Thanks Anita...

...for mentioning my blog on the radio today. Here's back atcha!

Under Bridges

Paul Luikart read the lyrics to the song, Under Bridges, by Brave Saint Saturn, today during his devotional at our Breakthrough Staff Development Day today. I downloaded their album, So Far From Home, on iTunes.

Here are the lyrics to "Under Bridges"...

Yesterday while walking,
Beneath an overpass,
I saw the figure of Jesus,
Standing barefoot on broken glass.
His beard was graying,
The smell of urine filled the air,
Asking if I had some change,
Anything that I could spare.

Emaciated,
His shaking fists balled up,
Influenza and pneumonia,
Begging God to take his cup.
So different from his pictures,
Breathing air through yellowed tubes,
Jesus Christ, dying of AIDS,
Can look right through you.

And all have hated,
Crucified and walked away,
The Savior of the prostitutes,
Drunkards, rapists, and the gays.

Under bridges,
With hands raised,
From the ghettos they praise his name.
Broke and crippled in the dark of night,
Raise your voices to Jesus Christ,
Hallelujah.

I love this heart touching story of friendship

Carl Ellis on the Breakthrough Stories Podcast

If you missed our Breakthrough Breakfast Symposium with Carl Ellis on January 17th you can listen to or view a podcast of the event on the Breakthrough Stories Podcast. Those of us who attended agreed that we could have listened to him for hours and want to get him back for a longer class.

Bill Shereos' Sermon on the Economy

Yesterday, Bill Shereos, pastor of the First Evangelical Free Church in Chicago, preached a sermon that I think is very helpful as we navigate as Christians in the present economic crisis. Here is the audio blog...

A live birth aborted

Did you hear about the teenager who went to get an abortion and while waiting for the doctor gave birth to a live baby girl? The clinic staffers cut the cord, stuck it in a plastic bag and dumped it in the trash. Ugh!

Pornography in the Chicago Library

I had lunch with my friends Don and Amanda Bratschie yesterday and they told me about a crusade they have launched to try to get the Chicago library to block porn on their internet computers. It is really a shocking story. Check out this link to see Don and Amanda on WGN TV and this one to read Amanda's blog.

The economic mess and what we trust in

Hat tip to Jim Wallis and his facebook status update for linking me to this New York Times editorial by Thomas Friedman from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He says everyone is looking for "the guy" who will tell us how to get out of our economic mess and how to protect our savings, but there is no such guy! We are going to have to live with more uncertainty and with a lower level of trust.

So what does it mean to live with a lower level of trust? Perhaps we have been misplacing our trust. Hmm. I think we need to trust now more than ever, but in our Provider, Jehovah-Jireh. Remember this old song?