To make a decision or not make a decision...

Lately there has been a lesson that I've been learning. I will turn 29 on Wednesday and I sense that I'm finally realizing that what I choose to do in life is my choice. I understand that God leads us and directs and gives us freedom and yet we somehow end up going in a direction that He leads. In the middle of all of this, I see that our decisions still matter infinitely. Significance isn't found in a position, a title, credentials, your family, your wealth, your years of service, your education, the respect you receive or the people who give it to you. It is found in the decision. Your every decision tells you that you have significance. God gives that to you and in so doing teaches you to take yourself serious and His love and will for your life serious, but it seems that He doesn't lessen our ability to be decision makers. How does that all work within His providence for us. I'm not sure but as I've grown into manhood, I have seen more and more emphasis put on making decisions. It's not only an issue of making good decisions, it goes beyond that into the issue of realizing that every decision matters and they seem to matter more and more.

I heard someone say "After 25, everything matters!" I believe that with the right nuance, that is so true. I just have to look down at my gut to face that. I was always a skinny bean pole as a child and teenager and in the middle of my early twenties, I started to notice how one actually gains weight. I'd never understood it before, but there it was and it had directly to do with my eating habits and lack of exercise. My decision began to matter. I used to be able to eat anything, but not anymore. I see that in all areas of my life increasingly so. God gives grace and allows some things to be covered over but decisions, both good and bad, will bear their own consequences, both good and bad.

That being true, I have also seen that never before has it been more important for me to give grace to myself and increasingly more to others. It's a decision to even receive grace in the midst of my own ugliness, and at times it can be a very difficult to decision to truly receive.

I have the privilege of studying Martin Luther and Jonathan Edwards on Mondays. As far as Luther is concerened, we are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. We aren't going to become shipwrecked, we are shipwrecked - that changes one's whole approach to life, but how? Good question - that's what life and sanctification is - answering that question.

Jonathan Edwards wrote, "I have affecting views of my own sinfulness and vileness, very frequently to such a decree as to hold me in a kind of loud weeping...so that I have been often obliged to shut myself up. I have had a vastly greater sense of my own wickedness and badness of my heart than ever I had before my conversion... It is affecting to think how ignorant I was, when a young Christian, of the bottomless, infinite depths of wickedness, pride, hypocrisy, and deceit left in my heart."

This was written 20 years after his decision to follow Christ. He said that his heightened awareness of sin results in a "...heart [that] will grow in tenderness." Out of that tenderness flows a profound gratitude to God for His mercy, a thankfulness that can only be expressed through service to Him.

I see that the "choice" is still ours in how we respond. As I journey through this time in my life, I want to see the decisions that I make really reflect what I believe, because if I don't, then I really believe that my decisions don't matter or that it will "all come out in the wash." As much as grace is a reality in all of this, so are my decisions and the weight that they carry. I believe that the more influence I receive, the more stewardship that I'm called to and the more people I am able to lead, the more my decisions will matter and that so, until I die. Whoa! That's a lot to think about, but it's necessary. I guess it's what they call growing up. I think in ages past, a man my age would have been expected to be married, to have a family, a job and a lot more responsibilities. As long as that is put off, I have time to think about all of this and in our culture today, many have a lot more time to think about their major life decisions and daily decisions it seems.

just some musings of mine...

something!

I felt like I should write something, but I'm not sure what to write. I did watch a film called, "trade" the other night about the sex trafficking trade in America and was distraught with the horrible wrongs that take place each and every day in our own country that seem so barabaric and insidious and horrific. I still like telling jokes and laughing but I think it is because I need it more - the more I see the reality of the world we live in. A good dose of the BBC or CNN with some Mr. Bean or the Simpsons and then some Dick Van Dyke to wrap it all up - that must be the good life...

There must be more!

A faith community gathers to search for God because there must be more. They gather to search alongside each other and some are called to play different roles within the scheme of that search. They want to introduce the world around them to that hunger.

shepherds are there to lead them to where neither of them have been, to lead them to where both of them need to go.

The search for more shouldn’t be led by someone who has the more to offer you. Luther has said that "every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying."

