AMAZING FRUSTRATION, I mean....GRACE!

The phone line was all crackly over Christmas, finally repaired - a real frustration - yet I still communicated with loved ones and friends, and indeed from around the globe- FRUSTRATION??

My Alarm system at the house was beeping every 3 minutes, malfunctioning, a real frustration - my Dad's has had a constant ringing in his ear over the holidays - FRUSTRATION?

I've had the stomach flu for the past few weeks - a real frustration, not real bad, just miserable - but then I know folks on chemotherapy - FRUSTRATION?

I've been off my routine, a little bummed out, bit of an emotional roller-coaster on extended holiday- a real frustration - millions would love to work, or have the luxuary of a holiday - how do you spell tsunami? FRUSTRATION?

Jesus sees me whining (I've doin' this for 53 years!) he's been to the cross, he made the total committment, and is for me, and depending on me - FRUSTRATION!

It is with gratitude that I fall upon the precious boundless grace of my Saviour - I choose to follow Jesus - there's no other name like it - say it, whisper it - in the dark night of your soul, when the pain's too much, when temptation is overwhelming, when doubts creep in, when you're soooo alone - whisper his name - he's there.

I'm going to keep following Jesus....he's for me, hallelujah, and I choose to be for him, to follow him...for time and eternity, Lord help me serve you with body, heart, mind and soul.

SANTA GIVES PRESENTS - GOD GIVES PEOPLE AND FORGIVENESS!

Sunday at Lick's (Christmas hamburger and fries!!) for lunch, Billy (not his real name) aged 8?who sat opposite me was asked if he knew the difference between Santa Claus and God.

His reply - Santa gives gifts, God doesn't. Wrong answer I thought...

He then continued, but God gives people and forgiveness. PROFOUND ANSWER.

From the mouths of babes - PEOPLE, FORGIVENESS - CHRIST and CHRIST FOLLOWERS.

I love Billy - right from the heart - he has not had an easy life yet he lines up with one of my other favourites Buechner who said after ordination "I will work to forgive people - everybody longs to be forgiven.

At the end, when all is said and done, and all the toys of every Christmas, yea your whole life have been bought, used and/or left on the garbage heap - all that you will have left is God and your family (natural and/or spiritual).

Forgiven, reconciled, at home. O how I love Jesus and Billy!

FOUND DIFFICULT AND NOT TRIED....

When I was young it was the trying to prove the existence of God thing - (we the brainless Christians debating the enlightened scientists) - now it's the followers of Jesus vs. the many other paths (why should I follow Jesus question).

The root stumbling block - PRIDE.

I'll still debate (I haven't "kissed by brains away") but usually it degenerates into a "Star Wars" of egos. I point to Jesus, and I live for Jesus.

G.K. Chesterton was right re. Christianity - "It's not that it's been tried and found wanting, but rather it's been found difficult and not tried."

At the end of our days, we'll look into this mirror and we'll ask ourselves did we really love him heart, mind, body and soul. I hope it's a good converstion.

Following Jesus, Listening to Jesus, Becoming like Jesus, Loving Jesus.

BEING THERE!

Thank you for your help I said to the man putting money in the kettle I was "manning" today.

"Thank you for being here" - he replied.

I got a Christmas card today from a couple who have been S.A. Officers for a combined 100 years - the card said - NOT ONE REGRET.

The joy on their faces in the Christmas card photo had to have come right from the heart.

They had been following Jesus all their lives - they had been living for Jesus, being Jesus all these years and they were still shining.

They encouraged me that youth today are looking for INCARNATE Christians - being there.

FOLLOWING JESUS, BEING THERE....MERRY INCARNATION!

Simply mind-blogging....

Oh what a tangled web we weave....

It's bubbling up, its oozing forth, its contagion - leaven.

God is calling - shepherd/warrior/gardners/builders...I'm meeting new ones every day - engaging heart, mind, body and soul and I'm greatly encouraged.

Wind in the sail - courage in the heart - lilt in the step - fan into flame...

I'm just about to write I'm a warrior in shepherd's clothing when I read Monsieur Court's blog...

