Life by the Slice

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. 

Something to watch on the web

We (RockPointe) launched a new website this week, rockpointe.tv.  The site contains all of our weekend teaching series for the last 3 years, interviews of people in RockPointe and some other videos worth watching.  It's basically YouTube for RockPointe.

What struck me as we put the site together was that we have had a lot of good teaching series the focus on great topics.  Everything on the site is tagged and searchable, so its easy to find something on what you want to learn about or the book of the Bible you are interested in.

In the first 5 days we had over 300 people visit, pretty cool.  Why not head over and check it out.

6 months with a Mac

Well I'm coming up my MacBook Pro and my six month anniversary.  I'm a big fan of tech, I love my gadgets and toys.  I have to say that my favourite tech purchase of the year was my MacBook Pro in July.  I had thought about getting a Mac for almost three years, but wasn't ready until this past spring.  I wasn't sure how I'd make out as I've been a Windows guy for so long.

From the moment I got it I loved my MBP.  It's awesome!  Sure there were the usual, how do I do that on a Mac, but I quickly got used to it.  I've got MS Office 2008 so I'm able to work with all the docs I created on my previous Vista machine and share docs with my coworkers.  There's a few apps I miss, Access and OneNote to name two and I can't say I've found a replacement that I'm content with.  Sure there's Filemaker to replace Access, but my coworkers have Access, so it means my databases wouldn't be useable by them.  I've got my system setup to dual boot into XP when needed, but seldom do it.  OS X works great with my network at home and the office and I find when I do revert to Windows, I find I'm frustrated cause it's not OS X.  In fact I love my Mac so much that I've told Britton that her next laptop will be a MacBook.

The only disappointment that I've had with my Mac has been within the last week.  For some reason my Mac won't accept CDs/DVDs.  So I called for support but found out that Apple wouldn't help me unless I paid, their warranty covers the hardware, but until they are sure its hardware related I have to pay.  I was disappointed.  The guy one phone offered to send me 3 emails with some suggestions, but that was it.  It turned out the suggestions worked, and I was able to use my SuperDrive.   But I just tried a DVD and it's doing it again.  From my googling it seems to be a known condition and if Apple has documents on it then they certainly know about it.  Wonder why they won't resolve the problem?  They control the hardware and the OS, so they should be able to resolve the issue pretty easily...in fact that's supposed to be one of the selling points is that the hardware and software work in unison, unlike Windows and Intel which works only most of the time in unison.

Overall I love my Mac, just wish Apple would fix this known issue.  Here's to another six fun filled months!

Inerrancy (warning may cause drowsiness)

As part of my ordination process I have to read a dozen books and write one page reports on each of them about the premise of the book and what I think or how I interacted with the topic.  These aren't deep theological treatise, just simple reports (that I seem to have a hard time fitting to one page). 

I just finished reading Inerrancy which is a series of essasy on, you guess it, the inerrancy of scripture.  I thought I'd share with you what I wrote...and heh, if it makes you feel drowsy, well that's what the book did to me as well...

___________________________________________________________
Inerrancy

Inerrancy, edited by Norman Geisler, is a collection of 14 essays by leading evangelical scholars on the topic of the inerrancy scripture.  The purpose of the book is equip Christ followers and the church with an understanding of what inerrancy is and what it means.  By discussing the arguments for and against inerrancy the authors provide a solid doctrinal foundation for the authority of the Bible in the church
and in the life of the Christ follower. 

