I Corinthians 13 Guide to Culture - thanks to YWAM KnowledgeBase

This version of 1 Corinthians 13 was written especially for people going to work in another culture, and it goes to show, love wins every time.


If I speak with the tongue of a national, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I wear the national dress and understand the culture and all forms of etiquette, and if I copy all mannerisms so that I could pass for a national but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor, and if I spend my energy without reserve, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love endures long hours of language study, and is kind to those who mock his accent; love does not envy those who stayed home; love does not exalt his home culture, is not proud of his national superiority,

Does not boast about the way we do it back home, does not seek his own ways, is not easily provoked into telling about the beauty of his home country, does not think evil about this culture;

Love bears all criticism about his home culture, believes all good things about this new culture, confidently anticipates being at home in this place, endures all inconveniences.

Love never fails: but where there is cultural anthropology, it will fail; where there is contextualization it will lead to syncretism; where there is linguistics, it will change.

For we know only part of the culture and we minister to only part.

But when Christ is reproduced in this culture, then our inadequacies will be insignificant.

When I was in Britain (Korea, the US....), I spoke as a Brit, I understood as a Brit, I thought as a Brit; but when I left Britain I put away British things.

Now we adapt to this culture awkwardly; but He will live in it intimately: now I speak with a strange accent, but he will speak to the heart.

And now these three remain: cultural adaptation, language study, and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

• Based on work by Kevin Colyer and others.
 
• Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License unless otherwise noted.

Connection

This Christmas we simply bit the bullet and bought Alex an XBox 360, which connects to the internet and the TV - so at last he can play two (only... so far) computer games on our television, play against other friends remotely, and, um, have fun. Dan and I also signed up for a Tivo box, which means we can watch programmes up to a week old, and record ones we want to keep - so we feel totally up-to-the-minute, techno-savvy, and pretty darn chuffed...

To boot, we brought down from the roof where we had stored it, a massive beautiful soft blanket which our friends the Lilfords gave us when we visited them in Botswana. This blanket is so heavy, and warm, like being under a huge non-sticky marshmallow. So now it is all too tempting to spend these chilly winter evenings squeezed on the sofa, snuggled under this wonderful blanket, enjoying our new technology. One problem is, the moment I pull the softness to my chin, the warmth and weight makes me start to doze, and in minutes I am off to sleep!

Anyway, we had another problem until today. We have wifi in the house, but the strength wasn't enough for the XBox live. Alex would be in the middle of a game when it would suddenly freeze and the message "Disconnected from XBox live" would appear. He would reconnect only for it to happen again. We found out that the line between the router, in the kitchen, and the xbox in the living room, is too cluttered with various solid objects like a filing cabinet and a radiator, which make the connection too weak.

So we had to bite the next bullet and buy something called a Powerline home network adaptor - you just plug one part into a socket by the router, and the other part into a socket near the Xbox, with ethernet cables into each device, and then the connection is no longer wireless - and it no longer drops at all. We have gone up from one bar to five bars! Wonderful.

Technology keeps on giving us new parables. This today made me think of how my connection with God is sometimes so weak, like a wifi connection that gets blocked or interrupted - I might even be in the middle of a prayer or reading the Bible, and I totally drift off, or someone calls me, or I just lose the moment and decide to go back to my novel. Sometimes the connection is perfect and so strong. When I was thinking about starting the New Year, I was all excited about starting a new year in my faith. But a few days later I haven't really prayed much, and I wonder why it is so easy to let it drop.

Wouldn't it be great to have a Powerline Home Faith Network Adaptor - so that I stayed connected with God all the time. I think that would help a lot - when I was stuck in a traffic jam and so mad and arriving 45 minutes late for Abby's piano lesson, or when I was stressing about the first lecture of the course I'm teaching at Redcliffe this term, or when I was feeling so discouraged  and fed up about doing housework when the carpets look dirty again even a few hours after vacuuming... if only I had those five bars, all the gifts and blessings of being with God All The Time. I wonder if PC World can help me with this one... I wish!

"The Disciple," by Lucy Peppiatt - and my thoughts on sermons...

