Resurrection Sunday Message for 2012 and 2015

My friend Laura Baker reminded me of a message I presented for Resurrection Sunday 2012. I hope it speaks again to your heart, the hearts of believers everywhere, and all yet hungry to believe. 
Love and Blessings to all you and all our family, friends, and we friends we have not yet met in Jesus' Name, 
Oscar and Bonnie Crawford

This is my message to all who believe on Resurrection Sunday 2012.  Believe and be transformed by the Resurrection Moment.  I AM a Christian.  The Resurrection Moment is the exclamation point ending a series of declarations over millennia.  The One God became the one human to be for all humans what no human of his or her own ability could ever do.  This is what we believe.  We do not argue it.

We do not boast of our knowing.  Our boast is in The One God who became the one human who was able to demonstrate living at the level of Love’s, The One God’s, highest hope and expectation. 

None of us past, present, or to come had ever been able to do so.  When The One God became the one human to dwell among us, his birth of the beloved and adored Virgin Mother Mary, was declared a moment of Emmanuel, God with us and the first born of many.  His name is, was and will forever be Yeshua or Joshua in Hebrew.

His mission has become our mission to alleviate suffering and empower life.  He taught us that if we would believe without doubt, we then become the real TRANSFORMERS of the human experience.  He taught us to be bridges, connectors, and relationship builders around the vision of kingdom.

We who follow the living example and presence of Jesus adore him as King whose touch and voice brought the gift of love’s healing power into a world of fractured relationships.  Jesus was committed to his mission to the suffering of a humiliating capital punishment of death for doing the right thing; opening the eyes of the blind, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, raising the dead, and liberating the many in captivity from their literal and emotional experiences of pain.

When his and our enemies killed him, they rejoiced.  To them his death sealed the deal.  Religious church devils rejoiced.  Political oppressors reveled in their power, UNTIL EARLY on that first RESURRECTION SUNDAY MORNING when he stepped up out of death’s moment to walk forth alive from the grave of the tomb.

It was another woman named Mary who was first to make the report of the risen one who had conquered death, hell and the grave to live and walk amongst us again.  He was not and is not dead.  He lives and his living spirit dwells amongst those of us who believe, who continuously are being transformed into his likeness while we build his kingdom.

For all of you who will worship today and submit yourselves to the power of the Holy Sacrament of Communion, the Lord’s Supper; do so believing that as you consume the symbols of his body broken for you and his blood that was shed for you that you are further being transformed to be like him. 

Believe and be transformed in Jesus’ name to be made whole in spirit, soul, and body.  Believe and be transformed to alleviate suffering and empower life.  Believe and be transformed through your own symbolic dying to rise and walk in the newness of life as modeled by our first born big brother, Yeshua.

This is my message to all who believe on Resurrection Sunday 2012 and 2015.  May our lights so shine that all who see us see him ALIVE in us.  Amen

Christian Fundamentals RE - EMERGING

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The Second Peace Prayer

The Second Peace Prayer is complete. After the invitation to write Peace Prayers, this followed my daughter Micha Goudeau's time in prayer for what to write.

Micha Goudeau

God grant me the wisdom

To be the best parent I can be

The gratitude for the opportunity

And the discipline to make them disciples

Loving them each day with purpose

Living one moment at a time

Handling challenges as an opportunity to strengthen

Accepting, as my parents did, the ups and downs

In a manner that pleases God, and not my human nature

Trusting God for direction as we travel along the way

That I may be a parent that makes my heavenly father proud,

On this day and every one after

Amen

The world awaits our shared blessing of PEACE PRAYERS. Is your next? WE can do this and be thankful. WE can be PROUD that we shared a time of shared giving to many beyond ourselves and our immediate communities.

Know you are loved. Send Micha your comments and observations to Micha on Facebook.

I invite you to join me developing adaptations of the Serenity Prayer in a collection to be called the Peace Prayers. The goal will be to develop 52 adaptations, one for each week of 2015.

The Rules

Keep in mind that an adaptation is something that is adapted; especially, a movie, a book, play, etc., that is changed so that it can be presented in another form.

1. Make your adaptation true to the spirit of Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer using his model for form and format.
2. Begin your adaptation with the word 'God'.
3. Do not use the word 'serenity' in your adaptation.
4. Make sure your adaptation is one with peace central to its theme.
5. After developing your adaptation of 14 lines and an Amen, write a 400 character comment expressing your personal sense of your adaptation.
6. Use this opportunity to be a blessing in your work, now and for many years to come.
7. If your work is selected, it will be included in the completed adaptations to be called the PEACE PRAYERS.
8. All Contributors will be licensed to give away the eBook edition of PEACE PRAYERS through the holiday season from Thanksgiving through Christmas and New Years. You will have an excellent gift to give away to all you love and care about.

For further information, text 602 - 413 - 8942 and ask for a scheduled return call or email oscarcrawfordchristianmedia@gmail.com.

We make the world a better place every time we love and bless one another, each other, and others one soul at a time.

The First Peace Prayer

God grant me the good will

and the good intention to do right 

when I want to do wrong.

