Here are some great ways to help us to rethink Christmas and give away. Places that you can utilize and shop with a conscience.
www.scribblescafe.com
www.changethepresent.org
www.adventconspiracy.org
www.tenthousandvillages.org
www.ijm.org
www.bloodwatermission.com
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Coffee for a cause - Entertainment
Coffee for a cause - Entertainment
Here is one way I believe in the "restoration of all things".
Support Scribbles and small businesses!!!!
They are the true life blood of our city.
Here is one way I believe in the "restoration of all things".
Support Scribbles and small businesses!!!!
They are the true life blood of our city.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Brennan, hugs and footlong Pizza slices
"Jesus meet me
Come Lord save me
Wash me clean
And make me holy.
I was born to love you only
Spirit come breathe life within me. "
-marc james' song "Jesus Meet Me" from the vineyard "holy" album.
Sounds like words to toss at someone who perhaps is not "saved". They are words to one of my favorite songs that we sing in our community quite often. The words remind me of Mother Teresa's(Momma T) words: "Jesus meets us in His most distressing disguises."
The last 24 hours have been quite full of consistent reminders of God's relentless pursuit of my heart. As if a boulder of raging love was chasing me downhill. I was able to sit at the feet of a phenomenal man of God whose words drip with grace and rigorous passion that exemplify the bold and unconditional love of YHWH.
That man being, Brennan Manning.
His repetitive message of "you DO NOT have to change to be loved" echoes over and over only to the point in which I plea for more. That's it. You don't have to change to be loved. It is not required. Jesus does not demand it. (That's right man, pick me up and out of the heap of my dung-filled attempts to please You, O God, and scrape the crap off me as I quiver into a calm state of being and I'll pull Your faithful hands of mercy around me like a warm blanket.)
I went up and hugged Brennan shortly but fiercely. I wanted that Elijah and Elisha moment of give me what you have you sweet man. That's what I want to be like as I continue to not "grow up".
[I pray this day for a 2nd conversion:
mistrust to trust.
Beckon my heart, O Lord,
to crave unfaltering trust.]
(following morning- Thursday - "Bread Run")
After scoring 50 loaves of bread and several $30.00 sheet cakes, pies, and cookies from a grocer that donates them to us - Drew, Lisa and myself begin to figure out which shelter to go to first. Our Kingdom work this day is especially good. Especially good because we are resources today. Resources of His goodness. We are being poured out.
I visit my friend, Paul, at a soup kitchen just after our "Bread Run" and this ex-con gone head-over-heels in love with Jesus, greets me with a lift-ya-off-the-ground kind of hug. I turn into another hug from Ronnie who has struggled for 20 years or so with heroine and alcoholism. (I know because I used to sit draped over the bar next to him night after night some 14 years ago). He looks good today.
Ronnie may be "another homeless guy" but to me he is Ronnie, YHWH's beloved son. He is that Jesus in a distressing disguise. He is God's kid. He does not have to give up alcohol to be loved. He smiles at me and it just rushes into my heart. His smile "saves" me today. Light shines out of the darkness and again YHWH is inescapable. Ronnie pleads for me stay for lunch but I can't today but some day soon (for sure).
I actually get to score lunch today for eight veterans currently staying in a shelter. This is the real world. This is so good. So much real life here. The Spirit breathes life on us. F-words and "son-of-bitch" filled sentences top off our footlong slices of New Yorker style pizza like pepperoni and cheese.
We are but nine men at this moment in a distinct way who desperately need each other. That need is a gift that God has instilled in us. That need is a holiness that robs us of any despair as we share some laughs and poke fun at one another. This is holy ground. Seriously holy. Jesus meets me here in His most distressing disguises.
Today we are loved and we don't have to change.
Come Lord save me
Wash me clean
And make me holy.
I was born to love you only
Spirit come breathe life within me. "
-marc james' song "Jesus Meet Me" from the vineyard "holy" album.
Sounds like words to toss at someone who perhaps is not "saved". They are words to one of my favorite songs that we sing in our community quite often. The words remind me of Mother Teresa's(Momma T) words: "Jesus meets us in His most distressing disguises."
The last 24 hours have been quite full of consistent reminders of God's relentless pursuit of my heart. As if a boulder of raging love was chasing me downhill. I was able to sit at the feet of a phenomenal man of God whose words drip with grace and rigorous passion that exemplify the bold and unconditional love of YHWH.
That man being, Brennan Manning.
His repetitive message of "you DO NOT have to change to be loved" echoes over and over only to the point in which I plea for more. That's it. You don't have to change to be loved. It is not required. Jesus does not demand it. (That's right man, pick me up and out of the heap of my dung-filled attempts to please You, O God, and scrape the crap off me as I quiver into a calm state of being and I'll pull Your faithful hands of mercy around me like a warm blanket.)