Knowing Jesus, Following Jesus, being Jesus - there's just something about that name.

OPEN OUR EYES LORD, WE WANT TO SEE JESUS!

(Oh yeah - I've come out - no longer "Impossible is nothing!" (which I still am) - I'm unabashedly AGENT OF RENEWAL. Let the games begin!

Why Hitler didn't invade England

You heard it here first - because he was sure that the Salvation Army would kick his ass!

At least that's what one of the guys at the Open Door at North Toronto told me yesterday.

What a time - I met some street people, marginalized people, crazy people, lonely people, GOD-CREATED PEOPLE that I had not seen in 5 years.

They were just as needy, just as unique, as when I had left them. They weren't fixed, cured, relocated - but they were still there - and people are still connecting with them.

Thank God people, flesh and blood, are still presencing themselves with them.

Thank God people are still following Jesus, being Jesus, seeing Jesus.....

MERRY INCARNATION FRIENDS - GOD KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING!

God the director, not the puppeteer

Some Frederick Buechner, my favorite writer, following up "so you think you've got it figured out".

"God acts in history and in your and my brief histories not as the puppeteer who sets the scene and works the strings but rather as the great director who no matter what role fate casts us in conveys to us somehow from the wings, if we have our eyes, ears, hearts open and sometimes even if we don't...

...how we can play those roles in a way to enrich and ennoble and hallow the whole vast drama of things including our own small but crucial parts in it."

One day we'll have the answers to the why questions. In the mean time, it doesn't hurt to ask them, at the appropriate time, but know that he who became baby, man, crucifixion victim, voluntarily - HAS BEEN EXALTED, GIVEN THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME - EVERY TONGUE WILL CONFESS THAT JESUS IS LORD!

Hey Steve Wiseman - 'ya wanna fight?

The enemy - the one who roars like a lion, looking whom to consume - the guy who ruins families, relationships, some preachers - I'm against that guy totally.

The battle - am I against that? - No, I have to be at peace with that - it's happening - I know it's coming, I'm ready, I don't freak out when it happens.

My fellow being - victims of the enemy - am I against them - no, I think I used to be - but I look at Jesus - totally there, because he knew who he was, and whose he was - humble servant, all for his Father - as we are all for Jesus!

Do I contend and fight - you bet baby! We’ve got to sort things out with heart and mind - and the biggest enemy - hmm - MYSELF - but Jesus is for me and with me and knows me. MERRY INCARNATION!

So you think you've got it figured out...

I'm preaching humility today - the humilty of Christ - who became man, baby in fact, servant, crucifixion victim - WILLINGLY AT THAT!

So I'm humbled today which is a good place to be when you're gonna preach on it, because I just received a reluctant Christmas card from Kelowna yesterday.

The family there has been touched by three deaths of teenagers, two neighbours and a nephew/cousin.

What do you say - well first of all if you're wise, you don't say anything for a while, a long time - you just hang out as close as those feeling the burden allow you.

If you do speak, you don't say stuff like "It was God's will" - cause that makes God look like someone I don't want to be part of - and he is someone I am a part of.

When time allows you can humbly venture forth that you can't begin to imagine what they're going through or feeling, but that is must hurt.

And then later, again when the time is right, you might even write it down and send it along in a card or an email - but then you should follow it up personally (this takes guts - but its powerful) and communicate the same thing, again humbly.

Jesus is my home-boy, in the sense that he's visited my place, and he's taking me home one day. I've got to trust him for all the details, and timing in between. It's hard, but I've got to...

Star Wars....

Something old:

"Give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which thy son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility: that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to life immortal."

Something new: laser defense systems/wars .

Christmas - the advent of Jesus - an unimaginable invasion! A close encounter of the third kind.

Cast away the works of darkness (we were born with a dark side....) and put on the armour of light (we have the potential for tremendous acts of grace and kindness).

What a paradox, what a reality - that's us....

Better than we were, not as good as we will become, on this earth, and for eternity....

Light wins the war.....cool.

Skim, Superficial, Sucks

The call to community as we hear it from our Lord is the call to move away from the ordinary and proper places.

