Mostly Gooder

"Christmas has a way of making the good seem gooder and the bad seem badder." Pastor Rick Boyce, GTA, December 12, 2004.

Quite true, quite true.

So, how did everyone enjoy Christmas? Are you exhausted from shopping or putting in those extra holiday shifts at work? Did you get a chance to visit all of your family and to join friends in all of the expected holiday parties?

I was exhausted myself, to the point of being sick all week. I was coming off of those 6 performances for GTA's Christmas presentations. It went very well and God ministered through me in worship, which I find to be a fairly humbling experience for me these days. I'm just glad that I only had a cold before the performances started and then again once they were done, allowing me to remain healthy during those two weeks. The other guy in the bass section of the choir with me had laryngitis for two of the performances so I'm glad that I was able to hold up all right.

I've had a nice Christmas. The best part for me was that my parents were home this year on Christmas day. Last year they were flying home from Korea for Boxing Day and they got stuck in San Fransisco because of a flight layover. I was looking at my volunteer work log from last year and apparently I spent Christmas day in 2003 at work, doing some volunteer coding for the JAG Room Booking Software that I've been developing lo these many years. Spending Christmas day with my family is much better.

(As an aside, I finally finished Version 12 of that software this past week, complete with logos and splash screens. I've been working on it since 1999 for LGT and I think that it's just about ready for other churches to start using it. I figure that it's required two to three hundred hours of programming so far.)

So it was nice to have my parents home for good this year. We had the traditional Christmas breakfast with pemeal bacon and eggnog. We read the Christmas story from the Bible and opened our presents, and then later had a nice turkey dinner.

As far as the presents go, this family certainly appreciates DVDs. I bought CSI Season 4 for my parents, Friends Season 7 for my sister and the Return of the King Extended Edition for my brother. My sister bought my brother the new Star Wars DVD Collection (Episodes IV, V and VI) and bought me the series DVD of the animated Dilbert TV show. And finally, my grandparents (the english ones in Florida) bought me the series DVD of the original 1967 Spider-Man cartoon. Yep, DVDs to all and to all a good night!

I pray that your Christmas holidays are mostly gooder and that God shines brightly in your life.

Joyeux Noël!

Joyeux Noël, tout le monde!

Breath of Heaven

I'm in the Christmas presentation at my church this year. I have a small solo and I'm singing in the bass section of the choir. Actually, there's only one other guy, Neil, in the bass section and he had laryngitis this past weekend. It was fun trying to hold up that music section on my own, but at least Neil showed up and tried his squawking best.

We had our opening night on Saturday December 11th. We performed on Sunday evening and well be performing again tonight (Monday). We have three more presentations next weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (December 17 - 19). Everyone's welcome to come, of course.

Directions: Glad Tidings Assembly is on the west side of Wonderland Road, north of Riverside and south of Oxford. It has a big sign out front so it should be easy to spot.

Visiting a MegaChurch

"The outcome of November 2 has piqued my curiosity. Experts tell us that “moral issues” proved to be the biggest factor for voters in one of the closest presidential races in U.S. history. And while some people may question the morality of the administration’s policies, others want to know why these voters are such an effective political force."

And with that, this article describes a woman's first impressions when she visited a "mega church" in the United States. I thought this paragraph in particular rung a similar tone to one of Mike's recent posts.

I picked up this article from a site that I have been visiting recently, Church Marketing Sucks. As that blog noted in this post, the author (or at least the editor) compares the visit with Alice in Wonderland, complete with illustrations. This blogger comments that the author of the article "closes with plenty of fair questions but no room for real answers." I would agree with that.

The author compares this megachurch with their past memories of church as a child, wondering what the hidden agenda is. As my own opinion, I thought it was funny that the article ends with a condemnation of conservative Christians for their stance on homosexuality and abortion. No one condemned her for thinking as she pleased, but apparently the author feels that condemnation is all right as long as you're right. As I said, it struck me as funny.

Mace or Pepper Spray?

My dad, my brother and I took four South Korean students to the Playdium in Mississauga two weeks ago. Richard and a few other friends came along with us as well. After a few hours in the Playdium, Richard and I went to the parking lot to take a break and to get a drink. We were sitting in my van when we heard shouting coming from a couple of parking spaces away.

Richard, being the man that he is, immediately opened the door with the intent of going over to help stop the fight. (Apparently that's not uncommon for him, whether it's at work or just randomly downtown.) We were both looking over and we saw two guys outside of a car and two guys inside the car, with much yelling between them. One of the guys outside was trying to open the driver's side door.

The driver rolled down his window a bit and reached out with a can of something, spraying the outsider directly in the face. The car then drove off, leaving the assailant (or victim?) clutching his face in pain and crying as he stumbled about for several minutes.

As soon as the can was sprayed, Richard quietly got back into the van and closed the door. We sat there until the two men in the parking lot eventually got into their own car and drove away.

So my question is, what do you think the can contained? Apparently mace is illegal but pepper spray is fair game. It may have been a can of something else entirely, though. Any guesses? The can was fairly large, like a hair spray can.

Raptors and Argos

My dad and I took our four visiting South Korean students to Toronto on Wednesday night. We went to the new-ish Vaughn Mills Mall first, which is supposed to be the coolest/biggest new mall in the Toronto area. It was a nice place, designed in a simple loop rather than a cloverleaf maze like White Oaks Mall. The main attraction is this gargantuan outdoor recreation store. It has a massive water tank at the entrance with various kinds of local fish, nothing exotic, just big fish that you can catch in Ontario water. It also had a big waterfall right beside that.

My dad and I went bowling while we there in this Palasade-like place. The place was so cool they had couches for every bowling lane. I sucked at bowling but at least I broke 100 in both of my games this time, unlike the two games I played at Palasade this past weekend. The last game I played last year I managed to get a turkey (three strikes in a row) and I seem to have lost my touch.

The main event of the day was that we went to see the Toronto Raptors play against the New York Knickerbockers. ("Knicks" is actually a nickname, "Knickerbockers" is the full name.) Toronto beat NY soundly, which was exactly what I wanted to see. Everyone gleefully booed Lenny Wilkens when he was introduced, and everyone viciously booed Vince Carter when he was introduced. And by everyone, I mean me as well. Lenny Wilkens is the coach that allowed Toronto to become a lazy, uncaring team for several years and Carter is proving himself to be lazy and uncaring on the court this year while he seeks a trade. It was great to be a boo-bird for a while.

On the other hand, the crowd loudly cheered for several other Raptors. Particularly Matt Bonner, who has been playing surprisingly well this year. We also cheered proudly for Jerome Williams (JYD, the Junk Yard Dog), a fan favourite as a former Raptor who is now playing for the Knicks. At one point during the pre-game shoot-around he went over by the Raptor mascot and the two of them had some fun putting a few dance moves together.

And the highlight of the night was an unexpected one. As any good Canadian knows, the Toronto Argonauts beat the BC Lions this past Sunday to claim the CFL Grey Cup. (Take that, Joel!) Lo and behold, coach and former star player Pinball Clemons took a courtside seat part way into the first quarter. He received the loudest standing ovation of the night at that point. During the break between the first quarter and the second quarter most of the Argos team came out onto the court, holding the Grey Cup in the air for everyone to see. The crowd went nuts as they walked around with it and took a team picture at centre court. It was fantastic. (Take that too, Joel!)

Playdium, Anyone?

My parents are home and this week we have four 9th-grade South Korean guys visiting us. They all go to a private school in the States. Since the Thanksgiving holidays are happening this week in the States they have to leave their school for the week and they don't want to go all the way back to South Korea. So, they're spending the week with us to do the tourist thing and to practice their english.

Amongst other things, my dad would like to go to the Playdium with these guys sometime this week. We're thinking about going on Saturday. Starting after 8:00 pm you can pay a flat rate of $20.00 for four hours of play.

Is anyone interested in joining us? We would like to have a couple more people to get more of an english-speaking environment. Guys or girls are welcome, whatever age. Actually, even though they're all in Grade 9, two of them are actually a couple of years older than that. Contact me if you want to join us.

Student Statistics: Race and Gender

The Toronto Star had this story this morning about a school in Richmond Hill (suburb of Toronto?) that has experimented for the past three years with splitting Grade 7/8 girls and guys for part of each day. The grades for both the girls and boys increased dramatically. They're now considering expanding the program to other grades. Perhaps the ECE and child-care people that read this blog already know this as a matter of fact.

