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Top 10 Predictions for 2010

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

As we end the year 2009, with all the problems the World is facing, it can be unsettling. Here are ten predications that are sure to come true this year!

Top 10 Predictions for 2010

1. The Bible will still have all the answers.
2. Prayer will still be the most powerful thing on Earth..
3. The Holy Spirit will still move.
4. God will still honor the praises of His people.
5. There will still be God-anointed preaching.
6. There will still be singing of praise to God.
7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.
8. There will still be room at the Cross.
9. Jesus will still love you.
10..Jesus will still save the lost when they come to Him.

Isn’t It Great To Remember Who Is Really In Control, &
“the Word of the Lord endures forever…” 1 Peter 1:25

The Messages in James Cameron’s Avatar Movie

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

The Messages in James Cameron’s Avatar Movie

Avatar is also loaded with hidden messages for the viewer: political, environmental, antiwar, spiritual, and religious messages. I watched the movie in IMAX 3D and I would encourage anyone planning to see it to at least see the 3D version.

For the first 90 minutes, you are taken to the lush and gorgeous planet Pandora. You walk among astonishing and beautiful plants you have never seen before. The plants often have an electroluminescence that glow and change as you touch them. The movie screen seems to disappear. You are on Pandora.

The humans are here to mine a mineral Unobtanium, an energy source that the humans need, as earth has been depleted of their oil source. An indigenous people group already lives on Pandora, and the richest deposits of the mineral lie under some floating Hallelujah Mountains, islands sacred to the indigenous Na’vi people. You can guess the rest of the plot. There could be a war that would destroy everything and everyone. And the Na’vi seem to have little in the way of defense. Sound familiar? (Hint: Think of the history of the Native Americans in America.)

One of my favorite stories in the movie is when the Avatar/Human, Jake, is struggling to learn the culture and is surrounded by hundreds of tiny, illuminated, and animated, and floating entities. He is told by his Na’vi friend that these are the sacred “seeds of Eyra” and have a healing property. He is told not to fight them, but to hold out his arms and let them bring him the healing that he needs. Later in the movie as you are walking in Pandora you see thousands of these seeds surrounding you and “filling the theatre”, some only inches from your face. You reach out to touch them, only to realize you must wait and let them touch you. And you experience a sense of healing as you watch.

I liked the quote of Jake, the human/Avatar who is confronting the military strategists. The military strategists have really have sent him into the Na’vi to warn them of the destruction of their world.

“Out there [with the Na’vi] is the real world….in here is the dream,” Jake replies.

And then you watch as the militant humans with their illusion try to destroy the reality as all-out war breaks out. It hurts to watch.

How about your world? Are you in the illusion or the reality?

Illusion versus reality is the theme of my new book: Beyond Illusion: Leading from Reality that we are shipping now. Order it at http://www.creatingnewworlds.org. What does a real leader look like today? Does he or she even exist?

Is America a Christian Nation? Part II

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

A lot of Christian leaders today are expressing concern at President Obama’s messages about America being no longer being a “Christian nation”. The President said it once in his inaugural address and again when he traveled in Europe this year. Let’s look a minute at that. What exactly is “A Christian Nation”? Does such a thing actually exist?

What is a Christian Nation?

The early followers of Christ were called “Christians” because they acted like Christ.

….And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
Acts 11:26b NKJV

The word was used for men and women who had repented of their sins and turned to Jesus and were following Him in their actions and words. They had a personal relationship with Jesus and were anointed by the Holy Spirit. Christ was Lord of their life. They often died for their faith.

Since Christianity was – and is - a personal thing between a man or woman and God, you really can’t have a “Christian Nation.” The term in common usage today might refer to:
1. A nation that has repented of its sin and turned to God (as Nineveh did to the disappointment of Jonah)
2. It might also refer to a nation in which the majority of its citizens are followers of Christ.
3. A third definition might be a nation that has embraced Judeo-Christian values and leads from the moral and spiritual integrity of those values.
If you look at America today against any of these three definitions, at least by items 1 and 3, it is certainly not a Christian Nation and President Obama is right.

