An expert in the “Future” (I honestly laughed when he was introduced, but he shared some great stuff) from the University of Colorado gave a presentation detailing what it’s going to take for communities to be successful in the year 2050.

I think it has some value for churches and church leaders.

According to his research, in the year 2050, successful places will have….

Grown and Attracted Talent

Fostered Innovation

Built on Competitive Advantages

Created Entrepreneurial Places

Kept People Close (sharing of ideas)

Created Opportunities for All

Psalm 22:3

 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

God inhabits our praise!  The word that’s used here means that when we praise God it “causes Him to sit down, remain, and dwell.”

Do you ever feel that God has left you?  My question is, “Are you still praising Him?”

God inhabits the praises of His people.  Which is what I want, so I began to reflect on the things that inhibit praise.

Do you know some of the things that inhibit praise?

1. Personal Preferences

We all like things a certain way and sometimes our preferences can quickly become our priorities.

2. Pain

Sometimes it’s hard to praise God in the storm.

3.    Pride

To praise God is to participate in an act that makes one vulnerable and some of us are to prideful to clap for, dance for, sing to, or give to any one other than ourselves.

4.    aPathy

Some people don’t praise God because they just don’t care about God.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 55,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 20 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

So, yesterday…for the first time in my ministry, I spoke on the genealogy of Jesus.

I talked about why the genealogy of Jesus matters.  Here’s a sample of what I said.

I have never preached a message on the genealogy of Jesus.

Honestly, I didn’t see much value in a long list of names.

And, if we’re all being honest….how many of us have ever read the genealogies of Jesus?

So, here you go.

 Matthew 1:1-16

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.  Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.  And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.  And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

Now, for all of you who skipped over this passage as you read through the Bible, you can officially say you’ve read through the Bible.

Genealogies are kind of like the Rodney Dangerfield of the Bible—they get no respect.  We act as if the genealogies don’t matter, but they do matter and let me tell you why the genealogy of Jesus matters.

Heritage Matters.

Why were these genealogies important to include in the story of the life of Jesus?

First, to the Jewish people (at least in Biblical times), genealogies were very significant. It was important to know where you came from, whose ancestry you followed, what tribe of Israel you descended from.

Second, these genealogies trace Jesus’ ancestry back to David and connect him with the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

We know from historical records that many of the early Christian evangelists and apostles had Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus memorized.  The works of early Christian writers are filled with references to them. (See R.C. Foster’s, Studies in the Life of Christ, p.265).

Abraham’s legacy is Jesus.

Perez’s legacy is Jesus.

David’s legacy is Jesus.

Asa’s legacy is Jesus.

Josiah’s legacy is Jesus.

What’s your legacy going to be?

If we want to leave a legacy that matters we need to …

Be Humble.

Submit your life and the lives of your family to God.

Be Intentional.

British sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein was once visited in his studio by the eminent author and fellow Briton, George Bernard Shaw. The visitor noticed a huge block of stone standing in one corner and asked what it was for.  “I don’t know yet. I’m still making plans.”  Shaw was astounded. “You mean you plan your work. Why, I change my mind several times a day!”  “That’s all very well with a four-ounce manuscript,” replied the sculptor, “but not with a four-ton block.” Today in the Word, April 5, 1993

Are you being proactive or reactive in this life?

Are you owning your life or is your life owning you?

Life is a gift and we need to be good stewards of our lives.

Be Faithful.

We must believe that God has a plan for our lives.

Embrace the truth of Ephesians 2:10:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We are not accidents.

We are not victims.

We were planned for power.

We were planned for purpose.

We were planned for passion.

We were planned to leave a legacy.

What is your legacy going to be?

You’re determining your heritage with each decision you make every minute of every day.

Back to the genealogy of Jesus…

Jacob’s legacy was Jesus.

Joseph’s legacy was Jesus.

Mary’s legacy was Jesus.

I want my legacy to be Jesus, too.

The Genealogy of Jesus matters because it teaches us that…

People Matter.

This list is made up of ordinary people, just like us.

They weren’t superheroes.