The Toronto Star has also been following this story about a recent vote by the Toronto School Board in which they decided that they would start tracking school statistics by race. It was a very, very close vote and it has sparked much controversy about racial profiling and the like. The twist in this case is that statistics are already available that show that "kids from the Caribbean, Africa and sometimes South America generally do worse than their Canadian-born counterparts." That's what prompted this vote about official statistics in the first place.

I found it interesting that both stories appeared on the front page of the Toronto Star's website this morning.

If A Tree Falls and Swears and No One Heard It...

ABC airs the shows Monday Night Football and Desperate Housewives, so this past Monday they had a bit of cross-promotion between the shows. The opening for Monday Night Football had one of the star football players, Terrell Owens, accosted in the locker room before the game by an actress who plays one of the characters from Desperate Housewives. He is supposed to go out to play the game and, with a view of the woman's back, you see her take off her towel and suggest that they play hooky together.

Like the Janet Jackson Reveal during the Superbowl half-time show, there were many complaints files and ABC officially apologized. The story is described here.

Now, I read an interesting commentary about this. Anyone know who Mark Cuban is? He's the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, an upper-tier team in the NBA. He's also fantastically rich from his various technology-related companies and he is notoriously outspoken.

He posted some comments on his blog regarding this event, dubbing it an "apologevent." (Clever, but doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.) He thanked the FCC for cracking down on bad broadcasting behaviour like this because the FCC unintentionally became a publicity partner, garnering more coverage for both shows then they would have gotten by themselves.

The part I was most interested in was that he pointed out that "fake naked" and "fake swearing" is a laughable standard. If you don't swear but instead use an acronym or a common synonym and the person who reads or hears you immediately understands that you actually meant the explicit swear word, then did you swear? The list of banned swear words is shorter than it used to be (as decided by the FCC or whomever), but cute derivations of banned swear words are usually fair game on television and radio networks.

It's an idea that I think applies to those of us that do not approve of swearing. Just because we use Eminem-style half-silent swears or acronyms for swear words, if the purpose is to swear and to make others think of the actual swear words, then what's the point of camouflaging?

Sex-Ed vs. Gay-Ed

Here's a controversial news link: Toronto schools are having a bit of debate about whether parents have a choice about their grade school children being taught about same-sex families in school. The one argument says that kindergarden and the youngest grades are being taught according to their age level and that this constitutes necessary anti-homophobia education. The other argument, mostly prominantly vocalized by Muslim parents, says that parents should have the right to excuse their children from these classes in the same way that they can excuse their children from sex-ed classes. Similar to the term sex-ed (for sexual education in physical education courses), these classes were labeled "gay-ed" in this article.

My parents took both approaches when it came to sex-ed classes for me and my siblings when we were growing up. For the first few years I was allowed to take the classes but my parents later decided that my younger siblings and I would not be allowed to do so. In either case my parents taught us about these issues as needed at home. It's a good thing, too, because I remember coming home one day as a grade-schooler and telling my mom that I had learned that a fetus was neither male or female but was only an "it." My mom promptly corrected that and explained to me that the fetus was a living child and was male or female, even if they were still too small to identify their gender. (Um, but not in those words since I just a kid.)

This article notes that one of the arguments against allowing children to be removed from gay-ed classes is that this sends a negative message to the other children about homosexuality. And yet, I faced ridicule whenever I was excused from sex-ed classes in school. In the end, I think that the decision about gay-ed classes should be left up the parents, in the same way that sex-ed classes are.

DVDs and Scramjets

Watch out, there are two competing DVD standards coming out within the next year. Current DVD technology uses red lasers to read the DVD. Both of these new standards use blue lasers to read the DVD. Since blue light has a shorter wavelength then red light (which also explains a blue sky and red sunsets), these new DVDs will be able to store much more then the current DVDs can. Anyone remember VHS vs. Beta? Or Nintendo vs. Sega? Or PC vs. Mac? Hopefully we as consumers won't get burned by this competition.

Ever heard of a scramjet? I heard about it back when it was still in the conceptual stages. The big news is that NASA had their first test flight for their new scramjet plane yesterday (November 17, 2004). They almost reached Mach 10, which is ten times the speed of sound.

Scramjet means "supersonic combustion ramjet." To briefly explain, a large problem with jets and rockets of any kind is that they need to carry a large quantity of oxygen to help ignite their fuel. The idea for this jet is that, once it hits a high enough speed, it can just open a port at the front of the engine and take in oxygen from the air. The oxygen is naturally compressed because the kept is going so fast, so the plane doesn't have to carry extra oxygen anymore. Combine that with a ramjet (which is another tricky explanation) and we have supersonic planes. Good old NASA, what would we do without them?

In Memory Not Alone

Last year on Remembrance Day I tried to get everyone in my workplace to take a ten minute break in order to observe the day and honour those before us. I received encouraging words saying that I could go ahead and do that if I wanted to but in the end no one joined me and it was just another average weekday.

This year I decided to simply observe the moment by myself at my desk. Just after 11:00 am I visited cbc.ca and I read through this article commemorating the day. At 11:11 am I read through the poem In Flanders Fields which is included at the end of that article and I offered up a small prayer of thanks.

I still have several poppies in my van from last year. I kept them on the visor in my van all year as a small reminder to myself about the sacrifices that created the life that I have today. Thanks to those that protected us, thanks to those that protect us now and thanks to God.

Who's In Control?

Rough Draft:
http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2004/11/11.html#a8615
Scoble took a link off of his blog because someone expected a link on his blog.

A friend I know intentionally sat in their seat for an extended period of time because someone yelled at them and demanded that they move.

So who's in control here? Do we feel like we're in control just because we did the opposite of what someone asked? I suggest that the other person is still in control in the two examples above. We're only in control if we make our own decisions for our own reasons, not as a reaction to someone else.

Company Growth

Rough Draft:
I was talking to an acquaintance that I know from church who works for a Project Management firm. This firm, called ActivPlan, regularly sends people all over the world to perform Project Management services for numerous types of industries.

His observation: Companies have various stages of growth. There is the initial mcri-company startup. Then there's a painful growth stage between 25-50 people, then there's another ata round 200 people, and so on.

It's a common a repetitive pattern. More management is required at various stages, more formal processes and policies are required, people begin to specialize, etc. It's interesting to see the parallels at AV-Base.

Brains and Beauty

I was chatting with Richard last night and he commented that there are two main things that are valued in our society: Brains and Beauty, and not necessarily in that order.

In terms of beauty, people may respond well to physically attractive people while shying away from others that are not so attractive. People may spend inordinate amounts of time in an effort to improve their own physical beauty.

The cliche about appreciating beauty above any other personal trait is that beauty is only skin deep. While a lot of people do understand that precept, Richard commented that the next trait that we put on the pedestal is being smart. In fact, people that value knowledge most highly are sometimes condescending to people that value physical beauty most highly. And yet, many people respond to people with mental deficiencies or a lower IQ in the same way that others respond to some physical attributes. How is that any different?

Can a person be admired for their servanthood even if they are neither smart nor beautiful? In fact, I've seen several different people in the past two weeks that were dissed for being too helpful. Why do we sometimes have such trouble appreciating servanthood in the way that we appreciate Brains and Beauty?

For myself, I admire those with an independant spirit who can make decisions and stick out from a crowd. I strongly admire people that love children. I admire those that feel free to express themselves in outward worship to God. I admire those that can admit when they are wrong. I presume everyone reading this can add to this list. (Feel free to do so.)

So why do we place Brains and Beauty on a pedestal? Why don't we see beauty everywhere?

Stop and Go

Robert Scoble (a blogger from Microsoft) comments on "Stop Energy." That is, people that complain about something or create roadblocks but do nothing to actually help. He's referring moreso to the IT industry but I also see people that do this with churches and other Christians. Too often I have heard of people that no longer go to church because of various problems in the church. The church may well have problems but what are these people going to do about it? To merely complain is to contribute to the problem.

I remember a pastor who once said that he knew that there were problems with the North American church model and with his particular church model. And yet, in the absence of a better solution, he was going to stick with what he had. He didn't want to but he understood the difference between identifying a problem and solving it.

It takes little insight to point out flaws in people or in churches. It takes great wisdom and equal heart to help solve those flaws in a life-giving way.

Share With Them

Rough Draft: Share in their suffering...
Abe's brother Dan has a blog in which he continually challenges that Christians should share in the suffering of others.

