Thought for the Day

"A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing."
-Emo Phillips

Worship

So we just had a worship conference here at the church led by Gareth Goosen link here. I didn’t attend the actual conference, but I went to a meeting on Saturday morning for the pastors and board (yeah early morning meetings on your day off). It was actually a really good time of talking about how we need to worship in our churches. Then in the afternoon I got to play bass for the worship team, and in the evening Niki and took in the concert of prayer. That was an incredible time of worship. It is amazing how having good acoustics can totally change the way people sing!! Anyway whenever we talk about worship in church it weighs heavy on my heart. I long for the church to stand in unity, and for us to move beyond our petty differences and stand together before Christ. So the Prayer for Unity by Matt and Betty is often on my playlist right now. For those of you who never had the joy of hearing the Bethany Chapel band here’s a sample of the song I’m talking about
“He sits and ponders ‘why won’t he listen?’ My passion is pure, but time snuffed his out

I don’t want to be like him. I need to be different, He’s tainted by time. ‘God

isn’t there more that you are looking for?'

He sites and ponders ‘Why won’t he see it?’ A reckless passion, where is the

reverence? I used to be like him but now I’m different Refined over time. ‘God isn’t

there more that you are looking for?

All of this I saw as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a

time when a man lords it over Others to his own hurt!”

And then my prayer, “Give her peace, give her peace, give her peace.”
I hope that one day soon we will be able to stand together in peace as the bride of Christ.

Few Useless things to know

Since it’s the weekend I thought I’d give you some useless information to impress people with:

Top four Jello Flops!
That’s right the jello flavors that no one would buy:
#1 Celery
#2 Apple
#3 Coffee
#4 Cola


What type of gum to you chew?

Peppermint
Means you are organized, and love technology



Fruity Gum
Means you are disorganized and a people pleaser

Cinnamon
You love adventure and are up for anything, always looking for excitement

Mints
A partier no room for gum in your pocket or purse.

Did this gum thing with the youth group and was generally right on. What do you think?

Just a little Story

“Lucy woke out of the deepest sleep you can imagine, with the feeling that the voice she liked best in the world had been calling her name. She thought at first it was her father’s voice, but that did not seem quite right. Then she thought it was Peter’s voice, but that did not seem to fit either. She did not want to get up; not because she was still tired - on the contrary she was wonderfully rested and all the aches had gone from her bones – but because she felt so extremely happy and comfortable… ‘Lucy,’ came the call again, neither her father’s voice or Peter’s. She sat up, trembling with excitement but not with fear… Lucy looked very hard into the trees of that glade. ‘Why I do believe they’re moving,’ she said to herself. ‘They’re walking about.’ She got up, her heart beating wildly, and walked toward them. There was certainly a noise in the glade, a noise such as trees make in a high wing, though there was no wind tonight… And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving – moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated dance. She was almost among them now… ‘They are almost awake, not quite,’ said Lucy. She knew she herself was wide awake, wider than anyone usually is. She went fearlessly in among them, dancing herself as she leaped this way and that to avoid being run into by these huge partners. But she was only half interested in them. She wanted to get beyond them to something else; it was from beyond them that the dear voice had called. She soon got through them for they were really a ring of trees round a central open place. She stepped out from among their shifting confusion of lovely lights and shadows. A circle of grass, smooth as a lawn, met her eyes, with dark trees dancing all round it. And then – oh joy! For HE was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him. But for the movement of his tail he might have been a stone lion, but Lucy never thought of that. She never stopped to think whether he was a friendly lion or not. She rushed to him. She felt her heart would burst if she lost a moment. And the next thing she knew was that she was kissing him and putting her arms as far around his neck as she could and burying her face in the beautiful rich silkiness of his mane.
‘Aslan, Aslan. Dear Aslan,’ sobbed Lucy ‘At last.’
The great beast rolled over on his side so that Lucy fell. Half sitting and half lying between his front paws. He bent forward and just touched her nose with his tongue. His warm breath came all round her. She gazed up into the large wise face. ‘Welcome, child,’ he said.
‘Aslan,’ said Lucy.‘you’re bigger.’
‘That is because you are older, little one,’ answered he.
‘not because you are?’
‘I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger." (Lewis, C.S. Prince Caspian pg 143-146)

I’ve been reading the Narnia series again, and I have to say that I am loving it. There are so many images of the Bible and Christ that I could have sermon illustrations for years! Anyway I just wanted to share this nugget with you all. The two things I saw
1) The Joy and contentment that comes from being with the Father.
2) How the older we get the more God grows so that he is always bigger than we first thought. That’s right folks, we’ll never figure Him out!!!