They are ordinary people who became a part of God’s extraordinary plans.

People like…

Jacob, who was a twin.

Hezron was just one of the sons of Reuben.

Little about Ram is known, except that he must have lived when the Israelites were in Egypt.

Ruth, who was not an Israelite, but who chose to follow God instead of the false gods in her homeland, Moab.

Obed was David’s grandfather.

Joseph who was a carpenter.

Mary who was just a young woman who found favor in God’s eyes.

This teaches us that…

All People Matter to God.

This list includes men, women, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, Kings, shepherds, Jews, and Gentiles.

Jesus, the Lamb of God, came to bless everyone.

Luke 2:10

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Poor people matter to God.

Rich people matter to God.

Majorities matter to God.

Minorities matter to God.

You Matter to God.

Do you know that you matter?

You are God’s masterpiece.

I remember hearing a sermon by a preacher named Mike Breaux a long time ago in which he made us repeat a truth again and again.

 “I matter to God and that’s all that matters to me.”

As my friend Andrew Peterson said of the genealogy of Jesus, “It’s a list of people.  Real people.  People who were good and bad, and somewhere in between, and who were a part of God’s great plan to redeem the world through another real person named Jesus.  Just like you’re a part of God’s plan, no matter who you parents or your grandparents or your great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents are.” (The Ballad of Matthew’s Begats, Andrew Peterson.)

The genealogy of Jesus matters because…

Grace Matters.

One of the reasons that this is a great time of year is because we get to be with our families.

That can be a double-edged sword though, can’t it?

Because most of us have relatives who require a little extra grace, don’t we?

Don’t we all have a Cousin Eddie?

The genealogy of Jesus teaches us that God is Grace-Full.

This genealogy is more than a list of people; it’s a detailed list of God’s amazing grace because there are some people in this list who made some big mistakes.

Someone once said that working up a genealogy is a “preoccupation of those who seek to demonstrate that their forebears were better people than they are.”

Not all of Jesus ancestors were good people who made good decisions.

Let me start with Judah, Tamar, and Perez.

While in Adullam Judah married a Canaanite woman and had three sons. Judah’s first two sons, however, were so wicked that God put them to death!

Judah’s sons who had died weren’t boys; they were men who had both been married. Actually they had married the same woman, though not at the same time. You see the custom was if your older brother died before he could give his wife children, you were to marry that woman in an effort to keep your older brother’s family name going. This is how Tamar came to be married to two of Judah’s sons. After the second son died without giving Tamar any children, Judah promised her his third son when he was old enough to marry. Apparently this was not a promise Judah intended to keep. Perhaps he thought Tamar the “black widow” and didn’t want to lose another son by marrying him off to someone who seemed bad luck to his boys. Tamar of course had nothing to do with her first two husband’s deaths so when she saw that Judah didn’t intend to give her his third son to marry and have children, she took matters into her own hands so that she would not die childless.

One day when Judah went out to sheer his sheep he saw a veiled woman he took to be a prostitute. He propositioned her and slept with her – further proof of how Canaanite ways had rubbed off on Judah. To secure payment from Judah, the woman asked that he entrust to her his staff and seal as collateral. Judah handed over these items and went home. Soon after he sent the promised payment of a young goat but the woman could not be found. The matter was forgotten until three months later when word came to Judah that his daughter-in-law Tamar was pregnant. Since Judah had not married his third son off to her yet he concluded that Tamar was guilty of prostitution and ordered her brought before him to be burned. Before the fires could be lit, however, Tamar held out the staff and seal Judah had given to her three months earlier. Judah was dumbfounded and could only stammer that she was more righteous than he. You see Judah realized that he had been guilty of deception for withholding his son from Tamar. He also now confessed his sin of sexual immorality by sleeping with is daughter-in-law whom he had thought a prostitute. Six months later Tamar gave birth to twins. One of the twins was Perez.

Does it strike you as odd that Perez and Tamar are listed in the genealogy of Jesus?

We cut people out of pictures.

We unfriend people on Facebook.

We right the wrong people out of our families all of the time.

