The Intervention

I recently finished reading the heart-wrenching book "A Thousand Hills" by Stephen Kinzer...

And all I can say is "Wow."

Before I begin, I highly recommend the few of you that actually read these little blog things to go and purchase a copy of this book. Fair warning, though, it is not an easy book to get through.

And do not worry, my words here are not just a synopsis of the book as I will be attempting a semi-amazing analogy at some point, as I usually do...

In "A Thousand Hills," Kinzer follows the amazing story of Paul Kagame, whose rebel army single-handedly invaded Rwanda to end the 100-day genocide that claimed nearly one million lives in 1994.

The book begins with Paul Kagame fleeing Rwanda as Hutu extremists attempt to slaughter his Tutsi family in the early years of his life. Growing up as a refugee in Uganda, he quickly rose to fame among his exiled brothers as he created the most audacious covert operation of modern clandestine warfare. Building a rebel army within the Ugandan army, the exiled Tutsis became poised to take back Rwanda, since the government would not allow them to return to their homeland...

As the clock ticked down to the impending, unforseen atrocities that would be more barbaric than Hitler's Holocaust, Kagame was sent to the United States for extensive military training. Still being a high ranking member of the Ugandan Army, he departed for America so no one would suspect his true intentions. The rebel force was left in the hands of his close friend Fred Rwigyema...

Halfway through his training, and after nightly phone calls to Uganda, a date was set for the rebel's invasion of their homeland that had kicked them out. October 1, 1990 would be a date to go down in history.

On October 1, 1990 in the wee hours of the morning, thousands of well-trained Rwandan exiles-turned-soldiers marched across the border into their homeland that some had not seen decades. The Rwandan Army, unsuspecting and unprepared, fled from their posts.

Over the next few days, Paul Kagame stopped receiving information about the invasion. Concerned, he finally discovered that Fred, his life-long friend and commander of the RPF rebels, had been killed in battle.

Kagame, knowing that without a strong leader the rebels would lose, prepared to return to take the reins of what would become one of the most desperate, vile, and devastating war/genocides the world would ever witness.

...........................

This is where things get really interesting.

..........................

Leaving the United States top military academy drew international attention to Paul Kagame. It soon became known that he was going back to Rwanda to a devastating war that no human being could possibly imagine...

As he departed the U.S., Kagame realizied he was being followed. Over the next several days, he would be playing a cat-and-mouse game with CIA agents, Belgian secret service officers, and central African assassins. The world was determined to not let Kagame return to Rwanda to continue the war for his people's freedom...

After eluding police, customs officials, and government agents at airports in London, Brussels, Addis Ababa, and Nairobi, Paul Kagame ended up in an airport terminal in central Africa, tired, exhausted, and pursued by a near invisible enemy. Sitting in a chair in the terminal, trying to figure out how to get to Uganda, the soon to be rebel leader broke down.

Knowing that every second he wasn't in Rwanda meant his men were dying, Paul Kagame bowed his head...
To this day, Kagame admits he has no idea what came over him at this moment. All he recalls is that a firm resolve entered his willpower to get to Rwanda, regardless the cost.

It was from that moment onward, that the hand of God came upon one of the few heros that survived the Rwandan genocide. And as pure evil, hatred, and inhumanity began to rear it's hideous head in Rwanda, Paul Kagame marched within a foot of a Rwandan government assassin and onto a plane. The next day, he was reaching the front lines of one of the most desperate wars Africa had ever witnessed.

..........
I'll tell you how his story ends later...

It's time for that semi-amazing analogy...

I've always wondered why God allows awful things like genocide to happen. Perhaps it is to remind us of how much we really need Him or perhaps it is Him giving humanity a chance to stare evil in the face and defeat it...
If the latter is so, at least partially, then God has his own intervention plan...

Intervention is really an amazing concept. My Mac dictionary defines "intervention" as: "the action or process of intervening."
I guess intervention can only be defined by what it is: that is, an outside force entering into a scenario or item that is in some form of conflict, many times with no gain for the outside force.

Looking back 14 years after the last machete stroke ended a Tutsi life, God's intervention plan in Rwanda was clear: and Paul Kagame was the central character in a story of blood, toil, genocide, war, and now onward to redemption.
But the story of Paul Kagame is only a small part of the history of supernatural intervention on our behalf. It culminated approxametly two thousand years ago on a hillside outside of Jerusalem...the most Glorious Intervention we have ever witnessed. It is an Intervention that happens everyday all around the world.

That's the analogy...
Now back to our Rwandan hero...

Over the coming years, Paul Kagame would lead the RPF rebels into battle against a government that intended to execute every Tutsi in Rwanda. By 1994, what Kagame most feared came true as government troops and the Interhammwe militia set up road blocks across the country. Every Tutsi that was stopped at these roadblocks was dragged to the side of the road, sometimes molested, and then hacked to death with machetes...

Seeing that the United Nations peacekeeping force would not intervene to stop the slaughter, Paul Kagame realized what had to be done. God was about to use the man He had saved from the merciless international agents that had hunted him four years before to a point of hopelessness, and end what mankind did not have the guts to face...

In mid-April, only days after the Rwandan government started massacring civilians, Paul Kagame and his rebel force exploded from northern Rwandan in a last-ditch, desperate invasion to end the killing. A few weeks later, RPF rebels captured the capital city, Kigali, and were appalled at what they found. Tens of thousands of human carcasses filled the city, and that was only the beginning....
The dead bodies were so numerous that RPF soldiers saw enormous rats that were the as large as medium sized dogs, weighing up to fifty pounds.
They had been feasting on the dead bodies....

The official death count eventually reached one million lives. Nearly ten percent of the Rwandan population was hacked to death with machetes in only 100 days...

God gave humanity a chance to save Rwanda, and we failed. Luckily for us, God rose a man up to do what no one else was willing too.

While the story of Rwanda is a sad part of our history, it is also full of miracles. The fact that Paul Kagame was even involved is a mercy of God. The world abandoned Rwanda...so God used a Rwandan to end what is perhaps the worst atrocity ever committed in the modern world.

But Paul Kagame's story is only one of millions worldwide. God didn't just intervene in the bloodshed at Golgotha or in the vileness of the Rwandan genocide, He intervenes on a daily basis, whether it is using men to end evil or just simply comforting the hurt.

Certainly, Paul Kagame's story is incredible, and it doesn't end there! Today, he is now president of Rwanda...and reconciliation between murders, rapists, and the victimized is already underway. Forgiveness in Rwanda is a very real thing....just as it is in our daily lives...something I've had to learn a great deal about lately.

Paul Kagame is certainly one of my heros. His intervention was nothing less than incredible. But it points to something far greater, well, two things far greater:

1. Our desperate need for salvation from ourselves.
2. God is in the middle of The Ultimate Glorious Intervention in each and every follower of Christ.

The story of Paul Kagame, as grim and as beautiful as it is, is a firm reminder that we cannot save ourselves. Something that is essentially above us is the only hope we have, and it does not take a Christian to realize that something is seriously wrong with this world. The secular world, whether they know it or not, is screaming for salvation...just turn the news or a radio on sometime.

So, to application and beyond...
What I took away from "A Thousand Hills" is that even in the midst of genocide, God was working miracles. If God can orchestrate events and people to end such atrocities, then hell, our problems are a walk in the park for God...

So why then do we worry about them so much?

God, I feel like a complete jackass when I put my problems in that light...I am blessed beyond belief and all I see is the problems I face. But in reality, those problems are very superficial...

After all, I don't carry the weight of responsibility of leading a rebel army to end genocide. Even more so, I do not carry the responsibility of God...

Looking back over 20 years I can see, just like Paul Kagame, that God has intervened to save me more than once...I'm guessing He has great plans for me...

Maybe we should all take a look back and see His faithfulness even when we failed...cause, let's be honest, we failed pretty big in Rwanda, and we are failing again in Darfur.

Yet, the miracles keep falling from God by the millions, and we have blinded ourselves so much with our own petty crap that we do not even see them...

Truly, we are wretched creatures....

In Christ,
Hackett

The Life of a Pawn

Having the ability to multi-task is a great thing, or at least I always thought it was. My job position and many other things in life call for a multi-tasker, one of the few things I am consistently good with, as it is a gift. But sometimes too much of a gift can be not so good or even harmful to situations, people, or oneself.

On a honest note, putting aside the fact that I am in the top 10% of the wealthiest people in the world just because I live in America and don’t have to worry about the government I submit to trying to harm me for power’s sake, life has not exactly been as peachy as I’d like it to be…
Stress, over-reaching, and too much running on an empty tank finally caught up with me recently. An overloaded mind and body that is already stressed can only go on for so long, and unfortunately it took me almost being hospitalized to realize that….


