I'm so late. Had to wrap up some last minute work before the holidays, and finish the remaining 70% of my paper. I don't usually do this because most of my papers are fairly dry, but here's my paper on Gospel, Church and Culture. It was a bit crammed, and I had to follow a bit of an outline and use a select number of resources. but enough of the excuses, feel free to peruse if you got the time.
I'm also using the w.bloggar tool for a change. Google it yourself if you're looking for a blogger GUI tool. I'm running really late and not sure why I'm writing, but just wanted to declare the goodness of God in my life. Buried in papers, but it's been awesome. Laters all, my wife in Ottawa awaits me.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Sunday, June 27, 2004
What makes you come alive?
I'm knee deep immersed in writing my final integration paper for Gospel, Church, and Culture today. I got caught behind because I was speaking at UTCCF this past week on outreach. It was excellent to be back involved in campus ministry again, even if just for a moment.
I also managed to read two John Eldredge books this past week, Wild at Heart and Waking the dead. Besides the fact that I've been leading a new Men's sunday school class, this was oddly spurred on due to Tony's comments that my post reminded him of Eldredge's writing. Strange how we often flock to those with similar views. There are definitely similar themes with him and McManus, although I still think Erwin is a better wordsmith. Two quotes that remain off the top from Wild at Heart:
Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.I know I definitely married a woman that challenges me to the person God had called me to be every single day. Thank God. However, I don't think writing papers makes me come alive, but speaking to students, encouraging and, building them up in Christ sure does. Alas, I must get back to the paper. I guess I must go through the valley if I want to stand upon the mountain...
Most men, marry for safety; they choose a woman who will make them feel like a man but never really challenge them to be one.
Monday, June 21, 2004
xxxChurch and Mosaic...
I read this excellent article this morning (the string of comments afterwards is what was really insightful), regarding xxxchurch ministry and their experience at Mosaic church.
x3church is a very interesting organization that seeks to go directly engage the world of pornography with the love of Christ while providing hope to those who have been entangled by it. They actually provide free accountability software/services for those who are interested.
Mosaic is a very extraordinary church that meets in a nightclub. You won’t find much on their website, but I’ve read volumes about after reading three books by their lead pastor, Erwin McManus. We’ll be visiting it this summer when Yvonne and I head down to LA.
The article and its comments illustrate the ongoing struggles when leading edge ministries that seek to free people from porn/religion or a combination of two collide and Christians start opening their mouths (Some excellent and a few not so bright thoughts throughout).
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Jesus Sings...
I’ve never heard anyone describe this. Or at least I never noticed it before, but check this verse out…
Here’s a link on Matt Redman’s thoughts on the Father’s Song, a song he wrote based on this verse.
“Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He says,I had to backtrack and read this over a few times, because my gut reaction is that it implies we’re the ones who sing praises… but if I’m reading this correctly, it’s Jesus that sings our names. Imagine that. Our voices intermingled in harmony with Jesus singing praises in heaven! This reminds me of Zephaniah 3:17
‘I will declare your name to my brothers;
in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises’” (Hebrews 2:11-12)
"The LORD your God is with you,Who is this King of Glory that pursues us with his love? Who sings with us and to us?
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."
Here’s a link on Matt Redman’s thoughts on the Father’s Song, a song he wrote based on this verse.
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Random links...
My coworker, Cliff, who i've been overtly reaching out to just started his own blog. Some humbling remarks on myself I might add. Thanks Cliff it's an honour to be sharing my faith journey with you.
A speaker that has influenced my life a lot lately, Erwin McManus talks about the Primal Essence of Leadership here. Absolutely anyone involved with leading the movement of Jesus Christ should take 40 minutes to list to this.
Here's a hilarious link on how to seem smart.
A speaker that has influenced my life a lot lately, Erwin McManus talks about the Primal Essence of Leadership here. Absolutely anyone involved with leading the movement of Jesus Christ should take 40 minutes to list to this.
Here's a hilarious link on how to seem smart.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Out of commission...
Who thought that last post was lame? That was the seminary student side of me coming out… intrigued with social commentary / academia and all that jazz. My apologies, some days it feels extremely important to me, other times (like right now) it seems embarrasingly like meaningless drivel.
Back to what’s actually going on. I’ve been so fired up lately about running hard for God. I have been encouraging everyone with how I would rather run hard and stumble forward landing flat facing God than sit idle and allow the world around me to press against and shape me. I even told my mentor last week (almost braggingly) how I haven’t been sick in years. Until now…
I woke up Sunday morning with my head throbbing and my throat dirt dry. Not the best of timing as I was to be leading prayer meeting that morning (arrived late), kicking off the "Men of Faith" Sunday school class (drank water profusely throughout), presenting Monday downtown for some cross training (struggled through), share at our Shake&Shine team meeting (which I have now wisely cancelled), and speaking at a campus fellowship on outreach (which God graciously delayed a week).
