The Impact of myCravings from The NEST on Vimeo.

If there’s discretion that you’ve not abandoned, now’s the time.

I really have no idea what the idea is that the song is trying to convey, but that one line just jumped out at me. In most situations it would be inappropriate. I’m all for discretion, Ingrid would back me up on this. I’m that way to a fault at times. I really like when everyone has a decent sense of propriety.

But there are times when discretion isn’t just unnecessary, it’s counterproductive. I’ll go as far as to say that there are situations where discretion is wrong. And I doubt many would disagree. I can remember a time talking with my brother and father in my parent’s back yard. The three of us were chatting near the pool while my niece ran around us. As she orbited our legs, one circle went wide and she went right into the pool. I can picture her hair spread out like a halo in the water. She was in well over her head.

My brother didn’t pause to think about if it was proper (or even smart) to get into the pool. He didn’t empty his pockets or think the situation over. He hopped straight in and had her up and out of the water in a second, maybe two. He beat dad and I to it by a breath and by virtue of having been closer to the pool.

Good for him (and my niece) but what does this have to do with God’s truth?

There are a number of emergencies taking place in the world right now. They are on-going but the window of opportunity, from an eternal perspective, is short. Imagine my brother looking at his daughter in the pool and then stating, “That’s not good at all. I ought to do something about it and as soon as I feel prepared I will.”

Sometimes people tell me I’m brave or imply that I’m good on some different level because I serve as a missionary. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Everything I do that has significance or weight is because God is awesome, good and loving. On my own I’m incapable of real good. That’s important to convey because we are all of us, every follower of Christ, in the same boat. None of us is inherently right and it was our realizing this that was key to our entry into the family of God.

That same God has given us all the Holy Spirit. When we live our lives walking in the Spirit, we are everyone of us capable of serving as conduits for God’s kingdom work. None of us are somehow more spiritual or better in some way that makes us more valuable in His work.

This means external circumstances are not what matters. I’ll go live in and work in Eastern Europe. You’ll live and work wherever God has put you. Both of us will be in the middle of a world full of lost people who need to hear the Good News. And it’s nothing to sit and think over, spending years of our short life waiting for some sign or breakthrough before we get engaged.

Might we look foolish or stumble? It’s almost certain.
Do we know enough to answer all the questions or how to fix all the problems? No.
Does it matter?
Now is not the time for discretion when it comes to passionately following our Savior.

When it comes to living a life that displays Christ to a dying world I would say, “If there’s discretion that you’ve not abandoned, now’s the time.”

“…globalization, the process, represents the greatest challenge to the Gospels since the apostles and the greatest opportunity for the Gospel since the apostles.”

Os defined globalization as, “The process through which our human interconnectedness has now reached truly global proportions.”

This leads him to discuss what drives globalization and he concludes, “But the deepest driver today is information technology.”

This was all part of an introduction to further material that is captured in a 15 minute video where Os talks about why he thinks this is important. (I would have embedded the video here but there is only one size available and it’s way too wide for our blog.)

Being a missionary that deals primarily with information technology I was pretty happy to hear this from such a high profile leader. Especially when he says things like,

“If we had longer we could see how what’s happening in the global revolution centered on information technology has been described as significant as the rise of the wheel or the invention of the alphabet and of human writing.”

Very motivating to me and I hope to others who are interested in reaching the world with the Gospel.

He makes a statement later in the video that also really caught my attention, though it has nothing to do with tech. I agree with it, though I wont opine at length about the implications but rather repeat it here for any who read to consider. Os says, “The church in the west is in profound cultural captivity.”

Is it? And if so (like I said, I do think so) what can we do about it?

September 10, 2010

Steve Douglass
Campus Crusade for Christ, President

Statement on Uniting with Christian Leaders of the World
In response to Possible Burning of the Qur’an

The burning of the Qur’an contemplated this week is inconsistent with the response to Islam of mainstream, biblical Christianity. The advertisement published in
today’s edition of the New York Times affirms that this act would not represent my personal views, the views of our organization, or, in my opinion, the position of the vast majority of the leaders of the Christian World.

With any faith, an extreme stance of one person does not necessarily reflect the position of the larger group.

I commend Pastor Terry Jones for the decision that he made not to burn copies of the Qur’an. I pray that he will stick with that decision. Burning copies of the Qur’an will needlessly place many lives in danger.

I don’t really have anything to add of my own. I agree that burning the Qur’an is wrong and does not reflect the teachings of Christ or the leading of the Holy Spirit.

The GTO prayer calendar is a list of prayer requests for our department (Global Technology Office) and Ingrid put’s together a new one every month. You can see this months by clicking on this link.

Crusade has a Prayer ministry that puts together a prayer journal every month that can be downloaded as a pdf file. Here is a link to the May Global Prayer Movement Journal.

If you really enjoy that – the home page for the Global Prayer Movement is a good one to know. They’ve got some great reports and prayer request up right now from all over the world that were put together for our Global Day of Prayer last week.

“Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties.
After all, everyone dies
so the living should take this to heart.
Sorrow is better than laughter,
for sadness has a refining influence on us.
A wise person thinks a lot about death,
while a fool thinks only about having a good time.”
Ecclesiastes 7:2-4

While the loss of loved ones is sad, it is an opportunity to reflect on the nature of life and the things that really matter.

At the end Sam mentions that he is involved in discipling students, and is trusting God that some of them would become “multipliers”. It is the goal of Campus Crusade for Christ that we not just build ministries but rather that we build movements. That new believers are discipled and become actively engaged in sharing the gospel and discipling others. This is what he means by multipliers.

I’ve worked with and for Sam remotely quite a bit, it was a joy to get to meet Sam face to face and spend some good time together working towards ways to fulfill the Great Commission.

I forgot to mention – that’s Steve Pierce in the background. He is undoubtedly doing something incredibly important during this break in the conference.

This year the breakfast will be edited (to shorten up the time frame a bit) and broadcast over the internet. It’s going to be available by 6 pm Saturday, the 6th of February. (Eastern Time I assume.) I’m not sure how long it will be up, but this is a great opportunity for any men’s group that wants an opportunity to get together and watch. The Gospel will be presented. Or if you have a friend or neighbour that you would like to see it you could do that too. There is no cost to watch it. I’m assuming the video itself will be available right here once it is ready. You can get more information about it at the Athletes In Action page about it. I’m sorry for the late notice, I just found out about the web broadcast today. The AIA page has some video from last year if you want to see what it is like. I’ll be checking it out, I hope you do too.