I have to admit that I have not thought much about the doctrine of inerrancy since my days in bible college.   My basic presupposition in life is that scripture is the word of God, breathed out by God through humans (2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:20-21) and I give it full authority in my life.  As I read this book though, the essays triggered the reexamination of what I believe and my presuppositions about scripture; it strengthened my understanding of the arguments for and against inerrancy. 
The study of inerrancy is very important as it roots us, grounds us, and ensures that worldly presuppositions and philosophies do not influence our teachings.  For Giesler writes in his own essay that,

“It has been my experience in evangelical circles that godly scholars, unaware of the nature and implications of their scholarly research, sometimes absorb into their thinking philosophical presuppositions that are antithetical to the historical Christian position on Scripture.” (P.308)

Therefore we should often revisit the doctrines of our faith and re-evaluate what we believe and “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5)   This is what the book Inerrancy was to me, a chance to revisit, reflect, affirm and strengthen my belief in the inerrancy of
scripture.  And in addition to affirming and strengthening my belief in the inerrancy of scripture, two essays from Inerrancy impacted my appreciation of scripture and my relationship with God. 

The first essay by John W. Wenham called “Christ’s View of Scripture” helped me to understand Jesus’ attitude towards the Old Testament.  Through out the Gospels we read of many times when Christ recited passages of the Old Testament in his teaching.  Based on this Wenham says,

“The total impression that these and many other allusions in the Gospels give is that the mind of Christ was saturated with the Old Testament.  As He spoke, there flowed out perfectly naturally a complete range of uses varying from direct quotation to unconscious reflections of Old Testament phraseology.”  (p.23)

Jesus loved the Old Testament and his mind was “saturated” with it.

I think I have a tendency to spend more time in the New Testament in my personal study.   In college I distinctly remember being encouraged to spend the majority of my time teaching from the Gospels and the Epistles second.  From this encouragement, came a bias against the Old Testament.  By reflecting on this essay and its scriptural basis I received a new appreciation of the Old Testament and a desire to spend more time studying it.  Indeed, since reading this essay, I have spent the majority of my personal study times in the Old Testament and the time spent has been richer and more encouraging to me than I could have ever imagined and in addition my time in the Old Testament has spoken to and illuminated my study of the New Testament. 

The second essay that impacted me was J.I. Packer’s essay “The Adequacy of Human Language.”  In the essay Packer discusses the present-day skepticism that human language is inadequate for God to convey who He is and His plan for the world; His message of love and forgiveness.  Two things stood out in particular in this essay. 

The first thing that stood out to me in Packer’s essay is the concept that God’s communication through humans communicates not only doctrinal truths but it also demonstrates for us how divine grace works in the lives of those who He is communicating through.  Through Scripture we not only get to learn about the doctrine of God’s grace from the writing’s of Paul, but we get to see it demonstrated in his life in the book of Acts and his epistles.   Seeing a teaching lived out and demonstrated in the life of the one doing the teaching is the best way to learn and I loved being reminded by Packer that this is what God does through scripture.

The second thing from Packer’s essay that resonated with me was when Packer spoke about God’s use of human language as being an act of love.  Packer says,

“One sign of love to a child is adapting to the child’s language when talking to him, and so, says Calvin, God in His love to us adapts to our childishness in spiritual things.  Far from causing obscurity, therefore, God’s ‘baby talk’ (what Calvin calls his prattling) dispels it, making everything plainer to us than it could be otherwise. “ (p. 217) 

Not only does scripture speak of God’s love for us, but by its very existence, it conveys the love God for us.  What’s more God wants us to know Him and he reveals himself to us on our level.   Just as I talked one way to my daughter when she was 4, I now talk to her differently now that she is 16.  God reveals himself on our level and as we grow in our discipleship, He talks with us differently, revealing more of himself for us.  Packer made me again sit in awe once again of the God of the Universe who loves me and wants to be in relationship with me.

Inerrancy is an essential Christian doctrine and it is vital that we know what we believe; otherwise we are apt to become believers who cannot give a reason for what they believe and they hope we have.  It is also a doctrine that when studied should make a believer sit back in awe and marvel at what a wonderful God we have. 

A day at the lake

This weekend Britt and I load the kids up in the cruiser and headed up to Glennifer Lake up by Red Deer.  There is a group of RockPointers who have property up at the Carefree Resort and spend the summer up there.  This summer they invited some of the RockPointe staff up to speak at their church service that they have every other week and we were lucky enough to be invited.

