Author: Wick

Back in early August, I posted a blog about the psycho-tv-preacher Peter Popoff, who wanted me to eat a tortilla cooked on dung, and send him $17 to receive an incredible blessing from God, etc. Ever since contacting their organization, I’ve been receiving a piece of junk mail last least once every 10 days, each containing a new ritual God wants me to go through to receive His newest financial blessing. It’s scary, and kinda seems like he’s training people to be religious witch-doctors.

In his very first junk mail piece to me, he gave me a date. Since then, he’s given me about 15 more dates over the next year or so, that each are important to God’s plan for my life, etc…and will only be fruitful if I follow the rituals involved and send him the “seed” of $17.34 or something for each one. Crock.

But the very first date I was given, just to be funny, I put it on the calendar. October 13th, 2008. I wrote it as “Financial Blessing Day”, and walked away. Didn’t think much of it. Last week we received news randomly that my parents had bought me an early Christmas gift, and that it would arrive sometime today, October 13th.

A funny coincidence, as I assure you my parents have nothing to do with Peter Popoff or his ministries. There are some who would say, doesn’t even matter…a freezer is not a financial blessing. But there are others who would say, WOW, that is SOOO GOD.

But it does illustrate a larger point worth considering. I believe that God is. I believe that God is good. So when good things happen, it makes sense to thank God. But where is the line, and is it even important to find?

Back before Wheel of Fortune, I was in debt. Not just good, car/home/student loan debt. But actual, stupid choices over time credit card debt. Before the show, I had totaled up what I would need to get out from under the bad debt. That’s almost exactly what I walked away with.

God? Or coincidence? If I say God, it also means God wanted the pregnant lady next to me whose story was just as needy as mine, and had a really nice husband/child…to lose. Seriously, she didn’t even win a penny. Except the $1,000 they give everyone, but she spent more than that on travel to LA.

This two-sided coin pops up once in a while in all of our lives. I think it’s enough to thank God when good things happen, but also in our praise to realize that in our unbalanced world that yearns for completion – not everyone has that thing to be thankful for. In that moment, may we pray also for/with those who suffer, that God may continue His work in our incomplete world.

We walk through a dry land
hand in hand.
Or at least, nearby.
The cracked earth is not the only thirsty one here.
New faces join us sporadically
Most as dry and desperate as we.
Some for the journey
Some for curiosity
Not everyone stays
But every single one matters.

An unexpected, but thoroughly accepted moment.
Water.
We are thankful, each in a different way.

Either gushes forth uncontrolled
The few stare. Drink.
Or trickles past those near
The crowd watches.
And is lapped up like an Oasis.

Hope. Encouragement. Love.
A rock has been struck, and the Spirit has moved.

Whose staff can we be thankful for?
Probably not mine.
I’m the one running around
Striking any rock that looks like it might contain water
Spitting on the ground to make it look wet.
Just as thirsty as those I try to relieve.

But once in a while, the Spirit will use
Even me.

Gotta go for now, I see a rock I missed earlier…

(and I love this) 🙂

(from a letter to Free Methodist Pastoral teams…from our leadership…)

In the current political and social climate of the United States, we must appreciate the truly global church that we have become as Free Methodists. We are sensing the profound responsibility this places on us—located in the west, in one of the wealthiest and most resourceful nations on earth. We recall that we are kingdom people, that God calls all people everywhere to be His, that our citizenship is in heaven first. In fact, we are bound to and have more in common with brothers and sisters in Christ around the world than we do even our fellow Americans who are unbelievers. We affirm that God does not need us or our nation to carry out His kingdom agenda. The gospel of the kingdom does not depend on the current or any anticipated political, social, cultural status quo.

The church’s mission, no less in an electoral season, in cooperation with God’s Spirit in manifesting kingdom reality, challenges every this-worldly platform and ideology. No party will champion the cause of the kingdom in its entirety. We acknowledge that Christians in the U.S. have often been seduced by reductionist views of the gospel and morality and have thus given uncritical allegiance to partisan agenda that fall short of the Christian hope.

Therefore, we urge our members and adherents to weigh carefully and pray fervently over candidates, ballot referenda, and all political issues before us, and then seek to vote in ways that reflect as fully as possible the heart of Jesus Christ for the whole world. In so doing, we remind our people that the way of Jesus is the way of cross-bearing, of self sacrificing love, of costly obedience, and of giving all for the sake of others, especially for those on the margins. Indeed, this way of Jesus often directly counters the ideologies of this world.