Romans 8:17
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
Phillipians 3:10
2 Timothy 1:8
1 Peter 3:8
1 Peter 4:13

Discussion & Links

Natalie has a new post in which she starts to discuss how she is changing her ideas about dating. She has opened it up for discussion so feel free to join in.

Amanda had some questions and comments last week about whether prayer acts as a placebo for our problems.

I had a post about malicious adware and malware ("malicious software") recently. The Microsoft Monitor has a few more comments to add about this growing problem.

What kind of boss are you? This is an interesting article about leadership by intimidation versus leadership by inspiration. The blogger is an IT guy from one of the giant mega-churches in the US.

And as a nod to Titus, he has "important issues" to discuss on his blog. Look for the post from November 1, 2004 about the US election and Osama Bin Laden's "support" for John Kerry. Sorry, his site doesn't seem to have permalinks to which I can directly refer. And it it just me or was Titus comment-spamming everyone about this post? He posted comments to several different blogs asking people to read his site. Bad manners? It got results, I s'pose.

Ultimate Redemptive Potential

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is
Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly
stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the
Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will
test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will
receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will
be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. 1
Corinthians 3:11-15

Every Christian has a purpose in God's kingdom. We each have tasks to fulfill, a ministry to invest in, a building to create, people to reach. In the end, God knows the worth of our efforts. He will test the fruits of our character and of our obediance.

If we have no fruit then that's a pretty easy test to fail. If we have fruit but did not have love then that is worthless, as 1 Corinthians 13 says. I remember someone who told me that they sang in the church choir every week while their Monday-to-Saturday life was questionable. They realized that singing in the choir required more than just their voice.

Paul is not saying that we are not Christians and that we do not love God if we have bad fruit. Our salvation is by faith and not by works. However, God still cares about the results of our lives, and it will be shown for what it is. I, for one, do not want to be "as one escaping through the flames." I don't want to just sqeak through my Christian life. I want to reach my ultimate redemptive potential.

Maze Craze

The college and careers group at GTA (called ExStream) is going to a corn maze on Friday October 29, 2004. I think it's this one. It costs between five and seven dollars and we're supposed to meet at GTA at 7:30 pm. Apparently it's not just a corn maze. It's a haunted corn maze, so... BOO!

If anyone older than high school ages wants to come with me then give me a call or e-mail me sometime today. As always, e-mail is best and I will probably respond within a half hour to you. I can give a ride to anyone that needs one.

News & Links

Here's a one chapter excerpt from Yao Ming's new book. It provides a fascinating glimpse into the life of a kid growing up in China in the 1980's and 1990's, including some comments about Mao Tse-tung's Cultural Revolution.

In other news, we found a new kind of ape. Funny how we could miss something that big.

And just 'cause it's cool, there's a new idea about how we could create super-speed spacecraft via magnetic repulsion. It could go to Mars and back in only 90 days. Just point the spacecraft at the planet you want to go to and then shoot it away from earth via magnets on a spacestation. The only trick is that you need another huge magnet at the destination in order to send the spacecraft back.

Leadership: Growth Spurt

I was chatting with my dad this morning and he mentioned this idea to me: Christians don't grow unless they become leaders.

We both agreed that this statement is somewhat simplistic since there are many ways to mature as a Christian. Still, I suggest that Christians will stagnate if they do not become leaders in some fashion. "Leading" does not mean becoming the speaker in front of a large group of people. It just refers to people taking charge and responsibility for the growth of other Christians.

A Christian that remains satisfied with being a follower or just one of the crowd (or being alone away from the crowd) will atrophy. It's surprising how much personal growth we find as we try to help others grow and as we become leaders in some way.

In my own experience, the most explosive period of growth that I have experienced in my life is when I decided to lead the youth worship team at my previous church and to start a cell group in my home. I learned so many things about myself and about others that mere teaching and Bible study would never have revealed to me.

Everyone can be a leader. More than that, the Great Commission expects Christians to do so. (Matthew 28) How else can we expect to "disciple all nations?" If you're reaching out to unsaved people or helping a new Christian grow in Christ, then welcome to leadership. You won't be the same.

Fall Classic

Game 7 of the Boston/New York series and Game 6 of the Houston/St. Louis series were both on Wednesday night. I had a horrible time on Wednesday night trying to keep track of the two games because I had cell group that night. The house I was in didn't have cable TV and none of the local radio stations were broadcasting the game. I loved the ending of the Boston/NewYork series. Biggest Comeback = Biggest Choke. Gotta love those Big Cs.

I'm not so pleased with Houston right now. With Clemens on the mount I predicated he would pitch into the seventh and that they would win game 7. Clemens let me down. Can the guy not win Game 7s?

I'm rooting for Boston to win the World Series against St. Louis but I don't think that they have the talent or the healthy bodies to pull it off. St. Louis in 6. (Jevant has his own prediction here.) I'm still confused by the fact that Schilling is scheduled to pitch again. His ankle was a patchwork as it was last time he pitched and he was bleeding by the time he was done! Granted, his last outing was one of the gutsiest+successful performances I've ever seen, right up there with Jordan scoring 38 during the NBA finals with stomach flu.

And finally, I'm having people over to my house to watch the opening of the World Series on Saturday. Anyone that wants to join us can come to my house after 7:00 pm that evening. Give me a call if you want to but feel free to just show up.

Introspection

I once took a personality test in college. You know the kind, a thousand and one little circles to fill in and we get a nice little summary at the end about who we are. Heh. When I got my results back I scored quite highly on the part about introspection, that aspect in which you spend time thinking about yourself and regularly evaluating yourself.

It struck me as funny that this would be attributable to some component of a person's personality. As a Christian, I've been trained my entire life for introspection. I am continually coming back to God and others to review my thoughts and actions and to repent of my sins. I am continually challenged by God through many ways to mature in Christ and to mature as a person. That's why I write things like my last post.

Re-evaluating our lives shouldn't be some by-product of personality. It shouldn't be something that is forced on us by circumstance or by authority. It shouldn't be something that only happens once every few years.

If we refuse to question ourselves, we remain an enigma. If we do not allow that we might be wrong, then we can never be sure that we are right. If we refuse to change then we still will change, eroding away like a rock under water rather than purifying like silver in the fire.

Re-evaluating My Leadership

As a continuation of the thoughts at the end of my last post, I was asking myself if I was the kind of leader that inspired people. I led a cell group for two and a half years and what did I accomplish? I led a youth worship team for two years but did I let God use me fully?

My central focus was on discipleship and mentoring for much of that time with my cell group. Plenty of good things certainly did come from my group, particularly since it allowed me to develop a friendship with Joel Timmerman, Ariel and Richard early on. Even so, I had three goals when I started: To help other/younger Christians grow, to help people get saved, and to have the guys start their own cell groups or develop mentoring relationships. As I look back on it, I think that I was only partially successful on all three counts.

So, I have various questions to ask myself. Have I inspired those whom I taught and led - or more properly, has God inspired people through me? Do I challenge my friends enough to go for the gold? Have I led non-believers to Christ in the last five years? I can give a partial yes to these questions but I know that God has more for me - and that he has more for each of us - and I just keep trying to follow Him more nearly.

To be clear, I'm not looking for a pat on the back or testimonies. I recognize what God has done through me and with me in the past three years. I'm just re-evaluating my own leadership once again, as I regularly try to do.

Measuring

Rough Draft:
How do we evaluate our church/group/ministry?

http://www.christianitytoday.com/bcl/areas/churchministries/articles/le-1988-002-2.21.html
http://www.ifca.org/Handbook/Local%20Church/LC-Philosophy_of_Ministry.htm

Swearing In

The comment section for one of Abe's recent posts gradually abandoned the main thread and became a discussion about swearing. Fair warning: Don't visit that thread if you mind reading various profanity. Some would debate even that caution because they would say that this thread does not include profane comments or words, according to their own definition of what can be considered profane.

Yesterday, I happened to mention that discussion at the new cell group that I joined this week. The immediate consensus of the majority was that various words and phrases besides explicitely taking the Lord's name in vain are definitely considered swear words. One verse that was quoted to defend this position was Ephesians 4:29 which says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

In Abe's cell group (which recently disbanded, may it rest in peace) we discussed this question before as well. The general conclusion in that case was more of a live and let live approach, with people indicating that they may or may not swear but that they try not to impose that principle on others. In this group, we preferred to keep swearing to a minimum but had a difficult time challenging other people if they swore. That was made even trickier because non-Christians would sometimes come and we would sometimes question the desire for clean language versus the desire to reach a non-Christian.

