Grey clad mystery

The Lodge at Twin Creeks

2010-09-03T10:21:00.002-07:00

My good (very good) friends, Pat and Peggy Wiens have opened an incredibly picturesque Bed & Breakfast/oasis/small retreat lodge on Sumas Mountain in Abbotsford BC. Set on 5 acres in old growth cedar country, it's the perfect place for a couple or small group to rest, reguvenate, begin a honeymoon or simply have a meaningful stay somewhere away from all that distracts. My wife and family have visited and it's beautiful! Bunnies, frogs, fruit trees, starry nights, blackberries and delectable breakfasts are all part of the enjoyment along with a choice of inimitable, cozy rooms, no two which are alike. I encourage any friends who might desire to get away to consider the Lodge at Twin Creeks. It's well worth the visit! Or visit them on their link below.

http://lodgeattwincreeks.com/

A new Larson coming!

2010-08-29T12:51:00.005-07:00

A new Larson is arriving soon! We will be expecting #3 sometime early next year we think. We're very excited for this new addition to the family.

The Larson 50/50 baby pool will again begin starting today! Here are the rules, simply stated! Get your guesses in early: Enter the contest by submitting a guess on a variety of categories related to the birth of our third child. Every guess is worth a $5.00 entrance fee up to a maximum of 3 guesses (that's $15.00 worth). A guess MUST include the weight (lbs, ounces), length (inches), date (month, day - I will add the proposed due date for everyone to give a guess ... so you know we've been 11 days and 2 days, respectively, so far), time (a.m. or p.m.), gender and the name (first and middle - we have names picked out for a boy or girl and we don't know the gender). With such a guess you are entered into the contest. Your guesses are only valid with the submittion of the entrance fee(s). The fees can come anytime up until the birth. Contest closes when the specifics are disclosed and the winner (whose combined guesses re closest to the truth) will receive half the winnings. The other half go to the child's education fund.
Submissions can be via e-mail: greyclad@gmail.com, phone: 604 860 4403, mail: #2 - 27915 Trans Canada Hwy, Hope BC, V0X 1L0, or submitted as a comment to this post below.

Thanks and happy guessing!

Respect vs. Fear

2010-07-22T14:20:00.003-07:00

That's a good thought Goforth.

I'm not sure where respect ends and fear begins and I certainly do not understand the cultural implications both spiritually and socially among 1st century Israel, which would lend some great insight to Jesus' words. But certainly there is a manner or kind of respect in every 'fear' we have. We acknowledge what we believe to be true about something and that belief then is what drives our behaviour towards it. So, very simply, I fear spiders. I don't really know why (though I could think of a few philisophical reasons) but I scream (a low manly scream, of course) when confronted with large specimens suddenly on my body or in my clothing. This fear is (without getting into how I got the fear) driven by my belief that they will do something to me - bite me, lay eggs, crawl around my skin without end. It is also driven by my perception of them, I think. They are so DIFFERENT and therefore I, perhaps, cannot trust THEIR behaviour. 8 legs, 8 eyes, soft hairy bodies, fangs, claws, sticky web spewing butts, paralyzing & blood sucking creatures. They have characteristics that much of what my culture would call evil. And so I believe this of them. Well however it is I believe it, I get pretty agitated pretty quick when I've got a wolf spider crawling up the inside of my shirt. Yet in my HEAD I know that much of what I fear about spiders is irrational. I still believe it because I still respond in a particular way. Fear is a powerful thing and long affects those infected by it. If I said I respect spiders, it would be true but my actions to this belief would be different. I think, though, there's often a little or a lot of both of these things going on in our minds and hearts when we consider God. Because we don't really know what He's like (kind of ... at least the Bible gives us some indications, though the definitions are often a little above us: God is love, spirit, life, light ...etc.). We can't see Him. We experience Him in ways ... but each person does so personally. So largely, I'd say, our belief of the character of God is determined by what we're taught by those we respect as such. That this belief will determine the type or amount or kind of fear/respect we have for Him. I'm feeling like I'm getting way off topic here. But I'm enjoying my rambling musing.

Is there a good fear?

2010-05-18T00:15:00.002-07:00

In regards to a comment by "goforth"

That's a good question. According to Proverbs 9:10, there must be a good type of fear, but perhaps it is our word or definition of it that is limiting us. There is little good in our common cultural definitions for the word fear ... I think. We're afraid of many things: spiders, getting sick, death, public speaking, breaking a hip, losing a loved one, being in a bad place at a bad time. Though I've heard people say that there is a 'good type of fear'. Or I've heard the term to 'instill some fear' in them. Like when a child is hurt (not badly) but then learns that what they did had potentially painful consequences, we feel that to 'instill' this type of 'fear' is a good thing. Though I think we also call this a respect. Then you begin to respect that which caused you pain or could cause you pain. I respect the hot element and choose to create limits and boundaries on how I interact with a hot stove by not putting my body too close to it. I understand that it will do me damage and I value my body too much to do so. At some point I had to learn this and make a decision to do so. This is healthy and I think we do it all the time. And I think we also do this in relationships as well. We begin to choose to act and interact with people or different types or kinds of people in ways we think that are appropriate or loving ... or not. And one is a healthy respect and the other is not a healthy respect or fear, if you want to call it that. In a sense, I guess it could be much like coming to know yourself in relation to someone. So, culturally, I might decide that it is good for me to respect someone who is older than me because of the potential wisdom they might have or share with me and because, despite their age, they have a lot to offer to me potentially. And as I get to know this older person, I might find that what I thought might be true IS true and that I do learn from them and my respect grows all the more ... my understanding of my relation to them grows truer, as it were. I think this is something akin to the 'fear of the Lord'. That as we begin to understand our relation to Him and His to us, that is, His true character and our true character, our respect (or fear) grows more 'true'. More to what it should be. I would call someone a fool who disregarded the relationship of someone who could have given great benefit to them. But to grow in understanding of God is to grow in understanding in how to relate and befriend Him and to have that true 'fear' or respect or clear picture of the relational connection with Him. God is not one to be trifled with for sure. I'm kind of working this out as I write, not sure if it is making sense. Anyone agree?

The Perception of Fear

2010-02-06T11:20:00.002-08:00

I spoke on a passage of scripture I've never heard spoken on before: one that had to do with Jesus casting out a demon ... demons, actually. Out of the fellow commonly referred to as 'Legion'. Though in the passage we get the perception it's the many demons speaking through the man, not the man himself.

Anyway, this passage is found in Mark 5:1 - 20 (and versions of it in the books of Matthew and Luke) in the good old Bible. One of the many things that I found rather surprising was the response the demons have to Jesus just prior to their expulsion from the man. First off, it's important to know that they are very afraid. Very afraid. This is their response to Jesus when they see him: "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?" Shouting at the top of his voice. "Swear to God ..." Uh ... isn't Jesus God? "... that you won't torture me! ... And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area." It's interesting to note that the demons are anticipating torture. Now, let me ask you a question. Is the God you know (if you know Him) a God who tortures others? Is he known for his torturing techniques ... His sweet revenge? Does He take delight in bringing pain intentionally on others? Does He like to torture someone?

Now, you might be thinking to yourself: 'well ... no, but hey, these are demons! They deserve it and God's o.k. with torturing demons'. Does he? First of all it's not God, but Jesus who is being expected to torture here. Does Jesus torture anyone while on earth that you know of??

What I find most interesting is that we see the demons expecting torture. I do not know Jesus as a God who tortures anyone. He grants what we request or He doesn't. But He's loving and just. He even grants the demons a compromise and lets them jump into some pigs. Why doesn't Jesus just get 'em right there!! He's got them by the short and curlies! But he lets them beg and allows them their compromise. Interesting. And I find it interesting that the demons really do not know or understand the nature of Jesus. And therefore God. They don't know him. They expect punishment. They think that Jesus treats others they way they treat others - with pain and torture (it's what they had been doing to the man they inhabited). Which is true of people as well. We usually expect to get some serious punishment because we know when we deserve something nasty. But God is NOT a God who treats us as our sins deserve. Satan does NOT understand this. He does NOT get it. He does not know or understand God's character. He is a control freak and cannot see or know any other character except the character through which he operates, which is usually also how we operate. This is what fear does to people. It removes our understanding of God's true character and nature. And yet 'There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear.' 1 John 4 somewhere.

Fear is a destroyer of truth.

Ordination

2010-01-26T20:43:00.003-08:00

So, what is the point of ordination ... anyway? A little over a year ago I was asked to officiate a wedding for a young couple who have served us at Camp Squeah. I felt privileged and wanted to support them in this way. It was a wonderful experience and I truly felt the good weight of solemnity and importance of the covenant and commitment that marriage is through that experience. I loved it!! And I got to rejoice with this young couple.

Since then I've been asked to do a number of other weddings including my mother-in-law's (she has been twice widowed) and my brother-in-law (my wife's only brother). It has been an incredibly rich experience in every case. My wife and I are encouraging another young couple in their journey to become married, now engaged, as I will also officiate their wedding this coming May. I'm allowed to do so by requesting a temporary license to marry through the Camp denomination through which I am considered clergy through my title/position. It's a neat perk (to some) and I've taken advantage of it. Through this experience I started wondering about the process of ordination and asking what exactly it is. I've received a variety of responses in my search. Some think it's rather useless ... like testing someone in geography when they've already traveled the world, and others think it's imperative - the only true sign of a committed worker in God's Kingdom.

I'm still wrestling (in a good way) as I walkt the path to become ordained. The really cool thing (in my opinion) is I'll get to essentially be clergy for two denominations at the same time (Mennonites of British Columba and the Nazarene's). The positive implications are I get to take a few classes in theology and biblical studies that I've never had the chance to (never been to a bible college) and I'm pumped to dive into this and write a few papers ... which is weird because I don't usually like writing papers. Plus I get the benefit of having a whole denomination keeping me accountable for my actions as a minister of Jesus. Though in truth I already am and have been for a good chunk of my life.

So what is Ordination? It's considered a sacrament to the Catholics. I have likened it to the wedding ceremony and the baptism ceremony as well ... though the analogies don't always quite transfer. But if the wedding is the agreement of the community and the church that what the couple have ALREADY chosen to do and be to each other is right and good ... and baptism is the symbolic assertion and confession of faith that is ALREADY alive and active in a believer, then it seems reasonable to view ordination as the careful & thoughtful recognition of a believer by the community of the church as an ALREADY committed worker/minister in God's Kingdom. The implication in all these statements is that what they are agreeing to that is good has already happened - marriage, salvation and ordination. So, in honesty and humility I am committing myself to the journey of ordination through the Nazarene's, not because I don't think I'm ordained (I believe I am), not to become a pastor or worker in a church institution (I am committed to and love being a program director at a camp), but to grow deeper in my faith and understanding of my part in the Kingdom and to learn more of this mystery called faith in the Life of Christ and to seek to tie myself closer with other Christians both for accountability but for loving support and encouragement for the rest of my life. This is an encouraging thought.

So ... what do you think of ordination?

A return to blogging

2010-01-26T19:30:00.002-08:00

Hello blog lovers and readers,

My apologies for the extended hiatus from blogging. My life is full and this is a good thing ... for the most part. I will begin blogging again and I would love to continue to hear your thoughts as I explore and discover the mystery of the great thing called life. And this great person called Jesus.

Over the last few months a lot has happened. My oldest son (Griffin) turned 3 years old. He's now truly testing the limits of our sanity and our love and he seeks to know that we care for him even when he chooses (continually) to NOT eat his food at the dinner table :). He has also, miraculously, begun using the toilet! How this happens I'm not certain but essentially from one day to the next he goes from refusing to the fiber of his being to choosing to empty the fiber from his being into a proper waste disposal system. Hallelujah.

Maerk turned 1 in November and is loving life. He's getting more teeth ... again. He has lots of words, but none of them are in English. Well, very few of them, anyway. He certainly enjoys making sounds. Sometimes he'll talk whole sentences without opening his lips. It's like trying to read muted tonal inflections. VERY difficult. He's a cutie.

Kari is doing well - ever the beautiful and wonderful woman I've loved and grow to love. She continues to sew her baby sleeping bags for people (if you're interested, let me know!). She has helped in facilitating a number of great book studies for friends and other women in town and has had a great time doing that. Among the books they've studied are Dr. Laura's 'The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands' (very good book) and a book study on Esther called 'Esther'. Not sure who writes that one. We're also still having people over regularly for open house brunch potlucks once a month and whatnot.

Personally, I've jumped into a few different things over the last little while. Along with being a member of our local fire department I have been helping to organize the British Columbia Camping Conference this coming week, becoming a member of the BCCA executive taking the position as Accreditation Chair for all summer camps in BC (with some help), moving forward in becoming an ordained minister through the Church of the Nazarene and otherwise working my buns off for Camp Squeah with everything we do through this time of the year.

Christmas was great. We spent it at home and enjoyed a relaxing time together as a family.

Posts are a comin'!

The need for a mixture

2009-11-02T20:14:00.004-08:00

I found these few statements on the maturation process of children to be quite interesting. What do you think? This is taken from "Hold Onto Your Kids; Why Parents Matter" by Gordon Neufeld & Gabor Mate:

"Maturation in the psychological realm involves the differentiation of the elements of consciousness - thoughts, feelings, impulses, values, opinions, preferences, interests, intentions, aspirations. Differentiation needs to happen before these elements of consciousness can be mixed to produce tempered experience and expression. It is the same in the realm of relationships: maturation requires that the child first becomes unique and separate from other individuals. ... More fundamentally, a sense of self first needs to separate from inner experience, a capacity entirely absent in the young child. The child has to be able to know that she is not identical with whatever felling happens to be active in her at any particular moment.

... Without the capacity for reflection, they [two immature children] were defined by the inner experience of the moment. They immediately acted out whatever emotions arose in them. They could be their inner experience, but they could not see it. This inability made them impulsive, egocentric, brazen, dogmatic, reactive and impatient. Because fear did not mix with hope, there was no courage. Because frustration did not mix with caring, there was no patience. Because anger did not mix with love, there was no forgiveness. Because frustration did not mix with either fear or affection, they lost their tempers. In short, they lacked the fruits of maturation in their lives."

I find this thought that the mixing of many or more than one feeling at any one time as a tell tale sign of a mature individual is incredibly interesting. I work with and meet many a person who I find rather immature. This makes some interesting sense and is worth reflecting on some more.

NHL statistics

2009-09-23T07:45:00.005-07:00

I'm a bit of a statistic nut. When I was but a teenager I would sit and watch cars pass my house and I would mark down what colour they were. I had a bar graph to show the ratio of car colours on the road. Maybe I was more than a nut.

I've recently been interested to know what the make-up of the NHL is. This all comes from the official sites of the the NHL teams.

You might be interested to know that 56% of the NHL players are Canadian born while 23% are out of North America and 21% are from the USA. By the way, there are 954 players on team rosters currently. Of the 56% Canadian players 39% of THAT number are from Ontario, 17% from Alberta, 12% from Quebec, 11% from Saskatchewan, 10% from BC, 6% from Manitoba, 2% from Nova Scotia and the remaining 2% from Newfoundland and New Brunswick.

Of the 23% from other countries, the greatest number of NHL players in this category come from Sweden making up 22% of that statistic. The Czech Republic, Finland and Russia hold the next highest spots with 19%, 17% and 13%. Slovakia is next in line with 8% of the total international playes and then Germany with 5%. The few remain players come from a variety of countries - 5 from Latvia, 4 from Belarus, 3 from Denmark and Switzerland, 2 from the Ukraine, Slovenia and Kazakhstan. There is only 1 person from each of these countries currently on an NHL roster: Italy, Austria, Poland, France, Ireland, Lithuania, South Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Japan, Norway and Brunei. The fella from Brunei was raised in Alberta Canada and has the last name Adams which leads me to suspect that though he was BORN in Brunei (tiny Asian country near the equator) his parents could very likely have been Canadian already.

Some other interesting facts: The Philadelphia Flyers have the highest percentage of Canadian players on their roster - 80%. Pittsburgh Penguins have the highest % of American players - 39% of their total players are American. And the Florida Panthers have the highest % of international players - 40%. The New York Rangers are the only team's roster who's American and International players outnumber their Canadian players ... and that only by 1 - 8, 8 and 7. It is also interesting to note that there is quite the discrepancy in the number of players that any NHL team may have on their roster. While the Detroit Red Wings have 48 players on their roster, San Jose have only 19. It may be that teams chose to put players on their roster that they are still considering for their team for the coming year while others choose to limit to those they know they will play. Florida's website has two lists. One with 20 players (called their roster) and one with 48 (called 'In the System'). San Jose have 4 different lists on their site. Their Roster - 19, their Rookie Games Roster - 26, their Training Camp Roster - 29 and their 'In the System' Roster or all their prospects - 48. For the purposes of my statistics I took only players who were on what a team called their Roster. I did not include prospects intentionally.

What Does it Mean to be Human? part 2

2009-09-04T22:53:00.002-07:00

Sorry for the delay. This post carries on from the one below and continues the conversation through the last number of posts. I hope that you'll continue reading and enjoying them. Our summer camp season was busy and full and we're glad to have some time to spend together as a family. So, here you go:

So what I tried to argue was that from the bible’s point of view, starting in Revelation, it looks like it’s coming back here. What do we do with John’s odd description of this New Jerusalem that’s as big as the cosmos, shaped like a cube – track that imagery through the Old Testament and John’s vision is that God is going to come and dwell in a cosmic holy of holies with us. And that’s what he’s always intended to do and that makes sense all the way through the biblical narrative. Ours is a God who comes to us. He built us this wonderful place Eden, which means ‘the light’ and his concern is, he wants to dwell here with us. That’s why in Genesis 1 seven times, unparalleled in the rest of the biblical text, seven times God says this place is good, and we say ‘We believe the bible and all God wants to do is burn it up.’ How do you put that together? You don’t. That’s why Romans 8 Paul can say creation groans waiting for its redemption. That’s why John 3:16, the verse we all know, ‘For God so loved the ... cosmos.’ And now ... you ... know ... why! It’s his palace! It’s his temple! And he cares profoundly about it. You can ask people, ‘Do you love the cosmos? If you don’t this morning’s a good morning to become a Christian.’ So when you’ve gone walking through this extraordinary country Canada, you’ve stood on the beaches of Tofino and you’ve watched those breakers roll in and your heart wells up within you – this is not a non-spiritual aberration. That welling up is exactly what God intended. You’re struck with the wonder and the beauty of the temple of the palace He has made. Try thinking through that imagery.

When I’m driving on my way to work to Regent in Vancouver and I see the mountains rising up and in my mind I think of them as the pillars supporting the canopy of God’s temple. It changes the way you see the world. And this might sound really goofy, but I was out raking the leaves about two weeks ago and I had this epiphany. I was overwhelmed with emotion as I looked at each one of these … have you ever looked at a single leaf? Each leaf – the colour! And the shape. And this is all by accident. No. The bible rejoices in this. That’s why you get the Psalmist just overwhelmed by the beauty of creation. But what’s happened in the Christian tradition ever since the second century is we’ve been wanting to leave this place, get away from it. That’s what Nietzsche so repudiated about Christianity. He hated Christianity for that reason – because it treated the body and this present world with contempt and you know what, Jesus would agree with him in that critique. And we’re living with Nietzsche’s influence because we have lost sight of the biblical view of creation. Why should God care less? Because THIS IS HIS PALACE!! It’s HIS TEMPLE! And he’s going to get it back whether by hook or by cross. This is my Father’s world; I rest me in the thought. Yeah! Some of you look as if I’m speaking heresy here. [some laughter] How can it be any other way? So go search the scriptures.

What Does it Mean to be Human? part 1

2009-06-17T14:04:00.002-07:00

This is the next lecture by Rikk Watts carrying on from the posts below titled 'Why Should God Care Less?' I hope you enjoy these as well:

Ah, a couple of things, just as we commence: Uh, if you want to get some of the information on this material we went through yesterday at a rather rapid clip, it’s on the American Scientific Association Website – so the American Scientific Association. They have a web page and if you get to the main page, I think on the left side there’s a column, on that column they have something like theology/bible, click on that, and about halfway down you’ll see something with my name on it and I think it’s called ‘making sense of Genesis 1.’ Now it’s not a, um, it’s kind of halfway between popular level writing and academic. There is a footnote in there for those of you who are interested about halfway through where I list about 4 or 5 critical books and articles that draw on this Egyptian background. But I would imagine, as far as you’re concerned, most of what you want is in the body of the text.

What I’m going to talk about today you can also get from a book called ‘What Does it Mean to be Saved?’ edited by John Stackhouse. It’s a series of lectures from a Regent conference and mine is the lead article that rejoices in the title of ‘Restoration of the Image.’ Salvation is new creation is exodus or some such thing. So if you want to get some more information on today’s session, at least the first half, you can get it from me. So that’s where to get the info from if you don’t get it all written down and the second thing is: one of the things I say to students who come to Regent is that some point in your education one of your sacred cows is going to have to come under the axe. And of course, we all say ‘We don’t have all the truth’, we all say that readily UNTIL somebody actually touches a point, ha ha, where we disagree and suddenly we DO have the truth and so it becomes and interesting little moment, eh. But, um, at various points we have to decide: are we going to Pentecostal or Christian? Are we going to be Baptist or Christian? And because, um, unless we really do think we’ve got it all together, which none of us thinks we have, then that does mean there are places where we need to reconfigure our thinking. At some point it’s going to have to happen and so we might as well get used to that. So, theological study is not about going around and finding reasons for why I was right all along. Theological study is only to grapple with this stuff and the chances are there are going to be some things I’m going to have to learn. But this should not be a reason for panic, because my faith is not in my theological system. If it was it would be in my ability as Rikk Watts to understand the profound mystery of God. I think that gets very close to idolatry. My faith is not my ability to understand God and if we get to it in the second half of this morning’s session, I think that’s where Greek philosophy took us astray. And unfortunately western theology has often been more captive to that than we realize. No, my faith is in the God who I’m coming to know and they’re two different things. What I know about God is not actually God himself. And what that means is my understanding of God is open to revision; to correction. Right, reformed and never reforming again – no, reformed and always reforming. And we’re always doing that. There are new things to be learned. There are some exciting things that we dig up in the ancient near east; more documents we translate and they give us some ‘aha!’ moments. ‘Oh, so that’s what it means’. We ought not to be afraid of that. It’s just like, you know, you’ve been married to somebody for ten years and then you learn something new about them. You ‘That’s it! We’re divorced! I can’t trust my marriage anymore! Ooo!’ Right? That’d be ridiculous. No, you know the person, you trust them but you learn something new and you adjust your knowledge of them. That doesn’t mean you have to collapse in panic here.

