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CONNECTIONS
For week of May 11, 2008 Connecting man to man to God Issue 207 ===== /\ ===== "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 CONSIDER “Dig the well before you are thirsty." (Chinese proverb) ROYALS' HILLMAN HOLDS ON TO FAITH The new manager of the Kansas City Royals has been walking with the Lord for more than three decades. Trey Hillman, 45, is a member of First Baptist Church in Georgetown, Texas, 25 miles north of Austin. The Hillman family is "very faithful to the church when they're in town," Kirk Kriegel, the church's executive pastor, says. "He's the kind of guy that you want to be around, just because he's an encourager. You can tell he has a genuine faith and a great family." Hillman was hired to manage the Royals in October. He previously had managed 13 years in the minor league system of the New York Yankees and five years in the Japanese Pacific League with the Nippon Ham Fighters. His 2006 team won the Japan Series and his 2007 team was the runner-up. It’s expected that Hillman's youthful enthusiasm, passion for the sport, and focus on developing strong pitching and defense will help generate tangible improvement in the ranks of the young Royals, who have finished last in the American League Central Division the last four seasons. Hillman came from a Christian home in Texas and was 13 when he accepted Christ.... Read this in full at http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=28008 ANGRY PROPHET? “Jeremiah Wright is advocating neither Marxism nor violent revolution. What Rev. Wright does say is that, as the African-American community endeavors to establish itself as a people who are both equal with whites and deserving of the dignity that God wills for all human beings, they have God on their side. Rev. Wright’s words may seem harsh and his style may be strident, but that just may be the way that those of us in the white establishment react. For his African-American brothers and sisters, there may be a different reaction. Many of them will hear him as an angry prophet in the tradition of ancient Israel. To we white folks, Jeremiah Wright sounds threatening. But we might ask ourselves if we deserve to be threatened.” Author and Eastern University professor emeritus Tony Campolo, discussing Wright’s “Liberation Theology” in the Washington Post’s “On Faith” column [washingtonpost.com, 4/30/08] A SURPRISING FAITH “That first communion knocked me upside-down. Faith turned out not to be abstract at all, but material and physical. I’d thought Christianity meant angels and trinities and being good. Instead, I discovered a religion rooted in the most ordinary yet subversive practice: a dinner table where everyone is welcome, where the despised and outcasts are honored. … I learned that hunger can lead to more life -- that by sharing real food, I’d find communion with the most unlikely people; that by eating a piece of bread, I’d experience myself as part of one body. This I believe: that by opening ourselves to strangers, we will taste God.” Former restaurant cook Sara Miles, who became a Christian after experiencing her first communion and shortly after founded a food pantry out of San Francisco’s St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, which now serves more than 500 strangers every week [npr.org, 5/5/08] PERSECUTION AS A MARK OF THE CHURCH The recognition of the complex realities of persecution, suffering, and martyrdom around the globe is of fundamental importance for the vitality of the Christian church in North America. We need to come to terms with solidarity, what it means to be one with our fellow Christians in the world, and in what ways all Christians "suffer" in the daily work of sanctification.... Read this in full at http://blog.acton.org/archives/2324-Persecution-as-a-Mark-of-the-Church.html BUILD THE KINGDOM “Knowing that the Father will keep our souls safe means we can put our energy not into building up our sense of self but into building up his kingdom. Secure in his arms, we can learn to take the risks that faith requires (see John 10:27-30 ). If you have been playing it safe, resisting some new direction in your life that you know to be right, take some time today to meditate on God's faithfulness. Tell him you want his will more than you want your own. Then go ahead and do whatever the Father asks!” Ann Spangler, Praying the Names of God INTERVIEW WITH ‘PRINCE CASPIAN’ DIRECTOR ANDREW ADAMSON May 16 is when the next installment of C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia opens in theaters. As for pressure, Andrew Adamson, director of Prince Caspian, says he feels "no additional weight that wasn't already there with this property. The beloved nature of the book -- and how much import I place on staying true to it -- has already put a load on me, and I feel it. Certainly following up a successful film, you feel like you have to live up to expectations. But to some degree, I went through that with ‘Shrek,’ where the first one was a bit under the radar, and the second one, you had a lot more people watching you, and you didn't want to disappoint them.... http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/interviews/andrewadamson.html Also see beliefnet.com – “Revisit the World of Narnia” http://www.beliefnet.com/princecaspian/index.html CBN.com - Prince Caspian special coverage http://www.cbn.com/special/PrinceCaspian/ US AMONG MOST BIBLE-LITERATE NATIONS: POLL Americans are among the world's most 'Bible-literate' people and Spaniards, French, and Italians are among the most ignorant about what the "good book" says, according to a new study. A poll carried out in 9 countries -- the USA, Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Russia, Italy, Spain, and Poland -- also shows Americans are most willing to donate money to spread the message of the Bible. The poll for the Catholic Biblical Federation interviewed Christians and non-Christians ahead of a synod of Roman Catholic Bishops on the Bible due to be held at the Vatican in October. Most respondents in the poll, which was presented at the Vatican, are Christian.... http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSL2875626420080428 LEADERSHIP TIPS (BUSINESS, FAMILY, LIFE) "Fight as if you are right; listen as if you are wrong." Karl Weick VERSE TO PONDER "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” James 5:16 CONSIDER “Make sure it is God's trumpet you are blowing -- if it is only yours it won't wake the dead, it will simply disturb the neighbors.” W. Ian Thomas ‘THEY WILL KNOW US BY OUR LOVE’ “Gradually the impression has sunk into the American mind that being a conservative Christian, being evangelical, and being narrow, rigid, militant, and angry are the same." Roger E. Olson, How to Be Evangelical without Being Conservative 'AN EVANGELICAL MANIFESTO' ANNOUNCED Christian leaders who believe evangelicals are wrongly defined politically, socially, or culturally, rather than theologically, issued ‘An Evangelical Manifesto’ May 7 to "clarify the confusions and corruptions that attend the term 'evangelical' in the United States and much of the Western world today, and to clarify where we stand on issues that have caused consternation over evangelicals in public life." Included in the more than 75 charter signers of the declaration are Darrell Bock, Stuart Briscoe, Bob Buford, Timothy George, Os Guinness, Walter Kaiser Jr., Eric Metaxas, J. P. Moreland, Richard Mouw, John Ortberg, Bob Roberts Jr., Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Miroslav Volf, Jim Wallis, and Dallas Willard.... http://www.evangelicalmanifesto.com/ Here are excerpts from the Manifesto: The global era challenges us to learn how to live with our deepest differences—especially religious differences that are ultimate and irreducible. These are not just differences between personal worldviews but between entire ways of life co-existing in the same society. 1. Our Identity First, we reaffirm our identity. Evangelicals are Christians who define themselves, their faith, and their lives according to the Good News of Jesus of Nazareth. (The Greek word for good news was euangelion, which translated into English as evangel.) This evangelical principle is the heart of who we are as followers of Jesus. It is not unique to us. We assert it not to attack or to exclude, but to remind and to reaffirm, and so to rally and to reform. Evangelicals are one of the great traditions in the Christian church. We stand alongside Christians of other traditions in both the creedal core of faith and over many issues of public concern. Yet we also hold to evangelical beliefs that are distinct -- distinctions we affirm as matters of biblical truth, recovered by the Protestant Reformation and vital for a sure knowledge of God. We evangelicals are defined theologically, and not politically, socially, or culturally. As followers of Jesus Christ, evangelicals stress a particular set of beliefs that we believe are true to the life and teachings of Jesus himself. Taken together, they make us who we are. We place our emphasis on ...
