I don’t pretend to be fervent or righteous.  I am a sinful man like the next guy.  However, I have a story for you this morning.

On Sunday we made a public appeal to our church for help – we are 2 weeks away from our self-imposed deadline for listing our house for sale.  Yes, it’s that close already!  We have lots to do to prepare our home, and because of the financial step back we took to give ourselves opportunity to do fulltime ministry, we do not have the cash to do all the repairs we need to, to maximize the value in the home.

So we asked for help in terms of labour, and also in terms of supporting specific needs financially.  We had several people step forward that morning offering their hands and that was a blessing.  We rejoice for the people of Community of Hope who love to give of their hands with gladness.

But we didn’t hear any expressions of help in terms of money.  That was a little discouraging at first, but having come this far, I can’t not trust God to come through.

So a few weeks ago God began to disturb me to pray more – more timewise and also more energywise.  It was that word, fervency that was lacking, the Lord seemed to be telling me.  So that day I got down on my knees and prayed.  It was good – that day was really blessed – I spent so much time in prayer that day (even apart from that time on my knees) and God encouraged my heart – ever just have that feeling that you are “filled with the Spirit”?  That was how I felt that day – like I was in sync with God.  It was very cool.

That brings us to today.  I felt God prompting me to return to my knees again, but I kind of put it off for a bit. Then, as I was doing my usual routines on the internets, I stumbled into sin.  I could pretend it was an accident, but choices were necessary to get there.  After that happened, I knew I needed to get back where he wanted me in the first place.  I prayed and asked for forgiveness for that sin, and asked him to separate me from that sin – as far as the east is from the west.  Then I began to bring our needs to him, and as I was praying for more people to rise up to help, I was prompted to pray for two people in particular, by name.  I did so – not normally praying that way it seemed weird.

As I stood up from the floor the phone rang.  It was one of the men I had prayed for!  What’s more, he was calling to say that he would take care of two of the items that needed financial support to complete!  I praised God on the phone with him and told him he was a direct, immediate answer to prayer.  So I am sitting here a little in awe of my God who loves me so much that he has leaped to my aid even as I prayed.

Be encouraged.  Prayer works, but take a lesson from me.  You need to do your part -

1.  Seek to do God’s will,

2.  Listen for His voice and obey it when you hear it,

3.  Confess your sins that you may be righteous before Him,

4.  And most importantly, PRAY and ASK!

“Isaiah 57:20 says, ‘The wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot rest, and its waters toss up mire and dirt.’  The sea does not need to do anything special to produce mire and dirt; that is the result of natural motions.  This is also true of us when we are under the condition of sin.  The natural motions of our lives produce mire and dirt. Sin is part of the internal structure of our lives.  No special effort is needed to produce it.  No wonder we feel trapped.” – Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline, p. 5

Coincidentally, I have been asked to fast today.  It is always a struggle for me to fast while at home cooking meals for the kids.  If I were out of the house all day, I could distract myself.  But I am not.  And worse, I have to confront my discomfort head-on – “No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Cor 9:27)  If only I had the fortitude of Paul!

I have been proofreading a text I plan to use for a course on Church History I have been asked to teach in January.  I am really excited about it – it is a real opportunity to convert all that stuff I have learned over the years into benefit for others.  It is also an opportunity to teach on something I love – history is a subject that never ceases to fascinate me.

In the early chapters of that text I have been confronted by the many stories of the great fathers of the faith – the Tertullians, the Clements, the Polycarps, and the Origens.  These great men of God were me of personal discipline, who loved the Lord and willingly sacrificed the stuff that held them back from Christ.

It was in between reading that and glancing at a book I recently rediscovered on my bookshelf, as I was cooking for my children and struggling with my desire for the food I was preparing – note I didn’t say need – I am not in any place where I need food in my sedentary western lifestyle – that I came face to face with a truth that had been peeking out at me intermittently.  That truth is I lack discipline.  My selfish whims and desires win out much too often.  From Facebook games to World of Warcraft – from DVDs to my Google Reader (I have even managed to self-justify – Facebook is a fantastic tool for building and maintaining relationships, but I haven’t been using it for that ; Google Reader is a brilliant way of collecting good information from around the world and aggregating it for convenience but information for information’s sake is merely wasting time) I have been allowing them to occupy precious time – the gift of my creator to me – that could be filled with preparation for a lifetime’s work that we are all too close to embarking upon.  How can I treat this time I have been gifted with, with such comtempt?

“Origen’s philosophy, then, was more than a matter of ideas, it was a way of forming character.  Here, his example proved to be his most powerful lesson.  He stimulated us, says Gregory, “by the acts he performed more than by the theories he taught. “  He urged his students to examine the springs of their conduct, to note the impulses that led them out of confusion into moral order, and to resist the seeds of evil and cultivate the growth of goodness, which was what Origen meant by reason.” – Bruce L. Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, P. 84-85.

