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Please be inspired by these modern day “Acts” and lets go out and live our faith today!

I’ve been thinking lately about why a lot of Christian art seems to be, well, not as good as a lot of Have you seen the Christian movies out there? Christian radio and music is so void of innovation. Christian art doesn’t ALL have to be “family friendly”. I feel like a lot of Christian movies avoid scary things, and bad words and Christian music stays pretty It’s hard because much of the Christian culture promotes this safe mindset.

I have a friend, Manny, who started a church whose goal was to rescue people from traditional Christianity He sees inconsistencies in the Bible, and harmful things in traditional Christian theology, and his family has been extremely hurt by Christianity. The issues he was dealing with were complicated but I hate that Christianity had anything to do with And I haven’t lost a brother because of Christianity.

I still had the $602 that I had been given.  I was looking for ways to help people with it. I found  my pastor on Wednesday and said, “Can you make sure this gets to the Petersons, please- they need it.”  I handed him a stack of 20s adding up to $100.  “I’d give it to them myself but I don’t want them to think of me whenever they need a bailout.  I’d rather just stay their friend.  The pastor nodded and asked, “Randy and Sarah Peterson? Yes I will make sure they get it.” I was praying with Randy and Sarah this week (we try to do 10 minutes of morning prayer several times a week) and Randy asked me, “Did you give Pastor Tim $100 to give to us?” I replied, “Someone gave you $100?  Wow!  That’s cool.” “Yeah, you’re the only one that we’ve told about our money situation.  You and Sarah’s sister, but we just want to be able to thank the person.” “Wow, cool.” I said.  “Maybe they just thought you needed it.  Well it seems like the giver must be getting enough satisfaction by giving it that they don’t need to tell you who they are.  I’d say just pass on the blessing somehow to other people.” The giver did get enough satisfaction by just giving it, but there was even more satisfaction in hearing their baffled gratitude. Raw Spoon

I went to visit my friend, Trevor in Oklahoma City this weekend.  This friend regularly tells me stories about people that are healed when he prays for them!  We were walking through Oklahoma city together and he said, “I’m gonna try something crazy.” I look up and see people walking towards us.  I say, “Go for it, man.” He stops the people and asks, “Do any of you have any pain I can pray for?” They gave this weirded out look and said no.  They walked on. Next he asked the same thing to a large family with kids and they seemed more accepting but again, had no pain they needed to be healed from.  This could have felt embarrassing if I had let it. Finally as we were waiting at a crosswalk, Trevor turned around and asked a tall, weathered, tough looking young man if he had any pain.  He said No.  Trevor pressed the issue.  “No shoulder pain or foot pain, or maybe back pain we can pray for?” “Not really.” he said, “But I’m trying to figure out whether i should go back to my wife tonight or not.” Suddenly my ears perked and i turned to fully face him.  We had found the pain. Trevor persisted- he wanted to see a healing, “Are you sure you don’t have a wrist or a hand maybe that needs healing?” I smiled but butted in.  “What happened with your wife tonight?” Jake told us his story.  We went to Sonic and sat for an hour as he talked and we tried to council him.  That day he had gotten so angry at his wife that he smashed a vacuum cleaner and his fist through some walls.  After that he had gone to the bank, emptied his account and left on his motorcycle.  When we found him he was debating on whether to go back to her or go to Kentucky and start completely over. He had come from a past of prison, drugs and alcoholism.  He had rebuilt his life with his wife and said that he was blessed with great daughters, a successful business, a great church, and a beautiful house.  he hadn’t had a drink for ten years, but tonight he said he had been thinking what the hell, why not a beer. He said he had been running from God all day.  Several people from the church had texted and tried to call him but he turned off his phone because he didn’t want to listen.  He looked at us and said, but God found me anyways tonight. We listened and prayed with him and tried our best to give advice.  I’m not sure if we solved his marriage problems, probably not entirely.  He will have a difficult journey ahead.  but I think it could have been terribly worse if we had not stepped out in love and looked for someone who needed healing. Thank you God for using us. Raw Spoon

I like how good will, and creative generosity can be so contagious.  My dad told me a story about a couple that goes to a restaurant and picks out a patron and anonymously foots their bill– and that infected me. I ate at a restaurant the other day and told the waitress to let me pay for “that couple’s bill”- I pointed to a middle aged couple that didn’t seem to have much to talk about.  “And please don’t tell them who it was from” I added. From a distance I heard their disbelief and happiness.  I hope they had something to talk about on the way home.  Something contagious. Raw Spoon

I met a boy named Carlton a couple weeks ago. he showed up at my house with some of the kids from the youth group i help at. His friend had just died in a car accident and he had a lot of digesting to do. He poured out his troubles of fighting with his dad, losing girlfriends and dire financial debts. He had just gotten a new job but he hadn’t paid his insurance and didn’t have gas money to get to work. I offered my extra mattress to him if he needed a place to stay that night. He did and we talked late into the night until he finally talked himself to sleep. Later I rallied some of the kids from the youth group to get some money together to buy him a gas card. I thought that was the best, safest way to supply for him. His most important need, was to be able to get to work.  then he would be able to pull himself out of many of the other problems he was having.  We accrued $130 and bought him a gas card. (more to come on Carlton) Raw Spoon

He brought two friends and the four of us drove down to the Christian coffee shop in Wichita. Did people expect more at a Christian coffee shop?  they assume a Christians or Christian coffee shops should buy them coffee.  Does the world expect more out of Christians?  I would guess so.  That makes our job harder.  Time to step up our game, Christians.  Live radically.  Be ready to sacrifice. Raw Spoon

It’s easy to look at Christians who are living very similar to the rest of the world and ask, “If this is Christianity how is there anything true about the spirit that changes people?” But I think looking at the majority of people who call themselves Christians isn’t the right way to identify Christians. I’ve seen a few examples of people who call themselves Christians and actually manage their lives to

I realized this weekend that some of us have more luxury to be good than others. For example, I heard from someone who taught kids in inner-city schools that the pressure to be in a gang was so high there that like 5 out of 6 teenage boys were in a gang. With all those pressures those kids just don’t have the luxury of being good all the time. But even apart from our surroundings, doesn’t it just seem like some people are born with meaner hearts than others? You can see it in us even before we are old enough to realize we have a choice. And I know that depending on my surroundings a much better or much worse me can come out, independent of who I’m trying to be. Islam. Hindu. Buddhism. As far as I understand, these religions rank your eternal standing on how good you are throughout your life. Islam: Like an 80 year score card. Buddhism: Score card Karma. Hinduism: you will pay in this life for what you did in the previous one and the bill for the next life is accruing right now. But we say that Christ understands that we sate our hunger in all the wrong ways because we are broken, that our addictions are usually stronger than us, and that we know not much of what we do. And if we’ve been terrible for our whole life He won’t let that keep us out of heaven. It appears the only thing that will get us in or out of heaven is what we believe; that we’ve dug ourselves a humongous hole of debt and that He is the only one compassionate enough and reliable enough and big enough to fulfill His promise to reach down and lift us out. And it looks like there will be rewards in heaven for lives lived well but it will be sad for most of us to get to heaven and realize that with what we were given we wasted most of our lives on fading goals. Raw Spoon

favorite type of worship song is usually those secular songs which I already love, but which become Christian But I'd love to hear which secular songs you listen to that seem to have a Christian message. following: U2: Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For U2 is known for their secular songs that have Christian

As other religions flourish in this beautiful atmosphere of religious freedoms, Christianity is becoming But I can see the benefit in this because if we still want Christianity to be compelling and relevant