Gardening Revelations

I love to garden and during the summer I plan to update you about my garden and give you some of the thoughts of gardening that I have as the season goes on. I'll probably take some pictures sometimes and it can seem like you are maybe gardening with me. Yeah! I won't be alone anymore.

Anyways early in the season I have been busy picking weeds so that I have some clear ground to work with. If you've ever picked weeds you've been able to curse with me the day that Adam and Eve ate of the fruit and turned from God's plan for them and in turn God gave mankind the constant reminder that life was supposed to be better by giving us weeks! Really God, weeds? Well I guess it has worked because every time I pick a weed I hate my humanity and I look forward to the day that I will be restored to my original purpose to enjoy God's unmistaken glory forever.

But weeds remind me of sin. You know those pesky dandelions that give your lawn such beautiful color for but a brief moment and how if you pick the heads off they are still there. You also know that if you take the time to get the root of the plant that it so often breaks off and it just kills you to know that another one will soon grow from that root that is now out of reach without the redecoration of your lawn. It never fails to remind me, with dandelions as well as many other weeds, that their purpose is to grow faster than anything else can and to choke anything around it that competes for it's sunlight and soil. That's why we don't like them! That's why weeds are such a bad thing to have around. It's amazing that the same purpose lies in sin. The purpose of sin, in all it's types, is to grow faster than anything else around it and to choke out anything that competes for more attention than what it gets! And sin so often does choke out the things around it. Joy. Delight. Pleasure. Love. Faithfulness. Freedom. Shalom.

It's the weeds in my life that choke out God's glory revealed in me. 

Sometimes we've been able to pluck off the head of this sin in our lives or have even taken the time to dig out most of the root but if there is anything left of that weed be sure that it will come back to the surface over time. So true. Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people (Eph 5:3). Be sure that your sin will find you out (Num 32:23)!

There have been times that I have only weeded my garden from the surface and haven't bothered going to the root and it looks good for the time, but soon it is all infested once again. It's when we take the time to dig up the whole problem, stick it in a place where it cannot thrive and throw it away that the problem is truly gone. I dig up my weeds, stick them on my cement pad in the sun for a little while and then throw them in the trash to get rid of them, sweep up what's left and think of them no more.

If we confess to God that we have sin in our life that is choking Him out then He will overpower them in us that will rid them from our lives and He will purify us from anything and everything unholy (1 John 1:9) So give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you (1 Peter 5:7).

God never created me to have weeds in my garden but he did give me the constant reminder that there will be a day when all the weeds will be gone and I will be with Him forever. In some kind of strange way I thank God for the weeds in my garden. I thank him for the reminder that a new day is coming and in that day there will be great rejoicing for there will be no more tears, no more pain and no more weeds!

Why Can't We Be Friends

This post includes an array of music videos. Some old, some new and all on purpose that have found meaning in my life at different times. Enjoy!

This song is my post's thesis! Great song! My favorite part is where dude elbows the keyboard! Classic.

Churches seldom work together well! It is more human nature, and sadly has been in large part of church culture as well, to separate when we don't agree on an issue. But I'm sensing a shift if not on a larger scale at least on a local scale. I'm sensing that people want to start working together again. I'm sensing that past differences mean less and that people are seeking a true and authentic relationship with Jesus without all the baggage that comes with past hurts. I think what young people are screaming is, "Church, don't give me any sob stories just show me Jesus!" And I think it's coming!

This is something to get excited about! Because myself and those around me believe that God wants to do something great in not only our churches but in our communities, in our city. I'm a part of a network of youth workers that gather monthly to worship, learn, listen, teach, pray and more but the general rule of the gathering is, "Come to uplift others or be lifted." That's it! Just come as you are in your celebrations of what God is doing in your life and in the places where you need help to stay in His presence. If the conversation of what our specific beliefs are and how we think the proper age and process of baptism should be we would probably differ but we don't go there. We just gather and worship God and lift up His people all together and pray that God's light would shine through us all! It is the best time of my month because I love to meet with the wider church and work together.