So what I was trying to do yesterday was open up maybe some new things for some of you. Some of you may have heard this material before. But I’d urge you to go back and check out the scriptures. We talk so freely about going to heaven, in fact we sang about it last night. Right, Jesus up there, we’re going to be up there with him. Oh, yeah, it’s a nice idea but is it biblical? And we’re bible people so let’s go back and read our bibles. And it’s pretty clear the book of Revelation says that the New Jerusalem’s doing what? What does it say? What’s the New Jerusalem doing? Let me hear you, what’s it doing? [‘Coming down’] Coming to earth, right? So, are you a bible believing Christian? ‘Yes! But not that bit.’ [laugher] Well, come on, you know. Let’s make our adjustments. If that’s what the scriptures says we should go there. Now I realize for some of us that’s a bit uncomfortable and if it is, it’s worth thinking about why. Because it might just mean that our faith is in our tradition rather than in something else. Now you understand these are not hard and fast, they can’t be neatly divided. Because what I know of God is given to me by my tradition; there’s some kind of overlap there. But, you know, if that’s the way the scriptures go, we should say, ‘Lord, ok, let’s go that way.’ So, you know, obviously if we were doing this personally I’d be a lot more gentle but you’re en-masse here so we’re just going to let it fly, ha ha, right.

Words about marriage

2009-06-15T16:40:00.002-07:00

Here are a few words about marriage that I shared with my brother-in-law and his bride this weekend that I enjoyed:

The relationship that is marriage is an achievement that you will receive no award for but the rewards are never ending! The commitment that is marriage will take you to places within your own soul and the soul of your spouse that you never knew existed. And the geography of your partnership has more awe-inspiring locations than all the nearly 500 million square km's of the surface of our planet. You will receive no degree for the loving community that is and will be your family. But you can receive no greater recognition for that which you have begun to achieve today than the sincere and honest love that you share with your wife/husband. For it is then that your father in heaven smiles with love on you and says Well Done!

Why Should God Care Less? part 11 - final part

2009-05-24T21:58:00.002-07:00

This carries on from the post below:

All right, I’m going to take maybe five minutes and then we’re done. Cause you need to hear this. We haven’t yet gotten to the.... Egyptian temples were constructed on the sites of the primordial mountains of creation. So their temples are actually mini universes. Right, they actually look like that. They have the ... columns are actually reeds; the tops of the temples are like heavens. And that’s where they had the images of their gods. ‘Cause they’re saying ‘It’s our god who created this cosmic temple.’ And I wonder if in fact the pyramids are perhaps representations of the great cosmic mountain. Where else would you bury the son of Amon Re if not in his own stylized, cosmic primordial mountain? Fits perfectly with the ideology. They’re not the only ones who do that. Babylon. When they talk about creation its always building. Tiamet built his palace on the watery body of Apsu. Marduk creates his palace from Tiamet’s watery carcass. Ugaret: Baal – his victory temple is a mini universe. That’s the way they think about creation. They think of it as temple building. Now do you find this in the biblical text? Look at it! Foundations, measurements, stretched out the line, bases, cornerstones, doors, etc. What is this? This is architectural language. What kind of building is it? Isaiah chapter 66? What do you have? Foundations. Foundations of the earth. Pillars of the heavens. Doors, beams, windows, canopies. Isaiah 66: ‘The heavens are my throne; the earth is my footstool.’ Where do you find a throne and a footstool? In a palace. What do you call a palace of a god? A temple. See what’s going on in Revelation chapter 20, 21? The Ark of the Covenant is Yahweh’s footstool – his holy of holies upon the earth. That says some things about the nature of creation. We’ll cover that in just a moment.

What’s going on in a holy war is the rededication of God’s cosmic temple. Finally, the whole universe must be regarded as the highest, and in truth, the holy temple of God. That’s how they understood it. Now, John 3:16. That’s why it says, ‘For God so loved my soul’ ... is that what it says? For God so loved human beings? No. For God so loved the ... cosmos, he sent Jesus. Jesus died to redeem creation. And now you know why. It’s God’s temple. It’s his palace. He’s not about to give it up to the first set of snake features that come along. Oh, and by the way, who is it that comes into the garden? What do you think an Israelite is going to do with that story? Hm?
May your kingdom take us away. Jesus teaches us to pray. Does he? Kingdom coming. Romans 8: creation awaits eagerly longing for it’s ... destruction! ‘Please destroy me! Burn me up!’ it cries. [laughter] Creation will be set free from its bondage. And the language that’s used here is exactly the language God uses to describe his taking Israel out of Egypt. Creation is NOT destined for destruction! It’s God’s temple! It’s his palace! Seven times unmatched anywhere else in the biblical material, SEVEN TIMES God says it’s GOOD!! And why do we say, ‘yes we believe Genesis 1 but it’s only good for being burned.’? Where did that nonsense come from? It came out of the pagan world folks. Because the pagans denigrated creation. The whole notion of going to heaven is a second century pagan innovation. It is not inherently Christian. And that’s the truth. [laughter] Now what about this one – what about it being burnt up, we’ll do that in question and answer session. I’m running out of time. Um. Simply, to note that that’s a mistranslation. It actually means to be disclosed. And it’s 2 Peter doing re-telling of Mt. Sinai. It’s not about God burning up the earth but about when God comes he burns through the stuff that separates him from the earth and comes face to face with his people. That’s what second Peter’s talking about.

I’ve overstayed my welcome already. It’s a time of purification, not destruction. So, let’s just do some conclusions here. So, it seems we’re not going to heaven. Heaven’s coming here. So, all those songs that talk about being in heaven with Jesus, stop singing them or rewrite them. Become biblical. Creation is God’s good gift. He intends to dwell with us here. What about John 14? Isn’t that about the rapture? No, not at all. That’s marriage language. Nothing to do with the rapture, sorry. He’s going to dwell with us here. Creation is a holy place. The first nations people understand this. They understand the sacredness of all things. We’ve had 200 years of treating creation simply as an object to be manipulated. It is not. It’s God’s holy temple; it’s his palace and he is about restoring it. That’s why Jesus teaches us to pray ‘... may your kingdom come.’ That’s why he’s coming back here and what we do is, to be involved in this process of the rededication of creation. Notice what’s going to happen to those who destroy the earth. God will destroy them. And now you know why. It’s His temple; it’s His palace. But we don’t worship it. Sacred, but we don’t worship it.

So, finally, being Christian is about working with God in redeeming his creation, rededicating this place. God’s work in salvation is as far reaching as his work in creation. He built this palace, this temple, because he wants to live here with us. He’s not abandoned that project. He comes into the tabernacle to begin that; He comes and dwells with Israel; and that’s the whole narrative. That’s why revelation ends up like it does. Jesus’ incarnation: God has not abandoned his creation and neither should we. Ultimately then, in the end, creation’s going to become what? It’s going to become, finally, God’s temple and that’s why in the New Jerusalem there is no temple. The whole cosmos becomes the holy of holies. Now that’s what being Christian is about. Understand? That’s why life here is about doing what we can here, not just hanging on until we get out of this place.

Lot of stuff there. Hope you still like me! Um [laughter]. If you don’t, too bad. No, no! Well, bless you folks and we’ll have question and answer about this some time or another. Thank you.

Why Should God Care Less? part 10

2009-05-22T11:18:00.003-07:00

This carries on from the last post with this title:

Now this is a Pharaoh who’s crushing these little people; destroying them to build monuments in his own honour. And so what do they do? Aaron takes his staff and it becomes a ... beaver [laughter]. No. You ever wonder why they do that thing? Now you know! In this situation, Aarons staff represents his judicial authority. He’s come as a messenger. So his staff takes on political significance. He throws it down, it becomes a serpent and WHO’S watching this? What’s he got in his crown? Hm? This is no mere party trick friends. This strikes at the very heart of EVERYTHING that defines Egypt and that undergirds Pharaoh’s oppression of the little people. Now standing behind Pharaoh are his magicians. These are the people who are in touch with the gods. They read the omens; they utter the incantations – what it enables. They then advise Pharaoh to enable him to navigate through the vagaries of the faith that comes to Egypt. And what do they do? They’re staffs, signs of their authority, become serpents. And then what happens? Aaron’s rod swallows theirs.

Do you hear what’s going on there? Then what happens? You get nine plagues plus ten. Now, for a person who knows a bit of Hebrew poetry, you realize that Hebrew rhymes numbers. ‘Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands.’ It’s not saying David is ten times better, it’s saying David’s equal. And that’s why Saul says: ‘What remains but for them to give him the kingdom?’ So the rhyme of 9 is 6. Nine plagues plus one and creation – six days plus one. Explicit literary structure so that those echo and if you know how to read Hebrew poetry you’ll immediately go reading those stories in the light of one another and of course they are to be read in the light of one another because it’s Yahweh who calls creation into being and His Word causes Egypt’s created world to fall apart. Everything that was once separated now begins to bleed over. The boundaries begin to break down. The river turns to blood. The frogs come out of the place they should be living in and invade the land. The huge hailstones come – the heavens now begin to invade the waters below. The night bleeds into the day! So all of that beautiful water that they thought was the result of the gods of Egypt, they’re learning now, actually it’s Yahweh who speaks this. And Israel happens to be His firstborn son.

So finally they get to leave. And they find themselves standing in the darkness by the Yam Suph, the Red Sea. And Yahweh appears as a fiery pillar bringing light ... in ... the ... darkness. Oh! And then what happens? A strong east wind begins to blow. The sea turns into dry land. And they go across. Where have you seen this before? This is exactly what we hear about in Genesis. I want to suggest that where Israel learned that Yahweh was the creator was at the Yam Suph. You know that Red Sea, by the way, to the Egyptians, was part of the cosmic Sea of Reeds that preceded creation. Now what does Pharaoh do? Well he’s got the Uraya in his crown. He’s the living embodiment of Amon Re and in his narrative Amon Re defeats Appophus who dwells in the Sea of Reeds. So what does he do? He sends his armies in after them! Of COURSE he does! Everything in his ideological world tells him that this is what you need to do! Because AMON RE, whose son he is, defeats Appophus. And what happens? It’s not that the Israelites have this ghoulish delight. But what you find lying around the edges of the sea are the Egyptian dead bodies. It’s like that film ‘The Mummy’ where the guy tries to get his sweetheart out of the well of souls. And what you’ve got there is a statement that ‘It’s not Amon Re who defeats Appophus. It’s Yahweh.’

Now, just a few quick things. Notice these parallels. There are a number of texts from Egyptian finds, archaeological digs. Look at some of the parallels. Starting with water and then you have the god appearing. Creation happens through speech, whether the material world or animal life. You know what’s interesting? Is that only in Egypt stories do you have gods who create through speech. You don’t find that in Babylon or Sumer. Here are some other parallels. In the Egyptian stories you start with four primal elements: you start with the formless deep, the darkness, breath or wind and illimitable chaos. That’s exactly what you find in Genesis. Water, right, the deep, it’s dark, the wind is blowing and it’s chaotic. You don’t find this collocation of stuff in any other literature, except in Egypt. A creator/deity who creates through speech; creation as acts of separation. You know it’s only in Egypt that you have light before the sun. Nowhere else. Sequences: stars, birds and fish, animals and humanity. That’s Egyptian. Fashioning humanity like a potter. That’s Egyptian. Enlivened with the breath of the god. That’s Egyptian. What’s going on here?

A couple of things. First of all I want to suggest that these three structures have nothing to do with how long it took God or when. It’s simply someone in the ancient saying ‘This is the world I live in; this is how it’s structured; the first basic structure is night and day. That’s the fundamental structure whether you’re above or below land or sea. That’s the basic one. Yahweh did it. The next structure: above and below. Third structure: land and sea.’ You do that and you find the world in which you live. And their making the statement that Yahweh does it. That’s all it is. It really has nothing to do with it taking 24 hours or not, it’s simply not the point. It’s being structured by something else and the form and the content of Genesis makes this really clear, it seems to me. But it’s not just that. It’s also an attack on the ideology of Egypt. Now this is Moses. Where did Moses live before he went out of the desert? He grew up in the house of Pharaoh! He has access to these secret tomb paintings. He knows about this priestly stuff. And I think, inspired by the Spirit, he takes the language of Egyptian ideology and TURNS it on its head! It’s NOT Attum that separates the waters, its Yahweh. And how do they know that? they stood at the Red Sea and saw it took place. Right. So, Genesis 1. It’s highly stylized form, unrealistic content suggests that to read this as straight history is mistaken. Doesn’t mean it’s not true, it’s doing something else. What is it going after? Yahweh, not the gods of Egypt, as creator. And these days, they’re nothing but this, kind of a natural period of work. That’s all they mean. Just so you can move through the sequence. That’s all they do. Nothing more beyond that. So, I would urge you, as a biblical scholar, please don’t try to defend a burning tiger by arguing for 24 day creation. And that’s going to tread on some toes here. But folks, I just ... it doesn’t stand a chance of flying I don’t think. Not if you take this seriously. And then we wonder why people don’t want to follow our Jesus and we’re talking about burning tigers and saying that Marg Simpson has a kidney problem. Now I know that’s a bit provocative but I don’t have time to really, you know, do it gently. So [laughter] you need to hear that. All right?

What if the power went out

2009-05-20T13:46:00.002-07:00

What if ... the power went out. This is a thought I've had running through my mind lately. It has come to my mind recently because, partly, of the economic 'crisis' we're in, or that has been claimed by our governments and culture. My life has not been highly negative affected by this turn of events ... BUT! What if the power went out?

I mean, what if it REALLY went out. COMPLETELY! No way of restoring it. Indefinitely lost to us is the use of electricity. Keep in mind, electricity has really only been around for about 200 years - in the form and measure we've been using it. What would happen?

Most of us would not be able to heat or cool our homes. We'd have no lights. No kitchen appliances would work (fridge, freezer, stove, oven, microwave, beater, bread maker, etc.). You'd have no money (banks would lose all their records, I would assume, of our accounts as they are, for the most part electronic). You'd eventually run out of gas because all the gas pumps are electronically driven. You'd have no cash registers or ATM machines or interac. You might have a few batteries, but after they've been used up where will you get more? Are not most every business and factory and manufacturer run with electricity? Robots produce most of our vehicles. You'd have no phone system. No computers. No internet (no Skype, Facebook, Hotmail). No T.V.. No more big screen movies. No video games. No alarm clocks. No plug in air fresheners. No garage door openers. No power tools (unless they're cordless). No fans. No printers. No battery/phone/radio chargers. It is AMAZING what we have with the use of electricity now. No airplanes or helicopters. No tazers. No cell phones. Nothing could be mass produced.

So, that said, what would our society look like? What kind of changes would happen? What happens when we're not able to communicate to each other instantly? Or able to travel large distances with only money changing hands? What happens when our society/government is no longer able to support the lifestyle or standard of living we're used to? How would our communities change? How would we eat?

I was reminded again yesterday that we are not all that far removed from this lifestyle. My Grandparents lived in a small house with no electricity and drove a horse and buggy back in the 30's. My Great Grandparents lived in a sod house when they lived in Saskatchewan. That's not that long ago. Within a hundred years.

Why Should God Care Less? part 9

2009-05-08T11:34:00.001-07:00

This carries on from the post below:

But, traditionally, who is the author of Genesis? It’s your chance to respond now, on the count of 3. One, two, three! Moses, yeah. Good. When do you think he wrote it? When he was in the little ark floating along, kind of a child protégé? [laughter] When do you think Moses wrote this? Sorry? Help me here. Speak up, I’m a drummer and I’m a bit deaf, so I need to hear from you. Before he died. YES! Very good, before he died. [laughter] So, somewhere after his birth and sometime before his death. Excellent! [laughter] Geri [the Canadian Inter-varsity Christian Fellowship President], you’re in strife. You’re in real trouble. Well, o.k., that’s a good place to start. Can we perhaps refine that just a little? Any other suggestions? When do you think he would have written this? Well, in his lifetime. At the end of his life? So, that would be after the exodus? Of course. And people who work in these texts realize there are lots of things in the book of Genesis that reflect exodus events. Yes, of course, it’s after the exodus. And then where has Israel been for 400 years? Egypt. Not in Babylon. Not in ancient Sumer. They’ve been living in Egypt. Now, you know what’s staggering? Very few biblical scholars bother to look at what’s going on in Egypt as background to Genesis 1. We’re going to do that. Even if I am a new testament person.

I want to suggest that Egypt is the ideological context for these five books of Moses. It’s not to say there aren’t some bleed overs from other cultures, because there were. The ancient world had lots of comings and goings; lots of communication. There was cultural diversification; that was happening. But primarily Egypt. Now what’s going on in the Egyptian stuff? Well, first the Egyptian royal ideology. Amon Re, he’s the sun god. He brings light and life to Egypt. Every morning he arises out of the sea of reeds. In the Egyptian creation story you start with the sea of reeds. Out of that emerges the first cosmic mountain. The gods self materialize on them. Amon Re is the sun god representing some of this. He rises in the east, travels across the sky and you can see the rays coming down – the picture on the left here – as those rays come down they bring life and light to Egypt. In the evening he descends in the west again into the sea of reeds. The great pre-cosmic ocean. He goes into the underworld. And while he’s there he meets Appophus (spelling?) – the chaos monster. A serpent. Amon Re is escorted by two fire breathing cobra. He does battle with Appophus and he arises the next morning victorious in the east to bring again life and light to Egypt. Every day is a recapitulation of the creation cycle. So in this period of time, in the Middle Kingdom, they build these huge temple structures, and they have these processional ways oriented toward the east so that when Amon Re rises his light shines down these processional paths to light up the little na-os (sp?) in which his image is contained. And on either side of these processional ways some of these old temples would have little mini cosmic seas of reeds. Shallow pools with reeds in them. So the architecture of their temples re-capitulated their creation narrative. My bell’s gone; I’m only part way through this. Well let’s see if we can go a bit more quickly. Pharaoh is the son of Amon Re and he’s actually the embodiment of god upon the earth. Very important to keep that in mind. Son of god language. Egypt knows what that means. That’s Pharaoh. Now, notice what Pharaoh wears in his crown. Notice that? What’s he got there? An enraged uraya (spelling?). Sorry, an enraged female cobra called a Uraya. Why do you think he’s wearing a cobra? Because cobras are what escort Amon Re as he defeats Appophus. So here you see Pharaoh, and it’s not that Egyptians don’t know about perspective, but their art was a form of magic. It was, not quite a Greek Memmasis (s?), but a way of somehow capturing the life forces. So Pharaoh is much bigger than anyone else because he’s the son of Amon Re. There’s his crown. He’s walking around and he’s got this enraged cobra and what’s he doing? He’s defeating these Nubians who represent forces of chaos.

Now that’s their narrative. One day, out of the desert, comes Aaron and Mo. And they meet Pharaoh and they have a word for him. ‘Yahweh says Israel is my first born son!’ What do you think that says to Pharaoh? Heh? You see the first person called the son of god in the bible is not Jesus, actually its Israel. It doesn’t mean Israel is divine. It’s father – son relationship and its speaking directly into the Egyptian ideological environment.

Why Should God Care Less? part 8

2009-05-07T11:15:00.002-07:00

This carries on from the post below:

Can I suggest what’s going on here? This is not straight narrative, but neither is it straight poetry. We have examples of ancient Hebrew poetry: Exodus 15, Numbers 13, 14, Judges 5, there’s a number of them. Very old Hebrew texts and they’re poetry and Genesis 1 is not poetry. Not on those parameters. But it’s clearly not straight narrative. Something else is going on. And what I think is happening is this: given the repetition, given the architectonic structure we have here a liturgical text. The point of it is to build this crescendo which we saw so brilliantly this morning. What you guys did really got into Genesis 1. It just begins to build. Did you feel that as you work through? That’s what Genesis 1 is doing. That’s what the literary structure is on about. That’s why there’s repetition. That’s why it’s so architectonic. It’s designed to finally have people go YES!! The LORD is KING! That’s what they meant to say at the end. And if you didn’t feel like doing that after the presentation earlier this morning, goodness. That’s to exalt the name of God. That’s partly what’s going on here.

Now, of course Genesis 1 wasn’t written in a vacuum. It belongs to a culture. And in order to understand something about a cultural artefact you need to know something about the culture. I’m still trying to learn about ice hockey. Ah, it’s all these guys skating around on this kind of thing [laughter]. And they’re wearing all this body armour kind of stuff. What is that? Ah? Come on, be real men. Watch Australian rules. No protection. Well you can tell I know nothing about ice hockey, right? Obviously. So what’s going on culturally? How do we make sense of this kind of thing?

