Tim Horton's Addiction?

Time for a light-hearted foray into my head.  Sounds scary, doesn't it!  

Am I addicted to Tim Horton's coffee?  I don't think so, but...

I began drinking TH coffee when I was working for Christies Dairy in southern Ontario.  I had at least half a dozen TH coffee shops on my route.  I was at one or more daily and most of them gave their delivery guy free coffee!  Can't turn that down!  I left the dairy to go to Bible school in the middle of Saskatchewan.  The closest TH was a twenty minute drive, which doesn't sound like much, but with the busyness of school and the income of a student getting into town and having a TH coffee was a true treat.  We no longer took it for granted.

After Bible school we lived back in southern Ontario for a while and then in Edmonton area.  Tim Horton's are plentiful in both places and I think perhaps I was hooked for awhile.  I could go without it, but the day didn't seem complete without going through the drive-through.

When we started considering a move to Fort Frances one of the first things I did was check online to see if the town had a Tim Horton's.  Thankfully it did!  One of the members of the pastoral search committee (wrongly) remembers that the first question I asked them was about Tim Horton's.  I know that's not true because I had already checked and knew!

That strongly suggests that TH coffee is a must-have for me, but in a normal week I would probably average only three medium cups.  I don't have to have it every day, but a few times a week I get this craving.  And it must be Tim Horton's.  I'm not really a coffee lover at all.  I almost never have coffee at home.  I don't buy it at any other restaurant(unless I'm out for breakfast).  And even TH's must be doctored with three cream and two sugar.  

So although I'd rather not do without, I could...  Except this time of year.  It's Roll-up-the-Rim time!!!!  That really gets me excited.  And also makes me buy more coffee in hopes of winning.  I guess you could say I'm addicted to gambling on Roll-Up more than to the coffee.  I don't buy lottery tickets.  I don't gamble with my money in any other way, but I definitely buy more coffee this time of year.  Thankfully it's only for about one month out of the year.

Grace and peace,

Dave 

Moon and Venus

We were out and about last night around 8 p.m. and saw a beautiful display thanks to our great Creator.  For a few nights Venus and the crescent moon are visible from about an hour after sunset.  It was a breath-taking combination.  Apparently tonight(Saturday Feb. 28) is the last night to see it.  You can find a little more information here. 

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
   Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge."  Psalm 19:1-2

If you get a chance, brave the cold(in our part of the world) and have a look.  And take a moment or more to worship the one and only Creator God of the universe! 

Grace and peace,

Dave

Powerful Speech on Abortion

I copied the following from Church Leaders Intelligence Report.  It is powerful.  May God bless Lia and give us her courage and conviction!

Twelve-year-old "Lia" of Toronto has become a star at her school and online with her five-minute pro-life speech, crafted for a school competition. Despite discouragement and outright opposition, Lia's presentation was so well done that she reportedly won the contest she was told she would be disqualified from, due to the "controversial" message of her speech. "What if I told you that right now, someone was choosing if you were gonna live or die?" begins the charismatic seventh-grader. "What if I told you that this choice wasn't based on what you could or couldn't do, what you'd done in the past, or what you would do in the future? And what if I told you that you could do nothing about it?" Lia's mother says that the topic was of her own choosing. "She was told that if she went ahead with that topic, she would not be allowed to continue on in the speech competition," the mother wrote in an email. She also said the girl's homeroom teacher was supportive of Lia's speech, even though she was pro-choice. The mom noted, "After helping Lia do the speech (the teacher) said, 'It really got me thinking.'" At the schoolwide competition, the mom said one pro-choice teacher on the judge's panel "didn't even want to hear" the speech and stepped down from the panel before Lia began. After the speech, the judges initially told Lia she had indeed been disqualified, but controversy among the judges eventually led to a reversal, and Lia's family learned the next day that the panel agreed the girl deserved to win the competition. Lia presented her speech at a regional competition last week, representing her school. The speech is available in its entirety here. It has since been viewed over 260,000 times and sparked a heated discussion.

Grace and peace,

Dave

Report on The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment

I finally got through Tim Challies book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment.  Just saying it that way makes it sound like a chore.  In truth, it was work, not because Mr. Challies is a poor or uninteresting writer, but because the book deals with a topic that does take discipline.

