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If you haven’t heard, below is the initial story about the coup d’etat of Honduras Preseident Manuel Zelaya as reported by FOXNews.com.

Stevens Creek Church Missions Team arrived safely in Honduras yesterday. I know that as I have seen their updates on Twitter and Facebook. I even believe that some of The Creek family have spoken directly with some of the Missions Team, but I don’t know that for sure.

Please pray for the entire team. I do not know everyone who is on the trip, but please pray for everyone, including, Susan, BeNeka, Dorna and Billy. I am praying for their safety, their confidence, their boldness, their prayer life and their safe return home.

I trust God and I know He always has a plan and is always in control. I believe the words of Romans 8:28.

Here’s the story as reported by FOXNews.com:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras —  Soldiers seized the national palace and flew President Manuel Zelaya into exile Sunday, hours before a disputed constitutional referendum. Congress appointed a successor, but Zelaya, a leftist ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said he was the victim of an illegal coup.

Hours later, Congress voted to accept what it said was Zelaya’s letter of resignation and by a show of hands, voted to appoint congressional President Roberto Micheletti as the new chief executive.

But Zelaya said the letter wasn’t his and vowed to remain in power.

The Supreme Court said it was supporting the military in what it called a defense of democracy.

Zelaya was arrested shortly before polls were to open in a referendum on whether to change the constitution. The Supreme Court ruled the referendum illegal and everyone from Congress to members of his own party opposed it. Critics said Zelaya wanted to remove limits to his re-election.

Tanks rolled through the streets and hundreds of soldiers with riot shields surrounded the presidential palace in the capital, Tegucigalpa. Zelaya, at the airport in the Costa Rican capital, San Jose, called the military action illegal.

“There is no way to justify an interruption of democracy, a coup d’etat,” he said in a telephone call to the Venezuela-based Telesur television network. “This kidnapping is an extortion of the Honduran democratic system.”

A majority of members of Congress voted with a show of hands to accept a letter of resignation that Congressional Secretary Jose Alfredo Saavedra said was signed by Zelaya and dated Thursday. The letter said Zelaya was resigning because of “the polarized political situation” and “insuperable health problems.”

A resolution read on the floor of Congress accuses Zelaya of “manifest irregular conduct” and “putting in present danger the state of law,” a reference to his refusal to obey a Supreme Court ruling against holding a constitutional referendum.

But Zelaya told Telesur he would not recognize any de facto government and pledged to serve out his term, which ends in January. He said he would attend a scheduled meeting of Central American presidents in Nicaragua on Monday. He said Chavez, who is also going, would provide transportation.

Chavez, who along with the Castros in Cuba is Zelaya’s top ally, said Venezuela “is at battle” and put his military on alert.

President Barack Obama said he was “deeply concerned” by Zelaya’s expulsion and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the arrest should be condemned.

“I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter,” Obama’s statement read.

Zelaya told Telesur that he was awoken by gunshots and the shouts of his security guards, whom he said resisted troops for at least 20 minutes. Still in his pajamas, he jumped out of bed and ducked behind an air conditioner to avoid flying bullets, he said.

He said eight or nine soldiers in masks escorted him onto an air force plane that took him to Costa Rica.

Chavez said troops in Honduras also temporarily detained the Venezuelan and Cuban ambassadors, beating them.

Zelaya called on Honduran soldiers to desist, urged citizens to take to the streets in peaceful protests, and asked Honduran police to protect demonstrators.

Zelaya ally Rafael Alegria, a labor leader, called for protests.

“We demand respect for the president’s life,” he told Honduran radio Cadena de Noticias. “And we will go out into the streets to defend what this has cost us: living in peace and tranquility.”

About 100 Zelaya supporters, many wearing “Yes” T-shirts for the referendum, blocked the main street outside the gates to the palace, throwing rocks and insults at soldiers and shouting “Traitors! Traitors!”

“They kidnapped him like cowards,” screamed Melissa Gaitan. Tears streamed down the face of the 21-year-old, who works at the government television station. “We have to rally the people to defend our president.”

Honduras has a history of military coups: Soldiers overthrew elected presidents in 1963 and 1972. The military did not turn the government over to civilians until 1981, under U.S. pressure.

Micheletti has been one of the president’s main opponents in the dispute over whether to hold the referendum. The head of the Supreme Court was also opposed to the nonbinding referendum, on whether to ask voters whether they want to convoke an assembly to rewrite the constitution.

It appeared that the vote would no longer take place.

c/o FOXNews.com @ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529326,00.html?test=latestnews

That question has been going through my head a lot lately.

I realize that entire thesis’s have been written with that question as the topic. There are philosophical arguments around every corner because of that question. There are college majors that deal with that question. My guess is that at least two dozen books per year get published  that deal directly with the question.

So what is you answer to, “What is ministry?”

My answer, and I try to keep my answers simple, is… drum roll please..

“Ministry is being there for someone.”

That’s it.

There are a lot of different directions you can go with my answer, but at its core, to me, ministry is just being there for someone.

I have been lax in my updates here on my blog. My bad.

I have had some internet issues as of late. I turned off my cable modem and switched to DSL. I was promissed a seemless transition, but it was anything but seemless… anyway, I am back up and running and am going to be more dilligent in posting to my blog.

R3 @ Stevens Creek

This Saturday, June 20, I will be speaking at Stevens Creek’s R3 conference. R3 is being hosted at Stevens Creek Church and is scheduled to begin at 9:00 am and finish approximately at 1:00 pm.  R3 is free and open to everyone.

