More than a Textbook (This Pastor's Struggle)

I was filling out my application for Dauphin Bible Camp this past week and there was a question regarding my personal devotions.  As I was taken aback by this question, for a Pastor of all people, I stopped and evaluated.

What is the state of my personal devotions?  I get paid to spend time in The Word and to pray and to be spiritual...but when I am not working my 40 hours per week, is my life filled with God?

I googled the definition of devotion and this is what the computing machine came up with:

1. love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause.

2. prayers or religious observances.

So, the conundrum I run into as a Pastor, who is paid to have love, loyalty, and enthusiasm for Jesus and observe prayers and religious observances, am I working when I spend time with God and in the Bible?  How does one separate the two?

While a student in Bible College, I remember my English teacher, who is now President of the College, we were warned in our time studying the Bible, it will become more of a textbook than the Living Word of God.  And that exact thing happened.  I would go to church and try to figure out what the pastor said wrong.  In my mind, I knew all the answers, but my heart was not transformed.  It took some time after my first stint at Bible College to realize, my heart wasn't in it, but my mind was.

Now, 14 years later, I am a Pastor and it's the same thing again.  It brings me back 6 years or so when I was working as a carpenter.  I would work all day with wood and when I came home, I didn't want anything to do with renovating our house.  I wanted to separate work with non-work.  Therefore, very few projects got finished at our house.

Now, it feels like the same thing.  We are all called to be Christians (Christ-like) yet, I get paid to do it too.  But, our walk with God needs to be personal too.  Am I being Jesus to my family?  To the grocery clerk?  to my neighbour?  So, in a way, we are all called to be Jesus-people every hour of every day.

My struggle is that I desire to personally love God with all my heart.  And my desire is that I would not be a Christian because I have to for my work, but I desire to from my innermost being.

Are We All Girls?

Sorry, this edition has no pictures

Our Devotional one evening at Youth Group a few weeks ago was ‘Question Time’  It is my belief that Christians should not shy away from difficult topics, but take them on headfirst, knowing we have our Creator and His Word backing us up.  I will openly admit there are nerves that tingle inside me as I open the floor for questions as many questions come for left field.  My only rules are that no question is off limits (although some may be inappropriate and will not be answered) and no topic is off limits, the Youth can ask anything from my favourite colour (purple) to if I believe in pre-tribulation.

The question period started tentatively, “What is your favourite colour? do you like Anime?”  moved onto “What is your favourite verse in the Bible? and what is your Life Passage in the Bible?”

Then the doozie came, I will try to quote it word for word as it was a well worded and thought out question, “If Jesus is God’s only Son (John 3:16) and we who believe in  Him are Children of God (John 1:12), Are we all girls?”

I would like it if you were to stop for a minute and digest this question.  It is quite simple question, yet the answer (if there is one) is quite complex and will share with you my thoughts on the subject.

Immediately, my imagination flew to a Johnny Cash song, “Boy Named Sue” and I thought of some high falooting parents enrolling their son, Sue, in a prestigious Catholic Boarding School and when he arrives, realizes it is for Girls only, but they have chapel right away and they are sitting in the church Mennonite style and the one by is on one side with 200 girls on the other.  It made me laugh when I the picture came to mind, but back to the matter at hand, Are we all Girls?

The easy answer is No, yet the Church is referred to the Bride of Christ (2 Cor 11:2), so the other simple answer is Yes.

From my remembrance of the way marriage worked back during Jesus’ time, a man would approach the father of the girl he wanted to marry, there would be a dowry paid, the couple was betrothed and there was a 1 year wait time before the two began living as a family and starting life out together.  For all Legal purposes though, the two were legally bound at the acceptance of the proposal.  There was a great anticipation of the Bridegroom coming to claim his Bride.

We, who are bound to Christ through His death and resurrection eagerly anticipate His return.  So, we who know Him, have been bought for a price and we eagerly anticipate being united with Him when He returns.

So, Are we all girls?  Physically, no, yet Spiritually, we should all have the heart and excitement of a woman who has just been proposed to as we eagerly await shedding this sinful self and forevermore will dine with the King!

Christmas Complexity

If you were to look closely at our Christmas lights this year, you will notice the peak has different lights than those above our Christmas tree.  There is a reason for that.

While Colleen was away for a Mom's Conference to the States, she mentioned to me that she would like Christmas lights put up for when she returned.  So, me being the proactive type, waited until Sunday, the day of her return, to go shopping for and put up the lights while the kids were napping.

Our beautiful kids, Ellianna, Jolen and Elkanon.  1 girl, 2 boys.  We walked over to Home Hardware after church and I told the kids they could pick out their own string of lights (Kanon didnt' really pick, but the two older picked for him and he held them in the cart, so he could feel like he did the work of choosing).  Here is where the problem started, besides the obvious procrastination that had been happening.

