Livingroom Concert

Cris and I had the privilege of going to a livingroom concert last night by Rik Leaf. It was hosted at Andrew Smith's place and was well attended by musicians and non (Me). There were many friends from all over Rik's life there and the atmosphere was very warm. Andrew and some others including his talented kids and Norm Strauss got in on the opening set and the music was soaring. To get a taste of what Andrew has been up to check out this CD. As the cover illustrates, Andrew's virtuoso on the guitar is rising to new heights. Apparently this is fondly admired by other musicians like Rik who during his set was struggling with a hideous mass of cords and cables twined between pedals and other assorted gear and blurted out from beneath his keyboards that

"If I could play an instrument like Andrew I wouldn't need all this crap!"

Who Knew??

Got this through a friend's blogsite. Try it, you may be surprised and you may not. Truth be told I was actually not very surprised at the outcome, but it was fun. Now I know the deeper underpinings lurking beneath my Wesleyism.

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 100% Neo orthodox 79% Emergent/Postmodern 64% Reformed Evangelical 64% Fundamentalist 57% Roman Catholic 46% Charismatic/Pentecostal 39% Classical Liberal 39% Modern Liberal 21% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

The Hands Of God

It was a relatively good Sunday. A good day in the AM with the kids at home after working a half day on Saturday. This was followed by a good morning/afternoon at church. Linda Pallone was speaking and Kim Unrau was doing the MC'ing. They did a little tag teaming during the message and it worked great. The thing that hit me most profoundly though was when one of them said to close our eyes and ask God what was on His mind as He created Adam. As I closed my eyes there was a sudden rush that went through me as I saw, through my inner eyes, the Father shaping Adam. His fingers gently parting Adam's with His own fingers, sliding them in between and taking hold of his hand. A single divine finger spread out Adam's toes one by one and rounded them over with those cool little pads on the end of each one. This tickled and Father's heart wanted to see His son's smile so He gently ran His thumb across Adam's face and as the mouth opened to smile He breathed in the first breath of life. A gasp, a laugh and joy poured back out in response. Father ran His hand over His son's head a drew forth a great mane of hair. Yes He even reached down and set in order the parts which made Adam uniquely male. His hands caressed into being each and every portion of His son. I believe this is why we have skin over our whole body. It is an organ of sense and touch and it awoke to the touch of the Father on that day. It was spread out by His hand as He traced every muscle and sinew. It is the mantle of His abiding love and devotion for us. This moved me to tears.
You see, before this I had always had this picture of God being rather regal and apart as He spoke into being all of creation. Now with the rest of the created realm this is true, but of Adam it says:

7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

This means that with everything else He spoke it into being, but with Adam He actually got in there and got His hands dirty. He chose the dirt, He picked it up and fashioned it with His hands, He put His lips to the earth and breathed life into it. Of course He is still doing it today and it gives me shivers to think of the desire my Father has for me. Is life so bad....no, definitely not, my Father's abiding love is with me and always will be.
Cool!

One For The Schup (You Know Who You Are)

I was at work today when a friend of mine asked me about something I had said earlier on in the conversation. There were three of us and much talk while we worked away on a basement renovation so I lost track of what it was I said. As I pondered it over the course of the day it finally came to me so I thought blogging it would be appropriate.
It started out from the statement that rock bottom is where we live. I came on this paradigm shift while working through some of my issues and it has stuck in my thinking ever since. It finds its basis in Romans 3:23 where the playing field is so famously leveled. When we come to a place in our life where we feel we have hit rock bottom we haven't actually fallen there, it is the place where we as humans exist. Even when I feel I am at the highest height I am still, in reality, at rock bottom. This is where the coolness starts.
Usually when we see someone at 'rock bottom' we think that it would be best if someone with the proper training and experience would deal with them rather than do it ourselves. We may even put on some gloves and protective clothing and help them get to that more qualified person. Now experience and training are great and essential tools as is the recognition that we may be in over our heads, but there is One who lives for these moments. One who lives for when the darkness is so thick that the soul pants for light. One who lives to go to the mat for those who are at rock bottom. Of course Christ died for us all, but not all of us see the need. All of us are at rock bottom, and it is in this most surreal place that our saviour meets us. Not after the house is cleaned up, but before we even know what needs to be cleaned up.
There will be a time when this revelation will truly hit home, and that is when we see Him face to face as He truly is. It is in the true knowing of who He is that we will truly know who we are. Apart from a deep and intimate knowledge of God we cannot know ourselves. It is akin to looking in a mirror with the lights off. Of course when the lights go on we are dazzled by the brilliance of it all. As the eye adjusts to the illumination the image in the mirror becomes clearer and we steadily see more and more of ourselves. If this gaze is long and steady we will grow as Paul did. He went from proclaiming that he was not less than the chiefest of the apostles to stating that he was the chiefest of sinners. The paradox is that in the perfect light of the love of Christ is the safest place to divulge and divest of our deepest darkness. What a Saviour. Truly there is none like Him in all the earth!!

