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Showing posts from February, 2010

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my 11th wedding anniversary to my awesome and incredible wife Danielle! I consider myself so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful friend and partner as my wife! I'm blown away by the wonderful person she is... and to be honest... I'm STILL shocked that he settled for a geek like me :-) It's an honor and a privilege to share our lives together! Happy Anniversary Sweetie! I love you SOOOOOO much!

Six Things... Actually Seven #4

Took a bit of a break on this... In Proverbs 6:16-19 we read about the things that God hates. Here's number 4: A Heart that Plots Evil I can hear your sigh of relief. COOL! I don't plot evil. Are you sure about that??? Sometimes our definition of "evil" may not be the same as God's. Sure... we see acts of evil in the world all the time. Crime. Corruption. Slavery. Abuse. Genocide. Murder. Those are pretty easy to detect, and I'm pretty sure none of us have done those... But in Matthew 5 Jesus shows us that our rules and guidelines are not the same as his. Jesus tells us that just looking at a woman with lust is adultery, not the act of sexual infidelity. He tells us that thinking angry thoughts about people is murder, not simply the act of taking another person's life. His definition of "evil" and "sin" are a LOT harsher than what we would call evil. So, don't be too quick to say that your heart doesn't plot evi

Book Reviews

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Thought I'd try something new on the blog! Video book reviews. I'm a big reader... and I want to read even more this year! I'm a big BIG believer in the concept that as the pastor learns and grows than the church will learn and grow! Reading has been a huge part of my ministry this past three years and I'm know that God will continue to teach me more and more. So check out the video below. If you're reading this on Facebook, click this link HERE . Here are the books mentioned in the video. The Imperfect Board Member by Jim Brown Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing by Geoff Surratt

The Prodigal God

Starting on February 28th, I'll be preaching for five weeks on the parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15. Now... five weeks may seem long for just one little parable... but this simple little story that Jesus told to religious leaders has HUGE impact on us as followers of Jesus. I've been reading the book The Prodigal God from Timothy Keller and just LOVE IT! I took my leadership team through a message by Keller at the Willowcreek Leadership Summit last month... and now we're going to go through it in much greater detail as a church. I'm praying hard and excited to see all that God will do in us and through us as we explore this parable in our Sunday Celebration and discuss it during our mid-week LifeGroups. It's going to be GREAT! This would also be a excellent time to invite people who are quite skeptical about the Christian message!

Silent Day of Prayer

Been a busy and crazy week... I'll get back to my look at the 7 things God hates next week... But first, I'm REALLY reminded of the importance of being still before a Holy God and just listening quietly for his direction and will for my life. One day a month, my wife and I go to Loyola House in Guelph, Ontario for a full day of silent prayer and contemplation. I'm just amazed at how refreshed and pumped up for ministry I am after these quiet days. My creativity and energy are HUGELY increased just by spending one day a month in total silence! This new discipline has been great and I strongly recommend it to every one, especially church leaders! In fact, I'd love to incorporate this even more into my regular weekly routine. Maybe a day a week just quiet and still with God! How much more would God accomplish in me and through me if I did that??? I'll have to give that a shot to find out :) So today I'll be praying about a number of things: I've been pre

Six Things... Actually Seven #3

According to Proverbs 6:16-19 there are six things, no, wait... seven things that God hates. As a father of two young kids this next one is really hitting home. #3 Hands that Kill the Innocent It's obvious by just watching the news or internet news feeds that the world is just crazy and children are exploited and mistreated all over the world. Abuse, malnutrition, sex trade, slavery, extreme poverty... all of those are a sad, sad reality for children everywhere. But something a little closer to home is hitting me as a middle-class Canadian dad. How do I, as a dad, kill the innocence in my children??? No. Really. Is there anything that I do in my life that kills their innocence? In Luke 17:2 Jesus said that it's better to be thrown into the sea with a large rock tied around your neck than causing a little child to fall into sin. That's a pretty tough statement! In our culture today, kids are exposed to so many things that they really shouldn't have access to. Th

Six Things... Actually Seven #2

Continuing to look at the six things, I mean seven things, that God hates according to Proverbs 6:16-19. Today we see one that appears pretty obvious... #2 A Lying Tongue So God hates it when we lie. Is there any surprise there? But I find this remember quite challenge this morning... not that I really consider myself someone who lies a lot... but how easy it is to stretch and not be honest about how things are going in order to make myself look better than I am. We all do it. We want people to think we have everything all together. We want people to think we're smart enough and talented enough. And the last thing we Pastors want is for people to think that we don't have all the answers :) So we lie. We keep information to ourselves. We don't really let people get to know the real us. When we live that way I think that way, pretending to be better than we are, I think we distance ourselves from God and how he wants us to be living. So may prayer today is that God

Six Things... Actually Seven #1

This morning in my One Year Bible reading I was really hit with the reminder in Proverbs 6:16-19 on the six things, no, wait... seven things that God hates. This was VERY powerful in my heart this morning... so, for for the next six days... no, seven days, I want to blog about each of the six, I mean seven, things. #1 Haughty Eyes The proverb starts with saying that God hates and even detests haughty eyes. Now, I admit... I had to look the word "haughty" up in the dictionary. Here's what it said: disdainfully proud; snobbish; scornfully arrogant; supercilious . Ouch! This is a powerful reminder of how God wants us to treat everyone! We all can quote how God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son... we love the idea the God loves us... but do we love the idea that God has called us to love everyone??? Even the people we don't like??? So, this morning I'm praying for my eyes... and the eyes of everyone in my church! Do I have haughty eyes? Do