When we form community primairly to heal personal wounds, it cannot become the place where we effectively realize solidarity with other people's pains.

Greek word for church - ekklesia - called out.

Nouwen in "Compassion" (this is gold) notes that "vountary displacement" stands at the origin of all great religious reforms - Benedict, Francis, Ignatius, Wesley, Mother Teresa.

Voluntary displacement is when we move from the ordinary, proper places to the places where we experience and express compassionate solidarity with those in whom the brokenness of the human condition is most visible.

I'm with Monsieur Court - talk, and thought, precede action, and are action. The wind is blowing - and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!

Trust and obey - listening to Jesus, following Jesus.....it's happening....

Real people (men are people) cry...

If you follow your tears you find your heart.

If you find your heart you find what is dear to God.

If you find what is dear to God you find the answer how to live your life.

Jesus wept...trusting Jesus, following Jesus. When did you last weep?

The most disbelieved verse in the Bible...

All right Jeopardy fans - What is - 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'?

6% of the world consume 50% of the resources

Taking care of number 1 - me.

Guilt, pride, competitition get us going - mostly during December.

Wow - what kind of gospel have we been living in North American for the past 40 years?

Look at Jesus.....following Jesus...skim, superficial sucks.....look at Jesus, follow Jesus.

An Audience of One....

I've been on holiday for a few days - went back to my old digs in Montreal, first visit (we left in July).

It was great seeing former neighbours, colleagues, friends - there were a lot more people I HAD to see than in other places I've lived. Brought some closure - life moves on, I'm in a different space, so are they, but we are still linked.

Someone had commented, when we go through difficult times with people our connections go deeper. That was it - we'd had some tough, tough times, faced some heavies - but we'd shared it in community.

I'd always kind of done things in my own strength and God's strength, but our 5 years in Montreal had us face down in need of prayer and reaching out to others - desperate for Him, lost without him and His body.

One friend had just experienced unprecedented stress - he shared that a few days away, meditation and a sermon preached entitled: "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face - and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace" - brought him back from the brink - oh yeah, he was the preacher.

God sees, knows, and values the heart -into my heart Lord - come in I pray, come in to stay...

Shared heart, shared Body. God you do good work.

MARKIPULATED (manipulated by marketing)

I always knew way more money is spent on advertising than education, that more creativity is spent by advertisers in creating discontent in my spirit than in feeding my soul.

But since being back in TO - the Canadian capital of the spirit of materialism - I've been receiving a free copy of the Toronto Star newspaper - why - for the last two weeks, I have received enough flyers with the paper to kindle a thousnd fireplaces. Hey I'm being targeted - manipulated even.

I've known in the past that religion, even heart-faith can create false guilt, the SA, even me as a parent and officer, but the "mammon" force has us beat hands down.

PT Barnum, influential in the circus business coined the phrase "A sucker is born every minute!"

Paul was bang on in Romans 12:1,2 "Don't the world squeeze you (you'll be in the juice fast! my editorial addition) but be changed from within by the renewing of your mind."

Hey, youth are not as free as they think - all generations actually - we're being manipulated - attention Walmart shoppers!

Heads up folks - and as an aside - I'd love to see some Christian commercials that would rock - some of you reading this have the capacity and I'm ready to champion you! More later.

The Road Less Traveled

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."

(Henry David Thoreau)

So often we deal with symptom rather than root cause; like sizzle to steak; so often style impresses and content bores.

Someone has said for every difficult situation there is a simple answer - and it is the wrong one!!

Give me a pill man, or a potion or a mantra - how can we rev up the troops - psych up the troops...

Engaging heart and mind, body and spirit - that's the call upon God's people today.

Following Jesus...

"Two roads diverged in a wood - and I - I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference"

Let's do it. In the health club today - a girl was in front of me on the treadmill - listening to her ipod - dressed somewhat provocatively and couldn't have ambled any slower - I have no idea why she was there and what she was hoping to accomplish.

We know where we're going, and learning what it takes - we pledge to go deep, to the root cause, to pay the price in training/disciplining ourselves - following Jesus...

ON THE ROAD - TOGETHER!