As you all know by now, Haiti was hit last year on January 12, 2010 by a devastating 7.0 earthquake. It’s been slightly over a year now, but the needs of this country are still great and they are just as much in need today as they were a year ago when the tragedy occurred. Even prior to the earthquake, Haiti ranked as one of the least developed countries in the world, and has an approximate population of 10 million, with most citizens living below $2 per day.  Our Ministry would like to give our community another opportunity to respond in prayer and giving as many of you did so last year.

We partnered with an amazing organization last year called One Days Wages, and we are grateful for the opportunity to be able to join with them again this time as well. What we appreciate most about ODW is their honesty and transparency. 100% of the over $5000 we received (minus c.c. transaction costs) went directly to the relief and rebuilding efforts in Haiti, and we want to extend our sincere gratitude to those who contributed to this need.

We showed a video this past Sunday (January 16th) from Eugene Cho, founder and director of One Days Wages, in which he shared where and how the donated fund were used and about the current state of need in Haiti. There is still much that needs to be done, and we want to ask you again to renew your commitment to Haiti through your prayers and financial support.

If you would like to give online, please visit our Haiti contribution page at www.onedayswages.org/binnerri.

*All donations are tax-deductible.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I first read Richard Foster’s The Celebration of Discipline, I did not like it. Its twelve chapters are organized around 12 spiritual disciplines. I felt like I was already not reading the Bible and praying enough–now I have ten more activities I have to feel guilty about?

Guilt, while very necessary to convict us (that’s why we’re only taking ’some’ away), is not a good long-term sustainable fuel source.

On the other hand, I don’t just drift into spiritual growth. So how do I know what spiritual practices might be helpful to me?
Here’s one of the most helpful insights I know, courtesy of Dallas Willard.

Sins can be divided into two types:
1. Sins of Omission (lovelessness, joylessness,–things I DON’T do)
2. Sins of Comission (lying, gossiping–things I DO)

Disciplines can be divided into two related types:
1. Disciplines of Engagement (study, worship–things I DO)
2. Discipines of Abstinence (fasting, solitude–things I DON’T DO)

Generally–when I wrestle with a sin of omission, I will be helped by a discipline of engagement. For instance, if I struggle with joylessness I will be helped by the practice of celebration. If I struggle with being miserly I will be helped by the practice of giving.

When I wrestle with a sin of Comission, I will be helped by a practice of Abstinence. If I struggle with gossip I will be helped by practicing silence; if I wrestle with ‘impression management’ I will be helped by solitude.

I personally wrestle with enough sins that I never run out of practices that can be helpful. But I no longer feel guilty about not keeping up with someone else’s devotional list. I have more important things to feel guilty about.

The disciplines are a means to an end. The end is–life!

Click here to view the embedded video.

This was such an incredible reminder for me, not only of my personally calling to love and care for the broken through the power of the Gospel, but my need for the Gospel as one who is broken himself. The reality is I am that broken and mishandled rose and so are you, but Jesus wants the rose, He loves the rose, and He gave His very life to redeem the rose.

1 Corinthians 5:21 states, “God made Him (Jesus Christ) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.“ And as I thought about this amazing truth, I words to the chorus of the song, “Above All,” came to mind:

Crucified, laid behind a stone
You lived to die, rejected and alone
Like a rose, trampled on the ground
You took the fall and thought of me
Above all

May this amazing truth, the Gospel, give us the strength and encouragement to live this day.

“I have come that they might have life, and have it with abundance.” This is one of Jesus’ most famous sayings. It is what we would think of today as a mission statement. But when he says he’s come to give abundant life, what exactly is he promising? Life turns out to be one of those words that everybody knows but is surprisingly tricky to define. (You might give it a try yourself.) Here’s the best definition I know: life is the inner power to make something happen.

Put a rock in the ground and it just lies there. Put a seed in the ground–something happens. It takes in nourishment and begins to grow. It receives from and gives back to the world. Something happens because the seed has life in it that would not otherwise happen. To be alive is to change the world.

Jesus came to give you power far beyond your own to make wonderful things happen. This life begins as our own thoughts and desires become rooted in him, just as a seed becomes rooted in the ground. Then out of the abundance of confidence and joy in this inner life flows creativity and strength to make good things happen around us. So today, be a ‘make something happen’ person. Invite Jesus to do this with you. No passivity today. When you’re in a meeting, and an idea comes to you–say it. When you’re with someone who’s discouraged–encourage him or her. Write a note, say a prayer, tell someone thanks, call a friend, notice beauty, challenge your mind, solve a problem, give a gift to someone who needs it, take someone to lunch, sow a seed, plant a garden. Be abundantly alive. Make something happen.

God has given you and I the incredible opportunity to do something today! Let’s seize this day for it truly is the day that He has made. And let us rejoice and be glad in Him for He has given us another day to grow as we encourage, pray, and sow in the lives of the people He has placed in our lives.

These verses have been constant reminder for me, because I’m the type of person that likes to have the newest and latest toys and gadgets. And so Jesus’ words have been a daily, humbling gut check for me. And just today I came across a blog post from pastor and author John Ortberg on the importance of leveraging our desires for good. Here’s an excerpt from his post:

So my task is not to get rid of desire. Its to learn how my desires can lead me toward the person God made me to be. So here are the three laws of desire:

1. Acknowledge my desire. There’s no use pretending to God that I don’t really want that gi-normous house; he already knows. A desire named has less power than a desire hidden.

