Amazing testimony of disabled young man!

This is really an amazing video, worth seeing. If you have anyone in your life going through suffering or who is physically disabled - this is quite an inspiration. Born with no arms or legs, Nick Vujicic gives an inspiring testimony about overcoming circumstances in one's life.

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God is on the move and is using all sorts of people in their different circumstances in powerful ways to get His message out there! This reminds me of the First Reading today, the Lord Jesus speaks to Paul and says, "Take courage. For just as you have borne witness to my cause in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome" (Acts 23:11). Particularly the phrase "my cause" caught my eye - and made me think about this grand cause, this divine conspiracy that Jesus initiated to destroy sin and death in our lives - and bring us to life, peace, and confidence in Him and His plan for our lives now, and eternally. No matter our circumstances.

Nick's circumstances in the above video - and how he deals with them - and gives glory to God - is really the miracle. And in my own life it seems that it is particularly in those times of suffering where God uses us to broadcast his message of love to the world. A video I watched several months ago called the Megaphone of Hope by Christian speaker Louie Giglio - is all about this. If you have time check it out - it is powerful - and such an integral connection between suffering and evangelization.

Prayer and Honesty and Action

At ChristLife we bought the DVD series NOOMA by a Christian speaker and pastor named Rob Bell. Each video is 10ish minutes long and creatively presents a Christian truth. Sometimes his perspective leaves me asking a few questions - but I am happy that he is making a really good effort at engaging our culture with the God of truth and compassion and mercy and justice.

Thanks to YouTube, below is his latest video, Open. It is a very powerful video on "how prayer works" from Rob's perspective. He grapples with the question of suffering and God's response in a very good way. From the NOOMA Web site:

Many of us have experienced situations where we’ve prayed and it felt like God wasn’t listening. And yet other times we’ve prayed or known someone that prayed and the situation changed. Does God answer prayer? Sometimes, but not all the time? Or does God always answer prayer and it's just that sometimes God says no? Some of us are angry with God for not answering the prayers we’ve prayed for years. Why did he answer their prayer but not ours? What if there’s more to prayer than just God listening and answering? Maybe if we understood how Jesus prayed, our concepts and expectations of prayer would change.

Part I:

Part II:

He hits on some real powerful issues here in this video. Especially when it comes to, like the Psalmist, being honest in our prayer. And in following the book of James in the Bible - about combining our faith with works - and therefore our prayer with action.

This takes me to the new evangelization. Pope John Paul II said it must be new in its ardor, methods, and expression. I think NOOMA is a step in the right direction.

Furthermore, when we consider our prayers for "lost souls" or for "conversion" we are in the same breath - challenged to partner with him in reaching out to the lost - this is evangelization.

Your thoughts? comments?