I went up and hugged Brennan shortly but fiercely. I wanted that Elijah and Elisha moment of give me what you have you sweet man. That's what I want to be like as I continue to not "grow up".
[I pray this day for a 2nd conversion:
mistrust to trust.
Beckon my heart, O Lord,
to crave unfaltering trust.]
(following morning- Thursday - "Bread Run")
After scoring 50 loaves of bread and several $30.00 sheet cakes, pies, and cookies from a grocer that donates them to us - Drew, Lisa and myself begin to figure out which shelter to go to first. Our Kingdom work this day is especially good. Especially good because we are resources today. Resources of His goodness. We are being poured out.
I visit my friend, Paul, at a soup kitchen just after our "Bread Run" and this ex-con gone head-over-heels in love with Jesus, greets me with a lift-ya-off-the-ground kind of hug. I turn into another hug from Ronnie who has struggled for 20 years or so with heroine and alcoholism. (I know because I used to sit draped over the bar next to him night after night some 14 years ago). He looks good today.
Ronnie may be "another homeless guy" but to me he is Ronnie, YHWH's beloved son. He is that Jesus in a distressing disguise. He is God's kid. He does not have to give up alcohol to be loved. He smiles at me and it just rushes into my heart. His smile "saves" me today. Light shines out of the darkness and again YHWH is inescapable. Ronnie pleads for me stay for lunch but I can't today but some day soon (for sure).
I actually get to score lunch today for eight veterans currently staying in a shelter. This is the real world. This is so good. So much real life here. The Spirit breathes life on us. F-words and "son-of-bitch" filled sentences top off our footlong slices of New Yorker style pizza like pepperoni and cheese.
We are but nine men at this moment in a distinct way who desperately need each other. That need is a gift that God has instilled in us. That need is a holiness that robs us of any despair as we share some laughs and poke fun at one another. This is holy ground. Seriously holy. Jesus meets me here in His most distressing disguises.
Today we are loved and we don't have to change.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
When Broken is Good
When Broken is Good
September 2006
Some time ago a bunch of us met after reading Shane Claiborne's "The Irresistible Revolution" and we began or continued to wrestle with the whole "feeding the hungry" thing. I was most surprised at how we view the poor. How so often we assume that thier situations are a result of thier poor choices and/or decisions.
This is a good place to start. Wrestling with Jesus' words and directions. To ask the question of what Jesus really meant when He taught about caring for others more than ourselves or where it says He is near to the broken hearted. So He must be near me. He must be near us. Is it good to be broken?
We've been discovering for quite some time now that "poor" means much more than just living in Section 8 housing or some government provided living space. The loneliness of people is becoming more and more evident as we approach Jesus. The closer we get to God the more aware of the suffering that surrounds us becomes.
We do an outreach that we call our "Grocery GiveAway" a few times throughout the year. Collect food from various resources and take it to the under-resourced. Someone had said to me one night that they see no purpose in our Grocery GiveAway Outreach. When they said this they didn't say it in cynical way but they had more like a “matter-of-fact” kind of tone. They see it as us just enabling or even prolonging a lazy persons current condition. They see it as us allowing them to not change.
I see it as an entrance. I see it as giving "hope". We are hope-peddlers. Or as Brennan Manning would say or was it Phillip Yancey who said, "we are to be conveyors of grace for these potential reservoirs of God’s mercy".
People who have never exposed themselves to those in poverty will only be able to either assume or speculate. Which is why poor people view rich people as having it all together. Same approach: assumption methodology.
Which is why there are so few laborers.(I better check myself to look for blisters on my hands and soars on my feet before I get all cynical.) There are plenty of churched folks but few laborers. Lots of vocal participation and meetings and little sweat and hurt. When pastors are actually taking lessons from the world of marketing instead of lessons from the Sermon on the Mount you have got to stop and say this is not what Jesus meant. This is not Christianity. This is Gospel-less.
Here is where I get into trouble with other Christians. It just happens that these are real situations that I have experienced in ministry. Someone asked why we don’t advertise our church. I said “We don't advertise because that costs money and the money for our name can feed a family for a week.” They get mad when I say that. They get perplexed because that doesn’t line up with what I feel is the “F Word” of ministry, MARKETING.
We're not afraid to let God lead us. We're not afraid to love. We don't count how many people show up on Sundays... ever! Because people are not cattle. They’re not some number or potential tither to base a salary cap on or the determining factor of me getting health insurance or not.
