Christian Reformed Church

This evening, since FaithWorks is not having evening services right now, I headed over to Christian Reformed Church (CRC) to check out what was going on over there. I was informed that their Pastor was on vacation and that an elder would be speaking. I was also informed by a member that the evening services are more "conservative" than are the morning. Traditional hymms were sung following a quite orderly liturgy. I believe there is nothing wrong with a liturgical service but I believe it restricts the flow of God in many, many (if not ALL) ways. The speaker, for example, read an entire sermon wrote by someone in Ontario. Not one word he said came from his own preparation. The text the sermon came from was Luke 23:44-49. A lot of the message consisited of how God is responsible for EVERYTHING. Sickness, poverty, depression, etc as well as health, prosperity, and happiness, etc. There is not one thing which is outside His sovereignty and outside of His 'loving' hand. A lot of the hymms however, spoke of telling sorrow "away" and such. There is a major problem already.

1. If God is responsible for making you sick in order to teach you something or to bring you closer to Him, then asking Him to remove that sickness, or depression, or whatever, before it's appointed time would actually place you OUT of God's Will and plan for your life. Such a state would be worse than being sick!

2. Is it really God's Will for 50% of the kids in Mozambique, etc to die before the age of 5 due to malaria? If it is, then would supplying them all with malaria medication place them out of God's Will for their lives? (Problem here is that according to the sermon, it's God's will if they're sick, and, at the same time, it's God's will if they're healed. This leads to confusion about God and an indifferent attitude towards the Great Commission.) Is it really God's plan to have untold numbers of children aborted each year? I do not believe everything happens for a reason. Well, yes, I do. But not because it's all God's reason. I believe it is because of man's reason. God is sovereign, yes, but He has given Man free choice and will not take that away lest He condemn us to an existence of puppetry. God hates all the pain and sickness in the world, He really does, but fixing it all in one divine act would not really fix it at all. God fixed the world through Jesus. He fixed the world but kept the law of free choice paramount in our lives. Crazy, that took some thought effort! Anyways, I'm off on a rant.

But, the place was packing about 100 people, 40% of whom must've been under 25 yrs. Amazing. We're lucky to get 20 for an evening service at FaithWorks. Makes you wonder. I would give CRC a second chance, but I would definitely make sure I went back in the A.M. Conservative Christianity is worse than "Christianity" in general! Religion is bad, I wish it upon no one.

Ugandan Orphanage Benefit

Last night I worked nights (11pm-7am), I went and got 3 hrs sleep, then cruised down to Victoria Park for 10am this morning to volunteer at a Ugandan Orphanage Benefit concert. What a beautiful day, a wee bit scorching though! Hot! Anyways, the benefit was in connection with the Miramichi-Uganda Foundation. They have (or support) an orphanage in southeastern Uganda with about 400 kids whom recieve education, food, shelter, etc there.

The lineup was supposed to be Cynthia MacLeod, Al Tuck, Liam ?, Catherine MacLellan, Elephant Rock, and Mars Hill. Cynthia couldn't make it though, and neither could Mars Hill. Too bad, oh well. All in all about $1200 was raised. $20/mth will support a child a month, so some kids were sponsored, blah, blah, blah. Personally, I would've liked to see many thousands of dollars raised, but hey, $1200 is good! Also it was pretty cool cause Stephanie and K-Rock 105.5 were in da house helpin get the word out.

OK, some pics and video:

Al Tuck


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Liam

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Catherine MacLellan
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Elephant Rock


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So there you have it. A day at Victoria Park, with a good cause. Now I have to go shower (I stink!!) and get a couple hrs sleep before heading back into work for 11pm tonight as well. Later.

