Wow.  The ability to post a blog from a widget on my iBook dashboard...

If you don't understand what I just said, you're a PC user and should repent.  But then, as a PC user, you probably already do.  Every day.

Have a lovely day.

Double-Edged Sword

Lesson learned: blog posts about chapters from the book of Numbers don't get comments.

Heathens.

Well, today I sat in on a lecture on spiritual warfare by Mariette Louw. Let me draw you a picture of this fine woman. She reminds me a little of Ursula, the sea witch from The Little Mermaid...but only in form and voice. She has a rich South African accent (somehow scripture sounds better with rolled "r"s), a booming, surround-sound voice, and is the dearest women...but she scares the crap out of me. She teaches students about the Word of the Lord being a double-edged sword, but I've never been so aware of its double-edgedness as when I'm sitting mere feet away from Mariette. I kind of feel like I'm going to get my head hacked off. And I love it.

I was sitting at the back of the classroom, behind the DTS students, when she invited me to sit closer.

"Do you like sitting back there?" she stopped the lecture to ask me.
"No, it's fine, actually...it's just...I'm a visitor..." I stammered, kind of freaked out that my thinly applied nonchalance wasn't working.
"Well, come up here then."
I started towards a seat in the second row when she pointed out a seat in the front row. Front row, center. She added, "But it takes those with special courage to sit in the front row."
So I sat in the front row.
"I know your face," she peered at me.
"Um, yes, from six years ago. You spoke on my DTS."
"Ah. I thought I recognized you."

Great. Impeccable spiritual discernment and a razor-sharp memory. I just hope she doesn't remember the punk I was at 19. Or discern the punk that I am now. Or at least have grace for either/or/both.

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure."

Helen Keller

I am filled with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
I live a life worthy of the Lord and will please Him in every way.
I bear fruit in every good work.
I am growing in the knowledge of God.
I am strengthened with all power according to His glorious might.
I have great endurance and patience.
I joyfully give thanks to the Father.
I have been qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints of the kingdom of light.

(Colossians 1:9-12 with spiritual authority added, a la Mariette...changes things, doesn't it?)

The Transjordan Tribes (Numbers 32)

Hard thoughts today.

I've been reading Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy recently (riveting, I know...) and tracking the "stiff-necked" Israelites through miles of deserts and not a few catastrophes, brought on, almost entirely, by their complaints about food or by their unbelief. I guess that could be boiled down to two all-too-human sentiments: "God, you're not good enough" and "God, you're not big enough". Tell me those don't sound familiar to you.

Their big, good God finally does bring them to the Promised Land after alotting enough time for a generation to completely die out. You'd think they'd echo Moses' passion to just peak into the Promised Land (which he wasn't allowed to set foot in because of his own disbelief...seems like no one is exempt...):

Moses: "Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan - that fine hill country and Lebanon."
God: "Go up to the top of Pisgah...Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan."

But the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh thought that the land east of Jordan looked OK to them. Logically, it also made sense:

Reuben, Gad & Manasseh: "The land(s)...are suitable for livestock, and your servants have livestock."

Lots of space, lots of livestock. Handy, but was it God's promise to them? Weren't they giving up their God-given inheritance, the Land Flowing with Milk and Honey, the land promised to their forefathers, for fields just short of Canaan's border? I wonder why? Were they tired of traveling? I could relate to that. Did they think it efficient and prudential to take land outside of Canaan, and therefore "giving" more land to the nine and a half other tribes on the other side? Did the Jordan look too deep to cross? Were they holding on to the fears of their fathers that the Canaanites were "giants" with "walled cities"?

At first Moses reprimanded them strongly:

Moses: "If you turn away from following [the LORD], he will again leave all this people in the desert, and you will be the cause of their destruction."

But finally relents, after he makes them promise to help the other tribes win the Promised Land. Would they have ignored this responsibility if Moses didn't remind them? Is it easier to leave the fighting to others once you have found somewhere suitable, comfortable, logical and comfortable to settle?

I get frustrated with the strong desire to settle in "lands suitable for livestock". Career choices that make sense, marrying for comfort, 5-, 10-, and 20-year goals... Sometimes the promises God has given me (and the instruction to "possess" them which, I suppose, would be disobedience to go against) seem vague, flighty, too amazing to be true ("God, you're not good enough"), and too difficult to attain ("God, you're not big enough"). But if I settle on this side of my Promised Land, without pushing through, I'll never get to see what God had in store for me.