I've met with people that have traveled 2 to 3 hours to come to be with our community not for a great teaching or for cool worship songs that help them worship better - but for love. They've heard about our community that embraces people and loves them where they are at. They hear we love and they want to be loved more than anything.
So we're not afraid to can our "sermons" and eat a meal together instead. We're not afraid to literally leave our “church service” and go serve people in need. We’re not onto something new either. In fact the method is quite old. How does God put it, “there is nothing new under the sun.” We need to really hear that.
We do this thing we call our “Pizza GiveAway”. I hate to share too much about it because it’s so simple that overchurched people will jot down the idea on their list of things to do instead of do it as an act of kindness or an act of love. Anyway, we buy a dozen pizzas and go downtown at midnight right by all the bars and just give it out for free, by the slice, on a plate, with a napkin, and a sincere smile and occassional wise crack when necessary. But in the giving of a single slice of pizza without some church name on the napkin or some kind of 2 second “plug” on what time our church service is I have been given great opportunities like listening to a young man contemplate suicide or giving a staggering drunk a ride home.
That was my Kingdom work that evening. There was something broken that night that I got to take part in the fixing of it. Not totally fixed but part of it. That’s what Jesus had me do that night. Jesus didn't get mad at me for not "getting them" saved. But... somebody who goes to church too much(can I say that?) actually said to me, “Yeah that’s nice but did you preach to him?” I think I muttered some form of profanity under my breath and then cried. If you know me then, yeah, I definitley muttered some profanities. And yes, I did cry.
On occassion I do run into people that intentionally use us for our resources for thier own gain. Including the church. But what’s really cool is that almost all the time our practicalness provides an entrance into dark places full of despair, places full of loneliness and brokenness, and places where people have no friends. And see this is where we become light as we hope for those who have lost hope and we become like Jesus who is called the “Friend of sinners”. I need a T Shirt that just says SINNER. Like Rob Bell says in Velvet Elvis, “Some days I’m a sinner and some days I’m a Christian.” Think about that for a little while. It's called being broken. It says I'm broken to the God who fixes.
If church meetings could be like an AA meeting(Alcoholics Anonymous) the church would make less mistakes. What I love about an AA meeting is the fact that when you come through the door your actions are screaming out for help. A great silent confession is fired out like a cannon and people respond immediately to your arrival. Just simply showing up declares the fact that you are either desperate or in despair. That you need others. That you are indeed broken. And yeah, broken is good.
September 2006
Some time ago a bunch of us met after reading Shane Claiborne's "The Irresistible Revolution" and we began or continued to wrestle with the whole "feeding the hungry" thing. I was most surprised at how we view the poor. How so often we assume that thier situations are a result of thier poor choices and/or decisions.
This is a good place to start. Wrestling with Jesus' words and directions. To ask the question of what Jesus really meant when He taught about caring for others more than ourselves or where it says He is near to the broken hearted. So He must be near me. He must be near us. Is it good to be broken?
We've been discovering for quite some time now that "poor" means much more than just living in Section 8 housing or some government provided living space. The loneliness of people is becoming more and more evident as we approach Jesus. The closer we get to God the more aware of the suffering that surrounds us becomes.
We do an outreach that we call our "Grocery GiveAway" a few times throughout the year. Collect food from various resources and take it to the under-resourced. Someone had said to me one night that they see no purpose in our Grocery GiveAway Outreach. When they said this they didn't say it in cynical way but they had more like a “matter-of-fact” kind of tone. They see it as us just enabling or even prolonging a lazy persons current condition. They see it as us allowing them to not change.
I see it as an entrance. I see it as giving "hope". We are hope-peddlers. Or as Brennan Manning would say or was it Phillip Yancey who said, "we are to be conveyors of grace for these potential reservoirs of God’s mercy".
People who have never exposed themselves to those in poverty will only be able to either assume or speculate. Which is why poor people view rich people as having it all together. Same approach: assumption methodology.
Which is why there are so few laborers.(I better check myself to look for blisters on my hands and soars on my feet before I get all cynical.) There are plenty of churched folks but few laborers. Lots of vocal participation and meetings and little sweat and hurt. When pastors are actually taking lessons from the world of marketing instead of lessons from the Sermon on the Mount you have got to stop and say this is not what Jesus meant. This is not Christianity. This is Gospel-less.
Here is where I get into trouble with other Christians. It just happens that these are real situations that I have experienced in ministry. Someone asked why we don’t advertise our church. I said “We don't advertise because that costs money and the money for our name can feed a family for a week.” They get mad when I say that. They get perplexed because that doesn’t line up with what I feel is the “F Word” of ministry, MARKETING.
