I saw this video awhile back and thought it was well done and encouraging. So check it out and let me know what you think. 

(Note: if you are the kind of person who can't listen to Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving, then maybe wait to watch until Friday).

This Sunday I will be taking a stroll around Angel's Stadium, home of the Anaheim Angels, for the 2008 Orange County Buddy Walk. The Buddy Walk exists to bring support to the local community of those who have Down Syndrome.

Before the walk around the stadium begins, thousands hang out on the field with their friends and families and participate in a number of activities. There will be a baseball game happening in the diamond of kids of all ages with Downs swinging away and running from base to base. Others will be exercising their singing voices at the karaoke stage to a dancing audience. You might find some children getting their pressed on tattoo's or their faces painted with their favorite animal. 

I recently went to see a local showing of the documentary Call + Response. The film, created and produced by singer/song writer, Justin Dillon, cast a spot light on the worlds darkest 27 million secrets, exposing the world of the enslaved. 

Call + Response reveals the raw truths behind the current slave trade situation in action today. There are more slaves today than any other time in human history. In 2007, those behind the world of slavery made more than powerhouse organizations Google, Nike and Starbucks combined. 

I learned that not only are there 27 million enslaved today around the globe, a shocking 1 million of them are currently enslaved in the United States. Isn't this the land of the free? How could this have happened and what can I do about it? These are just a couple of the questions that come to mind after watching the film and after some of the research I have done post my viewing of it. Twenty-seven million slaves is a hard reality to face. Yet, what I've found is that there are several ways that I can take action to abolish slavery right now. 

In a country such as America, cultures seem to be continually evolving as quickly as New England weather changes in an afternoon. I thought it might be helpful to take a biblical approach to culture and to its implications into our lives. The words below are taken from a seminar on crossing-cultures well that I facilitated in 2005. 

Culture defined: It is learned, it is shared, it represents an integration of many smaller anchors of reality or paradigms, and it is constantly changing. 

We were created with culture. I think it's important to factor into our scripture reading, the culture of that time period. Afterall, the Bible was revealed to us in history. We should spend as much time studying the culture in the Bible as we do studying our own. The Bible and ourselves are situated in cultural context. For instance, Adam and Eve were placed in a particular culture they share. Simply said, culture is in God's plan.

21st Century Martyr's

“We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God”(Acts. 14:22b). Paul’s words here recorded by Luke in Acts still ring true today. In fact, more Christians were martyred in the 20^th Centurythan in all previous centuries combined. Just as early church fathers recorded the accounts of martyrdom during their time, there are those faithful to preserve the faith who are actively involved in recording the realities of those persecuted today.These include the books titled Jesus Freaks by recording artists DC Talk. I believe books like this are so important because they record stories of people from all demographics who continue to take up their cross and follow Jesus.

Some of those included in the 20^th Century list of martyrs are Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, Jim Elliot in 1956, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 1945. Books like Daughters of Hope by Kay Marshall Strom and Michele Rickett have been written in order to voice the lives of those currently facing tremendous persecution. Douglas C. Hsu gives testimony to missionaries currently serving in some of the most dangerous missionary zones in his book Voices in the Wilderness. In it, Hsu records only 100 stories of those who are right now serving and risking their physical, earthly lives in order to expand the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are a lot of things in this world that scare me. Clowns, blue eye shadow, cats, mattress sales men and people who wear large amounts of leather, to name a few. There is one thing I'm not afraid of. Learning. I've been both blessed and cursed with an unquenchable thirst to learn more than I know now. I'm not talking about the learning of the mind and the gaining of information and knowledge. No, I'm talking about the learning that takes place in the heart. The kind of learning that shapes our motives. 

I'm in the process of learning a matter of the heart right now and I've got tell you, I'm incredibly challenged by this one.

I've recently realized something about myself. I realized that I am excellent at hoping for something when I can see a glimpse of it. It can be as small as Phoebe's world tattoo (my fellow Friends fans know what I'm talking about) but as long as I can see it or some evidence of it, I am full of hope. However, when the opposite happens, I am beginning to realize I have issues with hoping. 

The Reformation

The reformation period is rich in politics, economics, healthcare, social issues, matters of faith, literature, kingdoms and much more.  

The reformation marks a pivotal time in church history and serves as a turning point that has had tremendous effect on the universal church even until today. Many lives were put on the line in order to defend their faith. However, one particular individual stands out. In fact, he bore the name “Defender of the Faith.” I am referring to Thomas More.  

