By Committee Procedure or By Crucified Prayer

The following struck me as being quite fitting for me just now.  It is from the book Victorious Praying by Alan Redpath.  Enjoy:

     We say, "Thine is the glory," but if we do not get a bit for ourselves, we resign. And we seek to do by committee procedure what can only be done by crucified prayer.  By that I mean praying which turns aside every other concern, and which is so desperate that it refuses to let go until God blesses. 
     The disciples waited and the power came.  We do not wait, and the power does not come.  The disciples witnessed unto Him -- we witness to our program, and the program becomes an awful burden.  We speak to others of our talent and our ability, and we lose the battle.
     It is impossible for me to get alongside you each one personally -- God knows how much I wish I could, but I would urge upon you to wait upon God until you know again His power in your own soul.  I urge upon you to refuse to plan a program until you ask yourself, "Can the world see anything about me to commend Him to others?"
     D.L. Moody was told, "The world has yet to see what God can do through a man fully yielded to Him." And the world has yet to see what God can do through a church or a Christian who refuses to take the glory to themselves.  Oh that God would give us crucified men in the leadership of our churches, in every part of the work, on every committee! May everyone who has a voice of authority be a man who has died to his reputation, a man who is dead to himself, a man who can look up to the Father and say, "Thine is the kingdom -- thine shall be the power; thine shall be the glory."

Indigenous Jesus: Christian Folk Art from India

Have I mentioned that I am a big fan of Scott Rayl's blog "Indigenous Jesus"? Scott is a gifted artist and passionate follower of Jesus who loves the pursuit of contextualization in mission. I read every post that appears on his site sometimes can't help but re-post it here. Such is the case today. Scott has come across an exhibition of Christian folk art from India that has been used in travelling story-telling efforts.  Included in the showing is this beautiful piece portraying the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.  I like it a lot!

Indigenous Jesus: Christian Folk Art from India:

Piper debunks a silly thing that Hirsch and Frost wrote

When I read the below excerpt from Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost, I thought, "Well, that's a dumb thing to say." Then I enjoyed reading/watching John Piper's response. BTW - I was originally led to this by someone that tweeted the article in such as way that suggested that Hirsch and Frost were taking contextualization too far. I'm not sure why. They aren't talking about contextualization at all. Just pure silliness.

Minimizing Views of God Don't Advance the Mission - Desiring God: "Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost write in The Faith of Leap:

It seems correct to say that God took something of a risk in handing over his mission to the all-too-sinful human beings who were his original disciples—and all the sinful disciples beyond them. We wonder what Jesus must have been thinking on the cross, when all but a few powerless women had completely abandoned him. Did he wonder if love alone was enough to draw them back to discipleship? The noncoercive love of the cross necessitated a genuinely human response of willing obedience from his disciples. Given our predispositions to rebellion and idolatry, it is entirely conceivable that history could have gone in a completely different, indeed totally disastrous, direction if the original disciples hadn’t plucked up the internal courage to follow Jesus no matter where. (36–37, Locations 464)"