One of the better posts I have read in a while.

The Practice of Discipleship

By Jake Johnson

The other night, over 40 people whom I’d never met—most non-Christians—partied at my house. The occasion? It was a baby shower for the daughter one of my Missional Community member’s bosses.

Pregnant out of wedlock with a boyfriend who’s a nice guy but just coming out of drug addiction, this poor girl had no one willing to celebrate the coming of her baby and lacked the necessities needed for a newborn. So we threw her a shower. Jessica, a newer Christian in our community, brought the opportunity to our attention and organized the whole event, inviting all her co-workers and rallying Christians and non-Christians alike to bless this young girl with dozens upon dozens of gifts and to show her unconditional love.

It was a great moment of discipleship for Jessica that created an opportunity to make new disciples. And one that was much more effective than if I’d simply taught her about Christian service and love.

Part of discipleship is doing

The accounts in the Gospels and the Book of Acts put a huge emphasis on doing when it comes to making disciples. The gospels are accounts of Jesus’ works, and they’re also the accounts of his disciples, young Christians, doing as their master did. Acts is the account of the young church, made up of young Christians, going out, preaching the gospel, and doing great works in Jesus name.

While it was important to be instructed and trained, the early Christians were also encouraged to work out their faith. Thus, after encouraging believers to look not just to their own interests but also to the interest of others, Paul can say, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12).

For Paul, part of discipleship was making sure his people were demonstrating their faith—especially in his absence. Paul’s discipleship wasn’t heavy-handed. Instead, it allowed room for practice—and failure. He then gave instruction as needed. He was not like an impatient father who jumps in to finish his child’s project because he can do it better and quicker. Instead, he exhibited patience (most of the time) to let others grow as disciples by doing, instructing and correcting them as they worked.

We can follow Paul’s example

As pastors, we can follow Paul’s example in order to make effective disciples. It’s not enough that our people know the Word without any response to it. As disciple-makers, we must fight the urge to step in if things might not be moving as quickly as we like or if we see that things could be done better. Instead, as Paul did, intentionally disciple people by allowing them to practice—and fail. Then, instruct and send out again. This type of discipleship is messy, but it is also much more effective as we point them to the Redeemer’s ongoing work in their lives.

I love the analogy that James uses here, being patient like the farmer, which is, establishing our hearts for “the coming of the Lord”. This was something that these Jewish-Christians would have been very familiar with. Their society and culture was very much an agrarian society, meaning farmers were just as common as Starbucks are today, one on every corner.

My guess is that the majority of us can’t imagine what that would be like; sheep running everywhere, cows ‘mooing’ all the time, chickens just hanging out, corn fields in view with every turn of our head, and a myriad of other fruits and vegetables spread throughout our neighborhoods. This image is not very familiar to us, well simply because we are a very rural and urban society these days, the things of farms and farmers is left to the ‘middle of nowhere places’. There is a greater portion of us who don’t know farmers than those of us who do. Remember also we are in Columbia Missouri, so we may know more farmers than someone in LA or New York, but you get the point.

This analogy might be foreign to large numbers of christians now a days, so why use it? Don’t you think God knew that our society wouldn’t be as agrarian? Absolutely He did, but He still chose to use this example, and for good reason. This analogy speaks perfectly of what it looks like to ‘patiently waiting’. When we think of waiting we think of not doing much, at least I do. We think that by waiting we are supposed to occupy ourselves with something completely different until the end product is received, in this case, the coming of the Lord. However, that is not what James meant here by being patient like the farmer waits for his crops to yield.

Farmers have many tasks as they are ‘waiting’ for their crop to yield. They have to check the crop to make sure it is still growing and growing correctly, they have to prepare the equipment for harvest, they have to tend to their animals with food and protection, they have to prune vegetable plants (great example of this analogy can be found in John 15) they have to plant other crops or harvest other crops, they might have to fix some machinery, or spray pesticides. All these examples are of modern day farmers, but think about those farmers back during biblical times, they still had many tasks to do while ‘waiting’ for their crop, if not more.

