On Mentoring..

‘Mentoring is the fine art of passing onto others what God has given to you. A mentor provides sculpting, and discipling - developing teachable people, giving modeling, supervision, individual help, discipline, encouragement, correction, confrontation, and a calling to accountability. He/she is genuinely interested in his/her protégé. Mentoring was the chief learning method in the society of artisans where an apprentice spent years at the side of the craftsman; learning not only the mechanics of a function, but the way of life surrounding it. Preaching and acquisition of biblical knowledge, is not enough to develop the sort of Christ-likeness which is a major segment of the Church’s mission inthe world’

– Ted W Engstrom The Fine Art of Mentoring, Wolgemuth & Hyatt publishers.

When all you can do is breathe - keep breathing!

My heart's prayer for you is for your Daddy God to be ALL that you need. Indeed, with God as your source, friends may leave, people may abandon or betray you, but you will NOT be shaken for your strength is not found in people but in Him.

God loves you more truly and completely than any one on earth can ever love you. Embracing His love will give you tremendous power to stand against life's tragedies and become all that God has destined for you to become. 

He loves you that much and He wants to be everything to you. He wants to love you when no one else does. He wants to stand by you when everyone else turns away. He will be your family when you have none of your own. He will restore your soul, lighten your load and fill you with His joy.

You have only to turn to Him and give yourselves to Him, body, soul and spirit - to lay down your life, your longings and desires and give Him your every breath. And with every breath you breathe, you will be declaring your love for Him. 

The Ex-Gay Story in the Pop Music World

An interesting article by Roberto Marchesini

NARTH International Representative - NARTH Italia

Italy's "Festival di San Remo," the most important musical happening in my country which is seen on T.V. by millions of Italians, became the unlikely platform this year for a powerful ex-gay testimony. The singer, Giuseppe Povia, winner of the festival in 2006, presented a song entitled, "Luca Era Gay" (Luca was once gay) -- SEE VIDEO HERE. The title of his song, implying that some gays can change to heterosexuality, was sufficient to destabilize the Italian gay movement. Gay activists threatened to block the festival, and Europarlimentary member Vittorio Agnoletto asked for a European resolution to stop Povia from peforming the song. Povia, himself, received death threats. The gay association "Everyone" denounced Povia to the Procura of the Republic for alleged "homophobia." These efforts failing, gay activists then asked the Festival organizers to "counterbalance" Povia with a song by a gay singer, about "the perfection of homosexual love." That effort too, failed.

Finally, on February 17th., Povia sang his song on the first evening of the Festival. "Luca Era Gay" recounts the transformation of a man named Luca from the gay lifestyle. Without the help of psychologists and psychiatrists, he digs deep within himself to understand the sources of his homosexual attractions. An emotionally disconnected, detached father and a smothering mother, he says, created confusion about his sexual identity: "I looked for men who would be my father, I went with men not to betray my mother." The song also alludes to a superficiality in homosexual relationships. He says, "between love and deceit, often we betrayed each other." The song ends with this verse: "This is my story, only my story. No disease. No healing. Dear dad, I forgive you even if you didn't come back. Mum, I often think of you, I love you and sometimes I still bear your reflection, but now I am a father and I am in love with the only woman I have ever loved." The music, a soft rap with dramatic tunes, carries a direct and honest text while never judging homosexually oriented people for their own personal lifestyle choices.

Before Povia's song was aired, the Italian comedian Roberto Benigni presented a twenty-minute show in which he condemned Povia, saying that homosexuality isn't a sin and that gays have been persecuted historically "because they love someone." He then read an excerpt from Oscar Wilde's "De Profundis."

After Povia's song, contrary to all custom, the conductor gave the microphone to Franco Grillini, former parliamentary member and former president of ARCIgay, the foremost gay association in Italy. Grillini said he had received a cellphone message from a friend (although all celphones were supposed to be turned off during the festival...), who had cried when he had just heard Benigni reading "De Profundis," because it brought to mind his partner who had died of AIDS. Grillini concluded by saying that Povia must learn what gay love is.

Then, the unforseeable happened: people in the theater started to hiss at Grillini (in Italy, hissing is like booing)! The crowd's sympathy was with Povia, not with the gay activist.

Povia's song went on to the finals and Saturday night, won second place in the San Remo Festival, while outside the theatre, gay activists continued to protest against him. Povia himself said: "I too had a gay phase--it lasted seven months and then I got over it."

