We’ve had a category for book reviews since the inception of this site, but I beleive this is our first one. I hope to do many more. I’m on the final pages of Jared C. Wilson’s Your Jesus is Too Safe, and will give it my highest recommendation (I need to come up with a rating system like 5 stars, but that’s too unoriginal - any ideas?). In a nutshell, I agree with his assertions, it is consistent with my general opinions, and affirms my pre-existing biases, thus I like it, thus it is a good book . No, seriously, I consider this book a must read. It examines the many roles Jesus filled in the historical and religious context of His time on earth (and after that time), and cuts past the common misoncseptions of who He was and is in ways that were new and real to me. The book is leans heavily on scripture and historical context, and I gained many new insights - based in scripture and fact (always a nice bonus) - into who Jesus really is and how I had previously shaped Him in my image. From the back cover:
There are too many Jesuses running rampant in the world today.
Culture has introduced us to Hippie Jesus, Postcard Jesus, and Get-out-of-hell-free Jesus. There’s also Grammy Award Jesus, Therapist Jesus, Role Model Jesus, and Buddy Jesus.
The question is: which one do you worship?
He may be the most popular, the most cited, the most admired, and the most controversial figure in all of history, but Jesus is more than a generic brand, a logo, or a pick-me-up. He has been fictionalized, humanized, satirized, and romanticized. And yet he still isn’t recognized.
Author Jared C. Wilson cuts through the glossy, modern perceptions of Jesus to rediscover the original and raw person who confronted the religious status quo and changed the world. Sometimes controversial, sometimes humorous, but always truthful, Your Jesus Is Too Safe challenges readers to leave behind their feel-good Savior and embrace the true and living Christ.
Open this book and take a closer look at who Jesus really is.
I can’t say it better than that. Sometimes those little blurbs don’t realy tell you what’s in the actual book. This one is on point - however, I would like to say that the author spends little time attacking misconceptions about Jesus as might be inferred from that blurb, but rather spend his time illustrating directly who He really is. Good book… really good book.
I met a man by the name of Todd Harrington on the vision trip to Swaziland in 2009. Todd is a pastor from Dawson Church in Birmingham, AL. He is in Swaziland this week with a team of men and women visiting their carepoint called EsKhaleni (es-kuh-lah-nee). We visited EsKhaleni during the vision trip. This carepoint is near the mountains and is a place of awesome beauty, but there are real dangers that exist for the kids in this area. We found the younger children at this remote carepoint were much less responsive than kids at other carepoints. They had not been exposed to many people (native or foreign), and their homes are much more spread out in this region. Many of them were left at home daily by themselves while usually a single mom tries to find work (12hrs at ~$3/day wage) or food to somehow get by. Now that this carepoint is sponsored, the kids will get two meals a day, emotional support, education opportunities, and discipleship training and mentoring.
It is exciting to read in their blog and see pictures of the team with the kids, Gogos, and men working on the carepoint. Blog posts and comments show how God is doing much of His working and blessing through relationship. Relationships fostered by working and playing together and during home visits. Similar to our calling to relate with Ludlati, God is using His people to bring His gospel of love, hope, salvation, and meet some basic physical needs for orphans and at-risk children in Swaziland.
I look forward to following the rest of their trip, and continue the planning for our trip to Ludlati this September!
While following the Dawson Church team’s trip, it is also fun for me to recognize some of the kids in the pictures. See the shy little girl in the lower right corner of this picture from the Dawson Church team? She is the same girl in the video below from the vision trip in 2009!
As we assemble team members and make plans for a trip to our Ludlati Carepoint in Swaziland in September 2010, I have enjoyed reading a blog from a team that visited their Swazi-Carepoint recently. They worked hard for a week with the children from their Carepoint called Mpholi. They put on a VBS, sang songs, played games, gave hugs, shared snacks, washed feet, gave shoes, gave special provisions, and visited homes. Typically, a person who meets the kids and their families (if they have one), develops a love and understanding that is deeper than stories and pictures they share - even though the stories and pictures are quite moving to the heart. The latest post from one team member moves my heart as he shares his deep thoughts and expressions of compassion for the children and people in Swaziland. To me it sounds like a cry out to ANYONE who claims Jesus as Savior to remember the great gift He freely gave to us, and please remember to help those suffering and in distress. God’s word to us in James 1:27 seems particularly applicable to the post shared by dmicah.
James 1:27 - Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
As many of you are aware, the Salem Chapel Swazi team is home. I am processing some of my thoughts from the trip and I want to share some food for thought. I want you to turn off the TV, radio, Pandora, Itunes or any distraction for just a few moments. I want you to unload your brain for a short time. I am asking you to just use your imagination as I throw out some scenarios from Swazi. These were just from a week of our experiences. The needs are deeper than these, but this should start you down the path. Needless to say things are a lot different in Swaziland than in America.
Imagine dropping off two little girls 5 and 7 years old at their home. No one is home. The house is locked. It is getting dark. This happened at one of our team’s home visits. After VBS, we would split into two teams of three and visit homes of our sponsor kids. We would give extra supplies for the home and try to get to know the family, whomever that might be since it usually was not a parent. On this particular occasion the other team had to leave two young girls with no supervision at their home and hope they would be ok.