Is the American Majority Christian?

The recent (2008) American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut was based on a survey of 54,000 interviews. This survey shows that 75% of Americans identified themselves as Christians, down from 90% in 1990. That is a majority Americans if those that that called themselves Christians actively professed, lived, and acted their faith.

You might have an interesting discussion on whether we were even once a Christian nation on the basis of the faith of early Americans, but we seem to have lost our way somewhere along the line. I like George Barna’s story of the frog in the kettle. Put the frog in the water and bring the heat up slowly and the frog won’t jump out. The frog never realizes the danger. The American church is at much of the same place.

America’s Spiritual History

Let’s begin by first realizing that God is not “for” or “against” America. God has a Plan – a big one – in redeeming Man (as you) to Himself. God created the world, then created the man and woman, and then placed them in the Garden. God loved Man – in fact, that is why He created you. God’s purpose in creation was for Man to love and glorify God. But then that whole Plan fell apart when Satan came into the Garden and led the man and the woman to disobey God. God then promised a Redeemer who would come and restore the relationship again between Man and God. That Redeemer did come in Jesus, who died and rose to restore the original relationship. For love to be love, however, God had to leave Man the choice. God is still acting today. The choice is there for you. The Plan continues.

Israel became the chosen nation for the coming of Christ – their role in the Plan. America is also a chosen nation in turns of what God wants to do through that Plan. That doesn’t make it a Christian nation. Just like you are chosen by God for what He wants to do through you – whether you are a Christian or not. And God’s chosenness doesn’t make you a Christian. God chose Pharaoh to release the Israelites, but that didn’t make him a Christian. Before the white man ever came to America, God was already at work here in terms of that Plan. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to discover that Plan and help make it happen.

Christopher Columbus and the Spaniards

Columbus had near mutiny on his hands as he pursued a vision he apparently never shared with anyone on those ships. Our only clues to this vision are in his journals, where he even quoted Scripture to support his vision. Columbus wanted to carry the Light of Christ into the darkness of undiscovered heathen lands. His very name meant Christ-bearer. Columbus felt called by God to carry the Christ to the heathen lands. Columbus and his ships first landed in the area of the Bahamas in 1492; and after they had explored the islands there they went on to what is now Cuba. On each island they planted a large wooden cross.

Unfortunately, Columbus lost sight of his calling as his greed for the gold in the new land increased. Moreover, those early settlers indulged their sexual appetites with the Indian women, resolving by violence when the Indians protested. The settlers broke into factions, fighting each other instead of working together. Columbus tried to use their thirst for gold to unite the men and eventually he lost sight of any spiritual vision God had given him. The entire Columbus era in Central America soon deteriorated into plunder, lust, and murder.

The Spanish with the Portuguese began exploring the New World at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Their mission was gold, conquest, and colonization. Ruthless in their conquest, the Spanish Conquistadors also brought with them some monks - Franciscan and Dominican Friars. These monks had a deep love for God and very committed to their relationship with God. They planted orphanages, schools, and missions.

The Reformation Reaches the New World

In Germany, Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation with his 95 Thesis nailed to the door of the All Saint’s Church in Wittenberg in 1517. The paper was in Latin (so that the common people could not read it), but it was quickly translated into German and then printed on the Gutenberg Press and circulated. Luther’s basic thesis was that salvation was by faith and faith alone – a premise that cut dramatically into the sale of indulgences. The theses spread quickly – in two weeks the theses was circulating throughout Germany, and in two months throughout Europe. In 1529 the Church of England (Anglican Church) separated itself from Rome, thus bringing England under the broader aspects of the Reformation movement.

As this Reformation swept Europe, the Lord’s’ work grew in America as the influence of the Franciscans continued into the southwest area of America. The first white man to explore America was a Spanish Franciscan friar named Marcos de Niza. His journey into New Mexico (1539) led later to Coronado’s famous expedition to search for the seven cities with the streets paved with gold.