For those of you who know Colleen, she likes things to flow.  An example of this:  while I was a teacher in Ukraine, my students would play a game.  Who dressed Mr. Johnson this morning.  And without any difficulty, they had a 100% success rate of guessing (Is it called guessing if you are always right?).  They could tell by how I dressed each day if I picked out my clothes or if Colleen did.  Which was pretty amazing as I only had 2 different pairs of pants, 4 dress shirts and 6 or so ties.  And, I would even take note of what Colleen picked for me the previous week and wear it and they still would know I dressed myself that morning.

So, the conundrum of picking lights for Christmas that reflect us as a Family, the randomness of Dad, the cohesiveness of Mom and the kids who are somewhere in there too.  The solution was to let them pick out their own string of lights and then figure out how to make them look good.

Ellianna, as a girly girl, picked pink and purple, Jolen as a boy naturally picked lights that did not match being red, green, blue and purple.  Kanon, by default got whatever the kids picked which, through some steering from their Father, ended up being the same as Jolen's.

I put the kids down for naps and went outside to tackle the complex problem.  Thankfully, the two strings stretched the peak and the pink and purple lights covered our living room and Colleen didn't even notice the lights were different when she got home, and she liked them!  Being proud of myself, I pointed the differences out to Colleen and she mentioned that she would have simply made all the kids agree on one set of lights and that would be the end of it.  Had we done that, the lights would have looked good too.

Now onto our lesson.  A couple of things.  When I look at our lights, I see our children.

Our two little men and beautiful daughter who is growing up so fast (she got her ears pierced this week!).  Yet, as you look at our lights on our house, it works.  There is diversity, pink and purple with blue, red, green and purple, yet it is one cohesive unit.  When I look at the Family of God.  We are all diverse.  Each part has it's own job, where one is not more important that the other.  Simply being a Youth Pastor, does not make me more important in the lives of Youth than their teachers, fellow church members or even the parents.  Our board Chairman shared at our last board meeting that research has been showing it takes a 5:1 ratio to raise a teenager.  That is a 5 adult to 1 teen (not including parents) and who these 5 adults are goes greatly into shaping their future.  Being a Youth Pastor can be one of those 5, but only a small part.  It is not more important than their employer, teacher, coach etc.  We need to be individuals who impact in a cohesive way.  Not only with our teens, but our children, fellow adults, even...the elderly.

The other thing I was taught was:  What if we would have done the Christmas lights Colleen's way?  Would they have been better?  Worse?  Not really, they would have looked good and reflected us as a family, one cohesive unit who are all named Johnson.  Is it OK if the church doesn't do things they way you want them to?  Is it OK if someone drinks Tim Horton's coffee over McDonald's (a very difficult question as McDonald's is much Superior).  Is it OK if someone parents different than you?  What if someone believes differently than you.  A few examples of difficult theologies I disagree with. -"The initial evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance. This experience is distinct from and subsequent to the experience of the new birth." Taken from the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada or "Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper."   Taken from the Canadian National Baptist Convention.

The question arises from both lessons:  Are we Unified in Christ.  Is Jesus Shining through us in a way that is not robotic, but Christ in Us - Individuals and a peoples called by God.

In Remembrance

I was given the privilege of being asked to be the speaker at the Dauphin Legion Remembrance Day Service this year.  I would like to share with you my message.  Next post will be about Christmas Lights and what I have learned about God from putting them up.

Here is my message, Enjoy!

Remembrance Day Service – November 11, 2015

-          I consider it a privilege, to be the grandson of Leonard Johnson.

-          He Served with the British Empire Service League – Canadian Legion #207

-          You probably have never heard of him as he was one of the many men who was enlisted during World War II, the fight for the freedom many of us today take for granted.

-          I would like to share with you my fondest memory of him.  It is not an amazing story, but one I cherish in my own heart.

-          Leonard Johnson, who was once the mayor of the thriving metropolis of Hughenden, AB, a town of 250 people, dirt roads and a corner store, loved to golf.

-          He desired to pass this passion to all of his grandchildren, including myself.  So he would take old golf clubs, cut them down to size and put new grips on them so he could take us to the golf course in his 3 wheeler golf cart.  It was there I learned to play golf.  Not well as a round of golf usually costs me more in golf balls than the green fees.

-          One day, I was probably about 8, he and I were our on the course.  He was about 72 at the time and the golf cart broke down.  We tried pushing it but it became apparent after about 10 feet we were not going to make it.

-          So, we began the long walk back, I am not sure what we talked about, but we were together, bonding as a grandson and grandfather.

-          That is the end of my story.  Like I said, not amazing, but to this day, I cannot go golfing without thinking of and remembering my grandfather who was called up to Glory 20 years ago.

-          Why do I tell you this story that has kept you on the edge of your seat so well?

-          Because it is a memory, a Remembrance of something that is dear to me.

-          We are all people of Remembrance, we all have something in our lives that when we see, hold, feel, it brings back a whole slew of memories, emotions, heartache, joy, passion.