I am reading a book by my friend Lucy Peppiatt, called "The Disciple". It is a really good book about being a Christian, written in a chatty, kind of flowing way, which carries you along. There are loads of good and often funny stories about incidents in people's lives, including Lucy's own family - and since I know them a little bit, it is fun getting those inside glimpses.

She talks about having what are traditionally called "spiritual disciplines" in your life, but she prefers the term holy habits, and she says that there is no point whatsoever doing them if it is out of a sense of duty, or to win points - but rather, if you have met and loved Jesus, you'll want to know him more, and these are the ways... She isn't saying the holy habits are dispensable, rather that, you can only really do them if you have the will and yes, a bit of willpower, but, then doing them will bring so much reward, so once you start it will become easier and more exciting. And you'll see transformation in your life. You do what you can, and then the Spirit of God will do ALL that He can - and there will definitely be results!

At least, this is what I am getting out of it... So far...

There is a section on the gift that God's Word is to us, and how we receive it in various ways including hearing preaching. She writes a bit here about how in many of the less traditional churches, there is an inclination towards abandoning the preaching - because it has come to be seen as irrelevant and boring in our entertainment age. She bewails this as preaching is still so important. But, there is a problem when preaching does become dull and long and out of touch. And I must admit, I have listened to so many dull, deadly sermons, I had begun to despair of the sermon slot myself. Until we started going to our church, St Andrews in Churchdown. The vicar there, Jonathan Perkin, is so gifted at preaching - I actually, honestly look forward to his sermons every week. Which is a miracle. He manages to be very easy to listen to, profound, and encouraging, week after week. (I also enjoy the curate's sermons too, - they are enjoyable and have humour in them.)

Of course, for those of you who know Dan, you'll know that his sermons are always entertaining and far-reaching, quite out of the box, and definitely teach you things. So I never despaired of his...

So, Lucy includes this brilliant quote from Martin Luther in her book, which I have to reproduce because it made me laugh and it is so true:

"Cursed be every preacher who aims at lofty topics in the church, looking for his own glory and selfishly desiring to please one individual or another. When I preach here I adapt myself to the circumstances of the common people. I don't look at the doctors and masters, of whom scarcely forty are present, but at the hundred or the thousand young people and children. It's to them that I preach, to them that I devote myself, for they too need to understand. If the others don't want to listen, they can leave... we preach in public for the sake of plain people. Christ could have taught in a profound way, but He wished to deliver His message with the utmost simplicity in order that the common people might understand. Good God, there are sixteen-year-old girls, women, and farmers in the church, and they don't understand lofty matters."     Luther's Works, quoted in Lucy Peppiatt, The Disciple: on becoming truly human, (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2012) p 39.

OK, so maybe things have changed a little bit now... but Luther's point stands! Only a few weeks ago I sat in another evangelical church with my children and their little cousins filling the row in front of us, while the preacher spoke seriously and deeply for thirty minutes, without one reference to their presence nor one sentence they could understand. It was almost beyond belief.

Preachers, please don't be boring and irrelevant! And if you have heard a lot of dull preaching, don't worry, there are still great preachers out there, and when you hear one, it is like water falling on dry thirsty ground.

Do I Look Like a Morning Person?

This was written on a mug I was given a cup of tea in today and it made me laugh. I am not...

Finding it hard to get up in the mornings, has plagued me all my life, whether I go to bed early or late, whether the day ahead is going to be fun or not - it is just a thing I have.

But in the days when I am also feeling low, there is an added emotional or psychological component. I loved Ann Voskamp on this, because, even though she is amazingly spiritual and able to encourage others, she writes honestly about still feeling depressed sometimes (at least, when she was writing the book), and about the daily struggle of having to push back the wave of darkness every single morning before you can even get out of bed.

I have that sometimes. I wake up, and as well as feeling fuzzy and groggy and leaden-limbed, there is also a layer of dark cloud that wants to stay over me in the same way my duvet does. Even if the day ahead holds fun things and people, not to mention my own husband and children, (and dog!), there is a creeping little sadness that lurks beyond, wanting to slide over it all.

It requires a great mental effort to shrug that off, to reject it, and to wake up to the day.