Amsterdam

I was checking out images of cities I had been in or visited and I found this one of Amsterdam. What a sweet pic. I've travelled to A'dam 4 times (feb/98, dec-jan/98-99, dec-jan/99-00, nov/00) and other than Pemba it is the foreign place I've spent more time in than any other. *note: my visits to A'dam were before I met Jesus* This city is definitly in need of some missionaries, ones who preferrably haven't had a past of drug addiction, promiscuity, etc, seeing that in Amsterdam, "anything goes". Drugs, prostitution (the infamous Red Light District), you name it. I did like the place though. The Anne Frank House was awesome, and so were the museums, but to be totally honest with you that is not what lured me to this city. I have many, many pictures from Amsterdam, but they are all on Mom's computer, the days before the digital camera craze!!

A'dam has a spiritually deadened community. In WW2 the leading religious figures submitted to Nazism and the people have not forgotten. They are quite bitter towards the church.

So, I have not been back to Amsterdam since late 2000. It really does have a special place in my heart. The last 3 times I travelled there I went by myself cause none of my friends would bother to save up the funds to go. Only God knows if I will ever be back. I'm not opposed to going back, it's a beautiful city with great people. Expensive, yes, but worth it. I guess I'll have to wait and see. I can see me being back some day, short-term.

the truth is out there

It's just under a month before I jump on a bus and cruise away from PEI for the better part of a year, at least. To say I'm happy with this thought is an understatement. The date I have set is August 22nd. I will get a Discovery Pass from Greyhound in Moncton and start my looong journey southwest to Roswell, NM (thats right, alien country!!) to visit my good friend Joy, whom I met last year in Pemba. Then, maybe up to Detroit to visit Katherine, whom I also met in Pemba, before ending up in St Catharines for school on Sep 5th. So yeah, I'm fairly stoked about Roswell. I was talkin to Joy for a moment last night and she told me not to get my hopes up, cause Roswell was "nothing special". Hahaha, anyways.................Jesus loves aliens? The bus legs are going to be painfully painful(?) though. I once did a 5 day trip on a bus, Calexico,CA-Bangor,ME/97 and that was a test of endurance. This one will ultimately be longer but with longer breaks, still though, I'm praying for God to totally show up on these bus rides and put right people in right places. I mean, people in remote 3rd World countries need to hear the Gospel, but also, people in our own backyards need to hear the Gospel too. The Gospel Jesus and Paul and the other believers preached though, not the generic gospel we hear so much today. Anyways, before I get off on a big ole rant and rave, I'll stop. So there it is, just shy of 4 weeks before I cruis'er. Grant me patience Lord.

On a parting note, Joy insists she's not an alien herself. But this picture I took of her last July 23 seems to suggest otherwise. Hmmmm.........will I make it out of Roswell alive?

Uganda could use some prayer

Profile: Ugandan rebel Joseph Kony

LRA victim: 'I cannot forget and forgive'

Uganda rebel leader breaks silence

Disbelief at LRA war crime denial

In pictures: Night commuters

Photo journal: Child soldier

Uganda rejects ceasefire with LRA rebels

the difference 5 yrs makes

Last night I went out to Dave Clark's for a friday night 'craze-fest'!! Not really, but anyways. Ryan O Connor came out too and we watched a video from Peter Youngren's Niagra Celebration Church called 'Is There An Athiest In The House?' It was all about apologetics and dealing with atheists, agnostics, and the like. It was quite good. Afterwards, the three of us discussed what we got out of it and such. There were many powerful points about the intricacies and complexities of the human body and nature and the universe etc. I mean, look around you if you want proof of a divine creator! But the thing that stood out the most to me was the fact that if you had told me 5 years ago that on a friday night a couple of friends and me would get together, drink pepsi, and watch a church service on 'proving' God exists..............well, to say it nicely, I wouldn't have believed you. That is enough proof for me of the existence of a God who loves each of us unconditionally. I mean, c'mon, a friday night watching church?! How lame would that have been 5 yrs ago? Pretty lame, I can answer. Anyways, if you're interested in the subject click here to order yourself a copy. It is an extremely entertaining video.