No one can give you enough advice or direction for you to have enough of what is actually “more.” What is more can only be offered by our Savior, by our Father. A pastor who gives too many answers doesn’t lead his people to something more but towards something that he’s already arrived at. There is nothing wrong with teaching what one has come to understand but it shouldn’t be the arrival or point of orientation, it should be the place that helps us on our journey to “more”, both as a community and as individuals. Do you want more, then don’t look for it from a man or a woman and don’t trust a man or a woman in order to lead you there primarily, let your hunger lead you there and don’t be satisfied with what the man or woman offers, but at the same time we must not be against what they are able to do that better enables us and our community to be lead to more. If the question is one of hunger or lack of it, then ask yourself, have I been taught or conditioned to have an appetite for something that is not meant to satisfy my real hunger, like a big plate of rice that fills but only leaves one hungering for true substance all over again. Eventually that plate of rice will lead the person to diabetes and a destructive future in regards to their health - though it does provide a filler for the immediacy that we all desire. Many can't eat anything but rice because they have never been taught or offered fruits, vegetables, meat, a balanced diet or they think it impossible and out of their reach. You can tell them to eat more wheat and fruit, but they will do what is easiest and most available, they will eat rice. We should never be satisfied with what is immediate but only find satisfaction in where ourselves and our community is going as long as it leads to “more.” Not more of what we've been "filling" ourselves with but "more" of what we know in our deepest core will really satisfy. We may not know what that actually looks like or what it is, but we should know that it is "more." I really believe that we are born with an appetite for "more", it may just take some time and some wrestling to find it but I don't want to give up and settle. What about you?

Been gone!

I haven't blogged in a long time. Most people don't know about my blog because it changed its name due to an effort to make it more accessible - which has left it less acessible. Anywho, I'm still alive and as it has it, I am not an associate pastor at a Church in the area that I'm living in. The Church's name is Life Community Church and it used to be called Cumberland Baptist Church. I never in all my childhood or teenage life or on into my young adult life wanted to or thought I would be a pastor. For me the thought was like wanting to be a Nazi. That is kind of harsh you say - well you're right except that it how distasteful if was for me to think of becoming a pastor and how far I was away from the idea. I had a hard time even imagining myself as one, except in the moments when I pictured myself up in front of a lot of people, yelling at them what I really thought of them. I did that once or twice and found out that people don't like to be yelled at. My journey into the pastorate wasn't a professional choice or a life calling as much as when I was confronted by my own fallenness. You see, I would hear preachers and speakers talk about those who experienced suffering and pain and how the Holy Spirit comforts those people ( I still don't know how that works other than if you really believe it ) and how God forgives sinners, etc... but what I didn't understand or know about was what God did with people who caused pain to others and didn't care at times if they were forgiven or not. I'll be honest, I have felt like that and wondered about what God thought of me in the process. I rarely felt like I did things right, pleased God with my attitude, spent enough time in prayer, Bible reading or silent meditation or was kind to people. As a teenager, I wanted to know what God did with people like me who just felt sinful on a constant basis and didn't feel good enough to be in ministry. It always seemed that I was on the bottom of the barrel when it came to good enough. So, the thought of being a pastor, was the furthest thing from my mind.

Then I heard the most captivating sermon of my life, the sermon that will for all time go down as my favorite sermon of all time. It was a first person narrative of the story of Hosea and Gomer, the prophet who married a prostitute and who loved her even despite her infidelity. I knew what it felt like to be a Gomer and I'd never really heard this part of God preached or taught before. It tore through all the crap of legalism and be "good enough" that I'd been pressured with and taught to believe and showed me the utter depths of God's love because He had gone to the utter depths of my ugly heart - places that even I hadn't gone to. As I've grown and understood how dark my sin really is, I arrive at caverns in my heart that freak me out, places that horror stories are made of - ones that make you sick to your stomach. You know what I found there, little markings on the wall of someone who'd been there already. Footprints and flashes of light that gave me the circumference of the dark caverns of my heart. The deeper I trod through these caverns the more fear I was blanketed with and yet I could see that someone had gone before me - and they weren't lost - they had gone this route on purpose. At one point, I had to stop because the fear and loathing of turning the next corner was too much to handle and yet I could see that the One that had gone ahead of me, had gone still farther. I can only imagine that next time I need to go farther but no matter how far I go, I don't think I'll ever get to the bottom and I know if I did, that One would have been there already.

