Monday, April 30, 2007

Fullness


I was teaching this week at Ignite (discipleship school in Toronto) on holiness and then helped with some worship at a women's retreat (anything for Jesus!)... where my good friend Denise was sharing about freedom. I was struck by the nature of both of those two concepts and how they connect... freedom and holiness collide in fullness. Denise was talking about how you aren't just 'set free' once and it's a done deal - but you grow into deeper freedom... and I was teaching about holiness being about 'fullness' - infectious Jesus quality at work in you and expanding outward...

Often spiritual freedom and holiness are thought of (or taught) as restrictive... it's odd. Because both are the most expansive things ever... we grow into more freedom and more 'wholeness' - we grow in our capacity for more of Jesus.

Now, Denise said this is a lot like a marriage (and used the analogy of a bride)... real love is expressed in covenant... solid, true promises that we make to love no matter what. After 40 years of marriage (or even 12) that kind of love looks and feels different... because it has deepened... it challenged me though. Am I content to let my love grow cold. Not just with Jesus but in my relationships too... I want to grow deeper into the wholeness of God and have that fullness expand into every possible area of my life and influence... let this fullness verse challenge you as it has me this weekend:

From Ephesians 3: "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Let's change the world.


Delirious sang it years ago - but I still pray it:

Is it true today that when people pray
Cloudless skies will break
Kings and queens will shake
Yes it's true and I believe it
I'm living for you

Is it true today that when people pray
We'll see dead men rise
And the blind set free
Yes it's true and I believe it
I'm living for you

I'm gonna be a history maker in this land
I'm gonna be a speaker of truth to all mankind
I'm gonna stand, I'm gonna run
Into your arms, into your arms again
Into your arms, into your arms again

Well it's true today that when people stand
With the fire of God, and the truth in hand
We'll see miracles, we'll see angels sing
We'll see broken hearts making history
Yes it's true and I believe it
We're living for you

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

MLK Tribute

just a man.... with a big dream.
I've heard it said that strategies are the legs on the body of our dreams. Martin Luther King Jr. was a dreamer with some long legs. God release the new strategies to make your Kingdom (our dream) come, now, as it is in heaven.

Monday, April 23, 2007

First Nelson Mandela interview

for the discussion of great reformers... check out this first TV interview of Nelson Mandela - about half way through his long walk to freedom!

Friday, April 20, 2007

Just Work


You may have already guessed it by my last few posts - but I am tired of the slow pace we have set on the human trafficking front... in Canada we are particularly slow because our Country will not create/reform the law to protect and provide for the survivors of human trafficking... the police are not funded or informed enough to actually find them... the sally ann (God bless 'em) are left in a daze it seems without someone to follow. This gets me stirred up. We need to be the head not the tail. What I mean by that is that we need to start doing things whether they are 'legal', safe, risky, etc... while I was listening to the RCMP presenter (at the conference) I was checking out the info online (wireless) and up popped a 'How to run your own Escort centre' window... for $1000 I can get the in's and out's of a Vancouver based escort agency (including contacts for escorts, legal loop holes etc...). So, there it is. Let's start one... except instead of an escort business let's make it re-training and exit-ing. My idea didn't meet with great enthusiasm... (which I'm used to)... but what I don't understand is how the evil side can be so creative and flexible and daring -and the good side so grey, dull, and safe. International Justice Mission's founder in his book 'Terrify No More' suggests that the hardest thing about justice work is the work (and getting it started).
God help us all to JUST work - maybe, even as a turtle we could finish this race first!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Human Trafficking and The Salvation Army

A journalist, Victor Malarek spent two years interviewing traffickers and their victims and is the author of The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade (2003). He talks about how women are conned into the sex trade, the countries that are supplying the new "fourth wave" of trafficked women, and the failure of governments to help the countless women who are forced into prostitution.

TODAY I heard him at the Canadian Salvation Army network conference on trafficking. Besides his deep regard for The Salvation Army because of his personal experience as a child... he gave us some serious truth and delivered it with great passion and urgency. I asked him what he thought The Sally Ann could do RIGHT away to combat trafficking immediately - he said (and I quote), "get out on the street." Then he told me about this group of nuns in italy who started street night walks and have 'rescued' trafficked women one at a time and hid/cared for them in convents across the country... I started thinking about the roomy training colleges/properties around the developed world and wondered if we could put them to better use?

Just thinking outloud. We MUST get busy. I'm tired of talking. The early army used to arrange busts by 50 or so salvationists in uniform rushing into a brothel, putting women in the middle of the crowd and escorting them to private homes to be cared for as long as needed. Are we ready? Here's a link to more from Victor

Monday, April 16, 2007

I am a Human


The following post is a poem by Gerard Kelly.