So a short while ago, I prayed that God would give me something to help me first thing in the morning.

And Bible verses have been coming to me, some of them ones I haven't read for ages and ages.

First one was: "He is my strength and my shield." This was just what I needed! Strength to get up and get going, and a shield to guard me from whatever the day might throw at me. It was perfect.

Another one was a Stuart Townend song from the concert we went to: Everlasting Love

Another one was: "In all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." More than conquerors. That was a promise and encouragement that helped me through that busy day.

There are probably loads more in there, in the armoury - these ones have helped me already.

Armed and dangerous

Part of my lecture this morning was on "spiritual warfare". I think it is easy to forget that we are involved in a fight, a fight for our own minds. I am cutting and pasting just a little bit of my lecture here:

Definition of spiritual warfare (from Voelkel, Jack, Spiritual Warfare in Mission, Downers Grove:IVP, 2012):

“Spiritual warfare in its simplest form is our partnership with God as he advances his kingdom… Satan and his forces often counter-attack, seeking to thwart us and our inroads with every scheme, wile or fiery dart they can muster.”

But NB, spiritual warfare is not a dualistic battle between equals, as Satan is a created being, not equal and opposite with God. Rather, we are empowered by God to co-labour with him as he advances the kingdom in a world deceived and enslaved by Satan.

Forms spiritual warfare might take on the mission field:

1.     Personal struggles: depression, discouragement, tiredness, loneliness, even disillusionment with mission, doubt re calling or faith, spiritual dryness, anxiety

2.     Interpersonal struggles: discord, irritation with fellow-missionaries, marital problems

3.     Work-related struggles: lack of fruit, obstacles in work

4.     Overtly demonic events/power struggles – demonic possession etc

How to be Prepared:

1.  Key is intimacy with God. NB !!!!! “Jesus did not do miracles, live a holy life and overcome the enemy because he was God. He did so because he depended on the Father and the power of his Spirit for everything he did and said (John 4:24; 5:19,20,30; 6:38; 6:57). So can we." 

2. Ephesians 6:10-20

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Back to me writing this evening in my bed, pretty tired after my day.

Looking back on my time in Uganda, I feel as though I met with a lot of opposition as described above. I am just not sure if I ever consciously gave it this name, - did I? - spiritual warfare, and if I actually prayed my way through Ephesians 6, as I should have on a daily basis. As I told my students this morning, when you even start to think about going on missions, you provoke the enemy, let alone when you are actually there, doing the work, living the life. There are so many potential pitfalls on the mission field, and they have human and natural and climatic and geographic and social and political causes. Mostly, Satan does not cause the problems we deal with every day. Sometimes, he does. Either way, he tries to use them to wind us up, wear us out, discourage us, turn us off. 

I am just saying to myself and to everyone involved in God's mission in the world wherever that might be, but especially if you have taken the huge step of moving countries and moving out of your comfort zone to work for God's kingdom, that you are definitely involved in spiritual warfare, and that every weapon available will be turned against you, but, you have Jesus and the Spirit and the Word of God and prayer and worship and fellowship and all the armour listed in Ephesians 6 - so: be prepared, and use all your resources, and see it for what it is, an all-important, daily battle. 

Waves

Put yourself here... mmmmmmm....

In England today it is zero degrees, grey-skied and snowing. Mid-March!!!! I could do with this beach right now... You can just hear the waves just gently, continuously, ... hissing? sighing? pshhhing? towards you and frothing right over your toes. And the sun feels warm on your face and the sand is warm and the water is deliciously cool...

This Sunday at our church we had quite a special visiting speaker, Guy Chevreau. He is Canadian and his name is pronounced Gee, like ghee. He is a renewal theologian and wrote the first book looking at the theology and context of the Toronto Blessing (as a believer in it), "Catch the Fire." Since then he has written other books and is a well-known speaker. We use his book Turnings, on revivals, in our courses at WTC. And now Dan and I have a signed copy for ourselves!