There is another group of 20-something Christian guys that I hang out with periodically and the general consensus there is that swearing is common, funny and should be used as often as anyone likes. In this group the two guys that do not swear (one being me) are definitely the odd men out and only the feeblest attempts are made to curb the amount of swearing heard during an evening. As opposed to the other groups I have found that, in practice, swearing in most forms is regularly encouraged here.

So in just these three groups of Christian young people I find three different approaches and views about swearing. Please feel free to chime in with your own opinion here. So what's my point, besides allowing further discussion about this issue?

I was surprised at how at ease and even happy I felt in my new cell group by simple virtue of the fact that I didn't have to get into large theological and/or philosophical debates to decide how to approach this issue. I could attribute that feeling to the mere fact that I agree with the group and that usually makes a person feel good. More than that, though, I really appreciate the show of Christian principle and real leadership.

In my Christian life, I want to aim for a standard that is higher and better than what this world declares is wise. I do not want to be satisfied with my life as it is, and I do not want to held back in this effort by my own Christian friends. I want Christian friends that will challenge me to go for the gold and not to settle for anything less. It's inspiring! I feel inspired.

Disclaimers: Don't take this as a slam against anyone. I was a part of each of these groups as much as anyone else was, and so I share/shared equally in the responsibility we had to each other. And if you happen to think that all forms of swearing is fine then go ahead, but I disagree with it and I will try to call people on it when they swear around me. As long as we don't beat down anyone with a 2x4 of holy judgement then we'll get along fine.

Shaq and Kobe

Phil Jackson, coach of the three-time champion L.A. Lakers until this past summer, has written a new book that is basically his diary from this past year. It has a lot of interesting comments about Shaq and Kobe over the past year as Kobe dealt with a rape trial in Colorado and the Lakers were eventually beaten by the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals.

"He's the toughest guy I've ever had to coach," Jackson said then. "He just doesn't listen."

There were times, Jackson writes, when O'Neal didn't listen, either.

"Ask Shaq to do something and he'll say, `No, I don't want to do that.' But after a little pouting, he will do it. Ask Kobe and he'll say, `OK,' and then he will do whatever he wants." Source

Reminds me of Jesus' parable of two sons from Matthew 21:28-32. The father asked the first son to work in the vineyard one day. The son refused but then later decided to go ahead and work. The father then asked the second son the same thing. The son said that he would but then did not go to work.

Jesus asked which of the sons was obediant and the people in the temple courts answered that it was the first son. Jesus explained that God wants obediance more than a useless but ready answer. He said that the prostitutes and tax collectors will enter the Kingdom of God through faith and repentance while others that have the right words would not because of the lack of real action to repent and follow Christ.

I guess one of the best NBA basketball coaches of all time prefers results to words as well.

The End Is Near?

I had two recent posts that vaguely referred to the end times (hurricanes and ID Chips). I received a fair bit of mockery from both Christians and non-Christians. That was to be expected, of course, but I was a little surprised that some Christians were the ones that laughed the most.

Abe replied with a more general blog post about why he doesn't like eschatology and there were some interesting comments posted afterwards. Not everyone thinks it's weird to talk about the end times.

Recent Blogs

Natalie finally has a new post on her blog.

There was some renewed discussion on Jevant's blog about Governor Arnold's anti-smoking bill for prisons.

As for my own news...
I just applied for membership at GTA, so that should be done within two weeks or so. I'm now on the praise choir and the percussion team at GTA and I start singing on Thanksgiving weekend. I had a UV light installed on Wednesday so I will have drinking water again shortly after having contaminated water for the past four weeks. And with many thanks to Leonard Terry, I now have hot water again at my house after almost 11 days without it. I couldn't have done it without his hours of work. He's my hero.

Space!

SpaceShipOne Captures the X Prize! Commercial space flights to begin in 2007! Link
Updated: Comments from the team. Link

Burned by Downloads

Ooh, I just love that poetic justice. A large number of people that I know are discovering the joys of spyware, adware, trojan horses and the like. These are pieces of software or cookies that are unknowingly downloaded to a person's computer. Sometimes they come from visiting certain web sites, sometimes they piggy-back on other seemingly-legitimate (including freeware) and sometimes they piggy-back on illegitimate software/music/video downloads.

This software has different uses. Sometimes it triggers advertising popups straight from your hard drive at random times. Sometimes it tracks historical info on your computer and reports it to a third-party site later without your permission. Sometimes it brings down your entire computer like a virus would.

Microsoft Monitor is a site that I visit regularly. They are a professional consulting firm and this particular blog reports regularly about all aspects of Microsoft business. This link has an interesting article describing how some grade-schoolers have had some havoc apparently because of seemingly-innocent downloads the children have been making.

I know one or two people that no longer download illegitimate music because of the apparent risk of downloading this kind of stuff. I know my sister accidentally downloaded adware a few months ago while downloading some other legitimate freeware. "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."

I do not download music or movies onto my computer to burn so I love this poetic justice - the burners are getting burned.

Disclaimer: It's not a guaranteed problem, so feel free to download "free" stuff at your own risk. Adaware can help clean these things up. And if you disagree and think it's fine to download music or whatnot then go right ahead, don't let me stop you.

Don't Worry: It's Just For Kids, Animals and Employees

"The rights and wrongs of RFID-chipping human beings have been debated since the tracking tags reached the technological mainstream. Now, school authorities in the Japanese city of Osaka have decided the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and will now be chipping children in one primary school." Link

The idea is that they added sensors to around the school entrance. Every child is given a chip, which they carry with them or attach to their backpacks. When the children go in or out past these sensors, their movement is recorded so that school administrators or parents can have an up-to-the-minute display of which children are currently in school.

We already use these kinds of chips to tag animals because the chips are small and can be easily inserted under the loose skin of a dog. More than that, it can be scanned from several feet away so it's easier (and less dangerous) to scan than trying to look at a dog tag.

As this blog says, there are some apparently obvious benefits if this kind of thing helps protect children, especially the youngest children that they're testing this with. But as Joi Ito writes, it can make you want to start wearing tin foil hats to protect yourself. (I read a blog comment somewhere else that said that covering the chips with tin foil blocked them easily.)

Crazy is getting crazier.

Disclaimer: I couldn't find information about how that test case in Osaka is going because most of the links I found were from a flurry or articles all referring to this same news back in July 2004.

Abnormal Hurricanes

"Forecasters had expected a busy hurricane year. The number of storms varies cyclically with conditions in the North Atlantic, and period of high activity that started in 1995 is expected to last 25 to 40 years.

Hurricane Jeanne ripped into the east coast of Florida...marking the first time four hurricanes have hit the state in a single year since record-keeping began in 1851." Link

New record of 8 hurricanes in August. Link

"Weather records are being set all the time now. We're in an era of unprecedented extreme weather events," McCarthy said. Link

It's getting crazier. On the radio this week I heard further discussion about how abnormal these hurricanes are. Some of these hurricanes are moving in unpredictable fashion. They're fairly unpredictable to begin with, but they're making some moves that no forecast model expects. The radio host mentioned at least one that headed out over a large desert area, which the host said was unheard of for hurricanes paths.

Crazy is getting crazier.

One Body

Rough Draft:
Re: We Are The Church?

1 Corinthians 12:12-26
Romans 12:3-8
Ephesians 5:28-30

Big Brothers

I'm thinking about joining the Big Brothers organization and mentoring a Little Brother. They have a building on Oxford Street that I pass on my way to church on Sunday mornings. It has a sign in front that says there are 75 boys waiting for Big Brothers. I think that this might be right up my alley.

One of my co-workers was a Big Sister so I asked her about it this morning. She said that the screening process is extremely thorough and then they test you quite a bit to match you with a young person. You have to commit to between 3-5 hours a week for at least one year. She did it with one girl for almost a year and half, until her girl reached the age of 16 (which is the age limit for the program). My co-worker said that she's still friends with this girl and they still keep in contact by e-mail.

My interest is piqued. I already think that mentoring/discipleship/coaching is crucial for any young person. In the context of Christianity, I think of it as one of my primary callings in life (another being worship ministry). So, what do y'all think? Does anyone know about the program personally?

We Are The Church?

My pastor made a comment a few weeks ago: If Christians curse the church, they curse themselves.

