Life by the Slice

That Clean Feeling

Have you ever worked hard and gotten dirty? I mean super dirty. So dirty you can feel the dirt and see it on your skin. So dirty your sweat mixs with the dust and the dirty to form a crust of a second skin. So dirty you are hopeless to do anything about it.

Britton and I were in Africa in 2007 to build a house for Lifeline Malawi. Malawi, Africa is beautiful place, but it is also very dusty. On top of that the bricks we used were made of a redish clay. So between the dust and bricks I got dirty. During those two weeks I was dirtier than I have ever been in my life. On our first work day I showed up in my clean blue jeans and my clean Army & Navy t-shirt. It didn’t take long for my clothes and every inch of me to get dirty. No matter what I did I got dirty. The dust and dirt mixed with my sweat to become caked on. I didn’t even have to be working in order to get dirty, walking down the road kicked up dust that stuck to me and made my shoes and clothing dirty. After a full day of work I was covered from head to toe with dust and dirt. I was so dirty I didn’t look like myself. I didn’t feel like myself. I can’t stand being dirty and so I felt and looked disgusting.

When we returned to the mission house where we were staying each night I would shower, I was so dirty the soap bar turned brown and when the water hit me it turned brown. I had to scrub and scrub in order to get clean. But when I was done I felt new, fresh, like a totally different person.

The dust and dirt of Africa and how it stuck to me reminds me of sin. When we sin, we become dirty. The more we sin the dirtier we become. No matter what we do the sin sticks to us and unlike dirt there is nothing that you can do on your own to get clean again. No amount of showering or scrubbing will make you clean. We can try to hid our sin, but our sin covers us. Isaiah says, “Your fingers are filthy with sin. Your lips are full of lies, and your mouth spews corruption.” (Isaiah 59:3) And even worse our sin cuts us off from God. Isaiah says, “It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.” (Isaiah 59:2)

But God is not content to leave us dirty in our sin and cut off from him (John 3:16-18). When we put our faith in Jesus Christ our sins are washed away. God says “Though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow.” (Isaiah 1:18). Our sins are washed away and we are made clean. Just as the shower made me clean after a hard day of work in Africa, stripping away the dirt and made me feel fresh and new. Faith in Jesus strips away the sin that makes us dirty and doesn’t just make us feel new, it actually makes us new (2 Cor 5:17).

I love that clean feeling after a shower, but even more I love the feeling that comes from knowing that Jesus has washed away my sins and made me clean.

God and the Rainbow

 Last Monday night I was leaving work and saw two things that made me sit in my car in awe of God and His creative nature.  

The first was a fully arc'd rainbow.  I don't think I've ever seen a full rainbow before.  I mean, you usually you see part of it, one end or the middle or something like that.  But this was a full rainbow.   It started on one side of the horizon and crossed the bow river to the other side of the valley.  It was fully visible and clearer than I've ever seen a rainbow before.  It was so bright that the rainbow reflected in the puddles in the parking lot of the church.  It was incredibly beautiful. 

The second thing that I saw, which I have never seen before, was the Rainbow touching down.  I sat in the parking lot just looking across the Highway and it looked like no more than 300 yards away the rainbow was touching down.  I was so awed by this that I wiped out my cell phone and took a picture. I also tried to spot the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but no joy.

Of course I was reminded of God's covenant with Noah in Genesis 9:13 and I was thankful that I serve a God that never changes.  But I was also awed (and still am) with how creative and imaginative God is to create the Rainbow. 

I enjoyed that drive home because as I sang "God of Wonders" all I could see was this rainbow stretching out before me over Calgary. What a way to end the day, enjoying God's beautiful creation.  Thank you God for this experience.

My Son's Dream

My son (that simple statement is filled with incredible love and pride) has a dream.

A couple of weeks ago my son Liam was working on homework at the dining room table and I was sitting on the couch messing around on my laptop. We were chatting away when Liam started talking about the dream he has for his life. Liam said, “I have a really big dream and it’s going to take a lot of work to accomplish.” I asked, “What’s your dream?” I thought that he would tell me that he dreamed to be a video game superstar or something, but what he said absolutely blew me away, humbled me and made question my own dreams, all at the same time.

So what is Liam’s dream? Liam said that his dream is “to tell everyone in the whole world about Jesus.” He said he didn’t know how he was going to do it yet, but he definitely going to do it.

Wow. It blew me away that at nine years old, my son has a God inspired and God focused dream. It humbled me that he is so clear on his dream and so sure that he will see it accomplished in his lifetime. It humbled me, because Liam’s dream is so focused on God’s Kingdom and not on himself...at nine my dream was to be an astronaut or a policeman. And it made me reflect on my dreams, how many of them are focused on what I want rather than on God’s Kingdom. Are my dreams about everyone knowing Christ, about God’s Kingdom coming? Or about stuff?

My prayer is that God would stir the flame that burns within Liam and that He would see the dream He has planted in Liam through to completion. And may Liam’s dream be my dream.

100 Movies to Watch Before you Die

Yahoo has released a list of 100 movies to watch before you die...is this a bucket list of movies?  Not sure I agree with the list, after all they missed Hudson Hawk...but there's no accounting for taste.

