Urban Christianz Ministries

Fly Without Fear

By Johann Christoph Arnold

We all know that on Christmas Day a terrorist tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.  This tragedy was thwarted thanks to the bravery of his fellow passengers. Most of all, we need to thank God that 256 lives were saved.

But now, once again, there is fear and anxiety about air travel. The government is trying to calm the public. The president is doing his best to reassure people that flying will still be safe. Yet instead of seeing one another as human beings, we have made this debate increasingly political.

New rules for passengers have come into effect, which will make flying a lot more inconvenient. Our government is too quickly relying on technology that may calm the public, but that terrorists can just as quickly outsmart. Billions of dollars, and just as many hours, have been wasted. So the most recent escalation of security, particularly for flights headed to the US, is making people angry and fearful.

I have flown millions of miles and have visited nearly every continent. Flying used to be a joy and a privilege. People working in the travel industry did their part to make a trip as enjoyable as possible. Now it is different. People have become fearful and isolated. Everyone is suspicious of everyone else. And so the person sitting next to me is no longer a potential friend—an interesting human being with a story to tell—but a potential killer.

I am as worried as everyone else. In the New Year some of my children and grandchildren will be traveling abroad. Naturally, I am concerned for their safety.

There must be a better and a cheaper way. We can turn this around. But God has to become part of the equation to make flying safe and enjoyable again. We need to learn to entrust our lives into God’s hands each time we board a plane—in the same way our forefathers did when they boarded sailing ships for the New World, centuries ago. We cannot only rely on our intelligence and technology to save us.

This is where prayer comes in. I am sure many people already pray by themselves before they fly. But think of the power and the sense of community that a common prayer would bring each time a plane departs and heads for its destination.

Instead of hiring air marshals, the federal government should hire air chaplains. When the safety instructions are given before departure, the chaplain should lead the plane in prayer, asking for God’s protection during the flight. In the same way, a prayer of thanksgiving could be said by this chaplain upon arrival.

Just imagine all the dollars that could be saved if we could relax and do away with all the extra security. Flying could again be a joy—an opportunity to relate to and associate with other people.

Johann Christoph Arnold is a pastor and author of ten books, including Be Not Afraid: Overcoming the Fear of Death, which are available as free e-books at www.plough.com.

How A Prayer Can Change Your Life

By Rachel King

Growing up in Kansas, church was a regular part of my life. Sundays were dedicated to worship and rest and my cousins and I would eagerly look forward to the rest of the day once church was over. I did believe in God and the teachings of the Church, but back in those days, I worshipped more because my parents believed and wanted me to follow their lead. I knew all the prayers because I had said them a thousand times, but I did not take the time to say them with meaning because I was too busy enjoying my childhood and the company of like-minded cousins.

Years passed and I moved to New York City once I graduated. As you can imagine, there was a vast difference in the environment that I had been used to so far and the one that I was thrown in right now. I was so caught up in the hustle and bustle of this huge city that I forgot a legacy that my mother had passed down to me and one which was a part of my life every day as a child – I stopped going to church and slowly stopped praying as well.

It was not that I did not believe, it was just that I had no time for religion and God. Initially there was guilt, but slowly that wore away too and I became engrossed in my new life. I was happy and content and when I met the man of my dreams, my life was complete. It was a whirlwind romance that swept me off my feet and made me feel like flying. The day we got married was one of the best days of my life, and so I began a new chapter in my life, one that had almost excluded God.

And then tragedy struck – I returned home from work one day to find that my husband of less than a year was having an affair with my neighbor. I was devastated and totally demoralized. I ran to the only place I could call home – my mother’s arms. As I nursed my hurt and tried to limp back to normalcy, I still refused to go to church even though my mother begged me to. I was guilty about forsaking the Lord for trivial pursuits and I did not know how to ask for forgiveness.

I slowly worked up the courage to venture out and into public places. And the day my eyes caught sight of a prayer tacked up to a wall in a grocery store was the day I was born again. The prayer Footprints in the Sand, was written by a young woman who was walking along the beach with God. She saw two sets of footprints for every phase of her life. And in certain phases, the most difficult ones, she saw only one. So she asks God – Why did you forsake me in my hour of need? And God replies – My child, those footprints you see are mine. In times of trouble when you needed me the most, I carried you on my shoulders to spare you pain.