stories from the field #9: stolen NASB in Pemba :(

This picture was taken back before I went to Pemba last summer. It makes me sad :(. Here, I am reading my treasured NASB, which was stolen right out of my hands as I walked down the road in Pemba. The picture to the left shows the stretch of road and the village where my Bible now resides (if it wasn't used as fuel for a fire!). Paul, Inger, and I were just walking back to base #2 when this guy snuck up behind me and ripped 'my precious' from my hands and took off like a shot! I took about half a dozen strides after him, but quickly realized that Africans are in much better shape, as a whole, as are whities. Anyways, by the time I decided to chase after him, he and his accomplice were deep into the village. I tried to hire some local kids to find him, but there was no luck. He got away. I can only hope that God touched him and he learned english and became an evangelist in the Pemba'n village. Funny thing is that Susi and Jerry got me another Bible (NASB Open Bible) which was left by a short-termer who left the most random, untheological study notes all over it!! I mean, ask Joy, Inger, Paul, Susi, the othe HoGi's, Sonia, Carinne, Margie, Josh, and on and on and on. They'll tell you, that girl had 'issues'!!! Good stuff. Anyways, 'my precious' NASB was stolen, but it paved the way for my NASB Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible and I recently picked up a slimline NASB reference bible which is quite similiar (except for size) to the one which was stolen :). Yeah, I won't lie; I thought about pulling a Sons of Thunder routine and calling for 'the fire'. It's all good though, I'm over it...................sort of..............I guess.

Sophie & Zachary

I've been around way too many babies and kiddies the last 2 days!! I went back out to Montague/Murray River/Murray Harbour today as well and did more visiting. I seen my Aunt Betty from out west who hasn't been home for like 8 yrs. Then we went and ate at Brehaut's in Murray Harbour. Then I visited Charmayne (my cousin) and her two children Sophie(pictured) and Zachary(video). These kids are awesome too. I'm far from wanting one one myself, but I don't mind visiting other's :). Then I did a couple more stops and headed back into Ch'town. The drive in was far less dramatic than last evening's.

the eye of the lightning storm

I was out visiting people in Montague and stuff yesterday, but when I cruised back to Ch'town last night about 9:00pm I drove 'right through' the most intense lightning storm IN THE WORLD!!! It seriously was crazy though. Lightning was flashing down to my immediate left, then my right. Rain was so hard that people crawled along at 40/kmh and turned their 4-way's on. Lightning flashed so bright it left me blinded for a second afterwards. Nice. It was the coolest storm experience I have ever had.

In other news, Leah, Katelyn, and Brandy (my sister and nieces{long story}) came down to Mom's for a dip in the pool. Katie sure does loves to randomly and totally splash people. Katelyn and Brandy Sue(pictured) sure are funny.

sermon notes

Here are my sermon notes from yesterday, when I spoke at the afternoon service at Harvest House. Gary, Shannon, and I (and Chris made a guest appearance on keyboard) did the worship, which I thought was extremely entertaining. Then Shannon spoke for about 15 min, then I took them home by preaching 'the Gospel'. Good times, we had about 30 (Iguess) in attendance.

THE GOSPEL
- evagellio (Gr) means 'to good to be true' news
- We have strayed from preaching 'the Gospel' in the Church and have moved on to the 'deep, mature' things.
-The Gospel in the 3rd World is backed up by Jesus, is our message here?