There's a freedom in knowing that I can traverse the landscape of my life, but the freedom dims when I have to go spalunking into the taverns of my heart where fear is the air I breathe. I can't see, it's pitch black and yet each time I've ventured knowing I needed to go, I've seen that Someone was already there. In that I find comfort. I can only think of Gandalf and his deep righteous voice as it cascaded across the mines of Moria's great hall - "You shall not Pass!" as He unwincingly stared down the Balrog. For that moment there was more strength seen in him than ever before but the real strength was found in what no one saw - when he was leached to the demon and fell into the deepest caverns of the earth where evil exists unheard of and fought the Balrog only to triumph where none had triumphed before. He came out victorious. He had to go there because He was Gandalf. Jesus is my Gandalf, He is my unseen friend in the caverns of my heart - the one who has gone before me and I know no other who could do so or would do so.

Part of being a shepherd for people is leading down the caverns of their hearts to show them how far Jesus really has gone. I've seen the ugliness of my heart, I just wish I hadn't acted it out so much, but my regret is only an ode to forgiveness if it is anything. I can't excuse sin but I don't care if I do at this point because that is not the point. The point is that we all have caverns that we are afraid to descend into, but without the descent, we can't see how far He's really descended for us. Grace has to answer whatever we discover about ourselves. It has to otherwise it is not real. If we are to discover that grace, then we are called to descend at points in our lives - not all the time and not without hope but we are called to descend. I hope that as a shepherd, I may be able to call people not only away from their sin but to face it head on, each difficult step down into their caverns. There, I believe they will find grace - the grace that answers what they fear and eclipses their fear with a warm vat of overflowing goodness, a bath of God's goodness to melt into while the fear dissipates into the cold past. I guess knowing that Christ has gone that far down makes me think of what will call us from the surface. I still like to hang out on the surface where the light is bright and the company feeds my ego, but I know I'm called downward at times. I just don't want to go, so should I repent? If I want grace I'll go.

Guilt, sexual failures and missions...

Check out this article that was written from a sermon that John Piper gave at Passion '07 - it used to be titled, "Missions and Masturbation".

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/october/38.72.html

It's premise is that in the sex saturated culture that we live in, so many would-be missionaries are unwilling to engage mission because of past failures with sexual issues. As a growing problem, is there a need to continue the battle and still give yourselves to the dreams that God has put into your heart. I think so...so read on and see what Dr. John has to say.

A Word from Phyllis

The Future of the Emerging Church
Are we experiencing the next Reformation of Christianity?

Conversations about the future of the emerging church can be overheard at conferences, seminaries, chat rooms, or anywhere church leaders congregate. Does the movement have legs? Does it represent a passing trend or a new Reformation? Not long ago we sat down with author/scholar/editor Phyllis Tickle to discuss the subject. Tickle, a feisty Episcopalian from Tennessee with an intellect matched only by her sense of humor, has served as a religion editor for Publishers Weekly and has written over two dozen books. Her three-volume prayer manual, The Divine Hours, has renewed the discipline of fixed-hour prayer for Christians in many traditions.

What do you see happening to Christianity in the twenty-first century?
Many people have observed a five hundred year cycle in western history—a period of upheaval followed by a period of settling down, then codification, and then upheaval again because we do not like to be codified. So, about every five hundred years the church feels compelled to have a giant rummage sale, and we’re in one of those periods now.

The Reformation was about five hundred years ago. Five hundred before that you hit the Great Schism. Five hundred more was the fall of Rome and the beginning of monasticism. Five hundred before that you hit the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, and five hundred before that was the end of the age of judges and the beginning of the dynasty.

So, how is the current upheaval different from what the church has experienced before?
For the first time we’ve done it in an age of media where we are historically informed and we can perceive the pattern, and for the first time we’ve had the ability to talk to each other, to be self-conscious about what is happening, and be somewhat intentional. This is very exhilarating.

We have a huge responsibility because of what we know. We are seeing the start of a post-Protestant and post-denominational era. Just as Protestantism took the hegemony from Roman Catholicism and Roman Catholicism from the East at the Great Schism, so the emerging church is now taking hegemony from Protestantism.

But would you place the emerging church with Evangelicalism, or it is something else?
No, it’s not evangelicalism. American religion has four, pretty much equally divided, quadrants. Evangelicalism is one of them, charismatic Pentecostalism is another, the old mainline or social just Christians is a third quadrant, and then the liturgicals. And where the quadrants meet in the center there’s a vortex like a whirlpool and they are blending.

So, much of the political energy is evangelical. There’s no question about that. Much of the religious energy is Pentecostal, but that’s combined with the strong ballast of social consciousness and of applied gospel that comes out of the mainline. And into the mix comes the liturgical traditions with the great gifts of the heritage of the church.

