Persecution

Since reading the Living Water chapter about No Turning Back, I have been thinking a lot about persecution.

My thoughts were that persecution is the sign of a living church. A church that is growing and impacting the world about it will have detractors and Satan will actively oppose that church.

I haven't known too many people who have really suffered for their faith.

But there is one that I knew a few years ago. So here is the disclaimer: I may mess up on some of the details since it was over thirty years ago. I will make the best attempt at this.

There is one man that I can recall who the chaplain of the Civil Air Patrol Unit that I was in when I was in high school. As I recall his name was Larson and he was a retired pastor/missionary who taught at the local Lutheran College. In fact both of my parents had him as a professor when they had attended Concordia in Moorhead in the late 1950's.

Pastor Larson had been a missionary with his wife in the Philippines when World War Two started. He and his wife spent the war in a Japanese internment camp. As I recall his wife never was the same and suffered for years afterward from the effects of the deprivations.

I recall that he was quiet and gentle and carried himself with a kind of dignity that was often lost on the rabble of high schoolers who pretty much didn't care for his message and who didn't have an appreciation for how difficult those times must have been for he and his wife. He didn't share his story too often either.

My parents later told me that after his wife died he went back to the Orient as a missionary. I am not sure if it was Taiwan or the Philippines.

I didn't really come to faith in Christ until much later in my life. And I haven't thought much about Pastor Larson until this week.

But he was the kind of guy who when he went home to be with the Lord I am pretty sure heard those words: "Well done, good and faithful servant."

May the same be said of me...

Living Water: No Turning Back

Interesting chapter of Living Water by Brother Yun. We are told that we must expect opposition to when we obediently follow God.

The first thing that struck me is the statement: In fact, it could be argued that Satan only attacks those plans that he knows originate from God's throne. Brother Yun states that there are many things that Christians are involved in that have little impact on Satan and his plans.

I think that is a huge problem in the church in the United States today. We are so wrapped in all sorts of activity that drain our focus from what God wants us to do that we have little impact for the Kingdom. We are lukewarm and we are not hot for the Gospel and spreading the message that Christ died for our sins.

We are so distracted that we fail to focus on God's calling for each one of us.

I think that one reason we don't have a lot of persecution in the United States today is that we as a church are indistinguishable from the rest of society.

Brother Yun also states that we are called to suffer for the kingdom and to endure until the end. This is the central theme of Steve Farrar's excellent book: Finishing Strong. The Bible has numerous cases of people that start out well and don't endure to the end. David is the one that springs to mind as well as Saul and Solomon.

Looking forward to the conversation about this tomorrow.

Valentines Day

Today is Valentine's Day.

A day for forced romance.

A day to buy something to symbolize something we should be telling each other everyday.

A day to pretend that problems don't exist in personal interaction.

A day to overeat.

A day to over consume.

A day to pay way too much for flowers that will be shrivelled up by next weekend.

A day that is exciting for the first year or so of a relationship.

A day that has changed to commercialism.

Results

So the total results are in.

Fifty job equivalents lost. Savings of roughly $4.5 million for next fiscal year.
Reductions spread pretty evenly around in all departments.

No upper administrators lost their jobs but two unfilled positions were eliminated.

Not planning on any pay increases next year.

And this is only the first one. We were warned that it is only the first step.

I have to remember that behind each of the positions is a person.

Some people are retiring and that is a good thing. About 10 positions are currently vacant. But the other 35 or so people are facing the loss of jobs and more importantly for many: benefits. Good benefits.

Tough to take.

Have to say a prayer for them...

Trust.

Yesterday (Wednesday) at 130 Pm I got a call to go to my boss's office.
I asked if I needed to bring anything and he said no.

I got over to his office and met with him and his boss.
I was told that I was losing one position and who it was.

No input, no chance for rebuttal, nothing.
I was told that the directive across the board was such that they couldn't involve me in the decision making process and that it was the same for all the managers across the board.

So basically, it came down to those most distant from the work being done decided who should go and who should stay.

Not a great way to engender confidence among the middle level managers.

Further all the notification was handled by the HR department with no input from any of the managers. Not a great way to handle things. I would rather have been involved since I have been supervisng this guy for hte past eight years.

So I (and every other manager) have been told through the way that this process has been handled that I can not be trusted.

I understand that there was a need to avoid needless rumors among everyone.
But this is not a good way to develop support for the organization in a difficult time.

All it does is breed suspicion and distrust.

Reimagining Church

I am reading a bunch of books right now.

One is Living Water by Brother Yun which is mentioned in other posts. Another is The Flaxen Femme Fatale by Zakour (title is much more lurid than the content). Still another is The Urban Homestead by Coyne and Knutzen (don't like the zoning laws against chickens in the city here in Kansas!).

But right now I am making the most progress through Reimagining Church by Frank Viola (not the Frankie Viola, pitcher for the Twins). The book is about home churches and how they function.

More than that there is the examination of a lot of the traditions and practices in organized religion. Things such as big buildings, non participatory worship, hierarchical church leadership, religious doctrine and the like.

And I keep coming across other things that point in the same direction such as the article today in Christianity Today on music and how so much of the music in church is performance based.

Going TO church is not the same as BEING the church and much of organized religion tends to suck the joy out of worship.

I have often heard the saying that religion is DO and Christianity is DONE. This means that religion requires us to do things to achieve salvation while Christ's death on the cross means that we don't have to do anything, salvation is accomplished.

Unfortunately, organized Christianity has turned Christ's death and resurrection into a religion.

I'll be honest, I am not sure how I am to deal with this...

More prayer... for a start.

Tired

I am tired. I am tired of turning on ESPN and hearing about Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) and his steroid test.

A couple of thoughts: The tests were supposed to be anonymous and the results never revealed. Then the Federal Government subpoenas the two lists and work out who tested positive.

So the first lesson learned is don't trust the government. As a Christian, I am supposed to submit to the authorities. Don't see anything about trusting them.

I do not think that whoever revealed the test results is on any higher moral ground than A-Rod. I think that individual (or individuals) have serious integrity issues.

The second thing that struck me is that A-Rod had been lying about his usage for six years. he even lied on national TV. Then this whole matter became public.

During his coming clean session with Peter Gammons, he said that he felt like a load had been lifted from his shoulders now that this lesson is public.

What a lesson! If we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins. God forgives us and takes that burden from us.

We are also told that all things will be revealed. Nothing can be hid from God. Nothing we have ever done has been hid from God. A-Rod has had one of his mistakes revealed for the world to see and is suffering the humiliation of being found out.

But someday we will all face God and answer for our sins. Forgiveness releases us from the burden of carrying our sins around. Confession is good for the soul.