In our uncertain economy, The Creek has partnered with many companies across the C.S.R.A. to provide free seminars on Personal Finances in Difficult Times, Entrepreneurship 101, and Career Coaching. After the seminars, a Career Opportunity Job Fair is going to take place with many local, regional and national companies seeking potential employees. I found out yesterday that one company attending R3 is currently looking to hire 40 new employees.

If you have any questions, please e-mail me, tweet me or leave me a comment here on the blog.

I hope to see you at R3 this Saturday at Stevens Creek Church!

Back when I was on the Florida State football team there was a standout defensive player who was extremely vocal about his ability. He was without question a very good football player, on the verge of being great. If you followed the Seminole football team in the early 90′s you would definitely recognize his name.

I remember when it was time for this player to enter the NFL draft. Mind you, this guy wasn’t humble before, but when the draft approached he became even more boisterous and arrogant about his ability.

One thing that stood out to me then, and stills stands out to me  today is one statement he made. In one of his “I am the greatest thing slince sliced bread” rants, he boasted,”If I am not drafted in the first round, then I am not even going to play in the NFL. They just won’t deserve me if I am not a first rounder.” I was floored.

I was driving my son to day care the other morning when I was complaining to God that my life has not turned out the way I wanted it to. I was explaining to God that I am too talented, too educated and too passionate to be relegated to the life I am living.

God interupted my whining as He blitzed my mind with memories of this arrogant, cocky defensive FSU football star of so many years ago. It was as if God said to me, “So you think you weren’t drafted in the first round? So you have decided that you are not going to play?” Sometimes I really don’t like it when God talks to me.

You see I desperately wanted, and still want to be, a full time Pastor. God tells me that this is a good thing (1 Timothy 3:1), but for reasons known and unknown to me, God has not allowed me to walk into my desire. So when God hits me with a question like, “you are not going to play?” just because I wasn’t drafted in the first round, it hurts.

What the arrogant, boistrous player from Florida State failed to realize was that making it to the NFL is a huge accomplishment. There are only 32 players drafted in the first round of the NFL draft each year. That means only 320 players are first round draft choices per decade. If you are drafted in the NFL at all, you have been selected as an elite player in that game.

God is telling me that serving Him, in my local church, in my community, wherever I am, I should count myself as an elite player in His Kingdom. Yes I chose to be on Jesus’ tem, but he drafted me long before I decided to suit up and live for Him.

Racism

 (What are you doing Gil? A blog about Gay Marriage followed up by a blog about Racism? Don’t you know you are not supposed to talk about those things?)

It was the Spring of 1993. I was on the Florida State University football team. For some unknown reason I looked at William Floyd’s left arm. He was cut. By cut I mean he was gashed. Will got caught by a rough facemask in practice that ripped his left bicep open. I actually could see into his arm. I saw his flesh. I saw his blood. I saw Will hurt.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that is when God reached down and ripped racism out of my heart. I saw my friend, who is black, bleeding just like I do.

I was never a member of the Ku Klux Klan or anything, but before this afternoon I definitely walked around with a superior attititude about myself just because I was white. I told the occasional off color joke and just lived my “white” life. I did have “black friends” but I never really became very close to any of them.

That hot spring day back in 1993 my world changed. My preconceived notions about race changed. My thoughts about myself and how I lived my life changed.

Now I can’t say that I have lived a perfectly non racist life since that day. I have used the word since that day. Am I proud oif it. Absolutely not.

Recently racism has become an issue in my life. I really hate it. I believe we all need to be so far past race that it isn’t even a thought. Unfortunately that is not the world, country, region, state or city I live in. Racism is an issue.

So I am asking a question: How do you prove that you are not a racist?

It doesn’t matter if you are black, hispanic, white, or any other ethnicity. Every race and ethnicity has dealt with racism in one form or another.

Maybe the question I should be asking is: How can you prove that you are not a racist?

Gay Marriage

(Pssssttttt… Hey don’t you know you’re not supposed to talk about that?)

The Gay Marriage debate has been raging in California for… well… it seems like forever. Let’s just agree it has been going on for a really long time.

Have you noticed “church people” going crazy about gay marriage?.

No matter how crazy “church people” are about gay marriage, I find it odd that I can’t locate anywhere in the Bible where Jesus goes out and lobbies any government(s) in an attempt to persuade that government to adopt His beliefs and morals. Jesus didn’t do that. As some would have liked Him to be, Jesus didn’t become a political figure. However, Jesus did affect many, many governments. Jesus chose to lead by example. He chose to lead by changing peoples lives… many peoples lives.

This makes me take pause and ask…

Is the church truly angry about gay marriage?, or is the church angry because it has not led by example. Is the church angry because it hasn’t changed very many lives?

Jesus was and is fierce in His beliefs and morals. He never said not to fight for what is right. He just taught us how to fight His way.  He told us to love God with everything we have. He told us to love our neighbor as ourself. 

Maybe if the church lived a life that more modeled the life of Jesus Christ, then the gay marriage issue, wouldn’t even be an issue. 

My recommendation to “solve” this issue: 

 

  1. Pray
  2. Stay Calm
  3. Listen to people who have differing views than yours
  4. Stay Calm
  5. Try to understand the differing views
  6. Stay Calm
  7. Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself

 

If you don’t like my recommendation, take up with the Big Guy. I borrowed it from Him.


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