It's like a teenager complaining, "This family has major problems." Um, guy? You're part of the family. If the family has problems, then you must have problems as well. Curse the family and you curse yourself. Curse the church and you curse yourself.

It's become common place for me to speak with people that have problems with "the church." Some came to that place because of a bad experience so they haven't gone to a local church in several years. Some no longer attend a local church because of theological differences or a judgement against a particular leader. Some still attend a local church but readily decry the problems with the modern church.

I'm certainly not one to claim that the modern church is picture perfect, but I do have some thoughts on the matter.

1) It's one thing to offer criticism. It's another thing to offer possible solutions. It's still another thing to implement those solutions. Tearing down the church only harms ourselves. Offering theoretical solutions without being directly involved is dust in the wind. The thing that really counts is when Christians work together to accomplish something real and tangible.

Is there a problem with "the church?" Show me how you are working to solve that problem. If you are not attending a local church and are not actively contributing to that church, please don't ask me to accept a list of faults as if you're helping.

2) I often hear about the problems of "the church" as if the members are themselves unaware of the problems. I often hear about it as if these criticisms/observations/prophecies are shining light to dark places and speaking words that have not been heard. Why do we so easily believe that our revelation is somehow new?

So the church needs to be like the New testament church. So it needs to focus on relationships. So it needs to evangelize more effectively. So it needs to disciple young Christians. So it needs to help the wounded find healing. So it needs to care for the poor.

Yes, each and every one of these points is entirely true. And for every comment like this I can show you a church leader or a church member that already knows this and is already working on it. I can show you a Bible verse that addressed the issue thousands of years ago. Not to minimize the importance of the message we're giving, but I think it's funny that we so easily assume that we've come up with something new.

3) I often hear these kinds of comments boiled down to one big issue, one main concern that's at the root of the church's malaise. Lately, I've boiled it down to my own statement: If we're not getting people saved, we're not effective Christians.

And yet, God's call on His church isn't as short-sighted as we sometimes think. Everyone has a part to play, and there are numerous different roles to fill and different problems to solve. Some need to help the poor. Some need to disciple young Christians. Some need to teach and care for kids. Some need to lead worship. The view from each position is different and if we blame "the church" because we see an unmet need we only hurt the others that are fulfilling God's calling.

The Christian church has problems, sure. I challenge you about them, you challenge me about them and God and the world will challenge us both. I'm saying that we are not on the outside looking in, we are those we speak to. Hurt the church, in word or deed, in public or private, and we hurt ourselves.

Bought the Farm

My family is moving into our new home on Saturday August 21, 2004. We start packing the U-Haul between 8:00 and and 8:30 am. We plan to be done the bulk of it by 1:00 pm because the U-Haul needs to be back by 2:00 pm. We would certainly appreciate the help of anyone who cares to join us. In particular, we have limited number of able-bodied guys so strong young men would be appreciated. We're supplying pizza afterwards to fulfill the cliche. Don't ya just love cheap labour?

My thanks to anyone that would have liked to have helped but will be busy or away that day.

My brother and I have a new phone number that will be activated on Saturday as well. Our new phone number is (519) ???-???? but it's not guaranteed until it's actually turned on. Don't worry about forgetting it, our old phone number will have a message for the next month directing the caller to our new number.

Good for Evil

In this post, I wrote that God never wants us to repay evil for evil. That's Jesus was talking about in Matthew 5:22: "But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell."

This passage is talking about returning evil for evil. It's about responding to another person in anger for what they have done without ensuring that our own motives are pure. It's about calling someone a name in return for something that they did to you. As I said in my previous post, we are all responsible for our actions regardless of the other person and regardless of the circumstances. Jesus is saying that we are accountable.

Still, checking our own motives and not repaying evil of evil is only the first part of the equation. Once we're sure that we have dealt with our own hearts, there's still the problem that evil was done to us. So how can we respond in a Godly way? Here are a few ideas of my own, but feel free to add more suggestions.

1) Return good for evil. This, I think, is God's primary response. He gave us Jesus in return for our sin. Romans 12:17-21 instructs us to not repay evil for evil. It then continues with a quote from Proverbs and says that we should feed our enemy if they are hungry or give them a drink if they are thirsty.

2) Deal with issue by speaking to the person directly as soon as possible. Matthew 5:21-24 tells us not to respond in anger. It then continues and instructs us to reconcile with the other person quickly, even if it means stopping what it is that we're currently doing.

3) That passage from Romans also tells us to "leave room" for God's judgement. God is the final judge. That means that we should not take matters into our own hands and seek revenge or our own brand of justice.

I've written for long enough, so maybe a few other people can add some other ideas and related comments. There are several more Godly ways to deal with someone that hurt us but I think I like the good for evil one best - it's so fun to do. I'll just add one final note: After all of this, the other person may not have done evil to you in the first place. If we seek too eagerly for justice, we may find that we are only ones standing in the mud in the end.

Evil for Evil

"Do not repay anyone evil for evil." Romans 12:17

Call someone a name because of something they did. Refuse to do a person a favour because of something they did. Gossip about a person. Grumble against a person. Enlicit sympathy from someone because of something someone else did. Refuse to do your chores because the other person didn't do theirs. Refuse to complete your part of a school assignment because the other person didn't do theirs. Take away something you gave to a person because of something they did. Break someone's trust in you because they broke your trust in them.

Don't do it. No matter what the reason, God will not allow you to return evil for evil. I've been there, done that. It's not easy to break a lifetime of habit. Yet no matter what the cause, if you return evil for an injustice of some kind than that is your sin.

People do hurt other people and that does need to be dealt with, but it has to be dealt with in a Godly way. None of the above examples are Godly ways. My next question will be, how do we deal with injustice in a Godly way? That is only the second of the two issues. You first have to deal with your own actions and then you can look at how to deal with the other person. If you have not examined and received God's help in cleansing your own heart, then anything you do or seek after that may not be in love - and everything should be done in love.

Prefer Others

Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Phillipians 2:3-4 (The Message)

"Who's looking out for #1?" "If I don't take care of myself, who will?" "I only want what is rightfully mine." "Hey, I just don't want to be the one that gets used." "What have they ever done for me? Why should I be nice to them?"

"Prefer others." That's another way that this passage has been phrased. If you want Option A and the other person wants Option B, which option will you usually choose? Ah, but this isn't like one of Joel's questions. It's not about which option is more important. I say that you should find Option C, the compromise that works well for both of you. You do not need to become the other person's Yes Man (or Woman), but neither do you need to hold onto your own preferences so tightly.

Too often I find that people will hold on to Option A for all of the good reasons that they can think of. What does it cost you to be kinder than that? (For some it costs more than they would like. For others, it seems to cost little - even though it may be the exact same situation.) I say that there's still room for personal growth if we do not intentionally choose to put others first, whether that's within some ministry at church or it's by offering the first slice of pizza to a family member at home. I say that to be like Christ

To put it more succinctly, if you do not choose kindess towards others as your primary response then you choose selfishness. Don't be trapped by this bond of your own making.

David and Nathan

Rough Draft:
I have been studying 2 Samuel 11 and 12 a fair bit recently and I wanted to write down some on my thoughts. Here's the summary of the story: David was hanging around his palace idly. He walked on his rooftop one evening and saw a woman bathing...

Notes:
David's worship.
Solomon afterwards.
Compromise and temptation.
Communication
Verse 14 "...made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt..."

Fathers Need to Learn

Concept: Being a mentor does not mean that we teach 'cause we know everything. We need to keep learning just as much as - if not more than - those we teach.

What To Say And How To Say It

"For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." John 12:49-50

It wasn't enough that Jesus knew what his Father wanted him to say.  Jesus also needed to know how his Father wanted him to say it.

Whether you're confronting someone about an issue, comforting them in their darkest times, teaching someone, evanglizing to someone...knowing the message is only half of the story.  It's also our responsibility as Christians to give that message in the way that God wants us to.  Our responsibility as God's messengers does not begin nor end with mere words.

"It's just the truth."  "I'm just stating the facts."  "That person just needs a good dose of reality."  Too often I have heard these words used as excuses to hurt or curse another person.  Truth without love isn't the kind of Truth that Jesus was.

Two Kinds of Historians

My friend Mike happens to be a history major at university. As he has progressed through school, he has come to the conclusion that it can be very hard to verifiably prove a lot of things in his area of study. Ancient history in particular has little first-hand evidence and the evidence that is available tends to be rather biased. As a result, Mike has found that skepticism is a necessary response to initial information because the initial information is so often unverifiable, wrong, skewed or incomplete.