 I do believe it is an important book and well worth reading; even more, well worth practicing.  Pastor John MacArthur gives a strong endorsement, saying, “The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment is a truly important work-one that should be required reading not only for church leaders, but for all sober-minded laypeople as well.”

 Challies’ chapters include the call and challenge of discernment, what it means to be discerning, the dangers to avoid, and how to develop and practice this discipline.  He ends each chapter with a helpful summary of the key thought.  A study guide is included to help you think through each chapter. 

 Following is a little of what I found especially helpful.  He includes a section on determining what especially deserves our attention.  While we are to test everything, there are some areas that are more important and deserve greater attention.  He illustrates with this comparison:

 “Just as it would make little sense to treat a man with a broken finger before treating one with a gunshot wound to the chest, it would make little sense to make the focus of our discernment issues that are disputable matters, all the while ignoring issues that are of far greater consequence” (p. 87).

 The chapter on the dangers is a great addition to help us stay on the right track.  He talks about the need to become more familiar with what is genuine rather than focusing too much attention on evil and error.  There was a time in my life when I was working with youth that a friend and I immersed ourselves in learning all we could about hardcore rock bands in an effort to expose the evil.  I now believe that is not the best way to go about it.  We need to know something of the culture around us, but we do not need to immerse ourselves in it.  Rather we need to focus on what is right and true. 

 His couple of paragraphs on the danger of guilt by association were worth the price of the book for me.  This is a danger I’ve seen first-hand.  When people choose to become discerning it is easy to fall into this trap.  Challies explains the issue:

 “Pastor Smith believes that Jesus is not God.  Pastor Jones mentioned Pastor Smith’s book in a sermon once.  Therefore, Pastor Jones does not believe that Jesus is God.  The guilt of Pastor Smith has been applied to Pastor Jones because of some perceived relationship between them…Guilt by association is a trap people fall into when they are lazy in their discernment.  Rather than understanding the beliefs of a particular individual and comparing those to the Word of God, they judge the person based on the beliefs of another person” (pp. 144-5).

 I appreciate the chapter on practicing discernment.  Challies lays out several steps to take in discerning good and evil.  Better still, he walks the reader through the steps with a practical example.  The book does an excellent job of combining theory(theology) and practice. 

 It is not a book to read for entertainment.  It takes a little work to grasp the concepts he presents, but for the serious student of Scripture(that should increasingly be all of us!) it is an important and helpful book.  The biggest drawback to reading this book is that once you understand how important it is from God’s perspective to be discerning and having been given the tools, you no longer have any excuse not to practice it.  However, knowing it is the will of God for us, that should encourage us to do it.  For those in my church, this book should be part of our church library in the near future.  For the rest, you can find it on Tim Challies’ website or through various on-line bookstores.

 Grace and peace,

 Dave

Connected and Directed

Our church began a 50 Day Adventure today.  We are doing an older, but great one titled Celebrating Jesus.  This week's theme is "Jesus stayed spiritually connected and directed."  Today's Scripture text was Mark 1:29-39.  Jesus needed and took time alone with His Father in prayer to recharge His batteries.  The study emphasizes that God directs us in our lives when we spend time with Him.

When His disciples went searching for Jesus with the good news that many people were looking for Him, His response was not what they expected.  With the success of the ministry, the enthusiasm of the people and the great need there, they were excited about staying on in that place.  Instead Jesus replied, "Let us go to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out"(v. 38).  Jesus not only knew His mission, but I believe it was brought to the forefront and reinforced through His time alone with God.  He was directed through His connection with the Father.

I'm still listening to the audio book, Abandoned To God, a biography of Oswald Chambers.  Chambers was a well known travelling evangelist and speaker for a time. While listening yesterday, I heard Chambers say much the same thing as Jesus showed.  He refused to view God's call in terms of "usefulness" as others defined it.

"I am not appealed to on the line that I am of more use in certain places.  It is to me where He wills.  Bless the Lord, He guides.  Pay attention to the source and He will look after the outflow."