And so I'm seeing that individuals desperately want Jesus without all the baggage (after all Jesus did come to set us free!) and I'm seeing leaders who work with young people striving to praise God together and I think that the next obvious progression would be to have young people meeting together to worship, learn, listen, teach, pray and more but really coming together to "Lift and be lifted." And I'm not talking about a rally. I'm talking about something where relationship is fostered and where the vision of God is celebrated in a grass roots, youth embraced and Jesus centric way. But there is a problem.

The problem is that while our desires are transforming, and in my opinion coming to a closer representation of what God has planned for us, our programming still hasn't changed. So we have new hopes and are trying to get there with the old ideas. Or you could look at it this way. Our GPS has been set to go to Chicago from LA but we've heard the call that it is now time to go to Miami but we haven't turned the wheel. I think that many of us have heard that call to change our direction but we haven't come to the point where we have actually turned the wheel.

I think it will be hard to make that change. Change is always hard, but it's worth it if that is what we are called by God to do!

As much as I think that I've given the driving duties to Jesus,

I often find myself reclaiming the wheel.  

  If you haven't listened to either of these songs yet  you can pause and do that. You don't have to listen  to both of them. I gave you a country option and a  rap option for the diversities among you. My personal time while listening to either of these songs brings me to confession. May you be blessed.

  I would like to try something but I can't do it on my own. It's risky and my local church might just hate it and I don't really know what it will look like but I think it's time to turn the wheel.

I want to gather with different christian groups often. I want the young people that I directly work with to get to know the young people in the city who claim Christ as Lord. I want the people of Albright Church to not only know those outside these walls but to appreciate them, to pray for their churches, to speak highly of what other places are doing and together to do what we can't do alone. I want this city to see the hope that Jesus offers and I want to see it done not church by church but by Christians united together through the bond of peace and celebration.

But what we're doing now isn't going to get us there! It's not going to get our groups there. I feel the need to change. To change what we are doing alone and to turn into something that we can do all together not just once a year at Love Winnipeg, not just to see it at the annual One Heart worship gathering but on a continual basis with divine intent. I want the young people in our ministry to love Jesus, to love others and to share his heart for many together with all the saints.

Let's start! Let's start critically looking at our schedules in the months to come. Let's start critically looking at how we spend our days. Let's start communicating more often at unscheduled times. Let's start turning that wheel! It won't happen overnight but imagine what it could look like in 2 years, in 5 years, in a new generation. Imagine the testimony to the world if churches started working together and didn't fight so much for territory but for the Kingdom of God to be revealed?

I don't have all the answers. In fact I think that as I continue down the road I continue to have more questions, but they are more informed and inspired questions that I trust through prayer and community will lead us into a greater realization of what God has planned for where I am, for where we are, to where He wants us.  

Why can't we be friends? If I can play the background and Jesus can take the wheel then truly it call all be about YOU, Jesus!

I'd welcome your thoughts on this and your prayers also.   

A Bug's Life

No deep thoughts today. Just musings of a boy.

As a boy I was always been intrigued by bugs. I think that's what guys are blessed with.

As I have so matured into a beautiful man I have enjoyed having a nice lawn, grow some sweet veggies and at least take care of the rest of what I've been given on my plot of earth. And as I have two young boys I have been able to relive my youth with them as they have also been blessed with the intrigue of looking for, capturing and squishing bugs.

Recently I have been able to combine three things that I love; bugs, boys and a beautiful garden. I have discovered, as have many others, that there is a new bug on the market. It is called the Lily Beetle but I call it the spawn of Satan! They come to seek, kill and destroy and they prowl like a roaring lion and yet are as quiet as a wolf on the prowl. They are tough to kill and seem to never go away. There is no known pesticide that will kill them.