Being forced to take a break for me was definitely a mind-boggling experience. It gave me time to think about stuff that was really going on in my life and what priorities needed to actually be priorities. I guess it is a universal trait of multi-taskers to not stop thinking; hopefully this particular one can use it for good…

Anyways, part of my thought processes were finding analogies or different scenarios that could help me better understand my own current state of affairs. In a nutshell, at this point there was no need for split-second decision-making, thank God, because it would take me quite some time to find anything to relate too.

And, oddly enough, the thing I could most relate my present situations too was a simple chessboard. Well, not just the board, the pieces are perhaps more important, at least they are as important…
Whatever measure of importance is not really what I want to speak of, although I am sure it would make for a rich topic once you see how it is to be applied:

My proposal is that all of us, regardless of social, economic, religious, racial, or even physical locale status, live on a chessboard of sorts.

If you are not familiar with the game of chess, let me briefly explain the objectives and overarching goals of the game:
The main goal is to force the opponent’s king into a position where it can no longer move…aka “checkmate.”
Minor goals include clearing the board of any opposing piece that blocks you from the checkmate, advancing across the board in a strategic way that limits the other player’s options, and being skilled enough to have a flexible plan that will allow you to win.

It sounds simple enough, but in all honesty it is not. Chess is a very complex, complicated game…

But regardless of complications, the analogy I pulled from the game and compared into my life, or perhaps even God-inspired, was that we are like pawns on a chessboard…and when reality hits the ground running, life becomes uncontrollable. Unfortunatly for the pawn, this can be an every play scenario; or, in our lives, a possible every day scenario.

Perhaps the main problem is that I, like so many others, consider myself the king on the chessboard. Sure, all the other players are important, but they all should be looking out for “number 1.” (me) Right?
Apparently not…

Romans 9 speaks of God’s enduring and uncompromising power. Flipping idly through the Scriptures in my down time led me to verse 18:

“Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.”

Wow…talk about hitting home. If the High King of Heaven can control our hearts, then am I really the King on chessboard? Not at all! Living the life of a pawn seems to be much more appropriate for a fallen being such as I and the rest of humanity.
I’ve always known the Gospel to be offensive to many, and in all honesty it can be. No one, especially in our society that puts so much emphasis on independence, likes to hear that they are not the king on there own chessboards…. even some of us professing believers…like me….

I’ve seen, read, and studied the historical, archeological, and other secular accounts of the Scriptures to believe that it is THE inspired Word of God, a love letter to a fallen world. So, when I come to stuff like this…sometimes it can be a little bit of a slap in the face. I guess, in a way, the Bible is like a best friend: Soothing when it needs to be, challenging when confrontation arrives, and still there to pick you up when rock bottom is more than just a reality…way to go Evan, you are kinda like the Bible!

But back to the chess analogy…

Most of us know how to live in the illusion that we are in charge (yes, it is an illusion). But I dare say we know very little about being the pawn. In all honesty, it sounds kind of lame: pawns have the appearance of being the weakest player and are very limited in movement. Our illusionary “kingship” sounds much more exciting. But is it really?

Is submission, please don’t wince at the word, really such a bad thing? Is being a pawn really that bad? Do we even understand what the pawn’s (our) position is?

The pawn is really an amazing part of the game of chess. When combined with other pawns, whole sections of the board can be secured, opposing pieces can be defeated, and, when joined by more powerful pieces, the game can be won.
We look around our world and we see that it is small groups of people that are making the biggest difference. A pawn, or person, going solo quickly burns out and is defeated. A group of pawns holds their ground and may even gain some….
But a pawn/person who is with a group of pawns with the support of the King and other stronger players…comes close to being unstoppable.

I guess the greatest fear of stepping down to the position of the pawn is thinking that the King taking our place will be like any other human, and we could be sacrificed to get what he wants…
But what we forget, what we forget, is that Christ, the King, sacrificed Himself for the pawns.

So, in this light, is being a pawn really degrading? On the chessboard of the world, the King sacrificed Himself for the pawns…. apparently we are worth something…and we haven’t even considered that the chessboard was also created by God…
And not only do I know that I am worth something from my King’s sacrifice, but I also know that I am worth something by the fact that if I do not take my proper place on the board, no one will replace it…in essence keeping my individuality while submitting to something higher than me.

This is what makes Christianity more than a religion: it is a lifestyle choice that involves submission everyday. It is personal. It is taking your place on the chessboard and sticking with it.
Of course, being a pawn does not mean things will always be easy. There are some major opponents in this world as well. There are things such as violence, genocide, and even oppressive governments that sit on the other side of the board, things that are much larger than us. Thankfully, we are not the only pawn the board. And even more so, we have a King who not only never loses, but also created the playing field.

Perhaps being a pawn isn’t such a bad thing…
It means submitting yourself to Christ as independent being. Submission doesn’t make you any less of a person…but perhaps the thing we forget about independence is that to be independent in Christ we must be dependent on Him…a paradox, I know. Freedom in Christ is being dependent on Him, and from that one dependence being independent in all else. Submission may not be such a bitch after all…a lesson we could all learn from…

Maybe multi-tasking isn’t such a bad thing after all either…

Anyways, I’m going to go be a pawn now…you are welcome to join me if you like. I’ve been assigned a pretty scary place on the chessboard, and my submissive independence is needed there.

I sincerely hope you find your place on the chessboard as well, and the sooner the better.

In Christ,
Hackett

...For More Than A Name

This is my "testimony" I suppose...hope you learn something from it...


Lately, I have been contemplating the story of Jacob wrestling the Lord in Genesis 32:22-32. If you are unfamiliar with the story, it goes as follows:

Genesis 32:22-32

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."
But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
The man asked him, "What is your name?"
"Jacob," he answered.

Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

Jacob said, "Please tell me your name."
But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."
The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.

............................................

April 6, 2008 will be a day I won't forget for the rest of my life. There was no major life-altering event that took place, it was just a normal Sunday, until I came upon an old CD in my car.

To avoid being laughed at, I will not tell you what CD it was...most of you will probably guess it when I tell you the name of the song, which happens to be the last one on the album...

The name of the song is "24," and no it is not after the TV show...and please spare me the jokes because I still listen to the album.

Over the past couple months, I have been doing a lot of evaluating...from relationships to work to achievments. You could say I've been looking back over the past 20 years to see what good I've done, any differences I have made....you know, the usual self-evaluation everyone does every few years...

I have to say, at first I was not impressed with what I saw: a half-ass attempt at life, a bad relationship with both parents, and armfuls of disappointments, regrets, and failed opportunities. While the past year or so has been much more fruitful, I was shocked at how much time I had wasted for the majority of my life.

That, however, was about to change...

God has spoken to me once in my life when I was an angry 16 year old sitting in a jail cell for something I didn't do. After my parent's selfish divorce, I never healed. Both my parents forced me to talk about it before I was ready to.
Divorce is one of those things that can never fully be healed, only time can help. My mother and father apparently didn't realize that.

By the time I was 16, I had become so used to the pain I was numb to it. I didn't let people in, because I was scared I would get hurt again. I had locked the safe to my heart and soul, and I made sure the key was inside before I shut the door.
Then what was supposed to be a normal day at school ended with me in a jail cell downtown...

As I sat in that concrete room, something happened to me. I prayed that God would talk to me.
Now, this is usually the point that people say they asked Jesus into their hearts and everything was okay after that.
But not me...

I could feel the presence of God in the room, and I had been waiting for this opportunity. God used a false accusation made against me to blast open the vault into the deepest part of me, and I was so mad I was going to let him see inside.

I let God have it. I told Him I hated Him for giving me two parents that only thought about themselves. I told Him I hated Him because everyone in the world seemed to be hurting, and no one was getting better. I told Him I hated Him for putting me in a jail cell because I was in class doing what I was supposed do. I told Him I hated Him for allowing the principal of my school to wait to have me arrested until the end of school so I could be put in handcuffs in front of the entire school population. And at that moment, I truly did hate God.

We throw the word "hate" around way to loosely nowadays. Not many people truly understand what hate is, but I do. I was consumed with it at that point in my life. Hate is murderous, vengeful, and very rarely okay.
And in a jail cell downtown, I had a wrestling match with God, just like Jacob did.

The details of that fight I will keep to myself, but I walked away with a limp like Jacob did. After that, the hatred slowly left.

I guess I didn't realize until April 6, 2008 what had really occurred in that cell downtown at God knows what time of the morning. Then I heard the lyrics to that song:

"I want to see miracles...
To see the world change...
I wrestled the angel...
For more than a name...

For more than a feeling...
For more than a cause...
I'm singing: Spirit take me up in arms with you...
Cause You're raising the dead in me."

.............................

I guess it really hit me then what had happened that night 4+ years ago. I saw miracles and I saw the world changed. I had wrestled God, like Jacob did, but for much more than a name. In a sense, I walked away with a limp, and so did God. We wounded each other, I with my hatred and Him with His Love. His weapon proved to be the stronger that day, thankfully...