SINS OF THE WHOLE WORLD HAVE BEEN DEALT WITH
-1 Peter 3:18. Why, other than sin, did Jesus die? So that He might bring us to God. Religion is about man reaching 'up' to God, Christianity is about God reaching 'down' to man.
- 1 John 2:2. How many of you know that the whole world isn't saved? That's not God's fault! Jesus atoned for the sin of the world. He finished His work, sat down in Heaven, and gave us the job of telling the rest of the world.
Romans 5:8-10
-Romans 5:8. To be saved, you have to be a sinner. It's a requirement. No one became saved while already righteous, we just had to become aware that God really had made us righteous, in Jesus. Therefore, the whole world of sinners has already had their sins forgiven but they will only become saved when they figure it out. That's our part!!
-Romans 5:9. Wrath of God?! So, why is wrath coming if sin is already dealt with? Wrath is coming for those who don't believe in Jesus. That's the only sin that God is really concerned with dealing with. That's the sin that Holy Spirit is now dealing with.
- John 16:8-9. Believing in Jesus makes all other sin of no importance. When we believe in Jesus, truly believe He lives in us, has imparted 'His' righteousness to us, and has made us new creations, than sin has lost it's power over us. ie: 1John 3
- Romans 5:10. Interesting scripture. Our sins were dealt with when Jesus died on the cross. But we recieve eternal life when we belive He rose from the dead. Romans 10:9

MISCONCEPTION ABOUT GOD'S JUDGEMENT OVER SIN TODAY
-Twisted Gospel: God of love/God with a big stick. Which is it?
- ie: WW2, September 11, Tsunami, New Orleans (Katrina)
- To suggest that God is still judging sin today implies that Jesus didn't accomplish enough at Calvary.
- Acts 4:32-5:14. Ananias and Sapphira. (I had to cut this example out of my sermon for lack of time. Too bad though. Ananias and Sapphira were not as a lot of Christians believe them to have been.)

WHAT TO DO WITH THE OLD TESTAMENT
- God: the same yesterday, today and forver? God can't stand sin so He had a plan to deal with it. Plans have a timeline, think of plans you have made. God dealt with sin by Jesus.
- How to practically apply the Old Testament to your life.

WHAT TO DO WITH THE GOSPEL
-Grace leaves no loophole for sin. Romans 6
-We need to get the world to repent. (I didn't get to teach this point either for lack of time. I was gonna share about what I thing repentence mean, and it's not 'turning from our sin', it's 'turning from our way of thinking that we can deal with our sin ourselves, by our own self effort'.
-2 Corinthians 5:17-21. ambassador: an accredited diplomatic agent of the highest rank, appointed as the representative of one government to another. reconcile: to bring back to friendship after estrangement (seperation)
- Practically applying the New Testament to your life.

the day called 'saturday'

Things have somewhat crawled to a slow again lately. My correspondance got held up this week, so I won't have a new course till wednesday, at the least. Thats kinda good, cause I have to prepare something to say at the Harvest House church service tomorrow anyway. Should be pretty sweet. Also, I have seen on Greyhound's website that you can get a north american bus pass for 15 days for like $480, or something. So I may go that route when it comes time to leave. Then I can go down visiting people in the states. The thought of spending about 8-9 days on a bus for like 6-7 days visiting is kind of horifying, but, oh well , life goes on.

In other news, I transferred my videos from YouTube to Yahoo in my endeavor to keep as few accounts as possible linked to me. Let me know what you think. What do you think is better. I like having lots (email, photos, video, etc etc etc) all with one server (or whatever it's called). I would still use Yahoo's blog thing "360" but it kinda sucks! It's extremly limited to say the least.

Anyways, thats it. I'm off to finish up my sermon for tomorrow. Then later, it's off to work. Yee-haw!!

And here is a video of Robbie getting stuck this april in Malagash, just to put this new Yahoo Video thing to a test:

One of the nations on my heart for the past 9 months or so has been Rwanda. I remember watching the atrocities on the nightly news back in '94 and not even being able to comprehend the scope of evil that was occuring. The genocide has destroyed the hope in the country, and the people left spiritually bankrupt. Thousands and thousands of women were raped and left to live; their attackers saying that the attrocities would live on in their children born to them. Years later these same women can not even bear to look upon their children, as the sight of them remind them of the events of 1994.

Almost a million people were slaughtered in a space of 3 months. A tribal war progressed without the acknowledgment of the leading influences of the world. Why? No answer is good enough.

