Aaron Reddin onLife, Liberty, and Pursuit of Jesusness

Decisions that could decrease charitable giving in the United States and increase IRS reporting requirements for all tax-exempt organizations are being made in the U.S. Senate this week. Please take a few minutes to read this short summary and make your voice heard before government leaders make important decisions.

Charity Reform

The Senate Finance Committee is currently considering comprehensive health-care reform legislation, titled America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009. Senators Rockefeller (W.Va.), Carper (Del.), Kerry (Mass.), Schumer (N.Y.), and Menendez (N.J.) have proposed capping itemized deductions at 35 percent as an offset to pay for their health-care programs.

This would decrease the amount of charitable giving high-income taxpayers could deduct once the Bush-era tax cuts expired in 2011. And, for the first time, it would decouple itemized deduction caps from the tax rate. The result will very likely be fewer and smaller donations for America’s charitable organizations, and that’s no way to pay for health-care reform—or any other government program.

In addition, Senator Grassley (Iowa) is proposing amendments that:

• would require tax-exempt organizations to report additional governance, management, and potential conflict of interest information on the annual Form 990, in addition to new governance reporting requirements established in 2008, and
• would make it more difficult for tax-exempt organizations to justify compensation for officers and directors.

Grassley’s proposals are nearly identical to the ones AGRM and rescue missions opposed in 2005.

Act Now

Please take a moment this week to call your U.S. senator’s office and let him or her know that you oppose any health-care reform legislation that:

• caps itemized deductions for charitable giving, or
• burdens rescue missions with more IRS reporting requirements.
  

Let the person answering the phone know that you are a constituent and ask to speak to the legislative assistant (LA) handling health-care issues or the senator’s legislative director (LD). If the LA and LD are not available, leave one of them a personal voice mail. Explain how the potential changes would negatively affect your rescue mission, and leave your name and phone number for a call back.

Let the staff know how the economic downturn and drop in giving has affected your mission’s work and the people you serve, and the real cost of more IRS reporting requirements. Congress should be making it easier for taxpayers to make charitable donations and lifting the IRS reporting burden on charities, not making it more challenging for rescue missions to survive while they help the people and families struggling most during this economic downturn.

To find your senator’s office number in Washington, D.C., go to www.senate.gov and use the “Find Your Senators” drop-down menu in the top right corner of the screen. You should also call the offices of senators on the Senate Finance Committee (especially if you are one of their constituents), since they’re currently making the decisions to change the itemized deduction cap and IRS reporting requirements. Go to finance.senate.gov/sitepages/committee.htm and call each senator’s office.

Finally, I encourage you to go online to download two helpful documents. The first is a copy of a letter to Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus(Mont.) encouraging him to oppose any caps on itemized deductions during consideration of health-care reform legislation. AGRM President John Ashmen and a coalition of 16 other national nonprofits and association leaders signed the letter.

(THIS POST WAS COPIED, BY PERMISSION, FROM AN EMAIL THAT I RECIEVED FROM RHETT BUTLER, GOVERNMENT LIASON WITH THE ASSOCIATION OF GOSPEL RESCUE MISSIONS.)

I’m usually the first one to broadcast a call to service.  I think service is a vital part of following Christ.  He made that clear.

James 1:27 says “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” 

Abe Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”  If we are going to serve, let’s make sure we do it right and that our efforts achieve something of significance. 

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s look at objectivity in our giving, serving, and outreach.  What is the main objective when you go out to do a “homeless feeding”?  I hate that term by the way, but that’s what everyone seems to use. 

What are you going for?  What is the desired result?  Full stomachs?  A chance to show love?  Appeasing your conscience? 

We are going to do “_____”, in order to achieve “_____”.  Fill those in when you set out to serve. 

Next we need to make sure we are good stewards of our giving.  What is the benefit of this effort?  How is this going to elevate the intended “target” to higher level of comfort?  How is this going to increase their love for God?  Most importantly, is this something they could/should be doing on their own?  The worst thing you can do for someone is something they should be doing for themselves. 

If you want to help people, provide opportunities for them to succeed.  Provide opportunities for them to rise up.  Give them tools and let them build.  Don’t just give them a house.  You know, that whole teach a man to fish thing. 

It’s hard for me to slow down sometimes and examine my efforts.  But at the end of the day, I want to place more value on effectiveness than I do sheer number of efforts.  I want to be strategic so that I can see one man rise up and become independent, rather than 20 show up for a free meal. 

