Happy Halloween

Known, Accepted & Loved

Every day we live with a great irony: we have an unending desire to be accepted, yet, on the other hand, we're afraid to be completely & intimately known.

If you've seen The Mask, you will know that Jim Carrey's character hides behind a literal mask that accentuates certain character traits that seem to make him more appealing to the girl of his dreams. At one point in the movie he struggles with whether he should meet her as himself or the mask. His dilemma is that he is not confident his dream girl will like him if she really knew him.

Aren't we like that?

Many of us carry feelings of inadequacy and shame & have convinced ourselves of the need to hide; to project certain images of ourselves that we falsely believe are more acceptable.

When we hide behind a mask, the relationships we share are less real - we are robbed of knowing we are not alone; there are others like us.

As a result, many of us carry around the lie that we're worse than the next person (don't hear what I'm not saying - we're not better than the next person either - just much more alike than we think).

To some degree, if we feel others would reject our "true" selves, then we'll carry doubts about God's acceptance of us as well & this can be devastating.

The truth is we are fully known & accepted by God. Don't miss either of these.

If we were only known by God (as faithless, self absorbed, unloving & sinful people) that would be devastating. However, God knows us (knows all about us) & still He accepts us just as we are, for who we are!

Does it get any better than this!?!

Psalm 139:1
O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.

**Further working out of these thoughts in Furious Pursuit

Tonight's the Night

...it's gotta be...I'm hoping it is.

Despite being on the road,
against arch rival NJ,
with Brodeur going for records..

..I'm predicting the Flyers will win!

Up goes the flag!

Chinese Democracy

When I heard this on the radio today...

Arguably one of the best rock n roll bands to date.

Axl being, in my opinion, the best frontman ever.

Geez, if you put the original line up together, in the very least, they'd be considered a supergroup or an all star line up.

Needless to say I'm stoked for the 23rd of November!

Safe Eyes

My oldest son, who is 10, casually shared with my wife & I that his friend is looking at porn on his computer. He said, “Jack told me that he pretends to be asleep when his parents come to his room to tuck him in at night. After they leave he turns on his computer and looks at porn.”

I am amazed every time I hear an example like my son shared of parents who are either unconcerned or unaware as to the various influences competing for residence in their children’s minds.

Americans aged 13 to 18 spend more than 72 hours a week using electronic media—defined as the Internet, cell phones, television, music and video games.
87% of all teens are online.
1 in 7 youths received sexual solicitation online.
Average age of first Internet exposure to pornography is 11 years old.
15-17 year olds having multiple hard-core exposures - 80%
8-16 year olds having viewed porn online - 90% (most while doing homework).
7-17 year olds who would freely give out home address - 29%
7-17 year olds who would freely give out email address - 14%
Children's character names linked to thousands of porn links 26 (Including Pokemon and Action Man).

Source www.xxxchurch.com

I am thankful that our kids can openly speak to us about issues, such as pornography, without shame or concern of getting into trouble. This openness is the result of my wife & I intentionally taking some simple, common sense steps to both protect our family & explain what the protection is about as it pertains to the internet.

The three steps we employ as a family are very basic:

1. We keep our computer in a high traffic area of our home (kitchen/sitting room)
- If our kids run into trouble we are always around to help
- There are no computers in any of the bedrooms, tucked away in any remote part of the house or behind closed doors

2. We use Internet Filtering software called www.safeeyes.com
- It helps our family avoid unsolicited porn traffic
- It protects our family from ending up on sites (whether on purpose or not) that are harmful to their healthy development

3. We have rules for appropriate Internet usage
- Boundaries are helpful especially at the outset and while a family is young so that habits are formed and this becomes the way we relate to the internet as a family
- There are a lot of helpful uses for the internet but even too much of a good thing ceases to be a good thing before too long

Santa Shuffle 2008

Are you running!?!

Shedding Religion

Here is a lengthy post by Jim Palmer. It is well worth the read - read it!

Touching Life Today

As Chaplain at the Centre of Hope it is my responsibility for this month to send a devotion out to all the staff in this building and a couple of others in the city.

Today was my first kick at it. I'll share what I wrote here because I think it's worth sharing (toot, toot - tooting my own horn!).

Hi all,

This is my first go round with these devos, so, first up a snippet about me!

I am the husband of but one wife, Leslie! We met in high school, dated for five years and have been married for just over 14 years. We have three great kids who teach us more about God & life than I'm sure we teach them. I won't mention the dog & cat because I don't include them as members of the fam (despite the fact that my wife does).