Man's Inner Strength

Growing up I never really watched Friends, it wasn't really my type of show. I preferred Due South or something like that far more than a sappy story about a bunch of friends trying to figure out love and life. But I must confess that in the last little while I've been sucked in! Yes, I am watching all of the reruns of Friends. And it's great because (unlike Simpsons) I haven't seen all these episodes before. Well currently Joey has really likes Rachel, but can't tell her because she is pregnant with Ross' child (very confusing). Anyway as I was surfing the web yesterday afternoon I saw that last night Joey was going to tell Rachel that he loves her... To make the long story short Rachel didn't handle it well and Joey was just going to leave and have himself a good cry, when Rachel started bawling and asked him to hang around. And that's when it hit me!!!

I believe that God has given men a certain inner strength that is beyond reason. In the case of Joey and Rachel, Joey finds the inner strength to stay and comfort Rachel, and even make a joke about how he loves her. In my marriage (and dating before that) there have been times in my life where whatever it is that I wanted suddenly becomes far less important than what Niki wants or needs. It doesn't matter how strongly I wanted something or was feeling, there is this sudden wave of emotion that says what she wants and needs is the most important thing in the world. It's like this inner strength that bursts forth and says, "HEY I'M A MAN AND THIS PERSON IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ME! Put aside your selfishness and just take care of her!" I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, just an interesting thing I noticed in friends that made me think... now if only I could figure out how to make my inner strength come out for people I don't love.....

Coffee and the Bible

Lately I've been noticing that I'm drinking a lot more coffee than I used to. Maybe it's the big cups my parents got me for Christmas, or maybe I don't get enough sleep. Either way I'm not to worried... I have a coffee verse. If you're out there like me and drink too much of the blessed bean, don't worry, just claim this verse: Mark 16:18, "And they will be able to drink any deadly poison and no harm will come to you."

Us, Song, and God Part III

Ok, here’s the end of my song kick… for now, just wanted to say that this stuff I didn’t steal from Leonard at all so if it’s way off base don’t hold it against him, and still go and listen to him speak! Finally the reason I love the image of us being an irreplaceable, unrepeatable song has to do with Zephaniah 3:17. Zephaniah says “The Lord your God is with you he is mighty to save He will take great delight in you he will quiet you with his love he will rejoice over you with Singing!!!!” Now just imagine with me, God our Father sitting in heaven singing a song of Joy over each one of us. But not just ANY song, He is singing MY song. The very song that He created me to be, the very song that I am, the song that connects Him and I together in a bond more intimate than anything else in the world. God doesn’t sing this song for anyone else but me it is a time of closeness and intimacy between Father and child. Now maybe I’m way off, and it takes a bit of imagination to get to this point. But I for one am going to be making an effort to listen to my song as God sings it over me.

Us, Song, and God Part II

The Second reason (and for the record this is starting to be some of my own thoughts, I didn’t steal ALL of this) The second reason I love this analogy is God is a singing God! The Hebrew for “And God Said (Gen 1).” Is translated from a word that means something more like “And God made Noise.” For those you who are C.S. Lewis fans you’ll remember the scene in The Magicians Nephew when Digory, Polly, Uncle Andrew, the Cabby, and the White Witch witness the creation of Narnia. How does Aslan do it? He sings, a most beautiful song that makes the darkness come alive!! I love this image because it takes God from a stuffy, wordy kind of God and turns Him into a musical, creative, wonderful God. Speaking things into creation doesn’t seem nearly as creative to me as creating a song for each blade of grass, each animal, each human being. Truely I believe that God is an incredible God who loves music and has created a special song for each one of us.

Us, Song, and God Part I

So I promised some stuff from the Leonard Sweet conference and so I’m going to deliver, but it’s going to take a few days to get it all out, So this is part one of three. Hope you enjoy some of the thoughts that I got from Leonard.

Ok so here’s the deal. Einstein said that E=MC2 right? Ok so basically what was saying is that Energy is equal to Mass and C2 is (as far as I can tell) a very large number. SO what this means is that Energy is equal to mass, or all the things that take up space. So then (according to Sweet) there was this other guy who argued based on this formula that the table your computer is sitting on right now is equally energy (spirit) as it is mass (matter). So all of this is just another way of saying that tables, chairs, computers are as much spirit as they are mass. Now hang in here with me. Currently the reigning definition of matter is that, “Matter is vibrating loops or threads of energy.” So really then “The fundamental reality of life (matter) is vibrating sound (or music) (Sweet).” Still with me on this? Ok so then if matter is really vibrating sounds, or music that would mean that each one of us is really… A SONG!

We as people are irreplaceable, unrepeatable, unique, special songs. Now here is why I like this idea of us as people being songs.

The First reason I love this analogy is that, like an instrument I am constantly going out of tune, and I need to be tuning myself to God (the perfect C). Now for those of you who are science people you know what happens when two frequencies match. Something has to give. This is what happens when an opera singer hits those incredibly high notes. There is an EXPLOSION of resonance, and then something has to give. And if it is between a well built opera singer and a mirror, it’s not going to be the opera singer who shatters. In the same way when we tune ourselves into the same frequency with God there is this explosion between us and something has to change… and it’s not going to be God! What a wonderful image of what happens when we meet with God.