There is always someone willing to offer you their opinion of what you should do and where you should go.  This may be even more true in ministry where those people are "paying your salary."  Just as dangerous is making our own decisions based solely on what we like to do or don't like to do or what brings us praise or other kinds of pleasing results.  I don't mean that we should never listen to others' ideas or never follow our own hearts.  These have a place.  But more than all that, I want to know that I am directed by the Lord.  I want to hear Him clarify His mission for me and show me how this should be worked out in practical terms.  For this to happen we need to spend time seeking Him in His Word and through prayer, not just going through the motions of daily devotions.

I'm interested in hearing your understanding of how God directs us and what our part is in this.  Care to share?

Grace and peace,

Dave

  

The 100 Thing Challenge

Following yesterday's blog on debt and entitlement and all the stuff we like to accumulate I thought some of you might be interested in what someone is doing to try and control a materialistic lifestyle.  Dave Bruno has challenged himself to what he calls The 100 Thing Challenge.  In his own words:

"The 100 Thing Challenge is a personal project, a way for me to fight consumerism. What's behind it? My belief that material possessions can be good when they serve a greater purpose than possession alone. We should make better use of our things than just owning them. My hope is that by living a year with 100 personal things, I'll be able to show that an average American guy does not need tons of stuff to live the good life. And also I hope to shed some light on the nature of consumerism in our culture."

He makes some good points.  Most of us have way too much stuff.  I was reminded of this in our move a couple years ago.  It was a great time to get rid of things and we did, but not enough.  As much as I complained about all the things we brought that we hadn't used in years, there were things that I couldn't part with.  Not that I had used them recently, but I might...someday...for something.  It's not as easy as one might think.    

I don't believe what Dave Bruno is doing is the solution to materialism, but hopefully it will make an impact on him and others.  Neither am I ready to take up the 100 Thing Challenge, but it has made me think some more about materialism, simple living and stuff.  I want to think harder before buying more stuff for the sake of keeping up with others or merely having the latest upgrade.  I do want to make an effort to get rid of(give away, throw away, sell) the old when I purchase new things to replace them.  It's a start.

In case you are interested in pursuing this some more, Dave Bruno has a website on which he describes his 100-item list,  rules, struggles, etc.

Grace and peace,

Dave  

Debt and Entitlement

I read a perceptive article in a recent MACLEAN'S magazine(Jan 26, 2009). It was written from a secular perspective but is something too many of us as Christians have failed to grasp. Here are a few excerpts that caught my attention.

Let's face it, debt never was our friend, even though it pretended to be (No money down! Don't pay 'til spring!). We wanted to believe it, and did, to the tune of $1.1 trillion(our national household debt.)  ...The truth is, debt is only a symptom of a much more fundamental shift. Turn on any television set, read any magazine or newspaper, or venture online for even five minutes and you'll begin to notice the language of entitlement. Everywhere we turn, it seems someone is confirming our inherent worthiness to us. Dell Computers, for instance, says in its "Purely You" campaign: "We don't make technology for just anyone. We make it for only one. You." Burger King tells us to "Have it your way." Ford fawns, "Everything we do is driven
by you."
...This is the "You Sell," a pitch that has evolved over time to become the dominant theme in consumer culture.  In its simplest terms, the You Sell is the message that you are an inherent VIP. Nobody else can tell you what to think or do. You deserve the best. You're entitled to nothing less. You are unique--an original--and as such, each and every choice you make should be a reflection, an amplification of your essential, irreplaceable self." 

(It's All About You, by Lianne George and Steve Maich)

The joke is on us. While they are telling us that no one can tell us what to think or do, they are telling us what we need to buy. While they are telling us how special and unique we are, they are trying their hardest to get all of us to buy the same products and services. And all the while we go deeper and deeper into debt getting what we deserve. I guess if we are dumb enough to fall for it we really are getting what we deserve.

Of course this isn't really a new form of advertising. The devil has been using it for years. He leads us away from God and self-sacrifice by telling us we deserve more, need more, should stand up for ourselves. All of this is just more of the same old "me-first" attitude of sin that drags us further away from God and into more and more debt--financial and spiritual. When will we wake up?

May we look to God and find His grace and peace to be far more satisfying than anything the world can give.

Dave