There are a few more people in this list of Christ’s ancestors that would definitely not be invited to Christmas at most of our houses if giving the invitation were up to us.

Rahab.

David and Bathsheba.

Jechoniah—aka, Jehoiachin.

Why weren’t these people cut out of the family picture or unfriended on Facebook?

I think Matthew is trying to set the stage for coming of Jesus, that God was sending this infant Messiah to save his people, that’s why he was to be named Jesus, which means “the Lord saves.” He would bring those who are far from God near to him. It doesn’t matter what our background or heritage is, what sins we have committed in the past, Jesus was coming to transform our lives to turn our hearts back to the Lord. He would bring healing, restore relationships, and set our path straight. He would take our mistakes and our waywardness and accomplish good through them. God passionately cares about every person, and wants them to be his people. The purpose of sending Jesus was so all people could be saved from our sins and past to find new life in him. Isn’t that Good News?

The fact that God included these people in Jesus’ family line also teaches us that the circumstances of your birth don’t determine your eternal future.

It emphasizes the truth that Jesus came to identify himself with and to save sinners like Judah, Tamar, Perez, Jeconiah, you, and me.

We Must be Grace-Full Too.

To Each Other.

We need to show each other grace in this church.  We have a lot of people in a small space. We can get sick and get on each other’s nerves.

To This Community.

I want our church to always be known as the Grace Place.

-J. Evans Christmas Party on Tuesday at 5pm.  We still have gift tags on the tree and we need snacks for the party.

-Random Act of Kindness Cards

-Christmas Night we’re having a Luke 14 dinner to serve people in the community who have no one else and nothing else to do on Christmas.

Why?

People in Greeley matter to God and that’s all that matters to me.

So, there you go.  Hopefully you now know that the genealogy of Jesus matters because it reminds us that heritage matters, people matter, and grace matters.

And, I matter to God and that’s all that matters to me.

Say it again, “I matter—to God—and that’s all—that matters—to me!”

The guilty leader….

• Finds it difficult to trust others because he is untrustworthy.  We tend to reflect on others what is true of us.
• Micromanages because–since he has a secret–he assumes everyone else does too.  He thinks, “I know you’re up to something because I’m up to something.”
• Believes, “If you really knew me it would impact your willingness to follow me, so I must create an environment where no one finds me out.”
• Builds walls not community.
• Doesn’t want people too close.
• Remains distant and distracted.
• Overreacts when people share their weaknesses.
• Likes surface relationships because deep relationship make him insecure.
• Cultivates a culture of suspicion.
• Prefers professional courtesy rather than genuine community.

Please note: I’ve been working on this document for several years. Not all of this information is original with me. I’ve gleaned stats, quotes, and statements from many different sources and done  my best to cite the sources internally.

My first response to AIDS reflected an ignorance and an apathy of which I am still humiliated and ashamed.  Often, when asked during the 80’s, my thoughts on AIDS and people who were dying from AIDS I would smugly proclaim, “I think that everyone who has AIDS should be put on an island so they don’t infect us.”

I’m so ashamed.

Yes, I was young and we knew very little about AIDS when I held this opinion.  Still, it does not reflect the kind of love for people that Jesus commands his followers to have.

What is AIDS?

The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to outpace the global response. In just two decades, more than 30 million people have died worldwide and over 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS today. No region of the world has been spared from this tragedy.

Most likely, you know people who are affected by HIV.

My friend Mike died from AIDS about 20 years ago.

He was funny and full of life, but he also wasn’t careful and ended up contracting the HIV which eventually developed into AIDS.  Mike wasted away before our eyes and died.

WHAT DOES “AIDS” MEAN?

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome:

• Acquired means you can get infected with it;
• Immune Deficiency means a weakness in the body’s system that fights diseases.
• Syndrome means a group of health problems that make up a disease.

AIDS is caused by a virus called HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. If you get infected with HIV, your body will try to fight the infection. It will make “antibodies,” special molecules to fight HIV.

A blood test for HIV looks for these antibodies. If you have them in your blood, it means that you have HIV infection. People who have the HIV antibodies are called “HIV-Positive.”