2. Reflect on my desire. Desires are so powerful that I am apt to think I am my desire. There is actually great freedom in stepping back from it and realizing that I am not identical to any of my desires, and none of them get to have veto power over my life. Very often–just like birds desire to fly and fish desire to swim, my desires are important guides about what God made me to love and to do.

3.Surrender my desire. This doesn’t mean renounce it. It means to place it in the context of my greatest desire. I can do this only because what I want more than any particular outcome is life; and the life I want can only finally be found in God.

My hope and prayer is that we would feast our eyes on good things, and saturate our hearts with the Light of Jesus Christ, so that we may be able to shine forth His love and character in our lives.

“He (Satan) was a killer from the very start. He couldn’t stand the truth because there wasn’t a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies.”  – John 8:44 (The Message)

Jesus calls him a killer and a liar, and his ultimate goal is to prevent us from ever experiencing the FULLNESS of being in a relationship with God our Heavenly Father. He wants to place as much distance as he can between us and God, because he knows that the closer we draw to our Heavenly Father, the more we start to look and act like Him. And there’s nothing he hates more than to see us emulating and imitating the character of God.

One of Satan’s tactics is to get us to a place, an environment, or a moment where he can entice and tempt us. And once we start buying into the lies he feeds us, we get dragged away by our sinful desires as it says in James 1:14, and soon afterward the deception clouds the reality of who God has called us to be. It even comes to a point where we often justify our behaviors, even though we know they are dishonoring to God. And this is why James exhorts the believers, “Do not be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.” (James 1:16)

In other words, don’t let Satan steal that relationship away from you. Don’t give the enemy the opportunity to leverage his lies, but hold fast to the truth and what God has so say about you. Don’t believe the lies of a killer, rather, place your trust in the Life-Giver.

As some of you may have heard, one of our congregation members (John Mark and Patty Lee) lost their baby on October 9, 2009 in the mother’s womb when she was only 21 weeks old. We are continually praying for them as they grieve the loss of their child. The amazing thing is that they are using this as an opportunity to make a difference because of the difference that “Joey” has made in their lives. They are asking people to donate to One Days Wages, an organization that our church partners up with to fight extreme global poverty. That’s just amazing. Read their invitation:

We want all of you to remember that Joey is still our child and that we are parents to a beautiful child. Many parents have legacies they want their child in heaven to bring, and for us, we want Joey’s legacy to be of loving and serving God and others. So, in memory of Josephine Ann Lee, we would like to ask for a donation to One Days Wages. One Days Wages is an organization that is helping to fight global extreme poverty. We are fortunate to have the necessities of health, food and shelter, but many are not. We also think about the mothers-to-be who are starving and knowing their future babies are not going to have the proper nutrition. We are also thinking about the young children who are suffering because they have nothing to eat to help them grow physically and mentally. We are asking that you donate one day of your salary;  your one day’s wages (~0.4% of one’s salary) can have a dramatic impact for those living in extreme poverty.

Before you donate, take some time to look over ODW’s website and see what they do. We have set a goal of $10,000 by October 9, 2010, Joey’s first birthday. I know many of you would have bought her gifts and presents and clothes, but we are now asking that you give that money or your day’s salary to this cause. We hope that you can help by sacrificing to help someone who is in real need like Joey would have. We hope you will also do this in memory of our daughter, Josephine Ann Lee.

Would you consider partnering up with them and ODW to make difference in the lives of mothers and babies all around the world? Sure, the economy is tough, and what little we can offer might not make a difference by itself … but collectively, we can do something amazing.

Here’s the special link that ODW has setup for Joey: http://www.onedayswages.com/joey

We love you, John Mark, Patty and Joey!

As we are all called to invest in the lives of others and to leave a legacy beyond ourselves, I wonder if when we get to heaven, we will be surrounded by the people that we’ve invested in and they will be singing the same words, “See what we’ve all become … Together we are one.”

Watch this video, reflect upon your life, be inspired to invest in the lives of those around you for the gospel of Jesus Christ, because you can make a difference … together we are one!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Together We Are One by Delta Goodrem

Here we are
Sharing our lives
We made it through
The good and bad times
And still we stand
With hope in our hearts
No matter what
We will play our part
And now we’ve come so far
One chance to touch a star
Go higher and higher

Find your guiding inspiration
In a place where dreams are made
With a lifetime’s preparation
theres no time to be afraid
Put our differences behind us
While we shine like the sun
See what we’ve all become
Together we are one

See what we’ve all become
Together we are one

And as the final episode came to a close there was one scene, and specifically one conversation, that really caught my attention (don’t worry I’m not going to spoil it if you haven’t seen it already). One of the characters reminds Jack Shepherd of the importance of the people he was surrounded with during his time on the island, and he says to him:

“The most important part of your life was the time you spent with these people. That’s why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone, Jack. You needed all of them and they needed you.”

And as I listened to those words, I was reminded of the importance of community in my own life. God never intended for us to journey through this Christian life alone. His desire and design from the very beginning has been for us to live in community with others. We need to surround ourselves with a person or a group of people we can trust to share our joys and our struggles, and all of us need a place where we can pray for and be prayed over.

Because you see, nobody does it alone. We need the encouragement and prayers of others, and they need ours as well. And who knows, the most important part of your life in this Christian journey may be the times you spend in community with others. So, I want to encourage you to give it a shot and to take that next step in your desire to grow as a follower of Jesus. Maybe that’s why all of us are here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

God is God … God is good … To God be the glory.