If we are to be ‘patiently waiting’ for the coming of the Lord, how do we do that? Just like the farmer we have to be active, we have to be learning about the Lord, we have to be tending to our minds, hearts and souls, we have to protect our hearts and those around us. James says there in verse 8, “you also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord”. These things look different to each person, just like each task looks different to each farmer, but the main point is that we can not be stagnant in our faith or our hearts will not be established, we must edify our hearts.

“Sept. 21st, 2010
I know the bible calls me to ‘count it all joy’ (James 1: 2) in the times of trials and suffering, and that ‘who am I to know tomorrow’ (not exact quote; James 4: 13-16), meaning that God is sovereign and in control of what is happening and going on in my life. That doesn’t mean it’s easy or without pain. Suffering is by definition an ‘experience of [to] be subjected to something bad or unpleasant (Oxford Dictionary). Naturally going through suffering is hard and does cause some pains emotionally and thats what’s happening to me. God is tearing me apart right now, putting me through intense trials of faith. he is in some sense rocking me all the ay to my foundation to see if I truly trust in Him, even down to the simplest things all the way up to life’s biggest questions.
Currently I am fasting, I am trusting in the Lord to totally control and strengthen me through the days. This is day two and I see many ways in my life that I am not trusting in the Lord. Just in the short hours I have been awake already I have put more trust in myself and what I can do to get myself by rather than trusting in the God of the universe. This is not a new concept, it’s just that I have yet to fully understand and see it working in all areas of my life. In Psalm 8 the psalmist talks about how when he peers into the heavens and sees the stars he is overwhelmed and asks ‘what is man that you are mindful of him.’
This is how I feel, Lord who am I that you are mindful of me? But in this very question lies a brilliant truth! The truth that God is mindful of me! That God has ‘searched me and knows me’ (Psalm 139 v.1) That God knows my every thought and action, that no matter what I do the Lord is with me. What a brilliant and wonderful truth! If the Lord God our Father knows my heart and the very words I am going to say next, don’t you think he is in control of where my life is headed? Or how my support raising is going? Or how much money I have? Or who my friends are and where I am at? Isn’t he in sovereign control of what I am doing, thinking and saying? Oh how much I want to believe this truth more!
In my head I know it, but by my actions and my heart I do not. ‘Lord I believe but help my unbelief!’ (Mark 9: 24) Just like the father of the son with the unclean spirit, I know the Lord can do marvelous things but do I truly believe it? Oh God your truth reigns true and heave on my soul! Why do I doubt? Am I no better than a Pharisee? Do I know the law but not practice it? Do I have faith but not show it? Why do I doubt you? I am a ‘double-minded man, unstable in all my ways” (James 1: 8 ) Do I even trust that you will give me air to breath? Lord I am a sinner, no better or worse than the man next to me! Forgive me, forgive my doubt, forgive my wicked, double-minded ways.
I pray that you will transform me! I pray that you will give me strength to continue on, I pray that you will continue to put my faith to the test, that you will continue the suffering in my life. Help me to be more and more dependent on you as time goes on till there is no doubt in my mind that, like the bible says, there is nothing outside of your control and in your sovereign will for me. Help me be more like Jesus, and to love him with all my soul mind and strength!”

Me: “Friend, how do you like your Nook?”
Friend: “I love me Nook, it has been a great tool for me, and it works well.”
Fiance: ” He loves it” everyone chuckles
Me: ” I’m just weary of this movement, I’m not sure I will be getting an e-reader anytime soon, I love books too much”
Friend: “Yeah but it’s so great! You’ll get one, I know you”

Me: “Oh, I never said I wouldn’t get one, maybe I will, but probably like a year and half from now”
Now understand that this is sort of exaggerated and not 100% what either of us said, but the important part is that I was weary to the point where I wasn’t going to get one a year and half from three weeks ago when we had this conversation. As you could tell I didn’t really have an argument, or the words to say why I didn’t want to adopt this new technology yet. Oh, but now I have been saved, its like Tim Challies was in my head and said, here Addison this is why you don’t want to adopt this medium yet. Those of you who know me also know that I love Tim Challies and his blog and podcast, you should give him a listen he is intelligent. Due to my lack in the way that I can use words I am going to simply copy and paste his article into the rest of mine. I will post a link at the bottom that takes you to his webpage, but Tim has finally answered all my critics as to why I don’t want to adopt this e-reader quite yet, I’m still in test drive mode, meaning I am going to buy a friend of mines 1st gen AmazonKindle, for cheap hopefully to see if I really like it.
Enjoy his article, its brilliant and well thought out:

“On Tuesday I offered you 5 Reasons Books are Better Than E-Books and on Wednesday 5 Reasons E-Books Are Better Than Books. Today I want to tie up those two posts with a few thoughts on why we need to be very, very careful about moving from the book to the e-book.

