That night my heart was heavy. I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about this family, and then all the other families in need. I know we made a difference for this family. But my heart was crushed at all of the families out there who need more from those who can help. I kept getting up to pray, then trying to sleep, then getting up again. I finally gave up on sleep at 4am and saw you had already given quite a bit. I was happy to see it but I still kept thinking of everyone else that needs help.

But before I go there, I want to share about what we’ve been able to do and what I’ve been hearing others doing.

To date there were over $300 in donations. My wife is going right now, literally as I type this, to take the money to help pay their rent. I talked with them last night and basically they would be on the street today if we didn’t have this money to give. That is why my heart was so heavy, because I wanted to give them a good Christmas, but what is a nice Christmas morning when you get kicked out on the street a few days later.

The day after I wrote the last post, my wife went Christmas shopping for this family. She bought them food, clothes, and some other presents. The young lady didn’t have a winter coat, so we made that happen too. God has really blessed us in this past year and for once we have disposable income. I was thinking about computer upgrades, other nice toys, generally enjoying the money. Turns out I got the opportunity to really enjoy the money.

The family was just beside themselves with gratitude for the presents. We also got a small tree and a few decorations. They called me a few times just to say thanks again. I am telling you all this because I want you to know they are thankful for your help as well. If it weren’t for you we wouldn’t have been able to give them as much, we would have been forced to chose between giving them food, paying for their rent, and giving them that Merry Christmas. Thank you.

This year we exchanged gifts with friends, and for the first time we were buying and receiving some pretty nice gifts. Normally we had to set really low limits, not because our friends couldn’t afford it, but because we couldn’t spend as much on them as they could on us. I talked to someone I work with online and this year their family did a donation gift exchange instead of their traditional one at the extended family party. They raised $500 for a charity when normally they would have played dirty Santa with stupid little gifts.

Based on that it occurred to me that next year my friends and I could do the same thing, instead of giving gifts to each other we can bless families in our community.

How cool would it be if we all did that next year? At the office party, skip the office gift exchange and raise money for a local charity that is helping keep families warm and full. In your church, sponsor families. With your friends, take the spending limits off and see just how much you can do for the people in your community.

What would happen if we took that same attitude and spread it through the year? What if the 99% said “I don’t need what the 1% has to help my fellow man.”

I guess I’ve been kind of all over the place here. Let me close by once again thanking you from the depth of my heart on your gifts to this family. Because of your giving we didn’t have to choose between keeping a roof over their head, food in their stomachs, and a Merry Christmas morning. You helped us do it all for them, more than anything we could do on our own.

Please continue to pray for them and those in need through our world. Specifically, pray that they are able to get a job and get into the apartments they have been trying to get into, there the rent will be better and they’ll even have more space, a kitchen, and a better opportunity for a better life.

What have/are you doing to help others? Does your family have any traditions this time of year or through out the year? Share in the comments so we can all be inspired to more.

On the off chance that you have never heard of the Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, here is a short synopsis.

*****Spoiler Alert*****
Not sure I’m actually required to do that, over 100 years has come and gone since this classic was written, which I believe is well past the statute of limitations on spoilers, but consider yourself warned.

There is a rich man named Scrooge. He hates everyone and most everyone either hates or pities him. He loves money. He has a clerk working for him named Bob Cratchit that has a sick young boy named “Tiny” Tim.

More than anything Scrooge hates Christmas, thinks it’s a waste of time and money. Then one Christmas Eve he is startled by a familiar face. It is his old partner Jacob Marley (in the Muppet version there are two), unfortunately his partner happened to be long dead. This specter warned him of the 3 spirits that would visit him that night.

Through the night he is shown his past, present, and future by the 3 spirits of Christmas. He sees Bob Cratchit’s poor home full of love, and the hope in the sickly young Tiny Tim. Then he sees the empty chair and the pain and loss in the Crachit house, and finally his own lonely death.