We're not afraid to let God lead us. We're not afraid to love. We don't count how many people show up on Sundays... ever! Because people are not cattle. They’re not some number or potential tither to base a salary cap on or the determining factor of me getting health insurance or not.
I've met with people that have traveled 2 to 3 hours to come to be with our community not for a great teaching or for cool worship songs that help them worship better - but for love. They've heard about our community that embraces people and loves them where they are at. They hear we love and they want to be loved more than anything.
So we're not afraid to can our "sermons" and eat a meal together instead. We're not afraid to literally leave our “church service” and go serve people in need. We’re not onto something new either. In fact the method is quite old. How does God put it, “there is nothing new under the sun.” We need to really hear that.
We do this thing we call our “Pizza GiveAway”. I hate to share too much about it because it’s so simple that overchurched people will jot down the idea on their list of things to do instead of do it as an act of kindness or an act of love. Anyway, we buy a dozen pizzas and go downtown at midnight right by all the bars and just give it out for free, by the slice, on a plate, with a napkin, and a sincere smile and occassional wise crack when necessary. But in the giving of a single slice of pizza without some church name on the napkin or some kind of 2 second “plug” on what time our church service is I have been given great opportunities like listening to a young man contemplate suicide or giving a staggering drunk a ride home.
That was my Kingdom work that evening. There was something broken that night that I got to take part in the fixing of it. Not totally fixed but part of it. That’s what Jesus had me do that night. Jesus didn't get mad at me for not "getting them" saved. But... somebody who goes to church too much(can I say that?) actually said to me, “Yeah that’s nice but did you preach to him?” I think I muttered some form of profanity under my breath and then cried. If you know me then, yeah, I definitley muttered some profanities. And yes, I did cry.
On occassion I do run into people that intentionally use us for our resources for thier own gain. Including the church. But what’s really cool is that almost all the time our practicalness provides an entrance into dark places full of despair, places full of loneliness and brokenness, and places where people have no friends. And see this is where we become light as we hope for those who have lost hope and we become like Jesus who is called the “Friend of sinners”. I need a T Shirt that just says SINNER. Like Rob Bell says in Velvet Elvis, “Some days I’m a sinner and some days I’m a Christian.” Think about that for a little while. It's called being broken. It says I'm broken to the God who fixes.
If church meetings could be like an AA meeting(Alcoholics Anonymous) the church would make less mistakes. What I love about an AA meeting is the fact that when you come through the door your actions are screaming out for help. A great silent confession is fired out like a cannon and people respond immediately to your arrival. Just simply showing up declares the fact that you are either desperate or in despair. That you need others. That you are indeed broken. And yeah, broken is good.
Poverty of Conscience
"Poverty of Conscience"
by scott budzar
A saint once said without any wonder,
“The bread you don’t use
is the bread of those who hunger.”
So shall I sit around (remote control in hand)
and temporize
my ability or inability to respond
to all those hungry eyes?
Or can I be so brave
as to weep over my own neglect
Of all the meals I threw away
and the spare change that I kept.
We have categories: Vegetarian or Vegan,
Carnivores and Free-Gans
With bumper stickers to criticize
each other's decisions.
Stop with your stance
and can you listen?
While this day 6,500
will die from malnutrition.
Tomorrow morning a fatherless son, a mother
and her HIV infected daughter
Will walk 10 miles for a few gallons
of fecal laden water.
A trip that will provide hardly enough
to temporarily quench a thirst.
Without a choice they knowingly
drink a death but all the while
they give thanks to God for life first.
Pipelines of this liquid life
run all throughout my home.
Is it something I can give or share
or just claim it as my own.
I mean… Does my lawn really need watered
to be a little greener for all
my neighbors to see?
Or dare I be convinced
that 150 people die every hour
that I decide to think
more about me?
There is not one black family
or face on the street where I reside.
But in the most impoverished section of my city
the white face is harder to find.
I cannot settle for the
“that’s just how it is” response.
Because us Christians should know
that’s not what God wants.
How much can minimum wage
feed a single mom with two?
The wealthiest nation in the world says
50 bucks a month will do.
Can you give to the needy
instead of excelling at the art of excuse?
Or is it just easier to get upset
when someone on welfare eats better than you?
They say managing poverty is big business.
So is the Church gonna get “Mega”
or oppose this?
All this reaching inward
is a kick in the teeth
to folks already knocked down;
While pastors take lessons
from marketing strategies
instead of the Sermon on the Mount.
Today’s topics: Racism, fair trade,
war and peace.
Such cool words to print on a t-shirt
and then sell to you and me.
