Weddings

I love being a part of weddings.  I love the rehearsals, and the emotions and the joy and the love that is celebrated on a wedding day.  I love watching the grooms face as he sees his true love for the first time that day.   I love seeing the tears of joy on the parents faces.  I love the fact that in my job I get to counsel couples who are thinking of getting married and watch as they begin this wonderful journey of learning how  to live together.  The Beatles summed up a generation when they said, "All you need is love."  This generation was on the right track, but they missed the point.  We can see from the amount of broken marriages and wedding vows, that love is not enough.  It is not strong enough on its own, to weather the storms of life.  To stand the test of time.  We need the source of love, we need the one who created love in our marriages.  I tell all the people that come through my office for counselling that they can work and have the greatest marriage but if you want one that will last then you need one with God and Jesus Christ in it.  You need to invite Him into those intimate areas of your hearts. You need to make him the foundation on which you rest your marriage.  He needs to be the reason for your love.  He needs to be the one you turn to when the times get tough and those storms seem to be coming at you from all directions.  If you put your trust, your hope and your dreams in His hands He will never let you down.  Love is a big part of the wedding, but the foundation has to be God.  The Beatles probably just could not put that idea into a catchy tune. 

I was just in the mall with my son today and we went to see a matinee. Just some Dad and son time. As we were walking through the mall my mind turned to holy living and how we are to live holy lives in this world. I was thinking of my life and my failures in this area and how hard it was for me, and my heart went out to my son. He lives in a day where pornography is as easily accessed as a glass of water, you just have to turn it on. He lives in a day when he is bombarded by messages that go contrary to what his mom and I want him to learn. Walking through the mall he saw scantily clad women on posters by the La Senza, and pictures of people in scandalous poses at the jean store, everywhere we turned you could see the affects of sin in the world and that was only the advertising. How do we as parents and Christians protect our kids from these things and help them to understand that there is a better way. I think the main way is for us to live it ourselves and to show them Jesus. Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace. 2nd Cor 1:12 God will help us to live the holy life, he will give us wisdom, not of this world but of His kingdom. During my stroll around the mall I reaffirmed my dedication of my kids to Him and I will let God lead them and direct them and trust that He will keep them safe. I just have to make sure that I am living the way He wants me to. I was comforted and thought I must be doing something right when I asked my son if he knew he was a Christian and he said that he did, he invited Christ into his heart when he was three and remembered it. Lord help us to raise godly kids!

Technology and Church

I am convinced that if there is anything to go wrong on a Sunday morning it will be with technology. Those little gadgets are supposed to make our lives easier but most of the time these advancements make things worse. Take today for instance. I had the power point all ready to go, the projector all fired up and it was projecting on the back wall for everyone to see. Pick up my guitar and begin to lead music and half way through I realize no one is singing and everyone is looking at me like I have two heads. Enter the technology gremlin, hahaha. Somehow things have gone astray at the back and the projector is not projecting. Enter the ushers who try to fix things, takes several minutes and the whole spirit of the service is gone. Everyone is watching the ushers fix this thing. They did get it fixed about half way through the service and people were able to sing for the songs before prayer, which was good. Oh for the good old days, where you just pointed at the overhead projector, where you did not have to spend hours putting power points together, where multi media was the missions books at the back. What do we expect, perhaps I should take apple computers and Steve Jobs advice, just hold it in the right hand and not the left.

Our Time

Last night at the Calgary Stampede a ride malfunctioned and a part broke off and people were thrown to the ground from around 10 meters. Everyone survived the fall. I have been thinking about this today as I have been going about my Saturday to do list. We never really know when our time will be up. We never know, when we leave our homes, if we will make it back or if we will meet our maker. We had a close call on the way to California a few weeks ago. We were driving just past Great Falls MO on a rainy morning and we were driving up hill through the mountains. I went to pass a transport truck and lost sight momentarily as the rain from his truck splashed all over my windshield. The wipers kicked in and I could see clearly and what I saw was a young deer jumping over the cement median right into my lane, right in front of me. I still to this moment have no idea how I missed him, I have no recollection of doing anything other than hold my breath for impact. But instead my van swerved into the other land, just in front of the truck I had just passed, missing the deer who bounced off of my rear fender skidding back into the cement median missing the truck. I saw all of this from a third person point of view and it took only two seconds I am sure. I kept going, my wife woken up by the sudden jerk and bump of the van and deer; white knuckled. I could not tell her what happened until a few minutes later. The only thing I can say is that God was looking out for us and that he prevented us from being in a horrible accident. It was, I believe, a miracle. I still cannot remember if I actually told my hands to move the wheel, or if it did it for me. Those people on the ride should thank God that they are all alive. Just like I thanked God all the way to CA and back again for keeping my family and I safe in His arms. Hopefully those people will be able to get back on rides and enjoy life, knowing that God is with them like He is with us all. Let us live every moment of our lives as if it may be the last, with a love for Jesus Christ and a love for each other that will make a difference in our time; whether or not our time is up!