-          Why are we this way?  I would argue that this is the way God Created us to be and He reminds us to never be a people who stops remembering, who embraces our history and learns from it.

-          The People of Israel, in the Passage read earlier for you describes this exact thing.  A remembrance to pass on from generation to generation, not unlike Remembrance Day itself.

-          Most of you have probably not heard of the great crossing of the Jordan River.

-          My guess would be that All of you have heard of Moses and the crossing of the Red Sea.

-          A lot of you even know about Jericho and the Walls that came crashing down after they marched around the city.

-          But I would guess a majority of you do not know about the Great crossing of the Jordan River.

-          But, it is so significant in the times of the Israelites that God commanded them to build a Memorial to always remember the Crossing of the Jordan.

-          The crossing of the Red Sea did not receive this treatment, but what was so significant about this?

-           When the people left Egypt through the Red Sea, they were headed towards the Promised Land, The land Promised to Abraham many years before.

-          Through disobedience, the generation that had crossed the Red Sea had died and 40 years later, the New Generation was poised to take the Land.

-          This New Generation had not witnessed the Crossing of the Red Sea, all they knew was the desert and wilderness.

-          This New Generation, with Joshua, one of only 2 remaining witnesses, of the Red Sea and Slavery in Egypt.  He was their leader, and like Moses led the Nation of Israel from Slavery to Promise, Joshua now was leading from Wilderness to Promise.

-          They were Ready to fight for their nation, for their homes, To fight for freedom.

-          The People cross on Dry Land and God commands them to take 12 stones, not small ones either, from the Jordan River and set up a Memorial.

-          Joshua 4:20-24

-          20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.

-          Sounds a lot like the Cenetaph.  Do you remind your children every time you drive by the Cennetaph on Mainstreet and 2^nd Avenue South.

-          When you stop at the lights there, do you look over and remember, there were brave men and women who valued freedom over oppression, so much that they gave their own lives so we could be free in the year 2015.

-          I will never stop telling my children about their great grandfather, Leonard Johnson, who lived during terrible times of war, who loved golf, who loved Jesus and who embraced Freedom.

-          I will also never stop telling my children of another Person I know, who Desired the whole world be Free, so much so, that He died a horrible death on the cross, and was raised on the third day, to see us free from sin.

-          He gave this command on the night he was betrayed.  He took the cup and the bread, broke it and said “Do this in remembrance of me”

-          1 Cor 11:23-26 - 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

-          Are you passing these truths onto the generations to come? Freedom is worth dying for and are you embracing those opportunities we are given to remember?

Not inactive!

Hey Everyone who still goes to this blog, I am not inactive, I have not made writing weekly/monthly/at all a priority.  The plan is to make it one in the near future.  Time will tell I guess.  So keep checking at least once a month and hopefully I can keep it up!  Thanks to Loralyn and Faye for reminding me about this.

Distance Measured by Time

While living in Ukraine, I was often ridiculed (in fun of course) by my students who were mainly American, for my Canadian thinking.

One such student, still sends me the occasional making fun of Canadian tidbits.  For example, I received this from him last week

I got used to the joking and it encourages me to pray for past students.  Another example of being reminded is 

When students would  wear these I would say "You know what the root word of ugly is right?"

I will give you a few minutes to process this.

Anytime I see UGG boots, I think of the students back at KCA who wore them and remember them in my prayers.

Back to the Canadian Joking.  I was sent some Jeff Foxworthy quotes of "You might be from Canada if..."

• If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Canada
• If you have switched from “heat” to “A/C” in the same day and back again, you may live in Canada
• If you can drive 90 kms/hr through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you may live in Canada
• If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you may live in Canada

But, one quote really got me

• If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Canada

It's so true.  Both of our parents live 10 hours from here.  Ukraine is a 13 hour flight away.  Brandon is 2 hours, Winnipeg is 3 1/2.  My office is 5 minutes.  Ha, I even mentioned it in my last blog post.

We Canadians often as how far something is away and then we answer with an amount of time.  This is normal and no one even bats an eye at it.

It got me thinking of our life in Christ.  How far has our sin been removed from us?

Those in Christ know the simple answer and given my Canadian thinking, it is...

Eternity.

The Marvelouseness of Manitoba!

So..

I grew up in Alberta and was always a Conservative.  Makes sense as the Conservative government has been in provincial power for as long as I can remember.  Ralph Klein is a boyhood hero and Stephen Harper, our Conservative Prime Minister, has his local riding in Calgary, Alberta.

It was quite a shock coming to Manitoba.  Weekly I get surveys in the mail from the various political parties.  One such survey asked me who, and by who means which political party, is best served to guide the economy in Canada.  Being born and raised in Alberta, the answer is very simple, 'whoever puts the most money in my pocket'

I was sharing this at work one day and another co-worker commented 'You are such an Albertan Conservative, we need taxes!'  I was taken aback as I have never in my life heard such a response.