Leslie & I are in our twelfth year as full time pastors and are presently planting a house church in our neighbourhood. I'm working at COH full time to alleviate the financial stress on a new church plant while Leslie works part time at Jackson Willan Seniors' Residence for the same reason.

Here's where God is showing up and what He's teaching me this week:

My daughter came home from school on Friday having coloured a turkey for Thanksgiving. The turkey had 4 big feathers hanging from it (I think they were feathers, it wouldn't make sense for the turkey to have 4 big wings!). On each feather Julia had written something she was thankful for.

Here's what she wrote:

• I'm thankful for God because God made me.
• I'm thankful for my family because they love me.
• I'm thankful for my brothers because I love them.
• I'm thankful for Terry Fox because he ran across Canada.

I thought to myself, "Julia gets it!" There isn't one thing on that list that has to do with material possessions. Sure she could have said her Hannah Montana toys or her DS, but she didn't. Each of the things she's thankful for has to do with people & relationships.

A while ago Leslie & I began to stress to our kids the importance of people over things. This was our lead up to Christmas a few years back. With thanksgiving having just passed & Christmas approaching (you know you were thinking about it before I even mentioned it) & especially in daily life - let's put people before things.

I don't know who said it but I once heard it said that we should love people & use things, not use people & love things (hey, that could make it on a Starbucks cup!).

Maybe we could use today to practice putting people before things - I'm going to!

ChickenFoot

I hope beyond hope that this happens...

According to The Pulse of Radio, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS drummer Chad Smith has joined the new "supergroup" started by former VAN HALEN frontman Sammy Hagar. The band, tentatively called CHICKENFOOT, also features ex-VAN HALEN bassist Michael Anthony and guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani and will enter the studio to begin recording its debut album this summer.

Sincerity of Heart

John has a great article that you can read in full here.

The following is a section from that article:

One of my favourite heroes of the faith is Oscar Romero. Whenever I get too preoccupied with church activities or the politics that come with working for a Christian organization, I take some time to read his words. Romero never fails to strip away all of the unnecessary church nonsense and remind me of the essentials of serving Jesus Christ. In The Violence of Love, Romero says:

Let us not measure the Church by the number of its members

or by its material buildings.

The Church has built many houses of worship,

many seminaries,

many buildings that have been taken from her.

They have been stolen

and turned into libraries

and barracks

and markets

and other things.

That doesn’t matter.

The material walls here will be left behind in history.

What matters is you, the people,

your hearts.

God’s grace giving you God’s truth and life.

Don’t measure yourselves by your numbers.

Measure yourselves by the sincerity of heart

with which you follow the truth and light

of our divine Redeemer.

We need to look beyond our walls and reach out to our communities. If we become too caught up in the activities we plan inside our churches, we will lose sight of the needs outside. And that leads to irrelevance and eventually empty buildings. We exist for the people outside our material walls, not for the personal satisfaction of those inside. What happens inside should prepare us for what could happen outside. When we lose sight of that, our church suffers. And then our community suffers, our nation suffers, and the world suffers.

Oh my my Oh Hell yes Honey put on that party dress

I'm preparing this afternoon to share with the residents where I work.

As I'm preparing I'm focusing on my main point being God is in pursuit of you!

I don't know what they've been up to today but God has been pursuing them all day!

Out of nowhere I'm broadsided by the truth - God has been pursuing me all day today too!

Boom! - A great sense of His presence comes into being!

We all go through seasons in life. Sometimes they each come upon us very quickly. Other times we can be in a season for an extended period.

Spring - everything is exciting, new, growing & fresh.
Summer - life is fun, refreshing, sunlit & soothing.
Fall - challenges present themselves in the form of age, sickness, kids getting older & leaving home or not leaving home.
Winter - we feel shut in and alone trying to keep some warmth in our relationship with God - we struggle & ask questions like "God, where are you - don't you care?"

Bottom line: God pursues us in every season of life!

God created the seasons & He's present in every one of them!

Let the games begin!

The NHL is back for another season starting today!

I pulled out my old mug to power the boys up for tonight (not that I'm superstitious!). This old mug has been supporting the team for sixteen years and has seen better days (& some delish coffee).

Don't Vote

NYC Hankering

Leslie has been talking alot about New York City lately. That talk, along with a post by Jordon, has me in the mood to watch a flic with a whole lotta NYC in it! Any suggestions?

All Aboard?

Institutional churches are a lot like trains. They are going in a certain direction and they will continue in that direction for a good long time even if all hands try to make them stop. As with trains, the options for turning the direction of institutional churches are limited at best. If a switch or siding is available, the train could turn. Otherwise, it just follows its tracks. So everyone aboard had best hope that he is on the right train headed in the right direction.