And the emerging church is bringing these different elements of the church back together.
The problem has been that since the Reformation belief for most of the people has gone north to the head. The emergents, supposedly, are saying it needs to go south to the heart. I don’t think it needs to go south at all. I think it needs to meet somewhere in the strength of the life—mind, heart, spirit and strength. Belief needs to be incarnated.

The response for the emergents has been to incarnate their beliefs right in their own neighborhoods—and that’s wonderful. They want to live where they worship, that’s great. The problem is that the emerging church does not have enough organization within itself to get beyond the sound of its own voice. Each little cohort is very limited in its impact.

So, how can the emerging church expand its impact?
Right now we’re beginning to see it organizing. It is institutionalizing. We’re building the next model which in five hundred years will be thrown away. But nonetheless, the emerging church has got to find some way to reach out in a coherent and effective way beyond itself.

Starfish vs. the Spider

I just read this on a blog that I'm reading - very intruiging and some stuff that I've thought about more than once. Decentralized movements... OM was definitely one, let me know what you think. Here's the link to the book on Amazon,

http://www.amazon.com/Starfish-Spider-Unstoppable-Leaderless-Organizations/dp/1591841437/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195674364&sr=1-1



I'm reading a fascinating book that someone recently recommended to me. It is NOT a Christian book. It's a book about an emerging business model written by a couple of Stanford grads, which makes it all the more frustrating. Why is it that the world sometimes recognizes what God is up to far sooner than most believers do? Our religious institution were consistently on the wrong side of creation of democracy, the fight to abolish slavery, the struggle for civil rights and respecting the rights of women, and here's just another example of how they are caught in older forms the world is even reconsidering.

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations describes almost exactly (with one major flaw to be discussed later) how I understand the nature of the early church and what I see to be true in the body of Christ as it functions today in the world. Now, I'm not talking about organized religion here, but people who really have a heart for God and his work in the world.

The spider represents traditional organizations with CEOs, hierarchical structures and heavy top-down management. If you cut off the head of a spider it dies. The starfish, however, represents decentralized communities that are far more effective and resilient. If you cut off the leg of a starfish, it will just grow a new one, and the leg itself will grow into another starfish. The starfish has no centralized brain, it is a system of neural networks that work together.

Granted the subtitle is a bit misleading. The authors aren't really talking about leaderless organizations, but decentralized ones. Citing examples like Alcoholics Anonymous, Craigslist, Wikipedia, eMule, and others, they describe the power of individuals working together in ways that create incredible resources with surprising results:

This book is about what happens when on one is in charge. It's about what happens when there's no hierarchy. You'd think there would be disorder, even chaos. But in many arenas, alack of traditional leadership is giving rise to powerful groups that are turning industry and society upside down. (p. 5)

These starfish communities have tremendous power because they are not bogged down by the needs of an institution that compromise the values of the community itself. The contributions of the individuals who share a common passion are having far more impact than conventional institutional models. These communities prize relationship, engender trust, and pursue a purpose that transcends financial reward. One of the best discussions in this book is how leadership functions in these communities. They are not managers, but catalysts to ignite a passion in others and help them live it out. What the authors describe for a catalyst comes a close to the teachings of Jesus and the examples of the apostles in the New Testament as anything I've read before. They work behind the scenes, empower others, help people connect in circles of relationships, and never try to ensure that everything is orderly and certain. And what's best, they never want to be in charge themselves, knowing how to work themselves out of the picture as others flourish.

They are much better at being agents of change than guardians of tradition. Catalysts do well in situations that call for radical change and creative thinking. They bring innovation, but they are likely to create a certain amount of chaos and ambiguity. Put them in a structured environment and they might suffocate. But let them dream, and they will thrive. (p. 131)

The Starfish and the Spider discusses the unique power of the Internet to allow these kinds of starfish communities to flourish. And, yes, these people are motivated by their self-interest. Imagine these decentralized communities, however, where people are functioning in the interest of Jesus himself. What this business model leaves out, of course, is the place of Jesus as the sole Head of his church that can never be destroyed. Imagine how the body of Christ could arise in our day if we experienced the power of these decentralized communities as people who are all listening and responding to him.

The world is now discovering the power of decentralized organizations in a way that we could have been living for 2000 years. I'm sure many believers did in those past generations, but unfortunately the powers of religion have always gravitated toward heavily authoritarian, centralized models as a means to amass riches and power. I love that so many of us are now discovering a different approach to life as the body of Christ that liberates us from the repressive institutions that destroy people to the freedom to demonstrate who he truly is in the world.