I did some research and found that, as I get paid bi-monthly, in Manitoba, I pay $44.17 more in taxes.  Now you may not think that is alot, but in the course of a year, 24 pay periods x $44.17 = $1060.08 per year.  This may not seem like much to you either, but if you think of how much one works say from 22 years of age to 62 years of age that's $42,403.20 over 40 years.  That's a pretty nice chunk of change, enough to easily live a year without working, so in essence from my point of view, if I lived in Alberta, I would get to retire one year early and if you were to ask my Mom how she likes early retirement, she says she absolutely loves it!

Plus, there is an 8% provincial sales tax, so in essence, when I buy something, I pay 8% more than my friends in Manitoba.

Now you may think I am being quite judgmental of Manitoba, and please know that I am not.  I am just trying to let you, the reader, know how different life is, even 10 hours away by car.

Life here, though is much less fast paced.  For instance, when it snows, I don't have to go out and shovel my snow, really at all all winter if I do not wish to.  The town sends someone around to clear my public portion of sidewalk, so I am only responsible to shovel the snow by my house.  Growing up in Vegreville, we lived on an almost busy street and the snow clearing crew would come and clean our streets of snow 1 time a year, sometime in March.  In Dauphin, we live on an extremely quiet street and it gets cleared every time it snows.

I don't have to pay for a library card at the public library, there is a free indoor playground for my children to play at during the winter (and summer when it gets too hot), and Parcels in the mail get delivered to my house.

I admit, I have only lived in Manitoba for 4 1/2 months now, but I think I would be OK to work for another year of my life if it means I don't have to break my back shoveling snow, and get the mail delivered straight to my door.  And, (wink, wink) I have people back in Alberta who can always buy me stuff PST free if I ever just feel like I am under the burden of the government.

That and it is pretty awesome that people feel sorry for me that I am an Oilers fan.

Sorry nothing Spiritual this week, unless you think of heaven and if we will be paying taxes there, or will our whole wage/worship go directly to God and all of our needs will be met and more!  Until next week, enjoy the taxes you spend and God bless.

Thoughts on Creation

Lately, God has been teaching me about creation.  How there is so much theology in the first chapter of Genesis.  It has been a while since I last wrote on this blog.  Life as a Youth pastor has bee much busier than expected.  Blogging has been on my list every week, but in the "doesn't have to get done immediately" section and as a result, it made it's way to the back burner and even pushed off the stove.

Lots has happened in our lives, our son Elkanon (pronounced el-cannon) Jude Johnson was born on September 24, 2014.  There were may complications with the birth and as a result, Colleen crashed 6 hours later and had to have emergency surgery to save her life, which in God's grace was, and not a day goes by that I am brought to tears of how good God is.

With this in perspective, and learning about this generation of youth that do not know Bible stories, God brought me to a series for the youth starting with stories from the beginning.  I also was able to preach at a local church who is in need of Pulpit supply.  I would like to share this sermon with you.  Don't feel bad if you do not make it through as it is quite long.  Enjoy!

Stories from the Bible – Grace Bible Church – November 30, 2014
Creation – Genesis 1-2