Media and Messages

Anyone who studies media or technology must run into Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman. These two men were leaders in the field with McLuhan being the teacher and Postman the disciple. If there is anything we have learned from these men it is summed up in McLuhan’s little phrase, “the medium is the message.” What McLuhan sought to show people is that every medium, whether book or television or computer, carries within it some kind of ideology, some kind of idea. He wanted people to see that this, this ideology, is often as important or perhaps even more important than the message the media conveys. Such ideologies predispose us to see and understand the world in one way rather than another. So the content of a news program may be less important than the subtle messages fed to us by the medium of television (which might be that pictures convey truth better than words or that immediacy is virtuous or that information itself, without context or analysis, is inherently good).

While I do not fully follow either McLuhan or Postman, I do think they were correct in this point. There is more to a book than the words it contains; the medium itself is important since it coveys certain truths, certain messages of its own. There is more to a television, more to a computer than the content it carries; the device itself is important. One device or one technology may not be better than another, but certainly they are different because they convey different messages to us.

So the first thing we need to understand is that we cannot neatly separate the medium and the message. In many ways the medium is the message or, at the very least, it contributes to the message.

Goodbye to the Book

For centuries now people have prophesied about the end of the book but such prophets have always proven wrong. They have seen that one media or another would displace the book and have wrongly assumed that these media would replace it. The television drew society away from the book, but it could never carry content like a book and thus never stood a chance of replacing it. It displaced it so that in many cases people gave up books in order to watch television, but it couldn’t ever replace it. Today, though, we have digital devices that can carry text in a digital format and do so with some degree of excellence. Amazon’s Kindle, first released in 2007, very quickly rose to prominence and it has been followed by a host of similar devices, selling in the millions. Though the printed book will remain with us for some time, it seems likely that its days are now, finally, numbered.

I don’t think the printed book will ever fully disappear, but I do think it will more and more be replaced by e-books. Books may be relegated to the place of records today—quaint collector’s items and special editions for the old fashioned. This will not happen immediately, but I do think it will happen eventually. Many of you who are reading this article have e-reading devices and many of you are quickly switching from books to e-books. You may be early adopters, but many others will soon follow.

The impact of this is nicely summarized by Mark Bauerlein when he says “To replace the book with the screen is to remove a 2,500-year-old cornerstone of civilization…” He is not commenting on the morality of such a change and is not saying that it is necessarily bad. He simply wants us to understand that moving from book to screen is moving away from a medium that has been a cornerstone of our civilization. Books have long been the medium that carries our most important ideas. Books carried the teachings of the Reformers, books were absolutely integral to the formation of Protestantism and books have shaped what we believe today. Our faith has not been shaped only by the content of those books, but by the medium of the book as well.

The second thing we need to see, then, is that books are now finally being replaced by something (e-books) and that this is ground-shaking in that for centuries the book has been the carrier of our most important ideas. We are now entrusting our ideas to a new carrier, a new medium.

From the E-Book To…

When a new technology is introduced to the world, it tends to be introduced in reference to an existing one. The automobile was first known as the “horseless carriage” and the train as “the iron horse.” In both cases people saw what the technology would replace or supercede and gave it a name that related it to the old. Of course in both cases the reference soon disappeared as the technology grew into something all its own. Both the automobile and the train shaped society in ways no one could have predicted.

I think it is very likely that a decade from now we will no longer use the term e-book. Not only is it just a silly term, but also, as the medium grows it will distance itself from the book. The book will serve as the starting-point, but whatever it becomes will inevitably be much different in the end.