This morning pure natural ability won over human will power. I told myself that today for the first time in our marriage I would sleep in past Yvonne. I couldn’t do it, and though feverishly sick, I got out of bed by seven. I’m not sure if it is some kind of medical condition I have or not, but I realized as I struggled to stay horizontal, that I wake up every morning feeling my heart rapidly beating. It races onwards until I get up and start doing something, plateau-ing as my body gets into rhythm with the pumping of the blood. I think in my mind I get the sense the world is moving on without me and I'm missing out... so I press on.
I’ve learned much these past few days. I’ll jot’em down later. As for now I must start listening to that voice I thought I slayed years ago, and get some rest, “the spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Matthew 26:41).
Back to what’s actually going on. I’ve been so fired up lately about running hard for God. I have been encouraging everyone with how I would rather run hard and stumble forward landing flat facing God than sit idle and allow the world around me to press against and shape me. I even told my mentor last week (almost braggingly) how I haven’t been sick in years. Until now…
I woke up Sunday morning with my head throbbing and my throat dirt dry. Not the best of timing as I was to be leading prayer meeting that morning (arrived late), kicking off the "Men of Faith" Sunday school class (drank water profusely throughout), presenting Monday downtown for some cross training (struggled through), share at our Shake&Shine team meeting (which I have now wisely cancelled), and speaking at a campus fellowship on outreach (which God graciously delayed a week).
This morning pure natural ability won over human will power. I told myself that today for the first time in our marriage I would sleep in past Yvonne. I couldn’t do it, and though feverishly sick, I got out of bed by seven. I’m not sure if it is some kind of medical condition I have or not, but I realized as I struggled to stay horizontal, that I wake up every morning feeling my heart rapidly beating. It races onwards until I get up and start doing something, plateau-ing as my body gets into rhythm with the pumping of the blood. I think in my mind I get the sense the world is moving on without me and I'm missing out... so I press on.
I’ve learned much these past few days. I’ll jot’em down later. As for now I must start listening to that voice I thought I slayed years ago, and get some rest, “the spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Matthew 26:41).
Friday, June 11, 2004
The New Public Square
I've been taking Gospel, Church and Culture this summer at Tyndale. Here are some excerpts from an interesting article I recently finished - The not-so-naked new public square by Rodney Clapp:
"Shopping malls have quite consciously been built and presented as public squares, commons, or downtowns. Mall architecture incorporates-albeit in an artificial, thermostatically regulated fashion-many of the fixtures of older downtown areas. Walkways are laid out in squares and rectangles, urging circuitous wandering. Fountains shoot. Trees and lesser greenery soften and enliven the scene. Benches invite rest, lingering, and the possibility of conversation. Amphitheaters await performances and audiences.
In addition, malls no longer simply sell products in myriad stores. They have expanded to include chapels, dentists, optometrists, medical clinics, counseling centers, ice rinks, miniature golf courses, food courts, childcare, banking services, postal services, and branch offices of local, state, and federal governments. Some (such as the famous Mall of America, which sports its own zip code) include full-scale amusement parks. Others (such as Canada's West Edmonton Mall) contain zoos.
More deliberately, a Minnesota coalition of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and others have established the Mall Area Religious Council to establish a "spiritual presence" at the Mall of America. According to its webpage, the Council plans to open The Meaning Store at the mall in 1997. "It will be a store where "meaning in life" is made available in a spiritual manner." Patrons may use the store's Reflection Center for meditation and worship, glean "reliable information about local and world religious traditions," or shop for "books, music, [and] artifacts of world religions."
For all the good intentions behind it, The Meaning Store crowns mall culture's victory. It reduces Christianity, Judaism, and other faiths to name brands, objects of comparison shopping. They are simply differently packaged containers of "meaning in life," now made available for today's purchase and, should it be desired, tomorrow's disposal.
So The Meaning Store is the perfect religious symbol of the trivialization of real choices in the new public square's endless promotion of pseudo-choice. It is true that the malls, with their rows on rows of stores, apparently overflow with choice. But mall stores carry a small, least-common-denominator stock that can cater only to the taste of the masses-not to those who would genuinely be different in their clothing, jewelry, reading, or music listening. More significantly, mall culture inhibits community; it denies and destroys smaller ways of life, such as folk songs and art, or strains of apples and brews of beer peculiar to a region. As Wendell Berry puts it, mall culture will not allow us to conform to local ways and conditions, but forces on us "a rootless and placeless monoculture of commercial expectations and products."
