Dare to Dream -- Let's Save the World

It’s hard to describe the overwhelming sense of joy I am experiencing these days. I find myself crying and then laughing and then crying and then laughing... I’ve discovered something in the little network marketing company that I’m a part of that can impact our world in ways that no one has ever dreamed possible.

Remember the story of Joseph. Genesis 41. He interpreted Pharaoh’s dream of plenty and then famine. Not only did he interpret the dream but he created a business plan that allowed Egypt to become rich in a time of famine and save his own family from starvation.

I dream these days of wiping out poverty and nourishing the world. Sounds outlandish I know. But in the same way that Joseph put together a sound business plan to save the world of his day, it is possible to have a business plan that will have a global impact on nutrition and finances.

There are countless numbers of people around the world who do not receive adequate nutrition each day.

10 million children under the age of 6 will die this year from preventable diseases.

Many people gladly give their time and resources to help some of them but the problem has always been growing and is bigger than any one person. Those who sacrificed heroically have not been able to keep up with the ravages of this world. The problem has always been one of SUSTAINABILITY.

The answer isn’t going to be found in looking for a few heroes. The answer is in many people giving a little, over and over again.

I’ve decided to give $100 per month of nutritional supplements to orphans and widows each month. That may not seem like much but if many people join me, we can change our world.

By doing this through my company and joining hands with others to do the same, I will get back my $100 in the form of a cheque from my company each month. I will then be able to purchase more nutritional supplements for more widows and orphans.

Every six people that does this with me makes me $100. Every time these people get six more people each, they make $100. This is a SUSTAINABLE business model that will ensure a great start and will only end when there is not a single child who is suffering from malnutrition.

We can feed the widow and orphan and cease the endless cycle of the poor remaining poor. All it takes is looking at moving money a different way.

Jesus said that the people of light do not understand money.

Luke 16:8 (NIV) "The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.

But then He went on to say this.

9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. 10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?13 "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." Luke 16:8-13

The choice is up to us.

Does God enjoy the fact that 10 million children will die this year of preventable diseases?
Of course not.

Does He expect us to stop this needless suffering? Yes.

The time for praying is over. The time for action is NOW.

The question is, “Will you do this till Jesus returns?”

I will.

Luke 6:38 (NIV) Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

Check out.

www.mannarelief.org

Email me if you want to have a part in changing the world.

ttdgrant@hotmail.com

How Do I Go to What We Are?

A friend of mine was asking me if I missed the routine of going to church services. We had both been long time church service attendees and were quite comfortable going to a weekly ritual. Leaving the routine and ritual was at first a bit of a strange experience for both of us.

Several years ago I had been unceremoniously asked to leave a church. Up to that point, I had gone to church twice on Sunday for all of my adult years. I had always participated in communion services and when I was kicked out, most of the people that I knew didn’t care. I don’t want you to think I am asking for your pity, I didn’t care when someone else had left the church service that I belonged to, either. I didn’t care if they were hurt, lonely, bitter or in need. If I noticed they weren’t there I quickly got over that “loss”. I managed to continue faithfully going to church services and having communion as a sign of my love for God.

As a side note, most of the people that didn't care about me getting kicked out have since left that church service as well. I wonder if anyone cares that they left?

My wife and I started attending another church that only had 1 service on Sunday. That was my first experience of breaking a well established pattern and we went through a time of withdrawl and guilt for not going to two rituals every Sunday. It wasn’t long for us to adjust to this “new” idea. We were faithful in the one service model and learned that the Bible didn’t say, “thou must go to two church services every Sunday.” Wow, I had been to Bible college for four years and didn’t know that.

These days, I don’t regularly attend any ritual and that’s why my friend was asking if I missed them. I don’t miss the addictive process of going to church services and the shallow relationships that I now see I had for many years.

I now find each day filled with wonder and joy in God and the blessings that He has given to me. I enjoy the relationships that I find myself in. I now experience vital friendships and don’t seek out rituals to prove I’m a good Christian.

My days are filled with helping others at the physical, financial, emotional and spiritual level. Many conversations are filled with joy and dreaming and yes, sometimes debating about going to rituals.

Whenever I am encouraged by someone or have the opportunity to encourage others, I deeply sense God’s presence. I don’t wait to go to a ritual, I experience gathering with others (church) almost everyday of the week.

It’s nice not having to find out what personality a person follows or what there preferred doctrinal position is in order to have fellowship with them.

Does this mean I’ll never go to an organized church service? Of course not. I was at one a few weeks ago. The pastor was asking everyone to dig deeper in order to build a $10 million dollar building, so they could better minister to people. Interestingly enough only 2 people welcomed me that morning and 1 of them was just visiting. I won’t ever confuse a building or a method with the meaning of church ever again.