And here is the third thing we need to see. While we currently see the clear relationship of book to e-book, the pattern of history is that eventually the e-book will resemble the book as much as the horse resembles the train in form, function and importance. In other words, the book is just the smallest starting point for what the future e-book will be.

Think!

What concerns me in all of this is that Christians are being very quick to make the switch from books to e-books and that we are doing so absolutely thoughtlessly. As I looked back to my 5 reasons that e-books are better than books, I was struck by how many of those reasons are reasons of convenience. At least in its current form, the e-book and the accompanying e-reader offer little advantage over the book except in the area of convenience. And when should we ever allow convenience to dictate something as important as the medium that carries our most important ideas? When it comes to the tools of understanding and the tools that allow us to truly absorb information, to turn that information into knowledge and wisdom, the book reigns supreme.

Do you see my concern here? It may well be that the e-book will prove to be a superior medium to the book. I hope that is the case, that the ideas embedded within it will serve us rather than hinder us. What distresses me is not seeing people begin to transition from books to e-books, but to see people do so thoughtlessly, to cast aside that “2,500-year-old cornerstone of civilization” like it is old and defunct and pathetic in order to embrace what is new and untried and untested and, most of all, convenient. I would like to think that Christians would be very careful, very thoughtful in moving from one defining medium to the next. But that just hasn’t been the case.

So Christian, I encourage you to think and to think deeply as you transition from book to e-book. Think about what it means to move from one to the next and think about how great ideas, the ideas that shape our world and shape our faith, may be carried in book or e-book format. The words may be the same, but because the medium is not, the end result may well be very different.”

I am not arguing that Tim has done a perfect job of describing the e-reader debate, but he has done a pretty good job, better than any other article I have read yet. Thanks Tim.

http://www.challies.com – Tim Challies website/blog

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15: 4-5 ESV

This is just a brief glimpse into this post. I have really enjoyed reading through, praying about, and learning from God about this section of scripture this past year. It has really helped shape me and my mindset for doing ministry and living my life for Christ amongst many other life circumstances. To read the rest of this post, visit the Veritas blog here, and while there maybe take a peak at some of the other posts my peers have been writing.

“It is interesting how movements begin. I love looking back and seeing how history unfolds. Opportunities arise for people to step up and call their generation to see things differently, to believe accurately and live passionately. Some movements are short-lived while others have a lasting impact. You have micro-movements of subcultures—smaller cultures within the greater culture. You also see macro movements that can change nations or potentially the world. They are led by imperfect people who oftentimes did not necessarily desire to start a movement. God, in His sovereign plan, weaves people into His story to play roles that bring about His purposes. They are bit players in a bigger drama.
I have been thinking about a specific group of guys for a long time. I have watched their lives and considered the impact they are having. I have wondered how far reaching their scope potentially could be and marveled at how God has orchestrated their lives for such a time as this. I have often thought about how powerful the gospel is to transform and redeem as I have considered their ways. In short, this group has been an encouragement to me in a way that has caught me off guard. This group consists of four front-line artists who simply don’t want to waste their lives: Lecrae, Tedashii, Trip Lee and Sho Baraka.
They are Christian rappers who formed ReachRecords and 116 Clique with a passion to reach this generation with the gospel. It’s not gimmickry. It’s not ego. It’s not hype. They are cultural missionaries who use the medium of rap to share the message of Christ. It’s not unlike a medical missionary using the medium of surgery to win the opportunity to share the message of Christ. They are preachers without a pulpit, teachers without a podium. They are slowly infiltrating the hip-hop culture with turntables and microphones, seizing the opportunity to share the gospel by utilizing their gift as a platform.
I found their calling significant for several reasons. First, they are unashamedly preaching the gospel of Christ. Their music is Christocentric and culturally decipherable. Every song and every lyric points to the Savior in some form or fashion. Every event is a crusade. Every medium is an opportunity to preach.
Second, rap and hip-hop is far reaching in scope. Rap music appeals to the inner-city teenager as much as it does to the upper-middle class yuppie. This style of music draws from a diverse group of people. It is hard to profile; therefore, their reach is wide.
Third, they are African-American role models. The fatherless epidemic has plagued the inner-city and contributes to many of the cycles that continue to bind this segment of society. Here is a group of men being faithful husbands and faithful fathers. Here is a group upholding the worth of marriage and esteeming the role of a father. Here is a group deflecting fame and fortune to show that Christ is better. As they live faithful lives, a generation is watching.
Fourth, they are doctrinally solid. On the whole, the African-American church has been strong in faith but weak in doctrine. These men espouse the need for both. They are not watering down lyrics to make them palatable; instead, their lyrics are rich with sound doctrine that teaches the deep truths of God’s worth. They are Christ-centered, not man-centered. They call a generation to forsake worldly pleasures and seek prosperity in Christ alone.
Fifth and finally, their calling reminds me that mine is no different. We certainly have different mediums and spheres of influence, but I am called to unashamedly preach the gospel of Christ. God has placed me in an arena of influence in which I am to be faithful. I am a role model to the next generation. Even if I impact no one else, I will impact my family. I want my wife to marvel at the love of God because of how I love her. I want my children to see a marriage saturated with grace, godliness and goodness. I want to pass on to my little ones the beautiful reality of the Savior and watch them, by God’s grace, pass it along to their own. I want to see chains broken and new branches of a family tree begin. I desire to see our little home play its part well in the drama of God’s unfolding, redemptive story. I want to teach them the rich and deep truths of Scripture. I want our home to be free in the Lord and bound in His love. Regardless of musical taste, we have a lot more in common through Christ. It is stronger than beats or rhythms. It’s a family called the Church and each member is faithfully playing their part.
I hope this is much bigger than a movement. I hope it’s a revolution, a gospel-centered revolution. Rap it. Preach it. Live it. Don’t waste your life.
jp”