Guy talked about how God initiates, and how God's grace is like the waves of the sea, rolling in one after another, without ceasing. He referred to John ch 1, where it says, "from his mercy we have all received, grace upon grace." He told us that research has shown that on average, a wave rolls into the beach every eight seconds, and that in 24 hours, about 10,000 waves come in. So God's grace comes to us wave after wave, grace after grace, grace upon grace. So we should be open to receiving the grace, the goodness, and expect it. He said he himself has had a tough four years, but he has a peace that God has tremendous blessings for him. So he doesn't mean that life is good all the time, rather that God is blessing us all the time, if we only knew it.

Another thing, he said that when we stand on the beach and look out to sea, we can only see a certain distance. But beyond where we can see, the waves are still rolling towards us. So, there are waves of grace coming towards us, for the things that we don't even know are going to happen yet.

It was a good message, comforting in the sense of strengthening, and building and reassuring. So I thought I would pass it on to you.

Whatever is the world coming to...?

This morning, drinking coffee and reading in bed, deliciously late in the morning, Dan and I were talking about the movie he went to see last night (I didn't want to go) - Django Unchained, by Quentin Tarantino. We know Tarantino's movies are very violent, always, but some students had seen this one and raved about it, and it won Oscars, so... Dan wanted to see it. He felt that it was a good movie, but, horribly violent, in fact, it got more and more violent as it went along. He commented that it is incredible the level of violence and gore we are used to seeing now on the screen. People no longer complain about it, although not everyone likes it obviously, it is just almost always there.

The graphic-ness is partly because special effects have developed so much, that anything can be portrayed realistically, even disembowellings, burnings at the stake, and decapitations.  And then apparently there is the director's urge always to push the boundary, and do the next thing, the next most horrifying, bloodthirsty thing, just because, you can. And it is for the sake of "art", after all. Um, no, I don't think so. I think it is for the sake of being "daring," and shocking.

At the same time, we have been watching a TV series we missed while away, "The Tudors" (which I do not recommend as you will understand in a minute.) Along with many I have a fascination for the Tudor period, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and all that. I enjoy reading novels set in that time. But it was also by all accounts a frightening, violent time to be alive. Then, people went to watch in the flesh the beheadings and burnings, and shouted along. So, maybe I shouldn't feel so concerned... But again, I have been shocked in another way watching this series, about the graphic sex that is shown. Bar actual genitalia, you see ev-er-y-thing. It is strange really, how the most private activities are now acted out, not briefly, not just above the neck, not with one foot on the floor, not with even a scrap of sheet or hair discreetly positioned. This is in a show that would have been aired late evening, and on national TV, not rated as pornography, just, a "historical drama." You have to wonder about the actors - they are basically acting out porn, and, did they really sign up for that? It has changed so much in the course of my adult life, that I am sure older actors must wonder why and how they have ended up stripping off quite so much. I mean, would you do it?

So is it in there for the sake of art? Sometimes they say it is essential to the story - but usually, it isn't. The implication would be enough. Have we have become so used to seeing it that we don't question it? Or, am I really that much more squeamish about both violence and sex than most people - even than most other missionaries?!

When I was first a short-term missionary in Zambia, there was a lovely older American missionary lady, who loved reading, and often lent out her books to both other missionaries and Zambian friends. So, she had gone through all her books and used a black sharpie to blot out all the swear words in her books! And really, there weren't that many! Now, she would have to blot out a good proportion of every book.  Although I laughed about that, I do warn friends when I lend them books about the "rude bits."

Oh dear, what is the world coming to?

Joy to.... us!

As you know, I have been on a quest (oh yes, good word), for joy, and peace. I think I have been asking God for those two things, for some years. I feel as though I used to have more of them. As a student I had a reputation for laughing a lot. More than other people. If you have only got to know me since I was older you probably wouldn't even believe that. I think I thought when my thyroid was fixed, my laughing would come back - some of you might remember me talking about that. It did some, but not as much as before - but then, I had young children and a husband and a mortgage and a house that flooded and lived in a place with power cuts and heat and bad roads... and was just less carefree, I suppose. I guess partly, that is just Life.

