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Jesus Hates Myanmar

This article is part of a series - Stuff Jesus Hates.

When governments stand in the way of aid and comfort to the sick and dying - this makes Jesus angry.  Notice the line at the end of this article though, the junta specifically asked for help from World Vision.

“Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt. Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.” - Exodus 22:21-24

Rotting corpses pile up as Myanmar stalls on aid

YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) — Myanmar’s cyclone survivors have insufficient fuel to burn the rotting corpses of the dead as the country’s military junta continues to block access for aid groups.

Jesus Hates Leftovers

This article is part of a series - Stuff Jesus Hates.

This article made me sick to my stomach when I read it.  This kind of greed and selfishness makes Jesus angry.

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.” - Leviticus 19:9-10

Food crisis due to greed, says development bank

By Ingrid Melander
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The global food price crisis is largely due to greed and market speculation rather than food shortages,

Jesus Hates Palestine

This article is part of a series - Stuff Jesus Hates.

Came across an article in Al Jazeera English Online. These are the repercussions of action, or inaction, that make Jesus angry.

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. - Deuteronomy 8:10-18

Gaza Diary: Newborn Palestinians

by Omar, humanitarian aid worker in partnership with OxFam

In two weeks, my wife will bring our child into the world.

Stuff Jesus Hates

The news has been full of articles, interviews and exposes lately which, I believe, make Jesus very angry. The next couple of blog entries are going to cover this theme - what makes Jesus angry? What can we do about it?

1. Jesus Hates Palestine

2. Jesus Hates Leftovers

3. Jesus Hates Myanmar

I Love Richard Dawkins

I had the opportunity to see Expelled with friends the other day. The movie is an unscientific, though philosophical approach to the issue of Evolution and its dialogue – or lack thereof – with any semblance of Intelligent Design theory. Ben Stein (of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – anyone, anyone?) acts as agent provocateur, documentarian, interested party, and journalist in this hour and a half movie, the end of which climaxes with a three to five minute interview with Richard Dawkins himself.

Dawkins, the self-styled guru of atheism (put that in your metaphysical pipe…), read one of his more notorious passages from his book “The God Delusion.” In what can only be described as obvious pride, Dawkins read:

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

And for a moment, for me, the movie stopped, the dark room brightened, and in each word Dawkins read, I heard a voice:

Halfway.

If you’ve been reading 5 Psalms everyday consecutively for the last 15 days, you’re exactly halfway through the Psalms today. Congratulations.

But if you’ve been reading the Psalms like this – maybe you’ve discovered for the first time that they aren’t all “the Lord is my shepherd.” In fact, very few if any sound like Christian radio hit tunes – spiritually uplifting, devoid of content. More often than not they feel a little Emo – dark and angst-y.

Some scholars say that more than half of the Psalms are laments: petitions, prayers, crying out for God to hear the poet.  “Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again?” (Psalm 77:7) “Why have you rejected us forever, O God? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?” (Psalm 74:1)

It seems as though the God of the Universe is big enough to handle even our most aching questions.

Jesus Failed Marketing 101

I ran across a rather helpful website which outlined “marketing theory.”

According to this site, the four most basic rules of Marketing are:

1. Get your customer’s attention
2. Motivate them to buy
3. Get them to actually buy
4. Get them to buy again and again

Marketing strategy breaks people up into strata (demographics) and organizes its campaign around the 20-30% of people who will influence the rest of a demographic. It is an inexact and arduous science, constantly reevaluating and reformulating new approaches to reach a target audience. And Jesus sucks at it.

Christians Make Good Lovers

Kevin Higgins from Global Teams was here at the beginning of this month. He spoke on the state of his ministry and tried to impress a new way of looking at missions.

In the middle of all of this, he told a story about some friends he has in Pakistan. These men are recent converts who have decided that the way of Jesus is the most excellent way to be Muslim. They have come together as a community to decide how best they can live Jesus-honoring lives within the culture they are still a part of. One of the most difficult decisions they had to make as a community was how to honor the tradition of polygamy.

They, on their own, agreed that those of them that were already married to more than one wife should remain married, but those who were not yet married or married only once should only take one wife. Kevin said that several months later, the men all convened together again and discovered that they had a problem. It turns out that Jesus honoring men make good husbands and they had been inundated with requests from fathers and from their communities to take their daughters, to take another wife.

Christians make good lovers.

Fear God; love better.

If you’re just joining in now, a good number of us have decided to read the Psalms together, 5 Psalms a day for 30 days. This challenge was laid out last week and it’s not too late to join in now. I dare you to read these words of scripture consistently for the next 30 days and see if God will not show up in new and unexpected ways.

The first 35 psalms have painted a definite and clear picture of what it means to be a God-fearer. Psalm 1 on its own outlines what separates “righteous” people from “the wicked.” The idea here for “righteous” are those who are walking on the right path – not those that have it all together. “Wicked” then, means those who deliberately walk on the wrong path.