The shooting began at about 1330 (1930 GMT) on Thursday at a personnel and medical centre at Fort Hood – the largest US military base in the world, home to about 40,000 troops.

The commander of the base, Lt Gen Robert Cone, told NBC News that, according to eyewitnesses, Mr Hasan had shouted the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar!” [God is great] before opening fire.

He was shot four times during the attack and is currently being treated in hospital under armed guard.

Reports suggested that he had been increasingly unhappy in the military and that his work at his previous post – Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC – had been the subject of concern.

The New York Times said the FBI had been investigating internet postings by a man called Nidal Hasan that appeared to back suicide bombings – but said it was not clear whether it was the suspect.

How can we respond to such acts of terrible violence? Recently, Gary, a young man with a family living in Canada, faced an attack of his own: A package bomb left on the back steps of his home. Not knowing what the package was, he picked it up, and it exploded in his hands. Read Gary’s story of his survival, and how he was able to respond to an act of senseless violence.

If you are grieving or dealing with disappointment or despair, please contact us today to talk about it, we’re always here to listen.

Image credit: Daniel Greene, used with permission, Creative Commons 2.0 License.

Are you hurting? Do you need a listening ear? We would like to hear from you.

Our Lord commanded that we give attention to the world – to the hurting, the fearful, and the hopeless. Instead, many churches spend a high percentage of their time and resources on their own congregation’s needs. We who make up God’s body must align our thoughts with His and return to the church’s primary mission: proclaiming the truth about the grave danger facing mankind and about Jesus, the only One who can rescue them.

The church has been given the charge to demonstrate before an unbelieving world why the heavenly Father sent His Son to earth: to reveal through Christ’s life who God is, and to accomplish by means of His death the reconciliation of sinful man to God. Everything else we talk about – baptism, discipleship, giving, and righteous living – are extensions of the Gospel but not the heart of it.

No other “word” is needed because the good news about the Savior is sufficient. It relates to every maturity level, need, and season of life. It contains simple truths that the youngest or most uneducated can understand, and it is superior to all other philosophies and religions. Every promise God made is fulfilled through the person of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:20) Finally, the Gospel’s words are absolutely sure. Its eternal truths need no correction, never change, and lead to salvation through faith in Jesus.

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you – as a “living stone” of the church – to examine what message your life and words proclaim. Only the Gospel of Christ saves.

Questions: Is there a hurting person in your life that needs your attention? What is the most important thing you can do for someone?

About the Author Charles Stanley

“He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.’” Mark 16:15-16

Our Lord commanded that we give attention to the world – to the hurting, the fearful, and the hopeless. Instead, many churches spend a high percentage of their time and resources on their own congregation’s needs. We who make up God’s body must align our thoughts with His and return to the church’s primary mission: proclaiming the truth about the grave danger facing mankind and about Jesus, the only One who can rescue them.

The church has been given the charge to demonstrate before an unbelieving world why the heavenly Father sent His Son to earth: to reveal through Christ’s life who God is, and to accomplish by means of His death the reconciliation of sinful man to God. Everything else we talk about – baptism, discipleship, giving, and righteous living – are extensions of the Gospel but not the heart of it.

No other “word” is needed because the good news about the Savior is sufficient. It relates to every maturity level, need, and season of life. It contains simple truths that the youngest or most uneducated can understand, and it is superior to all other philosophies and religions. Every promise God made is fulfilled through the person of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:20) Finally, the Gospel’s words are absolutely sure. Its eternal truths need no correction, never change, and lead to salvation through faith in Jesus.

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you – as a “living stone” of the church – to examine what message your life and words proclaim. Only the Gospel of Christ saves.

Questions: How is your church serving the world? How can you seek to become a part of that gracious work?

About this Author: Charles Stanley

We ate salmon skewers (frozen salmon), grilled baby bok choy, and a cream cheese and cherry pie filling puffed pastry (two out of the three ingredients for this have been with us for awhile).

All this to say, my sister-in-law told me that I was not the first to feel the need to clean out the pantry. Apparently the financial crisis has sparked an interest in what is being called Eating Down The Fridge.