HIV-positive, or having HIV disease, is not the same as having AIDS. Many people are HIV-positive but don’t get sick for many years. As HIV disease continues, it slowly wears down the immune system. Viruses, parasites, fungi and bacteria that usually don’t cause any problems can make you very sick if your immune system is damaged. These are called “opportunistic infections.”

HOW DO YOU GET AIDS?

You don’t actually “get” AIDS. You might get infected with HIV, and later you might develop AIDS. You can get infected with HIV from anyone who’s infected, even if they don’t look sick and even if they haven’t tested HIV-positive yet. The blood, vaginal fluid, semen, and breast milk of people infected with HIV has enough of the virus in it to infect other people. Most people get the HIV virus by:

• having sex with an infected person
• sharing a needle (shooting drugs) with someone who’s infected
• being born when their mother is infected, or drinking the breast milk of an infected woman

Getting a transfusion of infected blood used to be a way people got AIDS, but now the blood supply is screened very carefully and the risk is extremely low.

There are no documented cases of HIV being transmitted by tears or saliva, but it is possible to be infected with HIV through oral sex or in rare cases through deep kissing, especially if you have open sores in your mouth or bleeding gums.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1 to 1.2 million U.S. residents are living with HIV infection or AIDS; about a quarter of them do not know they have it. About 75 percent of the 40,000 new infections each year are in men, and about 25 percent in women. About half of the new infections are in Blacks, even though they make up only 12 percent of the US population.

______________________________

–Article reflecting a theory as to how the AIDS virus came to the U.S.:

AIDS virus invaded U.S. from Haiti: study

Mon Oct 29, 2007 5:43pm EDT

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The AIDS virus invaded the United States in about 1969 from Haiti, carried most likely by a single infected immigrant who set the stage for it to sweep the world in a tragic epidemic, scientists said on Monday.

Michael Worobey, a University of Arizona evolutionary biologist, said the 1969 U.S. entry date is earlier than some experts had believed.

The timeline laid out in the study led by Worobey indicates that HIV infections were occurring in the United States for roughly 12 years before AIDS was first recognized by scientists as a disease in 1981. Many people had died by that point.

“It is somehow chilling to know it was probably circulating for so long under our noses,” Worobey said in a telephone interview.

The researchers conducted a genetic analysis of stored blood samples from early AIDS patients to determine when the human immunodeficiency virus first entered the United States.

They found that HIV was brought to Haiti by an infected person from central Africa in about 1966, which matches earlier estimates, and then came to the United States in about 1969.

The researchers think an unknown single infected Haitian immigrant arrived in a large city like Miami or New York, and the virus circulated for years — first in the U.S. population and then to other nations.

It can take several years after infection for a person to develop AIDS, a disease that ravages the immune system.

DISEASE MULTIPLIES

“That one infection would have become two, and then it doubles again and the two becomes four,” Worobey said. “So you have a period — probably a fair number of years — where you’re dealing with probably fewer than a hundred people who are infected.

“And then, as with epidemic expansion, at some point the hundred becomes 200, you start getting into thousands, tens of thousands. And then quite rapidly you can be up into the hundreds of thousands of infections that were probably already there before AIDS was recognized in the early 1980s.”

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The path the virus traveled as it jumped from nation to nation has long been debated by scientists.

The University of Miami’s Dr. Arthur Pitchenik, a co-author of the study, had seen Haitian immigrants in Miami as early as 1979 with a mystery illness that turned out to be AIDS. He knew the government long had stored some of their blood samples.

The researchers analyzed samples from five of these Haitian immigrants dating from 1982 and 1983. They also looked at genetic data from 117 more early AIDS patients from around the world.

This genetic analysis allowed the scientists to calibrate the molecular clock of the strain of HIV that has spread most widely, and calculated when it arrived first in Haiti from Africa and then in the United States.

The researchers virtually ruled out the possibility that HIV had come directly to the United States from Africa, setting a 99.8 percent probability that Haiti was the steppingstone.

