the cost of confronting evil

Someone once said that all it takes for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.
Yesterday I confronted someone I saw stealing bananas from a local small grocery store. The result was that I was punched and then kicked repeatedly by two young men, and other than the person who stopped their car, everyone else did nothing.
Most of my wifes friends who've heard the story wonder why I did what I did, their solution is to turn a blind eye. For me this is not an option. As a follower of Jesus I feel I must stand against evil whenever it shows itself.
The reality is that I live in one of the worst suburbs in Sydney, Redfern, and its getting worse because people are afraid of confronting evil.
But things will not change unless followers of Jesus chose to live in the worst places and confront evil whenever they see it.

christmas fun

For a bit of sick Christmas fun go to http://ww10.e-tractions.com/snowglobe/globe.htm and shack the snowglobe.

justice

Over the last year I've discovered the peace that comes from knowing that in the end justice resides in the hand of God. I really don't know how people who don't believe in God and in justice beyond this life cope when they don't get justice from the temporal authorities.
Just over a year ago my eldest brother was hit and killed by a driver who did not stop. Indeed he took active steps to hide. Eventually the man was caught and went through the justice system claiming innocence until the first day of his trial where he finally pleaded guilty.
And what was his punishment? 180 hours community service and a $10,000 fine.
Is this justice for a man who in all probability was drunk at the wheel? Is this justice for failing to stop and for all he knew render life saving help.
Instead a following car hit my brother and now a family has to live with having hit someone through absolutely no fault of their own.
In the end justice is administered by God and it is in his hands my peace resides and so I can truly pray.
"Lord I pray that you would reveal yourself to this man and bring him to a knowledge of you that enables him to truly acknowledge his sin and then find the peace that only you can give."

sexual purity

"Holiness is not some nebulous thing. It's a series of right choices. You needn't wait for some holy cloud to form around you. You'll be holy when you choose not to sin. As a Christian you're already free from the power of sexual immorality; you are not yet free from the habit of sexual immorality, until you choose to be - until you say, 'That's enough! I'm choosing to live purely!"
Page 92, "Every Man's Battle" by Stephen Arterburn & Fred Stoeker.

leadership

Are you interested in leading an organisation forward?
"Good to Great" by J Collins is one of the best books I've read in a long time on what it takes to make a great organisation. The lessons are challenging yet seem to be in tune with some of the other research I've seen.
The salient lesson seems to be that high profile leaders are not the ones to model ourselves on. The best results, instead of just pr, are often by people who few people have heard about because they don't have the sexiness that our culture seems to desire of our icons.
Purchase the book and be ready to have your paradigm shifted.

donald trump

from INJOY's The Pastor's Coach: Volume 5, Issue 20
Donald Trump is the archetypal businessman and dealmaker, and best-selling author of The Art of the Deal. In terms of the speaker line up for the day, Trump was batting clean up, and boy did he clean up! What a character! Now I know why his TV series The Apprentice is so hugely popular. He is just flat out likeable. Whether or not you ascribe to his life principles, "The Donald" is a force to be reckoned with. One of the great insights that Mr. Trump offered us was that in order to be successful you must absolutely love what you do. That is so true. Each of us has only one life and it is short at that. Take some time to reflect on what you do. Do you sense God's call and affirmation? Are you doing exactly what you were meant to do? Are you having fun? (fun doesn't mean it's easy) Are you productive? Do you love what you do? If not, is it time for a change?

marriage

"If culture moves further and further away from valuing marriage, women will experience, by far, the worst of it, having kids without fathers. Marriage changes men substantially on how they behave and think about women and children. Cohabitation does not change that. Young men earn more and achieve more and are more willing to sacrifice when they marry." --Scott Stanley, codirector of the Center for Marital and Family Studies at Denver University - The Independent (Feb 12-18, 2004)
"If your own marriage has grown stale, look in the mirror and ask God how he can use it to transform the person looking back at you. If you’ve let bitterness seize your heart, stop praying for your spouse to change and ask God to change you. Most marriages can survive temporarily 'falling out of love.' But you’re headed for disaster if you ever let yourself fall out of repentance." - Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage (Zondervan, 2000)

FIRST-PERSON: I still love homosexuals

"Unsure how I, a former homosexual, received an invitation to speak two consecutive weeks to a gay/lesbian organization at a major university, I readily accepted. I arrived well ahead of time to mingle with the students, shake hands and get to know them ...
Check out the rest of the article at http://www.pastors.com/RWMT/default.asp?id=179&artid=5022&expand=1

believing in v believing

Have you ever stopped to consider the difference between 'believing in God' and 'believing God'. The little word 'in' makes a tremendous difference.
Do you 'believe in God?' or 'believe God?'
Many a person who is opposed to God believe IN God, but they do not BELIEVE GOD!
Obviously to 'believe God' you have to 'believe in God'. But to 'believe in God' does not necessarily mean you 'believe God.'
Being a follower of Jesus is to believe God when he reveals Jesus is his Son. It means to believe God that their is no way to God except through Jesus. It is to believe that God who raised Jesus from the dead, can also raise us up from spiritual death to spiritual life.
Where are you today? Are you a believer IN God or do you BELIEVE GOD?

Faith is believing God

Romans 1:5 says ... "Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith."
As I was reading this verse late last night the relationship between faith and obedience really struck home. It is travelling the road of obedience, but the door way to the road is the doorway of faith. And what is faith? Faith is believing God. So the verse could be written "... to the obedience that comes from believing God."
Romans 12:2 says "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." That is what we believe is critical to what we do. Action follows our true beliefs.
So often the battle is not what we do, but what we truly believe.
If I want to change that bad habit I have to change what I really believe. Bad habits are the natural result of believing that the bad habit will bring a benefit. Good habits are the result of believing that the good action is truly the better thing to do.
So next time you do something you are not happy about, consider what belief stands behind that action, and then ask God to 'transform your thinking'.

hitting

"The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly."- Theodore Roosevelt

romance

Amongst all the garbage on the net there is some good stuff. In particular I recommend the FREE newsletter that is available from http://www.theromantic.com/. The subject is relationships and he gives lots of good and sound ideas and advice.

goofballs

The boys at www.xxxchurch.com are dedicated to discussing issues that are often not well discussed in church. These guys have made it to the New York Times and even had been written up in an article in Playboy.
Check out their promo that can be found at http://www.thegoofballs.com/# and click on the option under "Experience the Message".
What they are saying is a challenge to live for God in the dark places of this world.