- I love reading novels.  The development of the story, how everything ties in together, is just amazing.
- When a good novel is written, the reader`s imagination soars into the clouds.
- The first 2 chapters of genesis is no exception.  When you reads them, you can`t help but daydream about what it used to be like.
- My favourite genre of the Bible is the stories.  I love seeing how it all ties in.  Not only that, how the Bible is one exceptional story of how we as people continually turn away from God, and in His grace and mercy, provides a way to himself.
- This is done through stories, songs, poems, essays, and letters.  Every type of writing styles written by people from farmers and fishermen to lawyers and Kings.
- The beginning of a book usually makes or breaks a novel.  Is the author able to develop the story enough and make a good foundation, with as little of paper, so the full story can be told.
- The Bible is no exception to this.  The first 2 chapters of Genesis set the stage and foundation for what happens in not only the rest of the Bible, but for the unfolding story that happens today as well.
- As I have been interacting with this generation of Youth, I have realized they don’t know the Bible stories
- The stories that I grew up knowing like the back of my hand are new and exciting to them.
- As I contemplated this, and wondered where to go from there, God led me quite simply to the Beginning.
- So, for you today, I would like to go there as well.
- Show of hands, Who here knows the first verse of the Bible?  That question is probably as simple as asking what John 3:16 says.
- Now I ask you, Show of hands again, who can tell me the second verse of the Bible, Genesis, 1:2
- Don’t feel bad if you don’t know it, when I asked the youth this question, nearly everyone knew the first, but only 1 knew the second.
- "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."  From the New International Version.
- So the stage is set, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
- There are many theories within Christian circles of how old the Earth is.  Some say millions and millions of years old, and others hold to a young Earth theory some say as young as 6000 years, and from what the Bible says, the infallible Word of God, the answer is quite simple.
- From the beginning.
- So, I am happy to let the Scholars and Scientists debate this because I believe God wanted us to know that the Earth has been around since Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
- As important as the first verse of the Bible is, I would argue that the second is equally as important.
- Now the second verse of the Spirit of God hovering over the waters is very significant.
- Why you may ask?  Because there was water.  What is essential for life?  Water.
- This means from the beginning, there was this potential for life.
- God from the very beginning of the heavens and the earth had a plan.
- He didn’t create humanity on a whim, or as an afterthought, but was purposeful from the beginning.
- Now, raise your hand if you know how many days of creation there are?
- Take a moment now as I ask you this question.  Do you know what happened on each of those days in order?
- I know I can tell you with certainty what the days are.
- If you have small children, have grandkids, were a kid in the last 10 years, you will know Dora the Explorer
- Having 3 young kids, I watch alot of Dora the Explorer.
- As I was reading Genesis 1, I thought I was watching a Dora the Explorer episode.
- Every episode, Dora and Boots accomplish 3 tasks.  These tasks are repeated over and over throughout the episode.  In Genesis 1 it follows the same pattern.
- Light, Water, Dirt.  Say it with me, Light, Water, Dirt.  Light Water Dirt.
- And this cycle repeats itself.  Days 1-3 go light water dirt, days 4-6 Light Water Dirt then on the seventh day, God rested.
- So day 1 - Light - What did god create?  Light.
- A man was talking to God one day and had an idea.  “God,” the man asked, “I have heard a second to you is like a 100 years and 100 years is like a second”
- “That is true”
- “And a penny to you is like a million dollars and a million dollars to you is like a penny”
- “Also true”
- “So God, please grant me this request, would you give me a penny?”
- God replies, “Sure, just give me a second.”
- I will wait a couple of seconds for you to get it.  Maybe not.
- There is a lot of discussion as to what a day is.  Is it millions of years?  Because 2 Peter 3:8 – “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”
- Was it 24 hours; was it millions upon millions of years?  Again, it doesn’t matter to me, what matters is it happened.  God spoke and created Light.
- 1 thing only 1thing – Light - now this is pretty significant, but I will come back to this.
- Day 2 – “And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.”
- There are different theories out there as to what this vault of water was.  Some believe it was a large shield of water that created a greenhouse effect on the earth that basically made the whole earth a tropical forest.
- Others say it is the Ozone layer that keeps the atmosphere in and “space” out
- Either way, having an atmosphere was essential for life.
- I was reading an article on nationalgeographic.com and it states NASA has come up with a criteria for life to exist.
- The Criteria are:
o proper temperature – one in which water will not freeze or boil
o water – around since the beginning
o Light –  created on the first day
o Nitrogen – I found this humorous as Oxygen is not on the list but Nitrogen is
 It is essential for the formation of amino acids
 The Earth’s atmosphere is 78% nitrogen – so when God created sky – He must have known what He was doing
o The last criteria is quite funny, but very important – Nothing that will kill you
 Something as important as the Ozone layer to protect form UV light
 Or the magnetic field of earth that deflects harmful radiation
- In 2 days, the life is now possible.
- As we look at our own Christian walk with God.  We often want God to act now and fast, yet as we look at creation, God sets a foundation first, so He can create his greatest work, Us.
- Now we have water, light, air.  What else is needed to have and sustain life – Think Biology – Photosynthesis – Plants
- Day 3 – God creates land with plants.  Life not only is possible, but now is sustainable, again, God creating a means for us to continue living.
- We have gone through 1 cycle of Light Water Dirt.  And now we are onto the next
- Day 4 – What was created?  Sun, moon and stars
