Sometimes my couch feels like this!

Mackenzie and I had a good laugh over this Reebok commercial! Hope you enjoy it.

Captivate me; Elevate me; Lord!

Man races against horse

This morning I read a verse that simply took me away into the imaginations of my heart. It captivated my mind and fascinated my spirit. God has such a way with imagery, a real flare as a word smith. This weekend I picked up a book (finally used my Christmas gift card) by Eugene Peterson called "A Long Obedience in the same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society" As I settled in to read the first chapter this morning the opening verse found in Jeremiah was all I needed. It consists of two questions that the Lord asked of Jeremiah and then again he asked them to me a few thousand years later. Two questions that have the same answer; two questions that probe the recesses of the heart. Two questions that every apprentice of Jesus must settle, probably many times along the journey towards spiritual maturity. Though I found the God's Word enough to paint the picture in my mind I found a couple of pictures on the net to aid with the imagery.

The verse is Jer. 12:5 "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?

The thickets along the Jordan River

man walks through plate glass window!

This is truly amazing! It is hard to believe to say the least

Cool car trick

What closely when the car comes out from behind the trees!

Chris's blog reminded of....

Being so exhausted that you can't even take a dump without falling asleep. This literally happened to me one time. I fell asleep on the crapper!

Things that make you go hmmm....

Yesterday two things happened that made me go hmmm.... The first was an experience I had while stopping to fuel up my truck around 7:30 last night. I pulled in just ahead of a very expensive looking SUV built by Lexus that was sporting Washington plates. Three women in their early 40's got out but it soon became totally apparent they had never fueled up their vehicles before. They had no idea of how to start the pump, they had no idea where the gas port on the vehicle was, and they did not know how to pay for their gas. They called over to me and asked how to pay so I told them to go inside for that. I finished and followed the one women in while she tried to figure out how her debit card worked. Then after several attempts she decided to go get a credit card from one of her friends but only wanted to put 10.00 worth of gas in...in her words, "to start with lets put 10 dollars in and and then see if I will need more gas after that" I finally got my gas paid for and got out of there with the women still not having put one drop of gas into their SUV! Gotta wonder?
The second thing was an email I got from one of the guys in our church. He often sends me quirky little things and most of the time they are kinda dumb. However, this one made me go hmmmm....

This is what he sent me, "Sometimes you just scratch your head....

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered
that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat this
problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion developing a pen
that writes in zero gravity, upside-down, on almost any surface
including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over
300 C.

The Russians used a pencil. Your taxes are due again--enjoy paying them."
Just some things that make you go Hmmmm....
God is Good All the Time.

Sabbath

Sabbath. A good healthy and soulful practice that takes the pressure off, allows for moments of despair without rushing past them after all we are only human! It is good for the entire body, soul, mind and emotions. I love my day off. No church people! Nobody but family if that's what I choose. I don't have to answer any questions, I don't have to answer any phones, I don't have to check emails, I don't need to leave my haven of rest here in the house.
Sabbath was created by God for our sanity just as much as our sanctification. It is meant to be a time to unwind and recoup. I love it and after this past week I really needed it.
Thank you Lord for Sabbath.
God is Good All the Time!