As most of you know I feel like God is calling me to work for the Church (notice the big C here), more specifically I feel like God is calling me to teach in the church (notice the little c here), therefore probably becoming a pastor. I understand that I’m still young, I still have decisions to make in my life and lots of hard work ahead of me to get to that point, but I really feel like the Lord is calling me to a life of vocational ministry in the church. I also have some really good friends who fall into two categories, either a) they are already an ordained teaching pastor at a church, or b) they are working towards that as a goal, some closer than others. So the culture and ideology of being a pastor is a very big part of my life, at least in this season of life it is.

So with that context lets get to the story I read about. The blog post I read came from Micheal McKinley, who is a pastor for Guilford Baptist Church in Sterling VA, and a blogger for 9 Marks, a ministry and resource for pastors. Recently Mike posted on a man whom you might have read about in the news recently, Gary Lamb. Gary was a church planter, blogger and the pastor of a huge church in Georgia where he ended up having an affair and divorcing his wife. Since his divorce he has recently remarried and is planting another church, which is another story and post for another day, I’m onto something else here. And just for the record, I don’t agree with what Gary is doing, any of it really.

Mike writes;
“Since his story has broken, Lamb has been receiving emails from many (italics are mine) men in ministry who are cheating on their wives, and so he is uniquely positioned to speak to the question of why pastors have affairs. Even if you don’t agree with him on a lot of things, there’s a lot to be gained from his insights on this matter (as someone once said, wisdom isn’t learning from your mistakes, it’s learning from the mistakes of others). His four observations:

Most pastors struggle with some sort of insecurity.
Most pastors have no accountability.
Most pastors live their lives serving everyone except their wife.
The church has made pastors into rock stars rather than regular men called by God.”

Wow, those four points are really scary to me, especially since I am pursuing a career in pastoral ministry and as statics go, I’m 90% sure I’ll be married at some point (of course if you asked me that percentage is probably a little higher right now) The fact that Mike said, many men in ministry are cheating on their wives has whole heartedly scared me. I want to, in subsequent blog posts, attack these four observations and give some biblical ground as to how some of these can be avoided, how the power of the gospel should be enough for pastors (and everyone else), what Christ has done for us addressing these issues specifically, and if you are a pastor or on your way there that these observations shouldn’t discourage you from wanting to follow that path.

The point is that there is hope, we shouldn’t feel lost or doomed if we are currently on the path of pastoral ministry or in it right now, Christ spilled his blood for instances like this, and we have to remember that we are broken, even the “rock-star” pastors are broken, and if we look into their lives long enough we will find a sin (not that we should always be looking for someone’s sin, just know its there).