Let’s look at some of the background – this is ancient Sumer [Rikk is now making us of overhead visuals behind him]. They also told themselves creation narratives. And look at some of the things they’re concerned with. So, what we’re doing here is simply trying to get a feel for – when ancient people talked about creation, what were the kinds of things they discussed? We’re simply doing cross-cultural contextualization. We’re doing this for reading Genesis now. Not so much evangelism, but just for listening rather than speaking. Notice they had this idea of first heaven and earth being separated and you’ve got a watery goddess who is the antecedent of heaven and earth. That means that someone reading Genesis isn’t going to be completely thrown. They understand this language of first of all water and then some kind of heaven and earth stuff. This is not unfamiliar language. Notice there’s an increase in order. I’d put the text up for you but it’d be too technical, but you start with this amorphous water and then slowly more order comes. Human beings begin as animals and end up being a special creature. They see this increasing complexity. People were aware of these kinds of things. Then there’s the Babylonian stories. I put them in inverted columns because, technically speaking, in the second millennium BC, Babylon suffered from several incursions from Amorites and also from some other Semites, so we’re not entirely sure just how Babylonian these stories are. And by this I mean the early Babylon, not Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. So, in their stories, what do we have? Well this is the Atraharsis myth on a tablet that was dug up. We start off with Tiamet, who’s salt water and Apsu, the fresh ground water. That shouldn’t be Tiamet ... that’s mis-typed. The point though is Marduk defeats Tiamet and creates heaven and earth from her body. So you notice we start with water, then the separation – heaven and earth. And then humans are created from the blood of a rebel god, to serve the gods. Just imagine what your society will look like if that’s your creation narrative. Human beings, created from the blood of a rebel to do the dirty work of the gods. Guess what your political structures will look like. Hm? Worth thinking about. People who say that Christianity has nothing to do with politics understand neither.

Why should God Care Less? part 7

2009-05-06T10:32:00.003-07:00

This carries on from the post below:

Now, when you read that word, earth – arretz [phonetic spelling only], don’t think of the blue globe spinning in space, that’s not what that word means. It means homeland. God created the heavens and the place where I belong. Not some generic planet. That’s not what it means; it means ‘the place where I’m rooted.’ Read Genesis 1 like that. This is where I think the first nations people have got it over us. They understand some of that. God created the heavens and the place in which I am rooted. Eh? Beautiful.

Well, let’s go to the content. A few questions about this. Now, I don’t mean to be facetious here, though, it’s going to come out a little bit. Sorry. I’ll try to keep it filed back a bit. But we’re going to ask some questions of this text because I think the kinds of questions we ask of a text help us to understand what it’s trying to say and what it’s not. So the first question: How come it takes God the same amount of time to make such vastly different things? I mean, the universe is mind numbingly HUGE! How come it takes him the same amount of time to do that as it does to separate the waters above and below? That’s one of those ‘have you ever seen a tiger explode?’ questions. Do you see, if you were reading this as a regular person, without some pre-commitment to what Genesis 1 was saying, you’d go, ‘gee, it’s really odd that it takes God the same amount of time to do all of that as it does to do this.’ That doesn’t quite make sense. Well, some other things. Why just twelve hours? It doesn’t say twelve hours but its morning and evening so we’re kind of assuming it’s a twelve hour day. Why doesn’t it take him 11 ½ hours one time and a 135.6 hours another time? Why exactly twelve hours? Ever thought about that? Didn’t that strike you as odd? In fact, why any time at all? Why can’t God just go, bazzing, and there it is? Jesus can do miracles like that, can’t he? I mean, the blind guy sees. He didn’t have to wait 12 hours. Jesus says: ‘Well, wait ‘til the next morning. Morning, evening then you’ll see.’ Right? It doesn’t happen like that. Why should it take God any time at all? When you start asking these kind of questions and get kind of embarrassing answers like this, what’s it telling you? It’s probably telling you that we’re miss-reading the text. It’s not trying to tell us those kinds of things. ‘I wonder what kind of disease Marg Simpson is suffering from to get hair like that. We should send her to the doctor.’ Ah no, no, it’s ridiculous. Don’t ask that question. That’s not what it’s on about. Well, same with Genesis. Does God need to talk to the U.S. marines? Does he need night vision goggles? Can’t he see at night to create? Why only during the day? Absurd – the very suggestion. Something else must be going on then. What about the amphibians? What’s the Emu doing? Blubblblblblbublblblblub. Maybe that’s why it grew a long neck – kind of evolving as ... come on! This is highly stylized. Something’s going on here, I’m committed to the truth of it but please folks, no way is this a blow by blow account of what actually happened. Everything is telling us ‘Don’t READ me like this!’ The form, the content and then Genesis 2. Oh! Big problem now because Genesis 2 tells us plants were not created until after humanity and Genesis 1 says they were created before. So, brilliant western scholars say ‘Well, we have two versions of the Genesis account and these guys hadn’t talked to one another, didn’t get their facts straight, and then someone didn’t know what to do with them and so just plunked them both in Genesis and let the two contradictory things stand.’ Well, that’s one option. The other option is, maybe we don’t know what we’re talking about. But that doesn’t occur to scholars. [laughter]

Why Should God Care Less? part 6

2009-05-01T15:07:00.002-07:00

This carries on from the post below:

Now, people who study ancient documents understand because they don’t have indices. If you go to your local scroll store, you want to pick up a copy of Genesis, right, um, it’s not like you open it up and there’s a table of contents. Maybe there’s a picture of Aaron, you know, a big cut-out holding a copy of Genesis there you know. ‘This is a wonderful book and everyone ought to buy it.’ Right, then on the back there’s kind of a few ... maybe Paul got in his tardus(?) and he wrote and kind of little kind of blurb saying buy this from Zondervan, or something. I’m sure they were there. [laughter] Ever try to flick through a scroll? It’s pretty hard to do. The ancients new that, so what they do at the outset is they tell you where they’re going. So you really do have to pay close attention to opening sentences. So you get ‘bar a sheet, el o him, ba ra’ [phonetic spelling only] ‘In the beginning, God created’ and then what do you get? ‘the heavens and the earth’ and ‘the earth was tohoo wavohoo [phonetic spelling only].’ Sounds like something you buy at one of those new age festivals. Honey and sugar and cream or something. Formless and empty. Now, they could have said a whole range of things. ‘And there was a Starbucks on every corner.’ There’s a whole range of things the writer could have said, but he chooses to say this. Pay attention to it. Take it seriously.

So, we’re going to do that and we’re going to look at the literary structure of Genesis. So, very quickly, day 1, what happens? God said ‘let there be light. And God separated the light from the darkness.’ Day 2, another separation – waters above, waters below. Day 3 the waters are gathered together; dry land appears. Now, what’s happening? That which was formless has been given form. Three days of giving form to that which was formless. And the earth was formless and empty – tohoo wavohoo. First three days you give form; what do you think is going to happen on the next three days? Just hazard a guess. [some in the audience answers ‘they’ll be filled’] Hey. Low and behold, that’s what happens. The realm of night and day, filled with rulers. What’s going to happen on the corresponding day 5? You’ve got waters above, waters below. What do you thinks going to happen? Birds and fish. What’s going to happen in the next one? On the land – humanity and animals. What’s going on? Three days formed. Three days filled.

Now, that is a highly architectonic literary structure. Anyone do humanities here? Anyone doing English Lit.? Couple of you. Strike. You’re in serious trouble reading the Bible folks. We have two or three people who know about literature. [there are some few hundred people in the audience]. And we’re going to try and read our Bibles. Oh boy. We’re in for real strife. Oh, that’s o.k., I love you all. You know what I’ve found that’s real interesting? When I talk about this stuff the English Lit. people go YEAH! And the engineers, the mathematicians and often the systematic theologians are busy running out lighting fires. [laughter] The Bible’s literature! It’s really important to have some skills in that bible reading. Now, again, I don’t know anywhere in the Bible, and I’m pretty familiar with parts of it, I don’t know anywhere in the Bible where you find this kind of literary structure in a straight forward historical account. You just don’t find it. Now, that’s not to say it’s not true. It’s absolutely true. But maybe the truth is more like the fact that tigers, Blake’s tigers, read that little couplet, you’ll learn more about the essence of tigers from that couplet than you will from a 500 volume DNA map. You read it right, it’s very powerful. I want to suggest that that’s what’s going on here in Genesis as well. And then finally on the seventh day God rests. Notice there’s no evening and morning to the seventh day. That should give people pause. Something else is going on here. Let Genesis 1 speak to us as it wants to.

There’s some other things we can say too. It’s a little bit clearer in the Hebrew. I do apologize for mentioning that language but it was written in Hebrew, so, there you go. The corresponding days 1 and 3 have one creative act. The next two days have one creative act of two parts; they’re becoming increasingly complex. And then the final days, 3 and 6, have two separate creative acts. Notice that? Increasing complexity as you move through both form and formless and notice the direction: the focus is from heaven to earth. EXACTLY what you find in the book of Revelation. The emphasis in Genesis is the focus upon the earth.

Why Should God Care Less? part 5

2009-04-27T10:53:00.002-07:00

This carries on from the post below:

So I get very nervous when I meet evangelicals whose first line of faith is ‘Propositional Revelation!’ And I want to say to them ‘You’re god is way too small.’ It’s not to say I’m against proposition, but if there’s no room for metaphor and image then your god is way too tiny. Metaphor expands horizons. That’s why the prophets use metaphor over and over again. This thing in which we are involved is ENORMOUS! It’s huge. And you caught some of that with that video. Singing those songs about creation and just seeing the glories of this ... it’s too big, isn’t it? It’s too big for us. And then you hear the Psalmist – the wonder of creation. How glorious this is. That’s what metaphor is really good for dealing with.

Now, so I’m arguing for this: metaphor is used in the Bible as a striking way of telling the truth and often the most important truths are going to be told in metaphor. I simply want to do that because in my theological education, theology was kind of like an atomic table of God. Euclidian theology. The geometry of the trinity. Eh, and it all gets reduced this kind of mathematical statement. Pardon me, but a pox upon all such houses. Because really what’s going on with that Euclidian geometry is, well we don’t have time to talk about it, but if you know some philosophy, they’re basically responding to the critique of creation as a way of finding the truth from Parmenides and Heraclites. And that’s not the Biblical view in Genesis 1. Creation is good, good, good, good, good. It’s not to be disparaged. And often these ways of talking about God I think, actually, at bottom, imply some denigration of the goodness of the material world. But that’s another thing. We can have questions and answers about that later on. [someone’s cell phone rings] Who wakes up at this time of the morning? It’s a cell phone, isn’t it? It’s a cell phone. Those of you sitting around that person, feel free now to pounce upon them. [laughter]

O.K., so let’s go to Genesis 1 and quickly work through some of this. We’re going to do what we’ve done with The Simpsons, what we’ve done with Blake, what we’ve done with Isaiah. Let’s look at the form! And the first thing you get, as we heard in this wonderful presentation. Wasn’t it amazing? Did we actually say thank you for that? No. [Clapping and cheering] It’s really moving. You read Genesis 1 in a new way, don’t you? You know, I think that’s part of our task – is to read these things anew every generation to find new ways in telling the same truth. I think that’s the real exercise. It’s one thing to exegete. That’s the easy part. The difficult part is reframing these in a new incarnational moment for every generation. That’s the hard part. It takes a lot of work. Let’s do this now for Genesis 1. First of all, the repetition. And God said, and God said, and God said, and God said, and God said, let there be, let there be, let there be, let there be, let there be, and there was, and there was, and there was, and there was, and there was, and God saw, and God saw, and God saw, and God saw, and God saw .... You’re familiar with this, aren’t you? You’ve sung choruses over and over and over again. [laughter] Now, in terms of content, maybe some of you know the book of Samuel. Maybe some of you know the books of Kings. Or even the narratives in Genesis chapter 12 about God’s call of Moses. Let me be provocative. I defy you to find me one piece of biblical historiography that has this kind of repetition. I defy you. What’s that telling you? At the very outset it’s telling us this, folks, whatever you do, don’t read Genesis 1 as straight forward historiography. It’s just not that. You’d laugh at people who misread Blake or who misread The Simpsons, don’t become a laughing stalk by misreading Genesis 1. That doesn’t mean it’s not true! I’m not saying that. But clearly, the form! In terms of genre, this repetition is telling us this is not straight forward historical narrative. It is some other kind.

Why Should God Care Less? part 4

2009-04-24T19:19:00.001-07:00

This carries on from the post below:

Is it true? … ah, very quiet out there. And, partly, that‘s because I’m Australian and you know I’m sneaky! Well, it’s kind of yes and no, isn’t it? If we think The Simpsons are about people who run about with very serious kidney and liver ailments, then no, probably not true. But why is it so popular? Because it is profoundly true, in other ways. Now what helps us make that distinction? Form and content – it’s the genre. You recognize from the form it’s a cartoon. So you’re thinking, it’s going to be over the top. There’s going to be some ridiculous, unreal elements to this. But at the same time, it does that usually in the service of making another point. So, the form: cartoon. The content: you know people don’t look like this; the kinds of things that go on are too extreme. You recognize that and you don’t read it, as it were, too concretely – you’re able to distinguish between, kind of, the extreme stuff, and the real point it’s trying to make. A very powerful way of communicating. Why do you think political cartoons are so effective?

Now, we can make that distinction. Well, o.k., that’s great for The Simpsons but we’re talking about the Bible here. Well, yes we are, we’re talking about literature. What about this one: ‘Tiger, tiger burning bright, in the forests of the night.’ Is it true? Well, not if you think Blake’s talking about the propensity of feral cats to ignite spontaneously during their nocturnal wanderings! [Laughter] You like that, did you? I had practiced that so it’s really not quite as astounding as it sounds [laughter]. And it’s not going to help to keep saying: ‘Blake says it. I believe it. And that settles it!’ It’s not going to help anything. The question is: have we understood the genre? Now, you look at the form – it’s poetry. Dut da dut da dut dad a, dut da dut da dut da da. That immediately alerts you to metaphor, symbolism. To be open to these kind of things. And then the content. You KNOW tigers do NOT spontaneously combust. You know that. And you know what? Blake actually hopes that you know that. He’s assuming you know that. And for someone to say then that Blake is actually arguing for the fact that tigers explode in forests, you’d laugh. But you’d be amazed at how many Christians do that with Genesis 1. Hm.

Well, what about the Bible? Yup, it’s in the Bible too. There it is folks; Isaiah prophesies that one day the trees will grow hands. Well, it’s ridiculous, isn’t it? Did you know that most of what the prophets write is poetry? So be really careful about how you interpret it that stuff. Doesn’t mean it’s not true. In fact, if you think about it, when there’s some really important things you want to say …. (for instance) as a guy you find this really nice woman… wow! Eh? Thank you Lord! And, you know, you take her out to dinner and what do you start saying to her? “Oh I’m really, I just love the way that radiation in the 55 kilohertz band width just strikes off those retinal cells and they just cause this chain …” What’s she going to do? She’s going to throw her soup at you and you deserve it. You don’t hear people going: “E equals M C squared da na da na da na!” That’s not on the radio. [laughter] And the reason is, and our culture doesn’t really understand this, knowing e=mc2 will not give you a better marriage. Now that’s a trivial example but our culture thinks that scientific knowledge is the way to learn what it means to be human. They need to listen to the radio. That’s not what being human is about and yet we are convinced that we can discover what it means to be human by reducing ourselves to these kinds of things. Now we write poetry about the things that matter most to us. Why? Because equations constrain. They confine. Metaphor opens up horizons and there are some things that are just too big, they are just too alive to be captured by mere proposition.

Why Should God Care Less? part 3

2009-04-23T15:17:00.001-07:00

This carries on from the post below:

... Now, how could I have missed this? Well, the problem was, I didn’t know how to read the book of Genesis. We’re going to spend a bit of time that morning to unpack some of that. And I think though certainly familiar, it’s been transforming. Now the problem with ancient documents is this: they’re written in another language. And you know people where you talk about Genesis 1 and you are really walking on thin ice. You can lose your eternal destiny according to some people if you misread Genesis 1, is that not true? There are all kinds of bun fights that go on about the meaning of this text. Well, it’s interesting though, that the people who have these arguments ... (uh, by the way, bun fight is an Australian term. It doesn’t mean what bun means here. Ok? [laughter] Just to kind of clarify that. And it’s in the singular. Not plural.) People read Genesis 1 off the page in English and they say, ‘well, that’s what it says.’ But of course it wasn’t written in English, it was written in Hebrew. And that’s significant. Why is that so important? Well, you probably know this, but it’s worthwhile to be reminded, that there’s no such thing as a generic word. Every word is culturally bound. They have to be. That’s the kind of world God made. God did not make some kind of Socratic world of forms and essences. He made particular trees, particular plants, particular people, particular languages .... We don’t have time to talk about that but western philosophy, for two thousand years, has been diametrically opposed to what God has actually created. And Heigl represents the pinnacle of this. He really can’t deal with the particular and Kierkegaard recognized that so that’s why on Kierkegaard’s tombstone he has written ‘That individual.’ It’s his last shot at Heigl. These world encompassing maps that explain everything. Kierkegaard recognized ultimately how, and maybe he wouldn’t have used this language, but I would, how demonic they can become. And you see it happening in church systems too. In the name of efficiency we turn people into generic persons. And then people feel de-humanized. God did not make a world like that. He made a particular world with particular people - that means particular cultures. And this culture is from a long time ago.
Now I’m an Australian. I’ve been here for 9 years. I still don’t understand Canadians. I’m working on it. I used to think that Canadians and Australians were pretty similar. In fact I think that we’re rather different in all kinds of ways. Actually sometimes it’s good. You’re polite. It’s great. But from an Australian’s point of view sometimes we think you’re dishonest. You’re being polite and we think: ‘You’re not really telling the truth, are you?’ And I’m not making a value judgement on that, it’s just what happens when two cultures meet one another. Well, if we have that kind of interaction and we live in the same time frame, imagine the problems we’re going to have understanding a culture that’s 3 thousand years distant from ours. Now, you’ve done some training on this, you understand these issues. It’s really important to take those very, very seriously indeed. Sometimes we only give them lip service. We need to take it more seriously than that. So, very different culture, long time ago, different language, how do we understand this? Well there are some clues. There are some tricks we can use and it’s to do with the question of genre, form and content and the first place to go when talking about Genesis 1 is ... The Simpsons. [Laughter] And you knew that, right. Uh, I once mentioned that in church and really got into trouble for talking about The Simpsons on Sunday morning. I was talking about the book of Daniel actually and mentioned The Simpsons in that context and it was very quiet in this very large Pentecostal church in Vancouver and, uh, I should have picked up the signals but then I’m Australian so I’m not very sensitive; I’m not polite. So I said ‘You don’t watch this show?’ [laughter] Well, the point that came after was ‘how in the world do you expect to share the gospel with people when you don’t understand their language?’ Got a bit of a blast about that. Well, this is not the right thing to do. But any case: The Simpsons. Now here’s the question: Is The Simpsons true?

Why Should God Care Less? part 2

2009-04-20T13:23:00.001-07:00

This carries on from the post below.

... So, according to Revelation, the new Jerusalem is coming down out of heaven. There’s also some interesting things that happen: notice, God’s home is ...? Among mortals. It doesn’t say we’re going to dwell with God. So the one who is making the move here is God, not us. His dwelling is going to be with human beings. If I was going to be with Him, that’s the kind of language I would use. ‘One day I’m going to be with Jesus,’ that’s not what Revelation says. One day God is going to be with us. A few other things about this particular story that are interesting: notice that there’s no temple. Now when I was a young lad there was all this talk about rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem and I don’t know if that’s maybe part of some of your heritage, it would certainly be part of mine. It’s a bit of a shock to realize that God apparently could care less about a temple because there isn’t one in this new Jerusalem. That’s rather striking, it’s hard to imagine. Jerusalem apart from a temple, and yet, finally there will be no temple. There’s also some other things about this picture that are strange and that is, this city is quite extraordinary. 1,500 miles a side or 12 thousand stadia John tells us. That number 12, 000 is significant; reminds you of the 144,000 doesn’t it? That’s kind of alluding to the complete fullness of God’s people, namely Israel, or the new Israel. But it’s huge! And it’s shaped like a cube! I always think of the Borg [laughter]. Imagine living in the inner city. ‘Wanna go to the suburbs? Yeah, pack several cut lunches ‘cause it’s a 750 mile trip’. Well, what’s intriguing about this is if you know something about the 1st century you’ll realize that this is about the size of the known world. They believed the known world was about 1,500 miles square. So here’s John’s picture – you’ve got a new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven, there’s no temple in it, it’s cube shaped and it’s the size of the known world. Now what’s he trying to tell us?
Surely you know how to read Revelation; a lot of it is symbolism. So you have to ask yourself: ‘O.K., there’s something I don’t understand in Revelation. Where do I go?’ And usually the answer is back to the Old Testament. So the question is, what do you know that’s shaped like a cube in the old testament? And most people go for the Ark of the Covenant, which is pretty close. It’s as hot as you can get in one of those ‘you’re getting warmer’ games without actually being boiling. Where do you find the Ark of the Covenant? You find it in the Holy of Holies. And you can see from these texts here: 20 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, 20 cubits high – it’s the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s temple and probably based on the pattern of the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle.
So what’s John telling us? He’s telling us the entire cosmos is going to become the Holy of Holies. So I was quite moved when you had that fabulous piece of video work there with that ... how did you get that synchronization there ... all those images of creation. Their destiny is to become the Holy of Holies. I was brought up thinking that my destiny was that I was going to leave this place, that it was all going to get burnt up, and I was going to be on these clouds playing a harp (hopefully electric), and getting to look like some high church Anglican for the rest of my life. Which as a Pentecostal is a little troubling, huh. [Laughter] But now my Dean is an Anglican who once was a Pentecostal and he apparently likes these kind of things so you probably can survive. He’s a pretty nice bloke by the way, and still into that stuff, so, it’s ok. The whole cosmos is going to become the Holy of Holies. God is going to dwell with us in this restored creation. That’s the destiny; that was not my eschatology. And I think that’s why my sense of evangelism and my sense of Christian life were so dislocated. I didn’t really quite understand, at a profound level, why I was here.

