When To Comfort – and When Not To…

I’m a harmonizer. The folks at the office know me by this more than just about anything. I have a natural desire to care for folks, and walk with them in and through their struggles. This is a good thing. But, I am learning exactly how and when to use this aspect of God’s character for others.

For example, I’m naturally an empathetic soul. When someone is suffering, I want to reach out to them and do all I can to alleviate their pain. But, throughout Scripture we see that God shows us when to console and comfort…and when to allow others to sit in pain for a season.

Looking back over the last 33 years of my life, I see that the greatest catalyst of change in my actual behavior – and for my obedience to God – was when He let me suffer. The times that He didn’t take His pressing thumb off me, caused me to fall back in dependence and in love with Him again. Those moments that hurt, and He doesn’t immediately console me and rescue me “from” the angst, are the most obvious moments of life-transformation for me.

As a consoler, a comforter, a harmonizer, a care-giver, this is not natural for me to always flesh out in counseling/journeying with others. But, it’s absolutely vital to God’s sanctifying work in others and in us. Creating a refuge for people from the enemy and from the impacts of hardship is necessary. But creating a means of escape from conviction of sin is actually hurting the work of the Gospel in others.

This is definitely where the Spirit of God gives us wisdom to know what to say, or NOT to say, in each moment of need.

Twitter

As you heard Matt talk about this weekend, Twitter was the reason we were able to respond so quickly with relief to those affected by the devastating fire in the St John neighborhood. Want to stay connected to what’s going on and be in the loop when things like that happen again? Here’s how – connect with us on Twitter. Many of our pastors and staff already use Twitter.

Donate to Campaign To End Poverty

Go HERE to donate!

CTEP-Our Dream

This post found at www.simplymissional.com

By Chris Marlow

Yesterday shared a little about our desire to love and serve our friends in Zimbabwe. Today I wanted to continue the conversation as we begin to build towards the launch of CTEP.

In a nutshell, there are many needs in our world. Extreme poverty is an ugly issue and its going to take a lot of hard work to create the change that is necessary to end it. So lets get started.

Our hope is 3 fold in 2009 as it relates to serving our friends in Zimbabwe.

1. Build a new home for orphaned kids on the current property.
2. Purchase new mattresses so the kids don’t have to sleep on the ground.
3. Purchase new school uniforms for the kids.

As you can tell this is very practical. We just believe that every kid should have a place to call home, a bed to sleep in, and clean clothes so they can feel good about themselves. If we can help in these areas, we feel like the community would be well served as they already have local leaders who are doing so much to love and support the kids.

Moving on…So we thought to ourselves, what would it look like to ask our friends in the West to help us end local poverty in Zimbabwe? How could we create a movement of love, hope and story?

Are you willing to help? Are you willing to ask others to help?

Tomorrow I will share practical ways that you can help us, help our friends in Zimbabwe.

87 Reasons To Sell Something

This post found on www.simplymissional.com

By Chris Marlow

Wow, so much going on as of late. But, I wanted to give everyone a quick update. This Monday we should be launching The Campaign to End Poverty website. Scotty from Studio 914 is currently working on this project.

HELP is currently focused on ending poverty in Marondera, Zimbabwe, which is a city on the outskirts of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. We are currently working with a local Zimbabwean leader and also Steven and Amy from Servlife. HELP’s desire is to start a movement of love, hope and story, so we can educate people and help eradicate extreme poverty. We see ourselves as brokers; we want to provide leverage to our friends on the ground who are the real unknown heroes.

How? Because we are quite brilliant…OK, maybe not…But, we truly want to make a difference in this small community and we trust the local leader who is truly a servant of God. We have decided to launch this campaign in hope of raising $40,000. These funds will go to orphan rescue and orphan support in Zimbabwe. Currently there is 87 orphans that we want to help care for and of course we desire to help rescue the others who have no shelter.

Here’s the deal…We need your help to make this happen. Tomorrow I will fill you in on the details, but lets just say it has something to do with you selling something (fighting consumerism) and giving the proceeds away to our friends in Zimbabwe.

More info tomorrow, but for now, can you stop and say a prayer for HELP and CTEP?

Thanks.

ASCC Family Reunion Food Tickets…

Hey guys,

Just a reminder that this Saturday is The Austin Stone Community Church’s Family Reunion. We do this a couple times a year to pull everyone together for the purpose of connecting with each other and celebrating what God has done in so many lives. There will be a ton of stuff available for children and adults…and of course, Baptism celebration!

If you are planning on eating lunch (BBQ from Iron Works), then PLEASE click here to order your tickets for lunch.

See you on Saturday!

John Mark McMillan’s “The Medicine”

I love music. Always in search for a musician or band that writes and plays music that stirs things in me about God, the world, and my relationship with both. Most musicians or bands lean heavily on one more than the other (which is all good)…but then you come across an album that makes you yell “Yeah, dude!” (or other rhetoric that describes some sense of jubilation)

I downloaded John Mark McMillan’s newest release “The Medicine”. Deeply soulful and passionate. His ability to pen words is extraordinary. Musically, every song has it’s own unique sound and – me likey!

If you purchase the album from JMM’s webstore, $7.50 goes to Zao Water to help build water wells for those who have no clean water. This is a win-win for you. Buy it…then thank me later!

Online Donations for St. John’s Fire Victims

If you would like to donate to those who have suffered greatly from the St. John’s apartment fire, you can do so by clicking the picture below. Thank you!