And really, today there is still nothing being done. Sure, promises that it will never be tolerated again, etc etc, but the people who lived through it are still emotionally devasted, spiritually inoperable. Humanitarians come and go. Don't get me wrong, I love humanitarians, they do awesome work. I have an 'issue' with them though. Not really with them, but with the end result. When humanitarians leave an area, the food will run out, the clothes will run out etc etc. A missionary cannot meet every need, but they give out hope. They give something a humanitarian can't, the Gospel. Hope for the next life, if hope for this life cannot be believed for. We cannot grasp the level of despair millions of people around the world are struggling with. The UN cannot even now give a decent excuse for not intervening. There is no answer, just.............nothing was done. The answer is simply, 'there was just nothing done!' Apathy will not make it go away, only action. There is enough resources in the 1st World Nations to alleviate poverty in the poorer nations. There is much to say about simply feeding someone who has hunger. It is much easier to feed someone and then minister to them, than to minister to someone then feed them. It's a fact.

So I pray that one day I will be forced to go to Rwanda to see the spiritual devastation firsthand. Getting involved is the only answer. The first step for the West is to NOT change that channel when the World Vision commercials come on.

In the news.........

LRA victim: 'I cannot forget and forgive'

Bible gets African interpretation

Do you believe in witchcraft?

In pictures: Conflict in Darfur

Mozambique: UN Envoy Warns of 'Terrible Price to Pay' for Aids

Rwanda: Twelve Years On, HIV-Positive Genocide Survivors Still Suffering

Uganda: Camp Fires: Human Sacrifice Claim Shocks MPs

Uganda: Uganda House Opens Prayer Sessions

Are you bewitched?

Paul tells the Galatians, it can happen and quite easily at that. The bewitching is in believing the oldest lie there is. "Yes, surely Jesus died for your sins. His death made you righteous, but you must prove your love to him by doing things that are right. You need to show God why he should keep on loving you." In fact, God’s love is extended unconditionally to everyone. He loved us when we were enemies.

Bewitching has to do with a core teaching of the basis of our salvation. The Galatians had been seduced by Legalism thinking that they could obtain God’s favor by their own performance. Paul asked them, "Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law by believing what you heard? (Gal. 3:2)

A few verses later, "Does God give you his Spirit to work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard? (Gal. 3:5)

The apostle Paul doesn’t allow for a middle of the road approach. Either you’re saved by grace – what God has already done for you in Christ, or by law - by what you can do to impress God by your behavior. Paul says "no" to law and "yes" to grace.

The bewitching of legalism comes in many forms. Every religion has it. There is a charismatic bewitching in which we are told that we must pray so much, give so much, or study so much in order to obtain a new level of anointing to break through to a miracle.

Studying, praying, and giving are all good, when those activities are carried out because of what Jesus has done. When they are carried out in order to get God to do something, they become legalistic effort. The whole focus becomes an error, when we try to produce enough good to impress God. Bottom line, God is already impressed by what Jesus is done. Rest in him. God’s grace is the only way.

-Peter Youngren

on assignment

Today I got up, did some correspondance (The Gospel: God's Message for the World), and headed down to Queen St for some Jazz & Blues Festival madness!! Not really. I landed there an hour early, so I raved with this drunk who scammed me out of a dollar, only to tell me a while later that he made $15/hr sweeping streets! I laughed. Everybody who passed us he asked for money, to their HORROR! It was kind of funny though; he was just gauging reactions.

So then Amiel & Mandy landed and they opened up shop and we played drums and sold hot sauce and raved and stuff. It was HOT; I got totally scalded. It's funny to think that a sunburn is actually the sun frying your skin! Think about it, it's kind of scary.