Here is the link for the McKinley post

There is no doubt in my mind, and probably none in yours, that our culture and society have been changed, and will continue to change due to technology. Technology, by definition, is simply the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes; and can be found in machinery and equipment like cell phones, computers, cars, video cameras, etc. I think we are all in agreement that technology is something we think we couldn’t live without. Most of us own computers (or have access to one), most of us have cell phones, most of us drive a car, most of us listen to music (with any of the hundreds of music playing devices) and all of us are reading this blog which is communicated through technology (gotcha!). The popularity of technology and its billion-dollar industry in our culture makes me scratch my head and ponder, why are we so interested in technology, and what about technology is so appealing to humans, at the root of it what is it about technology that has got us going nuts over it? I think Mike Pohlman, writer and editor of The Gospel Coalition blog site, sums it up real nicely in his article on technology and its shortcomings when he says “humans don’t do well when not in control”. Technology, amongst many other enticing features, gives humans the mirage of being in control, and we like that.

Now a disclaimer, I love technology, and I suppose I always will. At its fundamental level, technology is like everything else God has gifted us with, great. As fallen beings we are especially inept at taking something that should, in its essence, glorify God and speak of His amazing creativity and beauty in the world, and turn it into its own god. We take something that is only a shadow of the real true thing (which is God) and worship it, instead of looking for what is creating the shadow, God. Technologies, and the various instruments of it, are easily some of the most worshipped items on our planet, besides our selves of course. Why do we love technology so much? Well I would argue, and Pohlman would probably agree, it’s because technology can give us so much control, and we love that!

Technology is just one of many things in our lives that we can manipulate and control however we want. We can’t change the weather, we can’t change politics, we can’t change how fast our vegetables grow, we can’t change the color of the sky and we can’t change the way meat tastes. These things are just out of our hands, and should be, because if we got a hold of the power to do these things, we would screw it up! Oh but technology gives us that power, it gives us that ability to change our background picture, to decide who are friends really are (thanks Facebook), it gives us the ability to tell the whole world what we are doing (though you only have 78 followers!?) and it gives us the ability to take a picture of the sky and then change the color of it to our liking, lets say red.

I was amazed at the pictures and videos I was seeing on June 24th, I couldn’t believe it. I was reading tweets, Facebook messages and statuses, blog posts, newspaper articles and television news pieces all just raving about the big event of the day. For those of you who don’t know what happened that day, it was the illustrious release of the iPhone 4. The ultimate tool to control your life, it does everything you want to do and more! Now most of you know I have an iPhone and I love it, and thank God for Steve Jobs because it has been a great tool in many ways, but I think things have gotten a bit out of control. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets everywhere in America to get their hands on this new gadget, the gadget that will make everything easier and rule our lives. I know there are some people out there, who can wisely use the new iPhone and other great gadgets, but it seems to me like our culture and society has decided to put technology on a pedestal where it doesn’t belong.

I know that this isn’t new to any of you, you know just as much as I do that there are always going to be things that we misuse and that we idolize, but lets not conform to culture. This becomes an issue of the heart, we no longer take technology for what it is, a great gift from God, but we turn it into something that controls our lives and becomes our God. I just look at people who have all these gadgets, iPod’s, iPhone’s, iPads, laptops, desktops, projectors, blue-ray dvd players, 3-D tv’s and wonder if they will ever realize that these gadgets, these plastic and metal devices that were created to aid is in life, not take over our lives, will never fill them up. We have fallen in love with technology because we can control it, but what we aren’t looking at is how much technology and gadgets are actually controlling our lives.

So what then do we put ourselves in, what then do we focus on, what should be controlling our life? I think that Paul here helps us realize what it is we need to be doing, and where we need to be putting our hope and focus.

[3:1] If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. [3] For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. [5] Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

(Colossians 3:1-5; ESV)

And be thankful that we don’t have to control or don’t get to control many things. Just look at what we have done already with that control, and trust me you don’t have to look far to see what it has done to us, BP oil spill is just one example of hundreds. If we were in control, mankind as we know it would be in peril, but God has thought this through and thankfully he is in control.