Why Should God Care Less? part 1

2009-04-15T12:48:00.002-07:00

The following number of posts will be a recorded lecture by a professor of Regent college. This particular professor gave 4 lectures on a study of creation and revelation that profoundly changed my outlook on how it is I read the Bible and my understanding of God's design when it comes to creation and how He views it all. I intend on posting these in segments as they are lengthy but full of excellent stuff worth commenting on. Please do dialogue and let me know what you think of what is said. I have obtained permission to post these lectures. Please note that when the word 'I' is used, it is referring to the lecturer, not myself. So you have a little background, he was speaking to a gathering of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship staff workers from across Canada in Ontario - very thought provoking type people. Also, he makes reference to slides and images on a screen behind him while he speaks at times. There are also obvious humurous tongue-in-cheek moments that are not always noticed in typed words. I hope that you will enjoy the following. Enjoy!

I grew up as a Pentecostal, and this is actually an Australian accent, as you probably realize, I’m not speaking in tongues; though you may doubt that at some point. I don’t know what your experience was, but, my experience was pretty much: what happened on Sunday really had nothing to do with the rest my Christian life in the work place. I was talking to a couple of Regent board members about 6 months ago, maybe a bit longer, 18 months ago, and uh ... you’ve turned that light on me haven’t you? And the Lord said ‘let there be darkness’ and there was. [laughter] Thank you! Good. Ah, this is more important than me, so, I want you to see those images. I asked them, as we were preparing for this meeting, how many of you here on a Sunday morning have anything that has the slightest bit to do with your weekly work life? And one person out of the ten said ‘sometimes’. Now that’s a tragedy. But that was my Christian background. We were waiting for the eschaton; waiting for the rapture. And I remember (some of you have heard this story) when I was about ten or twelve years old, living in Western Australia, the Six Day War was on. Some of you remember the 6 Day War? Israel, Egypt, Armageddon? That kind of stuff? Well, I went to bed one night in the middle of that war and just FULL of eschatological anticipation. I wouldn’t have called it that back then at ten, but that’s what it was. Now I’m old enough to recognize it. Well, in the early hours of the morning, wee hours of the morning, we weren’t that far from a major trucking route, apparently some very large articulated vehicle felt the need to blow their air horn. Bah raaaaah! Well, there I was! I was just ready to go, and [laughter] talk about leaping for the Lord. A very disappointed boy woke up on the wrong side of the ceiling the next morning.

That’s what I grew up with. That being Christian was about eventually leaving this place. Then I went to seminary and began to do some study and discovered some other things were going on. Notably, when I read the book of Revelation, I discovered this: What does the new Jerusalem do? You can read it, right there in front of you. Check your Bibles, I haven’t fiddled with the text. The new Jerusalem does what? Comes down out of heaven. Now this is a bit of a shock. You do understand of course that Pentecostals own the title to the book of Revelation. We let you read it provided you pay a poll tax, eh. Now the same applies to Acts chapter 2, that’s our chapter but the one about sharing things with one another, that can belong to somebody else but we’ve got Acts chapter 2, that’s ours. Now, it’s a funny thing isn’t it, how you can read a text and it can be your text that defines who you are and never really see what it says. So what would have happened was, here I am whizzing up into the air and I would of waved at Jesus as he comes down ... heading in other directions.

Now, I’m convinced folks, our eschatology has a huge amount to say about the way we do evangelism. Because it says a great deal about how we view creation. I was talking to Ray about what it means to him to be a first nations person and worshipping, and there are some people in his tradition that get very nervous about feathers and smoke. And I think that grows out of a very faulty, perhaps even pagan, view of the nature of creation. I think if they had more of a Christian view, they might not get so upset about those things ... though I understand it's a little more complex. People who've grown up with certain associations connected to those objects, well, it'll be unsettling for them. But for a generation whose not grown up with those kind of associations, then there's a sense in which these things are pure. It can be then used in the service of worshipping God.

The need to connect

2009-03-12T15:27:00.007-07:00

I recently have been playing with a new online connective tool meant to better bring together individuals who are working together but who are not in relative geographic proximity. It's called a Wiki - an online collaborative work page, essentially. A web page that can be edited by multiple persons at nearly the same time from any location (where there's a computer).

Yet another attempt at closing the relational gap made prevalent (originally) by the internal combustion engine that made it possible for all humans (along with drivable roads) to travel impossible distances with relative safety, ease and comfort. Strange, then, isn't it, that we use so much of this electronic world (e-mails, facebook, skype, wikis, blogs, etc.) to reconnect with our fellow human beings. Is it a case of valuing our freedom to travel and be wherever we want without the inherent labour involved in having to live in close proximity with the people near to us?

All for one person

2009-02-28T00:33:00.003-08:00

The other day I finally had the opportunity to respond to an emergency with the volunteer fire department I am a member of. I've been a member for nearly a year but had yet to make it to a call either because we've been called off the scene before we've arrived or I've been out of town or busy working during the call. But this other day I made it!

I won't give any great details (because I'm not sure that I'm allowed to share them) but, needless to say, it was a motor vehicle accident involving a semi-truck. Off the road and off a bridge and into a creek. Having a high level of first aid I was on scene and at the victim's side for most of the time we were required to be there before he was extricated. What I found to be remarkable about the whole event was the level of care, dedication and work that went into saving and helping just one life. There were roughly 8 of us fire fighters, some police men, Search and Rescue people and ambulance paramedics. Probably close to 20 different people with all different skills assisting this one poor (and lucky) soul. We all worked hard for nearly 3 hours to get the driver safely out of the truck and the creek and into medical care. All that for one person!! I was unequivocally astounded by our standard for how greatly we value human life ... at least in emergency situations. That people will voluntarilly and with sincerety put their own lives on the line for another person. It just felt RIGHT to be a part of a team whose underpinning drive for responding is that all life is invaluably precious and worth fighting to save.

If only this care and sincerety could be translated to other circumstances.

Prayer

2009-02-16T09:13:00.003-08:00

Prayer, is a fascinating thing. This act (if it can simply be called an act) is our tangable bridge of relationship with God. The vehicle that often proves faith is evident and invokes the hand of God to salvation. Often it is the means by which we learn our true relation to the maker of all that is created. Prayer.

And yet, I have some difficulty with it. With, perhaps, how I have been taught prayer is used. What it is. How I have been taught to pray. The reason I have difficulty is this: (and I have only really been able to put words to it just recently) that how we understand how we relate to God/pray to Him, greatly affects our understanding of the kind of God He is - His characteristics, the truth of His views. This is true in any relationship. How you're told to communicate properly with certain individuals greatly changes what you think they're really like. If your parents tell you you can only call other adults Mr. & Mrs. so and so, and to do so is rude or whatever, how does this affect what you think of adults? Or society? Or what's acceptable or isn't?

This is troubling for me because how I have prayed/been taught to pray, has been limited. It, in the beginning at any rate, was mostly a formula. Kind of like coming before the audience chamber of a king. You don't just jump up to the throne and 'hang' with the king. There's protocol. You have to petition for an audience. Make sure your appeal is worthy to bring forth to the king. Follow the procedures in honouring Him when you enter the throne room. Only get so close; don't look at him for too long. Hope beyond hope that he has regard for your now seemingly insignificant request amongst the vast list of petitions he's already received, etc. But this is not prayer, far from it.

I used to have this magnet on my fridge. It said 'Pray, there is immeasurable power in it'. I hated that magnet. Not just because it had these cheesy pastel flowers on it, but because there is a small but incredibly subtle untruth in that statement. There is NOT immeasurable power in prayer. Meaning, there is not immeasurable power in WHAT I DO to affect what God can do. Only God has the claim and right to immeasurable power. That small phrase stinks of manipulation - of faith based on works. The works being: the harder I pray, the longer I pray, the more I pray, the earlier I pray, the more likely God will hear me, do something, listen, help me, change my circumstances, relieve my guilt, make me holier, more godly, spiritual and so on and so on. And is this not how and why we are taught to pray?? Even subtly? I remember being taught the old A.C.T.S. acronymn. That 4 step process to positive prayer: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. But they all formulas! How do you put a formula to a relationship? How to you formulize (I just made that word up) communication between friends? I have to laugh thinking that if I stepped up to my best friend and looked him in the eye and began reciting that acronymn and repeating the steps and voicing my structured thoughts to him how sick he'd become of my attempt to communicate with him. No matter how sincere my attempt, my own understanding of prayer would keep me at a distance from my friend that He never intended or wanted.

So ... what is prayer then? Well, first, I must say that all my life I have most sincerely sought to communicate with the Lord. And I felt that He has always been gracious to listen to me despite my misunderstandings. But my knowledge and understanding of Him is changing ... all the time. Because He is HUGE and beyond comprehension. And so my understanding of how I relate to Him changes ... all the time. I find that prayer is far larger and encompasses far more than we would probably like or feel comfortable admitting. To me, I think, prayer is every thing I do that affects my relationship with my creator. Which is really ... everything I do and say and think and experience. My whole life is prayer, everything about it, if I'm conscious to remember that God is at all times amongst me, listening, watching, working, caring. So, in my mind's eye, when I'm walking silently up the road to work in the morning on a crisp winter day with the sunlight falling through bare branches and the wind whistling over cold mountains, my God my friend walks with me beside me, enjoying the same crisp morning I am. And so I commune with my God. When my heart aches to hear of how a friend has lost someone he loves to death, my God aches with me! When in conversation about difficult and trying issues and circumstances with my wife, we are not only talking to each other by also sharing with our Lord. For He listens and acts and yearns with us. Most every, if not every, conversation I have with another person, is a prayer. It is communication with the Almighty - '... for whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' (Matt. 25:40) and '... men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.' Sobering thoughts for me. I am not trying to make excuses for my own failings, but I will certainly not choose to treat God as less than He is. As though I have power over His will. I don't think those great men and women of faith cause great things to happen because of how they pray. I think they have a deep understanding of God's character and are close to Him and we see that and we wish we could be like them, perhaps, and we wonder what must we DO! But it is not what we DO! It is perhaps simply BEING with God. It is knowing Him, being loved by Him and returning that love. Perhaps. I'm not sure. I'm still working through it all and likely always will be.

Idolatry

2009-02-09T22:50:00.005-08:00

Recently I was chatting with a pastor friend of mine about "a great many things." The phenomenon of our current evangelical church was a part of the discussion and something of a revelation (pardon the pun) came to me.

I had asked this friend, retorically, what would happen if we decided to shut all the churches down in the town I live in (Hope) for, say, a month ... or a year. Believe it or not, there are a number of small churches here: Baptist, Church of the Nazarene, Pentecostal, Harvest, Two Anglicans (recently divorced), Catholic, United, etc.. By shut down, I mean close the buildings and keep the pastor/priest from performing his 'religious' duties. What would happen?? - well, I thought, you'd probably have a good number of people down right upset! Like, they'd probably think you were loony (if YOU were the one to shut them down). The really zealous ones might say something like: 'You're destroying the work of God!' or 'Satan has deceived you!' or some such thing. There would probably be a good many who would break into the church and do something like a 'service' anyway and think of themselves as clever christians who are persecuted for their faith. And, I bet there would be a few who might actually enjoy not having to go to church on the Sunday mornings.

I had thought that something else might also happen: it might be (if the buildings couldn't be entered) that people would meet to worship the Lord anyway, just not in a church building. They might just decide to keep the old system going as best as possible. And then again, maybe there would be a change in how we view this machine we call church. Like, it might actually start looking more like a living organic thing. One that is not segregated and categorized by walls or building structures; by doctrines and emphasies on particular statements of belief. One that does not set one person (usually a man) above the rest in the spiritual hierarchy of our so called evangelical churches (the pastor/priest). One where one person is not guaranteed a wage to support a growing unsupportable system of maintaining a spiritual worldview that is limited to the confines of a few buildings, programs and people who call themselves 'Baptist' or 'Nazarene' or whatever. Of course, denominations surely wouldn't go for it. We'd be dismantling the entire organization! Plus the financial system that keeps it afloat. And the means by which spiritual success is somehow measured [sic].

And then I got thinking about how I feel like God just isn't cooped up in a church building or even every church building. Like he's just too big for this. He's so much greater and vaster! He has such grander ideas! His ways are so far above ours. As if we can keep him confined to a particular structure. Wait a MINUTE! Isn't that what the Israelites did in the desert? They made this golden calf thingy, like RIGHT after Moses brings them out of slavery in Egypt, led by the Lord Almighty himself as a pillar of fire and cloud. They make this gold cow and start worshipping God as if he's inside this golden calf!! Or ... worshipping a god as if he's inside the cow. But what is an idol but a definable, limited manmade structure? An attempt at controlling that which we know we have no control over. It's, presumably, easy to worship a cow! We know exactly what a cow does, how it lives, what it lives for, what it eats, where it stands on the survival chain. It then gives definable and explanatory reasons for a god's or God's actions and thoughts and intents. But then, does not a church building and programs do that too?? Do not our own doctrines do that too?? That to say I'm Pentecostal means I believe that God is more interested in the act of giving spiritual gifts than he is in another equally important article of the faith I have? That God really only works to bring about his kingdom through his church ... and therefore through the people who believe ... well, believe like I do? People who go to THIS building and are a part of THIS denomination? Are our churches (the buildings and organizational institutions) not just giant gold cows!!!!

I guess I'm just redefining the term idolatry, in my own mind. It seems to me that we have often used the term 'put God in a box' a whole lot but never really considered just how ridiculous that thought is because of how un-puttable God is. His dimensions cannot be grasped and his thoughts cannot be measured and our religious gatherings in NO way are any where CLOSE to the summation of His intent and action. Oh how quick we are to deify even how we do what we do. I'm not suggesting that churches are evil or buildings are useless or programs are pointless. No, but if they become the focal point and the anchoring cement to how it is we choose to know who our Saviour is, we have completely lost the point. And God, then will only be as big as we see Him to be. But that's a scary place to be for some. Myself notwithstanding. Even our doctrines can become snares and traps that give us some false hope that our God has limited bounds that give us ease in thinking about who He is.

When I hear God say 'You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.' (Exodus 20:4) I hear him say 'You shall never control me nor shall you ever make yourselves slaves to your own ideas of who you think I am. I am uncontainable!'.

Conference and canoeing

2009-02-06T16:30:00.003-08:00

Just this past few days I have attended the BCCA/FCC camping conference at Stillwood Camp and Conference Centre in Chilliwack, BC. It was a most rewarding time, enjoying the company of many other people (directors, camp cooks, maintenance folk, interns, administrators all others who make a camp run). The world of camping is expanding and growing and changing all the time. What was once considered a way to have fun in the summer is a burgeoning business and a ministry that meets an enormous variety of needs and serves people of all ages all year round. I continue to have a deepening respect for those I work alongside and I hope that you, too, will grow in such respect. The highlights for me are always the connecting and relating to others who are friends, or who, for the first time, become friends in this shared adventure and love I call Christian camping.

Also, very soon, I will again be paddling down the Fraser River to raise monies to support our young volunteers who come to counsel and care for children for the summer months. Please consider this an exciting invitation to support us in our efforts to reward these young people with a bursary for tuition after their months of service. Last year over $70, 000.00 were raised and we hope to continue the momentum! For me, I just enjoy being on the mighty Fraser and steering that large voyageur down that ancient waterway with a bunch of enthusiastic paddlers. If you'd like to donate for such a cause, contact camp Squeah: www.squeah.com.

The sacrament of marriage

2009-01-17T12:14:00.002-08:00

Recently I spent some time chatting with a few of my male friends in Hope and we got onto the topic of marriage. My question to them (and to myself) was, 'why is the line of "you can't have sex until ..." right after the officiator says "I now pronounce you man and wife!"'? Which led to some very interesting discussion. But it was difficult to have an answer to this question. It has been ingrained in me that sex is only morally 'right' in the context of marriage. Which I believe wholeheartedly. But marriage now, consider this thought:

Marriage is an extremely old covenant or arrangement. In the Bible, the first woman is called Adam's wife. Interesting that this is her first title and there's no ceremony (that's recorded). It's simply a truth of her relationship with this man. We aren't given another detailed glimpse into marriage or courtship (apart from reading that, say, Noah has a wife) really, until Isaac and Rebekah get together. And even then we're only told "... and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her;" Gen. 24:67. The first marriage celebration we're invited to learn about is Jacob's marriage to Rachel & Leah.

What is interesting to me about marriage, is it's this cultural phenomenon that has been around for as long as man has lived on the planet. It is accepted as the natural and good event that binds a man and woman together. Nearly EVERY culture has this observance in it. Marriage is a universal relationship within the human race - and by extension, the family unit. And though God gives strict moral laws regarding marriage in the old testament, he does it to solidify and purify the accepted observance that has already been going on for millenia. So, people are married and given in marriage all the time ... and the church has NOTHING TO DO WITH IT! Until ... the church forms. Then, in the first few centuries of christendom the catholic church recognizes a few of the things that Jesus commands us to observe and remember (and a few others that Jesus does not ask us to remember) and calls them sacrements. These 'holy' and sacred events that all believers now should participate in. Here are some definitions of what these sacrements are: "a rite in which God is uniquely active." , "a visible sign of an invisible reality." and "an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace." . The seven sacrements of the Catholic church are: Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination, The Eucharist, Confession, Extreme Unction and Matrimony.

Matrimony, of all these actions (aside from perhaps confession) is the only event listed that was instituted by God before the church came to exist as it does today. Now as the church grew in prominence and power it also used that power to change and create a culture around itself. A 'spiritual' or 'church' culture that all Christians are a part of. This language and rituals and traditions that are unique to the church. What the Catholic church continued to do was limit the view of marriage solely to the authority of the church. So, marriage now loses, over time, it's former cultural context. It now is something condoned only in and through the catholic church. Marriage in any other context is not considered legitimate. Then the reformation happens and the Protestants toss aside a great deal of the values and traditions and cultural ideals and icons that were once associated with the sacrement of Matrimony. But the church does not relinquish its authority over the observance of marriage. So now, I would argue, today, especially in our relatively young and forming North American culture, we have this recognized relationship, honoured and serviced by the churches but with almost NO cultural significance along with it. Marriage is DEPENDANT now on how it is defined by the church in our culture.

Perhaps this is why people are sometimes disallusioned by the idea of marriage (or perhaps the church's way of instituting it). I have a particular relative who chose, against the wishes of his parents, to 'shack up' with the woman he loved. It has been many a year since then and they have exhibited all the positive aspects of a loving marriage from what I can see. They have a young daughter now as well. A number of years after their joining, they decided to go through with a marriage ceremony (more for their parents sakes it seemed to me). Were they any less married before they stood before the officiator? Were they 'living in sin' before they stood to bear witness of their mutual love and commitment to each other?

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not arguing against marraige - but I'm questioning the FORM through which this holy union has changed and become to be in our day and age and region of the world. I have often remarked, with friends nodding accent, that we seem to have lost some of the meaning of marriage when I witness a wedding feast or celebration that is not tied to the western church. Maybe because there is so much culture attached to marriage in places that it seems to have more substance as an observance. I'm not sure. But I've had these thoughts lately. Your thoughts?

Curses!

2008-12-18T11:55:00.005-08:00

Recently I have been intrigued by the amount of opinion and debate over particular controversial issues. In one such comment, somebody made the point that all people continue to live under the curses that God put on us as a result of our disobedience and desire to be separate from God. These curses are known primarily as the curse of death, of pain in childbirth, of an estrangement of the relationship between men and women and a curse upon the land and its ability to produce crops for us easily.

I have been taught that it is biblical (throughout my childhood) that this is still true today, that we live under the effects and consequences of these curses. Which, to a point, I agree. It is true of every human being that they are all to die. No one lives forever. That effect of Eve and Adam's transgression is still in place. As is the possibility of eternal separation from God. And it is true that we also need to work to provide our own sustenance, as it is true that it is a painful ordeal bearing children and there certainly has been a constant strain between the genders through all history.

But how aught we to preceive our lives now under the grace of Christ? This I wrote in response to someone who argued for the inability of all human kind to escape the consequences of these curses:

"We certainly do deal with the consequences of our actions every day, including the first act of disobedience. But I would also be careful how it is we interpret that curse. And I will hazard a new way of viewing the curse of God upon us after the Fall: we view our physical death as the true result of our actions. The consequences of disobedience. I believe that our spiritual death is also a part of this consequence. But through Jesus Christ, death itself has been turned inside out and now, as Christians, our physical death is the means by which we gain immortality and partake of fellowship with God unhindered. Death is not to be feared any more by those who believe! Why then would any other resultant effect of the Fall and its curses be observed as continuing in perpetuity? So then, it would stand to reason that this curse of men in rulership over women might also be stood on its head. Turned inside out. Made to help in the formation of the Kingdom of God, as opposed to opposing it. God has used his own curse on us to give us life, can he not also 'use' any other 'curse' he makes to guide us along to life? Not many Christians would argue with male 'headship' or leadership in the home (however you want to define that). Why is this? Because, for many, it works! Why is that? Not because it's a curse, in my opinion, but because through Christ Jesus, the curses have been made into blessings."

And has God not also turned work into a blessing as well. The need to work and provide for one's family has not changed, but the means and enjoyment by which this is done is something that becomes for us one of our, if not our, prime life fulfillment factor! Now God has turned what we do out of necessity for survival into the greatest opportunity to share the truth and presence of Christ with other people!

Boredom

2008-12-04T11:23:00.003-08:00

What is boredom, really. I have often found the whole idea of boredom somewhat ridiculous. I suppose because I have rarely found myself to be bored. This is likely due to my over active imagination and my ability to entertain myself at any given time. And also my being somewhat intraverted has helped me to be able to find solace and enjoyment whether I'm with others or not. But what causes people to be bored?

