Missiology is the area of practical theology that investigates the mandate, message and work of the Christian missionary. There's a lot of talk in today's church about our "mission", and about how it's best accomplished. Unfortunately, much of the discussion centers around career missionaries rather than on the responsibility given to every follower of Christ.

All Christians are to be missionaries. Living "a life of mission" means doing the things God has called you to do...your "mission". A "mission field" is simply where you accomplish that mission.

The New Testament teaches that Christians have more than one "mission", and so have more than one "mission field". We should share the good news with the lost, to be sure. We're also taught that the elder believer should teach the younger believer. Christian leaders were taught to study, and were commended for doing so. Jesus instructed us to not only make disciples, but to continue our mission by teaching them everything He had said. We're not only to go and bring them in, but to intentionally and specifically serve them when they arrive.

As we think about the mission of the church, it's important to include both the Christians and the non-Christians in our planning. Including only the saved in our mission means that the lost will stay lost. Including only the lost in our "mission" means that our church will never mature...and so much of the lost will stay lost. We need both to complete the mission God has given us.

I just finished widening my pages here on GodWords. I did it so I could post more videos without resizing them. My narrower page forced me to shrink YouTube videos to fit...so I reworked the graphics and stylesheet to make more room.

I thought it would be good to post a wider video right away, to see how it looked. I looked for a good one on YouTube, and was surprised...no, shocked...to see that I'd never posted this video.

Jake Shimabukuro is a really, really good ukulele player. George Harrison wrote some pretty cool music. Put the two together and you have one of the best online videos of all time. Watch how F  A  S  T this guy's hands go! If you don't love it as much as I do, I'll refund the purchase price, including shipping.

The year is 2010. It's been 37 years since Roe v. Wade, and some people are still confused by the abortion debate.

On one hand, pro-abortion activists justify killing babies on the following grounds:

• A fetus is not a person, so it doesn't have a right to live.
• A baby is disposable if it inconveniences the mother.
• Being born "imperfect" is worse than not being born at all.

On the other hand, pro-life activists celebrate each tiny life, even if it's inconvenient...even if it's scary, expensive, or difficult. For us:

• A fetus is a person, having value simply because he or she exists.
• Nobody is disposable.
• It's better to live than not to live, even if life isn't "perfect".

It's that simple. We're all activists, and we all take sides. We celebrate everyone or our own lives are meaningless. We face the fact that life can be difficult or we run from trouble and live lives of insignificance. We choose to embrace what life brings, or bury our heads in the sand and pretend that our troubles will go away.

Watch the video below, if you dare. It's the story of a man and woman who considered their son valuable, regardless of the circumstances. Which side are you on?

In Russia, most of the tap water is undrinkable.

In Russia, some folks drank the tap water anyway. Why did they do it? Well, they looked at the calendar and assumed that everything would be different. Yes, I know that sounds odd. It was January 19th, which is when they celebrate Epiphany...when Jesus, who is God become man, was 'made known' to the world.

For some reason, these people believe(d) that any water obtained on Epiphany would be "holy" water. For some reason, these people - 117 of them - required medical treatment for acute intestinal pain.

Holy water is traditionally used, by those in the Orthodox tradition, for baptism or for the blessing of people, places, or objects. It may also be used at times in exorcisms. While they claim that the idea of using holy water comes from the Apostle Matthew, there's no Biblical support for this idea. It can be traced back to around 500 years after Christ, and then only to a story of a man who cast out a demon using water he had blessed. There seem to be many traditions about holy water, but none with strong evidence for how the practice got started.

With all due respect to my Orthodox and Catholic friends, holy water is bunk. The idea is that a holy man can bless the water and give it some kind of spiritual power, which can then be used to make better the lives of those who use it. We see absolutely nothing like that in Scripture, of course...and for good reason: God doesn't work that way.

Sure, God can and might at any time use water in any way He chooses...but that's not the same as a priest (or any any regular dude, as the tradition goes) saying a prayer and changing the properties of the water. That's superstition, pure and simple.

LOLOLOL. This is hysterical. Of course, I'm the sort who likes good satire. If you're not that sort, this might not make you smile at all. 

In case you're not in on the joke, I'll give you a head start. There's this movie, see...it's about Hitler. It's entitled Downfall. It didn't enjoy much commercial success, but one particular clip from the movie has been recycled on the interwebs for some time now. Same clip, different English subtitles. Watching just one will give you a good idea of what the rest are like...some are designed to make a point, others are just to be funny. 

I hope you enjoy this one...I did.