Kevin Presseault

I've been wanting to write on this topic for some time... I've been studying this topic more and more... and I figured now would be as good of a time as any to start looking at this. As church leaders and as Christians we need a good Theology of Meat vs Fruit. Why?  Because of what the Apostle Paul wrote to church leaders in his letter to his son in the faith, Timothy: For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Tim. 4:3) Now... most of the time we attribute this verse to people outside of the church who are looking for whatever spiritual leader will tickle their fancy.  But Paul is writing this to a church leader about people in the church.  The church will be a place where people will turn away from listening to truth and will find teachers to suit their own passions. ...

This is just rambling... sometimes I just need to ramble here in this blog so God can do a work on my thoughts in my head :) This week I've been studying some of Jesus' very famous words.  They come from his sermon that we Christians call The Sermon on the Mount.  In particular I'm looking at the beginning section which we call the Beatitudes. When it comes to this message I think sometimes we can get pretty confused.  I have gone to many different events, particularly men's events, where Jesus' words are set up as this unattainable standard... that Jesus is painting a picture of the perfect person.  But since none of us are perfect that is why we need to give our lives to Jesus.  Now, I believe none of us our perfect... and I believe all of humanity needs to give our lives to Jesus...  But I think we're doing something very bad with this text when we do that.  Why? Because Jesus never says that we can't do this. In fact, the text actually po...

This time of year is always a period of reflection for me... looking back on the past year, all the blessings, all the learnings, all the challenges... each of these have helped to shape me into who I am today. Last year was one of huge blessing for my family and I. We've been settling into a new life here in a new city and new church. We have SO loved being part of Greenbelt. Living in Ottawa has really felt like being back home. Making new friends and new ministry connections was slow at first and now we're really thrilled where we see so many great relationships developing. Last year was a big one for me to trust God in all areas of my life. Since that was my main prayer for 2011 it's really neat to look back and see all the places where God showed up. Not all areas where perfect... but He has shown me so much and constantly reminded me that I can rest in Him and trust that He will provide! This year is going to bring more change into our family. We just feel that...

I LOVE YOUVERSION! It is my favorite app on my iPad. I just love how easy the YouVersion team has made Bible accessible for so many people all around the world! A bunch of new features came out today. You can read about them all HERE . I'm thrilled to see the YouVersion Live events are now a part of the iPad app. I've been playing around with the events to see how we could use this for our sermon notes and helping people get connected here at Greenbelt. If you're not using YouVersion on your mobile device yet I would strongly recommend you go and download it right now! Check out www.youversion.com and click the mobile button at the top of the page and download yours for free!

I've been using YouVersion as one of my primary ways to read and study the Bible since October 2007. I use it to search for texts when prepping sermons. I use it for my daily Bible reading plan. I use it on my Blackberry so that I always have a Bible with me. And now I'm playing around with YouVersion Live to see how we can integrate that to our Sunday morning services. Why? Because I want to encourage people to get into reading the Bible for themselves and not just listening to me reading it to them every Sunday :) I love how with YouVersion Live we can create Events and have people point there with their smart phones for seeing the key Bible passages, polls, prayer requests forms and whatever else we can think of to tie in to the weekend service. In order to play around with this I've created an event for this coming Sunday. You can access it here . Have a look at it and let me know what you think.

I gotta admit. I love costumes and getting dressed up. Always have... and probably always will. I dream of the day when I'll have this incredibly cool costume that would win me all the prices at every Comic book convention... but I digress. I've been reading a lot this week about Moses and his veil. In Exodus we read how Moses' face would shine because of the glory of God... but then it would start to fade. It's been challenging to me to think how do I allow God's glory in me to fade. Is it even possible? If I have the spirit of God in me, does it ever fade? There are times when I feel my life is shining bright with God's glory... and others, well, not so much. This Sunday I'm preaching on this text and Paul's comment on it found in 2 Corinthians. I'm looking forward to unpacking it and sharing with the entire congregation since this will be my first Family Service at Greenbelt (normally the kids grade 1 to 5 go to KidZone). I'm always a...