In like manner, The Meaning Store presumes faiths are, finally, not that different from one another. By confining Christianity (among others) to "meaning in life," and commodifying it, the Store endorses an attitude of spiritual seeking as shopping and makes the "customer" sovereign. Seriously obscured, if not lost, is any sense that the seeker's desires might be misguided and in need of conversion, a transformation wrought by a Sovereign other than the self. And so buried, too, is the glorious hope that the seeker might make the really important and significant choice, the choice to petition the God "whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20) and embark on an adventure bigger than any mortal individual's meager dreams and puny plans."
After typing all that I just found the full article here.
Goodness that article was longer than I thought. To spice things up, here's a link to 10 free legal tracks to be downloaded from futureshop to the first 10,000 people who sign in June 12th.
Also if you're interested in investing in some land on the moon...
"Shopping malls have quite consciously been built and presented as public squares, commons, or downtowns. Mall architecture incorporates-albeit in an artificial, thermostatically regulated fashion-many of the fixtures of older downtown areas. Walkways are laid out in squares and rectangles, urging circuitous wandering. Fountains shoot. Trees and lesser greenery soften and enliven the scene. Benches invite rest, lingering, and the possibility of conversation. Amphitheaters await performances and audiences.
In addition, malls no longer simply sell products in myriad stores. They have expanded to include chapels, dentists, optometrists, medical clinics, counseling centers, ice rinks, miniature golf courses, food courts, childcare, banking services, postal services, and branch offices of local, state, and federal governments. Some (such as the famous Mall of America, which sports its own zip code) include full-scale amusement parks. Others (such as Canada's West Edmonton Mall) contain zoos.
More deliberately, a Minnesota coalition of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and others have established the Mall Area Religious Council to establish a "spiritual presence" at the Mall of America. According to its webpage, the Council plans to open The Meaning Store at the mall in 1997. "It will be a store where "meaning in life" is made available in a spiritual manner." Patrons may use the store's Reflection Center for meditation and worship, glean "reliable information about local and world religious traditions," or shop for "books, music, [and] artifacts of world religions."
For all the good intentions behind it, The Meaning Store crowns mall culture's victory. It reduces Christianity, Judaism, and other faiths to name brands, objects of comparison shopping. They are simply differently packaged containers of "meaning in life," now made available for today's purchase and, should it be desired, tomorrow's disposal.
So The Meaning Store is the perfect religious symbol of the trivialization of real choices in the new public square's endless promotion of pseudo-choice. It is true that the malls, with their rows on rows of stores, apparently overflow with choice. But mall stores carry a small, least-common-denominator stock that can cater only to the taste of the masses-not to those who would genuinely be different in their clothing, jewelry, reading, or music listening. More significantly, mall culture inhibits community; it denies and destroys smaller ways of life, such as folk songs and art, or strains of apples and brews of beer peculiar to a region. As Wendell Berry puts it, mall culture will not allow us to conform to local ways and conditions, but forces on us "a rootless and placeless monoculture of commercial expectations and products."
In like manner, The Meaning Store presumes faiths are, finally, not that different from one another. By confining Christianity (among others) to "meaning in life," and commodifying it, the Store endorses an attitude of spiritual seeking as shopping and makes the "customer" sovereign. Seriously obscured, if not lost, is any sense that the seeker's desires might be misguided and in need of conversion, a transformation wrought by a Sovereign other than the self. And so buried, too, is the glorious hope that the seeker might make the really important and significant choice, the choice to petition the God "whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20) and embark on an adventure bigger than any mortal individual's meager dreams and puny plans."
After typing all that I just found the full article here.
Goodness that article was longer than I thought. To spice things up, here's a link to 10 free legal tracks to be downloaded from futureshop to the first 10,000 people who sign in June 12th.
Also if you're interested in investing in some land on the moon...
Monday, June 07, 2004
Crazy old man...
I went to a conference this weekend and one of the guest speakers was Paul Henderson, the hockey dude who scored the ‘goal of the century’ for Canada in ’72. He was awesome. In sixty-year-old-man-rhetoric, he was speaking about how as Christians we are not here to ‘fiddle & fart around’, but to impact people forever.
As he was speaking I wrote down the words “Crazy Old Man” and circled it, thinking ‘wow, I hope I’m at least half that crazy when I grow up’. There is nothing crazier than denying yourself and following Jesus (Matthew 16:24). You should be considered a little crazy if you wake up in the morning longing to give all that you have to the purposes of God - impacting lives in this life and for all eternity.
