“When your screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they have given up on you.”
- Randy Pausch from The Last Lecture
Do yourself a favor and just read this book.
Here I will help you. click here to buy it from Amazon.
Now your just one click away.
More on this to come.
Derrak
“God cares not only about redeeming souls but also about restoring his creation. He calls us to be agents not only of his saving grace but also of his common grace. Our job is not only to build up the church but also to build a society to the glory of God. As agents of God’s common grace, we are called to help sustain and renew his creation, to uphold the created institutions of family and society, to pursue science and scholarship, to create works of art and beauty, and to heal and help those suffering from the results of the Fall.”
-Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey , ”Unchristian” pg. 223
I came across TED.com via Blaine Hogan. He posted a VERY interesting video from TED2009 on the creative process and God-given inspiration. Check it out. So far I have watched a number of other videos including this one which I thought was very inspiring. TED.com says this about the video,
Eric Lewis, an astonishingly talented crossover jazz pianist — seen by many for the first time at TED2009 — sets fire to the keys with his shattering rendition of Evanescence’s chart-topper, “Going Under.”
I came across this through twitter and just had to share it here. The power of creativity sometimes just catches me off guard and surprises me. This is an example of that.
Powerful
Make sure you have 6 minutes to take it all in. CLICK HERE.
This post is the launch of a new category here on circuschurch called “creativity”. I believe that creativity is critical to learning how to communicate effectively because it not only gets at information but also the emotion surrounding information. It puts skin on things. It makes them real. If we want to learn to communicate in relevant and real ways, we MUST learn to be creative. I came across this video via Evan Jones, a buddy of mine from Atlanta. It’s pretty funny and creative.
I cannot remember where I herd this, but recently it was said that George W. Bush provided an unprecedented amount of aid to Africa to help fight HIV/AIDS and Malaria. More than any other president to date. I remember thinking, “wow, why have we not heard about this?”
I voted for Obama, but the article below from cnn.com reminded me why I voted for Bush. He has made decisions that I would not have made, but he has also made some that I am proud of, and make me proud to be an American.
I have posted the entire article here for you to read, or you can click here to read it on cnn.com.
Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says George Bush’s AIDS policy has saved millions in Africa.
Editor’s note: Bill Frist, a physician, is former Republican majority leader of the U.S. Senate and a professor of medicine and business at Vanderbilt University.
(CNN) – A legacy of President George W. Bush will be that he saved 10 million lives around the world.
His critics ignore it, but name another president about whom one can say that with such certainty. It is what historians will say a decade from now looking back. Not bad for a president who leaves office with the lowest approval rating in recent memory.
The bottom line is: George Bush is a healer.
First, a surprise proclamation came on January 29, 2003.
I was in the first row in the House chamber when three quarters through his State of the Union address, the president boldly said: “I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion over the next five years … to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean” and “lead the world in sparing innocent people from a plague of nature.”
And lead the world we did. No president in history had made such a commitment against a single disease. Those words and the action that followed meant that instead of another 30 million people dying from HIV infections, maybe just another 20 million will.
Later that night in an interview for CNN in my Capitol office, I predicted that five years later, this commitment to fight HIV would be the single most significant thing the president said that night. It was.
But even I — who as physician in Africa had witnessed how this virus was hollowing out societies — did not predict the huge global impact this Bush commitment would have on generations to come.
In my annual medical mission trips to Africa during the Bush administration, I saw the cost of treatment for HIV with life-saving antiretrovirals (ARVs) drop from $4,000 a year to $125. The number of Africans on ARVs jumped from 50,000 to 2.1 million.
And the multiplier effect of Bush making this a presidential global priority was reflected thereafter in every meeting I had as Senate majority leader with the world leaders, including those from Russia, China and India. If you were dealing with the United States, you’d better have made HIV a national priority, because we had.
And it was more than HIV. Six months ago, Tom Daschle, Mike Huckabee, John Podesta, Cindy McCain and I (yes, we five of different persuasions do work together!) went to Rwanda on a fact-finding trip.
Our visits with villagers all over the country opened our eyes to how Bush’s five-year, $1.2 billion effort to combat malaria has provided 4 million insecticide-treated bed nets and 7 million life-saving drug therapies to vulnerable people. Yes, George Bush the healer.
