A life worth living

Poor Anna Nicole Smith. I really mean that. It seems that she rose from an extremely low socio-economic state to the height of wealth in a very short time, mostly on her physical attributes. Now that she is dead, the vultures are hovering over her body and the millions of dollars that her infant child will inherit. It is a sad and disgusting situation.

She died several weeks ago and several men have come forward claiming to be the father of her little girl. I'll use charitable judgment here and think that they have the best interest of the child in mind. But what is sad to me is that when one lives a life like hers, when you are no longer beautiful, sexy or alive, the same people who sang your praises turn on you like wolves. Now we are witnessing a fight over where her body will be laid to rest, and who, if anyone, can collect a DNA sample for the paternity tests.

Ms. Smith would been better served to follow the wisdom of Proverbs 30:8 "Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion" or Proverbs 31:30: "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, {But} a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised."

I'm not here to judge the ungodly actions of Ms. Smith. I just find caution in knowing that if we pursue the things of earth, when we are no longer useful, we will be chewed up and spit out. Sadly, her little girl will someday read these news clips. And those will be her memories of her mother.

Seeing God Move

Today in church we had a speaker from the Jesus Film Harvest Partners, which works with the Church of the Nazarene to bring the gospel to the world. What God has been able to do through that ministry is simply amazing. Just try to get your head around this. The church set decade goals for the 2000-2010 decade, and they are in bold. The numbers in green are the actual progress.

100 million
evangelistic contacts*
42,968,757 contacts

10 million
decisions for Christ
7,529,670 decisions
(17.5% of contacts)

3 million
initial discipleship follow-ups
2,333,924 follow-ups
(31.0% of decisions)

10,000
new mission churches
10,991 missions

10,000
new pastors trained
14,230 pastors in training

190 JESUS Film language translations used

99 countries where the JESUS Film is used

*JESUS Film and other tools

I had the great privilege to be on a Jesus Film trip in Guatemala in 2005 and saw hundreds of people come into the kingdom and 2 new churches be planted. If you are looking for an opportunity for a mission trip of a different sort, contact them. You can also financially support them for $1/day. Just follow the link above to the donate section. God is clearly using this.