After that, the hatred slowly left me. I went back to school and never received an apology for getting screwed over. I was physically threatened more than once by other students, and I lost most of my so-called "friends." To this day I do not have a good relationship with either one of my parents because of the way they both handled their divorce. I carry a chip on my shoulder to this day about that, but it is no longer against God, it is against those people, because they screwed up, not God.
And yes, I know I should forgive them. But forgiving someone is an everyday process, not a one time deal. But I'm working on it because
I finally realized God wasn't the problem, people were.

Over the next four years after that I had more wrestling matches with other people, spiritual beings, and situations, and I carried my wound into every one of those battles with me. Who would've thought a wound could save you!

Jacob received a new name after his fight, I got so much more: a wound, a new knowledge of God, true friends, and respect; all things I didn't have before. I wrestled God and almost won until He wounded me...how many people can say they've "wrestled the angel for more than a name"? Probably not many of us....

So, if you are reading this and are angry with God over something, maybe it is time for your wrestling match with Him. Mad about the way the world is? Mad about something that happened to you? Just mad and decided to blame God for it?
There's only two solutions if you call yourself a Christian. One is to realize people are the problem, not God. The second one is a wrestling match with the Creator. Before you go blaming Him for everything like I did, remember that He didn't mess this world up, we did and we do everyday!

At least give Him the right to defend Himself before you blame everything on Him. You may be surprised at the outcome...after all, you are only human. You aren't as high and mighty as you think you are. You may think you are the only one who is trying to fix the world, but you aren't. Your career may even be focused around helping to fix people or things, but God is in the same business.

After all, He allowed His own Son to be killed so that the healing process for the world could begin. Can you honestly say you've done that much compared to His actions? Have you killed one of the most important things to you so that something lesser and undeserving could benefit from it?
I bet you haven't.

Think about it.

In Christ,
Hackett

The Little Thing Known as Life

No politics, attacks against the religious right, or words about a dying America in this one...sorry if you are disappointed.

I really just wanted to use the medium of the internet to answer a question an old friend of mine posed to me recently, that question being:

How am I supposed to live life?

While that is quite possibly the vaguest question I have ever heard, I will attempt to answer it here.

This question has potential to be answered dozens of different ways. One can look at it from a religious, moral, positive, legalistic, spiritual, personal, thoughtful, public, silent, negative, how-to-save-the-world, political, glass half full, physical, hole in the donut, or environmentally-safe standpoint...

Sarcastically speaking, basing my life choices around the concept of recycling and global warming seems slightly ridiculous to me. My sincerest apologies to Mr. Al Gore...
But back to the question my good friend asked me...

How am I supposed to live my life?

I guess I am not going to waste your time by answering the question everyone asks at some point in their lives in such a way that would represent one of the options I listed above.

The best way to answer that question is not a one-sentence answer, it is not a certain set of rules to live by, it is not found in taking a stand for something, it is not found in selfishness...it is not found in millions of things, although some of these things are consequences of living life a certain way.

You see, many people think living life a certain way means taking a stand for something, living for yourself, or for whatever...

I think are culture has the wrong concept of the question "How am I supposed to live my life?"

Culture thinks that living for something is the way you are supposed to live your life...I think that is a grey area leaning closer to the black side of the spectrum.
We do not do the things we do because we are living for something, we do what we do because of the idea or belief behind what we live for.

For example, my amazing girlfriend Taryn works with mentally retarded teens at Youth Villages. Many of these kids have bad family backgrounds and other major issues that I can not even imagine. The majority of society has kicked them aside and doesn't give a crap about them, all except for a small group, which includes Taryn.

Now, Taryn does not work with those kids just for a paycheck, although that is a plus with the job. She doesn't help them just because she looks down on them and feels sorry for them. She doesn't help them just because she went to school and trained to help them. No, there is something deeper behind that, it is the reason why she helps them....

She helps them because she is called to it and because she knows it is the right thing to do.

It's not so different from the consequences from my beliefs, which include an anti-genocide website, a small group of people that have become interested in Darfur, and thousands of dollars in aid making a difference in Sudan.
But back to Taryn...

My point is that Taryn doesn't do what she does because she is living for helping disabled kids. The fact that she works with them is a consequence of a belief she has. She lives for the belief, and that has consequences. In her case, its a dozen or so kids who have never been loved finding out that somebody cares about them. God's providence placed her in their lives, not Taryn's view on how to live life.

Now, I have not answered the question yet because I hoped to show that to answer that question, we need to understand what the question means.

How am I supposed to live my life?

That question isn't asking FOR WHAT I should live my life, the question is asking HOW...
Taryn's life is a perfect example of that. She doesn't live for the kids she works with, she lives for the BELIEF that has led her to helping those kids.

You see, beliefs have consequences...

So, hopefully you understand the question better now, unnamed friend...
But now it is time to answer your conundrum...

And for that, and please do not laugh, I would like to go to the movie Troy...
While Brad Pitt is not my favorite person in the world, he plays a brilliant role in a brilliant film. If there is anything that can answer the question of how we are to live, it is films like Troy that can tell us...

The film opens up with the narrator, Odysseus, setting the stage for the movie. In essence, he asks the very question every human beings asks themselves, whether it is knowingly or unknowingly, at some point in their existence:

"Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we are gone, and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?"

Odysseus, in so many words, is generally asking our question at hand.

"How am I supposed to live my life?"
Odysseus asks this question. Men that believe in something seem to be the ones that are remembered, at least it appears that way to Odysseus.

But what Odysseus does not understand is that he answered his own question when he asked it. Let me explain...

Please look closely at his last line from this quote:

"Will strangers hear our names long after we are gone, and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?"

Odysseus answers his own question before he is even done asking. And the answer is surprisingly simple:

Allow whatever it is that driving you to light your heart, mind, and soul on fire.

Odysseus wants to know if strangers centuries from him will remember the men of his time, and indeed we do! We remember them because of how they lived:
Everything they did we remember because of how they lived...they loved fiercely and they fought bravely because of their driving ideas and beliefs.

So, application time...

"How am I supposed to live life?"

Live as the men of Odysseus' time did:
Love fiercely, fight bravely, stand your ground, achieve the unachievable, and go past your own abilities...

The perfect example of a man who did that is Christ Jesus...and the world is far better off because of His willingness to do what no one else could or would...

So, to wrap things up, I would like to end with another quote from Troy, this one from the hero Achilles:

" We men are wretched things. "

We are to live as Odysseus suggested, but we also live with the understanding that we will sometimes fail. Achilles was right, "we men are wretched things."

We must live honestly with ourselves; that is, with the understanding that this world is screwed up. We are bound to lose battles because our fallenness has bound us to failure.
But, that is the beauty of true Christianity. We know we will sometimes fail, but we do what we do anyways because of what is driving us: Christ's redemptive work.

That is how we are supposed to live: we are to live like Achilles, who stormed the beaches of Troy with only 50 men, we are to fight fiercely like Odysseus, who captured Troy with his whit, we are to love fiercely like Hector loved his wife and country, and we are to sacrifice unconditionally like Christ did, even if it means giving up the very breath in our lungs.

If anyone can think of a better way to live, let me know...
But I am 100% certain that living life as an emissary, soldier, and son/daughter of Christ is the most honorable and highest calling any mere mortal could ask for.

In Christ,
Hackett

Life Without God

My girlfriend and I recently watched a very interesting movie called V for Vendetta.
While there are some things I strongly disagree with in the film, overall, there are many good points in the movie that could and should be applied to society today.

Let me briefly set the backdrop for the film:
V for Vendetta is a futuristic movie. While the film never tells exactly what has happened in the world, something has gone horribly wrong. America is no more, and later on in the movie we find out that there was some kind of world war/civil war that America lost. Britain is under totalitarian rule by a leader who much resembles Hitler, and the outlook for society is very bleak.

The film starts off in the room of Evey, an average citizen in England. The TV is on in her room as she is preparing to go somewhere late at night, past the government enforced curfew.

What the man, the so-called "Voice of London" said on the television shocked me.
He said the following:

"America...here was a country who had everything, absolutely everything. And now, 20 years later, is what? The world's biggest leper colony! Why? Godlessness. Let me say that again... Godlessness!"

Before I continue, I highly suggest this movie. There is a lot of Truth in it, and unfortunately, some lies. But you can decipher through that yourself...
For now though, I would just like to focus on that one line:

"America...here was a country who had everything, absolutely everything. And now, 20 years later, is what? The world's biggest leper colony! Why? Godlessness. Let me say that again... Godlessness!"

We come later to find out that those who are saying this do not believe in God either...
But that quote in and of itself was not made by some crazy "fire-n-brimstone" preacher...it was made by secular America.

It scares me that secular America is willing to say what we Christians are not willing too...America is on its way to hell, and fast.