I have been employed as a computer programmer for more than five years now. One of the trickier aspects of my job is to determine the source of software bugs that are automatically reported for our software. Sometimes an error is immediately obvious, perhaps due to a spelling mistake in the code. Sometimes an error becomes my personal nemesis, mocking me as I spent hours or even days trying to reproduce and solve it. I once had an error that took me three months to solve as I revisited it every week or three as it was sporadically reported. In cases like these, the evidence that I have to use is circumstantial at best and hopelessly misleading at worst.

As a result, I have honed a rather specialized skill in hunting down bugs based on little evidence or bad evidence. I often have to make large leaps of logic during this process or I have to ignore bad evidence altogether. More often than not I eventually prove my conclusion correct after the fact, in that I duplicate and fix the bug.

I think it's interesting to see how our respective experiences have coloured how we both approach other areas in our lives that do not fall under our scholastic or professional domains. I consider Mike to be one of the great skeptics that I know, known to intially doubt anything from personal testimony to empirical evidence to his own conclusions. It's rather impresssive in it's own way, and quite consistant. Not to say that he naively disregards different kinds of evidence, not at all. Even if he approaches much of ancient history as a skeptic, he still knows more about it than most anyone I know. He just has an underlying precept that evidence isn't usually that good in many areas and for many reasons, and that conclusions drawn from faulty evidence tend to be faulty conclusions.

On the other hand, my general precept suggests that faulty evidence does not have to lead to faulty conclusions, if used properly. The reported bugs in my software most likely have a reasonable cause that can be found, even if the related information is entirely misleading or if the error cannot be duplicated reliabily. Even if the evidence is irretrievably flawed in some way, the conclusion may still be correct regardless. As with Mike, this approach doesn't dictate my decisions or conclusions. It's merely a common thread that I see.

So Mike and I agree completely: Evidence and arguments of all kinds can be highly suspect for numerous reasons. Part of the purpose of the principles of critical thought is test our own thoughts because we can't always trust them due to our potential biases, emotions or other factors.

The difference between us is that Mike prefers to defer a conclusion until good evidence is available, and will otherwise try not to make a conclusive decision based on poor or incomplete evidence. (As I said, this can be very admirable.) I do not think that poor or incomplete evidence necessitates avoiding a conclusion, though it certainly discourages it.

Some historians will look at ancient history as if through clouded glass, doubting the faint images that they can see through it. Other historians look at ancient history as a puzzle. You can take the pieces and form an accurate picture, even if some of the pieces are missing or are from entirely different puzzles. I would be the second kind of historian.

Think for Yourself

As Mike once wrote (and as I have written), there comes a time in every young person's life when they re-evaluate their beliefs. They re-evaluate everything from their moral code to their relational behaviour to their spiritual beliefs. Suffice it to say that the person that went into the teenage years is certainly not the same person that comes out it.

As children, we learn and accept what others teach us. This is a good and necessary thing, of course (though either extreme is still dangerous). As the child grows into an adult, they must develop an independant will and their own personal views. The word of authorities is still needed, whether intellectual authority or otherwise, but now the balance shifts to the youth accepting or rejecting such authority out of their own free will.

The question is, what tools should we use to carve our individual identities and our personal beliefs?

Some would say that critical thought is the key tool in this personal growth (and for future growth). Take a second to visit that link and just briefly scan the topics. As that site attests, the principles of logic are not the easiest tools to master. I hardly claim to have mastered these principles, but I certainly do try to learn and apply them as well as I can. I often like to use this site to quickly test my own arguments about any particular issue.

Critical thought is important, even if it is difficult to master. It's easy to assume that we know how to make wise and intelligent decisions in our lives, but have you ever tested and reviewed how you learn things in the first place? Have you tested how you originally decided to live by so many of your personal principles?

I have related thoughts that I'll post on this issue later this week, but I'll leave this here for a few days in the meantime. Let me close with two comments. First, we're not as smart as we think we are. Second, critical thought is only one tool and it may not be the most useful one.

"When I Was 17 I Drank Some Very Good Beer..."

That title's from a song that Homer sings one time on the Simpsons. I have heard a wide variety of opinions recently about the issue of Christians drinking alcohol. I'm not entirely sure where I stand on every aspect of this issue, so I thought I would start by noting how different Christians I know or have known have approached the issue. As a disclaimer, I am not judging any of these approaches. I just want to list off the some of the approaches that I've seen.

I was just reading Aleah's latest post about camping with friends after her high school prom and she mentioned that another group of campers got kicked out of the camp site for drinking and smoking. Friends at her camp site were drinking, though she did not participate.

I know three Christian guys that are permitted and/or encouraged to drink by their families before and/or after the age of 19. I know some people that do not mind sharing in one or two drinks with friends, either in a bar or elsewhere. I know some that offer to be designated drivers so their their friends will not drive under the influence, as Natalie has done. I have had some Christian friends that were fairly heavily into the bar scene, sometimes/often becoming drunk.

I have some friends that used to drink and no longer do so because they were 'scared straight,' like Natalie was. I have some friends that will neither drink nor hang out with friends when they are drinking.

Myself, the only drink I remember taking was for a champagne toast for the 25th wedding anniversary for mes grandparents. I had classmates back in high school that offered to take me out drinking when I hit 19. I agreed to go the bar with them but not to drink alcohol, but of course we never did since they were mostly just mocking me. Generally speaking I try not hang out with friends if they are drinking, but I have done so on occasion when a friend had a drink with a meal. Most of my friends do not drink so it's not an issue. Much of my extended family members drink at family gatherings, so that's been fairly normal for me while growing up. Besides all of that, I've had some experience with alcoholics and it grieves me to see how it effects families.

So that's a sample of the wide array of ways that Christians approach the issue of drinking. There are actually a few more, since I haven't mentioned those that are passionately against drinking alcohol and whatnot.

My main question for this post is not whether it is a sin to drink alcohol or not. I'm not going to condemn Jesus for drinking wine, after all. My question is whether it's useful to hang out with friends that drink alcohol if you're a Christian. What's the point? Is it effective in building or maintaining friendships? Does it help our witness to the world about God? Does it enhance our Christian reputation amongst non-Christians?

To be clear, I've heard arguments both for and against the ideas of a) hanging out with non-Christians as they drink but not participating and b) acting as a designated driver once friends are drunk. There are numerous reasons both for and against such practices. These days, though, I'm becoming more practical about such "theological" issues.

In short, show me it works in real life. Don't tell me it could help us witness to non-Christians, show me examples in which someone gave their heart to God and pointed back to hanging out in the bar as a key time for them. Show me how someone was impressed enough with a Christian acting as a designated driver that they asked meaningful questions about Christianity that led to some change in their life. Show me how hanging out in a bar was more effective than hanging out in someone's house watching a hockey game, or an non-drinking alternative like that.

On a practical level, I have a hard time accepting that an evening in the bar or at a drinking party with friends is useful to God or to ourselves in any way. I've heard a lot of people say that they do it, but I have yet to hear tangible results of people becoming Christians. As I said, I'm not entirely sure where I stand on this issue, but I'm not going to accept the supposed benefits of 'drinking ministry' without evidence to back it up. (As a disclaimer, I am not insisting that the number of people converted is the only way to assess this issue. Yes, people may be impacted in ways that are revealed years later. However, zero conversions is equally fanciful as evidence.)

Besides that, I have only one other example of someone that tried to use drinking as a way to evangelise. My parents have lived in South Korea teaching English for the past few years. If you think drinking in Canada or the United States is socially important, wait until you get there. Generally speaking, the men tend to hang out a lot together, separate from the women. In doing so, they tend to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol. It is normally expected that everyone in a group has at least one drink, even if it's just a business dinner.

My dad sometimes chose to have a single alcoholic drink when hanging out with Korea friends or co-workers. Just one drink, but he hopeed that it would enough to show he was their friend and that he didn't judge them. My dad even preached a sermon at my church during his first vacation back in Canada and he included this practice as an example of practical evangelism-by-friendship.

As it happened, just before he came back for that vacation he had a party with Korea co-workers as they wished him well on his trip and said goodbye. (I think he and my mom were transferring to another school after his vacation was over.) With all of the toasts being offered, my dad agreed to have a second glass of alcohol. As soon as he ordered a second glass, his Korea boss from his school immediately got excited and started repeating some Korean phrase. My dad wasn't really sure what he was saying, but he definitely got a good reaction out of him.