Church in CA

While we were in California we went to a church called Harvest Christian Fellowship. Its senior pastor is a guy named John Laurie and it was a great experience. We were greeted at the courtyard, we were told where our kids could go and then taken to seats reserved for first time visitors. It was great. We also had the amazing good fortune to hear a band called Leeland, lead worship that morning. I had never heard of them, but I will be purchasing their CD's. They really lead worship, and did not just put on a concert, it was awesome. I have always said that going to a big church was not for me, especially one that had four services with around 25oo people at each one. I always thought that you would get lost, that the worship would be fake and the service would be a big show, rather than a praise and worship time. I was wrong. I really felt at home and had a wonderful time of learning and praising God. I would most certainly want to be a part of this church if I lived in that area in CA. What sealed it for me was the alter call where over 5o people came to the front to accept Jesus as Lord!!! It was AWESOME!!! Times that by four and you get an idea of the impact this church is having on their community. God help us to all be effective leaders and churches where you have placed us. Thank you for the work going on in the world. Check out their web site at http://www.harvest.org/.

Facebook is Scary

According to the new book The Facebook Effect, by David Kirkpatrick, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg would sometimes look at people's online profiles during the social network's early days and guess which relationships were on the rocks—and could successfully guess about a third of the time which folks would be in new relationships a week later. "They can track a user's every keystroke and mouse click on the site," writes Tracy Clark-Flory of salon.com. "They can see whose profiles you're looking at most often, whose photos you're lingering on. The ways to see into users' lives are endless. Not only do they know far more about you than you likely realize, but Facebook might even be able to recognize things about yourself that even you have yet to realize." [salon.com, 5/18/10]

I am always amazed at what people admit to and put on their facebook pages. They use this communication medium as a confession booth, not knowing that the things they are confessing no longer remain their property, but Facebooks property, and it remains on the Internet forever..... Now contrast this to the wonderful gift of forgiveness. This is also a place that we can go and cast all of our cares, our confessions, our lives; and from our savior Jesus Christ can receive pardon. Those things we admit are no longer ours, they are Christ's and they are not held over us forever. They are deleted, they are erased and we can live a new life because of Jesus. So people lets keep Facebook clear of our confessions. Lets make our confessions to Jesus. Lets also consecrate our Facebook sites and keep them clean and able to be used for God.

Vacation Musings

I just got back from my first real family vacation with my kids. I call it my first real one because we did not fly we drove 2304 km's one way to Ontario CA USA to see some friends of ours. It brought back several memories of mine from my childhood and driving with my family to all sorts of places. I remember the heat, because we did not have air conditioning and I remember being stuck in the middle seat in a Pontiac 6000 for hundreds of km's with my sisters complaining that my legs were touching theirs. Oh what fun! These drives were well worth it in the end with the destination being Grandma's house or my Uncle's house in Pennsylvania. I did think that my kids had it good though, each having their own seat in a spacious mini-van with air conditoning. It would have been heavenly to have that as a kid. Well I have a better character because of my trips and I have a great relationship with my sisters, but I would not want to get in the back of a Pontiac 6000 with them today!

While on vacation we went to the happiest place on earth, Disney Land. I would have to say that this was one of the best days I have ever spent with my family. Even though there were crowds and lines, you could not help but get caught up in the feeling of being a kid again. It is alright to skip around and do all sorts of kid things at Disney. It is alright to want to get on every ride as many times as possible in one short 14 hour day. Once we figured out how to fast pass it got a whole lot better and we hit all the main rides and I rode them with my kids, screamed like a little girl and hugged Goofy and did all the things at Disney that one can do. It was well worth the money to hear my son Spencer say to me that it was the best day of his life! He said it with such passion and contentment that I almost cried. Thank you Mickey Mouse! The star wars ride and play helped a whole lot too!

It was sooo neat to see my other son Aiden. He was very bummed out about our first line up and wait of 45 minutes to get on Peter Pan's ride. His eyes were so wide during the ride and he kept on saying, "look look look at that!" After that ride he was perfectly fine to wait in line, he knew a good thing was coming. His four hour nap in the afternoon was perfect and we were able to ride until midnight with him smiling and happy while all the other parents kids were melting down. I don't think I will ever get It's a small world after all, out of my head.

Vacation would not be complete for the women in my life if I did not include the amazing shopping that we accomplished. The outdoor mall in Ontario CA is amazing and I recommend, if you are a guy, getting a Starbucks coffee and hitting the playground with the little ones and letting your wife shop, shop away while you sit in luxury in the shade. Emily loved the Justice store and Christy Crate and Barrel. Actually she could not narrow it down, so I picked for her! I will say that Montana is a good place to shop because they have no sales tax!!

Also, because I love to try new restaurants, Claim Jumper is one place you have to try. What an awesome place. The salads were so big I could not finish them, and that is saying a lot. Plus they have a 9 buck piece of cake that I cannot describe, it is so big!

The other thing that was great about our vacation was being with our friends. Just being able to sit and chat and drink coffee for hours was awesome. Worshiping with them on Sunday at Harvest Church was great. Friends and family are what vacation is all about, we had both and are truly blessed, relaxed, refreshed and ready to tackle another year in ministry.

Blessings to all: Pastor Ed