It SEEMS to me that bored people are people who are not content. Either not content with their particular activity, or not content with the circumstances they find themselves in. That said, I have certainly felt 'boredom' come on when stuck in converstation with someone I have NOTHING in common with - but then, I think that my boredom is my own fault because even then, I could actively be engaging that person to talk about things I would be interested in ... or I could simply choose to be interested in that person.

People who are bored are, not uncommonly, people who have a variety of amenities and comfort activities that could easily take up time to entertain. It almost seems that the more people seek to do to entertain themselves, the more bored or discontent they become with these activities and their own time. On the flip side, people who have relatively little seem to be able to enjoy life much more easily. Strange isn't it. This is certainly true in children who have been given a variety of toys, or not. Those who are almost forced to creat their own fun and toys seem to be able to have fun and enjoyment in any place or circumstance with whatever they have to make use of. While those who have been given the means to be entertained without having to create or think it out themselves, tend to become restless. Which is something else that is interesting with boredom: bored people are not usually slothful, they're usually restless and busy at trying to find something to entertain themselves with.

Women as leaders in the 'church'

2008-11-20T16:19:00.004-08:00

A friend of mine recently asked me my opinion of women in leadership within the 'church'. I put the word church in quotations because it is the definition of our institutionalized machine that we call church that I am particularly referring to.

So I began thinking about this topic. I have normally kept my distance and simply listened to opinions on this topic because I have never really had any good evidence or advice to form a coherent opinion on the debate and disagreement surrounding it. Though, essentially, I have come to understand, that it is traditionally viewed that women will not receive or attempt to have positions of authority within the church. Also that women will exercise particular restraint when helping to make decisions or simply talking in church. These are, I would hazard to guess, rather conservative views nowadays.

So I asked my beautiful wife Kari (pictured above) what she thought of women in the church and in the process of our conversation, I began to realize how I felt about it and I'll share that with you here:

It does not seem reasonable to me to assume that women should be relegated to any particular position of lower authority than men. Partly I come to this conclusion because I find that the Bible is full of women who are leaders (both good and poor). Partly because I believe it is God who calls all people to do and be who and what they are, not people. But it is, and has been the supposed duty of the male dominated authority of the church to discern where best to put people. It has also fallen to those men to interpret scripture as such that we have these particular views of women in the church.
It does not seem reasonable to interpret any of the verses that speak directly to women regarding their roles in the church in the epistles as completely literal and blanket truth for all time. These verses (likely more than most) have been examined thoroughly in the context and persons they were written to and about. And a good majority of the conclusions favour interpretations that do not classify or pigeonhole women into narrowly defined roles or responsibilities.
Most importantly, in the light of the character of the God I love and serve, it does not seem true that women ought to be thought of as not appropriate for positions of supposed 'high authority'. 1 Corinthians 1:27 - 29 "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." If chooses the weak and lowly and despised things to accomplish his purposes, then it stands to reason that God has already 'used' [I have recently despised using this word as such] women to much more greater profit and effectiveness in the Kingdom of God than he has men because of their relatively constant debasement by the male gender. Kind of flips our thoughts of our work for the Lord on it's head.
An interesting thought I had during this discussion with my wife was this also, that Jesus had chosen 12 male disciples. He also had numerous female disciples who were with him for a good part of His journeys. I have also found that men seem to place far more importance on numbers than women do. (I'm much more excited to watch the odometer on our vehicle hit 100,000.00 than my wife is). Not sure why this is and it isn't a judgement statement on men or women. But it almost seems to me like Jesus had more than 12 disciples. Creating the number kept the number of committed men down, but then we're told that there were a large number of women who followed and learned from him as well. Were these not also his disciples who learned the ways of Christ and gained an understanding of the good news of God's salvation too??

I'm certainly not trying to men bash here (I am a man!). But I think that the debate about women in authority over men in the church is most often tackled from a limited point of view. We so very rarely look at these type of issues from the perspective of who God is and his character. It would save us all a lot of headache and heartache if we simply knew our Lord well enough to know how he views us.

For the record, I have worked in churches and camps under the authority of women and have visited churches with women pastors and have, for the most part, had no negative opinions on their place because of their gender. If they happen to be poor leaders or poor examples of godly people, then it really doesn't matter whether their male or female, does it?? We may be better suited for particular tasks because of our strengths accorded to us because of our sex, but we ought always to make these decisions in the light of who God is and how it is that He values us.

The second Larson child has arrived!! Pictures below!

2008-11-07T09:58:00.006-08:00

At 5:24 am this morning Nov. 7th, weighing in at 8 lbs and 11 oz, 21 inches long with a full head of rather curly hair, our second boy Maerk Nils Larson emerged into the world for the first time. The birth was a far less traumatic one from when Griffin was born. Kari is doing very well and we expect to be home from the hospital tomrrow. He's healthy and breast feeding well already. Thank you to all who prayed for us and rejoice with us in this new little life. Sorry, no pictures yet. I will post some as soon as I get some in.

And yes, the baby pool is now officially closed. The winner will be declared shortly.

The baby pool contest is closed and the winner is declared below!

1. Joey Polishak! With a total of 33 pts out of a possible 50 pts!

2. Miles Bissky - a CLOSE second with 32 pts

3. A tie for third between Megan Bissky and Kyle Kjemhus with 29 pts

4. Graham Blackburn with 28 pts

5. Chris Klix with 25 pts

6. Jon Polishak with 24 pts

7. a tie for seventh between Pat Wiens and Dave Wismath with 18 pts

Tim & Kari Larson baby pool #2!! Enter and Win! revised

2008-10-24T16:35:00.002-07:00

Ok, sorry folks, I guess some people found my baby pool post a little to involved or complicated.

This is the scaled down version and if you have further questions, see the post below (the blue type are the rules).

Enter the contest by submitting a guess on a variety of categories related to the birth of our second child! Every guess is worth a $2.00 entrance fee up to a maximum of 3 guesses. A guess must include the weight (lbs, ounces), length (inches), date, time (a.m., p.m.) gender, and the name (first and middle). With such a guess you are entered into the contest! Contest closes when the specifics are disclosed and the winner (whose combined guesses are closest to the truth) will receive half the winnings. The other half go to the child's education fund.

Thanks and happy guessing!

Tim & Kari Larson baby pool #2!! Enter and Win!

2008-10-14T13:36:00.007-07:00

Baby pool guesses so far:

1. Gabriel Erik, boy, 8 lbs 11 oz, 21 inches, November 9th, 6:10 p.m.
2. Soren Timothy, boy, 8 lbs 7 oz, 21.3 inches, November 9th, 3:03 a.m.
3. Lauren Marie, girl, 7 lbs 6 oz, 19.2 inches, November 7th, 7:33 a.m.
4. Eoyewin Peregrin, hermaphrodite, 6 lbs 8 oz, 18.5 inches, Oct. 31st, 6:00 a.m.
5. Mahar Nebucadnezzer, boy?, 7 lbs 3 oz, 20.5 inches, Nov. 7th 11:11 p.m.
6. Morgan Rebecca, girl, 8 lbs 9 oz, 20.5 inches, Nov. 1st, 7:30 a.m.
7. Guy Fox, boy, 7 lbs 9 oz, 23 inches, Nov. 5th, 11:00 a.m.
8. Ferdinand Railroad, boy, 7 lbs 5 oz, Nov. 4th, 2:34 a.m. (length?)
9. Bertrand Russel, boy, 7 lbs 5 oz, Nov. 6th, 10:06 p.m. (length?)
10. Pascal Brennan, boy, 7 lbs 5 oz, Nov. 5th, 5:25 p.m. (length?)
11. Benjamin Evelin, boy, 9 lbs 2 oz, 20.5 inches, Nov. 6th, 2:47 a.m.
12. Cassidy Phaydra, girl, 8 lbs 7 oz, 19 inches, Nov. 7th, 2:17 p.m.

There have been a few other incomplete guesses I'm waiting on as well. A few adendems to the rules: You are allowed no more than 2 middle names in the guess. If the child does NOT have two middle names, the middle name that gains you the most points will be used. Names chosen as guesses must be a reasonable, widely accepted names and not simply a string of letters or words put together. Name guesses must be in the english language and common names from other nationalities are accepted. All names will be reviewed for legitimacy and entrants will be asked to submit a proper name if the guess is unreasonable. If the gender guessed is 'hermaphrodite' or some other combination of sexes, then the child MUST be that particular gender classification as assigned by the doctor after birth for that guess to count for points.

We're less than 4 weeks away from the due date of our second child and I'm excited to announce that we're opening another baby pool for you to enter. It is much the same as last years except there will be a few slight changes to the rules and you'll have more time to guess and get your entrance fee in.

Because of complaints and discovered truths of baby's birth, I have removed the option of guessing the childs hair colour and eye colour. I said the winning hair and eye colours were blond and blue. I've since been told that EVERY child is born with blue eyes (is this true?) and their eyes change colour quickly after birth. Also, a child's hair is generally rather wet and can also change quickly after birth so it's true colour is sometimes up for debate.

Here's some details of last years pool:

Total Pool Winnings amount (all guesses included): $151.00
Winnings: $75.00; Baby education fund deposit: $76.00
Total # of guesses: 73

The rules are below for the pool. The Pool is open from the time this post is posted.

Pool fee minimum: $2.00

Entrants must guestimate the baby's weight (in lbs & oz's), length (in inches), gender, name (first & middle) and date and time of birth. Entrant whose combined guesses are nearest the actual will win. Winner will receive half the pool money. The other half of the winnings will go towards the child's education fund to be set up by the parents. Only three guesses per participant. $2.00 fee per guess required. Once submitted to the parents, the guesses will stand and cannot be changed or swapped or removed. Winnings cannot be awarded until winner's entrant fee is submitted. If winner does not submit fee within a week of disclosed winning specifics, winnings will go to the next closest entrant whose guess and fee are submitted. Weight, name and time of birth guesses nearest to the actual will add to the probability of a win. For example: if actual name is Ferdinand Englebert and guessed name is Frank Vince, points towards the guess are awarded for every correct letter in the actual name found in the guessed name. So the letters F, R, A, N, I and E are all correct letters and count as points towards a win. Also, if actual time is 6:42 pm and closest guessed time is 6:40 pm, points towards that guess are awarded to deciding the winner. Time guesses must include a.m. or p.m. suffixes. Entrants may otherwise scheme, plot, conspire, collude and machinate to their hearts content but may not, in any way, request leading information from the parents. The pool is open to anyone wishing to join who is at least acquainted with the parents. Pool closes when the actual information is disclosed to the populace. Disclosure will be formally done on Tim's blog: www.greycladmystery.blogspot.com. Guestimates may be entered on paper in person, via e-mail (to greyclad@gmail.com), via snail mail (#2 27915 Trans Canada Hwy, Hope BC, V0X 1L3), on Tim's blog posted as a comment below on this post or on Tim's Facebook profile as a private message. Pool fees may be done via cash or cheque. Cheques may be made out to Tim or Kari Larson. Pool fees are non-refundable.

The points system works as follows:

Guess closest to baby's actual weight when born = 10 points
Second closest guess to baby's actual weight when born = 9 points ... and so on

Guess closest to baby's actual time of delivery = 10 points
Second closest guess to baby's actual time of delivery = 9 points ... and so on

Guess closest to baby's actual length when born = 10 points
Second closest guess to baby's actual length when born = 9 points ... and so on

Guess that is correct for baby's actual date of birth = 10 points. 1 point is deducted from every date guess for every day removed from the date of birth. So, if actual date of birth is Nov. 5th 2008 and guess is Nov. 4th or 6th, either of those guesses will receive 9 points.

Guess that is correct for baby's gender = 10 points

Guess closest to baby's names: 1 point is awarded for every correct letter in the first name and middle name. For instance, last year's winning guess was Franklin Bruce. The actual name was Griffin Bruce. This guess, now would have received one point for each letter in the word 'Franklin' that is also in the word 'Griffin'. So that means 1 F, 1 R, 1 N, and 1 I would receive points towards the first name (4 points total); and the middle name, being the same as the actual, would receive 5 points for that guess (one for every correct letter) for a total of 9 points between both names.

Thank you and good luck!!

The end of a Summer and the rewards therein

2008-08-27T10:30:00.003-07:00

I have just completed another summer of camping ministry. An excellent summer from all respects. I have thoroughly enjoyed the staff team I worked with and am already excited and anticipating the upcoming year with thoughts of positive changes to our program and curriculum which will hopefully enhance our mandate: to create an environment in which God might work in the hearts of others.

I am exhausted though. It's a long process of preparation through the Spring that helps make a summer an excellent one. And bringing on a staff team and working with them to help them develop their own character as they serve children in a camp setting takes an extraordinary amount of energy. But I believe it is more than worth it.

As I was finishing my work this summer I was considering how absolutely enjoyable I consider my work and I wondered to myself this question: I wonder how many people find that thing which they enjoy most in life as an occupation - I mean, truly find it ... and DO it! You know, their dream job. What's the perentage? I'm not entirely certain, but at least for now, I feel I have found that which I love to do. It isn't a cooshy job but it is a most rewarding job. I find it utilizes a variety of skills that I have and puts me in contact with some excellent people. Plus I feel I am privileged to be making a difference in the lives of children. That, to me, is one of the greatest rewards of what I do.

Resting in Peace

2008-06-08T09:35:00.003-07:00

It's an odd thing, that the thing we fear most in life - death, is the means by which we find peace in the end. 'Rest in peace' is the eulogy written on most any tombstone. The implication being the deceased is no longer in struggle while in life.

Speaking of death and peace, two people passed away a couple of days ago that were dear to us. Paul Awalt, Kari's Uncle, and husband to Cathy Awalt of Victoria, passed away. He was loved and cared for by Cathy all his days and is sorely missed.

As well, Rita Lihaven, a beautiful woman of God, who helped to usher in a new era of camping at Camp Kawkawa as I entered that place and time. Rita passed away due to the ravages of cancer in her body. She mentored me into the executive director position at Camp Kawkawa in 2005 and went on to sit on the board for Kawkawa and district executive board for the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church in BC. She was a woman of great passion and care for others. She loved Christ and was moved by the Spirit. She was a good friend.

May they rest in peace

Peace

2008-05-25T15:30:00.002-07:00

Is it possible, do you think, to have peace without conflict?

When Christ says, 'peace l leave with you; my peace I give to you ... ' what is he saying?

New Baby on the way!

2008-04-08T11:04:00.003-07:00

For those of you who do not yet know, the Larson family is due to increase by one before the end of the year! November 5th is our due date for our second child. I was so excited about it I accidentally let it slip ... ok, it wasn't accidental, it was somewhat deliberate. But I couldn't hold it in! We're eagerly awaiting the birth of #2!

Comparative sizes of astronomical bodies

2008-03-21T18:27:00.007-07:00

I find this fascinating. A little perspective of space and size.

The Bible (from the greek = byblos; meaning book)

2008-03-11T13:15:00.006-07:00

The Bible. The Book, as it were. I have recently heard it stated, or described, that the Bible is not the full expression of who God is, but that it is the very MINIMUM that we require to understand the character of our Almighty Lord and His plan of salvation. It is a selective document put together to give us a glimpse into God's mind and heart and His dealings, feelings and actions towards His creation.

I have read so many different statement's of belief that state the Bible is the FINAL authority on all these godly matters. Well, it certainly states them clearly and gives us more than enough to chew on. It is our only logged reliable account, that I know, of the central actions that provide our salvation and record the great work of Jesus Christ. It is the written insight into the Truth of who Jesus Christ truly is. These I do not doubt. But what do people mean by final authority? Is this still a worisome dreg left over from the cup of anger we poured out on the Roman Catholics in the 16th century? What of all the evidence and God-encounters and life experience we gain in living for Christ? What of all the things HE has revealed to me that I have not found written in the Bible? What of all the things not explained and seemingly unexplainable, in the Bible?

Here's a quote from Brian McLaren's book "The Story We Find Ourselves In"

"... I think that's another flase impression that preachers and pastors often give: that the Bible is God's answer book to remove all mysteries and make everything simple and clear. The fact is, the Bible deals with life's absurdities and craziness with pretty amazing honesty. Sometimes, the best the Bible does is to name the agony, you know, just describe it without attempting to resolve it or explain it. Sometiems, I think the Bible is more of a question book than answer book; it raises questions that bring people together for conversation about life's most important issues."

The link between knowledge and responsibility

2008-03-10T15:28:00.004-07:00

A quote from this great fantasy novel:

"You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought, once. So did we all. And the truth is that as a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do ..."

Paddle-a-thon

2008-03-04T16:02:00.003-08:00

On April 19th/20th I will again be paddling the Fraser River from Hope to Fort Langley with a variety of individuals in Camp Squeah's annual paddle-a-thon. The event promotes the financial support of young people who are in post-secondary education but are coming volunteer their service to camp. The paddler's each are raising monies for bursaries for these summer staff members to be able to come and serve on our staff team and be able to afford tuition costs when they return to school.

If you'd like to, you may support me in this exciting venture by either sending cheques to Camp Squeah made out to Camp Squeah with my name and 'paddle-a-thon' somewhere on the cheque, or you are more than welcome to come and celebrate this great event in Fort Langley on the Sunday afternoon as we arrive at our final destination on the beach! Or do both! It's a great fun time, either way. And we even have some young staff coming and paddling down the river too.

Thank you to all for your love and care of young people in this ministry.

For more information check out the new Camp Squeah website: http://www.squeah.com

Enter through a gate

2008-02-21T21:17:00.002-08:00

What comes to mind when you read this passage:

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

A woman's intuition

2008-02-15T22:35:00.010-08:00

I have been doing a little thinking, lately, on how it is that women are different from men. But just one aspect of this topic because I can only think one topic at a time, especially when it comes to women, or, more specifically, my wife, with whom I am constantly reminded of how different we are.

This is just it: I have been contemplating how a woman feels and what causes a woman to feel or have feelings for different reasons. To begin with, because they seem much different responses, feeling wise, than how I react to the circumstances of my life. It is becoming more and more apparent (though I think my wonderful wife would wish it was an even quicker process) that everything in a woman's world (and I'm going to make a few grand generalizations here, because I know very little about the mind of a woman) is connected. Everything affects everything else. When my wife, Kari, has a particularly negative circumstance in a day, that circumstance affects EVERY aspect of her day for the remainder of that day ... and sometimes longer. Depending on the magnitude of that negative circumstance. Honestly, it drives me a little crazy because I simply do not react in a similar fashion.

But I have been wondering, because it seems that the good majority of women feel or think this way and have been doing so since the beginning of time. So, it seems this is a completely natural aspect to their character. But I would argue that this aspect has been the staging point for man's subversive attitude towards the feminine for the same length of time. We have believed that it is 'weakness' to be hampered by emotions and feelings, as it often seems to us men. It is encumbering and limiting. It is illogical and sometimes irrational to us. But that certainly doesn't make it wrong.

Now I believe that we are the carriers of God's image and character. If so, then in this natural way of interacting with the world around them, may be another extension of God's character that we men have blatantly ignored and frowned upon and laughed at. A woman's ability to 'feel' many things at the same time ... almost seems like they have a little bit of the 'omni' that God has. Our God and Father is the only One who can, at all times, feel all things and be in communion and relationship with everyone at the same time. God is always omnifeeling! He is saddened by the sin of some, rejoicing over the choices of others, and constantly responding to each of us individually and well as communally. This is completely unfathomable, EXCEPT that women do that to some extent themselves! They feel many things at once. And I have talked to a number of women who wish they didn't. It is sometimes confusing to women why they feel so much at once, and frustrating for them too. It is overwhelming. I'm overwhelmed by it and I don't even do it! I wonder too, if this might not be linked to this 'woman's intuition' that we sometimes label but can't explain how a woman can 'know' something that is otherwise unknowable. We shrug it off, but it's a little crazy that we do so and not consider that God may be at work expressing himself in some mighty way through his feminine creation.

Just a thought, and perhaps a defense of women and their created state in relation to us as men and the God who created them.

Poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889)

2008-02-15T09:06:00.003-08:00

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck (accede;understand) his rod (rule)?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wear man's smudge and share man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs -
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

The suppression of the conscience - Tolstoy

2008-01-15T12:03:00.000-08:00

A quote from Leo Tolstoy's The Lion and the Honeycomb

"People smoke and drink not out of boredom or in order to cheer themselves up, not simply because they like it, but in order to suppress their conscience. If that is true, then the consequences must be awful indeed. Imagine a building constructed by people who, instead of using a rule and a square to get the walls perpendicular and the corners rectangular, used a soft rule which adapted to the irregularities in the wall and a square which bent to fit any angle, acute or obtuse!
But this is just what happens in life when we intoxicate ourselves. Life does not accord with our conscience, so we bend our conscience to fit life."

And I would hazard to guess that we also 'intoxicate' ourselves thusly with entertainment, wealth, anger, sexual dis/misorientation, etc. I'll let Tolstoy continue:

"Everyone will find that at each period of his life he was confronted by several moral dilemmas, and that his well-being depended on the correct resolution of these dilemmas. The resolution of such dilemmas requires a degree of attention which constitutes true labour. In any labour, especially at the beginning, there comes a time when the work seems painfully difficult, and our human weakness prompts us to abandon it. Physical labour seems painful at the beginning; intellectual labour all the more so. As Lessing says, people have a tendency to stop thinking when it first becomes difficult; and it is at that point, I would add, that thinking becomes fruitful. A man [or woman] senses that the resolution of the questions before him demands labour - often painful labour - and he wants to evade this. If he had no means of stupefying himself, he would be unable to drive the questions out of his concsiousness, and he would be forced, against his will, to resolve them. Instead of this , however, he has found means to drive the questions away as soon as they arise. As soon as the questions demanding resolution begin to torment him, he resorts to these means and so avoids the anxiety they evoke. ... And yet it is the resolution of moral questions that constitutes the movement of life."