Spain tried with several attempts to colonize Florida, but each attempt failed. Finally, in 1562, a group of French Huguenots (Calvin Protestants) trying to escape religious persecution settled northward of Florida in what is now South Carolina. Another group of Huguenots tried to settle in Florida but were massacred by a Spanish expedition. In the larger picture, one wonders if the Huguenots became the martyrs for the larger vision God had for America.

The Coming of the French

The French were the next group to attempt to settle America. The Jesuits began their settlements in the northeast area to the country. These were brilliant and strong men with deep convictions and committed to the service of God under the leadership of Jesus Christ. Their ministry began around 1534-1540. The Jesuits took their mission or reaching the Native Americans for Christ in humility and seeing them as equals. There were many French and Spanish martyrs during this early time of the Church in America.

John Eldredge on Tour

Sunday, May 10th, 2009
John Eldredge (mega-selling author of Wild at Heart, Sacred Romance, and others) is speaking on a tour now, and in the Portland area May 16. John is taking his sequel to Wild at Heart, which was The Way of the Wild at Heart (2006) and releasing it in a shorter and less expensive version. This evening is part of a tour that is launching the sale of the of this book. Although he will be speaking primarily to men, John feels it is important for women to be there as well so as to better understand the man’s heart. For more information see Fathered by God. fatheredbygod

The recession will last how long?

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

The latest TIME magazine showed the results of a survey of people on this question. Some 12% said six months. Some 53% said 1-2 years. Some 25% said more than three years or either we are in a long-term decline. I think the latter group is correct. You want to know why?

First, the guys that got us in this mess are still there. In Congress Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Roy Blunt, and Judd Gregg got over 20 million dollars in lobbyist money the last few years and made sure the bailout they created kept the Wall Street Executives wealthy and happy with lots of money, bonuses, and parachutes at the expense of using our tax payer money. GM got taxpayer money so they could buy placement ads for their Hummer on CSI:Miami. The rest of Congress has turned their backs to this and have done nothing. They keep bailing out AIG with your taxpayer money because AIG holds their pensions. Nothing has changed. As long as these people are not held responsible, no one - and I mean no one - has any faith in the system.

In all fairness, there are people in Washington investigating and plan prosecutions. Meanwhile, the bad guys enjoy your tax money. Also, do you really think it will change? Or is this another Libbygate where the real baddies go free?

And it’s not just the government. Our educational systems have failed. In my church, most families home school, use the church school, or send their kids to Christian schools. The health system, business system, and even a lot of the churches haven’t figured what is going on yet.

The paradigm the world is moving into is a major shift from where we have been. To understand this, look at a quote from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin that he made about 1930 or 1931.

“For the Observers of the Future, the greatest event will be the sudden appearance of a collective human conscience and a human work to make.”

What does that mean? Even back then, Teilhard saw a global consciousness emerging, and now the Internet has become the tool for initiating this change. President Obama saw this and understood it when he ran for President. I’m not saying Obama is the answer. We’re on a Titanic that hit the iceberg and we are trying to turn it around and get home. President Obama is right in one thing, however. If the ship gets turned around, it won’t be President Obama that turns it. It will be our collective consciousness hearing the words that the Holy Spirit is speaking to the Church and then with us willing to take the risks necessary to make a difference.

Now here’s a tip if you are trying to get in there, change your life, make a difference, and need a job for it: If you are a professional, start with a membership in Linkedin.com and aggressively start your personal network. That doesn’t cost a dime. Then join a few groups on Linkedin.com that interest you. Make social networking work. Do all types of networking with and without the Internet. Then network with others in your church and build a network raising the consciousness in your church. Put your church group as a group on http://www.Linkedin.com. Pull the larger church into working with you. Then join Facebook, another social network. And then start publishing a blog (maybe use WordPress.com, it’s free). Remember, for this change we are in for the long haul and you need to be involved in changing things if things are going to be changed.

Mentor Graphics helping with finding high tech jobs

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

If you know someone looking for a high-tech job, Mentor can help. And so can you.