As I am getting older I feel the pull to become normal, to settle, to conform, creeping in. I am told that I must abdicate passions for obligations and consider it a step forward in ‘maturity’. I must establish myself, develop habits, becoming effective, well-rounded, and time-managed. Whatever happened to becoming Spirit-led? Being God-inspired? And being created with a divine purpose that no one else on earth could fulfill but you?
From hearing 20 minutes with Paul Henderson you would know that he is one of those crazy passionate followers of Jesus. The ones who make you stop and wonder if you’re really living or just safely watching life go by through a thin piece of glass. I wonder how many of us, especially those who claim to be ‘spiritual’, ‘religious’, or even ‘Christian’ are already dead. A came across an excellent passage this morning to evaluate the state of our souls.
As he was speaking I wrote down the words “Crazy Old Man” and circled it, thinking ‘wow, I hope I’m at least half that crazy when I grow up’. There is nothing crazier than denying yourself and following Jesus (Matthew 16:24). You should be considered a little crazy if you wake up in the morning longing to give all that you have to the purposes of God - impacting lives in this life and for all eternity.
As I am getting older I feel the pull to become normal, to settle, to conform, creeping in. I am told that I must abdicate passions for obligations and consider it a step forward in ‘maturity’. I must establish myself, develop habits, becoming effective, well-rounded, and time-managed. Whatever happened to becoming Spirit-led? Being God-inspired? And being created with a divine purpose that no one else on earth could fulfill but you?
From hearing 20 minutes with Paul Henderson you would know that he is one of those crazy passionate followers of Jesus. The ones who make you stop and wonder if you’re really living or just safely watching life go by through a thin piece of glass. I wonder how many of us, especially those who claim to be ‘spiritual’, ‘religious’, or even ‘Christian’ are already dead. A came across an excellent passage this morning to evaluate the state of our souls.
“There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (2 Timothy 3:3)The last verse got to me the most, as it reminded of the lyrics of a song called believe.
I’m not satisfied - doing it my own wayI’m not satisfied… and I refuse to seep down into the world average, especially average Christianity. My life will count because God has blessed, empowered and created me to do so (He’s done the same for you as well). I will give myself to learning to be a follower Jesus because He is worthy of being followed. I will not live an ordinary life. Mine will also be one that is crazy and extraordinary. Hold me to it.
I’m not satisfied - to do church and walk away
I’m not satisfied - there’s no love in my life but You
I’m not satisfied - living in yesterday’s hour
I’m not satisfied - to have the form but not the power
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
A Passionate Pursuit...
Reading from 1 Timothy 6 this morning,
What an absurd lie this world tells us. Maybe one day we’ll grow up and perhaps get a job that might pay the bills and could possibly fund our happiness. It’s production for the sake of consumption. And every day we long to be free from where we’re at, and though we think that we’re absolutely free to choose, we find we’re only prisoners of our past choices.
Some of us end up finding religion, and whatever it is, it calls for us to restrain our passions that we might become better people. This isn’t what Jesus called us to though. While religions like Buddhism may center around the annihilation of desire, Jesus calls us to an acceleration of passion. One where we become so passionately in love with God and people that He loves, that they are worth fighting and living, and dying for.
“But you, man of God, flee from all this (love of money and evil), and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith.” (Timothy 6:11-12)There is absolutely nothing passive about this. To aggressively flee from the desires of this world and passionately pursue the character of God in our lives is far from passive. Conversely, to take the path of least resistance, accepting our circumstances, and attempting to fulfill our own personal desires like the rest of the world – that’s passive. That’s status quo, commonplace, nothing new, same old - same old, mundane, life as we know it.
What an absurd lie this world tells us. Maybe one day we’ll grow up and perhaps get a job that might pay the bills and could possibly fund our happiness. It’s production for the sake of consumption. And every day we long to be free from where we’re at, and though we think that we’re absolutely free to choose, we find we’re only prisoners of our past choices.
Some of us end up finding religion, and whatever it is, it calls for us to restrain our passions that we might become better people. This isn’t what Jesus called us to though. While religions like Buddhism may center around the annihilation of desire, Jesus calls us to an acceleration of passion. One where we become so passionately in love with God and people that He loves, that they are worth fighting and living, and dying for.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it (Matthew 25:16).Jesus says here that to join him on the adventure of truly living we must die to the life that we have lived. No small task, as we’ve spent our entire lives living this way and so has everyone else around us. To choose Jesus is not easy but difficult. The way is paved with uncertainty and risk, yet it is right and leads to life to the fullest.
At the end of the chapter, Paul encourages Timothy that giving really is the highest level of living, and that in doing so we “may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:19).What is life? It’s receiving the awesome Love of God and spending our days passionately giving as much of it away as we can. .
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