Wow, do I ever love the church that Jesus is building and yes, some of these people that I love are very attached to their buildings and love going to services.

As for me, I’ve simply come to the place of understanding that I can’t go to what we are.

Protecting the System

A miracle is a unique occurrence that cannot be verified. It happens one time and then it’s over. The scientific method which many people consider the only real way of understanding cannot handle that idea. If it can’t be repeated, it can’t be verified and therefore miracles can’t happen.

The Bible story of Jesus healing the blind man actually ran into a religious roadblock of acceptance of a miracle because it happened on the Sabbath. John 9 describes the confrontation of the religious system of the day that would not be moved even by a miracle of man who was born blind being able to see. It’s a good read just to see how people will defend a position no matter how irrational it is.

Churches that take the position that God can no longer perform miracles line up quite nicely with the Pharisees of Jesus' day.

In more natural matters, I find myself working in a company these days that has a similar battle within the medical community, howbeit, it is not in the category of a miracle. They use natural products to support the body, which is then able to fight whatever is harming it.

Here’s how the argument goes. The medical community has determined that there is no cure for what I will call x. A person takes a natural product and no longer has x. The usual answer from the medical community is that the person has been misdiagnosed. They don’t say, tell us more about this.

But it doesn’t stop there. If the person who had x tells anybody about the process he used to not have x, he is in violation of medical community standards and my company would get sued.

In other words, the way the medical community has established its way of talking about disease is that if someone did discover a process that resulted in healing that wasn’t based in methods prescribed by the medical community and pharmaceutical companies, they wouldn’t be allowed to tell anyone about the results.

The man that was blind said, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" John 9:25 (NIV)

The powers that be of that day said, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out. John 9:34 (NIV)

Some things never change.

L'Chaim -- To Life!

The last thing that Jesus gave us to remember Him by was that we are to have a glass of wine with friends to celebrate Him. Religion has managed to ritualize, mystify, and misapply this celebration of life that He died to give us.

We need to back up the bus a sec and think in Jesus terms and not religious gobbledy gook. Jesus came to bring an end of religion. Bruxy Cavey, “The End of Religion” is the inspiration for these thoughts on what Jesus came to do. Caution: don’t read his book if you’re happy with your weakly fix of religion. But if you do go out and buy his book remember that Bruxy thanks you for contributing to the Cavey family mortgage fund.

Bruxy retells the story of Jesus’ first miracle. You know the water into wine miracle. The hotly debated, “Was it fermented or just fantastic grape juice miracle.”

The key is understanding the significance of the pots of water that Jesus purposed to turn into wine.

John 2:6 (NIV) Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

The religious, constipated mindset of the day was all about not taking in or touching anything remotely sinful. But just in case you got contaminated it was necessary to ritually wash one’s hands with purifying water to ensure that nothing went into your mouth that might have been touched by some disgusting sinner.

Jesus took the purifying water that religion saw as keeping people and contamination out and turned it into a party with great friends. He took what was meant to be all about creating perfection and a means of measuring someone’s willingness to follow some religious rule and turned it into something that was to bring joy in relationships.

This was His first miracle and the last thing He pointed us to at the last supper to remember Him by. Coincidence? The first thing He did and the last thing He did. Sounds like a potential sermon that Jesus gave to us. The difference between Jesus and preachers is that He lived His words with friends instead of just speaking them from a pulpit to enchant a crowd.

How many communion services have you sat in that depicted the cup as a reminder of the joy of life and relationships that Jesus died to give us?

How many communion services have you sat in that felt smugly religious and ceremonial, centering on yourself, with no thought of Jesus' joy, no sense of celebration and no need for or connection to those around us?

How often is blood referred to as a sign of His death when in reality the Bible teaches that “life is in the blood”. Lev. 17:11.

The first tests a doctor will give you when checking your health is a battery of blood tests. Why? Because your blood reveals your state of health/life.

Jesus wasn’t instructing us to think about death and sin when we drink the cup but about our new life and restoration of relationships that He has imparted to us through his blood.

Jesus didn’t turn water into wine to wow the crowd. He turned water into wine to abolish religious observances and point us to the joy of relationships.

Communion isn’t a time of morbid reflection and introspection. It is a time of exuberant celebration of the life that we have in Jesus within His body.

The irony is in the fact that even though Jesus purposed to shatter the religious mindset of His day by turning ceremonial purifying water into delicious wine that was used to celebrate a marriage, the religious mindset of our day has handed Jesus' cup back to us in a nicely packaged religious ritual that focuses on me and my need to make sure I've confessed all of my sins. As if I need a ceremony to help me think of me, more!

