Loving The God Of Creation!

Matthew 6 shows us that while the main emphasis in on the teaching of keeping our focus on eternal things, we should not lose sight of the fact that God cares for and desires this His creation is cared for. I believe that this passage unfolds the story of what we need to explore in the relationship between the Creator and creation.
PAUSE - Stop long enough to pay attention v25-27
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? v25-27
The first thing we need to notice here is the emphasis on self…your life, your body, what you will wear and the all too often exercise of our personalizing tendencies…
We must stop the individualizing that has created a vacuum in the Christian church. When the all too personal becomes detriment to the whole, we have lost our way. When I’m right and everyone else is wrong, I have become the focus. Calling Jesus a ‘personal Savior’ sounds like Jesus in the same way as my personal trainer, my personal coach, my personal dental hygienist! The danger is when I make everything all about me!
In these verses Jesus is telling us that there is more to life than just chasing after your everyday needs. There is so much more worth living for than your personal portfolio, all the visible stuff for everyone else to see
REFLECT - take inventory! v28-32
What am I worrying about right now?
Are you holding back on a decision because of some future possibility?
In the movie Next, Nicolas Cage’s character has the ability to see 2 minutes into the future and one of his great lines to a terrorist was this:
I have envisioned every possible scenario and none of them end well for you.
However God has given you that ability so stop playing risk management or damage control and go where God leads you today.
What am I chasing after?
The perfect home, the perfect car, the perfect van…Chrysler is trying to sell this one really hard!
Bigger is Not Better…
Everywhere I go these days, big is in. The combo meal are super-sized, the desserts on display… can they get any bigger or more decadent. My friend laments with me that his home isn’t big enough for his wife, apparently she needs another 1000 square feet… or walk into Future Shop or Best Buy and realize there is always something more that you need for the ultimate entertainment experience. Along with our American friends we have all the opportunity in the world to be big eaters, big spenders, and even bigger wasters.

Even churches are into big, I confess and it is all too easy to get caught up into and chase after it. Like the population at large, we Christians seem to have a growing acceptance of the bigger is better credo.
But all this growth might be creating some big problems.
Our society and systems seem unable of handling the never-ceasing expansion of want and need. Landfills are full, the air is thick especially in the summer and as much as Richard Arnold tells us the tap water is good, we still go to water depot…now it is water world. In light of our growing problems, maybe the church should give small a chance.
I really have felt a stronger burden for small groups or I would like to call them small c church because Christianity is a way of life. Followers of Christ were called ‘the Way’ and one of the reasons was that they literally found the way to live. They met in homes and the church needs to become small in order to grow large. It is there that we can really know each other, pray for each other and clearly see the work of God in our brother’s and sister’s lives.
We are the ones who need to lead by example living lives that are less hectic, less cluttered, less selfish and less toxic.
What are some choices that you could make living healthier spiritually and physically for not only yourself but others?
Randy Frazee wrote the book Making Room for Life. He challenges us on asking the question of simplification, "Even though something is commonplace, do we really need it in our lives?"
He writes…
When you take off your cultural blinders, it becomes all too painfully clear how easily we can buy into culture's code of success being equated with more and more. The results of all this "more" were clutter and confusion and so we decided to simplify our lives. Removing some of the typical suburban clutter was a bit scary, but over the course of a few years, it really has begun to make room for life.
We soon discovered the joy of having fewer bills to pay, fewer trips to make, fewer calendars to juggle, and fewer agendas to manage. You may even find with your free time that you can discover that you have neighbors and maybe just maybe spend time with them!
With that question in mind, all sorts of things were up for grabs: like having to have the perfect house, the need to have another vehicle, you name it, even signing up our kids for multiple teams… The past couple of summers we have decided not to sign up our kids for sports…

ACT - Seek First The Kingdom of God v33,34 MEANS
We are talking about the KINGDOM here
1. My worldview just got a whole lot bigger!

