you. "Becoming" a Christian is easy. Living the Christian live the way it was meant to be lived... There is a reason Jesus talked about dying to self and bearing ones Cross.

Amish and escapism?

When i was Studting Missions in college the amish were often used as an example of christian escapism or christians trying to live out of the world and not of it. They are an easy target because obviously there were never any in the class to defend themselves. The recent tragic shooting at athe Amish Schoolhouse has led me to think on their life style as a communuity.

When the shooting happened before the dust had even cleared amish community leaders were publicly declaring their forgiveness to the family of the shooter and inviting the family to their own funeral services.

my wife and I love lancaster county particulary Amish country we spend time there when ever possible and we have been impressed by how open the comunity is to outsiders. I have been invited into amish homes had the men share artices with me and even prayed with one. But their way of life is strict.

anyway the recent tragedy has led me to some questions?

Can a community communicate God's Love to each other and outsiders better when they have removed distraction?

Have we (non Amish Christians) bemone syncreistic by alowing ourselves to be overcome by the things of this world?

"Myspace as Ministry?"

Earlier this summer the Salvation Army's Eastern Territory blocked access to the internet community "Myspace.com" from all computer connected to its network spanning the east coast. This decision was made after a rash of media reports involving incidents of girls and boys being sexually preyed on using the internet community as a meeting place"

While i have been outspoke infavor of internet ministry this event presents a real world example of how relational holiness happens in the context of a larger community.

In each momment an individual is presented with with scores of decisions or responces. these responces can be to past action of the indivisual, God, or others. God through his spirit is constantly calling the individual to respond in Love.

What ever decision is made sets into motion ascore of possible responces for those in community.


In this case the decision to block myspace appears to be a genuine decision made in the hopes of protecting young people using the salvation armys computers.

Just because this decision was made as a loving responce does not mean it was best nor does it just impact those who it was made in responce to.

It is then up to those who are also effected by this decision to also respond to it in love. The happened in the form of a kind exchange between some minstry practicioners in the field and those who made the decision.

Finally for the leaders of the larger community to atempt to come to a solution that is also a loving responce.


I Realise if you were just interested in what the army's position on myspace is than you wasted your time reading this but this blog is dedicated to holiness in particular i have been excited by what has been call relational Holiness. as revealed in the simplified process i just outined. The process of responding to each other in the context of community is truly beautiful when it works.

unfortunately it tends to break down when one or to in comunity react to others in a way that is less than loving. however even then if the rest of the comunity responds in a loving responce

Ministry Is Messy

If we take the call to love our neighbors seriously we are in for a bumpy ride. Truly loving our neighbors means we cannot hide nice programs and services we canot simply pray for our neighborhoods we have to get to know our neighbors. Once we get to know our neighbors on a real level One by one they start to invite us into their lives.

The problem is peoples lives are complicated especially in the city and our cute little programs and services don't awalys help real people with complicated problems and when we truly love them we cannot simply say sorry this is beyond our 'scope of service'

We get messy

recently my In-laws took in the two dependants of a 35 year old woman who died from cancer complications. These children were not the woman's but her neice and nephew whose father died about five years ago. My In-laws took them because no one in the family was really able to take take them they truly loved these children

I wonder what this world would look like if more people were willing to get messy

What if Pro-lifers were willing to take time and get training in counseling and spend time with young girls making the hardest decision of their lives what if they were to make a commitment to support the child even raiser her or him if the mother were to bring her or him to term. I realize that it is harder to make comitments that require so much but isn't that what true love is about?