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(Special Note from Ken) Being a WordPress Ninja I accidentally managed to delete the entire contents of the post while adding the link to the music.  Here are the lyrics again… sorry Rich.

Words and Music by Mike Stand

Chorus:
I see the worries of the world turning
Turning and tearing from the outside in
I see the worries of the world burning
Burning in a fire that will never end

Burn all the worries of the days gone by
Promises of gold that are empty lies
Burn all the pain and isolation
Living in a world that’s always changing
Isee the worries of thw world burning
Burning in a fire that will never end

I see the eyes of children crying
Their tears flow down in an endless rain
Tears of worry that fear tomorrow
Tears of pain felt yesterday

Their innocent lives stricken deaf by rage
Asking me question I can’t explain
I can only point to a savior’s love
I can only point to what He’s done
I see the worries of the world burning
Burning in a fire that will never end

The time has come for worries to cease
the time hac come for tears to end
The time has come to hold on to every ounce of faith
It’s all we have(it is enough)

Chorus

Here is a complete overview of the Altar Boys including the song World Burning.

Ken and I were talking at church today. I know that some of you guys are quite the readers. Ken is going to see how we can link up to a book seller. That make it so that you can get some of the books that would help with your spiritual walk and we could get a little money back from the book seller to defray a little bit of the cost of the annual web hosting.

One book that I absolutely love is now available for free. It is called “Harvest” by Chuck Smith. Mike MacIntosh, was my pastor when I lived in San Diego. There is a chapter in Harvest written about him. It is about how God uses unlikely men.

Enjoy!

Two days ago, Ken and I were looking at the stats of DBJ and saw that we had people coming to this site from across the US and from Sydney, Australia. Ken called me today excited that Internationally we picked up 10 more countries overnight. Some from the Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Netherlands and more. I want to give a shout out to those in Singapore (Yes, I know that Singapore is not in Europe, but thank you).

I love Europe. I have been to Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Scotland, England, Holland, Austria, and Belgium.

I served with Inverness Youth for Christ in Northern Scotland, and I absolutely loved it. I would be there still serving if I could, but I ended up with Visa problems and could not stay.

The other countries I went on a couple of short term missions trips when I was in my teens and early twenties.

We would do drama, puppets, clowns and music in campgrounds and city squares to draw a crowd. Then when we were down with our performance we would ask those who were watching, if they wanted to hear more about Jesus, would like to share with them.

We would use a little gospel tract called “The Four Spiritual Laws”. One of the best things about the tract is that it is translated into more languages that any other tract.

http://www.godlovestheworld.com/ <— Sample of the 4 Spiritual Law

One time was just incredibly cool. We were in Paris, and had just finished our presentation and I went to talk to a man who was waiting around after the presentation. I went up to introduce myself and his son said, “He is a Hollander, he doesn’t understand a word that you are saying.”

So I went over to our supply of tracts and pulled out the one that was in Dutch. It looks sorta like German, but yet obviously different from the German version.

I handed him the Dutch version, and I read it and underlined it with my finger in my English version and then underlined it for him in Dutch, so that he would know what I was trying to communicate.

It got to the part where there are two circles. One circle represents the self directed life, the other circle represents the Christ directed life.

I asked him which circle represented his life (The question was already written out in Dutch). He pointed to the self directed life.

Then I asked which circle represented the life that he wanted, also written out in Dutch. He pointed to the Christ directed life.

After that, there is a prayer, for one to recognize Jesus as Savior, and asked Him to make that person, the kind of person Christ would want them to be.

He nodded that he wanted to receive Christ. We went through that prayer together.

It was an amazing thing. I figure that God had to orchestrate it. Some 20 year old from the US, in France, sharing Jesus of Nazareth with a man from Holland. That is 4 countries represented, and not being able to communicated verbally in any language by our own.

I have thought of that man at different times for years now. I wonder what happened in his life after that. I do look forward to seeing him one day in Heaven and being able to talk him about it then.

I just want to encourage, my brothers and sisters in Christ in Europe. You have it tough in a lot of ways, there are a lot of pressures trying to squeeze your Christianity out of you. I want to help if I can. Please contact us here. show (at) dontblamejesus (dot) com Would love to know where you are surfing from and would love to keep you in our prayers.

God bless,

Rich

It was interesting, about a year ago, I was checking out lists on Amazon, and there was this goofy list of “songs that always make me cry.” Just curious, I wanted to see what songs were listed. Then I came across this song that I had never heard of called, “Never Went To Church” by The Streets. The Streets is a English rapper. Not that I am really into rap, but wanted to give this a listen. He talks about how his dad died, and he is faced with an emptiness. That even though he was never brought up going to church, he knew that there was something that he was missing.

Interesting as well, I don’t know if any of you are fans of the show “Numb3rs”, but one of the lead characters is faced with his own emptiness in life that he can’t sort out on his own, and the last scene of the latest episode he walks into a synagogue to go to God to deal with that emptiness.

Pascal, the famous french philosopher, math expert, and theologian (Who the computer language Pascal was named after) said, “In every man, there is a God shaped vacuum.” Vacuum, void or hole, but you know the feeling.

C.S. Lewis wrote something similar. Paraphrased by me “Since I have tried everything, and nothing satsifies in this world, So I come to understand that I was made for somewhere else.” That somewhere else is heaven.

Pascal also wrote “Between heaven and hell, there is only life half-way, which is the fragilest thing in the world.”

Maybe you have experienced this half-way kind of life. It seems like something is missing. Nothing seems to be cracked up to what it is supposed to be. You finally arrive at the top of the heap, and the satisfaction that you thought would be there isn’t, and you are empty still.