2. Our Place in Public Life Second, we wish to reposition ourselves in public life. To be evangelical is to be faithful to the freedom, justice, peace, and well-being that are at the heart of the good news of Jesus. Fundamentalism was world-denying and politically disengaged at its outset, but evangelicals have made a distinguished contribution to politics -- attested by causes such the abolition of slavery and woman’s suffrage, and by names such as John Jay, John Witherspoon, Frances Willard, and Sojourner Truth in America and William Wilberforce and Lord Shaftesbury in England. Today, however, enormous confusion surrounds evangelicals in public life and we wish to clarify our stand through the following assertions: First, we repudiate two equal and opposite errors into which many Christians have fallen. One error is to privatize faith, applying it to the personal and spiritual realm only. Such dualism falsely divorces the spiritual from the secular and causes faith to lose its integrity. The other error, made by both the religious left and the religious right, is to politicize faith, using faith to express essentially political points that have lost touch with biblical truth. That way faith loses its independence, Christians become the “useful idiots” for one political party or another, and the Christian faith becomes an ideology. Christian beliefs become the weapons of political factions. Called to an allegiance higher than party, ideology, economic system, and nationality, we evangelicals see it our duty to engage with politics, but our equal duty never to be completely equated with any party, partisan ideology, or nationality. The politicization of faith is never a sign of strength but of weakness. Second, we repudiate the two extremes that define the present culture wars in the United States. On one side, we repudiate the partisans of a sacred public square, those who would continue to give one religion a preferred place in public life. In a diverse society, it will always be unjust and unworkable to privilege one religion. We are committed to religious liberty for people of all faiths. We are firmly opposed to theocracy. And we have no desire to coerce anyone or to impose beliefs and behavior on anyone. We believe in persuasion. On the other side, we repudiate the partisans of a naked public square, those who would make all religious expression inviolably private and keep the public square inviolably secular. This position is even less just and workable because it excludes the overwhelming majority of citizens, who are still profoundly religious. Nothing is more illiberal than to invite people into the public square but insist that they be stripped of the faith that makes them who they are. We are committed to a civil public square -– a vision of public life in which citizens of all faiths are free to enter and engage the public square on the basis of their faith, but within a framework of what is agreed to be just and free for other faiths as well. Every right we assert for ourselves as Christians is a right we defend for all others. Third, we are concerned that a generation of culture warring, reinforced by understandable reactions to religious extremism around the world, has created a powerful backlash against all religion in public life among many educated people. If this hardens into something like the European animosity toward religion in public life, the result would be disastrous for the American republic and would severely constrict liberty for people of all faiths. The striking intolerance shown by the new atheists is a warning sign. We call on all citizens of goodwill and believers of all faiths and none to join us in working for a civil public square and the restoration of a tough-minded civility that is in the interests of all. Fourth, we are concerned that globalization and the emerging global public square have no matching vision of how to live with our deepest differences on the global stage. In the Internet era, everyone can listen to what we say even when we are not speaking to everyone. Global communication magnifies the challenges of living with our deepest differences. As the global public square emerges, we warn of two equal and opposite errors: coercive secularism and religious extremism. We also repudiate the two other positions. First, those who believe their way is the only way and the way for everyone, and are therefore prepared to coerce them. This position leads inevitably to conflict. Second, those who believe that different values are relative to different cultures, and who therefore refuse to allow anyone to judge anyone else or any other culture. This position sounds tolerant at first, but it leads directly to the ills of complacency. In a world of such evils as genocide, slavery, female oppression, and assaults on the unborn, there are rights that must be defended, evils that must be resisted, and interventions into the affairs of others that are morally justified. Fifth, we warn of the danger of a two-tier global public square. This is a model of public life which reserves the