It was pretty clear that the highlight of the trip was the last day of kid’s camp when almost everyone responded to the invitation to get to know Jesus.

Thank you to Pastor Wendy, the leaders, the sponsors, and everyone who sacrificed time and finances to make this trip such a success.

For those of you who can’t get this out of your head, here’s the kid’s song the team taught us:

1. Sin v. sins: Do you know the difference between Big-”S”-Sin and little-”s”-sins?
2. Temptation: How does temptation work? When are we tempted? Can we resist? What happens when we fall (yes, I said, “when”)?
3. Don’t Walk the Line: We’ll never escape temptation if we continue to flirt with it. Temptation defense requires a solid offense: stay close to God’s heart.

Download audio file (071810.mp3)

Information on the Sundew (Drosera) plant along with the pictures I showed can be found on their wikipedia page.

Here’s the video I showed during the message:

Here’s a bonus video on that last point:

God created everything that exists and entrusted it to us to manage and care for (Genesis 1:26-28). God never gave up ownership of his creation (Psalm 50:7-15).

We’re greedy little critters (as any lottery commercial will remind us), so in the Old Testament God kept reminding his people to be generous by:

1. Forbidding the permanant sale of land (Leviticus 25:23-24)
2. Forbidding the charging of interest to neighbours (Exodus 22:25-27)
3. Instituting the tithe (Numbers 18:21-24; Deuteronomy 12:5-7; 26:12-15; Malachi 3:8-10)

In the New Testament, we’re not bound by the law, but held to a higher standard as Jesus taught in Matthew 5. It’s no surprise, then, that the early church sold everything for the common good (Acts 2:43-47). Paul spoke about giving in 2 Corinthians 9:6-11:

1. You get what you give (not prosperity ‘gospel’ nonsense).
2. Make up your mind on what to give, and give cheerfully (the tithe is a good place to start—it reminds us that God still owns everything).
3. God blesses us abundantly so we can give generously to good works (not the other way around).
4. God blesses us for our generosity in many different ways.
5. Giving to people is really giving to God.

We closed the service by hear some testimonies about how people learned to give and how God has blessed them.

Here’s the message: Download audio file (071110.mp3)

Here’s the video I showed near the beginning of the message:

And here’s a bonus video we didn’t have time to share during the message:

The theme of the morning was spiritual growth. Here’s the big secret: the key to growth is obedience. If you obey what God whispers through prayer and his Word, you’ll grow up spiritually. If you ignore his voice, you’ll remain stagnant.

Following a brief message, we were able to witness obedience in two very practical ways:

1. We prayed to send off the Ukraine Mission team. We witnessed a number of people who sacrificed their time and finances to obey God’s call.
2. We heard testimonies from five baptismal candidates who were taking their step of obedience (a.k.a. “the plunge).

At about 11:20, we moved the service from our building down to the Muskoka river where Pastor Wendy and I (along with Brian Higgins for his son) baptized five people. What a thrill.

Download audio file (062710.mp3)

Here’s the video clip I showed from Evan Almighty:

1. What the Bible is
2. How we got the Bible
3. What to do with the Bible

Since the Mac we use to record the messages had a full hard drive, I’ll summarize what we looked at below.

1. What the Bible Is

In order to understand what the Bible is, we started by looking at what it isn’t. The Bible is not:

• An ammunition cache: a place where you mine for scriptures to rip out of context and throw at your verbal sparring partners.
• A Chicken-Soup for the Soul style inspirational book: if you take a serious look at the whole Bible, you’ll find enough sex and violence to make any churchgoer hyperventilate.
• A technical manual: we don’t slice-and-dice God’s Word to make lists and bullet-points.
• A text book: Do a YouTube search on “The Bible”, and most of the videos are concerned with fighting evolutionists. That is so far from the purpose of scripture it’s almost funny!
• A Christian horoscope: we’re not meant to open the book at random and plunk our fingers down for life advice.

No, the Bible is much more than these modern perversions. The Bible’s a diverse library that spans at least two millennia. It’s contents tell the story of God’s determined effort to reestablish contact with his estranged creation. That story, then, becomes a sword to challenge the worldview of his renegade creatures.