He awakes Christmas morning over joyed to find that he has time to make a difference, and buys the Christmas Goose for the Cratchit family as he begins righting many wrongs. It is a truly moving story.

I’ve been thinking about it because I am truly blessed but don’t always realize it. Sometimes it takes something bigger than me to show me just how blessed I am.

Recently I met a family that was in need. They were asking if the church could help them, and quite frankly I don’t have access to church funds, but I did have some money in my wallet from a wedding I had done a couple months ago. They are nearly homeless, trying to get into some apartments that work with the government assistance programs. They started coming to church, and their daughter came to my youth program. My wife picked her up and found she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. My wife asked if she was hungry and was told, “I try not to think about it so I’m not so hungry.” We got pizza for everyone and made it into a party. My wife also asked if she was looking forward to Christmas, but she isn’t. How can she be when they won’t have anything for Christmas? No decorations, no presents, no visits to family, just staying in a low cost week to week motel, with maybe one meal a day till school starts back in a couple of weeks when she’ll be able to eat breakfast and lunch at school.

My wife wants to give them Christmas and we’ll be able to do that, but honestly I want to do so much more.

I know I don’t have the huge reader base SCL has. Heck I’ve really sucked at writing updated and doing all the things that I’m supposed to do to build a solid base, but I want to help this family and I can’t do it all by myself. I’m not really good at asking for money, but I know if I get others to help we can make a bigger difference.

Thanks to everyone that helped in the donations. I’ve taken the donate button down so I could wrap up the donations and help this family out. I’ll be posting a follow up post.

Second, this is not a new concept. It is a conversation I’ve been having since college, but a random comment a couple of minutes ago brought it to my mind and I realized I’ve never blogged on this. I’m hoping the age of this makes it retro chic, not just hopelessly out of date.

Church 1.0 aka Church Classic

Over 2000 years of history. Church classic has received many revisions and updates, but through the revisions you will find the same rich feature set.

• Solid Foundation: I mean really solid, most are concrete with a brick and mortar setup on top of that. When the wind blows this church will probably still be there
• True HD services with full surround sound: in some services you will be able to hear shouts, amens, and other phrases from a full omnidirectional sound, and as much resolution as your eyes can perceive
• Plug N Play interface: plug your butt into pew, no other adapters or software required
• Built in social networking: the included “gossip” aka “prayer chain” network will keep you up to date on what is happening in the lives of the other church members in real time with no character limits
• On Site Support: in most locations there is a 24/7 support staff. it is a little known fact that pastors don’t sleep and only eat communion wafers and occasional meals with church members.
• Massive User Manual: a veritable Bible of church knowledge.
• Template Based Option set with literally thousands of variations: find the church that fits you.

Church 2.0 aka Church for a New Generation

With all the features of Church Classic, it is not surprising there are many users that have not upgraded, but for the new generation you can gain all these new features.

• Cloud Based: like Heaven, which means it must be holier
• MMORPC (Massively Multiplayer Online Roman and Protestant Church): no denominational boundaries, but you might want to make sure your OS is compatible
• Worship on Your Schedule: adapt to your busy life, fast forward through the songs you don’t like, and even skip sermon points that only apply to your friends and family.
• Come as you are service: Church classic has been claiming this for years, but show up in your underwear one time and they will never let you work in the kid’s ministry again
• Flexible: not like that one kid in high school that can fold into a box, but able to adapt to your life, and that’s the point right?
• Low Maintenance: reduced overhead so you don’t have to give. Tithe can be structured to mean 7%, which is a much holier number anyways.
• Achievement system: measure your holiness by achievements “You gave to help feed hungry kids in Africa, Feed the Hungry Achievement Unlocked.

Cross Platform Ideas

I have a few ideas for bridging the gap between the Church Classic and the Church for a New Generation.