As you develop and implement programs and outreach ministries, take the time to declare and objective, and stick with it to the end.  As you see results from your outreach, you’ll be less inclined to decline.

The Arkansas Lottery brought in approx $1.2 MILLION on it’s first day in operation yesterday.  Yeah, you heard me, a million-two.  That’s a lot of cash. 

According to Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, after all was said and done, the net was something like $300,000.  Still a lot of cash.  That’s scholarship money.  Great, that was the point right?  Yet, even out of a net of 300k on the first day, there is still only 200k ANNUALLY set aside to educate your kids and neighbors about the affects of problem gambling AND try to treat those who are already there.  A lousy 200 thousand dollars in a year.  Are you freakin’ kidding me?  Do the math here:  if you can net 300k in a day for 365 days……you can surely set aside a little less than one days take home in order to keep this lottery from destroying lives.  Right?  Nope, not here.  Not in our state. 

We are more concerned with firing this sucker up as fast as we freakin’ can!!!  Arkansas Blog quoted the Lt. Gov. as saying, “Arkansas made history yesterday by generating an estimated $300,000 in scholarship funding in 24 hours … a terrific start.  Congratulations to the Arkansas Lottery Commission and the Scholarship Lottery staff for executing a smooth lottery startup in record time.”

I mean, that’s all that matters right?  Let’s do this thing!  Let’s do it now, and let’s do it fast!!  Great job Halter!  Way to do this the “right” way…..

Well, before I could even get the first one shipped off, my plan has been thwarted!!!  Thanks to the Georgia Department of Transportation, the nine men who were living in the camp were given 24 hours to leave the place that they had found some refuge. 

With only two shelter beds that can accommodate sex offenders in the state, the men will now be left to find somewhere else to go.  I’m sure it will be somewhere else that the men will continue having to live like animals. 

How sorry that they were directed there by PO’s, and even check on weekly by the same folks, and now another part of the state government is going to run them off.  That’s just bad policy, or management, or something! 

You can read more on this HERE.

This is a HUGE problem here in Arkansas.  Just last week I searched the city of Little Rock over for a place to take a homeless man who became a convicted sex offender in 1989.  There are no shelters to take them to.  I even got a call today asking if I could help another man, and had to tell them that I knew of NO options for someone. 

Apparently Little Rock is not alone.  Though we have our share of homeless camps, I’m not aware of any sex offender camps in our area.  That’s not the case in Marietta, GA, where the state even refers folks to this camp if needed.

Maybe if I get as smart as Mayor Bloomberg in NYC, I can start shipping the sex offenders out of Little Rock, to Atlanta…..

That’s a joke, folks.  In all seriousness, something has to give here.  What are these people expected to do when they have restrictions on where they can live, work, go and everything else that LIFE entails?

I like the Bible.  I really do.  I love what it tells me about Jesus.  Man….that Jesus!

The Bible says that it is for FREEDOM that Christ set us free.  It says that.  It says that you and I have been set free, who put our trust and faith in him.  Freedom.  That’s why he did it.  Freedom.  Say it with me now, freeeeee – dum.

But we won’t let ourselves experience that freedom.  What’s more is that we won’t let OTHERS experience that freedom.  We won’t.  We don’t.

I love what Paul says here in Colossians 2:8:  “Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.” 

You wanna know why I love this?  Because I am so sick of all that human thinking.  It will suck the freakin’ life out of you!  I love that he calls it “high-sounding nonsense”.  Man that is half our problem as Christians.  The high-sounding nonsense that comes out of our mouths.  High-sounding nonsense that comes from human thinking. 

It wears me out.  I’m kind of like Ghandi, if it weren’t for Jesus, Christians would run me off every single day.  I’m just being real.  I know that I am to love, and love the church; after all, it’s the body of Christ.  I know that.  I’m just saying that all the human thinking will drive you mad! 

Here’s my point:  if Jesus didn’t say it, or do it, the I don’t care about it!! 

If Jesus didn’t tell me that I must have some great education, then I don’t have to have it.  If he didn’t tell me that I need to dress a certain way to represent him, then I don’t need to.  If he didn’t tell me that I need to look, walk, talk, work harder, or pray longer than he did, then I don’t need to. 

That’s freedom.  Live for Jesus, LIKE Jesus.  That’s life.  That’s Jesus. 

What say you?

If you’re still behind, it’s time to catch up. If you are operating on a shoe-string, as most NPO’s are, then you know how resourceful one must be just to keep the place going. You have to be creative to keep a supply of basic needs on hand.