What think you?

A Lack of Heaven

2008-01-11T11:19:00.000-08:00

A while ago, I was privileged to take part in a National Ministry Gathering for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship wherein all the IVCF staff workers from across Canada gather to encourage one another and gain perspective on the purpose of the organization from a national viewpoint. At one such gathering, my conception of heaven was greatly challenged by an insightful and motivating biblical scholar. Because of these thoughts I have come to discard my taught interpretation of heaven (as in, that ethereal 'somewhere' where we end up floating in the clouds playing harps wearing long white robes).

Instead of this evangelical insubstantial interpretation, I have come to believe that I don't really know the place where we will be gathered as God's children. But honestly, I'm far more inclined to believe that we will live, much as we are, in body and in relation to one another but without any fear or shame or selfish ambition, on the earth in its renewed state.

The arguments that intercepted my former belief were this, that the majority of heavenly afterlife visions, and including the coversations of Jesus, speak not of us going 'up' to a 'heavenly' place, but rather, Christ and all God's host returning to earth. The only visions we have of a heaven apart from earth are given in the book of Revelation in John's attempts with his own eyes to describe the indescribable. But what is this place? We cannot know. At the end of the Book of Revelation, there is a description of a 'new heaven and a new earth' (Rev. 21:1) that is described as a gigantic city that is exactly the shape of a cube! A cube?? What an impossible shape for a city. Not only that it was an impossible 1,500 miles in each direction! And it is described as beautiful, with streets of gold and all that, but it's dimensions are a little mind boggling and I can't imagine living in such a place. But what was fascinating was this, that the distance measured for the city was approximately the size of the known world at the time. John was perhaps describing the earth itself ... but more than that. What other place is described in the Bible as a perfect cube? The answer was: the Holiest of Holies. That place within the temple, as laid out by the Lord Himself, where He alone dwelt and could be visited by His people. The living place of God! God's dwelling place. But now we are God's dwelling place by His Holy Spirit. We are His Holiest of Holies. And yet this city descends down to us and becomes for us the living place of all God's loved ones. Could this not be a vision of God coming to us and renewing for us this earth he created, even as we are renewed into His likeness, and then forever living with Him without fear or sin!

God has always ever come to us. I find nowhere in scripture, or in my own life experience, where we have first gone to Jesus. He has always been the instigater of salvation and relationship renewed with his creation. These thoughts just seem to make so much more sense. Not that God needs to make sense, but there is far more to life after death than just sitting around and playing harps, for sure.

To have a body

2007-12-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

A thought I had this Christmas season ...

It is a glorious time of year to celebrate and reflect upon the greatness of our Lord to have come and become Jesus Christ for us - the infinite God unbound and unlimited in every aspect of character, metamorphed into the form of one of his own creations. A human being with muscles that cramp, a bladder that fills, a bowel system that moves, eyes that see, ears that listen, a voice that speaks in the physical realm of our world.

But what gets me lately is this: Jesus Christ still has a body! And many of you might say, yeah, so? SO! I have never before considered the ramifications of this aspect of our Lord's sacrifice. I have so often viewed Christ's life here as a gloriously humble life of a little over 30 years, death, a remarkable victory over death and sin and his life returned to him by God our Father with the body he was killed in, then taken from us to sit next to God in heaven. And then we focus on the Spirit coming to help us here, still bound and fettered by our fleshly vehicles until we too might ... might what? Become unfettered? With what did our Lord return to God in if not his body he was raised? Does not Jesus Christ still have his body on? And will he not now have this body wrapped around him for eternity?? Though not directly stated, it seems well implied that when Christ gave of his life, it was not only to gain the ability to die and return from death, but to forever live as we live, forever encased in flesh (a body that now lives forever without disease or death) and so forever upholding our case and need for life and compassion before our awesome God. "Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because jesus lives forever, he has a permanent preisthood. Therefore he is able to save those completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to interecede for them." Hebrews 7:23 - 25 "So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. ... And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven." 1 Corinthians 15:42 - 44, 49. "Dear friends, now we are children of god, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 1 John 3:2

These are some thoughts and it may be that I am in great error. And I will definitely plead a near inexhaustable amount of ignorance on this subject. But it seems to me that, though I do not consider Jesus to be any less limitlessly powerful or limited because of his eternal existance with a body, he made this part of the sacrifice for our salvation: to live forever as we are and will be and were intended to be.

Dust

2007-11-26T09:48:00.000-08:00

I have lately been privileged to own a number of short teaching video's done by a young pastor by the name of Rob Bell. They have short misleading names like Flame or Noise or Bullhorn. They are all no longer than 15 minutes or so and focus on a simple theme or concept that Rob explores. They are quite insightful.

One particular video, Dust, is excellent. Through it I have gained a greater understanding of the relationship that Jesus Christ had with his disciples. The video gives some clear description of life in first century Palestine - (Spoiler warning - I am going to describe the video Dust here in detail). If you've never seen the video, I encourage you to do so. Rob begins by sharing what religious education was like for a young jew: first, around the age of 6 or so, young jews were expected to memorize the Torah (the first 5 books of the old testament) by the age of 10. Then at the age of ten they entered the next phase of religious education (each has it's name that I can neither pronounce or spell) wherein they are expected to memorize the REST of the old testament: all 30 some odd books - most of the bible. So then, at the age of around 15 or 16 or so, if they've done well and have shown great aptitude in this oral memorization, they would greatly desire to be apprenticed by any one of a number of Rabbi - religious teachers. The idea being that this young teenager, if they showed promise, would dedicate their life to becoming like their Rabbi! They would then begin to follow this Rabbi around everywhere, living with, eathing with, debating with, learning from this teacher. But only if the Rabbi first thought this young person had what it took to be like him. To become like the Rabbi. To carry his 'yoke', as they called it. If they young person was not shown to have promise to be like the Rabbi, didn't have what it took to become like the Rabbi, they would be encouraged to go home and take up the family trade or business.

Well, when Jesus approached Peter as he was fishing, he said, 'follow me'. That was what a Rabbi would say to a new apprentice who had just been accepted! The reality is, though, that Peter, fishing in the family trade with his father, was one of those who didn't make the cut ... he didn't have what it took to become an apprentice of a Rabbi. He was probably no older than 20 years old! And Jesus, a Rabbi, comes to him, and essentially says - 'I believe you can become like me - follow me'. No WONDER Peter just drops his nets and follows! This is the most coveted and honoured profession of his time and some respected and esteemed Rabbi comes to him and says these words. God is saying to him - I believe you can be like me!

Death

2007-11-20T11:03:00.001-08:00

Why is it that when someone dies, those that go to honour that persons death tend to, it seems to me, over-exaggerate their life's good attributes. It's almost as though the deceased was always 'a friend to everyone!' and 'loved by all!'. They could never have done any wrong, it seems, while they were alive. When, as we all know, there is no perfect human being on this earth. I have no problem with respecting life and honouring people and what they've done for others. But why do we remember all these great things - or ...

Perhaps our perspective changes when someone dies, for a few brief moments, or for maybe close to a day or two. While we remember a beloved lost to us, maybe, just maybe, God has made it so that for a brief moment we have a glimpse into the true value of every human being - of that human being that we loved so dearly. And the only way we can seem to describe this new perspective is to hyperbolize their character and relationship to others.

Just a thought.

Haggard

2007-10-01T21:02:00.000-07:00

Where the word came from as described in Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. I have to admint, I have found myself spending a ridiculous amount of time reading Uncle John's while warming the porcelain throne.

"Haggard

Meaning: Appearing tired or worn out

Origin: 'When the Normans conquered England in 1066, they brought with them their own style of falconry. The Old French word falcon referred only to female hawks, while the male was called a tercel (that's where Toyota got it). A wild bird trapped for falconry was called a haggard. These haggards were often uncontrollable and difficult to train, an soon haggard was being used to describe unruly, intractable people, and, eventually, the gaunt appearance of an exhausted person.' (From Once Upon a Word, by Rob Kyff)"

Busyness and Morality

2007-09-13T21:47:00.000-07:00

Would you agree with this statement: That we put an excessive moral value on the amount of activity we are engaged in ... that is, busyness. We feel pleased with ourselves somehow and are expecting others also to be busy and are somehow pleased with it. After a number of good discussions on this topic with a friend, I've come to view much of my busyness as actually at least somewhat detrimental to my livelihood and general health and wellbeing. There is no greater moral benefit to being busy to me and yet I feel a pressure around me from others to believe there is. Do you agree?

Grif pics

2007-07-25T23:14:00.000-07:00

Some shots of Griffin from a little over a week ago at Kari's sisters wedding in Powell River with her family.

Joanne havin' a laugh with Griffin.

Happy Griffin.

The Grifster.

Griffin in his wedding suit.

To spiritualize or to realize

2007-07-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

Well, after a whirlwind introduction to a new life and work at Camp Squeah, I've finally found some time to write. So here it is:

I've been doing some thinking lately on how people, Christians in particular, tend to spiritualize things.

Now let me define the word 'spiritualize' for you. And I don't think this is in any dictionary so you will have to bear with me as I attempt to put into words this sometimes difficult concept. To spiritualize is to emphasize or stress the relative importance of a situation, circumstance, person or phenomenon from a spiritual perspective or its spiritual perspective. Or it is used as a verb to give a spiritual dimension to something that might not have been perceived to have such a dimension previously. Therefore, it usually falls to those who believe in spiritual concepts and worlds and relationships to do this thing called spiritualizing. The word, as I've heard it, is often used to describe how one might OVER emphasize the spiritual nature of a concept, to put far greater value on 'spiritual' matters as opposed to, say, physical matters.

It seems to me, also, that there are great number of Christians who do this 'spiritualizing' quickly and with great affect after they have newly come to know Jesus. After perhaps discovering the spiritual component to their lives to be true and real, and perhaps in an honest attempt to make true that which they are just beginning to understand - namely that God is real, He lives in them, that they are saved/being saved of all that was destroying them, they then try to re-explain all of life through their new found viewpoint.

The danger in over-spiritualizing something is that we put too much value on one thing and in so doing take away truth or value of something else. It seems to me some Christians put so much emphasis on supposedly spiritual matters that they separate completely the reality of the world they live in from its spiritual significance. It appears to me that God had never intended for this to happen or for us to do this. The greatest example we have is our own bodies and souls. We are beings created specifically to integrate perfectly the physical and spiritual worlds. Our spirits reside in our bodies, and even Christ resides with us when He comes to us. To separate our spirits from our bodies is to take away life. The separation of body and spirit is death to us! It was never meant to be. God created us to be these wonderful creatures, created with His image, interacting with Him (Spirit) and all other created things around us (Physical) at the same time. Granted our spiritual nature, without Jesus, is corrupt and dying, much as our bodies die, but they are still inextricably interwoven apurpose.

Over-spiritualizing, as I have experienced it, seems to create religious or spiritual fanatics; religious hypocrites; spiritually & emotionally unhealthy people. Trying to find grand spiritual significance in all of life's circumstances only puffs us up to make us seem more 'spiritual' as though to justify our own existence because we're ashamed, maybe, of our lives before Christ. In my opinion, an ungodly point of view. I believe Jesus pointed out these religious inconsistencies with many people, in particular the priests and pastors of his day, the pharisees and other religious zealots whom He described as: "...whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness." Matthew 23:28. It appears to me that the apostle Paul may also have opposed this issue in Colosse with his letter to them: "Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head [Jesus], from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow." Colossians 2:18,19.

Please do not mistake my thoughts as a devaluing of things spiritual. I find that as I mature and learn from Jesus, I discover more and more how important the spiritual aspects of life are as they relate to the physical aspects of life. In fact, I have found that in the tiniest of life's details, there God is at work to produce in me His character and to teach us who He is. I do also believe that it is unhealthy to focus on that which is dying and decaying, our bodies and temporal circumstances, and other things we have no control over. God is present in so many ways that I am not yet aware of that I'm sure it is only due to my inability to see Him that I do not acknowledge just how involved He is in our world and lives ... and often in ways we never expect Him to be. Most especially in places and people and circumstances that we would quickly dismiss as 'unspiritual'.

I wonder if I've made any sense in my attempt to unveil these thoughts. Comments?

Quote from George MacDonald

2007-07-15T00:08:00.001-07:00

"... there are victories far worse than defeats; and to overcome an angel too gentle to put out all his strength, and ride away in triumph on the back of a devil, is one of the poorest."

From George MacDonald's story The Wise Woman

Like a little Santa

2007-07-15T00:02:00.000-07:00

I love this photo! Just recently taken.

Doesn't he look like a merry little elf? Ha ha ha!

Disecting perfection

2007-06-02T11:28:00.001-07:00

A response to a comment on my recent perfection post:

First off, the post below was something I wrote on the front of my wife's birthday card just a few days ago. It came out of a theme I wanted to get across to her, it being her 27th birthday, and I wanted to impress upon her that to me she was perfect (7 often being a symbol of perfection).

Now obviously I wasn't trying to dupe her into believing she's perfect physically or spiritually or any such unattainable state that would be untrue of any human being. But what I was intending to say, and what came out of that expression, was a truth of perfection in my mind ... or perhaps a different definition of perfection.

God calls us to be perfect. But what does that mean? When we say 'nobody's perfect', what are we saying? Well, I suppose we're saying, no one is God. No one person ever makes a perfectly right choice every time. And no one has flawless character, like God. But I don't think perfect, from God's perspective has anything to do with the outward appearance, though that is a word we've used to describe many physical attributes (workmanship done with hands, the absence of mistakes or flaws, what most people subjectively believe to be beautiful). What I was attempting to say to my wife Kari, was that God's choice for her as my wife was 'perfect'. And I'm not some relationship guru who has it all figured out ... but somehow in the circumstance of our marriage, God's perfectness was a part of what happened. Perhaps because HE was, we see, the prime reason we have each other. There is perfection within our own circumstances.

And then in the indwelling of God within us, one of the greatest mysteries ever, there is perfection then in all of us, living and striving with us to produce in us, through life, godly perfection. Not pharisitical aloofness. Not hierarchical religious pompousness. Not any order created by man. Purely and simply, God's character lived out by God Himself through us. A mystery I love because of its overreaching implications on my person and all those around me. I am forever changed and changing to become the person God intended me to be.

Then of course, we have Jesus Christ. Who is described as even kind of ugly physically, and yet we consider to have lived a perfect life. So then, what does that mean ... ?

Perfection

2007-05-31T00:30:00.001-07:00

Perhaps perfection has little to do with the quality of our actions

Perhaps perfection has more to do with the quality of God's choices and His workmanship in us.

New pics and new home

2007-05-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it takes a long time to upload photos, so I'm doing them a few at a time. But anyway, we're well and healthy, if a little stressed from all the changes in our lives of late. The people of Hope, especially our good friends, have been absolutely fantastic in helping us move and get settled in. So, we're into our new (giant) home, though it's only partially finished renovations, and, as my boss says, I'm jumping in head first into my job, which I'm enjoying. Griffin is 28 inches long and 17 lbs at 4 months. Today he laughed for an extended period of time, jumped in the jolly jumper for the first time and I played some sweet music on the guitar which he loved. Lots has happened in a little while but we're well.

On the move

2007-04-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

After nearly two years in the town of Hope, Kari, Griffin and I are now moving to a new location just 10 minutes up the #1 Hwy to Camp Squeah where we will live in a newly renovated house. It's a large house, full of rooms for guests and visitors. We're still not far from Hope and if you're thinking you'd like to come and visit on your way through, please stop in!

We have grown to love this little town of highways, mountains, rivers and lakes. And now I'm walking into a new community with people with a history of Mennonite heritage, and a camp that has been in active service since 1961.

The Paddle-a-thon, by the way, was a great success. Weather was good, the river was high (which allowed us to avoid a number of difficult passages on the river), no one ended up in the river and we enjoyed each other as we paddled along. There were 17 paddlers and 18 fund-raisers and together more than $48,000.00 were raised to support volunteer student summer staff! Fantastic! Now we're looking to fill these positions and serve and love the young people that come to enjoy people and place of Camp Squeah.

With the move happening in a couple of days I'm not sure when next I'll be on to post on this blog. We'll be living in a remote area and connection speed is slower, but as soon as I can, I'll let you know how we're doing.

Bon voyage!

Paddle-a-thon 2007!

2007-04-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

Now as the new Program Director for Camp Squeah, I'm leaping right into Squeah's annual fund-raiser.

Our goal: raise enough funds to support our mature young leaders who volunteer at camp all summer to serve and love children who are afterwards attending post secondary education.

My offer to you: consider helping us to love and support these young people who give of themselves for others by pledging me funds as I paddle down the Fraser River next weekend! From Saturday until Sunday, from Hope to Fort Langley I'll be paddling with many others. If you'd like to do this, please e-mail me at camp: tim@squeah.com or phone me (604) 869 5353.

Compunction

2007-04-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

Easter is the celebration of the event that constitutes the foundation and centrality of our belief and knowledge of Jesus Christ and God. It is the crux of humanity and the reason for our salvation. And even though two statutory holidays are given to us for this time, most people find it difficult to invent ways to celebrate it. The best our depraved society can deal with it is to throw a bunny on a poster and encourage you to buy chocolate eggs? What does that have to do with God sending his son who dies condemned to death and then rises from the dead? (Just a little of my own frustration coming out here).

A few days ago a renowned teacher, who I respect and am growing to appreciate more and more, proposed the idea that compunction (or pain of the soul) is the desired means by which God moves us towards intimacy with himself. That on our journey of life that we all must travel, not only can you not escape compunction and pain, but that it is actually thrust upon you through life's circumstances ... maybe on purpose ... by God who loves you. This compunction, as I understand it, comes in many forms. We all experience it. Most commonly we experience compunction as the pain of longing - we all long for something/someone. It is a pain because it is a need that is not fully met or filled. And as there are many types of travelors, there are as many ways of attempting to alleviate this longing and pain.

We are MOVED by God through pain. Through 'unfullfilledness'. The ancient Jews saw all aspects of life as given by God, for good reason. Job replies to his wife's despair by saying, when all his world had fallen in around him, "... Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" I wonder if we ought not to spurn the pain of our hearts by shaking our fists at God, but to contemplate the truth behind the pain. The reason for our compunction. For that which pricks us to travel. For we do not move ourselves close to Jesus; Jesus moves himself closest to us through the greatest pain imaginable - death. Through his own great compunction, an unresolved relationship with us his loved creation, God allows a separation of his own, a pain so unbearable it is unimaginable to restore what was broken.

I wonder at times if there is perhaps much more to the phrase: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowsip of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." That in sharing in Christ's sufferings, we accept the 'pains' God thrusts upon us as loving prods towards greater knowledge and intimacy with the Creator of all.

Some shots from our trip to Victoria

2007-04-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

I love this shot!

Travelers

2007-03-29T19:46:00.000-07:00

In the journey of life there are all types of travelers. There are those who wander aimlessly, with little knowledge or desire to look for a path to follow. There are others who travel purely for the pleasure of seeing the sights. Still others seek fame and fortune, or perhaps a chance to have a trail named after them in their memory for some great deed. And there are those who walk with determination but with longing to live within the journey as it comes to their feet; helping others along the way. Are you wayfarer, tourist, hero or pilgrim?

Position vs. Person

2007-03-17T12:11:00.000-07:00

I find it remarkable how great at classifying people we are. And a great majority of our classifying often comes as a result of observing what it is people do. But how is it that we somehow justify our perseptions and observations of a persons character and personality because of what we know they maybe do for a living.

This seems to me to be exceptionally true in evangelical christian churches. Though it's true elsewhere as well. A 'pastor friend' of mine and I were walking into a building one day and we happened to see a few people from the church we go to in the parking lot. One of these persons was smoking. After we had entered the building my 'pastor friend' asked if I had seen what had just happened as we said hello to those people in the parking lot. I said I hadn't. He said 'The one person smoking instincivley ducked down behind the car when she saw me.' And he looked at me and we both laughed. I have seen these people smoking before and they have felt no obligation to hide it from me, but when a 'pastor' sees you, it's somehow worse. Or perhaps Pastors are the morality police? As though wearing that particular title makes them something different than what they are already ... human.

We can't seem to help to do this, can we. We think mathmeticians are dull, construction workers are crude, pastors are 'holier than thou', car sales people are conniving, lawyers are swindlers, doctors are 'all knowing', etc, etc. These are our prejudices. We even pass them onto ourselves! I know that at times when I have taken a particular role or job, I have tried to assume characteristics that I though I ought to have because of the position I carried. But often those characteristics have nothing to do with who I am. Sometimes, especially in christian circles, others try to force us into particular moral molds because of a position of authority we've been given.

Are we purely what we do? I sure hope not.

Birdie blooper

2007-03-11T23:07:00.001-07:00

So ... today I heard a story.

Lately, a lady brought a pet blue bird in to the veterenarian for some special treatment. Apparently the bird had beak fungus! How does a bird contract beak fungus? Anyway, so the bird has a fungus and the vet's solution to the idea was to fry the fungus off. He's going to cauderize the beak ... that can't feel good. So, to prevent the bird from flipping out for getting roasted for its beak fungus he decides to anesthetize the bird ... with ether. Which apparently is an anesthetic.

What the vet didn't calculate was the effect high temperatures have on a highly volatile and flammable gas-like substance such as ether. Ha ha. Next scene: a giant POOF and the vet promplty walks out of the room covered in blue feathers! Bye bye birdie :).

Bookkeeping

2007-03-08T00:45:00.000-08:00

Bookkeeping. It's the only word in the english language I have seen that has three letters repeated twice in a row. But that's not why I have it as a title ...

