Help me out here

It has become apparent to me that in situations which are new to me I tend to observe before I attempt to engage. My first year at Regent is fast approaching its conclusion and as I've spent much time observing, I am now reflecting on several issues and trying to work through them. One of these is my role in the establishment of the Kingdom of God. I am surrounded by extremely intelligent people and often feel "outweighed" and in a strange Animal Farm sort of way have difficulty located my uniqueness, but that's not what this appeal is about. I have noticed that many of my fellow students are quite specified in certain areas of expertise, concentrating their energy on so as to achieve mastery, or at the very least competence in that specified field of expertise. I have recently been musing over which field I wish to pursue.

Today as I was walking, I came to a profound and quite elementary realization; it is incredibly enticing for students and scholars to define themselves by their discipline. As my Counselor was speaking to me I was reminded that my choice of specialty is of secondary value and I cannot let myself be defined, or put my value in being an OT scholar, or Biblical historian etc. I am a follower of Christ. Re-discovery of this simple truth was refreshing for me in a world that can become engulfed in trivial pursuit. However, it raised a subsequent question, what are potential roles for me in the advancement of the Kingdom of God? How can I be most effective? This is where I value your input. For those of you who know who I am, where I come from, the things that are important to me, the things I am passionate about etc, what do you see as an effective role for me to serve FOR the Kingdom of God. I mean this list of traits to be somewhat comprehensive of me, i.e. not just in theological terms. This is not a self-esteem or comparison issue, I don't want to you to say you think I'm smart or valuable...maybe you don't anyway :) What I am interested in hearing are insights made from a point of view that I cannot have: the observation of someone outside myself.

I love this stuff!

Well I stumbled across this the other day and it almost brought a tear to my eye...more great memories from that treasure on Vancouver Island known as Franklin Woodlands. This clip is from a road system called Summit that stems off another system called Nadira. I spent many weeks roadbuilding there. Here Coop hauls a grapple yarder up Summit aided by a pull truck and push truck.
To see some more of this logging goodness that I love to do so much check out Dylan Winter's "Loggers" video project

tsa'aq - to cry out in distress

This past week I came across a certain idea about a function of creation. It was in Dt 30:19 where Moses calls the heavens and earth to witness against Israel in the courtroom of God. Why are the heavens and earth called to witness? As I thought about it more I realized that these things were parts of God's creation that have not rebelled against him, they still function according to the order that God initiated. It seems as though this is why nature can also anticipate the coming judgment of God (1 Chr 8:30-33; Rom 8:18-22). Humanity is going to be judged while nature is going to be made new (Rev 21).

As I followed through on this idea of creation bearing witness something became very evident to me. Nature/creation rejects sin. When there is sin on the earth, the rest of God's creation absorbs it then in a manner of a distressing cry, it vomits it back out. It is the sound God heard when Abel's blood cried from the ground, it is the sound God heard when the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt, it is the sound God heard when children were offered as sacrifices to Molech, it is the sound of the earthquake after Jesus' death, it is the sound of a woman being raped, a covenant being broken, Hitler killing Jews, ethnic cleansing, Saddam's war crimes, North American imposed oppression, it is the sound of the people of God using him to gain wealth, it is the sound of people gathering to worship instead of tending to the poor, it is the sound of sacrifice instead of obedience. Creation cries out in distress because of what humanity has done to it and to each other...and God hears its cry. There is a sense of reassurance and hope that comes from knowing that God sees and hears all injustice, but on the flipside God sees and hears all injustice...

Give'er snoose!

I'm sure most of you have seen or heard of the ravaging storms that recently struck BC. In Vancouver the big story was how Stanley Park looked like a warzone. I saw somewhere there was something like 3000 trees that came down in the park. Poor old Stanley Park will never be the same. So how can we restore it to its former beauty? How can it be cleaned up? How can it be made safe again? Yes, these are all important questions but really there are only two things to be considered here.

Heli...



or line show?



Does anyone else find it ironic that a park reserve might have to bring in the loggers! I say we find a high rigger to run up one of the trees that's still there, hang a couple of blocks, drag in a couple of old donkeys, an old tailspar that bleeds oil, and string up a classic skyline. Just think the city would employ its first bead setters, whistle punk, chaser, swamper, buckers, and of course a real hooker...uhh that would be hooktender. The water's right there too...we could get a D9 with an arch and push them all down to the chuck to get boomed up. The wood is on the ground already, what's the point in wasting time talking about what to do...we're here to log!

Christmas reflections...

Christmas seems to be one of those bittersweet times for me. I love it, but I hate the consumerism of it and the hectic nature that sometimes takes over the holidays. One thing that really helps me get into the Christmas season are the carols. I was thinking of the words of one of my favorite Christmas carols, O Come O Come Emmanuel, and some of the lyrics came alive to me.

O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear

O come, O come, great Lord of might, who to thy tribes on Sinai's height
In ancient times once gave the Law, in cloud and majesty and awe

Even though this is a song of the medieval era, I tried to imagine what it must have been like for Israel living exiled in Assyria and Babylon. The One personal God known to man had chosen a nation as his instrument of justice and love to the rest of the world. He had promised to give them a land and prosperity, He had identified them as His people by giving them the Law, but because the people disobeyed and did not pursue righteousness and justice their land was taken away and they were sent into exile. I played a mental scene of a child coming to his mother and asking, "mom, if we're Israelites why do we live in Babylon?" The mother did her best to explain the sometimes glorious but ultimately painful past of Israel before putting her young child to bed. Then, alone under the soft light of a candle, she spent the night in anguish, crying out to the Lord. She knew that a Messiah was promised to come...but when!?! Had the Lord forgotten? Did He not see their suffering? Each day hinged on the strength of her thread of hope that someday the Messiah would come and deliver them from the oppression of foreign nations. From her lonely, forsaken pit of desperation, I heard for the first time a rich meaning of this song we sing in celebration of the advent season...REJOICE!! REJOICE!! Emmanuel shall come to thee O Israel!

During the advent season we anticipate the coming of Christ. I can't imagine what it would be like to dragged away from this land and forced to live in another. On the other hand, we do live in exile. The world that we live in is not exactly the world God intended for us to live in. Christ has come but we anticipate another coming, not to take us out of this world, but to bring the fullness of the Kingdom of God. These nine words brought hope to Israel in one of their most destitute states. These nine words give the people of God a reason to continue living in a world that bleeds corruption and injustice. They are nine words that fuse the despondent, anxious voice of humanity with the calm, reassuring, and triumphant voice of the Lord...

REJOICE!! REJOICE!! EMMANUEL SHALL COME TO THEE O ISRAEL!

turning to the book of 2 Opinions...

Here's a few questions that I'm interested to hear some opinions on.
1) What do you think was/is the nature of prophecy and prophets in Biblical times and/or today? 2) Why do we seldom hear sermons from the Minor Prophets?
3) How would you define "anointing" and is it possible to gain more "anointing" or lose it?

Gotta see this!

So as I had nothing better to do last night I was wandering around the realms of youtube finding sweet vids of concerts. I actually had some pretty good succes like finding one of Kravitz showin up at a GNR show and playin "Always on the Run." I had to watch this beauty a couple of times to let it sink in...Brad, Barry, Tom, Sib, and Fran...the original crew tearin it up. I'm speechless..I honestly don't know what to say. The feeling was incredible..like MORE than a feeling!

http://www.thirdstage.ca/boston/html/video.htm