Thoughts on the cost of non-discipleship

A lesson that I am learning right now regarding the cost of discipleship has been very fun to think about and learn. When you grow up in a Christian home and you tally up how many sermons you have heard, how many bible studies you have attended, conferences, camps and workshops you have enjoyed it can be a bit staggering. If I only take one sermon per Sunday over 43 years that alone adds up to just over 2400 sermons. That is a ton of biblical information running around inside my heart, mind and soul! Then something happens; an awaking comes and a fresh word is spoken to our hearts and we are like a kid in a candy shop with it.
I have heard countless sermons on counting the cost of following Jesus. I have basically always assumed that meant the cost to me personally or what I would have to give up in order to gain eternal life with Jesus. While that may be true, part of counting the cost is also counting what you gain through what you are giving up. There is a story of man who found gold in a field, lots of gold, more gold than he could ever have imagined. As it turned out he is the only one who knew the gold was there so he goes off and sells everything he owns(negative cost)and then takes the money and purchases the field with great joy (positive cost). Was it a burden to the man to sell everything to buy the field that was rich beyond his wildest dreams? Yes, but in light of what he gained the cost was almost insignificant!
Then I started to see another cost that needs to be factored in when it comes to counting the cost of following Jesus. That would be the cost of non-discipleship. What if I choose not to be an apprentice then what? It didn't take long for me to see that what I would loose far outweighed what I would gain by not entering into the apprenticeship program of Jesus. If I knew the gold was there but decided not to sell everything to purchase the property then I am the biggest looser for it. For me it should be a "no-brainier"!
I think it is healthy to think of life from this perspective; to ask yourself if you can really afford not to take on the life of an apprentice of Jesus. The way of the sinner is hard but then so is the way of the Christian who is unwilling to count the cost in both directions. If I am right about this then the cost of non-discipleship may even be harder!

Scary Night for Scottie

Last Wednesday evening while I was teaching a class on Elisha I received a call on my cell phone. I thought it might be the kids so I picked it up but saw it was my friend and kept teaching. Later I called him and found out that he was trying to get a hold of me to tell me that my cousin Scott Nichol had been seriously injured in a Hockey game. He had been watching TSN and saw that Scott had been hit, lost his balance and plunged head first into the boards. He was knocked unconscious and after laying on the ice surface for 10 minutes they got him on a stretcher and took him off to the nearest hospital. He missed most of the season up until Christmas and now this injury. They hope he will be back in the line up by the end of next week. Hope the rest of the season goes much better for him! Here are some pics that I found about the incident.

The Christian Reality Show

If been thinking lately about my own families considerable ingestion of reality T.V. shows. Right now Cheryl and the girls are focused on American Idol. I am trying hard to like it but it is not going very well. I am often told to go do something else as my comments are becoming a real nuisance to the ladies as they try and enjoy watching the show. What I find most amazing is just how horrible some if not most of the contestants are at singing if you could call it that. Yet, somehow, in their own little worlds, they believe the lie that they've got what it takes to become America's next Idol. Reality truly is the farthest thing from their minds and even the minds of those who support them in this endeavour. After completely humiliating themselves and slaughtering some song and being torn to shreds by the judges they storm off angry and hurt from their experience. Then in post interviews they bitterly argue with the judges decisions. Usually with tears and/or vulgar language they say they have perfect pitch, that they sang completely on key, they say so many things that are not remotely connected to the truth and therefore to reality. If it wasn’t for the few who can sing well you could call it Non-reality T.V.
Then I started to think about Christians and reality. I started to wonder how interesting it would be to have a reality show about how Christians really live. It may not be a hit T.V. show but it would be very interesting. It would be fascinating to see just how many Christians live out what the bible clearly teaches as the kind of life the believer is to experience. For example, you could post a warning at the beginning of the show say something like: "Tonight’s show contains scenes of violence, judgemtalism, contempt and rage. Viewer discretion is advised." Followed by a verse that would be the theme of that evenings show, something like 1 Pe 1:7 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy". Then follow a selected group of Christians around to see just what this inexpressible joy looks like at work, at home, with friends, with neighbours etc. Interspersed with interviews of those closest to the Christians in order to provide a living commentary from those who are on the receiving end of what is supposed to be “inexpressible and glorious joy!” Then as the show comes to a close the contestants would watch their lives, listen to the commentary and respond to it. Thus attempting to measure what is really true about themselves. Which could be very different from what they may think is true about themselvs.
Sounds like the makings of a sad and terrifying look at what really goes on in the hearts and minds of people who claim to be Christian yet act and think and feel something else! Or better yet, sounds a bit like judgement day!!!!