Social media doesn’t take much creativity on your part. In fact, the hard part has been done by the geniuses that have developed this stuff. The simple role that you play? Tell people what you need. That’s it!

The number one reason people don’t give is that they haven’t been asked, or don’t know about the need. If you fill in that blank for them, you will see amazing results. Need = _____.  Social media is the quickest and most effective way to get that information out there.

Example #1: Earlier this year, through the use of Facebook, Brandan Thomas was able to get hundreds of teenagers to bring 3,821 rolls of toilet paper to church camp for the Union Rescue Mission. How else can you get 3,821 rolls of toilet paper in one week???

Example #2: One week ago, I posted on our Twitter (@URMission) that we needed disposable razors. Simple little need that is often overlooked, and now we have enough for a year. In two weeks I had more than 1,700 razors dropped off on my desk. 

Simple need + simple social media = BIG results. If your organization isn’t using these FREE and SIMPLE methods of informing the community about your need, you better start! Or else you may find yourself without a razor or a roll of toilet paper when you need it most!!!

The two sexiest fat men alive, or so they call themselves.  These guys are freakin’ hysterical!!  I used to listen to their radio show every single morning when I lived in Nashville, TN.  When I moved away from there, I lost that ability as their show is not picked up by anyone in central Arkansas. 

When I got the chance to review their new book, I was thrilled!  Most of my friends and local readers aren’t going to be familiar with them, that’s another reason I wanted to help get the word out! 

This book is an explosion of comedy.   These guys know a thing or two about marriage, because they have learned from their own blunders!  They get pretty transparent and share with you some of the stupid “man” things they have done, and how they worked together with their incredible wives to resolve the issues.

This book is practical.  If you can’t relate to two poster children of good ole boyism, then you can’t relate to anyone! 

And most noteworthy, this book is Biblical.  Rick and Bubba are not ashamed of their faith, and take no measures to hide it from the reality of marriage.  In fact, they will quickly tell you what the Word of God has to say about it. 

I encourage you to read this book, to help your marriage, to help yourself, and to make you laugh!

Today I spent the first half of my day in a workshop called Inside the Teenage Brain, given by MidSOUTH Prevention Institute.  I love anything that MidSOUTH has going on because it’s always so beneficial to anything I’m working on, treatment or prevention. 

Cathy Hagemeier, M.Ed., began the session by asking us to name three words that described the “typical” teenager.  I was somewhat shocked when I heard the words that were listed by 29 adults, to describe teens.  Here are the ones given aloud:

Opinionated, moody, annoying, know it all, hungry (mine), dramatic, aggressive, antisocial, liars, confrontational, brats, persistent, needy, confused, manipulative, sensitive…..and then one educator finally spoke up and said FUN!!

Teens are some of the most determined and influential people groups we have!  They are energetic and passionate!  They ARE fun! 

Why does a group of adults fail to see the awesomeness that is our youth?  Here are a list of things that I think better describe most teenagers:

Determined – They aren’t as quick to quit when faced with a challenge.  Some may, but for the most part they are very resilient and push through much adversity. 

Exciting – Every hour is a new hour, there’s little room for boredom.

Teachable – Though most may think they have it all together long before they do, they’re not so stuck in the past that you can’t teach them something new.

Real – Though most teens are spending a lot of time trying to figure out who they are, they will always tell you like it is.  They’re not afraid to be transparent. 

There are many strong and valuable qualities that kids possess, and it’s high time we give them a little credit. 

What words would you use to describe your teen?  Would you want your kids to hear the words that you would choose?  Do you ever look for their strengths and help them capitalize on them?  I realized today just how crucial the teenage years are in one’s life, and I will never approach them the same again.

I’m like most others, in that I have always viewed recovery as a process that one goes through to reach the point of being recovered, or restored. 

Today want to look at recovery as a result.  Action = reaction, right?

“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.” Galatians 5:16

What Paul is saying is that if we will do this one action, the result will be inaction.  If we will wake up every single day and put our focus into this one action, we WILL NOT do the other action. 

Follow the Holy Spirits lead, and you WILL NOT act on that desire to use.  You do one action, to gain inaction.  Act on the Holy Spirits leading, and you won’t act on that impulse or craving. 

One action = no action. 

If you are fresh into your recovery, your life is without a doubt feeling like a roller-coaster.  Things do calm down, and you will settle in.  For today, do this one action so that you won’t act on the impulses of your sin nature.  Submit to God, and watch him work.  He will show up, and show off in your life.