Somebody told me once that sin cannot be beaten until you hate it.  Until you really really hate it.  I wonder if the hate I am feeling for my sin is enough today?

Who knew?  At the same time as a famous Christian blogger, Anne Jackson endeavoured to rekindle her passion for cycling I too began a journey back to a bicycle.

I don’t have her literary gifts, but my story goes like this: I got a bike when I was young.  Living in a pretty big city called Prince George (I think it had about 50 thousand when I was living there), we lived in a quiet, new subdivision called College Heights.  When I was 6 or 7 I was good enough on my bike to ride it from one end of College Heights to the other – a distance of several kilometers.  I rode it to the corner store to buy treats.  It was awesome and I thrilled to exploring every little street between that store and mine.  I remember being intimidated by the view across the sports fields, between the store and the big High School which seemed like a fortress to me.

Is it just me or does it seem like a different planet where a 7 year old can ride his bike all over every neighbourhood and forested trail within several kilometers of his house?  My wife won’t even let our 9 year old ride around the block on his bike! (more…)

This weekend our church had to deal with its first incidence of church discipline.  As a part of the elder team, I have been in on the meetings and interviews and entreaties to change that have preceded it until there was no other choice.  It is heart-rending since I have been a good friend and accountability partner with the man for about 5 years.

I knew there was going to be an emotional cost to leadership but these last few days have really shown me how much that weighs.  On top of it all I also had to finish a ministry outreach on Saturday, then rush out to New Westminster for the funeral of a couple in my small group’s grandmother who had passed.  Again, more emotional weight.

I lost sleep over it, and that is bizarre for me, a guy who can usually turn off like a light switch.

I think it was doubly difficult because my wife left town to visit her family on that Saturday morning too, so I did not have her with me to lean on emotionally.

By Sunday night I felt so burdened that I couldn’t even think about going to bed.  I took the dog out for a walk in a miserable windy rainstorm.  I didn’t even want an umbrella.  I just wanted the water to soak my head and wash away the heaviness in my heart and mind.  At the end of the walk I was reciting Psalm 23 to myself, and when I got to the verse, “he anoints my head with oil;  my cup overflows,” A particularly cold drop of rain hit me right in the forehead, and it felt like that was God’s anointing… and it began to feel better.

The dog enjoyed the walk.  I enjoyed my little encounter with my compassionate shepherd.

Matt Sweetman provides a list of what he thinks he did wrong in the first 6 months before launch.  I plan to heed those warnings.

8 Mistakes in the First 6 Months of Planting

I am trying endeavouring to memorize around 180 verses by January, in an effort to pass Grace Brethren Licensure review, which is quite rigorous I have been told.  How will I get there?  Read on to find out.

If you want an anecdotal look back at my memorization history (such as it is) check out Part 1.

So, I have been blessed by a number of situations where I have heard lots of very good ideas to help memorize Scripture.   First, I would like to say that one size does not fit all.  Everyone’s mind works differently, so I can’t guarantee results with what I have done.  You need to find your own way along this path, but researching what others have done does give you good ideas to try and see which will be best for you.

A couple of years ago, I sat in on a nice little seminar taught by my church’s worship pastor, Jason Strain.  He taught a session on Scripture memorization, and highlighted a number of ideas, including mnemonic devices, acronyms, and song.  I like song: it does work.  He even got into producing entire songs for our church to help memorize Scripture.  You can download them for free on the church website if you like.   The only downside I found with them was while I learned the verse very quickly, I didn’t learn the reference point or the verse number – so while it was now in my head, I couldn’t reference it for others.  Saying to someone, “It says somewhere in the Bible, ‘Salvation is found in no one else, and there is no other name under heaven, given to man by which we must be saved,” doesn’t have nearly the same impact as saying, “It says in Acts 4:12, ‘Salvation is found in no one else…” See what I mean?  Still, it’s better than no memorizing!

More recently, I was at our church’s “Discover Hope Lunch” where we introduce new attenders to our church and help them take the next step towards membership.  At the end of the lunch, I was sitting around talking to a couple of nice ladies and one of them took out a little business card wallet.  It was filled with Scripture verses printed onto business card paper.  She said she carried it everywhere she went and used it all the time.  What a neat little idea!  The next day I scoured three different Dollar Stores for such a wallet, and then went and bought some business card paper to print on.  I put together a dozen verses on “Scripture” and “God” and put them into the wallet.  What I have been doing is taking that wallet to work, flipping open a verse and sitting it on my desk right in front of my monitor.  This keeps the verse in my vision all day long, and it’s been working very well so far.  This week I have memorized 2 Tim 3:16, Psalm 119:105,  and Psalm 19:1.  Today my goal is to do two: Romans 1:19 and John 20:28.