This morning in our men's community group we discussed the parable of the Good Samaritan and Jesus' reminder that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our being and to love our neighbours as ourselves. We had a great discussion about what that looks like in our culture and how it impacts some of the difficult issue that come up in people's lives. Our talk really hit home in my heart this morning... especially being in a new community again. Before, in our previous home, it was VERY easy to make connections with our neighbours since everyone was pretty much a young family like ours. We could easily connect just based on the common ground we had with the age of our kids. In fact, every evening a large number of families would meet up at the park across from our house and the adults would socialize while the kids played. Now, we find ourselves in a new city. And we moved into a community where, as of yet, I have not seen a single child. The house is nearly 40...

This week I've been yawning like crazy. I've been having a hard time getting a good night's sleep and feeling a little restless. Normal, I'm sure, considering the recent move and all the renovations we're doing around the house... Next Sunday I'm preaching on the importance of keeping Sabbath. Not as a legalistic, religious tradition... but rather as a privilege and as part of our wireing as people created in the image of a Sabbath keeping God. I'm learning a ton re-exploring this topic. I've not always been a good Sabbath keeper. This past year I've gotten a lot better at it. This afternoon, while studying, I was just reminder of what Jesus told his followers after they've been doing the work of the ministry like crazy. Jesus told them in Mark 6:31: "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." I love that Jesus didn't say "Go somewhere by yourselves and get some rest" but rather he wanted them t...

I'm always amazed at how it's the little, tiny verses in the Bible that really seem to stretch and challenge me the most. This week I was reading 1 Thessalonians... and verse 5:16 really hit a cord in me. Be joyful always. Very small. Very simple. Easy to skim over. But how am I doing in that area of my life? Am I joyful always? In every situation that I find myself in, am I joyful? Or do I allow myself to get grumpy and crabby? Is my joy only situational? When things are good and I'm content, I'm joyful? How can I work at always being joyful? The next two verses give the answer: pray continually; & give thanks in all circumstances! Pray for me is not simply a 20 minute prayer time in the morning to kick start my day... but rather a continuous conversation during the day. Sure, from time to time, I'm doing most of the talking... but when I find those quiet moments during the day when I can just chill and listen then I find myself more joyful and more ...

This morning in my Men's Community Group we very briefly touched on the question "Do you live each day expecting great things from God?" Do I? Do I expect God to show up in mighty and miraculous ways today? Do I expect great things today... or is it just another day... just another sermon to finish... just more emails to answer... just more phone calls to make. I choose to live my life trusting in the incredible and powerful nature of God! I know that God can show up in the big events and the tiny details of life. I know God is great and he is doing great things all around me. I'm expecting something GREAT today! How about you?

WOW!!! 2010! Can't believe it's actually 2010 and I STILL don't have rocket boots or a flying car! What's the deal with that! :) For the past number of years I've challenged myself (and everyone else who reads this blog) to really get into reading your Bible regularly! I just don't know how Christians in our North American culture can walk closely with God without spending regular time in his Word... This will be my sixth year doing The One Year Bible. Some years are better than others for getting the entire Bible read... I usually end up around 85-95% of the Bible read each year doing this method. This year I'm going for %110! Also, I like to start each of my reading times with a short prayer. I pray the same thing each and every day for the entire year. It's been pretty amazing to see God work through those simple prayers. Here's the list from the past few years: 2005: Give a passion for God's Word, his people, his world and his servi...

Being a HUGE Indiana Jones fan, and, obviously, a fan of all things relating to the Bible, I thought this article in Time Magazine about finding the Ark of the Covenant very interesting. I especially like this quote: Those who hope to find the original biblical item, moreover, will likely reject Parfitt's claim that the best we can do is an understudy. Animating all searches for the Ark is the hope — and fear — that it will retain the unbridled divine power the Old Testament describes. What would such a wonder look like in our postmodern world? What might it do ? What would it do indeed? Melting Nazis Indiana Jones style is pretty cool :-)