Before you read this post, understand that it is directed at Bible believing Christians.  Anyone is welcome to read it, but that is the intended audience. 

If you know me or have read this blog much at all, then you know how much I hate addictions.  I hate more than that how people are kept in them. 

I honestly view most addiction treatment programs as a man on the edge of a swimming pool, using one hand to pull someone out, yet keeping a foot on their head to keep them from getting completely out of the water.  That viewpoint may tick you off, and I am perfectly OK with that.  If you are offended by that, good. 

Why am I such a jerk about this?  Because I’m offended by the programs like A.A., N.A. or others who suck the hope out of the lives of those who are already in a place of feeling hopeless.  I am offended by it.  I am angered by it. 

What makes me even more angry are the programs that try to make you believe they are “Christian” or “Biblical”, and contradict the very essence of Jesus himself. 

Take A.A. for example.  In the “Big Book”, you will read things such as the ideology that a “Power” greater than yourself exists, but you can pretty much approach him however you see fit.  How ever you can “imagine” him right now is sufficient.   “To us, the Realm of Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding to those who earnestly seek.  It is open, we believe, to all men.”  pg. 46 The Big Book 4th Edition

Or how about on page 47 when it says, “When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God.” 

Really?  Your own conception of God?  Wow! 

Quite simply I state that GOD IS GOD!  If you are seeking after God in your own concept of who you think he MIGHT be, or COULD be, then you are no longer chasing God, but a god.  Big difference. 

Jesus said in John 7:16-18, “So Jesus told them, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me.  Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.  Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies.”

Here is my point.  Christ followers are subjecting themselves to all kinds of inaccurate teaching when they attend meetings such as A.A. 

God clearly sent his message through Jesus, or else you wouldn’t be following him.  There is very little in The Big Book that will line up with the teaching of Jesus.  He stated that anyone who speaks for himself is only seeking glory.  This is what A.A. has done.  Spoken for itself.  It has lied to many Christians, and I don’t want you to be the next one. 

There is not “Higher Power” floating around out there for you to make your “God”.  There is only God.  If you want freedom from addictions, here is the way to do it:

“Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.  And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31,32

Jesus put it very simply.  HIS teachings.  Following HIS teachings is what brings freedom.  Following some mystified god that was idealized in your head, is idolatry.  Follow the one with hope.  Follow the one with the clear path.  Jesus. 

This is one that boggles me from time to time. 

I use Tweetdeck to feed my Twitter addiction.  I have in my columns, the search for the keyword “homeless”.  I do this for a couple reasons.  One, so that I can see what is being discussed real-time about the homeless or homelessness.  Two, so that I can have something interesting to read in my “down-time”. 

One common complaint in that column is about homeless individuals carrying cell phones.  Every single time I see someone ranting about this, it stops me in my tracks.  I have wanted to address it for some time now, but haven’t done so.   Now is the time. 

Please allow me to address the ignorance of this complaint:

1.  Do you people want homeless people to remain in that state forever?  Really?  You have to start somewhere don’t you?  Why not with basic communication?

     a.  How can one get a job, without a callback number???

     b.  How can one ensure some level of safety on the streets?  With a cell phone! 

2.  ANYONE can go get a dang pre-paid cell phone!  It’s not like they are rushing out to get the new iPhone.  It’s probably a 19 dollar Nokia! 

3.  Guess what…..homeless people have family too!!  If you were homeless wouldn’t you want to talk to your family somehow? 

4.  GET OVER IT!  It’s a cell phone!  Not a crack pipe, or a murder weapon! 

How ridiculous to think that no homeless person should have a cell phone.  Geesh!!

In an effort to voice my…..umm…feelings…about this whole ordeal with the state of Arkansas and the DOL concerning the care of developmentally disabled persons, I emailed several of our legislators.  I have received one response from this email:

“Thank you for your e-mail.  I think we are all very concerned.  Right now, until a determination is made by the U.S. Department of Labor or and agreement of some sort is reached there is not much we can do.  If a determination is not in the state’s favor we will try to find money, but right now our revenue’s are flat and there is currently not on-going revenue coming in enough to sustain taking that on, with the caveat that we don’t yet know how much more money this would require.  There could be some stop gap measures etc, you are correct the cost to institutionalize could be as much or greater.  So until we have more answers from the feds our options are limited and I am very concerned about what we will or will not be able to do once that determination is made.”

Thank you THV for getting this word out there! Something has to be done to resolve this issue. Will you please pass this along?