Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Selah

I was just sitting here listening to Heather Clark's disc Selah: Singing the Psalms and thinking about the rhythm of God in my soul. It is a natural resonance that His presence creates. It is a flow of seasons and movements as mystically predictable as the seasons of the earth. It is a life forming within me as surely as a child in the womb, and I will die in childbirth. He moves when I let Him and stops when I direct Him. He crashes and splashes like a raindrop on a tsunami.
In Him I live and move and have my being.
Wouldn't have it any other way.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Fish Frenzy

If you want to see the most hilarious fishing footage EVER just click on the link above. Cris and I were crying we laughed so hard.
This comes from a link on Ron's site which also includes a rubberband gattling gun. 144 rubber bands as fast as you can crank 'em out....need I say more.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Winter's Not Even Done And The Leaves Are Back!!

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Hey, check out Rik Leaf's latest effort ‘…now is the winter of our discontent’. So cool that you can hear seven full tracks there. Indie artists rock don't they. Let's get out there and support this guy.
PS if you get a chance to take in a livingroom concert....DO IT!!

Revisiting An Old Blog

Well it was Wednesday, May 04, 2005 when I blogged about how much I loved the cover of the new Choir album 'O How the Mighty Have Fallen'.
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I realised just today what my faux pas was, I did not credit the photographer who did the cover. His name is Thomas Pettillo and his site includes some of the other folks he has photographed and projects he has worked on. Give credit where it's due, eh?
The other fellow who worked on the design was Brian Hedyn, but I could find nothing on the net regarding him. If you happen to meet him on the street make sure to give him a hearty back patting from me. Kudos.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

What We'll Be Watching

This is a link to what we will be watching this Sunday night on CBC. From the previews it looks to be a fascinating look into what is fast becoming a phenomenon.
A Perspective On The New China

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Po' Ol' Buddha

It stopped me dead in my tracks, which was difficult to do because I was enjoying my first ride on my new mountain bike, but stop I did. It couldn't be helped. As I was biking down Abbott Street which runs along the lake I looked over to see a seemingly forlorn middle-aged man standing and staring at something in his garden. Now being middle-aged alone can cause this kind of condition, but not this time. This time it was the something in his garden which was causing the problem. I rode up closer to take a look while trying to keep my distance so as to not disturb the subject. When I saw what it was he was looking at I automatically reached for my camera to snap what was to be a great shot for this blog. As I fumbled with the settings though, I changed my mind. You see, this gentleman was staring at his three foot tall garden Buddha which was lying on his back. I understand that the rotund fellow is usually reclining, but this was a new one on me. It seemed that Buddha was to be finding a new position in the garden and needed a rest while his owner decided where this should be. I could not help but see the comedy in this, and while I laughed inside I thought to myself 'Good thing I don't have a Jesus crucifix/scarecrow in my garden or I'd be laughing at my own self'. It was at this point that I realised that it would be unfair to the bald bud to snap a pic of him while he was down. Of course if he could have sat his own self back up I would have been snapping bursts and video in a jaw dropping flash, but alas it was not to be. So I took pity on him that day, twice actually. The second time was when I thought that if he could have only known Jesus he would never have been in this predicament to begin with. Po' ol' Buddha.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Don't Lose It Dude!

In my morning readings I have been very interested in the idea of gaining and losing ground in the kingdom. This hasn't been a main theme in anything that I have been reading, but it is sitting there in the text asking me to not gloss by it this time. In Paul's writings it pops up a few times not the least of which would be in 1Cor. 9 where Paul expresses his desire to not lose all that he has built, not in the church but within his own soul. John also talks of loss in 2John. There are also many stories of falls from glory as well as climbs from the depths in the old testament. I find all this interesting because of how it affects my understanding of grace and the gospel. I find that it is pulling up tent pegs and moving them out to encompass more ground. Of course it can be disconcerting to see tent pegs being pulled up, especially because it is usually done during a storm.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

It Pays To Be A Framer

This is just one of the bonuses of being a framer. Actually I am a carpenter, but right now we are framing a house; and keeping ours warm ;).

Monday, January 09, 2006

Some Guys To Pray For

I found this list on the net and am using it for my prayer time. These are the men who run China and determine the policies which the people live under. I am living and praying in the truth that these men are just like the men in Isaiah's day. The rulers in Isaiah's time seemed just as large in the scope of their influence and even intimidating in their ability to stand inestimably out of the common man's reach. These men in China are the same. Yet God says of the leaders in Isaiah's world
7 thus says the Lord GOD: "It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass.

8 "For the head of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people),

9 and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you surely shall not last."'"