R.C. Sproul once said:
"The days of sentimental faith are over. A foreboding atmosphere hovers over culture. In this atmosphere, humanity looks to the future, not with breathless anticipation and enthusiasm, but with a sense of helplessness."

As pluralism and post-modernism advances more in society by the day, we are starting to see the effects of "Life Without God."
Rising crime rates, terrorist threats, failing morality, more government divisions, more substance abuse...and a pop culture coming to the realization that life isn't as perfect as we think it is, in fact, that something is horribly wrong.

And V for Vendetta points to wear that is heading...

No, I am not saying that in a few years America will be a "colony" or that we will be sucked into a war that will be end for America. With how the world hates America right now, maybe in a hundred years or so that will happen, and that's a BIG maybe...

But what I am saying is that an America with no God is an America that will not be safe, and much less, not as enjoyable to live in. When people push God out of the equation, only bad things can happen.
If you don't believe me, just open a history book sometime...

The underlying theme in V for Vendetta is that there is something awfully wrong in the world...and if we don't do something to fix it soon, "Godlessness" will destroy it.

R.C. Sproul was right; something awful "hovers over culture." We live in a society where it has become easier to hate then to love. Indeed, nowadays it takes courage to love, and any one of the millions of mindless, desensitized TV watchers every night can easily find a reason to hate.
I know because, like you, I am one of them...

But "Life Without God" will do that to you...

As post-modernism, pluralism, and nihilism continue to scream from their cores that God doesn't care or that there is no God, and as we buy more and more into that crap, we are only setting our culture up to die.

And, as usual, the Church, which holds the One Lasting Solution, is silent.
And our silence is just as bad, no, it is worse than the lies that America is buying into.
I just hope we haven't passed the point-of-no-return.

Perhaps the scariest thing is that, like Hitler, post-modernists and pluralists believe that they are right...
And we saw what happened when Hitler thought he was right...

But V for Vendetta isn't all about dark philosophical ideals and such. V is the charismatic freedom fighter that is devoted to bringing down the evil that has captured the people. I won't ruin the end of the movie for you, but let's just say that V makes his stand, and the world of his day needed it badly.

While the hero, V, doesn't bring God back into the picture, he does bring the CHOICE FOR GOD back, something our culture may not have in the coming decades.
And when the day comes that the freedom to choose God, another religion, or no God are out the window, we can only bet that the other freedoms we enjoy will soon be gone as well...
Because religion and God are the only thing standing between the alternate world of V for Vendetta and our current culture.

And the Church is refusing to resist it, and in so doing is embracing the hell that is coming down the pipe.

If you think this all sounds unrealistic and impossible, just look at what happened in Nazi Germany, or at the fall of Rome, the fall of Jerusalem, the fall of Babylon...history repeats itself, and America is next.

Then again, I'm just a 20-year-old college kid. What could I possibly know about any of this...

In Christ,
Hackett

The Dare To A Disillusioned Generation

Before I begin, I must say that if you can get past the first couple of lines you'll be good to go. But when you see the words "Dare You to Move," please do not quit reading this just because it is a title of an over-played song...

If you are a Switchfoot fan, or a music fan for that matter, you are most likely familiar with Switchfoot's hit song "Dare You to Move." Heck, if you've turned your car radio on in the past 4 years there is a 99.9% chance you have heard it. Back to the song later though...

I have had several conversations lately with different people over the past month, all on the same topic.

Thank God, the topic was not "Dare You To Move..."

The topic, I am sad to say, was on a not-so-used word anymore...that word being "disillusionment."

I have to say, I find it very odd, maybe providential, that this has been brought up by at least 6 different people in only one month's time, without any prodding from myself.

The people that spoke to me about this are all under the age of 25, are in college or recently graduated college, and are all professing believers in Christ...

What they are disillusioned over did not surprise me...they are disillusioned over hypocrisy...

American Church hypocrisy.

............................................

There's the answer to the question the American Church has been asking over the past few decades...why are our college students abandoning faith in Christ?

The answer isn't because we are young, dumb, sinful "adults" who just want to drink, do drugs, and have sex.

The answer is because of American Church hypocrisy.
Trust me, I'm one of those "punk college kids"....

I know...
Because I feel and think the same thing...

I work most Sundays, so I haven't been to Church much over the past few months. Scary as it is, I have accomplished more as far as helping to save the world stuff goes. I have actually grown closer to God being absent from the Church....and there is something seriously wrong with that.

Our churches here in America scream different gospels from different pulpits...
There's the "fire-n-brimstone" gospel...
There's the "tolerant" gospel...
Etc., etc., etc.....
And lastly there is the "prosperity" gospel...

Gulp.

Maybe it would be easier if Wal-Mart added a "purchase your own church aisle"...

Whatever the case may be...all of these churches in the Greater American Church say the same thing:

"Something is wrong with the world, and we must do something to fix it...."
But nothing or very little is ever done to fix it...

We college kids aren't as stupid as we act...we attended church with our parents growing up, we've sat through all the Sunday school classes, we've sang the "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" songs, we went to youth group, heck, a few of us even went on those summer mission trips...the few and far between ones at least.

We may not have seen it then, but we sure as hell see it now...
And its disillusioning, and very wrong...


Sure, there are other reasons why America's youth are leaving the Church in droves...but the main one is the hypocrisy we see.

And not every single Church in America falls under this category. I am sure that there are some who are doing a very good job, but those are few and far between.

A few of the people I have talked to have even gone so far as to say that secular America does more to fix the world than the Church does...a statement that seems to have some proof to back it up.
After all, college kids are known for speaking out on major social issues. But there is only so much we can do...

Almost all of the people I had this conversation with also asked a question:

"How can I help fix the world?"

Once again, we college kids are not completely naive. We know that there is something seriously wrong with the world. We also know that the American Church seems ignorant to it...the prosperity gospel apparently has brought us to that point...
But we are also not completely innocent in this either...we did walk away from the Church...

My answer to my fellow students, go back to church and speak your passion there. MAKE THE CHURCH LISTEN. As long as your passion has biblical support, the Church HAS to at least listen...

While America no longer takes us Christians seriously anymore, the Church still has a tremendous amount of wealth and influence. It took me a couple of months of prodding and pushing some buttons, but my church eventually gave a large sum of money to a Christian organization working to stop the genocide in Sudan. That money is making a difference there...

The Church WILL listen, even if they don't at first. We can be good at being annoying, so if that is what you must do, the do it...

My advice to the Church...before you go off on us college kids for being "crazy" and "out of control," remember how we got there...listening to a bunch of meaningless talk for years pushed us away.
If you want your college students back, kill the hypocrisy, not just for our sake, but for the sake of the name of the Lord...
Stop telling us every Sunday morning from the pulpit that the world is a bad place. We know that, let's work on fixing it now.

It is the right thing to do...
And it is the only option...

Maybe we should listen to that overplayed Switchfoot song one more time...Switchfoot "Dared us to move"...

Maybe its time we took the dare...

In Christ,
Hackett

Life in the Orchard

Matthew 7:18-20
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Another wise teaching from Christ, then again everything He said was wise. But listening to Christ is one thing, applying the things He says is another.

Fruit.
In the verses preceding this passage in Matthew, Christ is telling His followers to beware of false prophets and false teachings. He also reminds them that these false prophets can come bearing what seems to be Truth and Light, but they could really be harboring Death and Destruction. The way to test them, Christ says, is if they bear good fruit or not...

You might be thinking, "Yea Hackett, that's great stuff...so what?"
So, maybe we should apply it...
And I don't mean apply it to the Church as a whole; at least, not for my topic, because this should be applied to the Church. But let's apply it to ourselves for a moment...

...

Hmm...
I don't like what I'm seeing.

How much fruit do we bear?
Me, personally, my fruit comes in the form of a 10% tithing check, a couple dozen blogs and Facebook Notes, and telling somebody every now and then about the genocide in Darfur...

I should be doing so much more.
Now, take a look at yourself...how much fruit are you bearing? Hopefully more than me.

But honestly, I would say, as a whole, we Christians are like an orchard. It rains twice a week, we are rooted in good soil, the sun shines a lot, we are well taken care of by the Farmer...yet the trees look like it is the middle of winter. No leaves, no fruit, just dead limbs...now, guess who the trees are? Unfortunately, us...

I guess my point is that we really don't take Christianity seriously. We don't have the fruit to show for it, we don't have the results we want, and the world is still dying at an alarming, quickening pace.

Meanwhile, the dead trees remain in the orchard... sitting calmly even as the wildfires of hell consume the world around its walls.
I guess what sucks the most is that dead, dry wood burns the fastest...at least we have the walls of salvation protecting us. But hey, maybe it'd be better if we didn't. Then we might start bearing fruit.