- The sun is 150 million km from Earth, it converts hydrogen into helium through thermonuclear fusion at a rate of 620 million metric tons per second and will eventually burn up in about 5.4 billion years give or take a couple years.
- The moon, responsible for ocean tides and the means by which ancient empires counted the months, seasons and years.  From a humanitarian standpoint, the moon has a significant place human history.
- As I was studying this, I found it quite humorous. – How many stars are there in the Universe?
- Astronomists say there are more stars than there are grains of sand on the earth.  How many grains of sand are there?  And there are more stars?
- It gives a new meaning to Genesis 15:5-6 5
He took him (Abraham) outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring[d] be.”
6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
- Wow, that’s a lot of descendants and we are a part of that
- Galatians 3: 7-9  7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”[d] 9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
- Just think of all the people there will be to meet in Heaven, in some ways, I understand why we will be there for an eternity, it will take that long just to say hi to all of them.
- Back to Genesis, listen to how it is accounted for in the Bible
- Verse 16 “God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”  5 words to describe the billions upon billions of stars out there – by the way, He also made the stars.
- Now, just for one moment think about it.  How long did God take to create all of the stars?
- Ok now what did God create on the First day?  Light.  How much time did God take to just create one thing?  1 full day.  How amazing must light be if God can create the billions and billions of stars in a day, but in that same timeframe, create 1 thing - Light
- Light is an amazing thing – it travels at 299 792 458 m/s .  Which if you calculate the distance from the sun, it takes about 8 minutes to get there.  So, when you are looking at the sun, you are looking at the past, 8 minutes ago.
- Light has no weight, just pure energy.  In the formula E=mc2 the constant is the speed of light squared.
- According to the Wikipedia (because we know everything on the internet is true) – if an object of mass was to travel at the speed of light, it would take an infinite amount of energy to do so.
- How fast is God?  Faster than light?  Does God supersede light?  How much energy does God have?  More than an infinite amount.
The Nicene Creed states “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”
- Did you hear that about Jesus “Light of Light”  How fitting that Jesus is called the Light of the World!
- So, now, reflect on this Christmas season.  Jesus is 100% Human and Jesus is 100% God.
- How did God take all that bigness and complexity and cram it into a human being.  That to me is more mind-blowing than how Big and powerful God is, but how did He make it fit in such a little package?
- Then Day 5 – fish and birds
- I have often wondered why create sea and air animals on a separate day than land animals.  And really the only conclusion I come to is that they are vastly different.
- For instance, when talking about types of meat, usually the one that gets the bad publicity is red meat like beef and pork.
- Somehow chicken, turkey and fish seem to escape the negativity and even lots of diets will embrace them, but not the red meat.
- Now we move to Day 6 – Land animals – when one reads a story and the author writes 10 pages on Uncle John but only briefly mentions Auntie Sue, who do you think is the more important in the story?  Uncle John or Auntie Sue?  Uncle John.
- Same here – the first 25 verses of the Bible are devoted to creation of everything – the next 31 – except the 3 that are devoted to the 7th day – are devoted to the creation of humans – namely Adam and Eve
- So, creation – light, the stars, oceans, animals, humans and the Sabbath, from the very beginning – all fit into 59 verses and 31 of them – over 50%,  are devoted to the creation of humans.
- I would say we are pretty important to God.
- Not only are we important the Bible says that we are made in God’s image, that He formed us, not just spoke, but formed and then breathed life into us.
- Isn’t that amazing, we hold the very breath of God in us.
- Also very interesting is that God created mankind to decide.  To think and make a decision.
- We were not created to follow our animal instincts but to create and have options.
Genesis 2:19-20 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam[f] no suitable helper was found.
- I find it interesting that God brought all of the animals to the man “to see what he would name them.”
- God not only created Adam with the ability to make a decision, but also to be creative.
- If he wanted to call an animal a platypus, he did.  Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus orangutan, And the list goes on.
- We were not created to be robots, but to think an embrace that we don`t just blindly follow, but are to have substance in our faith.
- So…God searched all of creation and did not find a suitable helper for Adam so he took a rib from Adam and used it to form eve.
- Now if you follow Dora the Explorer, Adam looked at Eve and said “Wo-Man” (like Swiper)
- But we all know Adam was probably older than a child and was pretty ecstatic to see a beautiful lady and said “woah – Man” (like a happy teenager)
- The point of the story of Creation is not necessarily what was created, like the stars, air, light and fish, but the focus is that Mankind was created in God’s image!
- Think about it, you are the reflection of God in this world; you hold the breath of God.  Does that not make you want to praise Him!
- The Creation account also brings a new meaning to John chapter 1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.?”
- And Colossians 1:115-17 “15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
- We are physically alive on this earth, Only because of Jesus.  We are Spiritually Alive in our Hearts, Only Because of Jesus.
- As I was saying in the beginning. I believe Creation is the perfect foundation to the rest of the Bible, The stage is now set.
- The rest of the Bible is the story of how Mankind turned from God and how God brought us back to Himself through the death and resurrection of Jesus, if we would only ask Him to do so.
- As you go this week, remember, I am made in God’s image, I hold His breath.
- As you look at others, remember that too, each one of you is special, because you are each a unique creation of God’s design.
- Pray