But part of what prompted me to start writing the list of a thousand gifts, was because I had a conversation with a friend, about how Jonah could find peace even in the stomach of the fish, and so how could I stop getting buffeted and blown around emotionally by my circumstances - and her answer was, to be thankful. Soon after that I read the book One Thousand Gifts, which, among other things said, that to be thankful is the key to joy. So, I started writing my list, and I also started praying for God to place his hedge of protection around me as he had done for Job (at the very beginning of the book) - and I began to feel a difference...

I do feel more peaceful these days, and happy too. But isn't it typical how, on a morning when you are driving along to have lunch with a friend, humming carols, on holiday for the Christmas period now, actually feeling JOY-ful - on that morning, I drove past my turning on the motorway, had to drive about 20 miles out of my way, finally got back on track and followed the Google Maps directions, to find myself on a different Ducie Road - several miles from the one my friends live on, lost, hungry, annoyed, and seething. Ugh.

Now, I heard a very good thing yesterday at work from one of my friends there, who passed on a tip from her training at Hillsong. She said, If you feel overwhelmed and grumpy, it is most likely because you are either tired, or hungry. So try solving those problems first. Great tip. And once I did get to my destination, and had some lunch,  the negative feelings evaporated completely and then I kind of wished I hadn't rung Dan and had a good grumble when I was lost. (Perhaps another tip should be, when you feel overwhelmed and grumpy, don't ring someone.)

I loved the video that went along with the song, "Mary Did You Know" that I posted on here yesterday, because it showed Jesus living so joyfully. At Christmas we often seem to be reminded that Jesus was born among us, born to die. But this video reminded me so strongly that Jesus was also born to live. And he lived joyfully, it seems. Hmm. Great!

Last night at Abigail's wonderful carol service in Gloucester Cathedral, the choir sang Benjamin Britten's song (which was based on some 15th century words) "This Little Babe" - which is amazing. But the last two lines struck me the most:
"If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,
Then flit not from this heavenly Boy!"

Another great tip for joyful living!

Storm and sun

Abigail took this picture. It speaks to me of how we live in our small houses in this big world, where storm clouds roll and pile overhead and overwhelm, but the sun still rises, it finds a way, and shines through, eventually, every time. And for that I am thankful.

I don't know if this is a very good poem, but, it helped me in the past and I thought of it when I saw Abby's pictures today:

God has not promised
sun without rain
joy without sorrow
peace without pain.

But God has promised

strength for the day,
rest for the labour,
light for the way,
grace for the trials,
help from above,
unfailing sympathy,
undying love.

by Kevin Mayhew.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. A seasonal thought!

The Eye That Cries

Not really feeling well - I have a cold.... waaaaaaaahhhhh. But sitting in bed with my computer so I might as well write what I have been thinking about the last few days. Even if it might be a bit fuzzy like my head.

So on Tuesday I went to hear Joel Edwards speak about Justice as the Mission of God. He is such a good speaker, very engaging, warm, persuasive, positive... and he packs a lot in. He was the Director of Evangelical Alliance for ten years and is now head of the Micah Challenge, which bases its work on the verse in Micah 6:8 which I wrote about before.

He said just what I used to think, that many Christians see justice as a hobby horse for some, like the environment used to be (?) seen too. But his main point was, that justice should be part of the Christian life we live, for all of us, just as much as our personal devotion. He said that we have tended to make Christianity a matter of private relationship with God, but it should equally be a matter of a public citizenship in the world.

He said how we love to talk about the holiness and righteousness God requires of us, but we don't focus much on the justice, which is also and equally there. And that they should be integrated as the way we live out the Christian life, and not in three separate boxes.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Ps 89:14

Micah Challenge have put together a dvd package called The Jesus Agenda, which is a resource for home groups and churches or anyone else to use, to think through issues of justice and how we can live more integratedly like this.

We saw one small section of it, and one thing we saw impacted me greatly. The section was set in Lima, Peru, and how a group there work with the poor and also in the wealthy communities, to bring in more community and unity. The film crew visited a monument in Lima called El Ojo que Llora = the Eye that Cries - which is a stone sculpture, surrounded by a labyrinth of stones each with the name and dates of a person who died/disappeared during the years of the Shining Path resistance movement, between 1980 and 2000. About 70,000 were killed altogether on both sides of the conflict. The black stone in the centre of the monument has water constantly pouring from it - the eye that cries.