Leonard Sweet and Summoned to Lead

So I had one of the greatest days in a long time yesterday. I was able to go with the other pastors to hear Leonard Sweet at Conference called Summoned to Lead. I’ll be sharing some of my thoughts about what he said tomorrow. But for now I just wanted to say if you get the chance to hear him, GO!

The other thing I wanted to say was that the moment I stepped foot in the conference room I KNEW That this was a conference for culturally relevant, “emerging,” post-modern pastors and church leaders. There was Starbucks, Laptops, blackberry’s, and Cell phones every where. Leonard even started both of his sessions with an extra tall Starbucks Frappuccino. Unfortunately I couldn’t go for the second day but today Starbucks was actually COMING to the conference center to serve Lattes to all of the pastors J just makes ya smile huh!

Finally it was a good day for two more reasons. ONE I got to check out my wireless internet for about ten minutes until the signal was taken away from me L
And the other thing was I got two books. Summoned to Lead by Leonard Sweet (for Free) and then I bought Soul Shaper (exploring spirituality and contemplative practices in Youth Ministry) and that book was only $8 so all in all it was a very productive and fun day. So tune in tomorrow for some of my thoughts on Aslan, Song, and Us (most of which will be stolen from Sweet).

Back from a Journey

Hey big world! So this is what i have discovered in my journey across the world wide web. I really am a horrible blogger! I mean I see so many cool blogs out there. Dan King has these really nice links and now he even has this video on his site. Not to mention those nice links where the word is a lighter color than the rest. Or how about some of those blogs with the "The war in Iraq has cost..." and then the numbers climb at an incredible rate. And then there are the cool pictures that people put into their blogs with the words all around etc. Add to that the fact that I can't download anything, and I'm not even sure where I need to go on this thing to change my "proxy setting (????)" yup pretty much I don't know anything about these awesome things called computers. As much as I wish I was a tech savvy youth pastor the sad fact is, I'm hopeless. If anyone out there reads this and knows the answers to my questions feel free to let me know what I need to do
Thanks
THE QUESTIONS1) How to I set a nice picture as my banner (with writing on it)
2) How do I download videos etc
3) How do I make nice links in my blogs
4) How come the pictures everyone else puts on their blog look so much better than mine
5) Finally is there anyway to use the fonts I've downloaded on the blog?
6) Hypothetically if I was to try and pirate a wireless signal from my neighbor what do I need to do to make this wireless card work (keep in mind that this is a hypothetical question, all my neighbors are like ninety and don't even know what a computer is... I'm just saying what if!?"
Well there it is, the confession of an techilliterate guy... and yes I think I just created a new word :)

In other news, Tomorrow I'm going to Summoned To Lead a conference with Leonard Sweet. I'm pretty excited, I think it will be an awesome time (good info) also I'm looking forward to checking out the battery life of this bad boy laptop....

Well have a good one
See ya

The things that make us happy

Hey all! So last night we had an awesome Bible study with our youth. I can't say I as really prepared at all, and the projector was doing weird things so that didn't work. But about two minutes into my talk I all of a sudden realized that I had lots to say and that God's words were spilling out of my mouth. What a wonderful feeling to just be God's tool! So anyway we had this great night of youth, and then this morning I came into the office set up my laptop, checked my email and I discovered that TWO people had commented on my last blog. Now I realize that it is probably just pride or something, but MAN I feel so cool when people leave a comment :) To make things even better Dan King left a comment... now Dan this might be weird if you read this , but I read your blog every day and so I was pumped that you left a comment on mine! Anyway funny how small things in life make us so happy.

One other thing to say. If you haven't heard of the National Playlist you should probably start voting. CBC Radio is trying to create the 10 essential songs and right now U2 is on there with One.... but it's not doing so well so go to this page http://www.cbc.ca/nationalplaylist/index.html and vote for One!!!

My New Computer

Just had to say that I work in an amazing church. You're looking at a pic of my new laptop!! What a wonderful tool!!! Anyway that's what's new right now... a VERY cool new laptop!!

The NeW yEaR

Well here we are at the start of another year... well not quite the start we're already a solid four days in, but still seems new to me. I have to say that this year has started off with a bang. Busy days in the office and youth starting up again tonight. I'm pretty pumped to get back with the youth, play a bit of Mario Kart on the big screen tonight! Good times! Also working out where we are going for our missions trip this summer is heavy on my mind. Got some awesome ideas, now we just need to see where God wants us to go! So if you think of my feel free to toss up a few prayers to the Big guy!
Christmas was awesome. Highlights real quick were:
- Seeing family
- Hangin out with the Denise and Koehn (ping pong anyone??)
- Christmas eve and morning with my family (great traditions there)
- Snowmobiling with Andrew in HB (nothing says winter like the smell of gas as you rip through nature at 60 mph)
- Playing games around the table with Niki’s family

It was a great Christmas nice to get away, and even nicer to settle back into “real life” Although sometimes it makes me wish I could just step out of “life” for a while and sit on the beach for the next 10 years… well now there is a goal for retirement J hope you all have a great new year and I look forward to hearing from you