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I’d like to denounce the following clip taken from the short movie Most as an example of corny Christian media (after all, I first discovered it on GodTube), but I can’t.  The ‘parable’ of the bridge-master and his son is one of those over-used illustrations popping up in pulpits all over the world, but after hearing it a thousand times and telling myself that it is cheesy, I could not hold back the tears watching this clip (go on, call me lame):

I think I’ll be writing on the following subject more in the near future, but for now, I’ll just say is that what I appreciate most out of this illustration is that it focuses on the motivating passion of God (the father in the story) to save us from destruction and not to condemn us to destruction, as some would preach.

 

Technorati Tags: The Bridge, Most, Movies, Salvation

I’ve spent a short time in Africa, and one of the hardest parts for me was deciding what and who to give money to.  It’s quite a helpless feeling, because you know that what you give will be quickly consumed and the need really wouldn’t (in most cases) be fulfilled.  Add to that the constant question on your mind - am I being conned? 

I still struggle with what I could not achieve, failed promises (I tried not to make any) and the nagging feeling of arrogance that we can spend so much on a missions trip to take our presence to people who live on a few dollars a week.  A good friend assured me that we were told to ‘Go’ and that the Gospel is about personal contact, but I have not yet resolved this issue for myself.

In the mean time, a solution that I did consider in Africa was to support those people who are making an effort to support themselves. This breaks the dependency on western finance that plagues some communities in the third world, and instead provides a self-sustaining future.  I was pleased this week to come across the web site Kiva, where you are able to make contributions to loans that are given to small businesses in needy communities across the world.  The loan applicants deal with contacts within their communities, and your loan is repaid over a period of time (so in most cases you get your money back, while helping those in need).

Each contribution is US$25