• Flash Mob Service: Once a month arrange a flash mob to a different Church Classic service. Immediately following the service everyone breaks into Jesus Loves me with the hand motions
• Web Design Outreach ministry: you can tell the difference between a Classic Church and a New Generation Church by the website. Have your 2.0 church reach out to the less fortunate in the web community by offering free design services to 1.0 churches.
• Church Prayer Chain inclusion: even with Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ the church 2.0 simply cannon keep up with the gossip ability of the prayer chain. Reach out to friends in church 2.0 by offering to let them be a part of your prayer chain.
• Church Social Outreach: The church was built around community meals, just read the book of Acts. Church 2.0 is really missing out, and a lot of those poor hipsters are rail thin. This is because of a severe lack of potlucks. Invite your Church 2.0 friends to your next fellowship meal.

The Future of the Church. Church 3.0

There’s an app for that.

Let me share one verse

“My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”

John 18:36>

That’s what Jesus says about his kingdom.

I’m not saying that Jesus didn’t have strong opinions on the death penalty. Let me give you a tiny bit of context on this verse. Jesus was being tried for execution. When he said “my followers would fight [to save me]” he is referring to stopping him from being executed. Again, I’m not trying to say that this is Jesus justifying the death penalty. I’m saying this is Jesus saying “my Kingdom is about other things.”

Does Jesus care about the environment, whales, trees, life, choice, the death penalty … YES!!! Do those concerns take precedence over his mission? Never. He didn’t want to die. I’m sure he would have loved to set the slaves free, turn over the Roman government, setup a utopia … but that didn’t fit his purpose at that time.

I’m not saying we need to ignore these issues. I’m not saying we need to abolish the death penalty or keep it. I’m just saying you don’t need to throw Jesus under the bus to make your point. We crucified Him once for out sins, now lets try dealing with political things politically. Once you’ve witnessed successfully to everyone in your life, then you have earned a break so you can try and guess what Jesus’ opinions on political issues were.

I am participating in a new series, God Says …, over at Make a Difference to One. In my first post I address the lie that I am unloved and show that God says I am loved. Click through for the article.

Last week was camp; it was a lot of fun. I got very little sleep, and did lots of stuff. Yesterday was my daughter’s 8th b-day. We went to the amusement park. It was lots of fun. We played very hard on very little sleep. Ever notice how the more fun you have the more you want to stay in bed for a long time? Seems unfair if you think about it.

If you aren’t familiar with the background, Chan is essentially responding to a new book from Rob Bell called Love Wins. In this book Bell talks about Heaven and Hell and this life we live. It isn’t as bad as a lot of people make it out to be, but there is a lot in it that I just don’t agree with. Bell minimizes Hell. Well, I guess it’s important to say that he minimizes eternal punishment. he tries to go to the original language and make it sound like certain concepts, like eternity, just don’t exist in the Bible because the people writing it didn’t have a concept of these terms. He also minimizes the idea of sin as a punishable offense. He essentially says that our actions create our hell, that we live in misery because we desire misery, but if we change then our reality changes.

OK, I’m really simplifying his arguments, but that’s the distilled version.

At face value I can understand why so many people are up in arms, so to speak, but I think we need to take a step back. There is something very good in this book.

It brings some really important questions to the forefront.

Questions like, how can a loving God send someone to Hell? Or, is Jesus saving us from an angry God?

I think those are good questions. Questions we need to talk about, which is why I like what Francis Chan says. But if you watch the video he says something really interesting. What if I’m wrong?

He frames this in response to Rob Bell, maybe not in name but in idea, but I think it really applies to all of us. I think he understands that this reality applies to us and even him. How can we be so arrogant to think we have the corner on truth? Yes, we use reason, we read the Bible, we faithfully hold to what we believe, but if we are being intellectually honest, we might just be wrong.

That is where disagreement and debate come from. The idea that we might be wrong. There really isn’t any debate in certain absolute truths that are apparent to anyone. The sun is bright. Don’t believe me? Stare at it till you’re blind then we can debate on why you can’t see. Ok that’s kinda harsh. How about, gravity will cause an object on Earth to call at a rate of 9.8ms/s. Don’t believe me? Take a stop watch to the top of a tall building and jump. Ok sure there are some other factors to account for, but in the end the issue isn’t really debatable, it is painfully obvious.