Jesus promises something else. In John 10:10, which you have heard me quote before, Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, but I (Jesus) have come that they might have life, and that abundantly.”

The abundant life is not about the most toys, but a full contentment in relationship that only comes from God, regardless of the situation you presently find yourself in. And it finds its ultimate fulfillment, in eternal life in Heaven in the presence of our savior.

Speaking of the presence of God, I was talking to a friend of mine, who has been realizing the presence of God in his life. God has been doing little things, drawing him to Himself. God does so many things to show us that He is there, and that He cares for us. Sometimes we just need to slow down and think about all the ways that He has blessed us, and thank Him for that.

I just got a call from one of my best friends. A guy named Alex Williams. I got to know him when I was frequenting www.christianoutdoorsman.com/forums.
Just an average joe, who loves to hunt turkeys, and make turkey calls. At some point he realized that God was calling him into the ministry. I encouraged him. Had him out to the church that I was serving at, to do a turkey calling seminar with matching gospel presentation. It was awesome and he ministered greatly to the local people there.
He was thinking about going to Bible school, and I supported him in that.
Today he gives me a call, and his pastor has just recommended him to be a Sr. Pastor at a small church in his state of Georgia. I say “Good for him”. Please keep Alex in your prayers. I look forward to the day when he can give his testimony on here. Has a great story, life has not been a piece of cake. He’s a solid guy with a great heart. Love his Georgian accent. Look forward to introducing him to more of my friends. I am sure that the podcast we do with him will be a favorite. I know that God is going to continue to bless his ministry.

This is not so much about us as it is about you.  We hope that writing about our struggles and faith, and podcasts on different issues will help encourage three groups of people:

1. Those looking into faith.  Maybe you have had a bad experience with someone who claimed to be a believer etc etc.  Fortunately there is more to Christ than what some people act like.  And we all know that some people are just jerks whether they try to be or not.  Let me be the first to apologize for your negative experience.  It shouldn’t have been that way.

2. Those who are coming back to faith.  Maybe you grew up in a Christian home, or had Christian Grandparents, or used to got to a youth group.  But somewhere along the way, you lost your way and know that now it is the time to come back.  You might not really be sure how to go about doing that.  Maybe you did things that you regret during the “lost” time.  There is a parable of the Lost Son, you maybe heard of it as the Prodigal son.  Like the father in that story that Jesus told, God is waiting with open arms for you to come home.  There is a celebration for those who come back.  It is good to be home.

3. Those struggling with life and faith.  Maybe you are at the end of your rope.  Maybe you are even passed the end of your rope.  It may seem like a no mans land.  You are not alone.  Some of us have been there as well.  In the podcasts we plan to do some interviews with guys who really struggled and yet God is seeing them through.  We will probably look at men from the Bible as well who went through the same kinds of garbage that we go through today.

I just want to take the time to thank you.  I was talking with a friend today, and he was saying “When are you going to update the site.  I need this.”  For all of you, who need this as much as we do, thanks for dropping by.  Ken and I sincerely hope that God uses this site to bless you.

I don’t know about you, but a number of things have my life turned upside down.  I look at life, and think, “Man, this is not what I had planned at all.”

I am not in full time ministry like I used to be, and trained for.  My health is a shambles.  My wife has serious heart problem.  The economy has gone stupid.  The world seems in such upheaval.  Everything seems in such negative flux right now.

There are a lot of things that I am unsure of right now.  Politically, I think, “Man, are these the best people this nation has to offer?”  I never put a lot of faith in politics.

Obviously I can’t trust a lot of what I am seeing on News channels on TV.  There seems to be bias everywhere.  Advertisers want to tell you that their product is the best, number one etc etc.  Except they can’t all be the best, they can’t all be number one.

With all the uncertainty of our times, I do find security when I am reading my Bible.  It doesn’t change.  It has passed the test of time.  What it said would happen, has happened.  If anything, I do need to read more of the Word.  It gives me something more solid to hold onto than political flavor of the week, or the current thought or fad.

And it has a grip of me as well.  Sometimes with as crazy as the world is, I am wondering if I can still find right side up.  I don’t know about you, but a lot of my expectations have been dashed.  And some of that leaves me large areas of confusion.  But there are some things for certain though, that I do know down to the very core of my being.  Those areas have been tested, and have passed!

Sometimes church politics and what is does to people can be really destructive.  But I didn’t fall in love with building or an organization, or a board of people, I fell in love with a Savior.  When life hurts Christ is who I go back to.

Have you ever had a concussion?  I only had one.  And that was obviously a time for confusion for me.  It was first week of college, and I hit my head on the pavement after wrecking on a skateboard ramp.  I was totally dazed and confused.  Some of my friends took me to the emergency room.  I can kind of remember them saying “Your wife and kids are going to be OK!”  (I was single at the time with no kids).  They were just messing with an already confused me.  I had a CAT scan that I don’t remember, I signed hospital papers that I don’t remember signing, but it was obvious later that it was my real signature.  But my friends did tell me afterwards that what I kept saying at the hospital to the doctors and the nurses when I couldn’t answer their questions, “I am confused and I don’t know a lot of things, but one thing I do know, I love Jesus!”  My soul was laid bare, the very core of my hope made public.

Maybe part of that, I am back to today.  Work is not going as good as I like, life seems a lot harder than I expected.  My health and finances are not where I would like them to be, at the age that I am at right now.  I am dazed by all the stuff that I am bombarded with.  “I am confused and don’t know a lot of things, but one thing I do know, I love Jesus!”  I am going to hang on to Him, knowing that He is going to somehow pull me through this situation like He has done for me again and again in the past.