It wasn’t always this way; the early believers understood the intimacy of community and recognizing that my decisions really do affect the whole in Acts 2. Even though we may act in independence, it still affects the whole to the degree that I spend on self will affect how much I am able to share. The picture that I have of the body is much greater than even our local body. We are part of the global body of Christ and that includes our ability to respond to the needs of brothers and sisters around the world.
Today is the day that we stop creating this narcissistic experience of a relationship with God. WHY because the gospel is not about getting something, it is about participating in something—God's work of reconciling the whole world to Himself. And yes, we do have a relationship with God which becomes personal but it is inseparable from His mission. As Brian McLaren wrote:
The missional church understands itself to be blessed not to the exclusion of the world, but for the benefit of the world. It is a church that seeks to bring benefits to its nonadherents through its adherents.
2. God’s Kingdom Includes His Creation
Reading such stories helps us see how a radical lifestyle aligns with living God's way. Now our family is asking the question of stewardship, "Will this choice make the world more like heaven or more like hell?" Our neighborhood of concern has expanded dramatically. Landfills, toxins, and making choices based on our own wants: these are the ingredients of hell. The new heaven and new earth will include none of these things, so why should we add them to this world now? When we choose concern over convenience and less over more, we are being kind to neighbors we have never met and honoring creatures God thought worthy of life.
I don't think our family is unique. We fight consumerism and selfishness and choices of convenience. However, small realizations are leading to simple questions that force important decisions in our everyday life . All of this matters not because the environment is suddenly a hot topic, but because the dots suddenly connect: when I live a gospel life I desire less stuff for myself, which frees up time and space for real community. So what does living and leading with less look like for you? What if we led by example and cut the waste down to a single bag on the street? What if we focused on community and caring for creation as Wendy Mac has inspired us. My hunch is that God would be pleased, you would find life more livable and the planet would breath a little easier.

3. The Church Has Left The Building
I think more than ever we need to start bringing the church to the people. We need to change from being a “COME” structure to a “GO” structure. As we seek first the kingdom, it will lead us to living a more missional life.
The Takeaway:
When I live a “Kingdom First” life I desire less stuff for myself, which frees up time, waste and space for real community and real life

Questions For Discussion and Small Groups:
1. What toxins is your soul most susceptible to?
2. What are some choices that you could make living healthier spiritually and physically for not only yourself but others?
3. How can we as a local church do a better job ‘leaving the building’?
4. How can ‘seeking first the Kingdom Of God’ be less about me, my personal devotions, my personal space, my own goals, my plans as good as those are?

If It Isn't Broke, Don't Fix It!

I want to start this blog by saying thank you for those who have been sharing their honest prayer requests through the offering. I want you to know that I sit down each Monday morning to pray through them and at our staff meetings as well. Thank you to those of you who have the courage to share and speak up when I challenge you on Sundays with questions. It is my desire that we look for more creative ways to create interaction and learn together in community!

There’s a time when a company gets it right and dove’s campaign for real beauty does just that. We live in a time where cosmetic surgeons are image consultants and where the picture of true worth is all too easily distorted and that is exactly what takes place here in John 8.

As I reflect on this story it reminds me that we are disconnected. What is it in people that leads them to see someone else as nothing more than an object. It happens when we strip someone of their dignity, their true worth, their true value. It happens all the time and our culture is fixated on rating people. The beginning of the problem in this story is forgetting that this woman had a name, she had a story and she had feelings. One writer said, ‘When people aren’t treated as fully humans, it’s called hell and this is where we find this woman. She is ready to be condemned and Jesus is put on the spot to make a judgment call and He does, but it isn’t at all what was expected. He is the one who connects what we see with the thoughts and very intent of our heart.

Take a step back and peel away the layers… what do you see?


In the beginning God created us in His image. We are image-bearers and then He gave us gender in male and female and gave life meaning. Since the fall we have become disconnected from God, disconnected from the true value of life and have subjected ourselves to a system that rates and assesses value to life. The sad truth is that people have believed the lies that others have told them.

The church is meant to display the new humanity, the real beauty, the new life that Jesus longed for us to experience. When we stand up for those who are being mistreated, abused, neglected, we stand up for God. When we respect the image of God in others, we respect the image that is at the very core of who we are.

The Pharisees saw a prostitute, Jesus saw a broken woman.

One of the most powerful things I saw was when I walked in a Christian youth center not too long ago was the pictures on the wall.

They had images of youth that read:

Some see a vandal, we see an artist
Some see a gang member, we see a pastor
Some see a rebel, we see a leader

It is the God sized ability to see hope and potential in everyone that we meet.

It is the very way that people can commit crimes against humanity. It is when they look at someone from another race or culture, background, with a handicap and see them as less than real humans and that is what the concentration camps did and forced labour camps do…they strip people of their humanity Rob Bell

Imagine this woman’s story v1-6
- but for the grace of God go I.