I am a person
not a potato
to be picked and packaged
and sent to market
to be sliced and diced
chopped up and ketchupped
on the other side of the world.

I am human
and I am not for sale.
I am a living conscience,
not a cargo.
I travel passenger
not freight.
I am not cattle
not contraband,
not a catalogued commodity.
I’m not the bottom line
for those who trade in tragedy
and profit from perversity.
I am not a can
to be recycled.

I am human
and I am not for sale.
I am a thinking individual,
not a rare exotic bird.
I am your sister,
not an inmate for your zoo.
I am not merchandise,
not meat,
not a meal ticket.
I was mothered,
not manufactured,
begotten,
not created.

I am human
and I am not for sale.
Its time to end this trade
in human tragedy,
to terminate this travesty
of a global economy.
Let the red lights
of your cities
be put to better use
to stop the traffic.
Write itin lights
across your seared conscience:

I am human
and I not for sale

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Diana Krall

Let Jesus sing this over you... to help with our journey to contentment.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Working at contentment.


Phillipians 4:10 "I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

I don't excel at being content. This is one thing I've learned about myself, and have been painfully reminded in recent days. Content is defined as 'a state of peaceful happiness' or 'satisfied with a certain level of achievement'. It seems I'm consistent though - I'm consistently trying to better things: my running time, squash game, parenting skills, preaching style, and anything else you can think of. I'm not alone. It seems the whole world is obsessed with better, bigger, whiter, nicer... it's a bit, well, tiring. So, I'm making a list of things that help us with being content:

1. gratitude.
2. prayer.
3. silence.
4. kindness.
5. no comparing (this is a content killer)
6. security (opposite of insecurity?)

some ideas. I'm working on it as we speak... wait a minute - I mean I'm being content with my efforts to work on it... well, you get it - there is work to be done.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

truth and actions


James suggests that faith without works is dead and 'love without obedience lies in a grave close by' (that's a Steve Court original - not the idea just the quote).
I've been reading an interesting book (hat tip to Sandra R) called Intellectuals by Paul Johnson. It explores the minds that have shaped the modern world and then examines their moral and judgmental credentials to give advice to humanity... it's quite a read. These intellectuals "are revealed as both brilliant and contradictory, magnetic and dangerous". Consider Rousseau who wrote extensively on raising children but sent all five of his own to an orphanage. Yikes.
Although it's easy to criticize them I've been struck by the reminder in my own life of claiming to follow Jesus but often embarassing God in the process. When my words don't match my life, I discredit God somehow and damage the weight of His Words to the world. Paul struggled with the battle of what he knew and what he did (see Romans 7) and all of us eventually must die to that struggle and live again to newness of life (see Romans 8) - where our actions match our words not because they must but because they flow from one another.
Often hypocrisy is used as a reference to Christians - clearly this book has recognized that the nature of hypocrisy runs deep within the human heart. It's a good reminder. I just want to be a sheep.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Contemplate this.

Sarah McLachlan - World On Fire

let's set the world on fire.
tall latte = $2.70 (3 X a week = sponsoring a child). Chocolate? Movies? Let's get creative in freeing up resources for the world's people.

Friday, April 6, 2007

Dance upon Injustice


Sometimes Justice work is made out to be boring, hard and guilt-ridden. That would be for the non-believer.
Along with Jesus being the embodiment of Justice - he was also JOYFUL... the scriptures say that he was a party animal ('m paraphrasing). These are a few shots of some people like Jesus at RAW (in Vancouver last month) Dancing on Injustice... literally.
The joy of the Lord is our strength. Ditch the drudgery and bring on the joy! Join the dance.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

The Beauty of Life

Let's celebrate together by loving well.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Aprils 30 day experiment


The new 30 day experiment is: PILATES... I'm working on my flexibility! :-)

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Pope John Paul II Tribute

So, John Paull II is credited with a miracle after his death. Wow. I don't doubt it... after all the amazing things he contributed in his life... this is probably just a left-over, wrapped up for later. Of course, I don't doubt it because I know who John Paul II adored and worshipped and glorified for his whole life - Jesus. The author of all life and healing. John Paul as pope 'glorified' more people than any other pope in history. His idea of 'sainthood' was declaring people worth emulating... if that's what making John Paul II a saint would do - then let's go for it. I want to be more like him when I grow up. Here's a warning from John Paul II for this generation:
"the greatest threat to the next generation is excessive capitalism and the death of children not yet born." May his life continue to help us with those challenges - let's imitate him as he imitated Christ.