“I think that it gives us more clear insight into the history of it (the AIDS epidemic) and what path the virus took — and hard objective evidence, not just armchair thinking,” Pitchenik said in a telephone interview.

Studies suggest the virus first entered the human population in about 1930 in central Africa, probably when people slaughtered infected chimpanzees for meat. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people and about 40 million others are infected with HIV.

In the mid-1990s, AIDS was a leading cause of death. However, newer treatments have cut the AIDS death rate significantly.

The virus will multiply in your body for a few weeks or even months before your immune system responds. During this time, you won’t test positive for HIV, but you can infect other people.

When your immune system responds, it starts to make antibodies. When this happens, you will test positive for HIV.

After the first flu-like symptoms, some people with HIV stay healthy for ten years or longer. But during this time, HIV is damaging your immune system.

One way to measure the damage to your immune system is to count your CD4 cells you have. These cells, also called “T-helper” cells, are an important part of the immune system. Healthy people have between 500 and 1,500 CD4 cells in a milliliter of blood. Fact Sheet 124 has more information on CD4 cells.

Without treatment, your CD4 cell count will most likely go down. You might start having signs of HIV disease like fevers, night sweats, diarrhea, or swollen lymph nodes. If you have HIV disease, these problems will last more than a few days, and probably continue for several weeks.

HIV disease becomes AIDS when your immune system is seriously damaged. If you have less than 200 CD4 cells or if your CD4 percentage is less than 14%, you have AIDS.

If you get an opportunistic infection, you have AIDS. There is an “official” list of these opportunistic infections put out by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The most common ones are:

• PCP (Pneumocystis pneumonia), a lung infection;
• KS (Kaposi’s sarcoma), a skin cancer;
• CMV (Cytomegalovirus), an infection that usually affects the eyes
• Candida, a fungal infection that can cause thrush (a white film in your mouth) or infections in your throat or vagina

AIDS-related diseases also include serious weight loss, brain tumors, and other health problems. Without treatment, these opportunistic infections can kill you.

AIDS is different in every infected person. Some people die a few months after getting infected, while others live fairly normal lives for many years, even after they “officially” have AIDS. A few HIV-positive people stay healthy for many years even without taking antiretroviral medications (ARVs).

_______________________________

Is there a cure for AIDS?

There is no cure for AIDS. There are drugs that can slow down the HIV virus, and slow down the damage to your immune system. There is no way to “clear” the HIV out of your body.

What is this Christian’s response to AIDS?

AIDS is uncomfortable to discuss. Many of our images of the AIDS pandemic are likely to be informed by what AIDS is in the United States, entwined with issues of intravenous drug use, homosexuality, and sexual infidelity. But, in developing countries, the pandemic is affecting faithful wives who are infected by unfaithful husbands, and children born to HIV-positive mothers. When parents die, their children are left with few options, and they often spiral even deeper into poverty.

The reality of AIDS can be overwhelming.

• Nearly 40 million people are living with HIV.
• Last year alone, more than 4 million people were newly infected.
• 8,000 people die every day because of AIDS.
• Another person dies every 11 seconds.

The AIDS crisis demands a God-sized answer. The problem seems overwhelming, but what are we going to do?

Will someone care?

In my opinion it seems like we have 2 options:

1) Apathy

2) Compassion

Will you care?

1. Jesus cares about sick people.

Just in the gospel of Matthew we read:

Matthew 4:23
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

Matthew 9:35

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

Matthew 12:15
Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick,

Matthew 14:14
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Matthew 14:35.36
And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

2. Jesus Wants His Disciples to Care About Sick People Too.

Matthew 10:1
He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

Matthew 10:8
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

Right now—as I write this blog post—AIDS is creating widows and orphans all around the world.

• There are more than 15 million children who have lost one or both parents because of AIDS.
• Today, and every day, 6,000 children will lose a parent to AIDS.

3. Jesus Cares About Widows and Orphans and expects us to, as well.

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

4. Jesus Has Compassion for People

Sometimes Christians don’t come across as being very compassionate.
Take this picture for example:

This is how much of the world views Christians and how much they think we care about them.