Please tell me that when the Church
is asked to respond to those in need
That we won’t form some holy huddle
and chant WWJD.
Does all my ranting qualify me
as just a liberal “social Gospel” fanatic?
Or if I’m a republican then,
oh yeah - I must be a war-loving addict.
And since when did Christianity all of a sudden
become just about the issues of
homosexuality and abortion.
When hookers, thieves, and notorious sinners knew Yahweh as their Portion.
I wonder of these things with a frustration and confusion that will not go away.
It is because I cannot escape or blanket my heart
from the things Jesus had to say.
Have we, oh Church, blessed God with monuments
or have we paved another mile for hell to come.
In the words of MLK - a "poverty of conscience"
is what we suffer from.
by scott budzar
A saint once said without any wonder,
“The bread you don’t use
is the bread of those who hunger.”
So shall I sit around (remote control in hand)
and temporize
my ability or inability to respond
to all those hungry eyes?
Or can I be so brave
as to weep over my own neglect
Of all the meals I threw away
and the spare change that I kept.
We have categories: Vegetarian or Vegan,
Carnivores and Free-Gans
With bumper stickers to criticize
each other's decisions.
Stop with your stance
and can you listen?
While this day 6,500
will die from malnutrition.
Tomorrow morning a fatherless son, a mother
and her HIV infected daughter
Will walk 10 miles for a few gallons
of fecal laden water.
A trip that will provide hardly enough
to temporarily quench a thirst.
Without a choice they knowingly
drink a death but all the while
they give thanks to God for life first.
Pipelines of this liquid life
run all throughout my home.
Is it something I can give or share
or just claim it as my own.
I mean… Does my lawn really need watered
to be a little greener for all
my neighbors to see?
Or dare I be convinced
that 150 people die every hour
that I decide to think
more about me?
There is not one black family
or face on the street where I reside.
But in the most impoverished section of my city
the white face is harder to find.
I cannot settle for the
“that’s just how it is” response.
Because us Christians should know
that’s not what God wants.
How much can minimum wage
feed a single mom with two?
The wealthiest nation in the world says
50 bucks a month will do.
Can you give to the needy
instead of excelling at the art of excuse?
Or is it just easier to get upset
when someone on welfare eats better than you?
They say managing poverty is big business.
So is the Church gonna get “Mega”
or oppose this?
All this reaching inward
is a kick in the teeth
to folks already knocked down;
While pastors take lessons
from marketing strategies
instead of the Sermon on the Mount.
Today’s topics: Racism, fair trade,
war and peace.
Such cool words to print on a t-shirt
and then sell to you and me.
Please tell me that when the Church
is asked to respond to those in need
That we won’t form some holy huddle
and chant WWJD.
Does all my ranting qualify me
as just a liberal “social Gospel” fanatic?
Or if I’m a republican then,
oh yeah - I must be a war-loving addict.
And since when did Christianity all of a sudden
become just about the issues of
homosexuality and abortion.
When hookers, thieves, and notorious sinners knew Yahweh as their Portion.
I wonder of these things with a frustration and confusion that will not go away.
It is because I cannot escape or blanket my heart
from the things Jesus had to say.
Have we, oh Church, blessed God with monuments
or have we paved another mile for hell to come.
In the words of MLK - a "poverty of conscience"
is what we suffer from.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Little Brother
My little brother leaves for Iraq this Wednesday, November 14th. He is an Air Force MP and a graduate of The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina.
I say little brother due to age but don't be fooled. He's six foot five and weighs around 225 pounds and is built like a monster. I guess hundreds of push ups every day for four years straight do that to you. It's funny, I'm six foot three and weigh about 170. Yet I am the smallest boy out of my six brothers. My Dad is six foot eight and around 270. That's where we get it from.
So, my little brother Tim will be placed in the largest detainee center in the world. It is in Iraq and there are presently 12,000 inmates. He will perform his duty in guarding and policing the prison. He's been in training for prison control over the past few months somewhere in the state of Washington. This wednesday morning he leaves.
My heart is troubled. My little brother is going to war.
I say little brother due to age but don't be fooled. He's six foot five and weighs around 225 pounds and is built like a monster. I guess hundreds of push ups every day for four years straight do that to you. It's funny, I'm six foot three and weigh about 170. Yet I am the smallest boy out of my six brothers. My Dad is six foot eight and around 270. That's where we get it from.
So, my little brother Tim will be placed in the largest detainee center in the world. It is in Iraq and there are presently 12,000 inmates. He will perform his duty in guarding and policing the prison. He's been in training for prison control over the past few months somewhere in the state of Washington. This wednesday morning he leaves.
My heart is troubled. My little brother is going to war.
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