I've taken over the Austin Zaadzsters pod from Frank who is moving to Dallas, so let me know you want the pod to be, do, say, etc.

check this out...hmmm my next church

His soul yearns to create, to let free the peace that aches to escape. His duty requires submission, to others who are in need of his hands. His soul yearns to heal, to provide care and solace for those who have none. His duty requires knowledge, to those without. His soul yearns… His duty requires…

I read the following quote on God’s Politics blog this morning. “The Bible clearly and repeatedly teaches a fundamental point that we have often overlooked. At the crucial moments when God displayed mighty acts in history to reveal [God’s] nature and will, God also intervened to liberate the poor and oppressed.” - Ronald J. Sider Can you give me some of those liberating events? I’ll start with the obvious… A people enslaved by evil veiled in the cloak of wealth and prosperity were made free when God heard their cries. As Moses led his people with the power of God, we who choose to listen will hear the cries of those who seek justice. Forced labor in the name of prosperity and progress is and will always be evil incarnate. The cries of a people will be heard! As it was and it shall always be! God will move as he always has and perhaps if we listen…he will say to us, “Free my people.” We should be honored to work with God to save what would be lost…and His kingdom advances!

Jesus Christ lives and we rejoice! We come to the table to remember His death… We celebrate his life, his humility, his love for us…even unto death. …and we rejoice! Jesus Christ given for love… because love requires pain, sacrifice, humility. In quiet reverence, we rejoice. We are family and share this moment so that we will never forget, never forget that day… the Christ on the Cross… We bring all we are to the Cross… and it is there we become alive, so that we may confess to all… the mission we are called to in His name. Jesus Christ lives and we rejoice!

I never get to go to Austin City Limits Music Festival, but it seems many of my students go each year. I just received the following link to the music from this past September. Check it out...

Just a guy with a dream that our world will be transformed by people who desire to love God and man with a deep passion that is counter-intuitive to how we've decided to live in America. It's not about me, it's not about you...it's about us deciding to love without reservation. are we defending life when we just pick and choose lives acceptable to lose and which ones to defend ‘cause you cannot choose your friends but you choose your enemies and what if they were one one and the same could you find a way to love them both the same to give them your name --"Love is Not Against the Law" Derek Webb

From holy memes and kosmic blog starters: It's week 2 for the Friday Five! We give five questions, and Zaadzsters answer them in their blogs. Join in! Tag your blog with the words “friday five” and let the pod know you posted. And if you have an idea for next week's Friday Five, send them to suzanne. Scatter the seeds! Week 2: Teach! 1) Who's your favorite teacher, school or otherwise, and why? 2) Who was your least favorite, and why? 3) What are the differences between bad and good teachers? 4) How can YOU become a great teacher? (And if you're already great, how can you become even better?) 5) If you could teach any subject in the world to any one group in the world, what would you teach to whom? And how?

I’ve recently been introduced to Larry James from Central Dallas Ministries thanks to the blogosphere. (If anybody tells you that blogs are a waste of time, think about the implications of God’s healing message being spread around the world 24/7 and with the speed of light.) What I like about their work is the understanding that it is God at work in and through them who partner with the community to solve real issues. It is not about charity, it is about justice. Here is the CDM Mission Statement: Our Mission To share the love of God by building genuine community in the neighborhoods where we live and work. Our Vision A strong, safe, and supportive community that allows all of its residents to achieve their full potential. Our Strategy We are a community development-social justice ministry dedicated to addressing issues related to poverty, including hunger, health housing, law, children’s education and workforce development. Our Philosophy We do not have clients. We have neighbors. Working together, we are building a better community … one person at a time. Our Reach We touch the lives of over 50,000 people each year, primarily in East and South Dallas. Our Goal To put ourselves out of business by removing the need for our services in every neighborhood in our community. In a blog from this week, Larry James attended a speech by Bono from U2 and here are a few highlights as recorded by Larry… *_”Our work is not about charity. We do that really well in the U. S. and Ireland. No, our work is about justice and that is much different. Our work is about equality and we must keep moving forward.” “What we demand for ourselves we deny to others. That is a justice issue.” “Every generation has its ‘defining moral moment.’ This is ours.” “As people of faith, these issues are for us a matter of obedience.” Speaking of the world’s poor and oppressed, “God is with us, if we are with them.”_* I can imagine an Austin ministry like CDM and the empowering principles for those served and those who serve. I can imagine my church teaming with other churches and ministries to empower the poor, the disadvantaged, the marginalized to do God’s work for their communities. I can imagine my children working alongside UT students and the members of the UA church community to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I can imagine a day when Austin no longer houses a population of homeless and populations mired in poverty from generation to generation. But, we must begin the work in earnest and we must teach our children to recognize that Jesus would have them engage in this work for God’s purposes in this world. _”Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives. Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone. I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill… I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff… maybe, maybe not… But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. “If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places” It’s not a coincidence that in the scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It’s not an accident. That’s a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. [You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.] ‘As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.’ (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.”_ —Bono National Prayer Breakfast 2006