Along the same lines as my sermon, and if you have 45 minutes to spare, I would recommend this Louie Giglio sermon called Indescribable.

And a few pictures of our family for you to enjoy.  Tune in next week (that's the plan at least) for 'The Marvelouseness of Manitoba!'

Pastry Flop

This last week, we had the privilege of hosting our youth sponsors team at our house and had some pulled beef sandwiches, pasta salad and dessert!  Pie by the Mile!  Basically is pastry dough spread over a cookie sheet, pie filling in-between and then more dough on top.  Altogether, one big pie the size of a cookie sheet.

To get the pastry dough recipe, Colleen messaged her mother and got the recipe, which called for one pound of shortening.  If you know shortening packages, one pound is a whole container.  She mixed the dough and while kneading it commented that it felt very moist, yet broke apart when rolling like it was too dry.  We called my mother-in-law to find out what we should do, add more flour, or more liquid because we were at a loss of what to do.  "Oh, I think the recipe calls for 1 cup of shortening, not one pound.  (The difference is that 1 cup is about 1/4 of a package)

We did not want to make 4 times the pastry dough, so I went googling on the internet to find out what we can do to solve our problem.  The best answer I got, and really the only one, was to throw it out and start over.  "There must be a way to salvage something good out of that dough," I thought, but alas, it was a lost cause.  We threw it out, I went to the store to get more shortening (as we had used up the whole package on the last batch) and we started fresh.

The pie was delicious and worked out great and we had a encouraging time preparing for the coming year at Youth group!

As I was running to the store for more shortening and disappointed previous dough was hopeless, I began thinking about being a Christian in this world.

Often I look at myself and desire to "save" my flesh; I want to hold onto those things I am called to give up.  I keep insisting that they are not necessarily bad, but can be made good if I just try hard enough.  But, as I remember the pastry dough, there is no saving the flesh, it must be thrown away and burned in the fire.

1 Peter 2:11 states that the fleshly desires we have war against our souls.  We my think and try to take the things that are not from God and try to make them good, but it is clear, they war against us.

Kindof like Adam and Eve in the garden where eve saw the fruit was pleasing, good tasting and helpful in gaining wisdom yet, the act of eating it destroyed their relationship with God.

It is a pretty simple formula, if it is of the flesh, destroy it, and of God, embrace it.

Yet so difficult in practice, as even as we look at the war happening in Ukraine - simple in concept, but yet so complex and confusing.

The Mulching Mower Conundrum

As part of our rental agreement for our duplex, we are responsible for the upkeep of the lawn on our side of the property.  Part of upkeep is making sure your lawn is mowed.  Having lived in an apartment building in Sexsmith and then in Kiev (where the grass would get to the point where it needed mowing and then it would take them a month to actually mow it with a weedwacker), we have not had a need of a mower and one did not make the trip with us to Dauphin.

So, the first Saturday we were here, I went garage saling to find one.  Low and behold, the first sale I went to, they had an electric mulching mower.  Electric!  Great!  No need to fill with gas.  Electric!  Great!  GUTLESS!  The chord that came with it even almost stretches to all parts of our lawn, save 10 Ft Squared that I have to start up the mower and move fast because it will unplug and stop.  But enough about the electricity problem.

The thing that got me was the mulching property the mower has.  When I was a young sprout, we had a mower, but it had a bag.  So, one always had to check the bag and find a place to put all of the clippings.

I remember thinking to myself, "I wish there was a way to mow without having to always empty the bag"  and then it happened, a friend asked me to mow their lawn, and they didn't use a bag.  They just shot it out the side.  This was an ingenious idea, you mow the lawn and spew it everywhere.  It took much less time; well except for every 3rd time you mowed, you had to rake it up and bag it because it would begin to look unsightly.  Once again, I thought, "If only there was a way to not have to rake every 3rd time."  And then it happened, I bought an electric mulching mower 3 weeks ago, and no more bags, no more raking, just everything gets picked up, chopped and put back to keep nutrients in the soil.  Whoever thought of this was a genius!

Well, actually, whoever thought of this had no weeds in their lawn.

When we moved, we maybe had 10 dandelion plants on our yard; within 3 weeks of mulching (picking up the dandelion seeds and spreading them), our lawn has grown dandelions exponentially!  And all the money I have saved on not buying gas, I have spent at Canadian Tire buying Killex dandelion spray, but the battle is a lost cause.

As I was mowing the lawn this last time, I began thinking about those little seeds and sharing the gospel with others.  There are 3 different ways I thought of:  Someone who bags it all up and doesn't share,  Someone who shares with everyone, and others who share within a small, yet specific area.

On one hand, the lawn of the person who bags looks beautiful, with no dandelions.  Another spreads the seed everywhere, but with little aim and purpose, and the third, although only in a specific area, spreads exponentially.

I will be the first to admit that I do not go out and share Jesus with everyone, but, my prayer is that God will give me specific times to share and the wisdom and boldness to share when and where He desires.

Manitoba Bound!

Our Uhaul ready to go!

It has been quite a crazy month and to be honest, writing on this blog has not been on the top of my priority list.

To catch you up to date, we left Grande Prairie on Monday July 21 for Bow Island.  Tuesday we packed up the Uhaul and Wednesday we left for Dauphin at 4:00 am and arrived in time for supper at 6:00 pm, losing and hour on the way.

A very busy few days, but it is also good to have a home our kids can call home for more than a month as since February we have lived (constituting at least 5 days) in Poland, Ukraine, back to Poland, Parksville BC, Grande Prairie, Vegreville, Dauphin (ok so this was only a 3 day trip), back to Vegreville, Bow Island, Grande Prairie again and finally back to Dauphin where we have been for 20 days and counting!

I am pretty sure our kids are setting themselves up to move again, however, they like their own beds and Ellianna has started calling our duplex our house.  It also helps that we have not gone more than a 10 minutes drive away from the city (8000 people in Dauphin, but a Walmart, McDonalds and Tims!).