If that's your passion, this book will show you just how powerfully it can happen. And if the business world can do it without Jesus, how much more powerful would it be for a community of people to live and work together like that who have surrendered their lives to Someone far greater than themselves. Maybe it’s time more of us embraced a new way of seeing the community of believers and how they can function in the world.

Laptop for Every Child

Check out this link for a gift to give to the world. www.laptopgiving.org If you donate before November 26th you not only give one to a child in a developing nation but you will also receive one for your own child. We are blessed to be a blessing!

The Muslim diaspora

If you want to go, many don't!

If you think you should go, many won't

If you have to go, many can't

Ex Cathedra

You said go, and I say no

You said believe and I just don't know

You said come and I just want to stay

I feel so stuck in this space today.

Speak Ex Cathedra over my soul

Speak all you want to into my whole

Speak Ex Cathedra into my me

Speak as you can do without bound'ry

I'm stuck here today

I just want to stay

but you're building a bridge

Over my bay

And my tears will stop on the day we walk

You'll Speak Ex Cathedra; I'll listen, I won't talk

www.nathanbsmith.blogspot.com

Greetings from Chicago! I have been out of touch lately because of some problems with my blog. I have named it www.nathanbsmith.blogspot.com and no longer www.nathanbarrett7.blogspot.com. I am sorry with the delay but there was something wrong with the forwarding configuration so I've had to revise. The other address that will bring you to this page is www.nathanbsmith.com. I will be posting much more often now that I have fixed the problem but it won't be because of travel since I am in Chicago now and will be here for some time. Currently I am again at school studying for my Master's of Divinity and working on my second year. I look forward to this next 2 1/2 years to finish and am incredibly thankful for how God has provided as I have come back in faith and have not spent a single dime of my own on books or tuition and the LORD has provided a living situation with my aunt and uncle for free as long as I am in school. He again provides faithfully. I am tentatively involved very heavily in my studies and will be going home for Christmas after not being home for 1 1/2 years. My nieces and nephew will be there with Darrell and Kelsie, sister and brother-in-law. I will get to see all of my friends from home and will also spend some time with Phil and Ruth Nellis in Seattle when I fly in as well as be able to connect with T.J. and Heidi Hahn who are ministering in Oregon. I look forward to what's ahead and am thankful to the LORD for this time of slowing down and refueling for the journey with my studies. Blessings!

Be my everything...

Be a mentor with selflessness

Be my famous friend

Be my idolatry

Be my closest most genuine perfectly loyal and gracious companion

Be my never wrong parent of perfection

Be my other half that takes responsibility for my faults

Be my lover without consequences

Be my immediacy

Be my depth and longing for authenticity

Be the one who I fantasize would die for me

Be on time

Be mine

Be my eulogy

Be my everything

Not sure what is happening!

There is something wrong with my web address so if you are having trouble accessing this page, it is still active but not doing so well.

lamenting the Pain

the Loss

honoring the Unspoken

the Confusion

speaking my Peace to the Past

unable to bring it Home

but it ain't home without It

Babysitter for an adult

Does God intend to "confirm" our directions in life


Or does God affirm our decisions about direction in life


Consider the coincidences of your day, the omens that speak


Do they guide you? Do they confirm? Do they lead you?


Or are they like the signs of weather - sometimes yes it will rain


Sometimes it looks as if it will but we don't see a drop fall


An omen is ominous, yet not always indicative - how do we listen?


We listen as the farmer listens to the weatherman and the weather.


Nothing is for sure but all is possible, so live in tension


At the same time, let go of "confirmations" and turn to "affirmations"


This brings you and I from "certainty" to "assurance"


Ask yourself, which provides more security and then ask yourself,


"Which do you really want?"

To be faithful and unambitious

Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star:
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet, I was wounded by the archers, spent.
Leaned me against the tree to die, and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?

No wound? No Scar?
Yes, as the master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole. Can he have followed far
Who has no wound? No Scar?