We headed up Saturday and spent the afternoon and evening with Claire and Deb Palsky.  It was a terrific time we went out on the lake and Claire dragged us around the lake on a "biscuit," a three person tube.  The kids weren't too sure about all the bouncing around, so they rode in the boat with Claire and Deb and Britt and I rode on the tube.  It was an awesome time, at one point I was bouncing so hard and laughing so much that I couldn't catch my breath!  What a hoot! 

We then swam in the pool and after supper talked the evening away with Claire and Deb.  It was a fantastic time.  We then stayed over night in their RV.

On Sunday morning we had breakfast with the Mays and then went to church in the DeBoors backyard.  There were 13 people plus the five of us.  The group says they are the 3rd RockPointe site...beating Westhills as the 3rd site because they started last summer where Westhills started in the fall.

I spoke on James 5:1-6, which is the same passage that Pastor Geoff was speaking on back in Calgary.  If you'd like to hear what I said I've uploaded an MP3 of the talk just click on here to listen to it.  Sorry for the quality.

We had a great time getting to know everyone and the kids were asking on the drive home if we go back next summer. 

One thing I did this summer...

Hi friends, I've been away from blogging for a while.  You know how it is, its summer and I was off on vacation, so I just didn't do much of anything...truly...ask Britton. One of the things I have been working on this summer, while I wasn't blogging, was a sermon on James 4:13-17 that I had the privilege of giving last week at RockPointe Church.  For those of you who weren't at RockPointe this past weekend you can watch the video or listen to the audio,through the RockPointe website.

Being an Uncle

My brother and his wife were here last night and brought me up to date on all the happenings with their kids. Tomorrow night my newest nephew will be here and I’m looking forward to babysitting. So this week I’ve been thinking about how much I enjoy being an Uncle.

Having nieces and nephews is great because...

They are little/younger version of your own siblings and its cool watching them grown and take on characteristics of their parents. My sisters kids are spitting images of her and her husband, seeing them reminds of me of what it was like growing up with my sister. And I have lots of fond memories of my brothers and sister as we grew up.

You get to take pride in them, after all they are part of your family. I’ve got four fantastic nephews and four fantastic nieces. I love to brag to my colleagues and friends about them. I love to brag about how artistic they are, how they’ve won a scholarship, how they took a year to serve others, and about how fantastic it is to seem them love God see that expressed in all they do. I take great pride in them and their accomplishments!

Sometimes they do things for you. At a family wedding recently one of my nephews came to me and said he was going to take his cousins to the park as they were bored. What a kind and considerate young man and he was right my kids were bored with the adults who were busy visiting!

Sometimes you get to do things with them, and it’s fun! It’s fun being with my nieces and nephews, they are joy to be around. Each has a great sense of humour and makes me laugh, laughter is a good thing!

Sometimes you get to do things for them, and it feels great! I got to do two things recently, be involved in my nephew’s wedding and help send my niece to camp. It was an incredible honour to be involved in my nephews wedding and it was fun watching him and his bride go through the planning, preparing and execution of the day...definitely a wedding to remember. Britt and I also got to help our niece goto camp this summer and its been cool to see the pictures that Britt’s brother sent and hear the stories. I’d do anything I possibly could for my nieces and nephews and it was a privilege to do both of these things.

The give you reasons to celebrate! When they are born, you get to celebrate, when they reach milestones you get to celebrate (when your around...), and when they get married you get to celebrate. There’s just more reasons to get together as a family and celebrate. And when you live far apart like my family does these days, it just makes things more fun when there’s a big crowd and you are able to get together and celebrate.

So that’s why I like being an uncle. I’m not a very good uncle, but I sure do have great nieces and nephews.