Organic churches, like those in the New Testament, are different. They are not trains, but groups of people out for a walk. These groups move much more slowly than trains--only several miles per hour at the fastest. But they can turn at a moment's notice. More importantly, they can be genuinely attentive to their world, to their Lord, and to each other.

Like trains, institutional churches are easy to find. The smoke and noise are unmistakable. Organic churches are a bit more subtle. Because they do not announce their presence with flashing lights at every intersection, some believe that churches like those in the New Testament died out long ago. But nothing could be further from the truth. Organic churches are everywhere. I personally have been part of one for more than twenty years. Still, groups like ours are quietly walking together, not bothering to call undue attention to ourselves. We are simply pilgrims together.

Once you learn how to spot an organic church, you will soon discover groups of people everywhere meeting just like the New Testament church--as bodies, families, and bridges, rather than as institutions.

Organic churches are groups of people walking with God. The trains pass them by all the time. Sometimes the people on board wave. Sometimes they cannot because the train is moving so fast that people going a few miles per hour just look like a blur. If you are one of the trains whizzing by, it may be a bit surprising to find out that some of those blurred patches of color outside your window are groups of people walking with God. That thing you just passed was an organic church.

by Hal Miller

Sexual Trafficking

Human Sexual Trafficking is a form of slavery.

Marta’s Story

My name is Marta. I am 17 years old. My dream is to be a Hollywood actress and to live in a mansion. Back home, I saved up money to take an acting class in the city. In the class, a friend showed me an advertisement for a modeling job overseas. He said he had some connections and could get me in. He also said the money was great, and that his cousin got a TV commercial through this job that year. I was so happy. I got my passport and my friend held on to it and organized all of my visa paperwork. It was my first time on a plane. I watched a movie and pictured myself in it. My dreams were coming true.

When we landed, I was tired and confused. We went to a hotel and I was locked in. Two hours later a stranger came in and told me the new arrangements. I would be a nude dancer at this man’s club. Initially I stood up for myself but then I was beaten and he burned me with his cigarette. He showed me a paper with my family’s name and address written on it and threatened that he would kill them if I did not cooperate. I am helpless.

Trafficking in Canada
The R.C.M.P. estimates that 800 foreign women are bought into the Canadian sex trade each year by human traffickers. Another 2,200 newcomers to Canada are smuggled into the United States from Canada for work in brothels, sweatshops, domestic jobs and construction work. It is widely believed that only 1 in 10 victims in trafficking report to the police, so the numbers are likely much larger.

Somebody tell me how I can do something about this...

Metabolism

Christians feed on Scripture. Holy Scripture nurtures the holy community as food nurtures the human body. Christians don't simply learn or study or use Scripture; we assimilate it, take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love, cups of cold water, missions into all the world, healing and evangelism and justice in Jesus' name, hands raised in adoration of the Father, feet washed in company with the Son.

~Eugene Peterson Eat This Book

It's Official

I went to Starbucks this morning, placed my order, handed over my partner card - it was handed back to me "Partner Number Not Found". Smallish tear & brief quivering upper lip (not really but added for effect) - after 6 months I am no longer a partner.

It was fun while it lasted!

Stop Doubting and Believe

I just got off the phone with someone I was anxiously awaiting to hear from all week.

Good news!

As I sat at my desk having hung up the phone from sharing my previous call with Leslie I remembered...

This morning I saw the kids off on the school bus. As the bus pulled away and I walked back to the house to get in the car & head to work, I was talking to God. As we walked and talked, I told God I'd really like to hear from someone today. I asked that it be possible.

..As I sit at my desk smiling God warms my heart. I'm drawing closer to the God that has always been here - not so much because of the phone call that He made happen but because of what that represents... ..God is in control & He's close - He cares about me!

Life With God

Leslie & I were having a conversation last night about the closeness of God's presence.

One of the things that I got out of The Shack was the reminder of how close & ever/always present God is.

I don't believe the right question is "Where is God?" or the adequate complaint "God is not close."

Don't read too much into this, I'm speaking about myself. God knows (truly) that I've asked that question and had that complaint more often than I care to recollect.

Here's the thought: What if the truth is that God is always close to me (Emmanuel) and the real question is 'Am I willing to be close to Him?'

I'm not referring to working up the feeling of God's presence through some religious contribution of my own. No amount of religious ritual or practice can replace the freedom & contentment of living in the truth of God's presence. Sometimes we have to take His word at illogical face value.