 I've seen 46 of the 100, how'd you do?

Happy Easter

Last year at the first Management Team meeting following Easter Pastor Brent said that he didn't think we had done enough as a church to celebrate Easter.  We spent the next few Management Team meetings talking about what we could do differently for Easter 2009 to introduce Calgarians to Jesus and celebrate what Jesus did for us.  Well it's Easter Sunday afternoon and I feel like we did what we set out to do and I believe Jesus is please. 

We had 3 Good Friday services, one at each site.  I've heard good things about these services. I have to admit that I wasn't at any of these services.  I spent the morning with my family and reading some of Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll, appropriately enough on why Jesus had to die for us. 

We had a Family Fun Fest at Canada Olympic Park.  My oldest daughter and I helped out, while my two little ones and Britton enjoyed the events.  There were a tonne of people in attendance.  And, the best part was that I didn't recognize a lot of them!  At one point Pastor Rowena came over all excited because there were non-RockPointers coming through the door.  Pastor Ron and I worked on game together and there were a bunch of people that neither of us knew. 

On Sunday in our Easter services our three Site Pastors preached and then we had baptisms.  My family and I attended Bowridge and heard Ron preach a great sermon.  We then had 4 spontaneous baptisms, people who came forward during the service asking to be baptized.  The very cool thing was that second person to be baptized actually came to know Jesus this morning during the service!  Wow!  What an amazing way to end a service with 1 person deciding to follow Jesus and 3 other people declaring to the world that Jesus is their King.     

I'm sure we could still do more, but I feel good about this weekend, because Calgarians saw that the Church is a fun place and for families and because people came to know Jesus as their saviour and King.  Well done RockPointe!

Meaningful Quote #5

Alright, last quote from Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (I just finished it and submitted my book review for ordination, so I'm onto another book)

This is Ajith Fernando...

"Most people would like to save themselves...The message of the cross cuts at the hear of human pride, which is the essence of sin.  Adam and Eve's sin was that they wanted to save themselves, independent of God.  They did not want to be dependent on a Supreme God for salvation or for anything else.  People like to think that they are saving themselves.  It makes them feel good and helps to temporarily still the voice of insecurity and emptiness that is theirs because they are separated from their maker." (p. 175 of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement)

Are you trying to save yourself? Trying to earn your salvation by being the best, by trying to earn acclaim from those around you?  I struggle with this everyday, but Fernando is right, its about pride and its about not trusting that who I am is totally ok with God and truly loved just as I am by Him. 

Meaningful Quotes #4

Here's an interesting thought where our motivation for missions comes from.  This is Tim Dearborn writing about our role in missions and fulfilling the Great Commission.

"Lack of interest in mission is not fundamentally caused by an absence of compassion or commitment, nor by lack of information or exhortation.  And lack of interest in mission is not remedied by more shocking statistics, more gruesome stories or more emotionally manipulative commands to obedience.  It is best remedied by intensifying peoples' passion for Christ, so that the passions of his heart become passions that propel our heart."

 (p. 90, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement)

Meaningful Quotes #3

Here's another quote I just read today...it is on knowing and following God's will/way for our lives and was written by Henry Blackaby and Avery Willis.

"Our ways seem good to us.  We may succeed in moderate accomplishments.  When we try to do the work of God in our own ways, however, we will never see the mighty power of God in what we do, and the world will not see God revealing Himself to them.  It is only by God's power that people come to know and worship God.  When God accomplishes His purposes in His ways through us, people will come to know God."

(p. 57 Perspectives on the Worldwide Christian Movement)

Meaningful Quotes #2

I am continuing my posts of some quotes that I read recently...

This is Stanley A Ellison on Satan's work in the world...

"His goal in life is to counterfeit the works of God.  This has been his prized ambition ever since he went into business for himself.  His first recorded intention ended with the words, "I will be like the Most High" (Isa. 14:14).  This counterfeiting effort is his most effective ploy, for the more closely he can imitate God's work, the less likely will we be inclined to seek God or pursue His will."

(p. 18 Perspectives on the World Christian Movement)

This is an interesting statement when you think about how much other religions and thoughts borrow principles from faith in God.  In college I took a world religions course and I was struck by how similar other religions are to Christianity.  That's Satan's ploy, to make all religions look the same, because if all ways lead to God, then people get confused and in the end the do not find the way to God...which is Jesus! 

Meaningful Quotes #1

I've been doing a bunch of reading lately for my ordination requirements and come across some statements that have impacted me.  I'd thought I'd share them...

The first is from John R. Stott...

"To sum up, when God spoke to us in Scripture He used human language, and when he spoke to us in Christ he assumed human flesh.  In order to reveal himself, he both emptied and humbled himself.  That is the model of evangelism which the Bible supplies.  There is a self-emptying and self-humbling in all authentic evangelism; without it we contradict the Gospel and misrepresent the Christ we proclaim."

(p. 24 of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement)

Sharing your faith starts first with being humble, realizing who we are and what God did for us; from this action comes the action of sharing this Good News with those around.