On the plane ride back to Canada, my dad was sitting beside another man who happened to teach English in Korea as well. During the course of the conversation my dad related the above experience and the other teacher explained what had happened. Koreans have a saying that is roughly translated as "Two drinks, friend!" This is the phrase that my dad's boss was excitedly repeating. After a full year with these co-workers and friends, my dad accidentally stumbled across a social barier that changed how his friendship was viewed by the other Koreans. He had become a real friend, by virtue of being comfortable enough to drink two drinks with them. Hence the reason that he included that story in his guest sermon at our church during his vacation.

An interesting thing happened to my dad in his next year in South Korea. Armed with this new knowledge of that two drinks represents friendship, he proceeded to test this new approach when he visited his second school and met new Korean people there. (I assume that he didn't drink regularly, nor drank often nor in large quantities.) He eventually came to the conclusion that, regardless of the two-drink line, he simply wasn't finding opportunities to speak to others about Christ. In fact, he found more such opportunities in the normal conversations he had with his students while teaching them English.

A Summary
Many Christians that I know approach the issue of drinking and/or accompanying friends that are drinking in many different ways. I've heard the reasons, both for and against different areas. I want to know what you all have found in terms of real-life results. As I mentioned above, Natalie has come to some conclusions in her own life. Help me re-examine how I approach these issues myself. Thank you.

Annointed

For those that may not be familiar:
Our church uses oil to annoint people when we pray for them, kind of like instructed in James 5:14. There's no particular requirement for the kind of oil that is needed, so I've seen different kinds from normal olive oil to "special" oil made for churches. The usual process is for the person leading the prayer to wet one finger with oil and then touch the top of the hands and/or the forehead with a dab of oil. Sometimes the person with the oil makes a small cross symbol with it. It just signifies the Holy Spirit and/or God's annointing on that person, though that's just my understanding.

Leonard Terry's Testimony:
Several years ago the annointing oil that we used at our church went bad. Leonard Terry (the pastor at my church) was still using it while praying for people until someone mentioned that it smelled rather odd and then we realized that it had to be thrown out. One of the members of our congregation was in Toronto and purchased some specially made annointing oil for our church. It has a very particular sweet smell to it, a very pleasant aroma that is quite unique.

Leonard was participating in a wedding for one of the former members of our congregation this past weekend. On Friday June 4, 2004 they were going through the wedding rehearsal. My pastor, his wife, the bride, the groom and a few others gathered into a small circle to pray blessing on the wedding couple. Part way through the ceremony, a distinct scent arose in their small group. It was the very same scent as the annointing oil we now use at our church.

The scent was so obvious that the bride looked up from her prayer and asked who had brought the annointing oil. Everyone looked around and checked but no one in the group had brought any oil at all. As they continued praying, Leonard tested this a bit more and walked five or six feet away from the group. He could not smell the scent at that distance away from the group, but as soon as he rejoined the group the scent was again clear.

This event was interpreted to be a sign of God's annointing upon this Christian couple, indicating God's blessing on their marriage. Leonard said that this was a precious miracle from God, and I would certainly agree.

Note: My pastor Leonard Terry mentioned this during the Sunday church service yesterday. Hopefully I got all of the details right, but somebody correct me if I quote him incorrectly.

Trust

I think we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.
~Henry David Thoreau

It is an equal failing to trust everybody, and to trust nobody.
~English Proverb

Our distrust is very expensive.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
~Samuel Johnson

We're all born brave, trusting, and greedy, and most of us remain greedy.
~Mignon McLaughlin

The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him.
~Henry L. Stimson

The best proof of love is trust.
~Joyce Brothers

Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.
~Proverbs 27:6

He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.
~Proverbs 28:26

Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.
~Proverbs 29:25

Trust that costs little is worth little.
~Jamie A. Grant

Trust is earned, but is still given as a gift.
~Jamie A. Grant

Sources
www.wisdomquotes.com
www.worldofquotes.com

Compromise Ourselves

To follow up on my previous post, I think we need to be strong enough to compromise ourselves for the sake of others. As that passage from 1 Corinthians states, that does not mean compromising important beliefs, nor does it mean acting sinful in any way.

It may mean disregarding the 'grey areas' of our beliefs for the sake of others. That's straight out of Romans 14.

It may mean developing hobbies or interests beyond our usual preferances. It may mean wearing a tie in order to speak more effectively to seniors, or wearing a mohawk in order to speak more effectively to youth.

It may mean changing aspects of your very personality if that's what turns some people off. That's a fun lesson that I'm still working through. I take a measure of pride if declaring myself to be quite obnoxious. I think it's funny to irritate people a bit about minor things, and I happen to be very good at it. Heh. There came a time when I had to face the reality that various aspects of my personality was hindering my effectiveness as an evangelist, mentor and leader. And let me tell you, it's tough to change a personality that was 25 years in the making. I've seen the direct results of changing how I behave as a leader my youth worship team, and I would say that I am a much more effective leader now than I was two years ago.

It's like stand-up comic that starts using material that isn't funny. Sure, they can continue using stale jokes and Seinfeld rip-offs. They may even get a few laughs from the crowd. In the end, though, that kind of comic won't succeed because they refuse to change. Like Seinfeld showed in his movie Comedian, there is a process that is needed to find the best jokes, to develop the best delivery and to get people laughing.

If we refuse to change, it may not because we are strong but because we are weak. I am not suggesting that we merely become Chameleon Christians or bow to peer pressure. It's a question of what is more important to us: Reaching people or defending our own rights to live as we prefer.

That By All Possible Means I Might Save Some

Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

This passage had a big impact on me in the past year or two. We have a responsibility to evanglise, disciple and minister as well as we can for God's sake. The people we minister to are responsible for their own decisions and responses to us. What is the balance here? Where can we draw the line and say with proper humility, "I've done all that I can do?"

I think this passage answers that question.

Take My Worlds Apart

To love you - take my worlds apart
To need you - I am on my knees
To love you - take my worlds apart
To need you - broken on my knees
Jars of Clay, Take My Worlds Apart

May 16th was my birthday. It was also the day that my church leadership at Faith Congregational Christian Church (FCCC) announced that our church would be closing it's doors as of the last Sunday in June 2004. What could be better for my birthday then to have such obediance to God?

On May 30 we were already planning on having a baptismal service. I think it's rather fitting, since it represents the death of the old self and the birth of new life. Our congregation will experience that this June. As with our spiritual salvation, the physical and organizational aspects of our church may be disappearing but who we are as a church is not dying, it is being reborn. God will give our church new life, though we do not yet know how our new life will look.

Take my worlds apart, God. Like the rich young man who was told to leave everything behind to follow Jesus. Like the man that was told to let the dead bury the dead and follow Jesus. We, as a church and as individuals, now give up what we have in order to follow Christ.

Evangelism vs. Discipleship

Should we go into the world and preach? Or should we go into the world and disciple? (Reference: The Setup)

The Great Commission isn't fulfilled just because a person becomes a Christian. It takes more to help that young Christian grow and mature. You're not done with the person when you're done at the altar. Jesus is telling us that it takes more.

The question I posed above is a bit of a trick question. It's not that we should do one or the other; we should do both. We need to evangelise to the lost and help them come to Christ, and we need to be there for them to help them grow in Christ afterwards. As a group of Christians, and for each of us individually, we need to fulfill the full scope of Jesus' command.

The Setup

The Great Commission

Matthew 28
"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

Mark 16
"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."

Advice Can Go Two Ways

I was speaking to a friend the other day who was expressing doubts about various aspects of Christianity. This person is a Christian but was having some trouble with questions like "How can real Christians be hypocrites?" and "What about the historical truth of the Old Testament?"

The thing is, this particular person has found a lot of real-life, meaningful freedom in their personal knowledge of Jesus as saviour. I suggested that they should focus on this core of their belief for the current time. Don't get caught up in the petty arguments or the frailty of others, keep your eyes on Christ. Work from what you do know and go out from there. It's like a student entering law school - you don't try and complete third-year studies immediately; you have to work your way up to it gradually, building on a solid foundation of knowledge and experience.

This is more true than I know, I think. Previously, I asked how we could live in the life of Christ and not live under the Law. I think this advice may answer my own question.

Y'know What Would Be Funny?

It would be funny if people judged another person for judging.

Y'know what would be funny? It would be funny to use critical thinking to test critical thinking.

Y'know what would be funny? It would be funny to think that this post was funny.