2. How we Got the Bible

Scripture is incarnational. On the one hand, it’s entirely God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). On the other hand, there are very distinct human voices in the text. These treatises, biographies, prophecies, and letters have been carefully copied and preserved throughout the ages. We now have thousands of manuscript fragments that allow us to reconstruct with remarkable accuracy the original text. As a believer, I also know the Spirit of God had a hand in its preservation.

There has been some talk lately about other gospels and scriptures that were covered up by the hierarchy of the church to remain in power. I would encourage anyone interested in this topic to read the “scriptures” in question. They sound a lot more like second century gnostic constructs than first century Judaism.

3. What to Do with the Bible

In short: read it. The church has developed a way of reading scripture known as the lectio divina. This way of reading has four movements:

1. lectio: Read scripture slowly, repeatedly, and thoughtfully.
2. meditatio: Meditate on what you’ve read. Use your imagination to immerse yourself in the divine drama.
3. oratio: Pray about what you’ve read. Imagine you attended a book-club meeting where the author showed up to answer your questions. We have the Spirit of the author’s Son present in our hearts to enlighten us as we read.
4. contemplatio: Don’t rush away from reading. Take time to rest in the love of God.

Once you’ve devoured scripture like this, there’s only one thing left: just do it! (But that’s next week’s message.)

To wrap this message up, the Bible’s not like any other book you’ll ever encounter. We don’t lay out God’s Word on our mental operating tables to “get something out of it”.

We’re the ones on the table.

This past Sunday we looked at the basics of prayer.

Download audio file (061310.mp3)

I showed a couple video clips during the message:

• Ecclesiastes
• Elijah
• Colossians

It’s time to get back to our roots. For those who have been Christians for a while, this is an opportunity to reconnect with the core of the Faith. For those who are newer to the faith, this is a great opportunity to survey what the Christian life is all about.

Our first topic was Salvation:

Download audio file (060610.mp3)

Here’s the Billy Mays tribute clip I showed:

Download audio file (053010.mp3)

The last chapter of Colossians is a miscellany of personal notes and random advice. One thing is mentioned three times, though: the need to pray.

1. Paul wanted people to pray with thanksgiving (v. 2).
2. Paul wanted prayer for himself (v. 3).
3. Paul wanted the Colossians to know how Epaphras had wrestled in prayer for them (v. 12).

So, after reading through the text itself, we devoted ourselves to prayer last Sunday:

1. We shared stories and prayed about the things we were thankful for.
2. We prayed for other ministries like Pastor Ouedraogo in Burkina Faso.
3. We prayed for each other’s needs.

Prayer was the foremost thing on Paul’s mind when he closed his letter to the believers in Colossae. Let’s follow what the Spirit shared through Paul and devote ourselves to prayer, when we’re together and when we’re alone.

Download audio file (052310.mp3)

Submit. Nothing else strikes fear and trepidation into the heart of a modern preacher like that word. Since we’re reading through Colossians together, though, there’s no avoiding it. Colossians 3:18-4:1 has three pairs of commands:

1. Wives, submit to husbands; husbands, love wives.
2. Children, obey parents; parents, don’t antagonize children.
3. Slaves, obey masters; masters, treat slaves with justice and equality.

While Paul’s injunctions are difficult to swallow today, they actually show a remarkable fairness. While there are lists of commands like this outside scripture (especially in stoic philosophy), you would never expect to hear commands to parents and masters.

Give Sunday’s message a listen and let’s see what we can learn from this ancient instruction.

One more thing. Here’s the video that prompted all the laughter half-way through the message:

Hidden With Christ | So What? (Part 5)

Download audio file (050910.mp3)
On Mother’s Day, we looked at one of my favourite texts in scripture: Colossians 3. Memorize it. Soak in it. Devour it. Our lives are hidden with Christ in God.

My God’s Bigger

Download audio file (051610WP.mp3)

Last Sunday Pastor Wendy shared a poignant message on the need to move on in our walk with God. No stopping in Haran for us!