The prophets, Jesus, and the Apostles talk about Hell, well actually we need to define some terms there even.

When we say “hell” we tend to refer to the ideas that are expressed as outer darkness, eternal fire, and absolute separation from God. However as translated in many version of the Bible it is really talking about a place best termed “Hades” or “Sheol.” Those are the Greek and Hebrew terms for the same place. You might be better calling that place a temporary way station. In the Book of Revelation, chapter 20, John says this place, along with Death, are thrown into the lake of fire. The term “hell” comes from Norse mythology and also corresponds to the idea of Hades or Sheol. Actually it very closely corresponds to Hades since that was a term to refer to both a place and the god of that domain. Hel, see only one “l”, was a Norse god. She, in Norse Mythology females could rule the big houses, was over a part of the underworld referred to as Helheim, House of Hel, or just “Hel.” Same thing applies to Hades, more or less.

See how confusing the debate gets. Once you understand the terms you still find that there are some really hard to follow points. For example, Rob Bell talks about Gehenna, this is the term that Jesus often uses to refer to as the place of punishment, the one we usually refer to as Hell. he mentions that this was a garbage dump that kept burning for all the bodies and refuse that was thrown in. In my research I found this idea didn’t show up till around 1200 AD (or CE if you prefer). The history of this concept don’t seem to fit. What does fit is the issue of human sacrifice and death.

Way back in the OT it talks about how there were child sacrifices in the valley of Himmnon outside Capernum. That is translated as Gehenna in Greek. Now I tried reading up on this and there are a lot of different theories, what we know is that there was a god named “Moloch” that was worshiped in that region. Archeology recently confirmed that. Some of his priests sacrificed children along with animals and grains. They have found pits with sacrifice victims from infants to children around 6. Now this practice was one of the most atrocious things any of us can comprehend, and God handed out a pretty hefty curse.

Some commentators say there was a large shrine made with different holding places. A fire would bit lit in the shrine and the various sacrifices would be placed in the holding cells and burned. Others say they would heat up a giant bonfire in a cave entranced believed to be an entrance to the after life, a gate of Hell. When the stones were glowing read they would cast children against the rocks and into the fires. In any case I think this as a close a picture to hell as you can get. No wonder this becomes the phrase used to describe a place of punishment for those who would turn against God.

Rob Bell talks about how we make Hell on Earth by doing stuff like this, by hurting others, but I think it misses the point. What about the people doing evil? Yes they make Hell on Earth, but it seems they make this for the innocents, countless billions who are cast into the figurative fires, sacrificed for personal gain or pleasure or just outright sadism.

I think we don’t want to see people sent to a place of torment … unless we see what those people have done. Then we want them to pay. Talk to a young girl who was molested all through her childhood and … well it takes something stronger than me to not exact punishment on their behalf.

But this bring us back to the same issue. What if I’m wrong? I mean think about it. I might not be giving God’s grace enough room.

So I take a step back and work the odds. If I’m wrong. If Hell is just a euphamism, or if it is just a place of discipline followed by restoration, if that’s true … then honestly I’m ok with that. I know some people are offended by that idea, but if that’s true I’m ok that more people get to experience God’s love. Iw ant to see everyone restored.

Only, if I’m right, if the way to destruction is wide and many follow it, if the path to Life is narrow … if only a few find it … shouldn’t I be doing something to help people find this path?

I know I might be wrong, but if I’m not I have to do what I can while I can.

Oh, and one more thought. I think Rob bell nails it when he says we should seek life. That Hell can’t be the motivator, heaven can’t even be the motivator. The real motivator has to be LIFE. If we grab hold of the source of life, if we experience that kind of changing power, if we are full of LIFE, then we will do something to change this world, and not in some temporary way but in the kind of eternal, help those we can in a real physical way now so they can respond to LIFE and change the world, way.