It would be, like, ironic.
(Disclaimer: Not to say any of this has happened recently. It would be funny, is all.)

Leadership & Judgement

Don't let me scare you off, "judgement" isn't just a dirty word. Choose "necessarily evaluate in love without condemnation" if you prefer, since that's what this post is about.

Some time ago I had a discussion with another worship leader about how to effectively lead a congregation in worship. I mentioned that it seemed like we were having a difficult time entering into God's presence because the congregation wasn't participating but was merely observing.

In reply, I was told that you can't really know a person's heart by their actions. If people are sitting in their seats looking bored, they may in fact be having an intimate moment with God, or that may be the way they express their love to God. I was told you can't judge the congregation based on outward appearances.

Granted, this may be theoretically true and it may be applicable to some people. On the whole, however, this is not true. On the whole, it's fairly easy to tell if a congregation is choosing to enter into worship. More to the point, part of my job as a worship leader is to keep an eye on the congregation and lead them accordingly. If I ignore the congregation's response and just do as I feel I should, then I am not really leading at all. I'm just a solo act at the front of the church.

And that means, dear people, that a leader has to make a judgement call about the congregation. It's not motivated by anything but a desire to help the congregation and to be obediant to God. It does not involve condemnation in any way, but it is necessary.

From Faith, Obediance

That's the difference.

A Christian's heart is revealed by their actions. Of the numerous kinds of "Christians" that I mentioned here, the real test is not in word but in action.

Their actions may reveal that they are not Christians after all because their faith predicates no action whatsoever. Their actions may reveal a selfish Christianity, or a heart that won't submit to authority, or a heart that ministers to no one; a shallow faith. Their actions may reveal a personal choice to work out their faith in their daily lives.

Granted, all of this talk can easily lead to judgement. And to be clear, salvation is by faith alone and not by works. Yet if faith does not result in a changed life, how can it be called faith?

From Faith, Obediance

True faith reveals itself in action.

Blondini was a tightrope walker in the last century. He used to walk over the Niagara Falls, and people came from far and wide to see him. He would carry all sorts of things over the water. One day a famous duke and his entourage visited the Niagara Falls. They watched Blondini walk over and clapped. They watched him walk back and shouted for more. Then Blondini asked, “Who believes I could carry this wheelbarrow over the waterfall?” “Of course you can!” said the duke and his friends. Blondini took the wheelbarrow over. Everyone was ecstatic. “Do you believe I could carry this sack of potatoes over the waterfall in the wheelbarrow?” “Yes!!” He duly did. Then he asked, “Who believes I could carry a human being over the falls in this barrow?” “We all do!” they chorused. After a pause, Blondini asked, “Who will get in the wheelbarrow then?” There was an embarrassed silence - the Duke suddenly felt he had better things to do. Suddenly a little old lady came out of the crowd and got in the wheelbarrow. Blondini pushed her over the falls and back again, to the astonishment of the crowd. The lady was Blondini’s mother. Quote

What's the Diff?

I was chatting with my friend Richard the other day. He had introduced me to two actors he knew when went to see a play last week, and we had brought the youth group along. Our dicussion with these two people turned to Christianity and they expressed that they had given their hearts to God with the past year or so and were now reading various books to grow in their faith.

I was commenting to Richard afterwards that it was cool that they were Christian, and he agreed. Until then, though, he hadn't known they were Christian even though he had spoken to them before.

He commented that he finds it tricky to really determine if someone is a Christian, though many people would claim it. Case in point, he works with a lot of homeless youth in his job. When a conversation turns to Christianity, he has heard several kids immediately spout all of the right words and profess to be Christians. And yet, these same kids will profess other beliefs at other times. What's the difference between the actors and the homeless youth, each professing to be Christian?

I have some acquaintances who would strongly profess Christianity and yet they have not attended church regularly in several years. I have other acquaintances that profess Christianity while living common-law with their boyfriend/girlfriend. I knew a lady that had always been actively involved in church, but she eventually decided that she had to concentrate on her career so she stopped attending church and promised that she would 'get back into it' once she retired and had more time. I know of other people that fulfill the cliche of living like a Christian on Sunday and living like the devil the rest of the week.

So what's the difference? Would the real Christians please stand up?

Learning by Law

As a follow-up on my previous post, I constantly trying to learn and grow as a Christian and as a leader. Lately, I find that there are too many spots to try and clean up in my life. There are too many details about my communication and leadership that I need to tweak, aspects about me that aren't quite as good or as effective as they could be. I'm humbled by the constantly renewed realisation that I don't know half as much as I think I know - and that's very tiring to me.

It's like my days as a custodian at London Gospel Temple, my old church. After everyone had gone home on Sunday night, I had to the clean the numerous glass doors at the entrances to the building. These glass doors would be layered with fingerprints from people pushing against the glass all day long, rather than using the push bar in the middle of the door. I would use a ton of Windex and paper towels, rubbing out every inch of each door. And even after a full half hour of cleaning, I would invariably change my viewing angle just a bit and I would see yet one more fingerprint that I hadn't seen before. You just had to change your angle ever-so-slightly and voila, more prints.

That's what I've felt like lately. I'm intent on cleaning the glass in my life, but there's always one more print and one more grey fleck to clean up. Off-handedly, my dad reminded me that this is what happens when you live under the Law. You get tired, you lose perspective, you lose motivation...it's Death. Living under the Law is Death. Yes, I need to clean up the fingerprints in my life, but not by fixing each little thing like it was one more rule. I need to live in the Tree of Life and find freedom in Christ, I don't need to me another rule for myself.

The funny thing is, I have to learn how to not live under the Law and I can't learn this lesson under the Law. I need to learn in a healthy way, I need to learn how to learn in a healthy way.

Grey Areas

I had a discussion with a friend this weekend about one of the 'grey areas' of Christianity. It was one of those issues that I had a personal opinion about but that was not explicitely defined in the Bible. My friend had a different opinion about this particular issue.

It all comes back to Romans 14.

"Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters."
"...The man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him."
"...Make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way."
"So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves."

To rephrase it a bit, don't pass judgement on something that isn't clearly spelt out in the Bible and don't try to prove that your opinion is the correct one that others should follow. Sure, you can talk about it in normal conversation, but you can't assume that it's anything that you should make an issue about. More than that, this passage says that the more mature Christian is the one that should be more flexible about such issues, if only for the sake of helping the younger Christian.

I especially like that last line I quoted. We are actually blessed for not making an issue about the grey areas. We are blessed for not saying anything. Gotta love blessing for doing nothing.

On a personal note, I actually find this to be a little more difficult for me to learn than I expect it to be. I'm very passionate about discipleship, teaching and leading younger Christians and youth. As a result, I tend to look for teaching opportunities all around me. (And as I stated in previous posts, I'm always looking for opportunities to learn things myself.) The thing is, the grey areas are not teaching opportunities. Most probably, the only thing that results from teaching on disputable matters is confusion and debate. There may a little benefit in discussing such matters, but they are not things that require 'correction.' It's sort of a paradigm shift for me, which is very good even if it is hard for me to pull off.

The Problem of Unity

Conflicts, church splits, people leaving churches, leaders resigning... I'm only twenty-five and I think it's frightening that I personally seen and experienced so many problems with church unity. (No, I won't bother with any juicy stories. I'm ranting here, not gossiping.)

When we talk about church unity, I most often hear references to theological/idealogical differences breaking churches up. In my personal experience, this has never been the case. The only source of church conflict that I've ever seen has been due to personal offence and that's it. Whatever the reason and whatever the circumstance, it becomes personal and people leave/get kicked out because someone was offended. Oh, the label we assign to it may be an 'issue' but it's deeper than that.

I don't know, I really don't get it. If there's a conflict, deal with it. If you're right, you still have to be mature. If you're right and mature, then maybe you don't need to be right (e.g. compromise). If I say that I'm mature but I haven't found a way to resolve an issue, the first place I look is at myself. No matter how perfect I may think that my decisions were, was there something more that I could have done?

To extrapolate, church unity is person-to-person, not person-to-church. If you haven't developed relationship with specific people, then you aren't in unity. A church isn't healthy if people have issues just hanging around between one another. It's like saying that a wooden table is solid even though the legs are not nailed to the tabletop. Sure, it may be able to support an huge Thanksgiving meal if you place the meal directly on top of it, but as soon as the family dog bumps into one of the table legs it all comes tumbling down. Each piece of the church needs to be nailed together.