The Blog About All Things Kingdom. THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE YOUNG ADULTS OF THE LaGRANGE DISTRICT OF THE NORTH GEORGIA CONFERENCE OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH.
I am a historian, so I thought it was pretty cool to get this denarius coin that was used in imperial Rome, under Severus Alexander, 222-235 AD. The most memorable passage of scripture involving the denarius is when Jesus compared The Kingdom of Heaven with The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16. While clearly it is a message that the last will be first and the first will be last, I also look at this denarius as a message for me to just be a good steward over what God has given me, and not to worry about comparing that to what others receive for their works.
I have heard it said that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once spoke, “The only reason to look down on someone is if you are going to lift them up.” Today, I wanted to highlight an interview I heard on the radio with Binyavanga Wainaina, who is described as “one among a rising generation of African voices who bring a cautionary perspective to the morality and efficacy behind many Western initiatives to abolish poverty and speed development in Africa.” I was really impacted by his perspective on aid, and it caused me to really take a look at my own motives in missions and in being a Christian in general when reaching out to others.
A lot of people arrive in Africa to assume that it’s a blank empty space and their goodwill and desire and guilt will fix it. And that to me is not any different from the first people who arrived and colonized us. This power, this power to help, is just about as dangerous as hard power, because very often it arrives with a kind of zeal that is assuming ‘I will do it. I will solve it for you. I will fix it for you,’ and it rides roughshod over your own best efforts. -Binyavanga Wainaina
For our next feature series on the blog, we’ll be taking a look at missions. There was a story in today’s AJC about a missionary who is described as “unusually serious” about his Christian faith, and focused on North Korea. I wonder if we realize how much danger can be involved when God leads us on certain mission assignments. Recently, there was a story about a youth group from Georgia that was in Honduras when political fighting broke out. If God was leading you into a place like North Korea, what would you do? The story, which is linked below, is about Robert Park, a Korean-American who has been detained by North Korean officials. Park’s pastor said this about him:
The Rev. John Benson, the pastor of Life in Christ Community Church in Park’s hometown of Tucson, Arizona, said Park’s devotion is exceptional. “You have to understand that for this guy, when it comes to the Lord, he’s very, very serious,” said Benson, who led weekend services to pray for his safe return. “Unusually serious.” Park’s father, Pyong Park, described him as fearless and said he was willing to lay down his life. “He was not afraid to die,” said the elder Park, who lives in Encinitas, California. “What he wanted was the whole world to know of North Korea’s situation.”
U.S. missionary Robert Park, a 28-year-old Korean-American (AP Photo/ Freedom and Life for All North Koreans, Seo Suk-gu)
From time to time we have featured commercials in our Movies/TV Category. I just learned of this ad that will be airing a new Rethink Church Ad in North Georgia over the Christmas season. The TV spots will air during the Army/Navy football game Dec. 12, the Sun Bowl Dec. 31, and during the Gator Bowl on New Years Day. Additionally, CBSatlanta.com will run our 15-second spots before news videos and Radio ads will air on a variety of stations during drive-time. The UMC’s national advertising includes CNN, Google, YouTube and Good.com. For more, check out 10kdoors.org and for Rethink Church resources and information, visit www.rethinkchurch.org. See the ad below. What do you think?
Here’s the joke we used this morning in our service:
The new army recruit was given guard duty at 2 a.m. He did his best for a while, but at about 4 a.m. he went to sleep. He awakened to find the officer of the day standing before him.
Remembering the heavy penalty for being asleep on guard duty, this smart young man kept his head bowed for another moment and looked upward and reverently said, “A-a-a-men!”
This evening, a parking lot attendant let me in the lot for free and told me not to tell anyone, but to pay it forward to someone tomorrow. I did a search on Youtube a little later for “The Kingdom” and I found this video by author Brian McLaren discussing our purpose on this earth – and how we in essence change and edit the Lord’s Prayer to fit our limited thinking about the Kingdom of God. Check it out:
Three Christian men were standing around talking after church. One of them asked the question, “What would you like people to say about you as they come to pay their last respects?”
The second man said, “I hope they say I was a respected doctor in my field, a good family man, and had lots of friends.”
The third man said, “I hope they say I was a well spoken attorney, helped my fellow man, good citizen, and played a mean round of golf.”
The first man said, “That’s probably what will be said of the two of you.” My hope is that when they look down in my coffin they say, “Look…he’s moving”!
A lady came in to my job last week, and she was super friendly. She was asking if we could wrap something up for her, and I said “Of course.” She responded by saying how nice we were, and she brought in some soap to be wrapped. I casually asked her how the soap was, just making conversation. She responded, “It’s great. Why don’t you have it.” I responded, “I could not take your soap, it’s a gift.” She said, “Well, it’s great. You know what, I want you to have it. The Lord just told me to give it to you”, as she brushed my cheek. After I told her thank you, I later found out that she had left a few scripture cards for my co-workers and I. I have included an image of one of them for you to see. That customer made her mark that day.
My cousin just sent me this email, and it really speaks to how selfish we are as a society. To make it more personal, I’ll say I realized just how selfish I AM in my thoughts after reading this:
A Holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, ‘Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.’
The Lord led the holy man to two doors.
He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.
In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man’s mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it impossible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful. But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.
The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.
The Lord said, ‘You have seen Hell. They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one.
There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man’s mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.
The holy man said, ‘I don’t understand.’
‘It is simple,’ said the Lord… ‘It requires but one skill. You see, they have learned to feed each other. The greedy think only of themselves.’
&bigDeclCap=In+this+photo+taken+on+Wednesday%2c+Dec.+9%2c+2009+and+released+Saturday%2c+Dec.+26%2c+2009%2c+from+Freedom+and+Life+for+All+North+Koreans%2c+U.S.+missionary+Robert+Park%2c+a+28-year-old+Korean-American%2c+who+crossed+the+frozen+Tumen+River+into+North+Korea+from+China+on+Christmas+Day%2c+prays+for+North+Korean%2c+in+Seoul%2c+South+Korea.+The+Christian+missionary+from+the+U.S.+has+entered+North+Korea+carrying+a+letter+to+leader+Kim+Jong+Il+in+order+to+call+attention+to+the+tens+of+thousands+of+political+prisoners+believed+held+in+the+communist+state%2c+an+activist+said+Saturday.+The+banner+read+%22Immediately++release+political+prisoners.%22+(AP+Photo%2f+Freedom+and+Life+for+All+North+Koreans%2c+Seo+Suk-gu)&bigCred=&bigUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.ajc.com%2fmultimedia%2fdynamic%2f00359%2fSouth_Korea_North_K_359259c.jpg&superSizeImage=y "U.S. missionary Robert Park, a 28-year-old Korean-American")