For years, our Displaced Worker Program has trained unemployed workers to use Mentor Graphics products – a great job credential for them and great customer potential for us. And a great way to serve the communities where we live and work.

In today’s tough job market, Mentor is expanding its efforts by offering a new seminar series called Reinvent Your Job Search.

The Wilsonville event takes place here on campus – in the Commons Cafeteria – on Thursday, April 30 from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. The seminar is for anyone who’s unemployed, so invite anyone you know who’s looking for work in the high-tech industry to register online. Space is limited.

Seminar attendees will learn how to:
Create a “searchable” and “noticeable” online profile
Leverage social networking to make connections
Identify sources for job listings beyond the big job-search boards
Update a resume with the latest tips from experienced recruiters
Prepare for interviews in the high-tech industry
Work effectively with an internal or agency recruiter

The Mentor Graphics Recruiting team, with a combined experience of 50+ years, is conducting this fast-paced, interactive session. Recruiters from Volt Services Group will be attending to network with attendees.

For more information, go to http://www.mentor.com/events/job-search-seminar.cfm. Or better yet, pass this link to friends who are seeking work so they can register. If they’re unable to attend in person, they can sign up for an online seminar taking place on Thursday, May 7.

Thanks for your part in helping Mentor help others find new opportunities.

For an informational flyer, go to http://communities.mentor.com/mgcx/message/5239#5239. You’ll find a link to a PDF file at the bottom of the page.

For more information on the Mentor product training available through The Mentor Graphics Displaced Worker Program, visit http://www.mentor.com/training_and_services/training/dwp/

Note: Mentor Graphics is doing this in several cites as well as online. Check their site given here.

What’s missing in our economic strategy?

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

Stanley Baldwin, a Portland Christian author that is well-published, sent an editorial to the local questionmarkOregonian that got picked up. Find out what is really missing in the current economic strategy. Read it here.

Healing: Rewiring the Brain

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Paul Hegstrom's bookBefore puberty, the brain lacks much of certain important chemicals needed for decision making: serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. When the child reaches puberty and the growth hormone begins to be released, these chemicals begin to be released. The brain then begins to function as an adult brain. The difference is that before puberty the child is simply responding behaviorally to the perceptions given to it and extracting these projected perceptions as reality. After these chemicals begin to be released, the child can begin to reason as an adult and can choose to shape their own view of reality.

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
1 Corinthians 13:11

If the father speaks into the pre-puberty child, the father’s message is accepted as truth and becomes the lens through which the child sees the world – reality. If the father tells his son or daughter that they are not worth anything, the child assumes he or she is not worth anything as reality. Reality becomes seeing themselves as a failure and behaviorally they try to be a better failure. If they accidentally do something successfully, they learn from that to be a better failure next time. Realty and “Truth”, to them, is this failure image.

If the child does not the proper messages of reality during those pre-puberty years, the wounding is there and the adrenaline level rises. By puberty the adrenaline is there all the time and may override the proper release of the normal chemicals (serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine ) that need to emerge then. Very little of these chemicals are released. This can lead to serious damage in the adult life. The adult may seem to function at a constant elevated adrenaline level and show distorted forms of behavior, such as ADD or ADHD and other types of agoraphobia (anxiety disorder). Physically you see an adult; the reality is that the wounded adult is stuck as a child at the point where the wound occurred. And it is not just a moment in time that the brain remembers. The brain remembers patterns, so the wounded adult is acting against unresolved patterns and plays those patterns over and over again. There is a pseudo-personality.

The wounded adult acts to please the message given to them as a child. You see multiple personality faults – difficulty in building intimacy, an authority to itself (can’t come under another authority, even God’s.), and failure to be any kind of team player. The wounded adult may turn to drugs to resolve the adrenaline overload, even turning to prescription drugs such as Valium or Prozac. Eventually even these drugs may not stop the overload.
hegstromportrait
The good news is that the adult does not need to stay there. Dr. Paul Hegstrom has shown that it is possible to break out of those bindings. Seeing and embracing reality is a part of the healing process. Illusionary perceptions create reactive behavior. With the healing process, we take on active behavior. The Bible tells us that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can take an active part in this healing process.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Romans 12:2

It not just that the missing chemicals start flowing, They do; but it is more than that. The entire brain is rewired. I’ve seen it happen. A key part in the process is for the wounded person has to start speaking the Word of God, or rhema, out loud. The mind believes what you speak. This spoken Word with the power of the Holy Spirit then becomes the authority and power for the necessary transformation.