Future historians will also note what today’s pundits ignore: total US government development aid to Africa quadrupled from $1.3 billion in 2001 to more than $5 billion in 2008. What’s more, the Bush administration doubled foreign aid worldwide over the past eight years. You have to go back to the Truman years to match that.
And the president revolutionized the way we give aid with the creation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, now active in 35 countries. This $6.7 billion public-private partnership for the first time ties aid to accountability based on a country’s governing well, fighting corruption and commitment to economic freedoms.
Secondly, Bush healed abroad, but he also healed right here at home.
Before Bush acted, the nation’s 43 million seniors did not have affordable access to prescription drugs (the most powerful tool a doctor has to prevent and treat disease) through the Medicare program. Today, because of George Bush, they do.
Initially, conservatives howled because the prescription drug initiative “cost too much.” Liberals hated it because it involved the markets and competition. But today, 23 million seniors live healthier lives, Medicare drug spending has been 20 percent to 30 percent less than predicted for each of the past two years and seniors overwhelmingly give the program enthusiastic reviews.
And, in addition, the program is highly redistributive — giving advantages the poorest, introducing preventive care to Medicare, encouraging electronic prescribing and introducing chronic disease management. Who says Republicans can’t lead on heath reform?
Thirdly, a lot of people forget that the health of a nation’s people is more dependent on behavior and education than on health services — the doctors, hospitals and insurance companies. Infant mortality is three times higher for a woman who did not graduate from high school when compared with one who has a college degree.
And the president focused laser-like on improving K-12 education by demanding transparency and accountability, and raising expectations.
The U.S. ranks a miserable 21st in the world in science and 25th in math among 15 year-olds. President Bush made the education of our children a moral issue.
To maintain our now slipping global competitiveness, we have no choice but to radically transform the K-12 education system over the next decade. And historians will say it all began with the groundbreaking No Child Left Behind legislation of President Bush.
I’ve had the privilege of knowing George W. Bush personally and as president. I have seen his passions. Naturally, he will be judged in the short term for his role in waging the war on terror, keeping America safe since 9/11 and acting on his belief in promoting liberty aboard.
Over time, however, it is the foundations he laid for healing. for the most part ignored by mainstream media, that I am confident will be his enduring legacy.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bill Frist.
Just ran across a blog post by my friend Dave Smith entitled, The Doctor’s Diagnosis. It is the summary of a talk given last year by Dr. Kent R. Hunter . I found it very interested and much of it resonated with me. Here are the points that Dave noted on his blog. (You can click on the link above to check out his post and the comments that followed.)
- Yes, we are in tough times, but people are more receptive to the gospel than ever before.
- However, we have had six churches closing every day in America for the last 20 years.
- People are interested in spiritual things, but 60-80% think the church is irrelevant. It’s the church’s fault this is the case!
- 60-80% of all churches are declining in attendance.
- 20-40% are vibrant and growing churches.
- The local church is the answer to our country’s (& world’s) problems. Think about our grandchildren! What kind of world will they live in? Will we step up in this critical time of our nation’s history?
- We are a country w/ the 3rd largest population of non-Christians. It is to the point that foreign missionaries are now coming here!
- We need training to be missionaries in the U.S., shifting the way we think to be more like missionaries (i.e. Acts 1:8).
- God is love. But He does not want us to be comfortable. Being uncomfortable is not bad. Often in the depth of discomfort does God speak to us. He’s much more interested in our character than our comfort. It’s not about out comfort!
- We are a nation driven by comfort. But missionaries are not driven by comfort. We need to be missionaries!
- Most churches die because it’s easier to die than to think like Jesus. We need to repent.
- America is at a spiritual crossroads, and we could make history of eternal proportions.
Derrak
I know, two posts in one day, so unlike me. But I just learned about this new book by Scott Mcknight (who has a pretty good blog called Jesus Creed. I have read another one of his books called, of all things, The Jesus Creed.)
I learned about this new book on Alex McManus’s blog Into the Mystic. Click on the link to read his review.
“The Blue Parakeet” is definitely going on my list of books to read.
By the way, I’m still working on “Unchristian”. More to come soon. : )
Derrak
