This is interesting instruction that Moses gave to the Israelites just before they were to head into the promised land. The promised land was full of people that worshipped all sorts of different idols and God knew that these idols would be appealing to them. Not only were the Israelites instructed not to worship their idols but they were also instructed to not try to worship the Lord in the ways in which the pagans worshipped their idols. God was picky. He had certain ways in which he thought that he should be honoured.

While we are under a different covenant we can still know from this verse and similar verses that God has expectations about how he is to be worshipped. We need to be careful not to look at the world around us and see how they are living and then try to do their things in a worshipful sort of way. Seeking the things of this world with thanksgiving to God in our hearts is not the same as giving up our worldly pleasures for the sake of his kingdom. One is acceptable worship of God and the other is not. Watching movies with lusty scenes with the pretence of being in the world is not the same as being without a hint of sexual immorality. God has standards for our worship and it requires substantial life change and sacrifice. Christians can not just change their attitude by which they do things and expect their worship to be pleasing to God. The actual things that you do must be different then the things that non-Christians do. We can not imitate the world in our worship of God. We must turn to the Bible and see how God would have us worship and honour him.

While my site is slow you might be interested in an interesting dialogue going on over at Challies.com. They're discussing the Christian responsibility of stewardship in relation to frugality. I've put my two cents in as well. While you're on that topic if you haven't already done so please check out Radical Frugality. It's a site that I put together in order to teach Christians how they can be better stewards of their money in order to have more money to give to those in need.

I had a dream last night that I was in a large city in South Africa. I was there on some trip and was staying in a fancy hotel. In my touring I came upon a begging woman. She had black sunken eyes and that what she really wanted was water so that she could nurse her baby. I tried to bring her water from my hotel room in a dixie cup but spilled the water before I got to her. Then I talked to the front desk woman about buying some water. She let me fill a dixie cup with milk but I spilled that as well. Why I was trying to get her something to drink her baby died. After this happened I went with her to see her home. She lived in squaller. I met her husband. She explained that her room did have a tap but that her landlord wouldn't turn them on unless he had financial incentive to do so. Instead of water he would give them soap, which of course they couldn't use without water. She told me that most days she could manage to bring home for herself about 1/2L and she would try to make do with that. I told her about how where I am from water is in abundance. That every home has running water, no one is really poor. I even told her about how I had a rain barrel in my yard full of water and that people would actually complain about the rain as though it were not precious. After visiting we went for a walk back to my hotel. We passed a bus that was picking up people to take to different prisons around the world. In particular I remember Vancouver and Pitsburg. I mused with this woman over whether she could do anything that would send her to these place but she sighed and said that even that was hopeless; they would just send her to the prisons there, which were worse. While we were walking back to my hotel I realized that I could get her some water in my water bottle instead of a dixie cup. When we got there she noticed the front desk woman step away for a moment and decided that that would be her opportunity to see what she could steal from the hotel. I told her that I wouldn't endorse that but that I would still try to get her some water. At that point I woke up.

I'm not sure why it is that so many people are becoming jaded by institutional churches. I suspect that partly it has to do with the fact that our society has shifted to be less specialist focused. As more people have access to more knowledge our need to depend on specialists has decreased substantially. I think that this has led us to be less trusting of people that claim to be specialists. We're more sceptical of our doctors, researchers, counsellors, teachers, politicians and pastors. The guise of expert is crumbling. Now like never before are people starting to question everything that is around them and ask why we are doing things the way that we are. This is a good thing even if it is scary for the "experts". There really are no expert Christians. Yes, some are called to be pastors, teachers, preachers, apostles and prophets but that should be five people and not one. If we can do away with the idea that one man is the head of a congregation, realize that our job is to love one another, and not to put on Sunday services, then maybe we can see a church where everyone puts in as much as they can and see themselves as responsible for their church as they really are.

Oh how I long to see a more beautiful bride...

Recently I read an article written by an alert-net blogger, Tim Large, on how meat production also takes many times more water then agricultural production. I hadn't thought about that before. For me I don't think that it's such a big deal since water is in abundance over here on the wet coast of Canada and is not very practical to ship to where it is needed. For other people who live where water is more scarce this should cause some thought. If we truly care about our fellow brothers and sisters around us shouldn't we be willing to sacrifice a little meat on their behalf? If you live in a wet climate please consider cutting back significantly on meat in order to do your part in lower world grain prices for the poor. Also consider fasting for awhile in solidarity with the world poor.

While Jesus' call was primarily evangelistic our transformation into godliness should make us more compassionate towards the poor and marginalized. True holiness is inseparable from active love and generosity on behalf of those that are suffering. Too often the western church turns a blind eye on poverty and gives a pittance if anything towards charity. Here is what God has to say: "Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world." (James 1:27 NET) Let us commit to do better.

Gap Minder is a google tool that shows statistical trends with moving circles on a graph. It's a bit difficult to explain but is pretty straight forward to understand when you play around with it a little.

When it is mentioned we tend to think of people, almost always black people; degraded, abused and bound in chains, and we tend to think of such images, and the word slavery itself, as belonging to another era.

We do not see slavery as belonging to our world, not as something which is still happening today.

Yet the truth is that if William Wilberforce were alive today and he travelled to different parts of the world - not just in Africa, but also in large parts of Asia, the Middle East, South America and even parts of Europe - he would find children living in conditions and circumstances which Wilberforce would understand and which I am sure he would describe as slavery.

It is believed there are nearly nine million children around the world today who are enslaved.

BBC news is currently doing a series on the present state of slavery in the world. The quote above is from the first article that that I linked to below. Please try to read some of these article and let your heart go out to these people and to pray to God that he would come soon and bring justice to this world. Please also consider giving to organizations that are working to relieve the suffering of slaves and speaking up in advocacy. Below are links to several articles about child slavery which I find particularly grievous.

The world of modern child slavery
The child slaves of Saudi Arabia
My life as a child prostitute
Haiti's hidden 'child slaves'
Slave Children with Rageh Omaar
The magnitude of the problem
Sex slavery widespread in England

The internet monk, Michael Spencer, has some good comments on the role that woman end up with in the evangelical world. He correctly points out that most evangelical discussion seems to be by men and for men. There seems to be little consideration for the fact that woman may be significant contributers as well and not afraid of tackling difficult topics. I’ve thought of using a gender neutral pseudonym when making blog posts on my favorite blogs so that I might be taken more seriously. I definitely have seen that there are different interests between men and woman but they are complimentary and necessary. There are serious woman and serious men just as there are flaky woman and there are flaky men. We might pick different serious topics to discuss or maybe we won’t. We also don’t all cry at the first sign of conflict. Some of us thrive on it. This is definitely something that should be mulled over more.

One particularly interesting blog post on Kevin from South America's blog, entitled, "On Being Light" was quite challenging to me. My heart longs to go out into the streets here and spread the light like Kevin did in a slum of a mega-city in South America. I know that what he did there could just as easily be done here. I don't need to go overseas to share the gospel. Honestly, I'm afraid. I don't know how to approach people and start conversations. I'm bursting at the seems to share the wonderful gospel with people but I don't know how to start. Do any of you have experience with this sort of evangelism?

What interests me is how Americans Christians have largely exempted an equally corrupting common set of sins from these same kinds of evangelical efforts at mutual sanctification. Where are the vows and communities aimed at helping us live free from the corrosion of materialism? Where is the peer pressure for what Piper calls “wartime living and giving?” Where is the recognition that Jesus taught many explicit and unmistakable things about possessions, money and materialism?