top tier for cosmopolitan secular liberals, and the lower tier for local religious believers. Such an arrangement would be patronizing as well as severely restricting religious liberty and justice. We promote a civil public square, and we respect for the rights of all, even those with whom we disagree. Contrary to those who believe that “error has no rights,” we respect the right to be wrong. But we also insist that “the right to believe anything” does not mean that “anything anyone believes is right.” Rather, respect for conscientious differences also requires respectful debate. We do not speak for all evangelicals. We speak only for ourselves, yet not to ourselves. We invite all our fellow-Christians, our fellow-citizens, and people of different faiths to take note of these declarations and to respond where appropriate. We pledge that in a world of lies, hype, and spin, we publish this declaration in words that, under God, we make our bond. People of the Good News, we desire not just to speak the Good News but to embody and be good news to our world and to our generation. http://www.evangelicalmanifesto.com/media/ CONSIDER “I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves- one above the other and the taller we grew, the more easily we could reach them. I now find that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath the other and that it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower.” F. B. Meyer VERSE TO PONDER "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12 THIS WEEK'S HYMN: AUTHOR OF FAITH, ETERNAL WORD Words: Charles Wesley, 1740 Music: Joseph Mainzer, circa 1845 Author of faith, eternal Word, Whose Spirit breathes the active flame; Faith like its finisher and Lord, Today as yesterday the same. To Thee our humble hearts aspire, And ask the gift unspeakable; Increase in us the kindled fire, In us the work of faith fulfill. By faith we know Thee strong to save; Save us, a present Savior Thou! Whate’er we hope, by faith we have Future and past subsisting now. To him that in Thy Name believes Eternal life with Thee is given; Into Himself He all receives, Pardon and holiness, and Heaven. The things unknown to feeble sense, Unseen by reason’s glimmering ray, With strong commanding evidence Their heavenly origin display. Faith lends its realizing light, The clouds disperse, the shadows fly; Th’invisible appears in sight, And God is seen by mortal eye. >from CyberHymnal at http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/u/authorof.htm ON PRAYER “Worship and intercession must go together; one is impossible without the other. Intercession means raising ourselves up to the point of getting the mind of Christ regarding the person for whom we are praying. Instead of worshiping God, we recite speeches to God about how prayer is supposed to work. Are we worshiping God or disputing Him when we say, "But God, I just don’t see how you are going to do this"? This is a sure sign that we are not worshiping. When we lose sight of God, we become hard and dogmatic. We throw our petitions at His throne and dictate to Him what we want Him to do.” Oswald Chambers PRAY FOR PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS TODAY http://christiansincrisis.net/ DAILY BLESSING PACT Use the following list as your daily prayer guide. Think of a brother or situation that applies and lift them up in prayer. I am agreeing in prayer with you for God’s blessings to overtake you! PERSONAL Marital harmony Family unity Children saved Faithful pastor Spirit-filled church Real friendships Relatives redeemed Educational benefits Recreational time Fulfilling career Favor with God and man Be in God’s will FINANCIAL Better Jobs Raises or bonuses Benefits Sales & commissions Business Growth Settlements Estates & inheritances Investment increase Rebates & returns Checks in the mail Gifts & surprises Money to be found Bills decrease while blessings increase "And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God" (Deut. 28:2). [As you travel on business or vacation, let me know if you'd like the church guys to pray for your safety and spiritual effectiveness. I'll add your name to the list for the time you'll be away.] CLASSIFIEDS Are you looking for something or do you have something to sell? Let me know and I'll put it in this newsletter. SHARE YOUR FAVORITE WEBSITES Tell us what sites you find enjoyable and why. All About God http://www.allaboutgod.com 10 Genius Inventions We're Still Waiting For http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4258708.html All links to websites are provided as a service, and do not imply endorsement by our church. (BTW: whenever the URLs in this newsletter are too long to turn into links on your e-mail program, just copy the entire URL (two lines or more) and paste it into a temporary email message. Then delete the return in the middle of it and copy it again. Then paste it into your web browser and hit enter.) God grades on the cross, not the curve. Min. Frank Coleman, Editor [email protected] ===== /\ =====
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