Jesus cared about people.

Matthew 14:14
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Matthew 20:34
Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.

Mark 1:41
Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”

Christ’s compassion was compelling.

It compelled him to “reach out his hand” and touch sick people.

Kay Warren, wife of pastor Rick Warren, said this:

There’s a stigma with AIDS in this country. I’ve had breast cancer, and people ask why I don’t advocate for breast cancer, and I say because there’s no stigma. The fact is the gay community was hit the hardest in the U.S., where [approximately] 50 percent of people with AIDS are gay or bisexual men. My response to that is, “So what?” Should that change our level of compassion? Of course not. That doesn’t give us a pass to look the other way. And to the extent that the church has in the past has been a great mistake. That was sinful of us. It was not a Christ-like response. That’s one of the reasons it took me so long to catch on—my sense was that I thought it was largely a gay disease. And I’ve cried bitter tears over that. But the good thing is that it now allows me to reach into the hearts of other evangelicals who think that way and to say that I know where they’re sitting because that’s where I sat and that we’re wrong to think that way.

We live in a sterile and sanitized spiritual existence.

Not Jesus.

Jesus touched people.

Luke 5:12,13

12While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

13Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

There are no untouchables in this world.

There is no one who is disqualified for compassion!

My Great Uncle Mark Maxey was a missionary in Japan right after WWII.  Early on he went to leper colonies and touched the people.  They were amazed and many of them gave their lives to Christ, simply because he touched them.
Many people with AIDS feel like they are untouchable.

What can we do?  Or, what is this Christian’s response to AIDS?

Education

Kay Warren—who is now one of the nation’s leading AIDS advocates—said this:

I had to start from scratch and educate myself [about AIDS]. I started going to medical conferences and was quickly overwhelmed by its size and scope. I went to one at UCLA, and a woman approached and asked me who I was. I told her I’m a pastor’s wife, and she said, “Well hallelujah, the church is finally here.”

Did you catch that?  “The Church is finally here.”

Shame on us!

Sitting in our comfortable buildings with all of our needs met, while sick people are hurting all around us.

Chuck Colson has said, “The crisis of AIDS orphans cries out for the kind of response only Christians can deliver: one that combines compassion with a respect for the truth.”

Here’s some truth from an interview with Kay Warren on how HIV/AIDS can be prevented.

Probably what you are most familiar with is A.B.C. [abstinence, fidelity, or condoms]. Let me address that and then tell you the way that I look at it.

I have yet to find anybody who will look me in the eye and say, Being a virgin is not the best protection.

Virginity is the best protection against HIV, if you look at it sexually. What happens is that people say, “That’s absurd. Nobody can control that. Women are raped. Girls are vulnerable to men who beat them, force them to have sex. Women can’t tell their husbands, if they suspect them of being unfaithful, to wear a condom.”

Yet when you really look at them and say, “Okay, can you tell me that virginity is not the best protection?” They have to grudgingly say, “Yes.” And I say, “Great, we agree on that one.”

How about each partner being faithful to each other in their relationship? Isn’t that an incredible protection for people? And they have to say, “Yes.” They’ll quickly say, “That’s not possible.”

I say, “Let’s just start with the ideal.”

Being a virgin is a protection. A monogamous relationship is a protection. We can all agree on that. And—this is where very conservative people will disagree with me—condoms used consistently, correctly every single time, add a measure of protection against the transmission of HIV.

Because A.B.C. is so controversial, we’ve reframed it.

If you want to S.L.O.W. down the spread of HIV:

S Support the correct use of condoms every sexual encounter.

L Limit the number of partners, because studies have also shown that the greatest risk is in multiple partners.

O This is very controversial. Offer needle exchange. Studies have shown that in some places clean needles can slow down the transmission of HIV.

W Wait for sexual debut. Studies have shown that the younger a person is at their his or her sexual encounter, the more likely it is that he or she will be infected with HIV. So if you can encourage people to wait until they’re older, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, before they have their first sexual encounter you can slow down the spread of HIV.