So I decided this was worth looking into and was, at the same time, sure to satisfy my need to clear clutter, cook creatively and pursue a more balanced lifestyle. Googling the topic brought up many blogs and forums that were taking groups through this exercise and allowing them to share recipes, menus and experiences. A Mighty Appetite, a blog on washingtonpost.com, was where I started and found my way to eG Forums where I got some great ideas to eat down my own fridge. And freezer. And cupboards.

Fat Guy from eG Forums says,

If you spend $100 a week on groceries, this experiment will put $100 back in your pocket quicker than you can say stimulus. If you’re home 50 weeks of the year and you perform this experiment once per quarter, you’ll reduce your grocery bill by 8%.

That sounded good to me so I started by taking inventory of a random selection of what our kitchen held:

• unsweetened coconut flakes
• canned bamboo shoots
• dried chickpeas
• 3 packages of vanilla pudding
• toasted carob powder
• 1 can of chunky light tuna
• 1 bag of frozen peas
• dijon mustard
• 1 package of star anise
• 1 bag large marshmallows

This is about 1/10th of what was filling our kitchen. Kind of sad. So I tried the experiment for a week, building in some rules of my own to be sure we didn’t end up with scurvy.

The Rules

1. We could buy meat and veggies as long as the majority of the meal is made of current kitchen items.
2. We could buy ingredients for recipes as long as no more than 2 new ones are needs to complete the recipe.
3. We could buy staple perishables that we regularly use up including: coffee cream, soy milk, bran cereal and coffee beans.

Over the next seven days, with the help of the internet, I created recipes for the first time, ate food I had been avoiding, and learned that we never have “nothing in the house to eat”. I spent a total of $12.43 CAD on groceries and estimate that I saved $40-$50. I was amazed to see how much variety I still had in my diet, far beyond what most of the world can afford. Saving money was a perk (probably more enjoyed by my thrifty husband) but learning to think outside the box and gain an appreciation for what I already have was truly satisfying.

I feel challenged to think about how I can up the impact next time we try this. Maybe we’ll trying growing some of our own food to cut down on purchasing them permanently, or donate the money we save to the Food Bank. Has anyone else made lifestyle changes to save money or positively affect society?

Related reading: From Making Money to Giving it Away – Bobby received news that his adopted daughter had been killed in a car accident. Bobby finally broke. “I was a wreck,” he says.

Several of the teens wanted to know more about God and the Christian faith and asked John if they could meet with him to learn more. They decided to meet once a week in one of the library’s common rooms, which are open for anyone to use. It was not booked, they just chose to meet at a time when the room was rarely in use.

The library administrators learned about the meetings, and told Jill that they were not allowed to meet there anymore. This was supposed to be a public space open to anyone to use.  Reluctantly, she informed John that the group  couldn’t meet at the library anymore. Undeterred, John and the group met at a coffee shop away from the library instead.

Then the library administration told Jill that, not only was the group not allowed to meet at the library, but they didn’t want them meeting anywhere, at all. The rationale was that Jill’s connection to both the library and to John made the relationship between John and the teens inappropriate.

John is still meeting with the teens away from the library.

As Jill and I talked about this situation, we wondered if the library’s reaction would have been the same if they weren’t talking about religious topics. The room was a public one, and teens themselves requested the meetings.

Do you think the library’s actions were appropriate? Does the library have the right to attempt to control activities that happen outside of its premises?  Is it simply that anything religious is unfairly excluded from the public square?

Related reading:
Talk about faith & your spiritual journey – Join our daily online chat rooms
Three Tough Questions about Faith – And how to answer them

Every year, millions of people around the world, are victims of “identity theft”.

When you think about it, it’s kind of sad how “identity” here is essentially equated with “financial security”. Our true identities are so much more than that. Ironically, we’re often much more protective of our personal identities -who we really are as people- than we are of our financial details!

People often wear metaphorical masks to hide their true identities. In her article Unmasking Our True Selves, Barbara Erochina asks the question: Does anyone know the real you? Read the article to explore this issue, and consider the masks you might be wearing yourself.

Identity theft is a serious concern, but I think knowing your own identity is an even more serious one. As a wise man once rhetorically asked, “What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” If you feel like you need someone to talk to about these issues, feel free to contact us privately, anytime.

