Looking at God's world today through the lens of what we know about God from scripture.

With each 24 hour whirl, the typical scope and magnitude of daily world news is staggering; so much so that many of us, out of instincts for self preservation, go out of our way to limit the amount of information about our world that we encounter.

As Christians, we do believe that God created and loves this world and every person in it, and cares deeply about our surrounding communities, cultures, countries, and circumstances. While scripture is clear that God created humankind and life on earth, God did not necessarily create all aspects of today's communities, cultures, governments, political boundaries, nor their interactions with one another.

In his words and his actions, Jesus taught that suffering, injustice, greed, hatred, poverty, idolatry, etc. -- basically, the acts or consequences of SIN -- do not follow God's original design. Following Jesus means not only turning away from these things personally, but also toward the redemption of all of God's creation: committing our lives to working against these aberrations of God's creation, as we proclaim and demonstrate the Good News.

How can we align ourselves with God's concern for this world, inform ourselves with the daily realities that are a part of our world, protect ourselves from debilitating overload, and involve ourselves proactively in God's redeeming work, on a daily basis? How can we view this world through the lense of God's Word, and respond accordingly?

The purpose of this WhirledView blog is to seek such a perspective over time, and participate with God in building the kingdom on earth with a view to the kingdom in heaven. The goals include:

• Highlight and consider international events, political and global issues through the lense of scripture, seeking how God might want us to view these things.
• Encourage awareness, prayer and ways to take action, not just to be informed.
• Encourage North American Christians to adopt a broader view of our world rather than a narrower North-American-Centric perspective.