So the only proven line of attack is to pick them off one by one by hand and squish them under foot. This isn't bad for the first 20 or so but once you get close to the triple digits then it gets tiresome. So I usually include the boys who get to squish them and I pick them. Lately I have found some bugs that have coupled up and seemingly are giving one another a piggy back but I think we all know what is really going on! I feel a little bit rude disturbing their dance but in another sense it brings me great joy to get two preoccupied bugs with comparative ease.

Piggy Backing Lily Beetles!

So anyways, I thought I'd share with you my recent joy of killing bugs, hanging out with my boys and hopefully giving my garden, specifically my lilies, a great chance to be as beautiful as they were created to be.

I hope you enjoyed reading this just even half the amount that I loved writing it!     

Worship is...

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.

Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white hot enjoyment of God’s glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. “The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!” (Ps 97:1). “Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!” (Ps 67:3-4).

But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish. Missionaries will never call out, “Let the nations be glad!” who cannot say from the heart, “I rejoice in the Lord…I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High” (Ps 104:34, 9:2). Missions begins and ends in worship.”

–John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions

Cry Baby

You know when a little child asks for something that is completely absurd? Let's think of some examples:

- Hey dad, can I have this bag of cotton candy right before I go to bed?
- Mom, can I help you fry the oil spitting bacon?
- Yo folks, can I stay up all night and play video games?

These are pretty innocent questions to a mind that really is quite focused on what it wants at the time and as a parent of an 8 year old and two 3 year olds these are the types of questions I could imagine. But these questions in their minds are of vital importance and can only have one answer, YES! But wouldn't that in the end be harmful for that child if any of these questions were answered with a yes? These types of situations will possibly end up with a responded "No" and a chaotic tantrum by the young child.

Aren't we often the same even though we have matured so greatly and have lived through so much life experience, sorry my tongue was in my cheek there! Have you ever sounded like this?

- Hey God, could I have lots of money so that I wouldn't have to budget very strictly and still go out on the town every night?
- Hey God, I want to have sex anytime I want because it seems fun!
- Hey God, could you show that person your justice a little early so that they wouldn't bother me any longer?

Don't we so often think that we have the right plan and we will only accept one answer, YES! Well, I think quite often we must seem like that little child that is so sure that they have the right plan for their life but what they really want would really be so harmful to them. There is a better plan! It's trusting those that are above us and we know that God is above all. Try trusting God who holds the whole world in his hands. Try not throwing a fit when something doesn't work out the way you wanted. Try depending completely on God in all that you do. It's a life worth living and I keep striving for it! Join me.

Thanks to Augustine for this teaching, slightly adapted.

Jesus greater than Religion Response

This video is in response to a video I posted earlier that poetically insisted "Why I hate religion but love Jesus". Well, this video is the Catholic response to that video. I don't totally absorb everything said in this video but I thought I'd at least share the other side of the story.

OK, so I found two! 

Boom! That just happened. Augustine said that, "There is no salvation outside the church." And by Cyprian in 250 AD, "He cannot have God for his Father who does not have the church for his Mother."

I love Jesus and have devoted my life to him. I love that the church can be the greatest force to share life to the World. I think we need to pray more for our local and global churches.

The New Green

I love spring! It brings with it a new colour of green that can't be imitated. It's the colour of growth, of new life and of future brilliance.

This morning the rain comes down, now gently, to encourage this newness and the first flowers have just recently bloomed. The apple trees promise a harvest with their explosion of life. The raspberry bushes are starting to sprout reminding us of their juicy goodness. The grass is decreasing in brown and increasing in the extravagant hues that will soon be used for many hours of joyful playing and simply resting in it's unappreciated splendor.

We take so many things for granted as we pass them by with seldom any thought. Spring is my most favorite season. It reminds me that death does not have a lasting sting but that even through times of death and slumber there will be times to follow of joy and delight promised to us.

Take the time to find new hope in creation 

around you today and praise your Creator for the many blessings that new life brings!