He is saying that the head of this empire is just a man. So today we say that the head of China (中国) is Beijing (北京) and the head of Beijing is Hu Jintao(胡锦涛). He is just a man.
This is to say that their hearts are just as open to the power of God as any other man's. Their eyes can be opened to see the Son of God (耶稣基督). This is our prayer.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

The Eternal Quest

Contentment is such a key to making it through life. In fact godliness with contentment is great gain, Paul said. Great gain is out there just waiting to be scooped up by those who hold these attributes. The godliness portion I will leave out at this point, mostly because that is for us to figure out as individuals as we follow after God. The contentment portion though, is a hot topic for me right now. Right now as things are falling apart around me. Temporal things will always fall apart eventually,(yes, even iMacs ;) ), this is the only promise they hold. It does not matter what the ad campaign says, what the dude with all the best gear says and especially not what your esthetician says, it will all fall apart.
The thing of it is that we all have this stuff to varying degrees and it is all decaying at various degrees. So what will happen if our contentment is hinged upon these things? The obvious post-Christmas answer is that we will bloat up with despair and die miserable. The degree to which we can financially afford to hold off this inevitable decree is the degree to which we will remain blinded and to some extent the lifespan this cycle will live in within us. Basically the more money you or I have the more toys we can buy to keep the 'thing' from dying. The underlying question here is 'What is the "thing" and what will keep it alive?'
The thing is the immortal which dwells within. It is the part of our makeup which is eternal. I could say soul or spirit, but those words are so over used that a lot of their meaning has been wrung out over a myriad religious arguments. I prefer to call it the eternal component of our being because this helps me to keep in mind the shelf life of this thing. This also helps to make it clear why temporal things will never fill this thing and help it achieve the contentment it desires. I feed my organic person with (mostly) organic food because those systems integrate. If I feed my organic person inorganic food (or McDonald's) I will die because the two systems are not integrated. Square peg round hole, right? So the eternal part of me must need something eternal to feed on to satisfy it. It must find a system which will integrate with its own. I may attempt to feed it with relationships with other beings containing an eternal component, but this will be largely doomed to failure. Not to say that there is not a contentment and feeding which is derived from relationships, but to feed solely from a diminishing source is futile as an end in itself.
So then I am left with one alternative. I must find a self sustaining eternal source from which to derive the nourishment I need to have this peculiar contentment which does not need stuff. This source then can only be God. He alone is the self-sustaining, eternal fountain of life. It is He alone who can fill the insatiable hunger of my spirit. Insatiable because it only follows that if a body has an appetite roughly proportional to its size (except at Christmas) then an eternal body must have a very large appetite indeed.
So let us belly up to the Lord and partake freely of the life that only He can give and thereby sustain the only life we will keep.

Monday, January 02, 2006

Body of Thoughts

How many times has this happened to me now? I will do something which is actually commendable after a season of being down in the dumps or a time of really struggling to find God in it all. It will be a simple thing like picking up my eyes and praising God when things have been tough for a long while or being gentle with my kids when I come home from a crappy day. Nothing major really, but a good change of direction.
Then it happens. I will get a replay of something someone prayed for me in exactly that vein. It may also be that I saw someone walking out the same thing with faith and aplomb. This time it was someone else retelling how their faithwalk was going in the face of difficulty and a storm of God questions. After regarding this memory I am sent reeling back by an onslaught from the enemy of our souls. He comes in telling me how this would have never happened if I hadn't seen that other guy do it, heard someone tell a faith story or pray it. He says I am just copying someone else who has the 'real' goods. He says I am an outsider trying to look in and look like. Just a 'hanger on'. He takes what God meant for good and twists it for all he is worth to make it look bad. Of course in these days of fierce independence and self-made men his job is that much easier. God laughs at this whole idea of independence and I'm sure from His viewpoint that the term 'self-made man' would be cause for a gutwrenching belly laugh. It is something like the guy who thought his family car could carry the lift of plywood home from the lumber yard.

This guy was fighting some very basic design and structural principles as well when he overrode common sense to retain his independence, but then again so do I when I take on this walk alone. The enemy wants to yank on this desire from any angle he can, but the truth is that without the rest of you and your gifts and experiences and prayers I am screwed. What may be frightening is that without me, you are too. From this place there really is no place for pride, only humility and service.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Happy New Year

Well here it is again, the year of the new; at least for this week. All the shine seems to wear off when he afterglow of the festive season wears away and the lights which dazzled our eyes are surreptitiously removed or just blatantly shut off. Now the dazzle that came from without is being called from within once again. All the holiday goodness that was out on display must now be displayed and the armchair saints have to pull the lever on the easy chair and hit the road again. I really feel this challenge personally. There were no New Year's resolutions this year and I quit smoking 7 years ago anyway. This year I am feeling that it is time to get back on the field. Whether it is the playfield or the harvest field or field of battle, I know there is a field out there calling me.
There was a time when I received a word about being like a warhorse which had come out of the stables but then went back in for some unknown reason. Guess I need to apologise to the rest of ya for staying in the barn while you've been hard at it. I hope my contribution will alleviate some of the burden for you.