In some ways technology helps me in my walk with God: I can read the Bible and some comentaries on my phone as I'm waiting in line anywhere, I can listen to MP3's of scripture as well as worship during my commute, but I think we've gone too far when we are e-mailing our prayers (and paying!) for a robovoice to pray on our behalf (see article below).
E-Prayer Dials Up Heaven Virtual praying site says it will put you in touch with the man upstairs:
By CAITLIN MILLAT
Could old-fashioned prayer be one day supplanted by an online prayer service?
Too busy to pray? You can now use your Blackberry to get in touch with the big guy.
New Web site InformationAgePrayer.com will pray for you for a small fee, reading your emails out-loud through a vocal replicator that will purportedly take your requests straight to God's ears.
Users can select the religion and the types of prayers they want, and for about $4 a month, be in constant "contact" with a higher power.
Catholic visitors can choose to send the classic Paternoster prayer, while Muslim visitors can virtually worship with the Fajir, the first of the five daily prayers in Islam.
Information Age Prayer isn't intended to replace traditional forms of worship - but it does give users relief that their prayers will be heard, the site says.
"At Information Age Prayer, we think our service should be used like a prayer supplement, to extend and strengthen a subscriber's connection with God," the site's mission reads.
"It gives you the satisfaction of knowing that your prayers will always be said even if you wake up late, or forget," it says.
Ten percent of the service's total revenue goes to charity, according to the site.
Isn't that like outsourcing a conversation? How would Claudia (my wife) respond if I hired a "vocal replacator" to take care of my conversations with her? The realationship wouldn't last long, if you could call it a relationship at that point! Do those using this service see God as their Lord, Savior, friend and someone who gave His own son in order to provide us with direct access to Himself? Or is the Creator of all that exists viewed as nothing more than a simple vending machine where you pay with prayer and get what you want? Paying for someone else...rather... somTHING else to interceed on our behalf... I think Jesus had somthing to say about this. Scripture speaks of the veil that seperated people from the Holy of Holies in the temple (representative of the seperation of man from God due to our sin) being torn in two at the Crusifixion. No more burrier between us and God when we receive Christ's sacrifice. Sin is cancled and we can go directly to God whenever and wherever we happen to be. Pretty Amazing. That's Amazing Grace! Think about it as we aproach Resurection Sunday in a few weeks.
God bless!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Lessons We’ve Learned from Our Kids #12
If the toilet doesn’t flush the first time try, try again until you get a really neat waterfall!
- Some brands of toilets are self clogging. Daddy: “What did you put down there Nico?” Nicholas: “Nothing, it just happened!”
- Does Walmart sell brothers?: When Jeremy first learned to play "Hide and Seek", he didn't know that he needed to tell others that he was playing. This resulted in half the church desperately "seeking" a disappeared little boy for about 20 min one Sunday morning. From his hiding spot he thought it was great that so many people were “seeking” him! Once we found him and nerves were quieted down, Nico asked: "Daddy, if we didn't find Jeremy, would you buy me another big brother?”
- Desitin (diaper rash cream) has the same basic ingredient found in that white sun block mom used to put on your nose, it's called Zinc Oxide. Talk about bumper to bumper dual purpose material! So next time your skin is getting baked at the beach, pass the diaper cream!
- Jeremy: If God is God, and Jesus is God too, how could He have himself as a baby?
- Benadryl is a gift from God through pharmacists. Nico didn’t realize he was standing on a fire ant nest until they started biting. By the time we cleaned him off he had about 8 really bad bites and began to turn red and puffy, talk with a swollen tongue and have difficulty breathing. We rushed to the pharmacy for a dose of Benadryl and he was better in ½ an hour. Praise God!
- Faulty memory is not only for the elderly. Mommy: “How did you get so dirty? Jeremy: “I don’t know”
- Grownup rear ends can be severely damaged on slides made for little buns. (Daddy was black, blue, red and some nice shades of green for 2 weeks after one particularly painful game of playground tag.)
- Snails are really neat, but extremely messy if they get “pet too hard”.
- According to our in resident dino-hunters: “Lizards don’t become dinosaurs because they don’t live long enough to get that big”.
- When set at high speed, a ceiling fan can make a Superman action hero fly like in the cartoons if thrown just right! It can also make rolled up socks, hats, quarters and even sunglasses do the same…just not necessarily in one piece.
