Adventures and Thoughts of Team Cross

We took a long weekend and visited friends…

We visited Bubba in Nashville
Aaron & McKensie in Lexington
Emily & Brian in Wilmore and Josh and Robin were there too!!

What a great weekend visiting with friends…

We went to the Opryland Hotel


We also met with two organizations to learn more about them and also to talk about job opportunties. They were Manna Project International and Blood:Water Mission (which I would highly recommend). We ate at the Franklin Mercantile, Fido and walked around the Factory at Franklin We ended our Nashville segment by enjoying some of the nightlife of Nashville:

We ate at Mulligan’s Pub with Christy enjoying her first beer, Guiness (a true Irish Beer) and I tried the English favorite, a Bass

Using some of our friends friends, we got into the Wildhorse Saloon without paying the cover charge and got a backstage tour. We are pictured here with one of the Wildhorses outside!

And of course no trip to Nashville would be complete without seeing the King.

The ultimate finale of Nashville was eating at a local hotspot called the Pancake Pantry.

Following after my dad, we forsook our mapquest directions and I randomly picked an exit and we took the cross country tour across Kentucky. Being a beautiful sunny day we had a great drive and got to see a scenic tour! We drove through Shaker Village, and the greater Bluegrass Region on US 68 (which would have ultimately taken us through Springfield). We saw lots of cows, horses, and old stone wall fences. It was a great drive and made even better by this random sign:

Here is a picture of us with Emily, Brian, Josh, and Robin:

We took another random route home (this one was actually pre-planned and a map looked at). And ran across this “greasy spoon” restaurant called 127 Restaurant (at the intersection of I-71 and US 127).

While doing research for talking with the youth group tomorrow night I ran across a Congregational Toolkit from Evangelicals for Darfur.

I really liked the many scripture references it gave:

Proverbs 24:11-12
Isaiah 2:3-4
Isaiah58:9-12
Micah 6:6-8
Proverbs 3:27
Luke 21:15
James 3:17-18
Matthew 25:31-46
Luke 18:1-8
Luke 10:25-37
James 2:15-17

I’m not sure which one I’ll use yet… some seem more powerful and in your face than others… I read back through them and bolded the ones I really like. The Bible is full of so many good passages

My first inclination was to use the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) and the Least of These (Matthew 25). But the James 2 passage really speaks about taking action… and Micah 6:8 is great and I have heard that as the definition of worship… ^“8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” The Proverbs 24 passage is good for people like the President…

Anyway… these are my thoughts for now… maybe later I’ll post what I talked about!

As mentioned before Christy and I are taking a course called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (local link). Here are some insights from the reading:

This verse came up in almost all the reading as the proclamation of God’s plan: Genesis 12:1-3
¹ The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

² “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

As seeds of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ, the only way the earth’s family will be blessed is we go to them with the gospel.

God calls us to:
1) Proclaim His plan to the nations (Gen 12:1-3);
2) Participate in His priesthood as agents of blessing to all the nations (Exodus 19:4-6); and
3) to prove His purpose to bless all the nations (Psalm 67)

Finally, we don’t have to proof text the Bible to prove God’s purpose of evangelization. The Bible:
1) Gives us the mandate for world evangelization. Jesus came to the nation of Israel but proclaimed something bigger with the Great Commission.
2) Provides the message for world evangelization. The Gospel is presented as one Gospel but is diverse enough to be understood by all. We have to engage in a struggle to relate the given gospel (Bible) to any situation.
3) Is a model for world evangelization. Not necessarily the Old Testament wars that the Crusades tried, but provides a model of love and humbly seeking to empty themselves of all but their personal authenticity, in order to become servants of others (Lausanne Covenant). Christ came in the flesh and became part of our culture.
4) Power for world evangelization. “Preaching the Gospel, far from being unnecessary, is indispensable. It is the God-appointed means by which the prince of darkness is defeated and the light comes streaming into people’s hearts. There is power in God’s gospel – His power for salvation” Makes me think of the hymn, “Power, power, wonder working power.”

I like how John Stott finishes his article: “Let us not consume all our energies arguing about the Word of God; let’s start using it. It will prove its divine origin by its divine power. Let’s let it loose in the world! If only every Christian missionary and evangelist proclaimed the biblical gospel with faithfulness and sensitivity, and every Christian preacher were a faithful expositor of God’s Word! Then God would display His saving power. ”
“Lets heed its summons, grasp its message, follow its directions, and trust its power.

This week’s articles are:
John Stott. The Living God is a Missionary God. Taken from You Can Tell the World. 1979. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA.
Walter Kaiser, Jr. Israel’s Missionary Call. Adapted from a presentation at Trinity Evangelical Divinty School, Ill, May 14, 1981.
Stanley Ellisen. Everyone’s Question: What is God Trying to Do? from Biography of a Great Planet. Chapter 2, 1975. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, Illinois.
John Stott. The Bible in World Evangelization. Adapted from a presentation at the Consultation on World Evangelization at Pattaya, Thailand in June 1980.

Quoted from an article in Christianity Today:

Most of all, we need to go back to the Cross and relearn its comprehensive glory. For if we persist in a narrow, individualistic view of the Cross as a personal exit strategy to heaven, we fall short of its biblical connection to the mission purpose of God for the whole of creation (Col. 1:20) and thereby lose the Cross-centered core of holistic mission.

By what authority can we do so? On what basis dare we challenge the chains of Satan, in word and deed, in people’s spiritual, moral, physical, and social lives? Only the Cross. The Cross must be as central to our social engagement as it is to our evangelism. There is no other power, no other resource, no other name through which we can offer the whole gospel to the whole person and the whole world than Jesus Christ crucified and risen.

This is an interesting idea as Christy and I begin studying for the Perspectives course.

Due to a recent earthquake in the South Pacific, customers in North America calling our product support may experience busy signals, error messages, or dropped connections. While we fix this problem, we encourage all customers seeking support to first try our online solutions below or submit a case online. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

I guess they can’t hide where their call center is located!

FYI: This is from Trend Micro

Some random interesting factoids:

51% of women are living without a spouse

Frequent exercisers were absent from work only 2.11 days per year compared to 3.06 days for inactive employees

Four houses around the world priced at over $100 Million USD

Get a Free College Education Online

Nick Cross has sent you this message from Human Rights First and is asking you to stand in for those who have been killed or forced to flee from genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The international community has not agreed on a number of those killed in the slaughter — estimates range from 180,000 to 400,000. The New York Times reported the number 200,000 in March 2006.

At least two million people have been forced to flee their homes and are displaced in Sudan or in camps in neighboring Chad.

Please click below to stand in and be a voice for the victims of genocide in Darfur:

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/hope.asp?s=taf