When the Dust Settles

Many times I have witnessed the swirl of dust particles, hair and lint through the blazing sunlight coming through the window in our home. A dog shakes, a cat jumps, a body whisks through the room and little pieces of stuff are on the move. If the sun was not shining through the window at just the right angle nobody would even notice these tiny particles and what-not floating around in the air. Given enough time, eventually all the dust particles will settle down to the floor, furniture and counter tops. When the dust does settle it usually means that all activity has calmed down or ceased all together.
This past week was a swirl of unfortunate activity. Three people connected to our fellowship through relationships passed away. A mom, a friend and an uncle. The funerals and memorial services lined themselves up starting on Monday and finished on Saturday afternoon.
As the dust of these activities has settled I see two very important lessons to be learned, prayed through and put into practice.
First, as Christians our lives lived out is indeed the gospel to others. The preacher at my uncle’s funeral spoke of the great evidence of a changed life by the powerful display of the gospel of Jesus Christ as it was lived out in the life of my uncle. He entitled his message, “The Gospel according to Kenneth Neill Foster”. His life was full of the evidence of a life well lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. What is the Gospel according to Kevin Cecil Nichol like, I wondered to my self as I sat there listening. I wonder what 6 points the preacher at my funeral would make as a comparison to the real gospel of Jesus Christ I said I believed in.
Second, was a comment my good friend made about his mother as he read out her eulogy. He basically explained that his mom had a gift. This gift was powerfully evidenced as the family tried to come to a consensus on who would do the eulogy for their mom. The fear was that whoever did the task would somehow make it appear that they were "more favoured" than the others in the family by their mother. As the conversation continued it became quite clear that their moms wonderful gift was the ability to make each of her children feel like they were more favoured than the rest. Each child found that they believed that mom treated them more special than the others, only to discover together, that in reality she had treated them all so well it had become their own personal perception of that relationship. Oh that we would all inherit such a God-like quality. The ability to make others feel uniquely special, to make others feel highly favoured by our actions of faithful love towards them. This love is like God's love toward all of us. Lord, make me like my friends mother.
Well, the dust has settled now. Reflections have benefited my life. Like the scripture says the wise allow sorrow to have a refining influence upon them. Thanks Lord for the privilege of knowing these fine Christian people. Thanks also for the joy of knowing that becuase they believed in you, recieved your forgiveness, and lived out their faith they are with you even now forever in your care.
God is good... All the Time!

Blessings Following After

Blessed are those who... the word blessing, bless or blessed, has been brought into clearer focus lately. It is a curious word packed full of all that is good and pleasing. It has the strange ability to go deep into the center of our hearts but at the same time stay bubbly at the surface of our lives. It is something we can do for others like when we say "Bless you" after a sneeze or "bless you" in place of a greeting or a good-bye. It describes the life of a believer and in essence is the pronouncement of God on all of life from start to finish. After he made Adam and Eve he blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply. At the end of the Bible he pronounces a blessing on all those who carefully study the revelation of the Lord Jesus to John while he was imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos. According to Paul all those who believe in the saving life of Jesus by faith are "blessed with every spiritual blessing" which seems a little hard to grasp just how big and wide this word blessing seems to indicate. We are even instructed to use a blessing as a spiritually charged weapon to combat those who would harm us, do evil to us, abuse, curse us and persecute us. A blessing must be deeply treasured for it can be stolen as was the case of Jacob stealing Esau's blessing from their father Isaac.
I believe the Lord's deepest will is to bless and be a blessing to all of his creation. I believe we are to seek a blessed life, enjoy the blessings given to us in Christ, live in them and embrace them to the best of our knowledge.
Blessed are all who reverence and hold in awe our great and blessed God!

Sometimes you just gotta shout!

The way I have been feeling these days is really quite remarkable given the circumstances that I find myself in. After a week and 1/2 of resigning from this great work in Peachland I am still very full of joy. So full of Joy that I could just shout! However, there were several moments this week when I began to doubt whether or not I had heard from the Lord regarding this. One parishioner jokingly wondered out loud if I had maybe listened to the Devil instead! I must admit I am a firm believer in trusting someone who has a few "second-thoughts" about any major decision that can greatly affect ones life. I don't think that person would be "normal" without them. I believe that even Jesus wrestled with some "second-thoughts" in the garden before he went to the cross. He asked his Father is there was some other way, something else that could be done, but in the end he wrestled those thoughts to the ground and went with the good and perfect and pleasing will of God. The second guessing in this case was simply being honest with himself and his God. This honesty lead him to came out the other side in line with obedience to the still small voice of the Spirit in his life. And the result, the result was JOY! Who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scoffing it's shame... I guess the danger comes when we allow the second guess to become the third, fourth, fifth and sixth guesses which lead us to doubting and despair and eventually not following through on what the Lord has originally told us to do.
How about any of you? What do you do with your second guesses?

A Chapter is Finishing

Last Sunday April 30th I announced to our congregation our resignation from the work here in Peachland. Our last day of official ministry at the Peachland Community Church will be June 30 2006. It was over 13 years ago that the Holy Spirit laid this little town on our hearts and Cheryl and I were obedient this call by getting a church started in May of 1993. We have seen some unbelievable things happen here, even mini-revival type events in our journey with what used to be this little (and now not so little) town of Peachland. We will miss many things about being here but we know that the same Holy Spirit that lead us to this town in '93 has spoken again and is now leading us away from this great place. To where? We don't know just yet! We will be taking a look at some options that have been offered to us but for right now there is nothing to go to. So for the next week or so we will just be relaxing in the knowledge that we are putting the finishing touches to this chapter of our lives in anticipation of what the next chapter brings. We need your prayers so don't be stingy with them. When we first came to Peachland Paige and Danae were only 3 and Mackenzie just 1. They had no input into all of this but now they have a much greater stake in this whole thing. Please pray for them as they have no control over this leading and so they're perception of all this is quite different from mom and dads.
Cheryl and I are very excited as we anticipate what new adventure the Lord will be taking us on. Our hearts are bubbling with joy over what has been and now what will be coming.
God is Good – All The Time :)