Bookkeeping. It's what we do to manage our finances and keep everything legal and within the laws and guidelines that are proscribed for us as Canadians. It is also, I have been challenged to believe, something we do psychologically/mentally to provide a basis for our own worth and value as human beings. We bookkeep. That is, we keep record of certain things in our lives, and the lives of others, to make it easier for us to provide a foundation by which we judge what is valuable ... or not. Or WHO is valuable ... or not as valuable. This thought was a challenge by my good friend Pat Wiens one Sunday evening.

So it got me thinking. Do I do my spiritual and mental bookkeeping for myself or do I let God provide for me the basis by which I value myself and others. Let me go into a little more detail on what this term 'bookkeeping' means. It means I am prone to keep a record of things I have done or not done and I log them into my person to make myself either feel better or worse. So by doing good things for others, I log them as things that make me a better person, particularly in God's eyes (since I profess to love and serve Him). And alternatively, when I do things that harm others, I log them as things that ultimately make me less of a better person. But we are challenged that we ought not to view ourselves this way at all! That God does not keep books on our rights and wrongs. But doesn't He??

So I looked up some passages ... "Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will rewad everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free." Eph. 6:7,8 "... great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to all the ways of men; you reward everyone according to his conduct and as his deeds deserve." Jeremiah 32:19 "For the Son of Man [Jesus] is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done." Matthew 16:27 "The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labour." 1 Corinthians 3:8 "The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness. ... " 1 Samuel 26:23a "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. ... If anyone's name was not found in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." Revelation 20:12 - 15 "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out - those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned." John 5:28,29 A good many of these quotes mention the giving of a reward according to what has been done. A reward is not something you consider getting for doing something evil or wrong or bad. It is associated for that which you do that is good and right.

It seems to me, from what I read here in the bible in many places, that there is a record and 'bookkeeping', if you will, of things done by us. It is also mentioned that our words are not forgotten, especially the careless ones: "But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." Matthew 12:36,37

And then I find this also in the bible: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered , it keeps no record of wrongs. ... " 1 Corinthians 13:4,5 And if it is true that God is the embodiment of true and pure love: " ... God is love. ... " 1 John 4:16 Then if God is love and if love truly is as Paul has described it, it would not be God's character to keep any record of wrongdoing. Therefore it would seem to me to support the description of God's character to be patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish. So then what is this record of what we have done? What is it that we have done or not done that will be judged and will either acquit us or condemn us? To answer this I will point to the words of Jesus in the book of Matthew again: "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'" Matthew 25:40

Is it maybe not so much the deeds we think that matter, but rather the heart that overflows with that which God has already put in it: overwhelming love and faith in a Creator and Friend who, by His death and resurrection, has made a way to live forever free. For our salvation is not dependant on our deeds. Nor is our complete acceptance by God dependant on what we do. Our deeds are the evidence of who we already are and who we are becoming.

Griffin visits his Great Grandparents and other relatives

2007-03-03T23:31:00.000-08:00

Griffin in his sweater knit by Great Grandma Neufeld

Griffin & Great Grandma Neufeld (below)

Grandpa, Grandma, me & the Grifster

Great Grandpa Neufeld and the Fin man

Griffin's second cousin Veddar

Uncle Dale with the little man

Cousin Tracey holding Griffin in anticipation of her own little one (due March 4th!)

Great Grandnana Larson :)

My cousin Devin & I with our sons. Doesn't it appear that Veddar & Griffin are chatting it up.

Auntie Linda MacGregor (soon to be Grandma) chatting with the Finster.

Sorry

2007-03-03T23:29:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks,

I had accidentally disabled the video below but have now enabled it. Simply click on it to view it. The video will open in a new window in You Tube where it will begin playing. Thank you for your patience with my blog inexperience :).

Smily

2007-03-02T00:30:00.000-08:00

What a great smile :). The red line on his forehead is from his own fingernail! They may be small but they're sharp.

Interview with a Griffin

2007-03-02T00:22:00.000-08:00

Posts coming

2007-02-26T23:38:00.004-08:00

I have a number of thoughtful posts in draft mode currently but I have not had the time between changing jobs and avoiding sickness and family matters to spend the time I would like in thought on these various topics. Hopeful soon.

Griffin pics

2007-02-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

Watching Worship

2007-02-17T11:31:00.000-08:00

From Louie Giglio's The Air I Breathe,

"Worship is a verb - at least that's what author Robert Webber says in his book by the same title. I think he's right. Practically speaking, worship is always a verb. Worship is something you do.

Worship isn't something you watch, contrary to the thinking of many of us who attend church. That may be hard to believe, given that in most churches the rows of seats (or pews) are arranged with sight lines in mind. The lights also point to the stage. And to help you with your viewing pleasure, you're handed a program at the door - a lineup card for what's happening up front in today's 'show,' if you will. After all, it's all put on for you, is it not?"

Larson update - a new job and a new camp

2007-02-17T10:09:00.000-08:00

Well, another change has come to the Larson family again. It's been a whirlwind of change of late and the latest twister has set us to moving to Camp Squeah within a couple months. I have recently received and accepted the position of Program Director at Squeah. Since my tenure at Camp Kawkawa ended, it had often been a thought in the back of our minds that this might be another possibility down the road. And now we've traveled down the road far enough to see that it's happening! So we'll be moving to the camp in a little while. It is located about 10 - 15 minutes north up the #1 Hwy from Hope (halfway between Hope and Yale). The position, officially, is interim for 2 years because the Executive Director is in a 2 year interim position as well as the whole camp goes through transition after losing their long-time Director Rudy Kehler last Spring. Camp Squeah comes under the umbrella of the Mennonite Conference (not that I'm given to any particular name or denomination). This will have been the 6th camp in 12 years that I have worked for as a Director or other position. Homewood, Pioneer Pacific, Imadene, Kawkawa, Nazarene church camps and now Camp Squeah. I feel I'm getting a good taste of a number of different camps and ways in which to make the best of what it is we do in Christian Camping.

Anyway, just thought I'd pass on the good news.

My wife

2007-02-15T23:51:00.000-08:00

I have the most amazing woman on the planet. We've just celebrated Valentines Day today as best we could with our little over a month old baby boy. A little take-out dinner at home over a movie and some much needed time to ourselves.

I have found that I continue to see more beauty and joy in our relationship than ever before. God continues to surprise me as we dive and strive through this mysterious mystery of life together, that there are no discernable limits to love between two people whom He has brought together.

I love my wife - inexorably and deeply. She is the conduit of God's extremely transparent realness and love and acceptance to me. Thank you God for such a beautiful and breathtaking woman.

Love

2007-02-13T01:16:00.000-08:00

Recently I spent the weekend at Camp Homewood during their annual Valenteen Camp. There, nearly 100 teenagers came to relax, play, eat and listen a little to the truth of Jesus Christ and His idea of love.

It was here 15 years ago, that I would get in touch with a camp that would become the alma ata from wence my love of camp-work & ministry would flow. This time I had the privilege of sharing with the teens a little of what I've learned of God's love and desires that they too might know Him for who He truly is.

But love is such a difficult subject to discuss. It is used, in a word, to describe the entirety of God's character. '... God is love. ...' 1 John 4:16. And so I attempted to dive into this all-encompassing truth with them. That there is more to love than feelings and hormones. That it goes deeper than wants and desires. That God's character is for us to emulate and put on like a full set of clothing. The entirety of the life of Jesus was summed up in the phrase, He loved us. I feel I have only been given the tip of the mountain that is the tip of the iceberg and yet I am letting that bit of ice melt in my mouth as I consider the limitless grandeur that is God's unfailing love.

Top of the food chain?

2007-02-06T21:04:00.000-08:00

Isn't it interesting to note that should all human life cease to exist on our planet, earth would continue on in ecosystems and life just fine without us. We're the only living creature you can remove from our planet without damaging the balance of life on our planet. Actually, our planet's environment, I would imagine, would likely improve without us around. Kind of humbling. As you may hear in my words, I'm an advocate of careful thought to how we take care of this planet we call home. And of our relationship to it.

The Thorny Devil Topic

2007-02-04T10:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I want to chat a little bit about the devil - Satan that is. I want to talk about him because I find I am quite irritated about how we often view him from a Christian standpoint, because it affects how we view God.

So ... I'm not going to mention where he came from or how he came to be the most 'evil' of all creatures. But what I do want to do is clear up my understanding of the character of God. And in knowing God's character I will have a clearer understanding of who I am in relationship to my Creator and Friend.

Firstly, to my understanding and from what I can gather from the Bible, the devil (and I include any and all demons with him) does not have any power or ability that God does not allow him to have. He's not some 'nearly as powerful as God, god-like being'. He is not all-powerful. He is not a god. He is also not all-knowing. And he is also not omni-present. Those qualities are God's qualities, not Satan's. Now, I'm not saying Satan is powerless, just that whatever power Satan has, God is sovereign over that power. He cannot do anything without God's knowledge of it. And let us clear up his supposed 'power' over our minds, where so many people like to invoke the name of Satan when they are thinking things they ought not. Satan cannot force me to think anything. Satan can, like any of you can, suggest to me a topic to dwell on or a subject that propells me to believe something untrue about who God is. He incites king David to take a census of the nation of Israel (1 Chronicles 21:1) and he is the Father of Lies (John 8:44).

I believe Satan, like us, is allowed to disobey God and fight against His will (having free will as we do), but that does not mean he is somehow beyond God's control. Quite the opposite. God USES Satan to fulfill His plan and to receive the credit for it all. To test the faithfulness of his servant Job, God uses Satan (Job 1:12). To fulfill the plan of our salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, God uses Satan (John 13:27). It also seems true that Satan needs to continue to ask permission to come after those whom God has saved (Luke 22:31). And even then he is given limits and boundaries to what he is allowed to do. These limits do seem to be less when involving people who refuse to believe in God/Jesus because scripture points to that world of rebellion against God as Satan's dominion. (Ephesians 2:1)

Satan is not everywhere at once. He is one creature doing his best to (what he thinks will) ruin God's plan. Some friends of mine once did a play to make this point: wherein we had Satan come to an airport counter asking about frequent flyer miles. He can't be eveywhere at once, so then, why are we continually blaming him for things he is not responsible for? Some people I know blame him nearly daily for upsetting life circumstances that have nothing to do with the devil. (More likely to do with their own worldview or foolishness or beliefs). But he cannot (even as powerful or fast as he is) tempt, incite, provoke, scare, bind, etc. over 6 billion people at once. That thought is simply ridiculous.

Satan does not have dominion over the earth as if God has given up this rock we live on. "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;" Psalm 24:1. God is not giving up on us and so leaving the earth to become a desolate wasteland of destruction for Satan to do as he pleases. So, what does Satan rule? Well, it's not hell. Hell is what is created for Satan and his minions. Hell is not where Satan is. It's where he is going to end up. (Matthew 25:41) But what does Satan rule now? "... the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient." Ephesians 2:2. Nothing. He rules a kingdom of air. After some brief study, I have discovered the ancient Jews (and many other ancient middle eastern cultures) viewed the lower atmosphere as the place where evil spirits dwelt. Also, other people have postulated that this is a reference to Satan's ability to influence and effect the lives of anyone on earth since we are all living on that plane physically. Although this phrase is confusing, it seems to me that Satan's true dominion is darkness, sin, death, rebellion and any evil you care to name. He is its king. And all that dominion, though very real and active, has no power over God's ability to save through grace those God wishes to save. It is an empty kingdom because it is a kingdom already destroyed and destroying itself. It is empty of life and love and substance. It is a kingdom of air. Satan is also called the ruler of this world though I am still putting some thought to the word 'world' in the Bible and will post some thoughts on that later.

Satan does not know what we're thinking. He cannot know our thoughts because they belong to us in our own spirits "For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him?" (1 Corinthians 2:11) Of course, if we are rebelling against God in any way, then we're thinking a lot like Satan and it's not hard for him to know what that's like. Satan does not understand or know God's plan. He doesn't have any master strategy that we ought to be afraid of (appart from what we already know). "The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." (John 1:5) And we ought not to be afraid of him, but rather, we ought to have a healthy respect and fear of God. (Matthew 10:28)

I suppose, what I'm trying to get at here, is that God is sovereign. God is the ultimate ruler of all. And nothing can thwart his plan or glory. Jesus' death and resurrection have fully paid the penalty for our rebellion and treason and once accepted, we are completely free from that dominion of darkness that even Satan is truly only the master slave of slaves. Also, Satan is condemned (John 16:11) and defeated (Colossions 2:13-15) already through Christ's blood and God's power. What little he has left to do can have no effect on the act of God reconciling his people to Himself. And in the end, it is our decision to choose life and Jesus over death. The way has been paid.

Now, I am not saying we ought to ignore Satan or that he exists to deceive us. As Paul says, "If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I forgive - I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes." Satan is scheming, but we have everything in Christ to defeat both him, the corruption of the world (not the earth), sin and death. And we do fight against him in our minds and hearts: "Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." (Ephesians 6:11) Satan intends to fool us if he can and keep God's truth from us, or to pervert it or replace it with lies. "... Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." (2 Corinthians 11:14). "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." (1 Peter 5:8,9) "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you." (James 4:7,8) Essentially, God has given us everything in Christ to resist and be free and overcome what once bound us. And I believe even some of those frustrating life circumstances of sin, remorse, regret, pain and death God uses to further make us His children! So again, less emphasis on the devil and more on the love and grace and understanding of our wonderful God.

Well, that's a whole lot of talk about the thorny devil. But I want to, and I want everyone, to understand what God's character truly is. And partly, I can use Satan for that because everything about Satan, God is not. And in knowing my enemy, I understand who my God truly is better and my faith and trust in Him are propelled deeper into Christ, my Saviour and friend.

What think ye?

New Griffin pictures

2007-01-31T07:51:00.000-08:00

Temptation

2007-01-30T08:02:00.000-08:00

Thomas A Kempis wrote: "More often than they might suspect, people of reputation have been in grave danger and didn't know it; they're good people, but they've extended their self-confidence beyond its natural limit. From this one could draw the conclusion that it's helpful to be tempted from time to time. One might even say that to be tempted to the point of endurance could help delfate the interior desolation and deflect exterior consolations."

Is temptation something to be viewed as positive in a life lived for Jesus Christ? Jesus taught us to pray " ... and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, ...". And then we have seen example after example of godly person who was tempted both in the past and in our present. And Jesus Himself, God in human body, was LED to the desert FOR THE PURPOSE of being tempted! God " ... who cannot be tempted, nor does He tempt anyone ..." (James 1) was tempted! That is just a little mind wrenching.

To be tempted or not to be tempted. That is the question.

Convenience

2007-01-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

Have we, inadvertantly, in our quest to make life painless and joyful and efficient, begun to take from life that which actually makes it rich and meaningful. In an earlier post I mentioned that life is more like a woven blanket or rug wherein the whoop and warp are the good and difficult aspects of life purposefully woven together to make a beautiful piece of fabric. Take one of them out and you're left with just stretches of used string or wool ... not good for anything. So I'm wondering if, in essence, we are doing exactly that, with the seemingly good intention of making life easier.

In mentioning this to a friend they said that to them, it doesn't seem as though when people receive conveniences (cell phones, internet, dishwasher, microwave, car, etc.) that they are less busy. In fact, it appears that those people just move onto striving for the next convenience. Our lives can never be fully convenient, perhaps, because there are no end to the difficult things we have to do.

I say this because I have had a fascinating thought: that it seems to me that those things in life that are really the greatest and have a most positive influence on my life, are really anything but convenient. For example: my son, Griffin. He is anything but convenient. He didn't come out conveniently! It was a lot of work to get him into life, to get him breathing properly, to get him adjusted to home life and now we are trying to get him to learn to sleep in a regular pattern. Really, we're just waiting for him to do that. I have no control over the situation WHATSOEVER. He wants to feed, be awake, have a poop and sleep at all the most inconvenient times of the day. And yet, he is a source of such joy and wonder that it passes all understanding.

So, what think ye?

A whole new life

2007-01-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

Phew,

Well, life has certainly changed in the Larson household in Hope. With the addition of Griffin to our family there has been no end to the excitement. Having a baby is certainly a change. This little gaffer now demands attention at the most ridiculous hours. My internal clock is completely out of wack. The first few days home have been: sleep two hours. eat one hour. change diaper. console baby after changing diaper. burp baby. change diaper. feed baby. sleep 1 hour. comfort baby for two hours in the middle of the night. change diaper. console baby after changing diaper ....... and so on.

Well, it sounds more mundane than it is. My wife and I are loving Griffin to pieces (not literally). We're seeing signs of his character all the time and of all the things I'm looking forward to, just getting to know who he is is one of the things I desire most.

We've had some pretty crazy pee stories. Ok, so, in the hospital, Kari is changing him in the nursery on his cradle. Right in the middle of things he decides to pee (which, apparently happens quite often). Well he shoots this stream up past my wife and RIGHT into the garbage can!! 3 POINTS!! Then we bring him home. The first three pees: 1 - Kari - pees all over her. 2 - Kari - pees a perfect shot right into his own eye! 3 - Tim - sprays me from shirt to pants despite my vain attempts to stop him. 4 - Kari - while washing his hair before his bath time, Kari wraps him up in a blanket without a diaper on. I'm washing the dishes, watching. Suddenly, Kari complains of water dripping on her sleeve (thinking I did a poor job filling the baby bath tub). Kari screams, realizing Griffin is peeing quite thoroughly and right through the blanket onto her shirt, down her pants and into her slipper! What a shot!

Ok, aside from embarrasing pee stories that my son will not appreciate knowing I posted on the internet later in his life ... this whole experience has had a profound affect on my relationship with my wife. I honestly have fallen more in love with my wife because of this experience. I don't know what it is exactly, but somehow, seeing her with my son who she worked so hard to deliver life, and realizing that he is a beautiful creation made possible through a commitment that we have already given our lives to ... it just has shot my respect and appreciation for this woman I love and know through the roof. I didn't know it was possible. But there you have it.

What a mystery this life is, but how absolutely remarkable. That God would choose to create us in such a way. I'm still a little overwhelmed by the whole thing.

We're all winners

2007-01-20T13:44:00.000-08:00

Something to brighten your day: remember that everyone that is alive is really a winner. Because, on average, every person here was the result of one out of roughly 200 billion sperm that made it. YOU are #1! And to say you were first of 200 billion ... well, that's just fantastic!

We're home!

2007-01-16T21:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, today we've arrived home after a long wait in Chilliwack Hospital. Which, I might add, was, as far as hospital experiences go, excellent. Excellent staff of nurses and doctors who did their very best to ensure both my wife and son were healthy and ready for the next step in caring for a newborn.

Now we're home in Hope and will be enjoying some time not catching up on sleep (maybe a little bit) as we begin a family life that is completely new. A brand new adventure as we embark with Griffin and his new life.

Here are some other favourite pics of the last few days for you to check out:

Griffin Bruce Larson

2007-01-14T19:59:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of our new little son, Griffin. The pictures are in chronological order. Starting with Griffin here looking at us from inside his IC Unit during the first day, a little later yawning and sleeping in his nursery cradle, Grandma Denniston with Griffin, Mom and Griffin, the whole family, Griffin holding Dad's fingers, Great Grandma Larson with Griffin, Griffin sitting up and sleeping (this kid can sleep anywhere. here you see the little IV that he's had to wear to get his anitbiotics lately as well as what is left of the umbilical cord that has all but shriveled up and fallen off), the last two are some snapshots of funny faces he's made today (4th day). He's sleeping but ... maybe dreaming??

An update on Griffin and Mom

2007-01-14T10:18:00.000-08:00

Hello to all. I'm sorry I have not been letting you know more about our little one. We do have lots of pictures but have yet to officially leave the hospital yet. Griffin's delivery was quite difficult for both Mom and he and we've learned he's contracted a little phnemonia through the process so he's obliged to stay here in Chilliwack hospital through until Monday. The staff (nurses and doctors) at Chilliwack hospital have been absolutely excellent and very caring. For that we are very grateful. We had a wonderful doctor who did an excellent job of helping Kari through bringing Griffin into life in this world.

So, what happened? Well, after much work and the baby still not surfacing, the doctor realized something was amiss. It was soon found out that my little boy had the cord wrapped around his head. Not only that, he had decided to come out doing the Superman pose. That is, having one hand up by his head and one down. Needless to say, that is not the easiest way to delivery a baby. What can I say, I have a super baby!

Mom is recovering well despite all and is in great spirits. She couldn't walk the first couple of days but is slowly getting around on her own two feet now. Myself, I just really want to take my family home and begin our life in Hope anew with Griffin. Thank you for all your prayers and notes and gifts and flowers. We have been loved extravagantly through the ordeal.

A new life!

2007-01-11T14:51:00.000-08:00

At 5:14 am January 11th 2007, Griffin Bruce Larson was born weighing in at an unexpected 9 lbs 1 oz with blonde hair and blue eyes! We thank our God who allowed us the amazing opportunity to be privileged enough to be a part of the creation of a new life. What an amazing experience. You know that I will be writing a number of posts on this in the next while.

We have pictures but we're not home yet from the hospital. Kari's labour and delivery were somewhat complicated near the end and so little Griffin is being monitored closely for now while we wait there. If all is well, in a couple days we'll bring him home :).

Thanks also to all who have been such an amazing help through this whole process: Pat & Peggy stuck with us through all 19 hours of labour, as did Joanne, Kari's Mom. Kari is doing remarkably well for all that.

As far as the pool, all guesses are in and with the announcement above the pool closes. I will determine the winner shortly and post it here soon. If you have not yet paid your pool entrant fee, please do so soon, thank you. I'M A DAD!!!

T & K Larson baby pool! Enter and win!

