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Bono on Justice

Bill Hybels recently interviewed Bono on social justice issues.  I was wowed by this interview.  I knew Bono was leading an awesome front against poverty but the things he says is phenomenal!!!!   Probably one of the best video's on this blog!!

 

I pray to God more Christians start realizing what Bono is saying. 

1 Billion People

Did you drink fresh clean water today?  If you didn't you probably had access to some at the very least.  Did you know that at least 1 Billion people in the world (some say 2 Billion) don't have access to clean water.  I believe this makes Jesus very upset.  As Christians we need to do everything in our power and control to bring justice to those who don't have any clean water.  Look at these stats below taken from www.globalissues.org. 

Water problems affect half of humanity:

• Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.
• Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day.
• More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day, and more than 385 million on less than $1 a day.
• Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%.
• 1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 litres per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters day.)
• Some 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhoea
• The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.
• Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.
• Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water.
• To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit.… The costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labour diversions … are greatest in some of the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses about 5% of GDP, or some $28.4 billion annually, a figure that exceeds total aid flows and debt relief to the region in 2003.Source
   Read  this verse below.   

Isaiah 41:17 (New International Version)

 17 "The poor and needy search for water, 
       but there is none; 
       their tongues are parched with thirst. 
       But I the LORD will answer them; 
       I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

Please visit www.wateraid.org to find out how you can help end this water crisis around the world that so many Americans don't even realize.  Hopefully knowing this will make you conserve more of the water that we all take for granted.

One more verse about our dealings with the poor.

Isaiah 58:10 (New International Version)

 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry 
       and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, 
       then your light will rise in the darkness, 
       and your night will become like the noonday.

Tim Keller: Gospel & the Poor

Here is fantastic article written by Tim Keller who is the senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, NY and an adjunct professor of practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.  I have shared some thoughts on this issue in some of my postings and I feel it's a worthwhile read that many Christians need to grab a hold of.  

Here is the link.  Enjoy.

Lunch break Blog - Distracted by the Poor?!?!

I guess everybody has a critic.  It's not like this is news to me or anything.  I've had people disagree with me often but they have been very courteous and Christ like.  The following below is a comment from somebody who has written a few comments on my blog.  I have not published many of his comments because most are ignorant and rude.  I'm not going to mention his name cause I don't want to give the time of day anyway to this guy.  Some Christians see it as their ministry to attack and demean other believers such as they are the enemy.  But I wanted you to see the ridiculous nature of what he is saying. 

"Aren't you spending too much time being distracted by what the Bible teaches will never change (poverty and social justice etc.)?  Why not get serious about the real problem in the world, sin?  You don't like talking about personal holiness I notice.  Being just like the world will only make you more worldly.  If you can't live without your carnality maybe you should check out your life.  Maybe your search is really about submitting to Christ and His Word in your personal life.  Just a thought."

Where do I begin.  First of all my stomach turns as this is the attitude of many so called Christians.  How can anybody who claims to follow Christ ignore the poor and the injustice in the world today?  I would ask this person to re-read the Gospels to follow exactly Jesus' footsteps and see what Jesus involved himself in.  Jesus' entire ministry was filled with compassion on the poor and those unloved by society.  I don't have much time to dive into this right now since I'm on my 30 min lunch break at work.  But I am in my Kingdom series going to focus on Jesus' dealings with the poor.  It is mentioned MULTITUDES OF TIME!  How can anybody read the Gospels and then say we shouldn't be distracted with the poor?!?!?!  They are not reading the same Bible I'm reading that's for sure.  To ignore such things is SIN.   To Jesus, the poor  and social justice are not things that just happened cause it was convenient.  To live the Gospel to the world is to preach the "Good News" to the poor, the hopeless and the sinner. 

Sin is the cause for poverty, hopelessness, etc.  To ignore it is to ignore the Kingdom of Heaven.  To ignore the calamities of the world is refuse to bring "Heaven" to earth.  Instead your inviting "Hell" to reign.  Living like Jesus is the answer to this dark, dark world.  

How sad is it that we are so "heavenly" minded that we are of no earthly good.  God help us all.  This post reminds me of the attitude of the Pharisees that Jesus condemns in Matthew 23.  Here is the passage.

23Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

 25"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

 27"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

The Pharisees spent much time on "personal holiness" and look what Jesus said to them.  Here Jesus was telling them that they are so good at following their religion that they have neglected the more important matters of the law.  (justice, mercy, faithfulness)  The word "justice" is used in the way when humans go without things humans should not go without.  It speaks of "what is right" for every person.  So when almost 1.5 billion people in the world don't have clean drinking water...is that right?  The Pharisees ignored the plain teachings of the law.  They got everything else right in their minds but have neglected "justice".  Here is just a few to get us started. :)

Matthew 11:5

The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

Mark 10:21

Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Luke 7:22

So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

Luke 14:21

"The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.'

God is the God of the oppressed.  God help us if we are so distracted by the "Christianity" that we have created to ignore the true ways of Jesus. 

Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed over what sin?  Well if you grew up in a fundamental/evangelical church like me you would say that God wiped them out for being gay!  Oh really?  How do you justify this verse?  It is found in Ezekiel 16:49.

'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy."


Remember who the enemy is, dude.  It's not me.  I hope we spend more time reaching the world for Jesus than we do ripping each other.

Christmas Miracles

This past Sunday, I preached a message about unwrapping the Gospel in our lives.  We talked about how the Gospel is not just something that you proclaim with your mouths but it also something you proclaim with your lives.  I talked about how so many Christians focus on the beginning and the end of the life of Jesus to the neglect of the middle.  The Gospel is the good news that God has not given up on the world.  The gospel is the good news that there is hope when it seems like we are surrouned my a world of hopelessness.

I mentioned how strange it was that Jesus sent the disciples and the 70 away to preach the "gospel".  This gospel that they preached could not have been about the death, burial and ressurection of Jesus since that had not happened yet.  We were told that they healed people, casted out demons and just loved on people. 

I asked you to live this truth out in your lives.  I asked you to preach the gospel with your actions to a hurting world.  I am so glad that you were listening.  We presented two specific needs to you about two families that were struggling deeply this Christmas.  After the service scores of you came up with toys, money and food for these families.  Let me share with you what you did through your preaching the gospel.  Both of these families didn't have enough food to make it this week.  Both of these families (10 kids) in total did not have one single present for their children on Christmas morning.  One of these families was facing eviction from their apartment. 

On Christmas Eve, Pastor Brad and I took all of your love to these families.  We both witnessed miracles that night.  We saw the Gospel in a practical way.  We saw the following happen....

1 family will have a place to live and not be evicted this week.
2 familes will have enough to eat for at least a month (50 bags of groceries alltogether)
10 kids were able to wake up to a gift on Christmas morning that would have woken up to nothing.
2 families saw God's love for them in a very practical and tangible way.
2 families saw believers of Jesus truly be like Jesus

Thanks for letting me see the Gospel.  Thanks for letting me partake in a miracle!

Live the Gospel to the oppressed

It is impossible to go very far into the scriptures and not see that God's heart does break for the oppressed, the forgotten and the marginalized.  The scriptures always have a natural bent towards the poor, the single moms, the orphans. God is the God of the oppressed!  God loves the poor.  As a matter of fact I find it quite ironic that some Christians dismiss poverty altogether.  Some say "it's their fault they are in that mess".  How dare we call ourselves followers of Jesus if we ignore the same people who Jesus ministered onto.  How dare we think ourselves as 'good' if we can't love those who are hurting around us!?!?!

This fight against poverty..is a fight that God is engaging all of us to be apart of!  I can't find one Bible verse about establishing laws on morality but I can find plenty on what our response should be towards the hurting of this world.  If we are to truly "be like Jesus" or if were to "do what Jesus did" than we would be aware of the oppressed in our world.

In Jesus first message this is what he declared..."The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor."  I challenge you to read through the scriptures and pay attention to Jesus' reaction to the hurt around him.  There are more than you realize.  We get so caught up on the "spiritual" aspect of Jesus coming that we forget that he lived the best kind of life there is to live.  The gospel is not only what Jesus did for you but it's how that "good news" has impacted you.  Are we truly good news to the world?  You and I are the only sermons some people will ever hear or the bibles that some will ever read.  How are we living the good news?

Do you understand that when Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life" that he was not just referring to eternity with God?  Jesus a sentence later says that He is the only way to the Father.  So when Jesus says that he is the way..he is saying that "his way" is the best possible way to live.  It is through this life that we are changed.  It is through this kind of life that a better world is possible.  This is the Good News. By following the ways of Jesus we can bring restoration to a broken world.   

Matthew 25:34-45

35 Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

The One Campaign has done a lot to raise the awareness of extreme poverty in our world.  They recently asked all the 2008 presedential candidates where they stood on poverty.  Below is a sample video of how they are trying to unite the world around this cause.  This is the Jesus way.  You can visit them at www.one.org.