Who wants to join us at Urbana 09?

We're getting excited about heading to Urbana in December as it is an opportunity that only comes around every three years. Urbana is a conference in St. Louis, Missouri where about 20,000 collage students from across the US and the world will be coming to worship the Lord and hear about his heart for the nations. We'll be setting up a booth and praying with students and trying to help them get oriented as they pursue a possible career in missions. I'm hoping that the unreached will be front and center at the conference. The last two Urbana conferences seemed to have a large focus on injustice and the international students that are coming to our campuses. I hope the 27% of the world's population that have never heard the name of Jesus will be represented and have a voice. Pray that many people would be mobilized to pray, give, and go to the unreached peoples of the world. Most of the major and many smaller organizations will be represented at Urbana, so we are all praying for more laborers to be sent out into the neediest harvest fields.

Is Michael Jackson more popular than Jesus?

I know that John Lennon got in a bit of trouble for saying the same thing about the Beatles, but MJ has definitely been getting a lot of secular media attention since his death. They say that approximately one billion people tuned into his funeral on TV. That's almost one in six people on planet earth which is pretty astounding since there are approximately 2.4 billion (or one in three people in the world) that have no access to Christ. I didn't watch the procession myself but heard that Jesus was actually mentioned quite a bit during the tribute due to Jackson's Jehovah's Witness roots. At least His name is being mentioned, I guess.

I watched a sermon by Louie Giglio where he was trying to prove that we don't need to be taught to worship. He actually showed a clip of a Michael Jackson concert where people were crying, falling down, raising hands, kneeling, and doing anything to touch him. There is something inside of us that enjoys beauty and causes us to awe and wonder. No one on earth needs to learn how to attribute value to or to give worth to something. So, we are naturally worshipers. Some day, hopefully it will be to the King of Kings rather than the King of Pop.

Random thought: Internationally, why is it easier to access a Thriller album than a Bible?

The most obeyed verse in the Bible

Many people claim that they don't want to follow Christ because the church is full of hypocrites. Well, I found a verse that is obeyed by about 97% of all Christians. Not bad, huh? Mt. 16:20 says, "Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ." Following in a close second is Mt. 10:5 which states "These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: 'Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans'." So, maybe we're not doing as bad as the world says we are. These two verses are being obeyed by almost every Christian and church that is out there! That's got to count for something.