Psalm 99

On February 3 I am going to be preaching on Psalm 99. I would love to hear what you think about this Psalm. It begins off,

Yahweh reigns,
let the nations tremble

The nations that think they reign should tremble because they don't. For the psalmist it would have been the nations like Egypt or Assyria or Babylon or even that nation of Israel.
What nations today think they reign?
Perhaps we can be more personal. What things think they reign (control) our lives?
What do you think it means that they should tremble?

Martin Luther King

Children and money

I came across an article that talked about how to teach children about money.
Important lessons to teach your children about money

We give our children an allowance. And right now we are trying to teach them about tithing and saving.
What have you done to teach you kids about money?

Meditation

"Their delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law they meditate day and night"
Psalm 1:2

Meditation involves being silent and thinking deeply. At least this is the way I have often viewed meditation. Silence is foundational to meditation. A person can meditate without thinking deeply - many say that meditation's goal is to empty the mind (I am not convinced that this is actually Christian meditation though).
However, I have been reading a book called Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith. Marvin Wilson says "Meditation is the outward verbalizing of one's thoughts before God, of the poring over his teachings and works." He states that the Hebrew word for meditation means to "murmur" or "mutter". Wow. This totally changes the way I view meditation. Instead of being totally silent, meditation is an invitation to mutter and murmur about the things of God. One part of meditation is talking to ourselves, reminding ourselves about God, his word, what he is doing...
Now I do believe silence is a good thing - to be still and listen to God. But meditation does not equal silence.

Online library

For those who love books. I just found an online library where you can download audio books and ebooks. It works just like a library - you can download the book and use it for 14 days (at which point it gets locked and you cannot access it any more).
elm.lib.overdrive.com

Coffin

My friend Dan just emailed me plans for building my own coffin. Just to be clear it was not a death threat (at least I don't think it was). We have been having an on going conversation about death and funerals. We took a course together in fall about death.
Now I have to say before I go any further I have great deal of respect for funeral directors. The funeral director that we have in our town is great - he is kind, compassionate and is a blessing to the families that are grieving. So this is not an attack on him, rather these are thoughts about funerals in general.

Why do I need a fancy coffin? Why padded cushions? I don't plan to use the coffin until I am dead - so must likely I won't mind lying on plain old wood. If I get buried then the coffin is just going to be buried in the ground, where it (and my body) will decompose. Now I don't have exact numbers but I have heard that a basic coffin can cost hundreds of dollars. What are we paying for?

Tony Campolo wrote a book called 20 Hot Potatoes Christians are Afraid to Touch. One of his chapters is called "Are funerals a rip off?" Very thought provoking. I want to quote a small part. He is talking about his experience as a pastor.
"I worked hard to dissuade an economically pressed widow not to buy a foam rubber mattress for her dead husband, in spite of the undertaker's claim that the mattress would be providing a comfortable rest for the corpse for all eternity. I also balked when this same undertaker tried to sell the widow an expensive airtight vault for her husband's casket which was 'guaranteed to keep him dry.'"

With all of this in mind I decided perhaps I should build my own coffin. Actually I am not very handy (and not sure where I would put it - a toy box for the kids might look a little twisted) so I asked one of friends to make me a coffin if I die any time soon.

An Emergent Manifesto of Hope

I just finished reading An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, edited by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones. It is a fascinating collection of articles written by people who in some sense are regarded as part of the "emerging church". Some of the articles were good and some were so so. Over all I think this book gives a good picture of the emerging church and what its passions and hopes are.
One of things that stands out in reading this is book is how hopeful these people are. Doug in the conclusion states "We must see the world as hopeful even when it is hurtful." (page 306) Hope and love underline almost everything written in this book. One gets the sense from this book that the people in the emerging church are looking forward to what God is going to do in the world. I have to say, Amen! Lord open my eyes so that I may see (and be part of) the amazing things you are going to do.
Now the problem with this book is that the articles raise some interesting questions but they lack a certain of depth. This lack of depth seems to be the result of a lack of space. The articles are thought provoking and good but I often ended the chapter wanting more. I should mention that in the introduction Doug says that the articles "should be considered discussion starters." However I do wish there was more unity from the writers. Each writer seemed to have freedom to write on whatever they want which meant that each chapter would often move to an entirely new thought.
Over all I found book thought provoking and good.

It has been a long time

Wow it has been a long time since I have posted anything. I have just gotten back from holidays. My family and I spent three weeks visiting family through out BC. It was great. Some of my highlights were: connecting with our families, seeing our brand new niece (we were there three days after she was born), being rained on for a few days in a row, sledding. Here are a couple of pictures.


The kids showing my brother some love

My new niece.


Cindy's parents house.

Christmas tunes

What are you doing on May 16?