The Great Comission and Reflections on the Church
Intro: Over the past few years I have been wrestling with the concept of modern missions, the great commission and more specifically the role of the local church as sender or receiver of missionaries. We are called to “make disciples of all nations” and the institution that our Lord gave us to do so is “His Body” the Church. My baseline for mission’s effectiveness has always been the question of whether or not what I am doing is assisting the local church, and how to do so more affectively in the future.
Current mental wrestling: From the perspective of someone who relates with various churches both on the sending and receiving ends of missions, I see a disturbing trend of US churches not maintaining direct contact with the missionaries they “send”, as well as the work they perform on the mission field. There are some shining examples to the contrary, but in general, there appears to be a “post missions era” creep across our country. The root of this is yet another disturbing topic on the state of many churches’ understanding as to the purpose of Christ’s body; but sticking to missions, this can have various end results from missionaries feeling detached from their “support base” (which can have various definitions from financial, to emotional to spiritual authority), to the sending/supporting church (not necessarily the same thing) having little or no input as to the work being performed on the field by their “representatives”, resulting in a different type of “detachment”. These are dangerous places to be for both a mission’s focused church as well as the missionary being sent. Christ’s call to his followers and the Church He established is to “Make Disciples”. The local church body is to make disciples and then have those disciples in turn make more disciples, be that in the surrounding neighborhoods or on the other side of the World. We should see an extended family being created from grandparents, to parents to children and beyond.
Please feel free to send me your thoughts on this or related topics, as I want to know what YOU think. Our supporters and churches are very precious to us, and you can look at this topic from a distinct perspective than my own.
Current mental wrestling: From the perspective of someone who relates with various churches both on the sending and receiving ends of missions, I see a disturbing trend of US churches not maintaining direct contact with the missionaries they “send”, as well as the work they perform on the mission field. There are some shining examples to the contrary, but in general, there appears to be a “post missions era” creep across our country. The root of this is yet another disturbing topic on the state of many churches’ understanding as to the purpose of Christ’s body; but sticking to missions, this can have various end results from missionaries feeling detached from their “support base” (which can have various definitions from financial, to emotional to spiritual authority), to the sending/supporting church (not necessarily the same thing) having little or no input as to the work being performed on the field by their “representatives”, resulting in a different type of “detachment”. These are dangerous places to be for both a mission’s focused church as well as the missionary being sent. Christ’s call to his followers and the Church He established is to “Make Disciples”. The local church body is to make disciples and then have those disciples in turn make more disciples, be that in the surrounding neighborhoods or on the other side of the World. We should see an extended family being created from grandparents, to parents to children and beyond.
Please feel free to send me your thoughts on this or related topics, as I want to know what YOU think. Our supporters and churches are very precious to us, and you can look at this topic from a distinct perspective than my own.
As the economic downturn worsens we understand that some of our supporters are coming into financial difficulty. Please know that you are regularly in our prayers and we would love to know if you need specific prayer be it for a job situation or any other reason, even if part of the conversation is that for the time being you have to cut back on support. That said, we are seeking others who can stand in the gap during this time. We don’t anticipate the need to extend more than six months as we are seeking the Lord for any ministerial changes He would have us make in the near future. We will keep you posted.
Over the past year, we have had to be creative in order to maintain a survivable income. I have been taking one day a week away from LAM in order to use my home repair and construction abilities which has helped cover the bills to varying degrees. More recently Claudia has been blessed with a new way to supplement our income as a Lia Sophia representative selling jewelry. If you are considering a birthday, anniversary or other gifts (or just a unique way to assist the Abegg’s) please visit her website at: www.liasophia.com/claudiaabegg where you can browse the catalogue and contact Claudia directly. Any purchases will assist our family, and it’s really nice jewelry with a lifetime guarantee!
Many individuals make up our support team and we want to thank each of you for your faithful prayer and giving. We also want to thank many of the churches that bless us with direct support such as: Walnut Creek Presbyterian, Clayton Community Church, and Lighthouse Foursquare Church. There are other churches that wish to remain un-named for various reasons. Thank you all for your faithfulness over the years.