I was reminded when I put the title "Manitoba Bound" of the song Alberta Bound by Paul Brandt.  (Just a little video that really has no point to this blog, but a little piece of "home" for us)




I had the privilege of marching with the Grande Prairie Marching Band as we celebrated Grande Prairie's 100 years, so history is a little on the brain.  As part of moving to Dauphin, I went to city hall to register for Manitoba health insurance.  And noticed Fort Dauphin has been around since 1741.  And at one point was one of the most western settlements of North America.  Fort Edmonton was only around since 1795 (thanks Wikipedia for all that information (because everything on the internet is true!))  So we are living in a ton of history.

Manitoba has been very Friendly as their licence plates state; however, having only ever paid GST tacking on another 8% PST totaling 13% has been quite "unfriendly"

But with the extra tax comes alot of free things like no Library fees.  I was watching a Bomber's game with some guys this past week (for some reason, they don't want to get together to watch Eskimo's games) and I was explaining the difficulty of transferring our licence and registration.

There is a reason you have 90 days to transfer your vehicle as it takes 90 days to fill out the paperwork and jump through the hoops to get it done.  One guy commented "Welcome to Friendly Manitoba.  Socialism, everything is free, but you have to do a lot of work to get it!"

I started work last week and am starting to make connections; I even got to go inline skating at the skatepark and boy was I bad.

A few highlights include Celebrating Ellianna's birthday and going to the street fair (which happened to be on the same day)

And Jolen riding a horse for the first time (the wrangler said he was the littlest kid she has ever had ride by themselves)

We are excited for what God has in store for us and the community and if you would like to connect sometime, don't hesitate to comment or send us an email.  We would love to hear from you!

Здравствуйте!

I was reminded this week about Ukraine and learning the language.  The title of this blog is "Strasvoche" the Russian word for hello.  If you know how to sound out the Slavic alphabet, you can sound out words but have no idea what you are saying.  While riding the busses, I would constantly be reading billboards just to sound out the letters, but I would have no idea what they were saying. (When I went to Venezuela, to learn Spanish I would sound out graffiti until our translator kindly told me to stop swearing, so that lesson had been learned before heading to Ukraine!)

We were driving through Grande Prairie, Alberta and saw this sign and thought of all of our times of trying to figure out what was being said and missing the humour.  So, I hope you are not offended but laugh for the humour that is the sign.



If you are not from Grande Prairie, Fourward is a bike, skate and board shop, so it fits the "surfer" type humour.  But what if you could not speak English and were riding the bus and saw this sign and were reading outloud.  I get this image of a guy in his 30s or so sounding out words and you usually can only sound out 2 words at most.  Next to this guy learning English is a pretty girl checking out her appearance in her mirror and the guy reads the sign outloud "Fat, Ugly"  It could be that I have made my fair share of cultural mistakes and I feel for those that make them as well, but the most learning I did, especially learning about culture, was making mistakes.  You remember things you got wrong and not things you did right.

For instance, when I was building houses, I remember building the house my brother-in-law now lives in and walking into the house, I remember all the mistakes I made on the house, but not the things I did right.  And everytime I walk into his house, I remember two things, "I really love his house and think it is the best designed house I ever built, and, I built a rake wall wrong and we had to adjust the trusses to fix my mistake."  None of the stuff I did wrong was structurally unsound and it all got covered up by drywall and shingles, but I know it is there.

When I think of heaven, a question comes to mind, will I remember my sins?  Will I constantly know what I have been saved from and this brings rejoicing because Jesus forgave my sins and I am counted as righteous because of it.  Or will my mind be wiped blank and be rejoicing because of who God is or maybe a little of both?  I know that there will not be pain when I remember life on earth.  Also, we talk alot of the Bible enduring for eternity and in the Bible speaks of all kind of sins and keeps record of David's sin, Solomon, and even mentions sins of those who are not spending eternity in heaven.  Many questions, few answers, but the answers I know is that God is perfect, so however I remember life on Earth, it will be in His perfect wisdom and not my own.

Speaking of life on this Earth, our hair is constantly growing.  And sometimes it needs to be cut off.

 

Thank you, my son the model, for showing everyone what must happen sometimes.  It is really hot up here and the shave is a welcome addition.

 

Also, If I was to start my own business, it would be in the deck building category.  I would say that decks are my specialty!  I love building decks and enjoy the finished product.

 

100 feet or so of deck, and I am finally finished.  The whole front of the house, the side and another 10 feet on the back!  14 rises, 7 different platforms, I am happy to be done.

 

I noticed that the Dauphin First Baptist Church has added me to their blogs list, so if you are in Dauphin and would like some advice on building a deck, I am your man.  We are leaving next Monday and hopefully arriving in Dauphin next Thursday or Friday!  The end is near, and it has only just begun!  God Bless!