The popularity of "Luca Era Gay" has given courage and dignity to the ex-homosexual community in Italy, who, until now, have been thoroughly intimidated by gay activists. The text's real-life insights regarding the ex-gay experience are undeniable.

TO SEE VIDEOS OF THIS SONG, CLICK HERE.

[By the way, the english words are subtitled in the first video at the top of the page]

Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God

“Jesus’s teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.”

Henri Nouwen

Real caring 
is the willingness 
to help each other 
in making our brokenness 
into the gateway to joy. 

Solastalgia for His Presence

There is a modern day phenomenon that is sweeping across our world. It is characterized by an underlying sense of loneliness, melancholia or homesickness. The thing that is different about this malady is that this sense of loneliness, of melancholia and homesickness is experienced by people who remain in their home, and familiar environments. Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht has stated that, Humans are experiencing epidemics of physical and mental disease that have connections to the environment. He has called this phenomenon, Solastalgia, nostalgia of the soul. Albrecht relates this Solastalgia to environmental issues, but in reality, even in the church, amid our myriad of activities, and busyness we find countless Christians who would say that they too are suffering from a form of Solastalgia. Homesickness when they have never left home. This is simply homesickness for the Presence of God.

Missing Him

Most observers of the modern Church movement tell us that we live in a time in the West of unprecedented wealth, and activity. We have more resources than ever before in the history of the Church. Our calendars and our mail boxes are filled with opportunities for seminars, training weekends, conferences and conventions. We are more highly trained and equipped than ever before. Yet in increasing numbers we have people who are jumping off the Gospel Ship in droves looking for something to fill the Solastalgia that they feel. And honestly, many may not be able to even articulate what it is they are homesick for. They only know that deep within there is a longing that is not being filled with the activities and programs of the modern church. Many have gone from church to church looking for something that would fill this void, and not finding churches that meet that need, drop out completely. Because they have never known it, they do not realize that the nostalgia they feel is a longing for the Presence of God.

Reasons for His Absence

The question then needs to be asked, Why is God not with us? Are there reasons for His absence? Of course, we have used theological arguments to justify our lack of the Manifest Presence of God in our midst. We say that God is everywhere, so He is indeed here with us. But our hunger for Him belays the reality there is more that God wants, and more that we hunger for. A careful study of Scripture and of history will yield many examples of periods of time where the Presence of God came into a community in such glory and power that even the unbelieving world recognized that God had come to the community. It is the desire of God to dwell in our midst, but there are clear reasons why God does NOT. A passage that we have looked at before is clear. Hosea 5: 15 Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me. Though God loves us passionately, his holiness and justice are such that he cannot live with evil. As the prophets Habakkuk and Isaiah put it, Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong (Habakkuk 1:13), Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you (Isaiah 59:2). 

Getting Real

If this is all we had, we might be tempted to conclude that is does not get any better than this. However, in communities all across our globe today, God is showing up in power and grace. This is happening, not by chance, but where God is finding a core of people who are getting real with Him and with one another. People who are so desperate and hungry for God’s presence, people who are sick of the solastalgia, that they are willing to do whatever is necessary to see Him come to their communities. It does not matter who they are, and most of the time they are the unknowns in a location who are the catalysts for God’s entrance. In Northern Thailand, a mighty revival is being led by Kindergarten children who spend up to eighteen hours at a time in prayer and worship. God is not impressed by all our posturing and programs. He reads the heart and will respond to sincerely hungry hearts. Today He is looking for those in our communities who will have the courage to get real with Him, gather with others of like heart and passion, and seek Him until He comes.

Living in Expectation

Too long as a Christian community we have lived in an atmosphere of unspoken defeatism. We live with the attitude that we can work hard and do our best, but really it will not get much better than this. Confessing and forsaking sin, dealing ruthlessly with everything that keeps God at bay must be accompanied with a Biblically based expectation that if we indeed to what He tells us, He will come! We cannot produce transforming revival, but we can prepare our hearts and prepare the highway for God, and know with a certainty that when we do that. HE WILL COME! (Hosea 6:3; II Chronicles 7:14) 

Now is the time. Are you tired of your solastalgia? How hungry are you for His Presence?

Our Loving and Gracious Lord, we thank You that Your desire more than we can ever know to dwell in our midst. Forgive us for living with a defeatist solastalgia that is not what Your desire for us. Grant us the fortitude to break free from our bondages and seek You until You come to our lives, our churches, and our communities in all Your manifest power and glory. We confess there and now, only You can make the changes our society needs today. Lead us to others with hungry hearts, that we might seek you together. We pray this in Jesus Name. Amen.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solastalgia