Historically, Christians have divided sin into two categories, sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit.
The flesh includes appetites that usually get out of control, laziness, lust, greed, drunkenness and these sins or idols often lead to other ones, deceit, betrayal.
The second category is sins of the spirit that have more to do with our soul than with our bodies like arrogance, judgmentalism, self righteousness. They usually don’t provoke as much gossip though
Often in the NT we read the story of Jesus confronting sinners of the flesh and sinners of the spirit. The sinners of the flesh knew they were in big trouble, but in all these stories there is also a person guilty of pride and arrogance and Jesus called them blind. They thought they were the classic example of a Christian, keeping themselves unstained by the world, yet Jesus saves his harshest words for them. They thought they were the mature Christians when actually there pride in avoiding the sins of the flesh crippled their ability to love. He clearly laid out that the sins of the spirit were the most destructive and dangerous of them all.
We see a clear picture of this in Luke 18

9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
And, really, when these teachers of the law first signed up, it probably started out well I’m sure they were motivated by love, but somewhere along the way, all their study of Scripture had filled them with pride and their giftedness had made them impatient with the weaker ones.
What is so insidious about the sins of the spirit is that the carriers usually have no clue. When you sin in the flesh, you know you have messed up. With the sins of the spirit, you just continue to walk through life with it growing inside of you.

· Judgmental thoughts
· Superior attitude
· Impatient words
· Bitter resentments
· Little room for love

And people are being weighed down all around us in brokenness and pain with guilt and fear. We need to stand up and take notice and be moved by their condition.

Who Do You Identify With Most… v7-11
Do I see myself more as the tax collector or the Pharisee?

Are we Pharisees at heart?

Do we find it all to easy to point the finger at others?
Do we like sending people on guilt trips?
Do we require things of others that we don’t of ourselves?
Do we impose self made rules that are not written in Scripture?
Do we practice guilty by association?
Do we take ourselves too seriously?
Do we judge by outward appearance?
Are we more comfortable talking about how God worked in the past than today?
Are we more interested in people’s opinions that God’s?
Do we make ourselves feel better by comparing ourselves to others?
Do we create our own loopholes when it comes to obeying God?
Do we tell others that we are more in tune with God than they are?

These statement come from an unbroken life, a life that isn’t ready to be fixed…
So, I have been in the church for as long as I can remember and why is it that we can produce so much pride and judgment? We have forgotten what we are all about, we have to laugh, we’ve lost our joy. What happened here is that these men had forgotten what they were all about, they had forgotten where they had come from.


So what does Jesus do? He bends down and starts writing in the sand and then he straightens up and says, to them, “If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.

What did Jesus write? John doesn’t tell us. Some have thought the 10 commandments, another idea more popular, dating back to the 5th century, was that Jesus was writing down the sins of the men in the group. He confronts these men with a decision. If you are going to condemn her, first take a good, hard look at yourself. When sinful people start passing judgment on others, they pass judgment on themselves.
And then, it starts, with the elders of the group, the wise ones, they drop their stones and walk away.

Do you have any stones that you need to let go of?

Paul said that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus Romans 8:1. On Jesus’ team we don’t need to condemn people who stand condemned already. The question is what are we going to do about it? How are we going to love them back into relationship.

How will we let go of judgmentalism that has become so deeply rooted in us.

What have you been holding on to that you need to let go of?


It starts when we identify ourselves more with the tax collector and woman caught in her sin in today’s passage…
Do you throw yourself at the Lord’s mercy? Do you come with your arms open wide? Do you come before Him in humility and grace? Are you broken? That is the real question. More often than not we don’t, really we don’t. We come with a sense of self assurance, but not self awareness. The point of this story is that Jesus can’t fix you unless you are first broken and continually broken. It is in brokenness that we find healing and forgiveness, restoration and a burning flame. A burning flame that burn away the self righteousness, self assurance and shame and refines us and makes us new.

What are we all about? GRACE, accept people and TRUTH, bring freedom!

No as we close, notice that Jesus doesn’t stop there, He tells her to go, now and leave your life of sin. He was the only one who had the right to condemn her, but He doesn’t. Go and sin no more…These words fill her with pain because of her past, but they fill her with hope because the future looks bright, someone’s believes in her!