Long Weekend Exodus...I just don't get it

Calgary is a ghost town this weekend.  Coming home from the office on Friday I go across Stoney Trail, one of the major artieries out of town.  Sitting at the light I looked north and the south bound traffic was backed up as far as the eye could see.  Every other vehicle was an RV or vehicle pulling a trailer.  Regularly you don't see Stoney backed up in that direction unless there is some serious construction happening.  So at that point I knew the Long Weekend Exodus was on.

The Exodus was confirmed to me when Britton and I went out on Saturday morning to Safeway.  We pulled in the parking lot.  It was only a 1/4 full, it looked more like a weekday's worth of shoppers than a Saturday.  Inside every til was open as usual on a Saturday but there weren't any line ups. 

Saturday night church a bowridge I saw the same thing.  After the service was 20 minutes in there were still 6 parking spots in the parking lot...unheard of.  There were two complete seating sections that were empty...everybody could have fit in the center two seating sections. 

So, Calgary is half empty this weekend and I have to tell you I just don't get the Long Weekend Exodus mentality.  Here's my perspective on what the Exodus...

• I'm dying to get away for a weekend to some nice peace and quite, stress free relaxation. So, I decide to go to the mountains or go camping.
• I pack up our camping gear and get the family in the van on Friday afternoon and set out.
• I hit traffic trying to get out of Calgary, what's usually a 15 minute trip to the highway turns into a half an hour.
• I'm on the #1 highway headed to Kananaskis.  It's bumper to bumper, RV's trudging along and young people in their sports cars loaded with camping gear zipping in and out passing everyone along the way.  The traffic adds another 1/2 hour to the trip.
• Hit the highway into K-Country.  It's single lane and bumper to bumper again with the guy in the lead doing the speed limit...stress level is going up.
• The kids are in the back asking when are we going to get there.  What's normally an 1 hr and 1/2 trip has just turned into 2 1/2 to almost 3 hrs. 
• Ahhh, we hit the first campground, Mt. Kidd...oh its full, okay we'll head down the highway some more
• Second campground is full, third too, fourth, fifth...stress level is definitely high...Britt and I drive in silence while the kids argue in the back because somebody touched somebody elses seat (not them, just their seat).
• All the campgrounds are full, its either overflow or back home.  We chose overflow.
• We get set up have dinner at 8 o'clock.  Ah life is good.
• 10 o'clock.  Our dumb neighbours are having a party.  Kids' can't sleep.
• Saturday, we get into a campspot...bye bye overflow.
• Our new spot has groups on either side of us, great, we are in party central...the previous tenants got kicked out for noise violation...

You get the picture?  And I haven't even mentioned the fun of trying to get home on Canada day!  I'm sorry, I just don't get it, sure I'd be in the great out doors, but my stress level sure wouldn't be lower.  I'd probably come back needing a vacation!

So, I choose to stay put and spend the weekend in a city of a million that currently is half empty.  Actually, Calgary's pretty nice when half the people are missing. 

Have a great long weekend!

Now I've gone and done it...

Well I've gone and done it now and there may be ramifications.  Today I placed an order for a MacBook Pro.

After a month and a half with no laptop I have given up at trying to live without one.  But instead of buying another PC laptop I decided after two years of thinking about it to buy a Mac book.  I've been playing around on a mac for about 6 months after I picked up an old G4 and put Tiger on it.  I've enjoyed my foray into the world of Mac so now I've jumped in with both feet. 

This move may be costly though as I may have to surrender my Microsoft Certified Solution Developer pin as a penalty for making the switch.  Microsoft if you are out there, please take note that I did wait until after Bill retired to make the switch...long live Emperer Bill.  Oh and I'll likely make it a dual boot system so I can continue to play my windows based games, plus my system at the church will still be vista (no chance we are switching there), so chin up microsoft, I haven't totally gone over to the dark side.

Anyway, the MacBook is on order and will be here in a week or so, just in time for my vacation.  In the meantime, let me introduce myself..."Hi I'm Kirk...and I'm a Mac User...Sorry PC"