More was imprisoned for refusing to declare King Henry VIII as head of the church.  Although he was a good friend of the King and Chancellor of the kingdom, More could not go along with such a request. While in prison, More’s daughter paid visit trying to convince him to recant, in order to spare his life. She went onto list the names of many respectable people who had previously recanted and More responds to his fearful daughter by saying, “I never intend to pin my conscience to another man’s back.” Similar to Perpetua, More was forced to place Christ and truth before his own family. Christ bled in order that we might become part of his heavenly family and those martyred, bled in order to enter into that family.

The Early Church Martyrs

"The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians." 

The words of second-century Church father Tertullian, are thought provoking. During the first 3 centuries, the Christian world was in constant danger of facing persecution and in many cases, martyrdom. And yet, it was during this time that the church experienced large amounts of growth. We have already mentioned the fact that the church grew by 40% every decade during these times of persecution. Emperor Nero was in power in the early years and is first to put into effect a law forbidding Christianity. If anyone be found practicing Christianity, they were to be tortured and killed. The manners in which Nero persecuted the Christians were so brutal that even Tacitus, who was not a fan of Christians either, had this to say about Nero. “Even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man’s cruelty, that they were being destroyed.” Thus began the world of martyrdoms throughout the Roman Empire.

“The essential element in martyrdom is not the physical act of dying but rather a disposition of the will to live for Christ, with the necessary corollary that, by a strange but wholly Christian paradox, living for Christ may involve the necessity to lay down one’s life for him." - Gerald Bonner

Over the next few days I'll be blogging about the correlation between the spread of the Gospel message and martrydom, beginning with Jesus Christ and ending with the 21st Century. We will begin with a Biblical perspective on martydom with a few examples of this from scripture. Part II wil look at early church martry's. Part III will peek at the Reformation period and finally, Part IV will focus on Martrydom in the 21st Century. My objective is to come to a better understanding of why there were more Christian persecutions in the 20th Century than in all centuries combined preceeding it (Barrett, David B., George T. Kurian, and Todd M. Johnson 2001. World Christian Encyclopedia).  

I recently came across an old short essay I wrote for a class I took in graduate school. I was encouraged by reading the essay because it serves as a great reminder of the immeasurable and incomprehendable love the Father has for his creation. I hope you are experiencing that perfect love in your life today. 

From the course The Gospel, the World and Cities: 

We can be assured that God loves all people. Gen. 1:26 tells us that man was created in God’s image. The simple truth that God created man at all, reveals his love for us all. The Bible tells a love story that begins in the garden, climaxes at the cross, and continues to pierce hearts across the globe today. God desired relationship with man in the garden. After Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree, Gen. 3:8 tells us that God was walking in the garden. This tells me that he had a close relationship with Adam and Eve. Then, in Gen. 3:9, God is calling out to them; seeking them out after they had sinned against him. He personally approaches them. In Gen. 3:15, God reveals his plan for redemption.

God took the initiative to go after his creation in order to reconcile the gap that had been created as a result of disobedience. Here we see the first time that God begins his mission to reconcile his creation back to himself. In Gen. 4 God took the initiative with Cain and sought him out as well. God’s mission to reconcile his relationship with man has been coined the mission dei. This means that mission originates with God.

God called Abram in Gen. 12:1. Verses 2-3 reveal a promise.The end of the promise says that, ‘all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.’ This passage has been referred to as the most universal passage in scripture. Then, in Ex. 19:3-6, we see the charter of the Nation of Israel. We have a reference to ‘all nations’, ‘the whole earth is mine’, and ‘you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ Therefore, the promise of God’s plan was directed to the nation of Israel, yet Israel was to act as the mediator to bring all nations to God. It was not to isolate Israel from other people groups. In fact, we know that those who lived outside the nation of Israel did come to a faith in God. Josh. 2:8-11 tells us the story of Rehab and her incredible faith as well as the following individuals recorded in 2 Kings5:11ff, Jer. 38:7-13 and 2 Chron. 30:25. Solomon had a firm grasp on this when he prayed his universal prayer in 2 Chron. 6:32-33.

The Psalms are also filled with evidence that salvation and God’s redemptive plan is for all nations. Beginning in Ps. 2 and throughout thePsalms, salvation to all the nations is proclaimed. Psalm 67 perhaps is one ofthe most well known for its missions concept. Not only does it reveal God’splan to bless all nations, it reveals the purpose behind this blessings; ‘that your ways may be known on earth.’

Therefore, there is clear evidence that God was and is very concerned for all his creation. I began this essay by declaring the Bible to be a love story. God revealing himself to man is the most beautiful act of love and missions does in fact begin in the Old Testament and it does begin with God.