It has been finalized – I will be coming on staff at Community of Hope as a Church Planting Intern as of November 1.

I am very excited.  This is the opportunity I have been praying for, that God would give me a chance to experience full-time ministry before we actually leave to plant.  I had been wondering how God would provide for me the necessary experience to manage what we plan to do – the door was opened with the arrival of the Twins.  It took me 2 months to realize that the door was open (twins are rather diverting).  Then, we had to look at the financial realities of whether we could do it – it is still going to be very tight, but we believe in fath that God will provide what we need to complete home repairs and prepare to move to Medicine Hat.

The remainder of October will be challenging with many distractions.  I am starting to prepare my outreach ministry this month.  Our community group needs to sit down and figure out a covenant.  Cheryl is helping me to begin a program of memorization for Licensure.  We have our church planting assessment at the end of the month.  I have to prepare a mini-sermon that is supposed ot introduce the new church plant for that assessment process.  And I need to finish well at work.  Please pray for all these things.

Thinking about the ramifications of this video now.

I have been thinking a lot lately (in between worrying about the Twins) about Community Group in the Fall.  We are going to orient this group to not just be a group that is praying and supporting the formation of a core group for our church plant, but also serving Community of Hope by helping to move our group members towards both greater personal dedication to the Lord and also living missionally where they are.  It is hoped then that not only will people be able to support us btu they will become better equipped even if they remain here in BC.

Given the boatload of reading I was doing last year, working on my graduating essay on church planting in resort communities, I think I am positioned to take our group in a more exploratory posture deeper into the idea of missional living.  What does that mean?  It means taking seriously the reality that if we actually mean to follow Christ, we must be about his business – and his business was bringing about the Kingdom of God on earth.  We must be doing what he did – making disciples, each of us, personally, in the place where God has put us.

I love my church, but I recognize that they, like me, have long been poisoned by this idea that doing church is for clergy.  That they are the ones who evangelize, teach, make disciples, baptize, and otherwise grow the church.  That our only obligations are to sing some worship songs to God every Sunday, say Grace before every meal, and do whatever our pastor asks us to do in the name of humility and service.  What a weak, anemic faith that is!

I picked up “Breaking the Missional Code” by Ed Stetzer and David Putman as some thing to read while in the hospital, and it has been good so far because it is putting legs to ideas that need to be explained.  I hope to use ideas from that book as topics of conversation in our Community Group.  They ask some very good questions that we, who hope to reach people for Jesus in our neighbourhood, need to ask ourselves.

One startling thing that they point out is that as a church increases its “evangelism training” the actual evangelism of that church goes down.  Conversely, it appears the most effective evangelists are new converts, with no training.  A comparison is drawn to the Woman at the Well that Jesus met – who went back to town and told the whole Samaritan village about Jesus and saw great numbers believe in him as a result.

Evangelism training has a place, but it really seems that the most effective means of engaging people with the gospel is in two respects – relationally (which takes no training really – but does take a lot of emotional and temporal investment), and holistically.   What I mean by holistically is that your faith needs to be lived out.  It needs to inform your actions, choices and way of life to the point where Christianity is not your religion – Christ is your life.  When this happens barriers start to come down.  Hypocrisy is mitigated, because you are not acting one way and talking another.

How does this happen?  It happens when you are being encouraged, supported and motivated towards greater wholeness in Christ.  It is a happening that I really want to see in our Community Group this fall.

With one of my favourite Christian bloggers putting out a call for confessions, I decided to get inspired.  Heh.  No, inspiration just happened. Confessions!

• I am feeling more nervous, more unprepared, and more at wit’s end with this pregnancy than I have ever been with any of my other children.  (Duh, you’re having twins!)
• I am going through a slump at work, and I think it’s partly because I am distracted by the fact that I can’t conclude a deal on a van for the family.
• My wife is very insightful.  She pointed out to me that the reason I am so focused on vans is because it is the only thing I feel I have any control over right now.  I can’t control the pregnancy, I can’t control the quality of sales opportunity at work, I can’t control my family’s health (largely).  Problem is, I can’t control finding a van either – it is the dealer, the salesperson, the buyer for my car who are in the driver’s seat and I am just waiting… waiting… waiting…
• Feeling Romans 7:19 right now with respect to my kids and my computer.  Guess which one I think is the sin.
• Also feeling Romans 7:19 right now with respect to studying for licensure and facebook.  Guess which one I think is sin.
• I really want to start using my knowledge of the internet to warn people away from Maple Ridge Chrysler, because of the way they have treated us.  I can’t decide if it is revenge or public service that is motivating me though.