Time's A'wastin'

It's been awhile since I've been here and it has also been awhile since I have been anywhere. It can be so easy to check out on life and then wonder why it feels like it is starting to cave in. It's kind of like building a defense against the onslaught of the tides, if you stop for too long the wind and waves have crushed the work of your hands. They do say that time is the great leveler and it is so true. Time spent in the wrong direction has an even greater abrasive action and life is the recipient of this breaking down. Of course life breaks down into pieces of death and that is my great ruin. For freedom He set me free, so then how great this bondage can be. Now, the spirit can rise above, but it takes a concerted effort in the right direction. I don't want to get into the semantics of faith and works because I would hope we are all past those elementary things. Relationships take work and relationships being built in the midst of a war zone are acutely susceptible to erosion if they are not attended to regularly. My relationship with my wife is like that. The whole of the world system is tearing at the seams that bind us, all the time trying to tear it apart. More so is my relationship with God. This is true because if that goes the whole house comes down. The reality is that this is being built in the midst of a war unlike the physical realm has ever seen. The other reality is that there are only two directions for time to be spent on this relationship....building or eroding.
Hmmmmm, what is it I was going to do now???

All Power

You know it is inspiring how an inspired book can just keep on showing you insights and revelations. Of course I am referring to the Bible which is the only fully inspired writing. Today there were two nuggets that struck me in the face the first was during the mid-service prayer when Donna Bromley said that there was a connection between the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost,


and the dispersion at the tower of Babel. This connection being in the linguistics of the matter. At Babel, God gave out languages which dispersed all the peoples and at Pentecost He gave the languages again to those who knew them not so as to bring about unity. The difference in the situations was that at Pentecost the people were united in surrender before God. I thought that was a cool insight.
The other insight came while we were going into prayer, joining with Christians all around the globe for a feast of prayer. The prayer time was intro'd by Wes Campbell giving a message on prayer and what it is acomplishing around the globe. During this time he mentioned the exclamations of the saints in heaven in Revelations.

11And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; 12Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. 13And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

Part of that exclamation I have never understood was about the power. It seemed to me that God already had all the power. Of course this is true, but He is not the power mad egocentric He is often made out to be, is He? No, He isn't. I realised in that moment of prayer that what this means is the giving up of the power that God has given each of us back to Him from whom it originates. As a dad I am given power to rule my household. If I use it with my severely limited abilities, understanding and wits it all goes to hell pretty quick. If, on the other hand, I join with these saints and say to Christ "All power to you Lord", thereby handing the reigns back to Him, then His will quickly ensues and peace reigns. Even countries are given power and obviously don't know what to do with it. If they would join in this prayer daily, and give all power to the Lord on high, peace would ensue. Indeed in the Bible it says that there will be a day when the leaders of this world will say that and Christ shall reign, but oh for a piece of that today. Can you imagine if in true contriteness of heart and spirit our leaders arose in Parliment tomorrow and proclaimed this rather than their party platforms and politics!!! Let us pray for this great day of surrender. Let us pray for a piece of the bread of heaven for today in this country. Let us also in our own lives give the power to Him; let us join in the will of heaven while we yet travail upon this earth.

Introducing....The Silken Sulleness

Hey, is this a family picture or the lastest earth grunge band posing for their new album cover?

I love those guys!

Happy Mother's Day Sweetie!!!

On this morning we remember this wonderful lady, my wife. She is the kind of mother who inspired this day with her commitment to her family and life of blessing to her husband. For all the
- weekend pancake breakfasts
- awesome birthday parties
- late night bad dream snuggles
- quiet watching and adoring
- dreaming and hoping
- harder work than we will ever know
- playtime laughter
- alphabet teaching
- song singing
- bathtime splashing
- family value modeling
- hugs, kisses, and loves
- more than I have room for here!!
The bible says that a wife like this is a crown on her husband's head and her children will rise up with her husband and call her blessed. So today we all rise up and say,


You are the GREATEST!!!

O To Let Go

It is a wonder some days that the blood even flows through my body. This is not due to my love for Burger King, although that will definitely slow the flow. It is due to the way I can get wired so tight about life. The constriction is intolerable most times and yet as I search for where the knots started I cannot seem to locate the beginning of it all. It does have a start somewhere as all things other than God do, but in this instance it is only God who can find it. Why is it that in the economy of the kingdom to surrender and admit defeat is the height of victory for us? I ask why because this is the single most difficult thing for a human being to do. Of course we all know, or have seen, or have been the one who has just caved in and let life happen to them, but this is not surrender, this is a continuation of the fight on a different level. Surrender happens when we lay down all earthly effort and subject ourselves under God. We sit down and listen to Him explain where the knots begin. We use His tools to start pulling the strings, ropes and wires away from each other. We hand over the urge to scream and rage against the confinement and receive the patience to work it out. We know we want to be free, we know we are supposed to be free, but the patience and forbearance eludes us. This is the gift.


Of course all of this does not happen in a bubble, it happens as life is bearing down on you with all its fury,

it happens in real-time.
So, are we up for a chat with the Prince of Peace, or will we rail against it all until the fury has its way?

OK, So I'm Prejudiced...So What!!

OK. This tops the list of greatest all time album covers for me. There is such a seductive melancholy about it and yet it tingles with childlike hope. WOW! Good on the boys from the Choir.