Imagine sending your 4 year old with their two 4 year old friends walking along a busy two lane road, mind you without shoes, to a Carepoint. These little ones would walk a mile or more with no supervision to get a meal. This happens every day in Swaziland.
Imagine sending your 9 year-old daughter with her 18 month old sibling strapped to her back on the same one or two mile journey to get a meal. Happens every day in Swaziland. Don’t believe me? I have pictures. At least three came to our Carepoint. I choked back tears on more than one occasion as I saw an older sibling unwrap their baby brother/sister and split their bowl of rice with the little one. The next time you have trouble deciding which restaurant to go to, stop a minute and thank God for your blessed life, and pray for the kids at Mpholi.
Imagine knowing that your child will never be educated beyond the 2nd grade because you can’t afford the whopping $100 per year to pay for tuition, since you only earn $1 per day. Government stops free education beyond the 2nd grade. And 953,000 people are fighting for about 100,000 jobs.
Imagine for a minute your kid having one outfit. Literally one set of clothes. And second-hand charitable gift clothes at that. I watched children show up to the Carepoint every day in the same ill-fitting clothes, some without shoes or undergarments.
Imagine knowing that your life expectancy is roughly 31-33 years.
Imagine living with the fact that almost ½ of your friends will die young because of disease. 45% of Swazis have HIV or full blown AIDS.
Hard to imagine isn’t it?
As I’ve mentioned before in this series on Swaziland, I am not attempting to lay a guilt trip. I am just throwing out some information that has rocked me. If you give it serious thought, it should open your eyes to a world around you. Hopefully you will be able to draw from the deep well of Christ’s love. He didn’t look at his world and think, “Well they did this to themselves. If they just wouldn’t sin, they wouldn’t have these problems. They are just so far away. I have plenty of things to do here. They just need some education.” Jesus did the opposite. He sacrificed, gave up his own will, left his own comfort zone and experienced our world in order to lead us to a new life. Keep that in mind when thinking through the challenges in Swazi.
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Thank you dmicah for posting your thoughts and experience in a public forum. I appreciate the challenge and reminder your words are to me. In light of today’s post and the previous series of posts Jim has shared on KTM about thankfulness, I offer a prayer of thankfulness, encouragement and intercession for Swaziland. Please share in this prayer and add to it in the comments!
Lord God, Creator and Father, Thank you for giving us relationship with you through your gift of salvation. I want to humbly receive your gift of life by giving up mine to you daily. I want to humbly receive all Your provisions as a steward without ownership. Help me to remember to obey your commands to love You first and my neighbor as myself. Thank You for each of Your children who currently gives love, hope, prayer, money and time to help the least of these. May more abundance You provide to me and all your children be released and used as You will. I press on to these high goals in love and compassion with Your help to share in the discomfort - the suffering shared with us by Jesus. Please use your body - use me - to pray and watch over each child in Swaziland and all the people who face death all day long. Defeat the source of their fears, send them peace, give them hope, send them love. Help the full time Swazi-workers, myself and others collectively to do these things one person at a time. Save my life and each one of their lives eternally. Amen.
My final thought (at least for the time being) on the topic of thankfulness, is going to be just that: my thought. Despite all the scripture and all the evidence around us illustrating the cost of a lack of thankfulness and the benefits of maintaining a thankful attitude, I was left wondering what deep, spiritual/psychological aspect of a thankful heart makes the action of giving thanks so important - so I reached my own conclusion.
My opinion is this: unthankfulness is inward-looking, focused on ourselves. Thankfulness is outward-looking, in its purest and most accurate form - to God, and also to our fellow man. In a state of thanks and contentment, looking outward to to God and man, we are freed to begin moving toward loving God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves. If we are not thankful, our focus is on what we want in an effort to please ourselves. We certainly aren’t going to look for ways to give substantial help to others - at least not until we get what we want, and our hearts are clearly not set on loving God above all else when our focus is on our desires.
Above all else, we are called to love God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourself. Thankfulness, combined with love, are THE critical “tools” that God has provided to make progression along that path possible. Without it, I do not beleive that even the first step toward fulfilling that dual command is possible. And remember, this is a command that was central to the message of Jesus, the Old Testament Law, Paul, and James, repeatedly cited by Jesus as the most important command(s). I’ve asked many times if literal fulfilliment of that command is possible (I don’t think it is, thank God for grace). But commitment and progression is required. I am convinced that true, deep thankfulness will free us from the desires of this world and set us on the path toward meeting the greatest commands. It is crucial. We must attain it. God’s plan is so good. The very thing we must have to meet His greatest commands is the very thing that makes our burden light and brings peace.
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About - KnownToMe
We have begun to ask ourselves...What would we do if our neighbor was starving right before our eyes? Would we not help? Today, their plight is not hidden from us. It is known. We believe there is a clear mandate that we must care for societies most vulnerable members, the widow, the orphan, those in extreme poverty. If you are stirred to a similar belief, if you know there is more that you must do, Known To Me will make you aware of specific needs and opportunities to help.
. No, seriously, I consider this book a must read. It examines the many roles Jesus filled in the historical and religious context of His time on earth (and after that time), and cuts past the common misoncseptions of who He was and is in ways that were new and real to me. The book is leans heavily on scripture and historical context, and I gained many new insights - based in scripture and fact (always a nice bonus) - into who Jesus really is and how I had previously shaped Him in my image. From the back cover:
