United Nations

The United Nations should be stronger and more of the “world police.” Some of the things in the world that are going on need to be stopped, and the United Nations should step up and do so. All the fighting in Africa, Christians being murdered in Orissa, India, and just overall horrible treatment by some leaders are just a few examples. I believe this should be done through peace talks at first, but force should be used if it involves genocide or something completely inhumane. The United Nations should have a military made up of a certain percentage of each participatory nation’s overall military. Operating funds could also be a percentage of participatory nations’ GDP (percentage).

Olympics

Countries participating in the Olympics should all give a certain percentage of their GDP to finance the Olympics. The Olympic Committee should then take the money and work with the government of the host country to host the Olympics starting in the world’s poorest country and working upward on the list. The boost of income for the country during those weeks/months/years just might be enough to give the struggling economy what it needs to get out of where it is. A jumpstart if you will. It’s fairly ignorant and just plain not fair to always have the Olympics in some “rich” country. That’s just selfish and a waste!

Loving Leaders

What if someone got close to the leader of a nation that is currently closed to the Gospel, and the leader saw Christ’s love through the person? The leader doesn’t even necessarily have to accept Christ, but if he sees that Christians are loving and caring then he might open his country up to the Gospel. Missionaries can then flood the country. I fully respect, admire, and love what the missionaries in those closed countries are doing now, but maybe some of us should be thinking about how to change the way things are for them and the people there.

Education

Education shouldn’t be a memorization or “donkey approach.” Children must learn to learn and critically think when they come of age. America is relatively stupid in relation to the rest of the world. There also seems to be almost no value on education. Administrations should get paid less, and the schools themselves should get more to invest in the lives of their students.

Immigration

Immigration should be addressed in a loving way, like everything. Instead of investing more money in “securing” the border, which won’t happen, we should focus on helping specifically Mexico develop their country and economy. If we help improve the standard of living there, then I don’t believe people will really want to leave. Their families, culture, society, and just overall way of life are there. I don’t believe they want to leave now, but they are forced to because they can’t always provide for themselves and/or their family. I would leave too if I couldn’t take care of my family. We also need to remember that most of our ancestors were immigrants. Unless you are a Native American, then your ancestors are immigrants. We also must keep in mind that as Christians we are to be “not of this world.”

Government Programs

Government programs are a good thing, but they should only help the people that actually need it. We must find out who is taking advantage of “the system” and eliminate the funds currently supporting them. God wants people who can work to work.

Solar Power

Pressure the solar power companies to produce solar panels at a more reasonable price and most efficient structure. We waste a lot of space on rooftops where we could be putting solar panels to help reduce the amount of gas, electricity, etc. that a building or community consumes. God has given us the Sun as the most powerful source of energy, and we should use it more effectively.

Temple

Your body is a temple! Take care of it. That means no sex (until married), drugs, and/or anything that is harmful. This includes overeating! Who decided that America needed to eat 3 meals a day? We are fat because we eat too much and we don’t take care of our temples (in general).

Sex

The Church needs to communicate to the youth of how harmful it is. When you mess around sexually, you fire an arrow into the future that you can never get back and eventually it will sink deep into the heart of the one you marry. It will also hurt friends and family. You give a piece of yourself away that you can’t get back. The sexual pleasure is not worth it! And the reason you seek pleasure from it is because you aren’t seeking it from God. He can give you more joy than sex ever could. God made sex! Therefore, He and His will can and do far surpass it.

Hell

We don’t really understand the concept of HELL. It is eternal separation from God. That’s extremely frightening. Since America seems to like scary movies, haunted houses, and just all around creepy things, maybe someone should make a movie depicting Hell as biblically as possible and/or one based upon a book like 'Dante’s Inferno.' We need to get a hold of how real it is, then hopefully we will see the urgency in telling people about Christ and showing them His LOVE.

Intercultural American Church

The Church in America needs to do a better job at trying to reach and show Christ’s LOVE to all the different peoples that are now present in America. We need Indian, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, and many other different churches spread out all over. The thing is keeping all of us together. To answer this issue, I would propose that every church not specifically doing everything in English have a “sister” church. Basically, we need to all be unified in how we reach the world and fellowship together.

Body of Christ

We need to quit looking a denominational division so much and be the Body together. All together we make up the BODY OF CHRIST. I’m not saying do away with denominations, but I am saying that we need to work and fellowship together more. There’s not going to be a Baptist Heaven, Wesleyan Heaven, Pentecostal Heaven, and so on. It’s one Heaven where we will all dwell together in harmony worshipping the Creator of Everything.

THE GOSPEL

The Church needs to return to THE true GOSPEL, which is both Spiritual and Social. Many churches focus on one or the other, but that's not what we're commanded to do. Jesus met people spiritually and physically, and He tells us to also. We must meet people’s needs on both levels, bringing them the holistic Gospel. Just as faith without works is dead, so is physical without spiritual and vice versa.

Outreach

More money should be put into Missions! Each church should set aside a certain percentage for Missions and Outreach. Churches should also base their Outreach upon Act 1:8. It states, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (NIV). We should look at each different area and try to keep them in balance with one another.
1. Jerusalem- local (town, county, and/or region)
2. Judea- state
3. Samaria- nation
4. End of the Earth- world

Extravagance

Some of the church buildings and lavish lifestyles of Christians are ridiculous. We need to be Christ-like, even with our money. Jesus cares for the poor and oppressed, so should we. And we can do this by thinking less about ourselves and more about others. I understand some Christians are called to be wealthy and living witnesses to the upper-class, but not all of us are and they don’t have to do that in a wasteful way.

