An interview with a hero...

hattip: sean attard - you rock!

tear down the wall

20 years today that the Berlin Wall was torn down... East and West Germany were finally united after years of oppression and separation. it's incredible what has happened in history. Like the iron curtain many people found it impossible to believe that communism (at least the eastern block sort) could so suddenly collapse... read some classic escape stories here for evidence of people's desperate plea for freedom. I was privileged to be in East Germany shortly after the wall was removed - it was still very clearly a different world at the time - economics and social segregation had created it's own wall. The same was true in Russia.. again, I spent almost a year there shortly after the fall of communism.. yet the residue of communism existed still - fear, oppression, judgement, etc..
All this leads me to wonder about the residue of the enemy in our lives. We were walled in by fear, death and sin... and Jesus really knocks down that wall and invites us out and Him in... a free world... but I wonder about the marks... the scars... if we are technically free - but afraid to enter the fullness of that freedom. I want all the walls removed. Let's live in a spacious land like God promised... let the only scars remaining be the ones on His body for us. And let wholeness, freedom and peace (shalom) reign in and through us... tear down the wall.
I'm praying that a united Germany would be free from the spiritual and social walls of it's past and enter into the fullness of God's spacious and abundant life through Jesus.

Catherine Booth.

We Christians profess to have in the Gospel of Christ a mighty lever which, rightly and universally applied, would lift the entire burden of sin and misery from the shoulders (that is from the souls) of our fellow man - a total remedy for all the moral and spiritual woes of humanity. We all profess to believe this - Christians have professed to believe this for generations - and yet look at the world, look at so-called "Christian England and America." The great majority in these nations utterly ignore God, not even making a pretense of remembering Him even one day a week. And then look at the rest of the world. I have often become so depressed with this view of things that I have felt as if my heart would break. I don't know how other Christians feel, but I can truly say that "My eyes shed streams of water, because they do not keep Thy law." (Psalm 119:136) And because it seems to me that this dispensation compared with what God intended it to be, has been, and still is, as great a failure as the one that preceded it...

just a taste of Aggressive Christianity (a book of messages from Catherine Booth - a Christian hero). read more here.

a modern parable?

well, I can't really get past it. I've tried to relax a bit a just enjoy the fun of melbourne cup day celebrations... but I find it an incredible source of discomfort... last year Australian's spent 217 million dollars on Cup day. 217 million dollars on cup day. two hundred and seventeen million dollars on cup day!! now, at the same time there is a boat of impoverished and very hungry indonesians off the coast of Australia and we aren't sure that we have the resources to help them. Wow. They are now embarking on a hunger strike to try and get the attention of our nation but someone obviously forgot to tell them that we are awfully busy right now... betting on horses and buying extravagant clothes and hats and drinking ourselves into oblivion - too blinded by our own excess and greed that we can't help a boatload of poor people... God help us. God help us. God help us.
If Jesus' parables are right we are in some serious trouble on the other side of eternity. God help us.

Asylum seekers threaten suicide

Some of the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers onboard Australian Customs ship the Oceanic Viking have threatened to kill themselves rather than go to Indonesia.

Speaking to the ABC from a phone hidden from customs officers, the asylum seekers pleaded with Australia to give them a new home. read the rest here...

Asylum Seekers and how we receive them will remain a major justice issue in our future (and our past). Jesus once asked a question about who our neighbour is... I think these situations are opportunities to answer him. How's your hospitality these days? Ever consider hosting an asylum seeker family in your corps/church? You may be surprised to learn that The salvation Army's history is well rooted and experienced in helping migrants find new opportunities and possibilities - including community and support and new family... perhaps we could be digging that old well for new opportunities to share the love of Jesus with those in need... just thinking.

Go for souls...

An exciting conference in Melbourne this weekend (if you are anywhere near please consider going) called Go For Souls.
The ever energetic and passionate Cadet James Thompson takes the lead as we press in to surrender to God's ultimate plan for salvation for the whole world. And not just theoretically... but in reality. People will have the opportunity to be trained to bring God's amazing plan of salvation to the world... don't you want to be part of the change that we so desperately need in the world? Evangelism and justice are deep friends. You cannot change external realities and expect them to last without an inner change... and that inner change is only possible through Jesus and His redemption. Don't you want to help spread the news? Need some training, encouragement and opportunity? Check it out this weekend and then be the change you want to see.

need I say more...