2007-01-03T14:39:00.000-08:00

T&K Larson Baby Pool Winner = Peggy Wiens!!!! of Hope BC

Winning guess: Boy: Franklin Bruce, 6:28 pm, 7lbs 4 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes - 120 points total out of a possible 170

Winner was chosen based on a points system calculated as follows:

Correct gender: 10 points

Correct hair colour: 10 points

Correct eye colour: 10 points

Every letter present in guessed names also present in matching true name: 10 points per letter

Weight guess closest to actual: 10 points

Time guess closest to actual: 10 points

Points were awarded, in decending order, for the next closest guesses for time & weight (i.e. 9 points for the 2nd closest guess, 8 for the 3rd, etc.)

Entrants will be accepted until results (babies actual statistics) are released (birth). Inducement completed.

Delivery update: Labour done and completed; baby born!

Current Pool Winnings amount (collected & confirmed en route. Includes monies given to boost pool amount): $121.00

Total Pool Winnings amount (all guesses included): $151.00

Winnings: $75.00; Baby education fund deposit: $76.00

Total # of guesses to date: 73

# of girls: 37

# of boys: 36

All guesses listed below

Pool fee minimum: $2.00

Entrants must guestimate the baby's weight (in lbs & oz's), hair colour, eye colour, gender, name (first & middle) and time of birth (hour & minutes only; due to birth garanteed to happen within the next week). Entrant whose combined guesses are nearest the actual will win. Winner will receive half the pool money. The other half of the winnings will go towards the child's education fund to be set up by the parents.

Only three guesses per participant. $2.00 fee per guess required.

Once submitted to the parents, the guesses will stand and cannot be changed or swapped or removed.

Winnings cannot be awarded until winner's entrant fee is submitted. If winner does not submit fee within a week of disclosed winning specifics, winnings will go to the next closest entrant whose guess and fee are submitted.

Weight, name and time of birth guesses nearest to the actual will add to the probability of a win. For example: if actual name is Ferdinand Englebert and guessed name is Frank Vince, points towards the guess are awarded for the correct first letter of the first name. Also, if actual time is 6:42 pm and closest guessed time is 6:40 pm, points towards that guess are awarded to deciding the winner.

Time guesses must include a.m. or p.m. suffixes.

Entrants may otherwise scheme, plot, conspire, collude and machinate to their hearts content but may not, in any way, request leading information from the parents.

The pool is open to anyone wishing to join who is at least acquainted with the parents.

Pool closes when the actual information is disclosed to the populace. Disclosure will be formally done on Tim's blog: www.greycladmystery.blogspot.com.

Guestimates may be entered on paper in person, via e-mail (to fearlessone99@hotmail.com), via snail mail (Box 183 Hope BC V0X 1L0) or on Tim's blog posted as a comment below on this post.

Pool fees may be done via cash or cheque. Cheques may be made out to Tim or Kari Larson. Pool fees are non-refundable.

Thank you and good luck!!

Current guesses (in order they were received):

Boy: Jamie Clay, 11:40 pm, 7 lbs 13 oz, light brown hair, blue eyes
Girl: Yvonne Alaya, 9:00 pm, 7 lbs 2 oz, light brown hair, blue eyes
Boy: Lonnie Bruce, 2:30 pm, 7 lbs 15 oz, light brown hair, blue eyes
Girl: Rebekka Anne, 10:55 am, 7 lbs 3 oz, blonde hair, brown eyes
Girl: Jennifer Rachel, 6:42 pm, 7 lbs 1 oz, blonde hair, brown eyes
Girl: Cassandra Kimberly, 3:04 am, 6 lbs 13 oz, strawberry blonde hair, brown eyes
Girl: Willow Faith, 11:00 am, 8lbs 10 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Daniel Timothy, 6:48 am, 7 lbs 14 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Caroline Elizabeth, 7:15 am, 8 lbs 5 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Kate Lynn, 6:30 pm, 7 lbs 7 oz, blonde hair, green eyes
Boy: Timothy Gandalf, 3:14 pm, 7 lbs 14 oz, no hair, blue eyes
Girl: Eowyn Grace, 6:27 am, 7 lbs 6 oz, brown hair, grey eyes
Boy: Jacob Daniel, 9:14 am, 8lbs 2 oz, light brown hair, hazel eyes
Girl: Iris Leona, 2:53 pm, 7 lbs 11 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Jacob Bruce, 3:52 am, 8 lbs 2 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Lucas Thor, 1900 hrs (7:00 pm), 7 lbs 0 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Samuel Timothy Bruce, 10:38 am , 7 lbs 8 oz, light brown hair, blue eyes
Boy: Jonathan Daniel, 6:05 am, 7 lbs 3 oz, curly red hair, blue eyes
Boy: Noah David, 3:40 am, 6 lbs 8 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Emma Christine, 1:15 am, 6 lbs 13 oz, strawberry blonde hair, green eyes
Girl: Eva Grace, 6:14 am, 7 lbs 1 oz, brown hair, blue eyes
Girl: Kimberly Joy, 1:58 pm, 8 lbs 7 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Jack Daniel, 3:16 am, 8 lbs 10 oz, sandy brown hair, blue eyes
Boy: Mackenzie Clay, 4:00 am, 8 lbs 6 oz, sandy brown hair, blue eyes
Boy: Xavier Scott, 6:00 am, 8 lbs 4 oz, sandy brown hair, blue eyes
Girl: Natalia May, 8:00 am, 7 lbs 9 oz, sandy brown hair, blue eyes
Girl: Angelina Ingrid, 2:21 am, 7 lbs 0 oz, strawberry blonde hair, brown eyes
Girl: Alexia Cadean, 5:35 am, 7 lbs 5 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Avelyn Joy, 4:50 pm, 8 lbs 0z, dirty blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Moira Elizabeth, 8:07 am, 8 lbs 9 oz, blonde hair, green eyes
Girl: Kassandra Tamara, 8:15 pm, 7 lbs 7 oz, light strawberry brown hair, blue eyes
Boy: Brennan David, 8:03 am, 7 lbs 15 oz, no hair, blue eyes
Girl: Abigail Katherine, 11:00 pm, 8 lbs 3 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Ross Jacob, 7:34 am, 8 lbs 11 oz, brown hair, blue eyes
Girl: Monica Joy, 9:57 pm, 9 lbs 2 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Victoria Penelope, 6:55 pm, 8 lbs 7 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Daniel Isaiah, 4:35 pm, 8 lbs 5 oz, no hair, blue eyes
Boy: Cameron Bruce, 10:30 am, 7 lbs 12 oz, light brown hair, blue eyes
Boy: Jordan Tyler, 2:47 pm, 8 lbs 6 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Sandra Lyn, 2:37 pm, 8 lbs 6 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Sarah Leanne, 11:55 pm, 6 lbs 12 oz, redish blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Deborah Nadine, 6:35 pm, 7 lbs 10 oz, dark hair, hazel eyes
Boy: Aaron James, 1:45 pm, 7 lbs 8 oz, dark hair, blue eyes
Boy: Ethan Joel, 8:20 am, 8 lbs 2 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Timothy Isaac, 8:48 pm, 7 lbs 2 oz, brown hair, green eyes
Girl: Anna Joy, 3:18 pm, 6 lbs 8 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Kevin James, 7:38 pm, 7 lbs 11 oz, brown hair, blue eyes
Boy: Grant Timothy, 10:14 am, 7 lbs 8 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Estelle Anne, 5:24 am, 7 lbs 2 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Jamiroquai Len, 12:00 pm, 6 lbs 5 oz, brown hair, blue eyes
Boy: Tanner Jerrick, 3:00 am, 8 lbs 0 oz, brown hair, blue eyes
Girl: Awesomest Ever, 25:00 pm, 14 lbs 200 0z, pink hair, purple eyes
Boy: Franklin Bruce, 6:28 pm, 7 lbs 4 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Isaiah John, 5:31 pm, 7 lbs 12 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Nathan Peter, 7:10 am, 7 lbs 6 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Evan Andrew, 3:42 pm, 7 lbs 5 oz, brown hair, blue eyes
Girl: Amilia Elisabeth, 2:43 am, 7 lbs 1 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Lara Lydia, 3:18 pm, 8 lbs 4 oz, dirty blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Paul Aragorn, 4:23 am, 7 lbs 0 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Kristin Galadriel, 8:15 am, 6 lbs 11 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Tom Bombadil, 12:01 pm, 8 lbs 8 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Anessa Joann, 3:13 am, 7 lbs 8 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Caleb Bruce, 7:06 am, 8 lbs 3 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Mary Grace, 3:00 pm, 8 lbs 0 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Emma Louise, 4:15 pm, 7 lbs 13 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Emily Kari, 9:20 pm, 8 lbs 2 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Sarah Joanne, 3:30 pm, 8 lbs 5 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Benjamin Tim, 1:30 am, 9 lbs 2 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Girl: Katrina Joy, 3:33 am, 7 lbs 7 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Derek Paul, 5:55 am, 7 lbs 10 oz, blonde hair blue eyes
Girl: Clarisa Theresa, 2:10 pm, 7 lbs 3 oz, blonde hair blue eyes
Boy: Leonard James, 1:35 am, 7 lbs 2 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Mark Timothy, 1:00 pm, 6 lbs 8 oz, blonde hair, blue eyes
Boy: Samuel John, 8:06 am, 6 lbs 10 oz, brown hair, blue eyes

Maybe

2006-12-31T16:52:00.000-08:00

There was once an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day, his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbours came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically. "Maybe," the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it two other wild horses. "Such good luck!" the neighbours exclaimed. "Maybe,"replied the farmer. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown off, and broke his leg. Again, the neighbours came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. "Such bad luck," they said. "Maybe," answered the farmer. The day after that, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army to fight in a war. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. "Such good luck!" cried the neighbours. "Maybe," said the farmer.

Christmas 06 come and gone

2006-12-28T16:22:00.000-08:00

My 30th Christmas has come and gone. Kari and I spent Christmas Eve at my Auntie Ellie's in Abbotsford visiting my Mom's side of the family. Christmas day we were at my Nana's (Dad's mom) place with 30 or so people crammed into that little house rejoicing and celebrating with each other.

Here I am with my very own tree cut from the bush for our house. You may not be able to tell, but I'm a little upset because I have already taken a few feet off this tree in all dimensions but it is still a little too large for our living room. My wife thought it was such a gas she laughed hysterically at me for a good half hour. Needless to say, after repairing my bruised ego I decided to break down and purchase a tree from our local store.

Instead I acquired this beautiful Scotch (White) Pine tree. It is a little prickly but at least it was full and of the correct dimensions.

We enjoyed our own family Christmas here on the 23rd. There is something magical still about Christmas and I'm not sure what it is. Even after learning Santa was a fake, and that our traditions had some little to do with the reality of Christ's birth, I still have a great love for this time of the year. I think a greater part of that joy comes from the time with family. For some reason, as I grow older, I grow to appreciate those whom I have loved and have loved me throughout my life all the more. And this is just one of too few times in the year to reciprocate that love with others.

Here's Kari opening some gifts.

This is a crib that my mother's husband Dave made for us. He's an excep-tionally gifted furniture finisher. This crib was made from pine taken from the Northern BC on one of their many hunting trips. Some of it tainted blue because of the Pine Beetle. The blanket inside is the receiving blanket my Grandmother made for my mother to take me home from the hospital after I was born! What a great gift. I'm a sentimental person so I loved it!!

Well, still no sign of baby Larson yet. only about 3 days to go 'til due date. Soon this crib will be filled with a brand new life!

I want to thank you again for all who remembered Krista, Kari's sister, this past little while. With much testing and worrying going on it has been found out that Krista was alergic to all the drugs she was prescribed which were not helping at all. Recently she has been able to eat some solid food and should be on her way home shortly.

Prayer for Kari's sister Krista

2006-12-24T11:45:00.000-08:00

Here are Myself, Kari, Kari's sister Krista and her fiance Dean.

We would all appreciate your prayers on behalf of Krista who is currently suffering from the Norwalk virus. Although normally just a violent flu like disease, it's much worse for Krista because she also has Ciliacs Disease which has recently depleted her immune system. So, she's not doing well and we thank you for your prayers on her behalf. She'll probably have to spend Christmas eve in the hospital. Not a wonderful prospect.
Thank you all.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-23T22:19:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

May your Christmas be full to the brim with love, family, joy and the understanding of God’s wonderful mystery to come as a child to live with us.

Fire

2006-12-22T23:49:00.000-08:00

Fire is an amazing thing. Essentially, the bi-products of a reaction when certain materials reach a particular temperature in our atmosphere. Heat and light seen as dancing liquid forms.

Fire is extremely captivating. I can sit and watch a fire for hours on end. Until it dies out. And I've been known to do this with a lot of other people. And we don't say anything while we watch the fire. We just stare into its red golden hue and become transfixed on the slowly changing composition of what it is we are burning.

Fire is change. It is an object reacting via temperature in our atmosphere and becoming something completely different molecularly. Well, wood, for instance, is mostly hydrocarbons. (Now I'm venturing into waters I know little about. I'm not much of a chemist). We are too, I am told. But when wood combusts and burns, those molecules are separated and unite with oxygen in our atmosphere to produce Carbon Dioxide CO2 (smoke) and Carbon - C (ash). Well, I don't really know what ash is made up of but I'm led to believe it's mostly carbon. I wonder if that has something to do with why we like to watch a fire burning: because it is a process of change that fascinates us.

Fire is dangerous. Starting one intentionally in the wrong place is a serious crime in most places. People once used fire to execute people for horrible crimes, or just to be terribly cruel. It is, in my opinion, one of the, if not the most, cruel form of death.

Fire is essential! The sun is something like a giant fireball that feeds our planet the warmth, vitamin D and energy we need to survive. Without the ability to make fire, most people would/would have perished during the colder months of the year.

Fire destroys. Like I've said above, fire can easily be used to destroy that which we've built or made. Fire is analogous with a life without God and eternal punishment: "It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire." Matthew 18:8

Fire is used to refine objects to their pure state. God Himself is described as fire-like: "... for our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:29, "By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men." 2Peter 3:7, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare." 2Peter 3:10, "If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire willtest the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames." 1 Corinthians 3:12-15.

God is a fire of refinement. It seems to be His great desire to mold us into loving, selfless, goldy people and He is excellent at it.

What an amazing thing fire is. I'm sitting here in my living room, writing to you and enjoying the warmth of my own fireplace with a fire going. I love the smell of wood smoke. It changes the atmosphere in a room or even outside. It is something to focus on. It creates a place of comfort and safety. It is something to be thankful for. It is beautifully dangerous. We have even taken the essentially beneficial qualities of fire (light and heat) and reproduce them for our own effecient benefit. And yet in doing so, I feel you lose something of the great mystery and fascination that comes with enjoying the blaze of a hot fire on the hearth.

Devotion

2006-12-21T17:08:00.000-08:00

I just recently read a quote from a youth pastor I once knew who was lamenting his poor devotional life. What I mean by devotional life is that aspect of life as a Christian wherein we are expected to spend a certain amount of time (usually daily) reading the bible, praying and generally improving on our relationship with Jesus Christ and the Almighty God. The lament was about inconsistency and lack of structured time. Although he admitted he's memorized a goodly amount of the Bible, been to Bible College and read the bible all through at some point, it seemed to me he felt his relationship with God, in general, was suffering because of the inconsistency of his abilities to conform to a ritualized structure evangelical Christianity has advocated for a few hundred years.

Now ... before I continue, let me say I applaud this pastor's honesty and desire to know Christ through His Word. He is a devoted man who knows God. And I believe there is immense gain in understanding and knowing Jesus Christ and God's character through the Bible. I am not advocating for reading less of the Bible, but rather more of it in light of what His character truly is. Please be aware I'm about to rant a bit here.

At what point in our history did we transfer all the responsibility of our relations with our Creator on us??? How is it that if we aren't reading a book and praying by our bedside for 10 minutes a morning 7 days a week we're letting down God and ruining whatever chance we had at knowing (and I mean really KNOWING) Jesus? Is God limited to the Bible? Does He reside in the pages of the book? Is He only really listening and speaking to us in the darkness of a room in the early hours of dawn?

The guilty thoughts that often come of this failure to comply (which I have suffered from, and occasionally still do, I might add) smack largely of a pride of the most devious kind. Without degrading God's Word (which I value to the extreme) or the importance of applying what we know to our lives in understanding who God is through God's story, we have missed the mark greatly if we put all the onus on a particular act that is completely dependent on humans. In fact, I view it not far off a traditionalist way of thinking that unless you go to the church and perform the rites and rituals ordained through the priests, your relationship with God, suffers and eventually ends in disfavour.

I have a cousin who has read the Bible from cover to cover at least once. He does not believe Jesus Christ died to save Him or that there is a God who loves Him (at least, that was his belief last I talked to his family). What then? Is my cousin only slightly better than other people because he has at least taken the time to read the Bible?

Reading the bible is not a relation-o-meter by which I can deem myself a good and successful or a poor and failing Christian! What a horribly modern, humanisitc view of relating to the creator of the universe and all life. Since when did God create a hierarchy of goodness for us to compete with each other over? What an awfully humiliating and shameful view of the greatest story ever told! I have come to know the Almighty God through so many aspects of life that to boil my own friendship with Jesus to my ability to read words on a page would only bring insult to my Saviour and friend. In truth, I have rarely taken the initiative to be intimate with God ... that is the nature of all humans. God comes to meet with me: through the Bible as I read and seek to know Him, through my friends and family, through my circumstances, through all created things, through my history as I meditate on past experiences and so many other people and books and ... the list goes on. I have learned more of God and Jesus Christ, His character, through other people, than I ever have through reading the Bible. God is here and His character is to be found by those who earnestly seek Him. I would not consider myself an earnest seeker and yet I have met Christ in personally moving emotional ways that have nothing to do with human contrivance or manipulation. The Bible's words are made true in my life as I learn to trust the God of life and love. Then I come to understand these phrases: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

Denominations often have in their doctrine a statement that mentions that the Bible is the final authority for all life conduct on earth. How we aught to live and treat each other. How we are to know the promises and truths of God and of Jesus Christ His son. The Bible is the Story of stories. A book that I believe to be inerrent in that it is God's revealed truth on pages for us to easily see and understand His love, will, purpose, desires and character. But God is NOT contained/confined in those pages. Those words are a glimpse of a God far greater and majestic than we are able to perceive. And yet there is an inexhaustable store of discovery in the Book of books. In the words of the apostle John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." John 1:1 This is the Word that I want to know, Jesus Christ.

Personally, I do not have 'devotions'. I have devotion to my Saviour and God which exhibits itself in a plethora of passions and actions. And they are excersized all day long when I choose to love my God. I do not have 'prayer time'. I pray. I am not saying I'm perfect or better. My attitude is different ... or changing, I suppose. Because I also believe that devotion must be accompanied by action to be made true and real. "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." James 1:22

"Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." John 21:25

Phew. Well, have I struck or broken any chords out there?

Advent Prayer

2006-12-21T15:10:00.000-08:00

By Henri Nouwen

Lord Jesus,

Master of both the light and the darkness,

Send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas.

We who have so much to do seek quiet spaces

To hear your voice each day.

We who are anxious over many things

Look forward to your coming among us.

We who are blessed in so many ways

Long for the complete joy of your kingdom.

We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence.

We are your people, and walking in darkness, yet seeking the light.

To you we say,"Come Lord Jesus!"

Amen.

How many Tim Larson's are there in the U.S.?

2006-12-20T22:01:00.000-08:00

Isn't this crazy. Though I've always wondered how many Timothy Larson's there are in Canada. I've met one other Timothy Gordon (with my middle name) in middle school once. But never a Timothy Larson or Timothy Gordon Larson.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
423
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Autobiography

2006-12-19T11:46:00.000-08:00

I have begun writing my autobiography. I know I'm only 30, but I figure that I'll be able to remember far more now of my first 30 years of life, than when I'm 60 (or however old I am when I decide to finish it). I'm not revealing it or its contents until I'm gone from this life but I will share with you my three reasons for writing it. Here is an excerpt from the beginning:

"This autobiography serves at least three purposes, and may serve more that I do not know. Firstly, this account will be for the interest of my family and hopefully will be passed on from generation to generation. I am not hoping for publication. I desire that those who will pass on after me will have the opportunity to look into their own history through my eyes. I desire that they may gain understanding of themselves and some satisfaction in the knowledge of who I am. For to know someone, truly, is, I am coming to believe, the single greatest privilege we have as humans.

Secondly, this account is for the pleasure of God Almighty, who is writing all our histories into His grand tale to be unfolded at the end of all things. Mine is but a thread of wool among billions that will weave a pattern more deliberately intricate than we will ever imagine. May you glimpse the shadow of His image through the quill of His hand as He has written my tale.

Thirdly, and summed up best by the phrase: ‘Lest we forget.’ I have recently been perplexed and mildly alarmed at the lack of knowledge I have lost already in my family. The passing of my Papa Larson and Dan Krestinski and just a few other friends and acquaintances has made me acutely aware that with each death much is lost in wisdom and lore through the gift of life. I would think it a terrible tragedy if my family members did not have a better glimpse into at least one life they have known. It is also a tragedy, to me, to lose the knowledge of your own family history. Mine is a generation that remembers World War II, but only distantly because our grandparents fought in that great struggle. What will my children and theirs consider relevant when reading such history? Will we lose the lessons we’ve learned over time because of the passing of time?
We have the obligation and grand privilege of sharing our lives with others. That is our great lot which most are ignorant of or stingy with. So, even when I have left this body and am long retired from the earth, others may gain from my life. For life is not to be hoarded and shelved but intentionally and vigorously given."

May you also realize the significance of your own story. Share your life with others, for it is God's great gift to you to be given.