Order Hegstrom’s book

Get more info free - an internet interview with Hegstrom

Preparing for Easter

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

With the massive downturn in the economy we are seeing, there is an unprecidented opportunity for the church to reach out and for us to experience a spiritual revival in America. In history, economic downturns are often related to a resulting spiritual revival.

“There’s some pretty solid evidence that shows church growth is countercyclical to economic growth,”… Ross Jr., B, Christianity Today (March – 2009): Saving Souls for Less. Evangelism. P. 18.

On Easter Sunday, you will probably see people at your church that you have seldom, if ever, seen there. Many of these will be hurting - homes lost, jobs lost, debts. Maybe your church is planning secial music, drama, and a special message. What about reaching these people in need? How will you get these back the next Sunday?

Love Your Enemies

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Love Your Enemies
By Chuck Colson
1/30/2009
Related Audio/Video Downloads

John Rucyahana Receives Wilberforce Award

In a large open area of a Rwandan prison, Anglican Bishop John Rucyahana spoke to a crowd of killers responsible for the 1994 genocide. “Close your eyes,” he instructed them. “Go back in your mind to 1994. What did you see?” he asked. “What did you smell? What did you hear?”

Many in the crowd began to weep. He told the men to see their victims’ faces. The sobs grew louder. “Now,” said Bishop John, “that which made you cry, that you must confess.”

It’s amazing enough that Bishop John, himself a Tutsi, would speak to the Hutu perpetrators of the genocide. It’s even more amazing when you consider that John’s own niece, Madu, was brutally raped and killed during the genocide. But Bishop John had a reason to reach out to these men in compassion—for he, too, had found forgiveness of his sins through Jesus Christ.

That compassion to love his would-be enemies is just one of the many reasons why we recently awarded Bishop John Rucyahana the William Wilberforce Award.

We present the award every year to a person who makes a difference in the face of formidable societal problems and injustices, no matter the opposition. Former recipients include people like Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission; Benigno Aquino, the Philippine hero; Baroness Carolyn Cox; and Senator Sam Brownback. These are men and women who, as executive director of the Center for Justice and Reconciliation Dan Van Ness says, “challenge our comfortable assumptions.”

Bishop John’s faith does indeed challenge me. He found Christ while growing up as an exile from his native Rwanda. He puts it better than I’ve ever heard before: “I did not accept Jesus. Jesus graciously met me and accepted me.” This is a man who understands how we come empty-handed to Christ.

At a time when John wanted to pursue a degree, God led him and his wife, Beatrice, to start a school for 170 refugee children in Uganda. Today, some of those grown children serve in key posts in Rwanda.

Studying in the States during the 1994 genocide, Bishop John wanted desperately to go back to the ministry he had left behind in Uganda. But instead, he responded to God’s call to face the darkness by going back to his homeland—returning to Rwanda, finding bones bleached white by the sun littering the streets, open graves fouling the air. Still, Bishop John worked with others to establish Prison Fellowship Rwanda.

He helped start the Umuvumu Tree Project, which has brought together tens of thousands of perpetrators and victims of the genocide, offering offenders the opportunity to confess their crimes and victims the chance to forgive. Many have done so.

I wish I had time to share all the ways that Bishop John’s faith challenges our own. In addition to his work in Rwanda, he played a key role in founding the Anglican Mission in America. He encourages American Christians to be unashamed missionaries to their own society, reconciling their neighbors to Christ.

Imagine, African missionaries to us—yes, we need them.

But most of all, Bishop John is a shining example of what it means to love our enemies—and to overcome evil with good.