One of the worst insults in modern Western culture is to be deemed “intolerant”. Of course, often that word, tolerance, is misappropriated and used in ways that make no sense, especially when it comes to moral and/or religious beliefs.  But that knowledge likely won’t help you feel more comfortable talking about faith around the water cooler.  Greg Koukl explains this further in his article “When Tolerance is Intolerant“.

Doug Pollock is currently an evangelism trainer with Athletes in Action, a ministry of Campus Crusade. On his website GodsGPS.com he seeks to help people have better spiritual conversations. He wants to find answers to the question: “How can you bring God into the conversation without shutting the conversation down?”

Take a look through the GodsGPS website, and don’t miss the extremely useful list of “Wondering Questions“ intended to spark meaningful discussions.

Have you ever talked with coworkers, neighbors, or friends about faith topics? How did you approach the topic to encourage cordial conversations?

Image credit: ohhector, used with permission, Creative Commons 2.0 License.

The Internet has become a 21st century Roman road, marketplace, theater, backyard fence, and office drinks machine.

The Web’s explosive growth has been remarkable. In ten short years, it jumped from being a minority hobby for computer enthusiasts to a communication medium used by over 1 billion people worldwide. If your visit to this website lasts ten minutes, in that period 460 people will have used the Web for their very first time.

The world impact of the Internet and the digital revolution will be as far-reaching as the invention of the printing press as this clip demonstrates:

To use the Web effectively, we must understand its nature as a medium. Each time a new means of communication is developed, people initially think of it in terms of a previous known medium. Thus, TV began as radio with pictures, but was soon viewed as a different medium in its own right, as people learned its potential.

Linear versus non-linear

Many mediums are linear – they communicate a message along a single line. Radio and TV are essentially linear (although these days, interactive TV can give the user some control). Fiction books, videos and tracts are also linear. However, a newspaper is non-linear – it contains multiple messages, not linked together sequentially. Users can move around as they choose.

The Web is also non-linear. A website is not (usually) a single page of text, but offers choice between a range of pages and ideally other interactive options too.

Pull versus push

Outreach literature is a push medium. For instance, people offer tracts into others’ hands. Radio is largely a push medium – within a limited range of available stations, the user listens (or turns off).

The Internet however is a pull medium. It draws people in – but only within the channels on which they wish to be drawn. It is therefore like a reference library rather than a literature distribution program. There is no automatic audience for a website. Many Christian websites which would aspire to be evangelistic, are in fact largely “preaching to the choir”. To engage with not-yet-Christians, who are not already seeking, requires us to use the Bridge Strategy.

Interactive and two-way

One of the greatest attractions of the Web is its interactivity. The user controls completely what webpages appears on his or her monitor. Each person will have a unique route of personal choice though any website, and across billions of webpages around the world.

The two-way nature of the web means that the user is no longer a passive recipient. When you listen to radio, the experience is one-way, unless you can phone in or write a letter. But the Web makes it easy for users to express opinions and interact with webmasters by email or instant messenger, and discuss a site with other users by bulletin board, blog response form or chat room. At last, my opinion counts. In some ways, the Web is a modern reflection of the time 100 years ago before mass media, people created their own entertainments in the evenings or spare moments. Once again, through collective creativity, ordinary people at home are sharing their ideas, gifts and lives with others they feel linked to. The growth of sites hosting self-posted video clips is a dramatic example of this new creativity. “People want to be players not just spectators, part of the action, not on the sidelines,” writes Charles Leadbeater in a new book WeThink.

Just as a newspaper aims to build loyalty among its readers, a website can generate a sense of community – the feeling that users can identify with the site. Successful sites understand how to this create welcoming interactivity.

Relationships and Web 2.0

The Web has developed and matured from being merely static “text on a screen” to something far more. This “grown-up Internet” is often called Web 2.0.  Although the 2.0 concept includes best-practice design standards for webpage appearance and easy intuitive navigation, it embraces much more – a whole philosophy of communication. Just as the church is people, not buildings; the Web is essentially relationships, not computer screens. People want “connectedness”, the opportunity to share in a two-way or multiple conversation, to feel they belong. This is often called a sense of community, and is a key part of Web 2.0, illustrated by the diagram.