-Amy Carmichael

Glory Rush

My two years are finished and I’m broken and ready to be molded. I’m discovering that doing what I’ve done was to find Jesus. The whole earth is filled with His glory – we are glory miners – we go off into the far reaches of the world searching out the riches of his glory that He has deposited in areas untouched by the shoes of Kingdom carriers. The glory revealed in a new language intimating itself for the first time with the Words of Living Water flowing from the pages of Scripture, the glory revealed when a culture receives the Gospel for the first time and sheds light on the deeper meaning of what God wants revealed of Himself that He has planted in that people group – and so many more revelations. There is so much glitter in God’s glory that we are called to discover and playing it safe is no longer an option – God’s not playing games with us. I found God yet I missed Him altogether while I was out there. I’m coming home to discover Him anew and see His heart for the nations from my native shores. It’s always about intimacy and basically – if God is calling us out there – it is to discover Him in the midst of the lives that He allows us to touch. With that leading our mission vision we are called forth. It is not just the Glory of God that leads us forth, it is the desire of the Glory of God that leads us forth, the knowledge that we have access to it – that it can be displayed, His presence in our presence, that we open the channel of our hearts for Him to proclaim it and awaken it wherever it may be. Will we access it if we do not go – yes but limited, always remembering that we don't want to be held back to the better by the best – we push forward to mine the depths of God’s glory as it fills (already has filled) the earth, in nature, culture, language, growing narratives, untold stories of hope that are poised to spring forth from the lives of broken nations and people. Is this true of our life, do we go to see hope – I believe so, because if we come from a world where hope isn’t needed and drive our hearts to a place where hope would be the air to breathe – we live in the midst and mess of Kingdom miners. The Kaleidoscope of the Kingdom possibilities is innumerable. We are called to create space for creativity to spring forth amidst disappointment continually – it is the very nature of the Gospel to proclaim hope through Jesus in the place of no hope and to really promise that God can be found. His glory leads us on. I hope it does for me and you. Blessings!

"Do not try to call them back to where they were, and do not try call them to where you are, as beautiful as that place may seem to you. You must have the courage to go with them to a place neither you nor they have been before." - Vincent Donovan

"Holy Holy Holy is the LORD Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory!" -Isaiah

DMZ

Last month, myself and a Northern Irish fried, Che, made our way to the DMZ. Our host was Jeung Hyeun, a friend from before. We prayed as we looked over the no man's land that gave way to the sprawling North Korean landscape. We prayed for reconciliation and an end to the division and for the Church in North Korea. As we stood in the train station bordering the two countries, Che pointed up towards the idealic sign over and above the guard's stance "To Pyeongyang" - the place where the revival that swept the Korean peninsula exactly 100 years ago took place. Now South Korea remains the 10 strongest economy in the world, has 6 of the ten largest churches in the world including the largest and sends out more missionaries per capita than any other nation on the planet. God has written a special story for the southern region of Korea. We hope for the same in the north where persecution rages on, where brothers and sisters are still imprisoned, beaten and killed for their belief in Jesus. The world has their eyes bent on North Korea. Google Earth has been used much lately to peer into this impossible nation from a bird's eye view. I can only believe that God overlooks this country with a broken heart and desire to see the removal of the dividing wall of hostility that still remains.

We had the amazing privilege of hiking down into a shaft that was dug underneath the DMZ by the North Koreans, one of 5 they have found and this one was only 56 km from Seoul. It was told that 30,000 men could be moved through this tunnel in an hour had it reached Seoul. Peace between brothers and sisters almost seems more difficult than between strangers. We can hope and pray that what happened at the Olympics when the North and South marched in together will move into the reality of these two nations divided that were never meant to know division and that this region of the DMZ will no longer exist, except for as a reminder of what it can cost a nation to be divided.

FREE JOHN PIPER BOOK!

If you would like to receive a free book by John Piper, please visit, www.georgeverwer.com and watch his latest YouTube posting or just email him and ask for it at george@verwer.om.org and let him know you visited his website.

Red Dot Reminder

I just talked to a 21 year old, who helped organize Teen Street about an incident that he was challenged in through last year’s event. Though he was part of the leadership team this year, last year he was a coach for a net of teens. All were asked to put a red mark on their id card to remind them that God will and wants to use them. After Teen Street, he was heading out to share the Gospel with an evangelism team. Some Hindu fanatics found out what he was doing and took all his evangelistic literature (book of hope), beat him and then took his i.d. card – the same i.d. card that had the red dot on it, the same dot that Hindu ladies put on their forehead (for marriage or religious identification). The reason they took the id card was so that he couldn’t go to the police and complain. The police would ask for his id card and if he didn’t have it, then they wouldn’t listen. As a result, he went on to do the evangelism that he started out to do with his friends. In the evening they found out that the same fanatics were looking for him with his id card and as he saw them and saw them holding his id card, the red dot stood out on his card and he was reminded of the reason it was there – that God would use him.