You think that Christ saving us from an eventual hell would be enough to get us to bear fruit...apparently we think we need a little more though. After contemplating these thoughts over the past few days, I honestly don't understand why God still loves us; we sure as hell don't deserve it.

Maybe we aren't as "Christian" as we think we are...

Its time we take a peak over the orchard walls that protect us, it is time to look at what is really happening in the world.
Genocide, rape, theft, murder, war, disease...it is all running rampant; so much so that the 2006 Human Security Brief, done by the Human Security Report Project, listed the state of humanity as "far from positive."

It is almost scary to think that some of those outside the sphere of salvation see the dire state of the world, and we as Christians who have been eternally saved from it do not.

I think we need to take a good long look at ourselves, and look around our little orchard. The Great Farmer stands at the gate, sowing seeds around the entrance, the least we could do is help. Christ, after all, gave His life for us, and our lives should belong to Him now.

We are long overdue to step outside of the orchard...maybe it is fear of life without the wall that scares us into staying. What we need to learn is that the wall goes with us. Christ has bought us eternally; there is nothing to fear. After all, the task before us is not nearly as great as the God behind us.

Christ's command at the end of Matthew wasn't to stay in the orchard, it was "GO and MAKE disciples of all nations..."

Let's get out of the safe zone...
Let's get out of the orchard...

Because, until we do, I will dare to say that we have no right to call ourselves Christians. Christians follow Christ, and we stopped doing that a long time ago.

In Christ,
Hackett

Unity: Oneness or Sameness

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."
Romans 15:5-7

If you've read your way through Romans before, you know that it is not a book of the Bible to be taken lightly. Each word is packed and backed with loads of theology, and even today, centuries after it was written, we still can not fully grasp the meanings of it...

But there is nothing unclear about this small portion of Romans.
Paul makes it very CLEAR how the church is supposed to be:

United...

Now, a quick snapshot of the church today.
There are thousands of Christian denominations worldwide today that are centered around many different topics, ideas, and theologies. There is so much thrashing and bashing going on between these differing denominations, which I myself am guilty of, that it seems like we are all enemies.

It's almost as if Christ, who is leading us, has stopped and is looking back, shaking His head, and asking us if we will ever learn.

And that brings us to the title of our topic:

Unity: Oneness or Sameness?

Does Church Unity mean we all have to be as one, or do we all have to agree on all the same things?

Hmmm...

I can already tell you what you are probably thinking the answer is.
Most of you probably think that to be truly united we must all believe the same things.

To bad the Bible doesn't teach that...

The Bible doesn't call for sameness, in which we agree on everything. The Bible calls for oneness, in which we are to have sameness in the essentials, but grace in the nonessentials.

For example, I believe music is fine in worship. Other believers don't. Does that mean I am wrong, or they are wrong? Yes! We are both wrong, because God nowhere in Scripture says that we are to worship only one way. Scripture is clear that ALL is to be done to the glory of God.

Paul makes the concept of unity clear throughout the Book of Romans.

Romans 14:13
"Therefore let us stop passing judgement on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brothers way."

Centuries of putting stumbling blocks, striving for personal gain, and unacceptance of one another have left us with what Paul feared most: disunity. We all think our theology is right, when in reality, we are probably all wrong, because our theology is exactly what it is: our theology, not God's.

So, why should we be united?
For starters, a united Church can better accomplish the Great Commission, which is the Church's ultimate goal. Unity also contributes to the building up of other believers, more effective teachings, and a lot less stress. Unity single-handedly could fix the majority of the Church's problems on its own.

So, how do we become united?
I'm not going answer that question here, and I'm not going to answer it until next year. That is something my upcoming website, www.operationbrokensilence.org will address. On a brief side note, the website will host several projects, one of the first being Project Unity, which will deal with this topic.

So, to answer the original posed question of Unity: Oneness or Sameness?

The answer is both within their correct bounds. Sameness in essentials, such as belief that Christ is God, and grace in nonessentials, such as whether or not music is okay in worship.

Only then can we accomplish the goals that we are supposed to be accomplishing.

That's all I got, keep an eye out for the new website:

www.operationbrokensilence.org

which will launch this December.
And keep an eye out for Project Unity, which will be our second project. The first one will be Project Make A Difference, which hopefully you will visit the site and find out.

In Christ,
Hackett

The American Lie

I was in my Sociology class the other day...strangely I enjoy that class...

Anyways, lots of times in our class we get off topic with all the talking about world issues, elections, and even things here in Memphis. After all, Sociology does cover a broad spectrum of things.

But on this particular day, a fellow student made a statement that, unfortunately, so many people in America have bought into today.
That statement was this:

"I mean, the world is primarily full of good people, making it a good place. Yea, there are some problems in it, but most people around the world make a good living and are happy."

...
I kept my mouth shut, mostly because I wanted to laugh at the person for their naivety, and their stupidity.
It is sad to think that most Americans, including Christians, believe that the world is a good place where occasionally bad things happen.

Just to support my point, and my point is that the world isn't as good as many people think it is, here are a few reasons:

The 20th century has been one of the most devastating centuries for humanity, an estimated 4,000,000,000 individual human beings died from war, genocide, malnutrition, famine, disease...and other reasons besides old age. For you people that suck at math, that number is FOUR BILLION.

The number of wars, and the devastation that follows them, increased nearly threefold in the 20 century. In fact, between the years of 1950 to 1990, there were over 150 bloody conflicts around the world.

The number of genocides worldwide increased to 45 before the end of the century...meaning that the number of those killed in genocide reaches into the tens of millions.

According to the United Nations, disease, famine, and starvation affect 1 out of every 6 people on Earth, that's over 1,000,000,000 people...

Even in the wealthiest nations, it is getting harder and harder to find cures for new diseases and viruses, such as the bird flu, which seem to appear every few years now.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, and during the chaos that followed in Eastern Europe, over $30,000,000,000 in small arms was illegally sold, illegally exported, or downright stolen out of Eastern Europe alone. This is perhaps the greatest heist in human history. Many of these small arms have resurfaced in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and South America, where violence, wars, and genocide are most prevalent today...

The world's five largest arms dealers to third-world countries, where violence is the worst, are the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France. They are also the five permanent members on the United Nations Security Council...how scary is that...

And my personal favorite...Darfur....

In short, I think I can make a case for the world being a not-so-good place. And there are plenty more facts than that...

Maybe I should have said something, heck, maybe I should've laughed at the person. I don't know what held me back. Maybe I didn't want to ruin their ignorance; after all, ignorance is bliss.

The fact that this person said that the world is a predominantly good place when babies are being picked up by their legs and swung headfirst like baseball bats against trees in Darfur.... well, I fail to see the overall goodness of humanity.
And yes, there are reports out of Darfur that babies are being beaten against trees until they die. How someone could do that...man, I can't even comprehend that kind of hate.

The American Lie is easily proven as what it really is: a LIE.

So what is the reality?
In a nutshell, worldwide, people are being shot, starved, murdered, robbed, falling to illnesses, victims of genocide...and we have all fallen to a spiritual genocide, thanks to sin...

In fact, the world is so bad that the very Son of God had to die just so that we would have a way out...maybe that helps to put our plight into perspective better than anything else.

My opinion, stop believing the lies. It just isn't true! Yes, I wish that humanity was perfect, and I wish so many things, that we as Americans and Christians choose to ignore, didn't happen; but they do happen. And we aren't on this Earth just so we can ignore the consequences of others and ours sins.
We can help to fix it.
We just choose not too...

If you don't want to help, I feel sorry for you...and I hope God can forgive you for doing nothing to help stop defenseless babies from being beaten to a bloody pulp against the sides of trees.
For those of you that choose to stick with your ignorance, enjoy the ignorance while you can, because God most likely won't be happy when you stand before Him whenever the appointed time is.

You don't have to go to Darfur, the Middle East, or South America to confront the fallout of sin...because it’s everywhere. If you aren't called to help with Darfur like I am, find your calling. It could be working at an urban ministry, it could be going oversees, and it could just be telling the people around you of everyone's universal need for Christ.

The world can't afford much more ignorance; it is costing us too much...

In Christ,
Hackett

Black and White Blended Makes Grey? Why...

Confusion...
Mixed thoughts and emotions...
No wrong or right answer...
Life...

Welcome to the so-called "Grey Area"...

Before you get too involved in this one, I must admit that this blog has no particular direction, no particular answers, and no "deeper" meaning. To my few, avid readers out there, sorry if you are disappointed.
This one is just to show the circle I've been running in the past few weeks.
If your name is Johnny Coggin (and I know you are reading this, because you supposedly read all my blogs), then you might appreciate this one because we talked a little about it the other day over yummy pizza subs...by the way, we should go again soon.

The Grey Area, a blend of black and white...
I hate it...

