Flying Burritos:

Burrito-Bird:

I predict there will jokes-a-plenty about how the thing runs ongas, or about the extra hot-sauce overheating the motors.  Here it comes, though, to a University near me, drone delivered burritos.  Just a short time ago I passed on news about pizzas arriving on little copters down under.  Now I read that Chipotle, Google, and Virginia Tech have teamed up to test burrito's from the sky. Stephen, Sarah, let me know if they arrive still hot. If I were a student at Tech, I'd probably order some Mexi-drone food.  There just has to be a Beamer Special, or maybe they come with Hokie Sauce.  I'd probably go out in the yard and video my supper arriving.  It's pretty kewl, but I read news like this with a pang of conviction. While others are so busy figuring out new ways to get pizza and burritos into people's hands, mouths, and stomachs, not to mention money in the suppliers account; what am I doing to make the Good News about Jesus to those who need it.  To horribly mix my metaphors what we need is not a better way to remotely impact the world (the idea is not new), we needboots on the ground. Enjoy your pizza and burritos, whether they come by air or in the family car, but let's be sure that we pray, live lives that show forth the truth of God, and share the Good News whenever we have opportunity. It may be remote, but I'd love to make it up close and personal--If you don't know about the Good News, of which I speak, clink on the link at the end of this email It's STTA. Want to find out about the Good News?  Click here.

The reached become the reachers to the unreached:

A couple of days ago I told you about some new friends I met.  If you missed it click here.  (I know I was supposed to get back to you yesterday, but you know . . .) It was my privilege to meet representatives from GIDI, The Evangelical Church of Indonesia, while I was in Palau.  The Palauan Evengelical Church was celebrating the 85th Anniversary of the Gospel coming to their Islands.  The Evangelical Church of Indonesia is just over 50 years old.  You can read a bit of the history here.  (At left the two groups meet to sign the mission agreement.) Both groups have a commendable zeal for sharing the Good News about Jesus with others who have not heard.  Palau is a tiny nation, about 20,000 in population.  Indonesia is a Muslim country.  In both places the church is new, and still has internal issues to sort out.  Yet, these are people who take seriously the Great commission to make disciples of all nations.  The two groups are partnering to reach out to the unreached on the Island Papua, (New Guinea) Indonesia. Even newer is a church among an even smaller, younger people group.  My friends and associates Doug and Dorcas Williams have been instruments in God's hands to reach out to the Awa, a tribe that lives in the Highlands of Ecuador.  I have met Paulino and Milton, the Elders of the church there.  Both of them are first generation Christians.  In a few weeks they will be leading the Awa for the first time, ever, without any assistance from missionaries.  (At right is a group of Awa children at one of the meeting places of the Awa church.)  They have already been taking steps to reach out to Awa communities where the Gospel has not yet been taught. So, what am I doing with the opportunities God has given me? It's Something to Think About.   To find out more about CBC at our website. God's Story in His Own Words. a message composed of nothing but Scripture that presents the flow of Divine Revelation from "In the beginning," to the final "Amen." You can find the most relevant message of all time here.

Something to Think About for April 9, 2014:

Something To Think About, Spreading the Word, 4/8

We have We have been working with John's seven signs that he presents “so that [we] may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing [we] may have life in His name.” (John 20:31, NASB95)  These miraculous signs are prominent in the first half of John's Gospel. Turning water into wine, chapter 2; Healing the nobleman's son, 4; Healing of the paralyzed man at Bethesda, 5; The feeding of the 5,000, 6; Walking on water, 6; Giving sight to the man born blind, 9; and The raising of Lazarus, 11 are all very impressive actions.  They would have impressed no one, however, had not those who knew about them told someone--many someones. I just had a brief exchange with someone who is very aware of God has done for him.  He is eager to tell about it.  From the Apostle John to my friend, unless we tell what Christ has done others won't know what He can do. Go tell somebody!    It's Something to Think About. Explore the Good News here.  Its one of our attempts to tell somebody.

What the World Needs:

Something To Think About, What the World Needs: 2/28

It's doesn't take a news junkie to see that the world is in a mess.  Words like genocide, refugee, militants, and mass-starvation have become way too familiar over the past few years.  Cities on fire, angry mobs in streets, and children with blank faces and emaciated bodies have become way too common as images that daily assault us.   Luke is a historian.  When we read his gospel and his history of the early church we get some idea of the world in which the Good News about Jesus first made an impression.  It was a world where on one occasion the disciples told Jesus about some  Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.  (Luke 13:1)  When you read some of the central chapters of Acts you can see the lines of refugees leaving Jerusalem, persecuted for their faith.     “Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” (Acts 9:1–2)  Luke's friend Peter writes about the struggles of these displaced persons, the victims of religious cleansing, working hard to make a new life in a new place.  Peter addresses them as "Those who reside as aliens." The Roman Empire of 2,000 years ago was not unlike our world today. If we could back to that world we would observe many needs:  People needed housing, food, medical care, and education--again very much like our world. You can't spend much time in the New Testament, though, without coming to the clear understanding that above all those things, and, in many ways, as that which would lead to a solution for those problems, people needed the Lord. They still do. I'm not saying we shouldn't seek to feed the hungry and house the homeless. We should--especially when those in need are helpless children.  What I am saying is we need to make sure we don't neglect what is most important. This bad news world needs to hear THE GOOD NEWS!   It's STTA. Explore this Good News here.

The US government just closed twenty-two embassies in Africa and the Middle-east.  It seems the chatter is intense.  Lots of bad guys saying bad things about us.  A number of officials and observers say it is similar to what we recognized--mostly in hindsight--before 9/11/01.  I have found it kind of interesting that even those one would expect to pile-on in criticizing the current administration have been reluctant to criticize the closures.  The name "Ben Ghazi" comes up often.  We don't want that again.  

As polite as diplomacy is, it is also dangerous.  Representing one nation in the midst of another can be quite hairy.  Those of us who follow Christ areambassadors.  We represent the Kingdom of God in the midst of a realm that "lies in the power of the Wicked One"  (1 John5:19).  

That is not the kind of thing that can be done with the guarantee of safety.  I know people whose loved ones have died in taking the Good News to those who haven't heard.  Even some of my preacher buddies, who serve in the comfort of the Bible belt, have been treated pretty shabbily.  I heard, just yesterday, about one who after some pretty shameful treatment just quit.  My son was asked to leave a country because he was engaged in proclaiming Christ.  I met one of his associates who just recently was also invited to leave.  Careers have been stymied and even ruined, and young people are socially ostracized--no small concern if you are sixteen years old.  So, do we just put a sign on the door letting the world know that we are shutting down until the opposition subsides?

 

 

Let's ask the Apostle Paul, who was beheaded, or Peter who was crucified, or John who lived in exile.  Our Lord warned us that it would not be easy here in the land where He was crucified.  (John  15:20)

No, we need to proclaim Good News in the face of bad news.  In fact the bad news serves to illustrate why the world needs to hear the message.

 

 

 It's STTA