Hi Bryan.
What do YOU do RobFranco?
I can't see anything in what Rob said that was a personal challenge to you. Sure, it was a bit crunchy and challenging in general, but a challenge that would be good for all of us to contemplate from day to day. It would be a shame, after all your hard work in preparing for this upcoming event, to start taking things personally when it was not meant personally, as that will surely cause tension with others around you. Anyway, good luck with the event and stay prayed up! ^.^
Rob said:
That sounds great !! But those works are not the same works of improving as human beings.
Not so fast, Rob! Look again at one of the activities Bryan participated in while preparing...
Bryan said:
living in community for the team for these months
This is what Jesus and his disciples did; they lived communally and shared all things in common. If Bryan and his team were trying something like that in order to be closer and more united, then I say keep up the good work! ^.^
The problem, however, is that most Christians will do something like this for a time, but then it's "back to the real world". All the unity and closeness that was built up through that time of communal living is cut off short. From the way Bryan describes it, it sounds like he's really enjoyed that time together with his brothers/sisters. So the question is, why not do it more often? If it really is a good thing, why not make a whole lifestyle out of it the way Jesus and his followers did?
so what keeps them reproducing knowing the hardship of life there? OUR SINS. If we can teach mankind how to live perfect as Christ did, we can be the change of the world. Simply by teaching others the walk of Christ, not the faith with empty salvation.
Actually, part of what keeps poor women reproducing is a lack of education, disillusionment, and powerlessness to stop themselves from being raped by the poor men around them. The rape can be forced, or it can be a more subtle kind of coercion or giving up when faced with the hopelessness of their situation.
But I agree with you that education is definitely important. And I slightly agree with you about how just giving material goods does not solve the problem. it's good to give material goods, but it's our TIME that God really wants. God, who created the entire universe, certainly doesn't lack the means to provide material goods if that's what he wants to do.
But people who've been given the freedom to do as they wish with their time, whether it be for good or bad, and then choosing to use that time to serve God; well that's a true rarity.
Often times the giving done by rich countries like the US, UK, Oz etc is done through paying someone else to do the charity work for us; we just write the cheques, and then we feel good about ourselves for having some something to help the poor.
But that's not the way Jesus did it and it's not the way he taught his followers to do it. God wants our time, but he won't get it if we're too busy serving mammon (matthew 6:24).
JN 12:26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
Where I am, there will my servant also be. Jesus didn't spend his time working in a job so he could afford to give a few dollars to the poor. He was hands-on out there in the middle of it all, teaching, helping, relating and looking for the lost sheep. We can do that to. It really is possible if we, like Bryan and his friends, come together in unity and start working as a team to make it happen.