What’s the first thing we are going to do when Jesus returns? Rev. 19:9 (NIV) Then the angel said to me, "Write: `Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!'" And he added, "These are the true words of God."

I have a hunch there’s gonna be some mighty fine wine at that wedding and we're going to raise a glass or two to toast the groom and His bride.

L'Chaim -- To Life!

Freedom in Friendships

There are only two things that God says really matter in this life. Loving Him and and loving others. That seems almost naïve considering the complexity of our lives and the challenges that come with them.

I used to work with a man from Poland when I was a toolmaker at General Motors. That was the time when the cold war was still on. My friend had literally jumped ship in Halifax harbor. As I was talking with him I said it must be nice to have the freedom and money that he now had compared to his life in Poland. His response surprised me and obviously still echoes in my brain.

He said, “It’s nice having the things that living in Canada provides but in spite of living under an oppressive regime and having nothing, I miss something far more than my material gains. A typical evening in Poland was spent with friends with nothing more than a bottle of water on the table. I really miss those days.”

I’m a little mystified these days at how Christianity, which has the core value of loving others has somehow morphed into finding allegiances in church differences, following pastors and controlling relationships. I’ve heard way too many stories of people being shunned for simply leaving a church. What had been considered long time friendships turned out to be simply rallying around the group. Step away from the group and the friendship is often lost. Ask questions that don’t fit in with the group think and alienation is sure to follow.

If one probes a little bit into the relationships of senior leaders within church, you will find some very lonely people. They often wonder if they have a friend in the world. These are the same ones who set the example for the flock and are the first to shun those who leave their sphere of influence.

I have the privilege of having a few friends that don't need to agree in order to be there for each other. One of them is very involved as a pastor and has said to me that he is a little sad that his best friends wouldn't get along well if he put them in the same room. The reason they wouldn't get along is because each one is so busy defending his particular church system. At the friendship level there is plenty of room for differences but at the system level, alienation would have been guaranteed.

How do you know if you have a friend? Try leaving whatever it is that you’ve been doing together and see if they still call you. You may be surprised that it wasn’t friendship that held you together but the activity which you had been involved in.

What a sad state of affairs when God's people define their friendships through an allegiance to a building, pastor, sermons, doctrine or activities.

Sacred or Secular: A False Dichotomy

I was recently accused of becoming too secular in my expression of Christianity. Apparently, if one chooses to expose false practices like reverencing church buildings as holy places then one is becoming secular.

The history of how we have come to identify sacred places as Christian church buildings is rather revealing. Late into the second century Christians were beginning the pagan practice of reverencing the dead. It came about from good intentions. A number of Christians had been martyred for their faith and were thus seen as true examples to teach the cost of being a true believer in Jesus Christ.

Consequently their place of burial became an often visited place to remind others that physical life is but a vapor but death truly has no sting for believers. Therefore in addition to meeting in homes it became common to meet at cemeteries. Cemeteries began to be seen as sacred places where reverence for martyrs was given and their story of courageously laying down their lives was retold to young and old. In the Old Testament these places would have been referred to as “high places”.

When Constantine came along at the beginning of the fourth century, he legalized Christianity and paid to have basilicas built. There was a sense of awe and wonder connected to these buildings especially because they were often built over or next to sacred sites, cemeteries, where Christian martyrs had been buried.

Hushed reverence was always associated with the entering of these edifices and even purification rituals were incorporated to ensure that those entering would give due respect to the fallen martyrs that the building had been constructed over.

And thus was born the idea of a sacred place that literally changed the definition of church from Jesus' original usage, which simply meant, "gathered ones", to the now almost universally accepted definition, "a Christian sacred building."

Today, people have forgotten the historical roots of church buildings but have managed to hold onto a false dichotomy between sacred and secular. They often live and speak differently when they are at a church building from their day to day activities. Onlookers often associate Christians by those who go to a sacred place. Sadly, this pagan assumption is endorsed and even considered mandatory by uninformed Christians as well.

But Jesus gave us a different command as to how we are to distinguish ourselves as Christians. I find it rather ironic that even his words "new commandment" are still, 2,000 years later, "new" for many Christians who go to church.

John 13:34 (NIV) "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Random Thoughts about Rich and Poor

There’s a strange idea that floats around that one cannot be rich and good at the same time. It’s almost like there is a despising of too much money because it will inevitably lead one to not be good.

Most people row feverishly for the ever retreating shoreline of financial security and some even throw in a few good deeds to soothe their conscience. The reality is that the best part of their day is consumed with jobs that they would never do if they were rich.

The poor and the middle class work for money while the rich work at whatever they want.