Then I got to go to the Tea Hill (?) Beach. Nice. There was like 4 dead squid in the water. Wierd. And these giant hermit crabs (which I took with my sweet underwater camera; thats right kiddies, this pic of the crab was taken underwater), which might have killed the squid? Who knows? I do know that it was a great day for the beach. Then we went to Silver Streams for all-u-can-eat Chinese food. Now I'm back at Harvest House, full, hot, sore, tired, but glad to have spent the day with Amiel, he's one of the good ones.

like sand in an hour glass, these are the days of our lives

James 4:14 says... "For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then it vanishes away". In relationship to eternity, the Bible says our life span on earth is like a puff of steam or smoke. (Here for a few moments and then it's over).

The current life expectancy today is 83 years. That is a total of approximately 30,000 days.
Take note of the following figures:
If you are twenty you have already used 7,300 days and have 22,700 remaining.
If you are thirty you have used 14,600 days and have 19,050 remaining.
If you are forty you have used 14,600 days and have 15,400 remaining.
If you are fifty you have used 18,250 days and have 11,750 remaining.
If you are sixty, you have used 21,900 days and you have 8,100 remaining.

The question each of us must ask ourselves is, "What am I going to do with the time I have left on this earth and how can I make every day count"?

stories from the field #8: Cassandra Awakens

Here is Cassandra, from Saskatchewan. This vid was taken on August 13/05 in Pemba, Mozambique during the Holy Given: Iris International School of Missions graduation ceremony. In her defense, the graduation was like over 5 hrs long and half of it was in portuguese, not only her caught a few zzzzzzzzz's! Cassandra was funny; she gained my immediate respect by offending me within 2 minutes of meeting me, and I'm hard to offend!! I can't remember what she said, but for this sweet Canadian girl to just lambaste me immediately................well, who can't respect a girl like that?! Also, it was funny to constantly harass her over her allegiance to her precious RoughRiders. I'm not sure where she is right now. After the missions school she stayed in Pemba with the intent on making her way into Congo, or maybe Sudan, pretty sure Congo though.

This is a humorous video though. Watch it a couple of times. The more you watch it, the funnier it gets!

3 Prayers that won't work

Here's something interesting I heard a few times recently about prayer. More importantly, about prayer that just won't work!

1. Don't ask God to do what He's already done, in Jesus. Christians are notorious for looking to the future for blessings that have already happened in Christ. Paul never prays for believers that they would get 'blessed' but that their eyes would be opened to see the blessing they already have.

2. Don't ask God to do what He's asked you to do. Praying for your family to be saved is a great example."Oh Lord, save them by your power. Let great conviction fall on them in their homes." God never promises this kind of prayer will be answered. Over and over God tells "us" to "go". Since Jesus has already done it all and has seated Himself in His rightful place in the heavens, it is our job to go do what He told us and do what He's given us the Holy Spirit for.

3. Don't ask the devil for anything. ie: Proverbs 6:30-31. There is seldom a scripture taken more out of context in charismatic Christianity than this one.

That should get us a couple less prayers going around unanswered anyway, dontchathink?

XXX Church

Was checking out Yahoo News this morning when a funny looking headline caught my eye: Church preaches how 'Jesus loves porn stars'. It was this group of Christians who were at an LA Porn Convention handing out New Testaments and witnessing the love of Christ to Porn Stars and their fans. Is that awesome or what. They have a pretty decent website about their church: www.xxxchurch.com. It is a very interesting topic and the statistics to do with porn generated revenue, and the amount of people involved in it are absolutely staggering. I encourage everyone to check out their website. This world would be a much better place without porn.

Meticais/ Poll of the Week

Here is 1000 Mozambican Meticais. I doubt I ever seen one of these bills cause they were discontinued for coins. 23,000 Meticais will get you 1 Canadian dollar!! Yep, thats right; 23,000 to 1. Crazy.

Poll of the Week
World Cup has reached a frenzy as they are down to the semi-finals. I am extremly dejected as not only Brazil, but also the Netherlands have been sent home early. Whats up with that?! Anyways, this poll is all about who do you think will be crowned World Cup champions 06? I think Germany has the best chance now that Brazil, Argentina, and Holland have been eliminated, but..........I've been wrong once or twice before.