The monument moved me so much because it reminded me powerfully that God weeps when there is violence and hostility. It makes God mourn when there is injustice, when innocent people die. He weeps over the many many deaths in every conflict. How can I be so hard and dry-eyed? Is there anything I can, should, be doing to bring more peace, reconciliation, justice, in my sphere of the world at least?

Just thoughts

This is going to be very much half-formed and I will hope to feel clearer on these things as time goes by...

Last week in our small group we were thinking about the well-known and very helpful words, "What more does the Lord require of you, but to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?" If we are only asked to do these three things (which, granted, are very broad), then, they must be highly important in God's eyes. The so-called Golden Rule is very similar if you think about it: "Love God, and love your neighbour as yourself".

So, acting justly is the first thing required. And yet, for many Christians, justice is seen as a kind of hobby-horse for some, like green issues are for others. I think. Lots of evangelical Christians would see spreading the gospel as more important than fighting for justice in the world. But, here it is in black and white as the very first requirement.

When we discussed the implications of the words for us (asking the question, So what? as in So what does this mean for us?) -  we talked a lot about shopping ethically, Fairtrade etc, and about treating everyone equally and kindly in our daily lives, not wasting resources, and we moaned a bit about the unfair secondary school system in this country and how we don't think we should use our children as tools for the gospel so we go along with the coaching for the grammar schools test etc etc. But then I think we felt a bit stuck. I made the comment that in Uganda, it was so easy to see the justice issues, they were in our faces every day: low pay, people with zero opportunity to escape poverty, injustice in the courts and at the hands of the police, bribery, and the list could go on. And living there, we could on a daily basis do a little bit, to help a few people. Whilst here, on the surface there is a pretty high standard of justice for most people: a fair minimum wage, healthcare paid for by taxes so that it is available to all, schooling for everyone, social services of all kinds to protect the voiceless and disadvantaged.

Apart from buying fairtrade products, and signing a few petitions on facebook(...!), and maybe supporting a child through Compassion, what else should Christians in say England be doing?

Dan and I have made friends with some Redcliffe colleagues, Andy and Carol Kingston-Smith, who have set up a justice inititative called JusTice, with a webpage which seeks to network about all kinds of international and UK justice issues, and also holds seminars from time to time, and they also teach an MA course on Justice in Mission at Redcliffe. This is the link to their blog:
http://justiceadvocacyandmission.wordpress.com/author/akingstonsmith/

So I sat beside Andy at lunch at Redcliffe on Thursday, and told him about our group's discussion. Understandably, he rolled his eyes somewhat, and pointed out that the fact that often Christians are SO unaware of all the justice issues all around us, is a huge part of the problem. In fact he referred to it as the great sin of omission in our time. By being woolly and unaware, we are not just being woolly and unaware, we are actually sinning.

Now I begin to defend myself! I have signed up to their blog and read some of the articles (being honest). I did live in Africa and did a bit to help in Africa's development through higher education. I do try to buy ethically, locally, and not wastefully. I am interested in justice for women, equality, and in preserving the environment for future generations (if there are going to be any).

But I am in no way an "activist"nor am I very well versed in politics, asylum issues, labour issues, etc etc.

And, whilst the Bible is very clear that our God is a just God, who clearly desires and requires justice of us, there are also some ambiguous bits, like the parable of the workers in the vineyard where the farmer pays the workers as he decides and not according to how many hours they had worked, and, Jesus saying, "The poor you will always have with you" as if we don't have to work our socks off to eliminate poverty. But then again, Jesus was born amongst the poor, and mainly ministered among them. And the song of Mary says: "The poor he fills with good things while the rich walk empty away." The first shall be last and the last first. It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The upside-down kingdom (I need to read that book.)

But I think there is going to be a new me! I am a convert to the Micah principal. What more does the Lord require of us, after all?

I would be very interested to hear any of your comments, by email if not on here,  - any light you can shed, or suggestions for living "justly" in our western societies...