BACK PACK BLESSING

Shawen Farley, the Pastor of St. Louis Bridge of Hope, was with us Sunday to tell us about a way we can partner with his ministry to make a difference in the lives of kids returning to school this fall. For only $10, you can help a child have a successful school year by supplying a backpack loaded with school supplies. Bridge of Hope will serve as a distribution center and point of contact with several hundred children who recieve these backpacks. They will be delivered to their homes and give Shawen and the people involved in his ministry an opportunity to touch them with the love of Christ. If you need more information, call our office or check out the St. Louis Bridge of Hope website.

THE COMPASSION OF JESUS

Studying for my sermon this past week on how God is Compassionate, I ran across a story I'd read a number of years ago. It's something that Tony Campolo was a part of a number of years ago. He organized a birthday party for a prostitute in Hawaii. It's a great story. It reminds us that we need to go about doing God's work in the world -- preaching good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom for the captive, and releasing the oppressed. You can view Tony Campolo himself telling the story by clicking the title of this post.

By the way, we've got links to the Love Alliance at our church website. There's lots of great information there about how you can be involved in making a difference by doing the work of Jesus in our world.

SLAVERY TODAY

The Love Alliance does an awesome job educating and calling people to action when it comes to some of the biggest social issues in our world today. As I was researching my sermon this week about Joseph and how he was sold into slavery, I read some current statistics put out by the Love Allliance on slavery today. They are eye opening. Go to this link and read about it for yourself.

CANNONBALL BAPTISM

Last Sunday morning we baptized 8 people and celebrated what God had done in each of their lives. Each person's baptism was an expression of God's grace and power that changes lives.

Sometimes baptism doesn't go the way we planned. Jeff Dillow found this video on YouTube called Cannonball Baptism.

LIVE LONGER -- GO TO CHURCH!

Deanna Cignetti ran across something in the St. Louis Post Discpatch that is worth reading. It is an article by Dr. John Morley from St. Louis Univeristy about how going to church helps you live longer.

Dr. Morley said: "While the United States remains one of the most religious nations in the world, an increasing number of people fail to see the need to regularly attend worship services. This raises the question of whether there are secondary benefits of religious attendance. The answer is a resounding yes, with studies showing that people who regularly attend church have a reduced risk of death. An article by Dr. Daniel Hall, a surgeon from the University of Pittsburgh, explored whether attending religious services was more cost-effective in increasing longevity than taking statins, which are drugs that lower cholesterol and prevent the development of plaque in the arteries. Using a sophisticated mathematical analysis, he concluded that regular church attendance extended a person's life by two or three years while cholesterol lowering agents increased lifespan by 2½ to 3½ years. More dramatically, even if a person followed the Old Testament edict of giving a "tithe" of 10 percent of his or her income to God, it actually was more cost-effective to go to religious services than to use a statin. His analysis did find that physical exercise extends life even further — by three to five years — and costs even less per year of life gained.The reasons why religious attendance increases lifespan are unclear. Emerging evidence from Duke University and other places suggests that being spiritual helps people deal with stressful life crises, an important factor in survival. People who regularly attend church tend to take better care of their health than those who don't. For those who are older, simply getting out of the house is associated with improved physical function. The importance of this is underlined by the finding that those who "attend" televised religious services do not have the same improvement in lifespan. Going to church provides both an interactive community and social support, which can help in times of illness. However, studies that have examined these factors tend to find that there remains an X-factor as part of the explanation for these findings. Dare we suggest that this is a belief in God? Despite the robustness of his analysis, Hall did not suggest that health professionals should recommend going to church along with exercise and statins. He also made it clear that he did not support managed care paying for the church's 'tithe'."

Live longer! Be healthy! Worship at New Life Sunday!

TURN THE TELEVISION DOWN

Lou has been after me lately to turn the volume on the television in our bedroom down. I like listening to ESPN in the shower -- what can I tell you. In order to hear it, I have to turn it up really loud. Unfortunately I'll forget to turn it down before I turn it off. When Lou turns it on, it almost blasts her out of the room. I'll admit I haven't given her request very much attention. But all that changed today when I read this newspaper article:

A horrifically terrifying woman admitted yesterday that she stabbed and killed her husband because he turned up the volume on a Dallas Cowboys game. The woman, ironically-named Kimberly Shanks, said her husband turned up the volume "knowing it would keep her awake." She then went into the kitchen, got a knife, and "tried to stick the knife in his heart." She then proceeded to run into a neighbor's yard, pick up a big rock, and whack him on the back of the head with it. Then she stabbed him some more.

There were too many similarities to be ignored. I have a wife who is irritated with the loud volume. I love to watch the Cowboys play with the sound up. We have knives in our kitchen. And our neighbor has a big rock in his yard. I'm not taking any chances. Sorry about the television volume babe -- I'm turning it down now.

WHEN GOING BALD IS A GOOD THING

A big shout out to the Overtons and Hannah Lovekamp for the money they raised for cancer research. They had their heads shaved last Sunday as part of an annual event to raise funds for St. Baldrick's Foundation which funds research to help find cures for childhood cancer. You can see the Overtons shaved heads by clicking here. The Overton's team raised over $3000 while Hannah raised more than $500. Awesome!

PAPER PASTORS

On Facebook the other day, Paul Baugher had a link to a great blog about how local pastors have a hard time living up to the expectations created when people adore mega church pastors from afar. You can find the blog at http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2009/04/porn-and-paper-pastors.html.

CHANGE

In just three weeks my daughter, Brianna, will graduate from Fort Zumwalt South High School. Where did the time go? It went too fast. Before long she'll leave for college, joining her brother at MNU. And what about him? He already has enough hours to be considered a Senior at MNU. Transitions in life. Change. Sometimes change is good. Sometimes it's bad. Sometimes change is easy and needed. Many times change is hard and undesired. But change is inevitable.

There are several families in our church feeling the effects of change. Besides Brianna, we have five other Seniors graduating from local high schools. This weekend, Darin Ware will be graduating from MNU with a degree in marketing. And in just a couple of weeks -- May 17th -- Craig McMillen will be reporting for duty as a member of the United States Marines. Transitions in life. Change. They happen all the time.

In a world of change, how can you find stability? Only one place I know - our faith in God. In a world of transition and change, He never wavers. In a world of constant movement, He is the one who provides stability. I'm finding I'm having to learn to lean in new ways on His steady arms as I go through the transitions of my life. I hope you'll learn new ways to lean on Him as you do the same.