Sometimes there are no right or wrong decisions in life, only ones that have different outcomes that could have either good or bad ramifications.
Ahh, if only times were simpler, like back in the World War II days when the whole nation was unified as one against a common enemy, and only the big picture mattered.
It's been decades now since America has been united as it was back then, since morals actually mattered in this country, and it's been a few years for me since my feelings, thoughts, and decisions have been united.

All because of the "Grey Area"...

I am currently in a situation in which there is no wrong or right decision, and there is no way of telling which decision would have better outcomes. There is no "black and white" decision, so to speak. There's no right or wrong answer, just a decision that has to be made and soon...
And I made up my mind about, oh, maybe last weekend...

To bad it may be to late for the route I chose, I have a gut feeling it is to late...

If your name happens to Gummy Cole, it is referring to "people"...hope you catch that one Gumbo...

Anyways, I have tried to focus on the bigger picture. If you know me, you know I am big into stopping the genocide in Darfur, which God has given me a great passion for. I do believe that is the calling in my life at the moment, and a very demanding and worthy calling at that.

I guess I know deep down that, when compared with the calling in my life to Darfur, my personal life is very insignificant. But the issue in my personal life right now is affecting my decisions and judgment when it comes to making an impact with the genocide in Darfur...so my personal life kinda does matter.

And that is my circle I've been running in. I guess I feel like a hamster running at his wheel, and I honestly don't see how the hamster does it for as long as he does...because I'm burnt out.

Ha, I guess the irony of it is that the "wheel" I'm running in is painted grey...

Don't take this the wrong way; I'm not complaining...my only assumption is that this is a test from God. Maybe that's why I haven't received an answer from Him when I am praying at two in the morning because I can't sleep...
Or maybe His answer is not evident to me yet; I have no idea at this point.
Or, what scares me even more, is that He has trusted me to make this decision...I pray that isn't it, because I am sure I could very easily let Him down...and like the band Reliant K says, " I hate these consequences, cause I know that I let You down, and I don't want to deal with that..."

I don't need advice, I've made my decision...prayer would be nice, I guess. Please don't tell me to pray about, I already do that every hour of the day for the past weeks. Please don't try and give me the answer, because I am willing to bet my life that you don't have it, sorry if that sounds harsh...

I've made my decision, and that's following my heart...if only I could trust my heart...because as most of you know, the heart is just as capable of choosing a disguised, bad decision as it is capable of choosing a good decision.

Ha, at least there never seems to be a dull moment in my life...although I hope one day I can experience that for a few brief seconds to see what it is like.

The Grey Area...
How I hate it...

Please pray for me...my prayers seem to be falling on deaf ears, even though I know they aren't...and please pray for the genocide in Darfur, God knows that those people are suffering much more than I am right now.

In Christ,
Hackett

Hell on Earth

"On September 29, the AU base in Haskanita was attacked and destroyed, killing 10 peacekeepers. Rebels were suspected of being behind the attack on the AU base.
In the following days, while the government controlled Haskanita, the former rebel-held town was burned to the ground and thousands of residents were sent fleeing.

Suleiman Jamous, respected humanitarian coordinator for the Sudan Liberation Army, said 105 people died when government forces and allied militia razed the town.
Analysts said the fact that rebel factions were suspected of attacking the AU Haskanita base gave Khartoum cover for an offensive to garner as much land as possible before the talks.
"The upshot of this strategy, of course, is that it becomes more difficult by the hour for any rebel faction or leader to show up in Sirte, Libya in 19 days," said U.S. academic Eric Reeves."

- BBC News.


Darfur, Sudan.
Welcome to Hell on Earth.

The small town of Haskanita, which had only 5,000 residents a few years ago, was home to at least 40,000 refugees from neighboring areas of Darfur.
Today, it is deserted.
To sum up what happened there, rebel forces attacked an African Union peacekeeping base there, hoping to bring more international attention to the genocide in Darfur. Sudanese government troops arrived and forced the rebels out of the area. The remaining peacekeepers were then evacuated.

With the peacekeepers gone, the Sudanese military burned Haskanita to the ground... several women were raped and locked into the burning homes, and over 100 men, women, and children were killed execution style...shot at point blank range.

And the United Nations still refuses to call the atrocities in Darfur genocide.

By the grace of God, the thousands that called Haskanita home had already fled before the Sudanese army arrived. The small African Union peacekeeping force has promised to deal with those responsible for the genocide in a much more forceful manner from now on...to bad for the 400,000 that are already dead, I guess.

With the number of attacks like these occurring more and more frequently now, the peace talks that are scheduled to begin in a few weeks are in danger of not happening. And with the potential delay of the 26,000 strong international peacekeeping force already occurring, the death toll could be on par with the genocide that occurred in Rwanda if a solution is not found soon...history is repeating itself.

At this point, I'm in favor of what appears to be the inevitable: turn the future peacekeeping force into an invasion force. Politics aren't working, peace talks aren't working, and cease-fires aren't working.

While I do believe that the peace Christ offers is the only solution to the bloodshed in Darfur, I also am a realist. Neither side is going to sit down and accept the freedom Christ gives until the fighting is stopped. The Sudanese government, in fact, has already made it clear that it isn't going to accept Christ; it did so when it murdered hundreds of thousands of Christians in southern Sudan over the past twenty years. Another untold genocide in Sudan...

And rebel forces aren't going to sit down and accept the peace of Christ until the Sudanese government can be kept from murdering more defenseless people.

Christ can heal the bleeding wounds of Darfur, but wounds can't be healed until the disease that caused the wound is dealt with. In this case, the disease is the government-sponsored genocide. Until the peacekeepers arrive, the wounds will keep bleeding.

How much genocide does it take to make humanity realize it must be stopped? How many defenseless lives must be lost before we stop it? How long is the Christian Church going to sit back and allow sin to massacre humanity, unchecked and unchallenged?

After the Holocaust, the world said, "Never again..."
After Khmer Rouge, the world said, "Never again..."
After Rwanda, the world said, "Never again..."

Empty words from an empty world.

So, here's the deal. Get off your high horse and off your lazy ass and go to www.savedarfur.org. There are several petitions that need to be signed, there are lists of ways you can get involved, and you can always tell a friend about the genocide.

If you want to make an immediate impact on helping to save lives in Darfur, Samaritan's Purse is in great need of monetary support as they expand their relief operations in Darfur.

For detailed reports on the genocide, visit www.eyesondarfur.org. There you can find satellite imagery, pictures, and eyewitness accounts of the genocide in Darfur.

Being an activist doesn't mean you have to march in protests or give every penny you have to the United Nations. Praying and telling friends about it is more than the rest of the world is doing, and its a good start. Spreading the word will help get the job done.

Getting your church involved is another good way to help. I was very surprised when my church responded with an immediate, emergency monetary donation to Samaritan's Purse, and prayer support.

So, stop worrying about your girlfriend or boyfriend problems. They pale in comparison to what is happening in Darfur. PEOPLE ARE DYING! Would you want the world to ignore your desperate case if our government was killing us? OF COURSE NOT! Millions of lives are at risk, and if the violence isn't stopped soon, it could be years before it is over. And God knows the last thing this world needs is another Holocaust or another Rwanda...

Let's kill genocide...

In Christ,
Hackett

The American Suicide

Three things before we start:
1. This blog may sound very familiar to others I have written, but it is not. In this blog, I will also speak of the consequences of a society with no truth, which I have avoided in my previous writings.
2. Also, there are some issues and things discussed in this blog that are very controversial and may offend some, so I apologize in advance.
3. This is perhaps my longest blog...and I ask that you read it all at one time or not at all...with that said, here we go.


The young man paces on the deck, thinking and planning. It is early morning, and few others seem to be up and about. Those that are awake are the seasick ones. Weeks of the endless up and down of the ship on the waves, with no sight of land, had taken its toll onboard. The fog that hides the waves all around the ship is not helping either...

It is around the year 1900. Many had fled a recovering Ireland due to the potato famine that took place decades before and have come to the United States of America, in hopes of a better life. The young man we are following is an example of this. He is pacing on the deck, dreaming of the business he wants to start. The thought of never going hungry or thirsty again has been the one thing that has kept him going for years now.
And now, his dream is about to become reality...

A shout is suddenly heard from the far side of the deck. The man runs over, wondering what it is...and then, he sees it.
There, barely visible in the distance is the Statue of Liberty...standing tall over the clearing, morning fog.

For decades now, the Statue of Liberty has met millions of immigrants as they have come to America. She stands for all that America is proud of: freedom, democracy, and truth. She is a welcoming sight to many of the world's weary and heavy-laden. Some immigrants even heralded America as Heaven on Earth; a land filled with food and plenty of jobs...the pursuit of happiness was a reality in America, the land where the people rule...

Now, here we are in the year 2007, and in a much different America.

Before I really dive in though, let me clarify that I am not speaking of America's stagnant political situations. There is a fine line between government and religion, a line that is crossed by both sides too often. I will be crossing this line several times, due to the many grey areas that exist between the two.
So, keeping in mind my protective disclaimer, let's get on with it...