He doesn’t approve of her behavior, but He wants her to be free! Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom… True forgiveness is treating the person as if the offence never happened in the first place and you can’t muster that kind of love on your own, no matter how many times you tell yourself, its is calling on the one to enable you to love, the one who has loved us with an everlasting love.

You cannot offer acceptance and withhold forgiveness.

We are in the life saving business, radical acceptance and forgiveness produce what judmentalism and condemnation cannot, a transformed life. We walk through their sin or failure and give them hope, courage and strength to overcome.

Let’s be authentic and share our struggles and in doing so give others to freedom to share and realize, hey, we don’t have it all together. We are just humbled by God’s grace and forgiveness in our lives.

v11 What it means to go and sin no more…

When you realized that you’ve sinned, go immediately to God. Go the first time you feel convicted. Be very specific about your sin and be very broken about its severity. Turn to Him in sincere repentance, and you’ll see God’s hand reaching down into the water and pulling you back to the surface with forgiveness, mercy and grace.
James MacDonald
The Takeaway

Only the broken can be fixed… that is to know true freedom, love and forgiveness


I was at a wedding on Friday night and one of the most beautiful things that I saw were some of the workers from community assisted living dancing to none other than 'Dancing Queen' with the physically and mentally challenged. They were not only affirming worth but experiencing it in their own lives as well.


Questions For Discussion and Small Groups:

Who do you most easily identify with in this story and why?
In what ways have you tried to ‘fix yourself’?
How do we fight back, fight fair in a world obsessed with external beauty?
How do you experience God’s true worth in your own life?
Have you been broken by God? What did that look like for you?

How To Be Rich and Still Be A Christian???

Jesus went out of his way to minister to the people that others went out of their way to avoid. He ministered to the down and outs, those left for dead. He shared the good news with the poor.
Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? James 2:5 It is those who realize that they are poor. Spiritually we are bankrupt without Jesus
Take this one step further in Luke 4:18-20

18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Do you see Him anointing you to proclaim the good news…He has! Luke 10:1 He appoints, He anoints, He commissions. Matthew 28:19,20 He has given you the authority and the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:8

The wonderful extension of this is realized in the realization that too whom much is given, much is required. Luke 12:48


Jesus came to bring freedom from the prison house of sin, freedom from evil spirits, freedom from slavery to sin

Do you just see Him as the one who has made you free – free from the prison house of sin and selfish tendancies?
Do you see him as the one who has given you “spiritual eyes” eyes to see things from His perspective?
It has been 150 years since slavery was abolished but did you know that modern day slavery is a real issue. Slavery today in its various forms from bonded slavery to the sex slave trade is a 32 billion dollar industry. There is an estimated 27 million slaves worldwide. The worst forms of child labor affects an estimated 126 million children around the world in work that is harmful to their health and welfare.


check out notforsalecampaign.org

Are you ready to make a difference for those caught in slavery, prisoners to injustice?

The acceptable year of the Lord – not a specific year, but the realization that Jesus would usher in the new covenant. Your voice needs to be heard!

We live in a global village. The good news is not just for us, it is for our world. The truth is out there and we cannot allow ourselves to become immune to it. There is a lot of concern over the desensitization that our children are learning to graphic violence in video games and on TV. To me, what is more scary than that is the great need that is out there for even the most basic of needs…water itself.

We must never let the gospel be reduced to just words that we agree with. We enter into a new and living way, a redeemed way of looking at other people. When Christ went to preach, He went to heal as well. When He went to proclaim, He went to minister to the poor and oppressed. It is a holistic gospel that affects us right to our very core and the things that move us to respond.


I’m giving you gift giving ideas today!

Here is a challenge for this Christmas - Give as much money towards gifts for Partners, Samaritan’s Purse shoeboxes, World Relief Canada as you do spending on presents for families and friends.
This might mean that we actually may spend less on each other, but you can still wrap up presents that you give to missions with your friend’s name on it. Just make the box, really big, with lots of colourful wrapping paper!!

Do not try to justify your wealth. God saves you by His sacrifice, not yours.
Recognize that the more you give and the more you simplify your own lifestyle, the more freedom you will gain and really it will become that more easier.
As you enjoy the blessings God has given you, be sure to invite others to share in what God has given you. Open up your home, (maybe more of us need to become foster parents) treat others, pay it forward ultimately to heaven!
Each day press on towards the goal of being the kind of person who gives hope,

One pastor said it best...we need to learn to live more simply so others can simply live