Thought for the day...

From Philip Yancy:

"... I remembered a remark by Lewis, who drew a distinction between communicating with a society that hears the gospel for the first time and one that has embraced and then largely rejected it. A person must court a virgin differently than a divorcée, said Lewis. One welcomes the charming words; the other needs a demonstration of love to overcome inbuilt skepticism.

I thought, too, how tempting it can be—and how distracting from our primary mission—to devote so many efforts to rehabilitating society at large, especially when these efforts demonize the opposition. (After all, neither Jesus nor Paul showed much concern about cleaning up the degenerate Roman Empire.) As history has proven, especially in times when church and state closely mingle, it is possible for the church to gain a nation and in the process lose the kingdom."

From Christianity Today, November 2005, Vol. 49, No. 11, Page 128.

It seems like the evangelical church needs to be defined as a political action group more than a religious organization. Some days I feel as though the church is more concerned with saving the culture than saving souls. There are some important issues, such as abortion, that must be addressed politically and such action does confront the present culture. The church is not equally politically active however regarding issues such as poverty, basic human rights of migrants and immigrants and the poor and fiscal responsibility. The Bible definitely addresses these issues and the church is responsible for addressing these issues: individually, as a church body, corporately through denominations and church collaborations and cooperatively through the political process.

This is not a new idea; there are many sociallly minded Christian writers, pastors, and churches. The sad side of this discussion is the lack of action and care and demonstable love of Christians, specifically evagelicals, seen in the general culture. For sure, there are specific instances, such as the response to Hurricane Katrina, which demonstrate the love and care of Christ to the culture but the issues must be addressed more consistently and even politically.

In general, the message observed by many people outside of the church is one of neglect and disdain; this isn't just some "left wing media bias." This is an honest impression and feeling of more than half of the world's population. We defend the rights of the unborn but fail to defend the rights of immigrants, migrants and the poor. We defend the definition of marriage while constantly redefining the global economy to fill the wallets of executives. This is not to imply that abortion and marriage are not important issues. This is to imply that there are many issues that the church does not address but the Bible explicitly commands us to take a firm stance and love, love the poor, the weak, the neglected, the helpless, the outcasts. We must learn to love people as Christ does, even to the point of laying down our lives, our wealth, our security, our freedoms, our "American dream".

Todd Agnew, "My Jesus":

Which Jesus do you follow?
Which Jesus do you serve?
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ,
Why do you look so much like the world?


-Posted by Brian, on his soapbox

March Already

We have been busy. Christmas season flowed into New Years which flowed into the new semester for both of us. During the holiday time, Brian was busy preparing for a conference in San Jose and Karen was busy working on her thesis. Wow... two months of busy summed up in two sentences. February was filled with more thesis work for both of us and visits from Brian's dad and Becca up to Seneca Falls and weekend trips to Syracuse and Rochester. March will be busy as Karen approaches her thesis deadline and searches for jobs, and we travel to Florida for a brief rest.

Christmas was split between Pennsylvania, where we were constantly in amazement due to Hanna's cuteness, and Michigan. It was great to see the grandparents, parents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, dogs, cats, etc.















Notice the musical talent of our niece Hanna!!

We spent Christmas day in Michigan and worshipped in a beautiful candlelight service. The Clark and Myers women were complimented for their "angelic" singing and the peace of the season was evident in the stillness of the moment (there weren't too many in Michigan). The day was even more wonderful when we had the opportunity to Skype (new word for next year's Oxford Dictionary) Papai e Mamae en Brasil. Sitting around a computer, talking into a microphone, is becoming a very important practice in our household (It's FREE!!!).

New Years was spent in Boston, with Karen's aunt and cousins. We went to First Night Boston and enjoyed an Iranian Music concert and fireworks over the Boston Harbor.







After a bout with the flu, we returned home to pick up our books and start in on another semester.
Karen started her final semester and Brian started his 2nd century (actually eighth). Soon thereafter, Brian deserted Karen for a weekend to go to warm (warmer) and sunny Cal-I-Forn-I-A for an exciting weekend of sociallizing with fellow scientists. To take a break from the excitement, he spend a day walking around the streets of San Francisco, all the while trying to walk off a Brazilian Churrasco...














We spent February trying to catch up with our work and our relationships. Brian's dad to celebrate the elder Winey's birthday. We spent a Sunday afternoon with Lori after eating a delicious Puerto Rican meal. And we went to Brian's advisor's house on February 12 for a holiday party, held on the first day that everyone from the lab could attend... We had some great conversations with Lori, (left) and Yan, Brian's advisor (right).












So we are trying to keep up with life and take notice of the many many blessings God places in each of our days. It is a blast and it is crazy and it is all under the sovereignty of the Almighty creator of the universe. The next few months will see us traveling more, going to Florida, PA and possibly Brasil, moving back to Rochester, being part of the leadership team of a new church plant and applying for teaching jobs for Karen for next year. We are praying praying and praying. Hey, what good does it do to give God control of the rudder or wheel (or whatever your preferred metaphor) if you aren't willing to move? Thank you for praying with us and for us. Until the next update, whenever that might be....