Over the past few decades, many have changed their view on what "Truth" is. Some believe truth exists, others aren't sure, many believe it doesn't exist...and of course there are those that just don't care.

According to recent polls, America's view on truth has changed dramatically over the past three decades.
A poll done by Barna Research came up with these results:
"Compared to two years ago, just half as many Americans believe that absolute moral truth exists, dropping from 38% in January 2000 to only 22% in November 2001."

This means that approximately 78% of Americans are unsure or believe there is no such thing as absolute truth.

America was not founded as a Christian nation, but it was founded on many Judeo-Christian principles. The basis of the American Constitution is that mankind has certain rights and freedoms, which should not be taken away. There is an absolute truth running through the very veins of the Constitution, that is, that there is a greater law mankind is bound too. Many future laws would also be based off Judeo-Christian concepts and beliefs.

That is what the Constitution was built on...and it is also the very thing that is now being taken away.
This country was founded with the belief that truth had to be at the very core of it, or it would fail. Now that the majority of Americans don't believe in absolute truth, that core has been taken away.

Compare America to a watermelon. If you take out all of the pink, edible flesh of the fruit on the inside, you just have a shell remaining. That is what America has become, a mere shell of its former beauty.

If you don't believe me when I say that truth is slipping away in America, look around you. Government officials falling into moral black pits, ethics being a required class at many schools across the nation due to zero ethics in society, and even religious leaders, the ones who have protected America's truth for years, can't do what they say is right.
The new philosophy that there is no truth goes against everything the Constitution stands for. The very people who say they are trying to save America by ridding it of religion are the very ones who are killing America. America was founded on truth, and a country cannot stand if its basis is stolen from it.

So, what are the consequences going to be?

I read an article the other day by a man who believes that if morality and truth keep slipping away at the rate they are, the freedom of religion will be gone in America within this century. The freedom of speech, right to assembly, all the basics of the Constitution could be gone within our lifetimes. The American Church has never had to endure true persecution before, but it soon may have too. Can you imagine our own government persecuting us? It sounds like such an unreasonable thought, yet it is a very real threat; in fact, it may be just around the corner.

With every little ground gained by secular America, every Ten Commandments taken out of courthouses and schools, every corporal punishment banned, with every form of discipline that disappears in America...America comes one small stop closer to going from democracy to chaos, from being a Republic to being a totalitarian state, from light to dark. Separation of Church and State exists for a reason; the Church upholds the country's standards, while the State protects them and its inhabitants. It has always been a partnership, until now. My only question to the insane lunatics who sincerely believe that the government can function well without the Church there to uphold its values, is this:

Why change something that has always worked? We've seen what happens when the church holds the state to a moral code, and the state in turn protects the freedoms of everyone. IT WORKS! It works very well! Homeless shelters are built, the country prospers, crime rates go down, as do divorce rates...life gets better.

So, my only conclusion is this. Those who believe that the universal absolute truths, that America was founded on, should not be applied anymore to society are seriously deranged and insane.

Some think these people should be considered domestic enemies of the Constitution and enemies of America, because they threaten the freedoms the Constitution ensures to all citizens. Their logic: the Federal government is bound by the Constitution to protect and defend the freedoms of America, from enemies both foreign and domestic, and these people threaten those freedoms.

I am torn on that viewpoint, it seems very extreme, but there is so much truth in it. And I have to say, very sadly, I find myself agreeing with it more so then disagreeing.
I will probably hear a lot of crap for agreeing with that...
But standing for the Truth comes with blessings as well as prices to be paid; besides, my right to freedom of speech still exists, for now...

I'm almost done. I know this is long, but hang in there...

America has already passed its Golden Age, but the midnight is still approaching, slowly gaining momentum. Every time the Church gives in and exits the arena without a fight for morality, those that seek to save America by destroying it come one step closer to achieving their goals.

Today, America is at a precarious point. Let's go back to the opening story, and to a new theoretical one...
Picture another boat this time, in the year 2007. It is early morning, foggy, and as the fog clears, another young Irishman sees the Statue of Liberty for the first time. Cheers rise up from the boat, it is a new day for a ship of Irish immigrants coming to America…

But the cheers stop as the boat enters the harbor. Something is horrendously wrong…
Instead of holding a torch aloft, the Statue of Liberty holds a gun instead, pointed at her own head…ready to commit the ultimate American suicide.
And that is precisely where America is today. It will be interesting to see when the trigger is pulled, why it will be pulled, and the devastation it will cause. But one thing I do know…
In that hour, when America hits midnight, the real, few Christians in the American Church will make their stand for Truth. Whether they will be ruthlessly destroyed or not, they will make their stand. And I pray to God that America will come to its senses before then…

In Christ,
Hackett

Price Tags

June 4, 1940. Our story begins approximately 5 miles outside the small seaside city of Dunkirk, which rests on the Franco-Belgian border in Europe, with a small German army squad.
The past few weeks had proved to be very beneficial for the German military. Belgium had fallen in only four days. The French Army was in the middle of a full retreat. And now the British Expeditionary Force, the core of the Allied Army, was pinned against the English Channel. To our German squad, it looked as if this was the end for nearly 400,000 of Europe’s finest soldiers…
There was a rumor floating around between the German squads that the British had begun evacuating their troops, along with some French and Belgians, a few days before.

At last, the orders came in. The German squad we are following were ordered to lead a final assault on the city. It looked as if the British were about to lose their entire army.

The hours went by quickly as the Germans stormed the city. With every small field and street won, the Germans were expecting to discover a huge mass of tens of thousands of soldiers crammed against the ocean, ready to be annihilated…
Our German squad finally reached the other side of the city, and stepped out on to the beach, in shock.
Looking around, they saw not a single Allied soldier on the sands. Instead, they saw weapons and equipment strewn about the beach.

The Germans then looked out over the ocean. In the distance, a few British battleships were sailing away, the rearguard of the largest evacuation fleet ever assembled in the history of mankind. The fleet was a hastily thrown together group of military, fishing, and civilian watercraft. On those thousands of ships sat nearly 340,000 Allied soldiers.

The prized jewel of the Allied Army had escaped destruction by only one hour.

That night, Prime Minister Winston Churchill stood up before a scared British nation and a shocked world and gave the most important, rallying speech of his life. In it, he sent a very threatening message to Nazi Germany. If Hitler wanted Britain under his “Third Reich,” he would have to kill every British soul on the island to claim it. Britain, he said, “will never surrender.”

Good story right?
So, some of you that actually read my blogs, are probably asking, “Come on Hackett, what’s your point?”
My point…

Price tags.

Price tags?
Yes, I said price tags. You know, those little things hanging off the sides of clothing at Target…
So what do price tags have to do with a WWII story?
EVERYTHING.

In today’s capitalistic world, we understand that everything comes with a price. From the shirt you are wearing now to the food you ate for lunch last week, it cost something.
So, back to our story…
The British evacuation at Dunkirk came with a heavy price. While the majority of the British narrowly escaped, 30,000 soldiers didn’t. They died, defending their brothers so that they could still have the one thing that we in America take for granted today…

That thing is freedom.

Freedom is perhaps the one thing that comes with a price tag so hefty…the price of blood.
Winston Churchill understood that better than anyone else of his time. Churchill swore to the world that he would rather have England die than be without freedom. Churchill knew what freedom was, he had tasted it. And once you have gotten a taste of freedom after not having it, it is all you can think about.
Yes, 340,000 lives had made it to freedom from Dunkirk…but the cost was paid for. The price tag was 30,000 people. Expensive, right?

History is full of accounts of freedom being paid for with blood. From the 30,000 who died at Dunkirk to the 300 who died at Thermopylae, freedom is dipped in blood. The two are inseparable…
God knows that; after all, he is the inventor of freedom. Humanity was enslaved to sin, and freedom was needed so that God and mankind could be reunited. The price was high, as it always is with freedom. The price was Christ. The perfect, only Son of God had to pay humanity’s debt to sin with His own blood… a price that was paid at Calvary.

It amazes me that freedom-loving people do not love Christ. Christ purchased freedom for humanity, and many people just don’t care. It is sad, but the freedom that Christ purchased was the freedom to choose, because if there is no choice there is no freedom. Had Christ died for humanity in a way that would have forced us to love Him, it wouldn’t have been freedom. He died so we could choose and have the chance to be forgiven by a loving God…

Hang in there, I’m almost done…

I would like to end with another WWII story, this one being a much less known one:
April 25, 1945 Leckwitz Germany. The European Theater of WWII was coming to a close. American and British forces were sweeping into Germany from the west, Soviet forces from the east. The Americans and the Soviets knew their forces would meet at some point. So, both sides had agreed upon a signal to the other, so that Soviet and American forces wouldn’t attack one another by accident. American soldiers were to shoot a green flare when they came upon Soviet troops, and Soviet soldiers were to fire a red flare when they saw American troops.
Maybe it was just by chance, or maybe it was God’s plan, but the flares were not fired that day as an American patrol leader met a Soviet patrol leader halfway across a bridge spanning the Elba River in Leckwitz.