Relationship and connection are at the heart of the Internet. Before the Web, a person’s circle of relationships was usually initiated by face-to-face contact, and then sustained by personal meetings, letter or phone. Naturally, there tended to be a geographic limitation to a circle of relationships. But with the Web, relationships can be initiated and maintained online, and physical location is no longer an issue. Using the Web, people can also maintain, at least at a limited level, a much wider range of relationships.

Relationships are, of course, a key to evangelism. Very few people become Christians merely by hearing, or reading, a proclamation of the Gospel. Analyze a range of testimonies and in almost every case, you find that an ongoing relationship with a praying Christian played a key role. So effective online evangelism needs to be relational.

The Web as dis-inhibitor

People behave and communicate very differently in the virtual world, than they do in face-to-face interactions. The relatively anonymous nature of the Web encourages people to share inner thoughts, worries and questions, in a way they might never do face to face. Although there may be no person they could trust face to face, web users may ask intimate questions online from the privacy and anonymity of their home computer. This is strategic for any sort of evangelism, and even more so in a country where there are very few Christians. A seeker may know of no place where they could ask spiritual questions, or know that it would not be safe to be seen publicly to do so. Email, bulletin boards, blogs, or social networking sites can be a safe environment for questions and interaction. You can read more in The Online Disinhibition Effect, a valuable article from John Suler’s The Psychology of Cyberspace, which you can read online, or download as an e-book.

Communication cultures

It is also helpful to understand the Internet in the context of different communication cultures. Before the invention of the printing press circa 1500, the prevailing communication was an oral communication culture. The printing press changed the world for ever, and brought in a print communication culture. Christian commentator M Rex Miller suggests in his book Millennium Matrix that from about 1950, the development of TV led to the broadcast culture, with different characteristics to the previous cultures. Further, he suggests that we are now moving into digital culture in which communication is once more operating in very different ways.

Another commentator Andy Crouch sees our current culture as being what he calls visualcy.

These are not merely academic classifications – they describe some very profound changes in society which affect how we can effectively communicate the gospel. If we try to use methods which worked in a past communication culture and have gained an imagined sanctity as a result, we may receive little fruit. While the gospel does not change, the way we communicate it must constantly change. If you doubt this, root around for some Christian magazines, books or films dating from perhaps the mid-60s. They may have been effective then, but the “past is a different country”!

Also, one of the major advances in the mission world has been an understanding of oral communication cultures. Many non-western countries are still largely oral societies, and it is only relatively recently that missions have really analyzed appropriate ways to communicate with people in such cultures. Many people in the West are also to a considerable extent within an oral culture, and receive very little information from books or newspapers.

Implications of the Web’s properties as a medium

It is a mistake to regard the evangelistic potential of the Web as merely “tracts on a screen”. Such a perception will greatly limit its potential for outreach. Instead, we must understand the Web’s nature as a medium and learn how to work with its inherent strengths. Only then can we begin to use the staggering opportunities it offers us.

Learn more about using the internet for evangelism at internetevangelismday.com and find out how you can take the next step by getting involved with TruthMedia today.

GAiN is one of several organizations which is working to make a difference in areas that desperately need clean water. Recently GAiN hit a significant milestone in their work:

It has been 4 years since GAiN first started drilling in Benin. February 2009 brought a major milestone as GAiN Canada drilled the 100th water well in Benin. … People routinely do go without easy access to water, and that water is most often ridden with diseases from unseen bacteria or parasites or contaminated by toxins through its exposure to traffic: animals, machines, and people. (GAiN Report)

One villager commented: “Before we had this well, we had to walk far to get water that was brown and dirty, and sometimes it had dried up completely [but] water from this well is close by, easy to get, and is always clean! We can be healthy again!”

Well-building programs help communities becoming healthier and self-sustaining. If you would like more information about GAiN, an article about their work is available here: Global Aid Network. Or you can visit their site at www.globalaid.net If you want to get involved, you can contribute to GAiN online.

Have you ever contributed to well-building programs? Do you think such programs make a long-lasting difference in the towns & villages?

Overwhelmed by everything that is going on in the world?  Try our Understanding Pain and Disaster life lesson.

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