New Website!

Please continue on to my new site, located at

www.benstevens.de

Thanks so much!

Ben

Younger Barth on Sacramentalism

An interesting, if ancient, article from the younger Barth on what he called "creeping sacramentalism".

Full Story in Time Magazine - 1957

Belgian Catholics Form Alternative Churches

Lay leaders in Belgian Catholic parishes have begun taking matters into their own hands.

Click Here to Read the Full Story

On Divorce After Disclosure

As an intramural debate among Christians, the issue of whether a person can be born with homosexual attraction, or may openly and unrepentantly practice homosexuality, is a complicated. But quite apart from that issue, it is unclear to me on what basis any person, homosexual or not, may excuse themselves from a marital commitment to another person, regardless of what becomes clear to them about themselves in the course of that marriage.

A person who realizes, after a decade of marriage, that they made a less than optimal choice in a partner is not thereby excused from the commitment they made before God to be with that person forever. How, then, even if we were to accept the idea that Scripture can be reconciled with homosexual practice, may a man who is married to a woman excuse himself from his commitment to God, whether he is homosexual or not, upon deciding or realizing that he is homosexual?

Click Here to Read the Full Story

Check Out Dropbox

When Becky and I were moving into our apartment, we put our printer on the network. This made it easy to print from wherever we were (with our laptops) in the house.

I wanted to do filesharing as well, but that's usually a much more difficult thing to do. So luckily I stumbled on dropbox.com before long. The video on their (very simple) website explains it all, but dropbox is a free and incredibly streamlined way of making a home network, in fact a global file-sharing network, without having to buy any hardware or spending any money.

I HIGHLY recommend it. :)

Dropbox - Home - Online backup, file sync and sharing made easy.

Friends from Germany

Newsletter No. 18

Our Prayer Magnet (by Dave Niblack)

(May we send you one?)

One week from today I'll be a married man. In the last 48 hours a large chunk of our support has come in. I've finished moving all of Becky's stuff into our new apartment. And I have made a major strategy decision which will affect the rest of my support-raising process. All that to say, there's been plenty on my mind! In the midst of all of the busyness, God has been in my face about the way this “time of testing” brings all the things I still have to learn from Him to the surface. So I would appreciate your prayers in these important days. Let me explain my prayer requests briefly.

First, God has been teaching me that “the faithless heart disdains the provisions which God makes for us in the wilderness” and that “while weakness is not a sin, faithlessness is”. These are quotes from recent sermons my pastor has preached from the book of Numbers, and they have been heart-piercers and perspective-givers in these last weeks. So with my faithlessness in view, and now major questions in my mind about why God made marriage and how I am to think about it in an eternal context, there's been lots of practical theologizing going on. Please pray that I would refuse “to disdain God's provisions”, and that He would sow a greater faith than ever in my heart.

Support-raising itself has been going well. A large church and a good friend have joined my support team in the last 48 hours, and that puts me very, very close to 50% of my original support. With Becky on board, I will have to raise more than I did as a single, meaning that it's not 50% of my new support goal, but it is a great milestone on the way to raising what we need to make our work possible. Praise God for His provision!

Having traveled at least 1500-2000 miles each month since January, I know that traversing the country takes a greater toll on me than I anticipated it would, and it is especially hard on Becky for me to be gone for weeks at a time. So, while I intend to continue traveling and building my network anywhere I can, the “major decision” I've made is to work hard to raise support in Chicagoland as well (making it easier for me to work and be close to Becky). I am not that well established in Chicago, so the plan has its difficulties, but I have already seen God answer prayers about extending the borders of my network here. Please pray that that would continue. We will be doing a “referral drive” (an idea I had) beginning in about a month to try to get 250 new contacts, so please pray for that effort as well.

God has been good to me, and it has been in spite of myself. Please pray that Becky and I will have a joint vision about why we are here, why we have each other, and why we are on this awesome journey to serve Him and the Gospel in Germany. I hope for us, as I hope for you, that we will see every moment of our lives as a moment of God's story.

Bis Bald!

Ben

P.S. Beginning next month we will be sending paper newsletters as well. Would you prefer to receive a paper newsletter / like one of those in addition to our email newsletters?