Refuge

Churches should be places of REFUGE. What if when young girls got pregnant, they ran to the Church? Because they knew that they would be loved and accepted there. WE ARE ALL SINNERS! We are all "the ungodly" until washed by the Blood.
Remember in ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame,’ Esmeralda ran to a church because she was scared and needed protection. The Church needs to start being that REFUGE and LOVING like we are called to.

Prayer

The power of PRAYER is highly underestimated! I don’t even understand it myself, and I also underestimate. We need to PRAY more! And try to comprehend what it really is and how God wants us to use it. God loves us and wants us to talk to Him through PRAYER.

Miracles

Why don’t we hear about miracles being done every day here in America? I think it’s because of lack of faith. We are so wrapped up in worldly desires and possessions and the pursuit of them that we don’t put all of our trust in God. Our stuff holds us back! When the Untouchables in India hear about Christ and that they are worth something, they give God everything they’ve got because they’ve had nothing. When they get a glimpse at hope, they seize it and run with it; as fast and as hard as they can. I believe that’s why miracles are happening all the time overseas. We should live trusting God with all aspects of life, including money! Don’t we trust that He will provide, just like He promises to?

LOVE

Why don’t we LOVE? I believe it’s because we don’t really know or understand who God really is because if we did we would LOVE. If we truly understood who God was and how much He loves us, then we would LOVE like crazy!

Matthew 22:36-40 states:

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

This says LOVE! If we would just LOVE in all aspects of life, then I believe that everything else would just “fall into place.” It says, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” But I would venture to say that everything hangs on LOVE. WE MUST LOVE!

*Paul says it all in 1 Corinthians 13:

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Wake Up Church!!!

Why do we waste our blessings?
I don't understand why people never hear the Gospel and some go hungry.
CHRISTians have so much money that we just waste.
Look at our churches that we spend MILLIONS on.
Many people in other countries worship in houses or just any place they can find.
How can we claim to be CHRISTians, but not be CHRIST-like in this aspect?
Christ loved the poor and preached to the poor, but all we do is shed a tear
for them every now and then or toss them a buck.
Wake up Church!
Quit living such lavish lifestyles.

Do we think we deserve so much better than "the Son of Man has no place to lay his head"?
I love you all very much, and that is why I am challenging you to change.
Be like Christ. Take care of the poor and the needy, and help those trying to reach them as I write.
Please cut back on some things you don't NEED, and CHANGE THE WORLD with the blessings God has given you.

Matthew 8:20

Scripture...
1 John 3:14,16-18
Matthew 28:16-20
Matthew 25:31-46
2 Corinthians 8:13-14
James 2:14-17
Ezekiel 16:49-50

Dare to Dream

Dare to dream.
Dare to love.
Dare to imagine,
To imagine a better world.
Dare to be different.

What innovation did not birth as a dream?

They say be realistic.
They say you're just one person.
They say you can't make a difference,
you can't change the world.
They say don't dream.

Well... They're wrong!
God says you can.
He says that you can do anything with Him.
Don't put Him in a box,
And don't limit Him.
When you're a true Christian
And you put limits on yourself,
You are really putting limits on God
And what He can do through you.

Trust God, Dream Big, Change the World!

CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY

So now we must close—and this is the last point—THE PROCLAMATION OF THIS FACT, that “Christ died for the ungodly.” I would not mind if I were condemned to live fifty years more, and never to be allowed to speak but these five words, if I might be allowed to utter them in the ear of every man, and woman, and child who lives. “CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY” is the best message that even angels could bring to men. In the proclamation of this the whole church ought to take its share. Those of us who can address thousands should be diligent to cry aloud—“Christ died for the ungodly”; but those of you who can speak to one, or write a letter to one, must keep on at this—“Christ died for the ungodly.” Shout it out, or whisper it out; print it in capitals, or write it in a lady’s hand—“Christ died for the ungodly.” Speak it solemnly, it is not a thing for jest. Speak it joyfully; it is not a theme for sorrow, but for joy. Speak it firmly; it is indisputable fact. Facts of science, as they call them, are always questioned: this is unquestionable. Speak it earnestly; for if there be any truth which ought to arouse all a man’s soul it is this: “Christ died for the ungodly.” Speak it where the ungodly live, and that is at your own house. Speak it also down in the dark corners of the city, in the haunts of debauchery, in the home of the thief, in the den to the depraved. Tell it in the gaol; and sit down at the dying bed and read in a tender whisper—"Christ died for the ungodly.” When you pass the harlot in the street, do not give a toss with that proud head of yours, but remember that “Christ died for the ungodly”; and when you recollect those that injured you, say no bitter word, but hold your tongue, and remember “Christ died for the ungodly.” Make this henceforth the message of your life—“Christ died for the ungodly.”

-Excerpt from a sermon called "For Whom Did Christ Die?" by Charles Spurgeon

We are all ungodly until purified by the blood of Christ, and we need to remember that.