I also discovered that Israel no longer holds the land east of the Jordan River.

Tell them Scotland is free

After an incredible, three-hour train journey from York to Glasgow (if you have the time and inclination, I recommend that you always travel by train in the UK...especially if you're from North America...there's nothing like looking out of a train window to see, oh, a CASTLE on a random hill) I have arrived. YWAM Seamill. For a period of time, I had Seamill's Arran Lounge as my desktop picture when I worked at the Television Bureau of Canada. Now, I drink tea in the Arran Lounge.

I can feel a shift when I travel past England's borders. Now I want to be careful in addressing this phenomenon becaue I love England and have many English friends but, spiritually and emotionally-speaking, I feel more free in Ireland and Scotland. I always have. Maybe it's due to my distant Scottish/Irish heritage. Maybe, as a Canadian, I feel an affinity with people groups who live in the shadow and dominance of bigger, stronger, more well-known countries.

In any case, Scotland is just as gorgeous as I left it, almost six years ago. Seamill makes a good example of rugged, Scottish beauty: within view of a glen, a river, the ocean, the Island of Arran, and a small mountain range. My family is coming to visit in a few days, and I'm really not sure who will be more excited, my 13-year-old brother or my dad.

Starting somewhere

Dear Friend,

Today, I became part of an unprecedented global call to action to end poverty: Make Poverty History

Right now, there is active campaigning in over 50 countries around the three core demands: More and Better Aid, Make Trade Fair, and Cancel the Debt. In Canada, we're also campaigning to End Child Poverty in Canada.

You've just got to be a part of this campaign.

Go to http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca and sign on to the campaign yourself.

There is no time to lose. It doesn't matter who or where you are, your voice is critical to the success of this campaign. This is a rare chance to join me and thousands of others across the planet to once and for all make poverty history.

What are you waiting for? Join me and click in!

Sarah Aubrey Hunter

What you can do right now:

• Sign on to the campaign
• Tell federal MPs other politicians to commit to a timeline for 0.7%
• Click others into action - forward this message to your networks

"If everyone who wants to see an end to poverty, hunger and suffering speaks out, then the noise will be deafening. Politicians will have to listen."
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Injustice

I just finished watching The Constant Gardener.

Before you read any further, go out, rent it, watch it. Then we can continue.

I've watched my share of save-the-world movies recently including Spy Game at Shay's, LOTR trilogy at King's Lodge, and Good Night, and Good Luck at the FACT theatre in Liverpool last night. Fighting against multi-million dollar pharmaceutical companies, fighting against compromised FBI agencies, fighting against McCarthy's anti-communist regime, fighting against Mordor...

My brother (who, honestly, will probably never know of the publicity he gets on this blog...because he doesn't have the link...because he hates blogs) and I just had this conversation the other evening:
[his MSN tag line was "real pissed at injustice"]
Me: what injustice?
He: I dunno - I feel like being a superhero
Me: cool. me too.
He: damn life is too unjust
Me: i know. i agree.
think of anything to fight?
yet?
He: injustice
generally
Me: that's kind of broad, no?
He: nah
whever I see it - I'll just start dueling out the punches
Me: good call.
how's school?
He: injust

Don't we all feel the push? As complacent and as comfortable as North American life has become, don't we still feel injustice lurking in the shadows?

Sometimes I don't even feel like getting out of bed, let alone fighting injustice. But I can do something, can't I? When Jesus tells me to, when he shows me injustice, I can chose to "duel out the punches", can't I?

Hands
By: Jewel

If I could tell the world just one thing
It would be that we're all OK
And not to worry 'cause worry is wasteful
And useless in times like these
I won't be made useless
I won't be idle with despair
I will gather myself around my faith
For light does the darkness most fear
My hands are small, I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken
Poverty stole your golden shoes
It didn't steal your laughter
And heartache came to visit me
But I knew it wasn't ever after
We'll fight, not out of spite
For someone must stand up for what's right
'Cause where there's a man who has no voice
There ours shall go singing
My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
I am never broken
In the end only kindness matters
In the end only kindness matters
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken
My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken
We are never broken
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's mind
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's heart
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's eyes
We are God's hands
We are God's hands

"This is the kind of fast day I'm after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I'm interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families."

(Isaiah 58, the Message)


JUSTIN:
There are millions of people.
They all need help.
That's what the agencies are here for.

TESSA:
Yeah, but these are three people that we can help.