I wept on reading that. I went to church the next day and cried my heart out. God had carried me on his shoulders and brought me home. He had given me a new lease of life, one in which I found the strength to carry on and create a new beginning based on faith and love.

This guest post is contributed by Rachel King, who writes on the topic of Christian Universities . Rachel welcomes your comments at her email address: rachel.101king@gmail.com

Christian Thoughts Daily Devotional

Christian Applications for Your iPhone

The Christian Colleges Blog just published a good list of Christian applications that can be used on your Iphone. According to their blog,

Christians don’t have to look too hard for excellent iPhone apps to help support their religious practice and lifestyle. The following apps include downloadable Bibles in a variety of translations, prayers and scriptures for both.

You definitely want to check this out if you have an Iphone. Click here to keep reading and get the entire list!

Re-Founding Fathers

By Johann Christoph Arnold

Many problems in our society will be solved when young men are willing to become good fathers. Of course, they can do this only if they have an example to follow. As fathers, we need to be the strongest role models for children, especially for our sons.

I loved my father. He had a tremendous sense of humor, but he also was strict and set boundaries which I didn't always appreciate at the time. I always knew he loved me. Once when I was eight or nine, I angered him so much that he threatened to punish me.  I looked up at him and, before I knew what I was doing, blurted out, "Papa, I'm really sorry. Do what you have to do-but I know you still love me." To my astonishment, he leaned down, put his arms around me and said with a tenderness that came from the bottom of his heart: "Christoph, I forgive you."

Like many fathers today, my father's work sometimes kept him away from home for long stretches. I remember as a five-year-old, if I refused to obey, all my mother needed to do was to show me his picture. "Your Papa wouldn't like it," she'd tell me, and I'd give in.

I felt very secure just being with my father. As a small boy I decided I wanted to be like him when I grew up. This relationship held me through hard times, even after his death. Now I want to pass this on to my children, grandchildren, and to all of you.

Fathers, if you love your wife and if you love your children, give them your time. Spending time together will give your family inner and emotional security. This is much more important than financial security. The Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral writes, "Many things can wait. Children cannot... To them we cannot say 'tomorrow.' Their name is today."

The love we show our children by giving them our time and attention can hold them in good stead even years down the road. As Dostoevsky reminds us in The Brothers Karamazov, "You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home...For if a man has only one good memory left in his heart, even that may keep him from evil."

To be a father is to fulfill a noble vocation. But fatherhood is not for everyone: it is not for cowards or for those who are unsure of themselves. Once we become fathers, we remain fathers until we die. A true father must be a leader-a captain who guides his family's ship through perilous waters to safe shores, a general who rallies his troops to take on the daily battles.

On the other hand, a father should also model love and compassion. Jesus was not afraid to compare himself to a hen gathering her chicks. He also wept. These qualities belong to true manhood, and a true father will seek to embody them.

Finally, I believe even the best intentioned fathers will not be able to fulfill their task without finding a firm faith in God. When they do, our families and the entire country will be strengthened, because strong families form the backbone of our nation.

[Johann Christoph Arnold is a pastor and author of ten books, which are now available as free e-books at www.plough.com.]

Possibilities in Prayer

By Minister Anthony Bullock

Prostrateology is the theological term for the doctrine of prayer. Prayer is the oldest form of worship and is universal to all types of religions and believers. Even atheists rely on prayer in some form or another to make it from day to day. Man has always marveled at how things happen in life and how to change those things that have not yet happened. The answer for the Christian has always been prayer to God, Jehovah, in the name of His son Jesus. Read on to see why you need prayer in your life:

Are You On the 'Down Low?'

Too many Christians are pretending to be something they're not - non-Christians! They act like the world, they dress like the world and they never talk about God. Are you one of these people? Read on to identify those Christians living on the 'down low' and learn strategies to help you improve your public walk with Jesus!

Talking about God is not the easiest thing in the world. You know how it is - you're sitting there listening to your co-workers discuss world politics, current events and the unhappiness that seems so prevalent across the United States. And in your head pops a thought 'They need Jesus.' But, do you say it? Probably not.

Why don't we talk about God?