I have an even higher goal: I don’t want to just manage HIV. My goal is to end HIV. I want the world to be rid of this evil virus.

So to STOP it requires a different strategy.

S Save sex for marriage.

T Teach men and boys to respect and honor women and girls. If men continue to treat women with such disrespect, HIV will be on our planet for a long time to come. So there’s a discipleship element.

O Offer treatment through churches. We think that those things that I told you about, those six things that churches can do, when the church is involved, it can stop the spread of AIDS.

P Partner with one person for life.

When we reframe it like that, barriers go down. We want to do the best for people, which is to stop it.

For more from this interview with Kay Warren click here: Interview with Kay Warren on AIDS

Another response I’ve had to AIDS is…

Compassion

We can be Christ’s hands and feet by caring for orphans and widows through programs that provide food, health care, economic development support, and spiritual nurturing. We can help the next generation escape infection by teaching them the best keys to prevention: abstinence and marital faithfulness. And we can advocate for compassion for the suffering.

My friend Britney Fluharty is doing what she can to turn the tide.  On her blog, Life with a Vision, she shares why she has taken up the fight against AIDS and some practical things we can do to turn the tide as well.  I especially like her challenge to preachers.

Britney writes:

Why AIDS, you might ask me? When this all started, I didn’t know anyone with AIDS or even anyone who had been affected by it. Honestly, I really never even thought about it. Out of sight out of mind, I guess. But then I heard a sermon and it hit me like a ton of bricks. The sermon was not about AIDS or sick people, but about getting out of your comfort zone and taking an interest in the people “out there.” The preacher mentioned AIDS and how he just knew there was someone who would take this on. Of course, he was talking to me, right? I don’t think so. I know God was grabbing my heart and ever since then my heart has been breaking for the AIDS community.
Just take a moment and think how you would feel if you were given the news that you are HIV positive. It is not a disease like cancer where you would let everyone know, so that they could pray for you and support you. Who would you tell? Who would love you despite the disease? People might be afraid of you. People might judge you. People might reject you. Am I saying this is right? No, but it happens. I remember hearing a story at a conference in Orlando about a man in California who was HIV positive. The only family member that would allow him to live with them was his brother. But he had to live in the backyard; the hose was his shower and the ground was his bed. Yes, this was in the U.S. I could tell you story after story of those infected with the virus being rejected by their own church, the very place they should find comfort. Would a cancer patient ever be turned away from church? So when you ask, why, there is my answer. AIDS is different. There is no cure. It can be prevented, but the numbers of those infected only keeps rising. I also believe it is a tremendous challenge to minister to someone with AIDS because of all the complications, the mistrust, the hurt. But that is EXACTLY why it is important that the church gets involved. If we don’t, who will? I say it is time to let go of fear and ignorance and jump in; let’s find a way in. Isn’t that what Jesus would do? Some say it is their fault. Some say it is a “gay” disease. (I could write much about those statements, by the way. I DISAGREE) But I say, even if these statements were true, who cares? The church should be the first place they think of for help, not the last. I know what you are thinking. How can I or my church help? Here are a couple of ideas:

1. If there is an AIDS Walk happening near you during the year, walk in it. And don’t just walk in it. Get a group together from your church and go walk together. Meet people. Make connections. Leave the walls of your church. This experience will open your eyes. The AIDS community would not really expect to see a church group there. You can make a difference just by showing up and being there to show your support.

2. DINING OUT FOR LIFE happens in March/April all over the US. (end of April for most cities involved) Check out the website. www.diningoutforlife.com (it lists all the participating cities/restaurants) All you have to do is go out to eat. Get a group from church to go out together and show your support.

3. This one is a little tougher. Get in touch with an AIDS clinic near you and simply ask, “what is it that you need? What can we do for you?” Trust me, they have needs. That is how the baby baskets got started. It takes a lot of time to build a relationship, but slowly they begin to trust. We are still trying to achieve that goal. When you sign on for this, be ready to stay involved. You do more harm than good if you show up once and then disappear- which is exactly what they expect.