Help me to be clear headed 

and mature in my behavioral choices

So they are good for me

and do no harm to others.

Allow me to be in the presence

of your peace sharing the same

with others tat we may

live together in and love and joy

to your glory.

Amen

I invite you to join me developing adaptations of the Serenity Prayer in a collection to be called the Peace Prayers. The goal will be to develop 52 adaptations, one for each week of 2015.

The Rules

Keep in mind that an adaptation is something that is adapted; especially, a movie, a book, play, etc., that is changed so that it can be presented in another form.

1. Make your adaptation true to the spirit of Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer using his model for form and format.
2. Begin your adaptation with the word 'God'.
3. Do not use the word 'serenity' in your adaptation.
4. Make sure your adaptation is one with peace central to its theme.
5. After developing your adaptation of 14 lines and an Amen, write a 400 character comment expressing your personal sense of your adaptation.
6. Use this opportunity to be a blessing in your work, now and for many years to come.
7. If your work is selected, it will be included in the completed adaptations to be called the PEACE PRAYERS.
8. All Contributors will be licensed to give away the eBook edition of PEACE PRAYERS through the holiday season from Thanksgiving through Christmas and New Years. You will have an excellent gift to give away to all you love and care about.

For further information, text 602 - 413 - 8942 and ask for a scheduled return call or email oscarcrawfordchristianmedia@gmail.com.

We make the world a better place every time we love and bless one another, each other, and others one soul at a time.

INVITATION TO CONTRIBUTE

For years, Bonnie and I worked together in Recovery Ministries serving individuals and families with burdensome hurts, habits and hangups.

Every Friday night, we spent the evening in an hour of worship, an hour in specialty recovery groups, and hours in fellowship in the Soul Food Cafe.  

Central to all our work was the Serenity Prayer written by Reinhold Niebuhr.  Most know the first four lines of the prayers that says:

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity 
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

The first four lines are used in many recovery groups as an individual and group encouragement.  The conclusion of the prayer says:

Living one day at a time; 

Enjoying one moment at a time; 

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; 

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it; 

Trusting that He will make all things right

if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life 

and supremely happy with Him

Forever in the next.

Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Earlier today, I was inspired by the work of a call center coach named Mike. Mike had penned an adaptation of the Serenity Prayer for a call center employee requiring extra grace. He left the employee this note.

Mike's Adaptation

God grant me the common sense

to realize complaining 

about the leads does not help;

The mental strength

to act like a grownup

when my RPH stinks

and the common courtesy

not to take it out

on innocent bystanders

THE INVITATION ANNOUNCEMENT

As a result of today's inspiration, I invite you to join me developing adaptations of the Serenity Prayer in a collection to be called the Peace Prayers. The goal will be to develop 52 adaptations, one for each week of 2015.

The Rules

Keep in mind that an adaptation is something that is adapted; especially, a movie, a book, play, etc., that is changed so that it can be presented in another form.

1. Make your adaptation true to the spirit of Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer using his model for form and format.
2. Begin your adaptation with the word 'God'.
3. Do not use the word 'serenity' in your adaptation.
4. Make sure your adaptation is one with peace central to its theme.
5. After developing your adaptation of 14 lines and an Amen, write a 400 character comment expressing your personal sense of your adaptation.
6. Use this opportunity to be a blessing in your work, now and for many years to come.
7. If your work is selected, it will be included in the completed adaptations to be called the PEACE PRAYERS.
8. All Contributors will be licensed to give away the eBook edition of PEACE PRAYERS through the holiday season from Thanksgiving through Christmas and New Years. You will have an excellent gift to give away to all you love and care about.

For further information, text 602 - 413 - 8942 and ask for a scheduled return call or email oscarcrawfordchristianmedia@gmail.com.

We make the world a better place every time we love and bless one another, each other, and others one soul at a time.

Step Eight - Made a List and Became Willing

Made a list of people we had harmed and became willing to make amends to the all.

The Male Chorus, of the New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio, sings a song that says, “I got to fix up what I messed up. I am starting my life all over again.

The song is an excellent prelude to understanding the mission of Step 8 of the 12 Spiritual Principles. That mission is to make a list of all people we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

It is amazing how many people we hurt from the beginning of our self – destructive behavior until the moment we realize the only end to our behavior is our own death. When we begin to emerge from the darkness of our self-destructive pathology and begin the righteous work of our recovery to sanity and right living, we work the steps.

We work them thoroughly one after another because they help us put our life back together piece by piece.  All of the previous seven steps have led to Step 8.  

In Step 8, we are ready to continue our rebuilding process.  Now, we are ready to mend the many fences of broken relationships we caused by our reckless behavior. 

It is time to prepare the list of all people we have harmed. All the people we did not tell the truth and took advantage of must be on the list. All the people we physically harmed must be on the list. All the people we stole from must be on the list. All the people whose hearts we broke must be on the list.

Finally, if we are to really going to come clean, we must sing like the men of New Salem. I got fix up what I messed up. I am starting my life all over again.

View the accompanying teaching video on Step 8 entitled Became Willing from the TeachingMinistry of New Eden.