Fire insurance

The other day one of my friends was listening to CHVN, our local Christian radio station. They heard an add about how to become a Christian. It began by saying, "you have house insurance. You have life insurance. You have car insurance. You need fire insurance." Salvation was simply viewed as fire insurance! This is absolutely terrible theology.
First, making salvation equal to fire insurance makes it a product that you buy. However, salvation is not a product that we purchase, or even are given. Salvation is all about relationship with God through Jesus our Messiah. Making it anything less than this destroys the very essence of what it is about.
Second, this view of salvation cheapens what Christ did on the cross. The cross is view as a gimmick to get us into heaven. Get your insurance and you get in - nothing else matters. You don't need to really love God, or submit your life to him, just have your 'paper work' in proper order.
For these reasons I believe that "fire insurance" salvation is actually not preaching salvation at all.
Now CHVN should really know better. They are representing Christians on radio and therefore they should be professional. Bad theology should not be part of what they teach on the air, especially theology that distorts what Jesus was all about.

Banjo

My Dad sent me this video. It is great.

Greg Boyd

Greg Boyd has become one of my favorite theologians over the past couple of years. In his blog he claims that he is a Mennonite - Random Reflections

He actually has some interesting thoughts about Mennonites.
Greg states that many Mennonites are "open theists". An open theist is a person who believes that God has plan for the world but does not control every detail. God is going to bring history to its proper conclusion. However he does not know what choice every person will make. He knows all our possible choices and the consequences of each.
What do you think?

Misplaced

Check out this video. It will make you think.

Misplaced

Let me know what you think?


Edited:
Ok this video takes a really long time to load up. Sorry about that.

cyclocross

Yesterday there was a cyclocross race in our town. Cyclocross is sort of like mountain biking, except there are times when you have to get off your bike and carry it.
My daughter joined the kids race. She did totally awesome. I am so proud of her. The winner of one of the adult races gave her his prize because he thought she did great as well. My wife says she won the cutest kid award.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!
A couple of thing that I am thankful for:

• My wife - who is the most beautiful, wonderful, smart person I have ever met
• My children - they are amazing and I am so proud of each one
• Family - wish I was with them this weekend
  
• Friends
• Laughter
• Health
• A van that works
• A house that keeps me dry and warm
• A wonderful bed
• Freedom
• School
• Books
• Stories
• Different languages
• Enough food to eat
• Beauty of creation
• Rain
• Internet

What are you thankful for?

Blessed or cursed?

If you have grown up in the church you most likely will have heard of something called "the curse". What happened is that Yahweh created people in a perfect world and placed them in the Garden of Eden. However people chose to rebel against God. As a result humans fell under a curse. Growing up I was under the impression that God had specifically cursed people.
However I just reread the story in Genesis. Yahweh actually does not curse people specifically. The ground is cursed and we suffer consequences for our actions. But no where in Genesis are humans cursed by God.
My teacher in Genesis says that this is important because foundationally we are blessed by God and not cursed by him. God never removes his blessing from humans and places them under a curse in Genesis.
Do you see yourself as blessed by God? Or cursed by him?
How can we help people see that God has blessed them not cursed them?

Death

This fall I am taking two classes with Winnipeg Center of Ministry Studies (an Anabaptist seminary) - Genesis and Death (actually my Death class is called Death, life and happiness but our teacher told us that he was forced to put in life and happiness). I have had one class of each so far and they both seem to be totally fascinating.
In my Death class our teacher read a chapter from Michael Wyschogrod's book, Abraham's Promise: Judaism and Jewish - Christian Relations, called "A Jewish Death in Heidelberg". It told the story about how a Jewish man died in Heidelberg. His Christian friends wanted to bury him next to the woman he loved (though never married) in a Christian cemetery. In fact he had expressed this wish (though he never left a will). The Jewish community objected to this and insisted the he be buried in the Jewish cemetery. They argued that being buried in a Christian cemetery is contrary to the Torah. This story raises several interesting questions. How binding is the desires of a dead person? What if their wish goes against their religious convictions?
Who has the authority to decide these matters? In this story the man had no family. So do his friends or does his religious community have the authority?
What does it mean to honor the dead?
Fulfilling the final wish a person is often seen as a way of honoring them. However this was the struggle. The Jewish man was apparently very Jewish (though he did have a falling out with the Jewish community). So is it more honoring to bury him in the Jewish fashion (keeping the spirit of who he was) or by fulfilling his desire?
These are difficult questions. I wonder if they are more difficult because I do not like really talking about death.

Aliens

Do space aliens actually exist? I am not sure how many of you actually think about questions like this. But it is something that I occasionally think about. I really enjoy reading/watching science fiction. One of my favorite movies is Star Wars and favorite TV is show is Star Trek. So on occasion I wonder about life on other planets.
Now I have often concluded that there is no other intelligent life on other planets. However the other day I was driving all my reasons began to fall apart. I had suddenly thought about angles. Angles are intelligent beings that God has created. Which means that there are at least two intelligent beings that exist. And if there are two why not more?
Right now I do not believe that aliens have visited our planet or that there is any really good evidence that they exist. But I do not have any reasons for them not to exist either.

First reactions

I wonder how a person changes their first reactions. Often in my life my first reaction to things is to see the problems and negatives. It may be a great idea (even the greatest idea ever). Still I often start listing the problems. I think I can see the potential of some ideas. But my first reaction is not to list those benefits and blessings.
And my initial reaction can get even worse if something disrupts my life. I am convinced that deep within is a belief that I am the center of the world. I deny that I believe this but sometimes...