4. This one is for preachers/youth ministers/family ministers, etc. Preach. You have so much influence on your congregation. People listen to you and they hang on your every word. Yeah, most of the time, we just wait for you to say something wrong. But there might be that one person in the audience that God is using you to speak to. Be bold and have courage. I would not want your job. But oh how I would love to have that gift of speaking. Your influence is so huge. You might step on some toes, but think of the difference that one person that hears the truth could make. Have faith. Preach.

So that is it in a nutshell. I love you if you read this entire blog. I know I can go on and on and I would if I thought you had time to read it. Thank you for giving me your time.
Check out www.heintendsvictory.com

————————

Kay Warren–

We also have moral authority. Government doesn’t have moral authority; nor does the private sector. And on top of that, the church has a motivation that’s different than anyone else’s. The government may feel responsible to protect its citizens; the private sector gets involved because of a profit motive. But people who follow Christ, we have a motivation that outlasts all of those, and that is the motivation of love.

Will someone care?

Will you care?

Now, I know that this post might not sit well with you.

It is what it is…this Christian’s response to the world AIDS crisis.

What’s your response going to be?

______

For more information on what you and your church can do, I’d recommend the following book: The Hope Factor–Engaging the Church in the HIV/AIDS Crisis

Please comment with resources you’d recommend as well.

An expert in the “Future” (I honestly laughed when he was introduced, but he shared some great stuff) from the University of Colorado gave a presentation detailing what it’s going to take for communities to be successful in the year 2050.

I think it has some value for churches and church leaders.

According to his research, in the year 2050, successful places will have….

Grown and Attracted Talent

Fostered Innovation

Built on Competitive Advantages

Created Entrepreneurial Places

Kept People Close (sharing of ideas)

Created Opportunities for All

Ever found yourself on a river of disappointment?

Isaiah 49:22, 23

²² This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
“See, I will beckon to the Gentiles,
I will lift up my banner to the peoples;
they will bring your sons in their arms
and carry your daughters on their shoulders.

 ²³ Kings will be your foster fathers,
and their queens your nursing mothers.
They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground;
they will lick the dust at your feet.
Then you will know that I am the LORD;
those who hope in me will not be disappointed.” 

In Revelation Jesus is called the “Alpha and Omega” (1st and last letters of the Greek alphabet). He’s the beginning and the end…and like the letters in the alphabet, he never changes.

He’s
Author of Life
Bread of Life
Christ
Deliverer
Firstborn over all creation
God
High Priest
I Am
Judge of the living and the dead
King of Kings
Lord of Lords
Name above all names
Only begotten Son of God
Prince of Peace
Quieter of fears
Rock
Savior
Truth
Understanding Guide
Victorious Warrior
Word of Life
eXalted One
Your only Hope
Zion’s Messiah…and he still changes lives!

1. Throughout the Day, Pray: Pray to God, pray with/for your spouse, pray with/for your kids
2. Express your love for your wife to her and in front of the kids
3. Express your love to your kids.
4. Work because you “get to,” not because you “have to.”
5. Go home because you “get to,” not because you “have to.”
6. Don’t text any woman who is not your wife.
7. Text your wife and tell her that you’re thinking of her, that you love her,  and what you love about her.
8. Text your daughter and sons the same message.
9. Change into your “play” clothes as soon as you get home with the goal of intentionally entering your kids’ world.
10. Have a family dinner tonight that begins with prayer, contains discussion about your kids’ lives, and ends with you (yes, you Dad) doing the dishes.
11. Talk to your wife and kids with the tone you would use if they were valued clients.
12. Fall deeper in love with Jesus.
13. Fall deeper in love with your kids’ mom.
14. Read to your kids.
15. Kiss each kid on the head.
16. Turn off the TV and play a board game.
17. No phone calls or texting during dinner.
18. Turn off your smart phone and put it away after dinner.
19. Don’t look at porn on the internet after your kids go to bed.
20. Send your kids off to sleep with prayer and an “I love you.”

This list is not exhaustive, but it’s a good start. I’d love to hear what you’d add to the list. Leave your additions in the comments below.