Friday, January 2, 2009

Here's to 2009

"My girl America's crying when she's lying in her bed at night
I can see that she's screaming when she's dreaming for her freedom
My girl America's dying while she's trying just to stop this fight
Don't stop believing my girl America...

I know she knows there's more because there is a voice she can't ignore
'Cause it was founded in the foundations, from the day of her creation,
In God We Trust engraved on the treasures of her nation
And the void that the boys can't fill
With the tipping of the bottle or the popping of the pill
But still most of her friends don't care as they glare
Ready to drown down the funnel as they frown down the tunnel
They stumble and they tumble breaking down into rubble
My girl American, stop can't you see
It's not the circumstances that determine who you're going to be,
  but how you deal with these problems and pains that come your way
It's for you that i pray with hope for a brighter day
And so I say, your deliverance is coming"
Mat Kearney "Girl America"

As an Atheist, I Truly Believe Africa Needs God...
"Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem- the crushing passivity of the people's mindset.

... [T]raveling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God. 
Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGO's, government projects, and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa, Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good. 
I used to avoid this truth by applauding- as you can- the practical work of mission churches in Africa... But this doesn't fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing...
Those who want Africa to walk tall amid the 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted. 
And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the itch doctor, the mobile phone, and the machete." --Matthew Parris (prominent Atheist)


"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat." 
-Mother Teresa

Romans 1:20 says, "For since the creation of the world, god's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature-- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." 

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, the embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." 
-Allen Cohen

"To dream anything that you want to dream. That's the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed." -Bernard Edmonds

James 2:17 says "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."
James 2:36 says, "Faith apart from works is dead" 

"Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work." 
-Mother Teresa

"Not only is another world possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." -Arundhati Roy

Colossians 3:12 says "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." -Ralph Waldo Emerson


Take what you will from this compilation of quotes, but what I see if what I am called to; an uncomfortable life, a life serving my Lord and Savior. I am constantly amazed at the Lord for opening my eyes to the blessings He has set before me. He has blessed me with a job, albeit part-time, I have one, a job which pays my bills and rent. I am consistently blessed by the friends that have stood by me as I've transitioned to adult life (and I'm not completely sure I'm finished). I am constantly blown away by the humbleness I see in the people placed in my life and in my church. How could I ask for more than the shelter I have over my head, the friends I am blessed with, the church I am blessed with and the uncomfortability I am blessed with. 

I don't say this often, but Revival come to America and revival come to the world, that we may ALL know the blessings that the Lord has for us in our lives, and that we may live in fullness because the joy of the Lord is our strength.

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