The middle class sometimes throw out a few crumbs to the poor to ease their conscience and help the poor remain poor.

It is a rare situation for someone in the middle class that believes that hard work and a decent education are the means through which someone will gain security, would ever pay for a poor person’s education. They believe the poor need an education but they themselves don’t have the resources to truly make a difference in their lives.

The fact that 35,000 children die every day because of war and malnutrition hardly fazes those who are struggling just to make their next dental payment.

Are working class people, including supposedly well off professionals, free? Do they hop on a plane whenever they feel like it to volunteer in the aids epidemic in Africa? Do they do anything about the current genocide that is happening in Kenya? Of course not, they’re busy working on their own security.

The Bible says, “the love of money” is the root of all kinds of evil. It’s interesting that it doesn’t say the love of riches is the root of evil as some people seem to interpret this passage. Money definitely controls people lives and it seems that it controls the poor and the upscale professionals on a regular basis.

Have you ever considered that slavery is alive and well, it is simply clothed in nice houses and nice cars. Generally people do not do what they want with their day. They are told when to show up and when to go home, what clothes they can wear, who they should work with and some are even told when they can go pee.

In a moment they can get fired, downsized, or passed over but let’s leave those little nagging bits of reality out of the discussion about the altruistic dream of financial security.

Definitely don’t talk about being rich because that would mean you’re greedy.

Of course a rich man doesn’t have to use his riches to help others. But he could if he chose to.

Do the poor and the middle class have the same options?

Something Worse Than Rejection

Rejection is an inevitable part of life. No one wants it to happen and yet everyone has experienced its venomous bite. But rejection really isn’t our biggest problem.

The fear of rejection is our real nemesis. We like things to be safe, tidy and predictable. It’s probably the number one reason why Christians choose large church gatherings over learning to enter into people's lives at more than a pleasant, “Hi, it’s good to see you again,” level of relationship.

Overcoming our fear of rejection is not typically a high priority for most people. We create situations where we think that we can’t be rejected. We wear the right clothes and say whatever is politically correct at the moment. We get into jobs that promise safety and security and end up giving up freedom for the modern day equivalence of slavery. Why? Not rejection but the fear of rejection.

Failure is obviously closely associated with why we’re rejected. In our shame based society, if you say or do something that even looks like failure, rejection is sure to follow. You can do 100 things right and yet when that failure happens, sure enough that’s what you are labeled with and rejected for.

Success is the other side of the coin when considering the potential for rejection. It’s ok to do well but don’t go overboard with success because people may become jealous and reject you. Bask in the safety of mediocrity, don’t risk anything and you will never taste the bitter fruit of rejection. We can never really insulate ourselves from some form of rejection but many people would rather spend most of their creative time and energy to create safe ways of not really living or caring.

Christians say they love Jesus and yet the survey says that they never talk to anyone about Him because of their fear of rejection. They say they want to be like Him and yet one of the things that Jesus willingly entered into was being despised and rejected. He was rejected for being too good, too unpredictable, too caring, too demanding, too accepting, too harsh, too unreligious: anything other than accepting the status quo.

How do you overcome your fear of rejection? Step out, fail or succeed, get rejected, evaluate, learn and/or change and then repeat the process over again.

The speed and scope of your success and freedom will be proportional to the number of opportunities that you create to overcome your fear of rejection.

Viagra Loves Prescription Plans

Have you ever wondered who is paying for all of the wonderful prescription plans that people in good companies enjoy?

I had an interesting discussion with someone the other day about a real concern they had for a child of 4 who was on a very strong anti-depressant. I said, “Wouldn’t it be better to be seeking healthy solutions rather than condemning a child for the rest of their life to a drug that masks the problem and only deals with the symptoms?”

The answer was quite startling. “Yes, it would be better to seek a healthy solution but the parents have a drug plan and it costs them nothing to dope up their child, whereas a healthy solution would personally cost them money.”

That leads into another area of discussion. It’s true that the father doesn’t directly pay for the drugs as they are paid for through his medical benefits. The reality is that his company’s benefit plan will cost the company more money next year depending on the number of people who are using the benefits.

Hmmm. This means when someone gets a prescription filled for Viagra, his company has to pay more for his health benefits. I’m sure the stock holders and owners are pleased that their company is able to support this man’s sex life. Obviously a better sex life would mean better production from the man at work.

But companies and stock holders are much smarter than that. They will simply increase the price of whatever widget or service that they provide to the consumer.

Oh goody. I get to pay for someone to solve their problem with ED. I think his wife should thank all of us for restoring their lost passion in their bedroom.

And the pharmaceutical companies laugh merrily as they deposit more money in whatever they deposit their money into.