Weeping, they embraced one another. They could not understand each other’s native tongue, nor did they know each other’s name. One thing they did know, however…
The once great cities of Europe lay in smoldering ruins, millions had perished, they had both watched their brothers and friends die for months on end…
But freedom had been won for Europe. The price was high; perhaps it was too high, only God knows…

But that meeting on that bridge decades ago points to something much larger…
Christ is standing on a bridge as well. He is ready to embrace you and weep for joy. All you have to do is walk out onto that bridge and embrace Him back. Laugh joyfully, sing with happiness, or cry like the Soviet and American soldiers who met on that bridge in Leckwitz, Germany…because freedom is yours. All you have to do is accept it, and choose to serve the one King who is and never will be a tyrant over your soul.

Look around you, the world we live in today is a “smoldering ruins” as Europe was by the end of WWII, millions have perished eternally, and you have watched your friends and brothers in humanity die all around you…
But freedom has been won for humanity. The price was high, perhaps too high, only God knows…

If there is no blood paid, there is no freedom. History points to that. Many people say Christianity confuses them. My answer to them is this:
Humanity was enslaved to sin, and a price had to be paid to set us free. The price was blood, Christ’s blood. The price was paid…all you have to do is accept it and follow the One who saved you.
Because Christ is the one thing that comes with no price tag…because He already paid the amount on the price tag.

In Christ,
Hackett

The Food Crisis

Hey guys,

As you know, the situation in Darfur Sudan is getting worse everyday. But now, there is a new danger threatening the region.

The World Food Programme announced recently that its operations in Sudan have now become it's largest, and it is costing $685 million a year to continue feeding those that have been plagued with genocide, drought, and disease.
But, there is one problem...
If the money supply runs out, the United Nations estimates that the death toll in Sudan will raise to 100,000 a month. That's 100,000 individual lives that could perish, EVERY MONTH.
The problem is that the money is running out...

Because of this, I started this email.
Please visit the following link:

https://www.kintera.org/site/c.diJRK4PFJpH/b.1147339/k.66D5/Generic_Donation_Form/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp?c=diJRK4PFJpH&b=1147339&en=duIVL6NHJcKWK7NIJgJSL0NKLoJ7IeMQIhJQI9PUImLZLgO6G

Please go to that link and make a five dollar donantion. Just five dollars. That's it.

And please forward this email to everyone you know. Together, we can potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives.

In Christ,
Hackett

The Need for an American Church Revival

Is it time to awaken the sleeping church today?

The American Church as a whole is a great example of this. With few exceptions, most churches in America aren't focused on what they should be focused on. We here from our pulpits that we need to tithe only 10%, that we need to come every Sunday and "get our church on," and an occasional mission trip is good for us. In short, we hear that the church is about the individual.
After all, giving 10% of your paycheck is a huge "sacrifice"...I hope you can detect the sarcasm in that.

I read something very interesting the other day. Statistical analyst's, after much research have come up with some very intriguing numbers about the Great Commission. These analysts say that if every church in America did at least two international mission trips a month to areas where the Gospel has not yet reached, the Great Commission could be accomplished within ten short years. That's TEN YEARS.

If you don't know what the Great Commission is, I'll briefly explain it. After Christ rose from the dead, He visited His disciples and told them what they were to do.

Matthew 28:16-20
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Those are th exact words of Christ. Other portions of the New Testament also hint that Christ will return soon after the Great Commission is accomplished.

To think that I could see Christ return in my lifetime...that is almost unbelievable. It's shocking. Only ten years...that is, if the church got its act together.

So, "is it time to awaken the sleeping church today?"
The answer is yes. The Church should always be awake...

BUT...
I do not for-see a major American Church Revival. In my opinion, the Holy Spirit has left America. We have seen throughout history that the Holy Spirit moves around the globe, to the front battle lines where Christianity has to fight for its' life. In America, we don't have to fight. The Holy Spirit is present wherever there is great opposition to the Faith...and without the Holy Spirit, revival cannot occur.

Martin Luther described this perfectly:

"If the devil were wise enough and would stand by and let the Gospel be preached, he would suffer less harm. For when there is no battle for the Gospel it rusts and it finds no cause and no occasion to show its vigor and power. Therefore, nothing better can befall the Gospel than that the world should fight it with force and cunning."

In America, Christians aren't murdered because of their beliefs daily...in China, Africa, and the Middle East however...they are. Realize that the greatest gains for Christianity today are being made where the Gospel is being most persecuted.

The Church needs to be woken up, but I do not foresee, at least anytime soon, the "Great Revival" the American Church is in desperate need of. If it does occur, it will be decades from now. Until then, we must carry on in our own "little platoons" as Chuck Colson so lovingly calls them. We must do what we can, and hope that our actions inspire those sleeping Christians around us.

This world is at war. And perhaps one of the greatest potential weapons for the Kingdom of God is the American Church. We must try to awaken it, but we must not go in with high hopes. Even if we fail, one voice crying for revival in the dark is better than no voice at all.

In Christ,
Hackett

Who is God?

Who is God?

I recently read somebody’s attempt at answering that question.
In response to the question "Who is God?” somebody wrote the following...

"God is whoever you want him to be."

From nearly every religious, philosophical and moral standpoint, that is the wrong answer.

I am a Christian, but I will put aside my beliefs on who God is for a minute so as to give unbiased answer to the person who wrote that sentence.

The concept of God or gods is found in nearly every society today. Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, even Satanism (yikes, scary!)
All of these religions agree on one thing, God or gods aren't whoever you want them to be...

The very concept of God is that it is a being or force more powerful than us humans.
So to say that God is whoever you want him to be is a complete and total lie. Here are four reasons why:

1. If there is a God, and if He is all-powerful, then He is what he is regardless of what you believe. He cannot be "whoever you want him to be" as someone so naively wrote.

2. If there is a God, and if He is not all-powerful, then He is still more powerful than us humans, otherwise He wouldn't be considered God. This would mean the same thing as Reason #1...that is; God is who He is regardless of what you believe.

3. If you believe "God is whoever you want him to be," then He is not really God, because you can control what He is. The universal concept of what God or gods are is that they are above us, more powerful then us, and cannot be controlled by us.
Saying that "God is whoever you want him to be" makes God a figment of your imagination that holds no true power, because that makes you controller of God, making Him not God. Put shortly, this statement defeats itself.

4. If there is NO God, then where did we come from?
Many scientists would say evolution. With all due respect to the scientist, evolution has so many holes and gaps in it that it is amazing it hasn’t fallen apart yet. It is still called the “Theory of Evolution” for a reason after all…because it is just a theory, a theory that will never be proven as absolute truth because it is based on a lie.
Some people would say the Big Bang Theory, but that doesn’t explain where we came from, just where the universe came from. However, the evidence for the Big Bang Theory points to the Christian Creation Theory. The Big bang theory says the universe came to be in a huge cosmic explosion in a flash of light. There are still the radio waves moving through space from the point of explosion scientists have discovered, and I believe in those radio waves because it has been proven! The account in Genesis says the universe came into being in just six days. That would require a huge amount of power and energy unimaginable! Is it so hard to believe that those moving radio waves are from the first moments of Creation, when God, in a burst of unimaginable glory, beauty, and power sent the galaxies and planets hurtling into the empty universe?

God is who He is regardless of what you say He is. An elephant is still an elephant, even if somebody said it was a fish. 2+2=4, even if someone says it equals 347.
These things are absolute truths, and you can say whatever you want too, but the elephant will still be an elephant, 2+2 will always equal 4, and God will always be God, even if you don't believe in Him.

So, now that we've covered why God can't be whatever you want Him to be, who is He really?

God is a being who loves His Creation so much, even after sin viciously marred it, that He allowed His own, perfect Son to be murdered so that He can be reunited with us again.
That sounds a lot better to me than "God is whoever you want Him to be."
It makes more sense too; God did something for you even if you choose not to accept it. His own Son died so you can be united with God again. God did something you may not believe or agree to because He is God and not "whatever you believe." You had no control over it, because God isn't "whoever you want Him to be."

The whole "God is whoever you want Him to be" spill is a lie straight from the pits of hell that resides comfortably with 21st century post-modernism. Frankly, it's a load of lies that is easily proven as "untruth" when placed under the light. It doesn't hold up, and unfortunately, lots of people are going to pay the consequences for it when we all stand before God on the Day of Judgment and they say, "But you are not God because I don't believe in you!"
It saddens my heart to think that so many will be saying that...

In Christ,
Hackett