Previous Lighthouse Members please note: If you are no longer attending Lighthouse Foursquare Church they are no longer able to process and forward your gifts to us. Please see our direct donation possibilities or contact us for help. Thank you!
God bless!
Projects: Recursos Pastorales & Professor Exchanges
Recursos Pastorals
We are in the process of sending batches of a fantastic resource for learning Greek to specific pastors and seminaries in Cuba. The Spanish Introduction to New Testament Greek that we are sending was authored in part by LAM missionary Elizabeth de Sendek. Please pray for the safe delivery of these resources to the pastors and seminary students and that the Lord would bless their ministry through these gifts.
For more information on this program, please visit the Recursos Pastorales section on our webpage. Also, if you would like to help with this program, please see our donation page.
Seminary Professor Exchanges
As we continue to seek ways to assist the Cuban church, one ongoing effort is to aid the seminaries that are producing the pastors of the future. Thankfully we have partnerships with seminaries throughout Latin America, some of which we are working with in order to provide the structure for professors of key subjects to teach classes or hold special sessions at Cuban seminaries. Please pray for the Lord to indicate which professors would be most beneficial (both academically and ministerialy), for favor in gaining permission from the Cuban government and for the finances to assist in travel and expenses involved. If you are interested in supporting a program such as this please visit our donation page.
We are in the process of sending batches of a fantastic resource for learning Greek to specific pastors and seminaries in Cuba. The Spanish Introduction to New Testament Greek that we are sending was authored in part by LAM missionary Elizabeth de Sendek. Please pray for the safe delivery of these resources to the pastors and seminary students and that the Lord would bless their ministry through these gifts.
For more information on this program, please visit the Recursos Pastorales section on our webpage. Also, if you would like to help with this program, please see our donation page.
Seminary Professor Exchanges
As we continue to seek ways to assist the Cuban church, one ongoing effort is to aid the seminaries that are producing the pastors of the future. Thankfully we have partnerships with seminaries throughout Latin America, some of which we are working with in order to provide the structure for professors of key subjects to teach classes or hold special sessions at Cuban seminaries. Please pray for the Lord to indicate which professors would be most beneficial (both academically and ministerialy), for favor in gaining permission from the Cuban government and for the finances to assist in travel and expenses involved. If you are interested in supporting a program such as this please visit our donation page.
LAM Has a New President
To all of you who have been praying for LAM’s presidential search, thank you! Last month Steve Johnson was installed as the new president of the mission. Now I ask that you adjust your prayers and pray for him as he seeks to guide the mission through changes and some tight financial times. I have appreciated his heart for the local church and look forward to future conversations with him on that topic, plus…he’s from California (at least recently), so he’s already a good guy in my book! Please keep Steve, his wife Shellie and their extended family in your prayers. Below are a few excerpts from the LAM websites news article. The full article is available on LAM’s website.
A California pastor with missionary experience in Argentina has been appointed as the new president of the Latin America Mission. Steven (Steve) Rayford Johnson, 55, will take office in early February, succeeding the interim president, Jack Voelkel.
…he co-pastored an Argentine church for four years alongside the president of the Argentine National Association of Evangelicals….Returning from Latin America, Johnson led pastoral teams that planted two daughter churches of Scottsdale Bible Church in Arizona, served two congregations in California, as well as collaborated with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association ministries in Latin America. Most recently, he was the Senior Pastor of Cypress Community Church, Salinas California.
A California pastor with missionary experience in Argentina has been appointed as the new president of the Latin America Mission. Steven (Steve) Rayford Johnson, 55, will take office in early February, succeeding the interim president, Jack Voelkel. …he co-pastored an Argentine church for four years alongside the president of the Argentine National Association of Evangelicals….Returning from Latin America, Johnson led pastoral teams that planted two daughter churches of Scottsdale Bible Church in Arizona, served two congregations in California, as well as collaborated with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association ministries in Latin America. Most recently, he was the Senior Pastor of Cypress Community Church, Salinas California.
“I see the role of the Mission as seeking to be involved with any and every significant ‘kingdom’ challenge in Latin America at some level, in a holistic response,” Johnson said. “With already established partnerships, the LAM can certainly confront increasing pluralism with ongoing integral church growth, mission help for local grass-root churches, as well as helping to make theological education more accessible to the local church pastor.”
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