NEW! Cell Phone!

Have you ever heard the saying, “The more I get ahead the further behind I become?” I probably have it wrong and someone out there can let me know what the words really are. But you get the idea. It really came home to me this weekend. Now, I don’t consider myself a slouch when it comes to electronics. I realize that things are getting more complicated because they do more things. Setting up the computer wasn’t a problem. Plug in a few cables and follow the instructions on the screen. Well, maybe I didn’t realize the computer takes half an hour to format to each individual. But I made it work and all is fine now. I guess, over the years and doing simple computers at first helped.
Then came the cell phone. What a great invention. I no longer have to carry a quarter and look for a pay phone. The one I have had for a while now is simple and right to the point. It rings, and I push the yes button. I push the numbers in the right order and I hear the person I am calling on the other end. They tell me is can do other stuff but that is fine. Incoming and outgoing calls are all I need.
Then came the MP3 player. Now I remember the first transistor radio. Small compact and could just make it into your shirt pocket if you pulled hard enough and in the right directions. Lasted about two months and you took the 9volt battery out for something else. The MP3 player replaces Walkman’s and portable CD players. My daughter gave it to me over a year ago and I filled it up with about 75 big band songs and took it on holidays. Even came with a ten-page instruction manual. Now where are the cord and manual?
We went through the job it entailed to set up the stereo in another column so I will forgo that one. But this weekend my daughter and I were talking. She had suggested I get a new phone to replace my present phone. Sure, why not, after all, she has a new one and I can have her old one. It is newer then my present one.
So here I am, on a Saturday afternoon reading the manual. All one hundred pages of it. This is the English one as the one hundred page French one wouldn’t do me any good. One hundred pages of instruction on how to get the best out of a phone that you only need to perform outgoing calls and take incoming ones. I read through far enough to know how to turn it on, dial a number connect when it rings and turn it off. Oh, sorry I did learn how to take pictures with it. I guess I won’t need my digital camera anymore. In fact I won’t need to read the rest of the camera’s manual either. Did I mention it can be programed to have separate rings for each person who calls you, takes pictures and connects to my email? Not likely but it can. Like I said, “The more I get ahead the further behind I become.”
Then it hit me. I have another manual sitting here on my desk and it has fifteen hundred pages. I can read ten pages of the phone manual to know how it works but how many pages of scripture will I need to read to know God? How much will we have to read and absorb until we get it? I will have to go back and read the MP3 manual again to find out how it works again. So we do the same with the bible. That is the wonderful thing about God’s manual, we can open it time and time again and learn more about God and ourselves. It is a manual about relationships. This past Sunday I shared with the congregation that the Bible is not a book of rules and regulations but a book about hope and promises. A book about relationships and primarily our relationship to God. We all think we know enough about the bible and God, but do we?
Now, what is this on page 1254 about faith the size of a mustard seed?
Rob

"I Promise..."

The words used to be, “I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me GOD!” It was at a time in the history of the world when an oath was law. This was back when a hand shake was all that was needed to seal a deal. Even in the movie Oh God! , with George Burns playing God, he said, “I promise, so help me, Me.” Somewhere along the life line of history things started to get grey or if you want, a little fuzzy.
Let me read from page 1294 of the Universal Dictionary of the English Language, “Truth: Moral quality of being true and honest; sincerity, loyalty, trustiness - conformity to fact and reality to the utmost extent that these are discoverable by the human mind.” So, what happened?
First they took the Bible away. No longer do you have to place your hand on a bible to make this oath. The reason they say this is, it may violate their personal belief system. The real reason could be, they don’t tell the truth anyway and they don’t believe in the Bible or anything in it. No sense in doing something you don’t believe, or is it, “Let’s do it and fool everyone. They will think I am telling the truth if I put my hand on it.”
At one time society knew what it meant to place their hand on a bible in a court of law. Placing your hand on the bible and reciting this oath was the equivalent of calling on God to inflict on you any and all the curses found in the bible if you did not tell the truth. Much like the line, “May God strike me dead.” Don’t see too many people using that line during a lightning storm.
Back to the grey and fuzzy. As much as the world thinks there are grey areas, there are few. And those few are in areas of life not directly outlined in God’s word. I still believe my definition of sin fits, - Sin is doing anything that hurts someone else. Hurt others, hurt self, hurt God.
When the band started back in September I sat them down and we talked about a number of things related to the band. One of them was they should always tell the truth. I continued, “If you lie you have to remember what you said, to whom you said it and who all their friends are.” A funny thing about telling the truth, it never comes back to bite you.
When the world gets back to connecting with God, truth will again reign supreme. Grey areas will disappear and the only fuzz will be in our pockets or under the bed. Roman’s 14:11 quotes part of Isaiah 45. It says, “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness (also read, truth) And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath. He shall say, ‘Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength.”
One place or another, the truth will come out. It will be either here in this world or on a bowed knee before God. It’s up to us. Rob
“You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32.

Nothing Much, But Love.

The top half was clean. At least that is what I said to myself as the Pekinese trotted by. He or was it a she, no matter, seemed to be totally oblivious to how he looked. Tongue hanging out, smelling everything as it went along. Never stopping long enough to make a complete analysis of any hydrant or light pole. I smiled to myself as I realized I must be in the same predicament. Here I was, track pants, and sweatshirt with a stain on the front from my dinner, or was that lunch? If I were a dog right then I probably looked the same as this Pekinese. Like you, I have seen the Westminster Kennel Club yearly show. On that program we have all seen beautifully primmed dogs. Dogs with a pedigree as long as your arm. These are dogs that not only look clean and bright, but walked right, ran right, stood right and sat perfect. Each owner would decree to everyone the dogs family history. After all, you have to come from the right family. While I sit in my easy chair watching these shows, I wonder if these dogs were ever allowed out. If they ever experience the freedom to run and sniff and do dog things, if they ever get half dirty squeezing under the neighbours fence. I wonder if they are allowed to experience all the things that make up being dogs. We know they are loyal like all dogs. We know their favourite thing changes every minute. Greeting you when you get home, a favourite thing, eating mush from a can, a favourite thing, being scratched behind the ear, a favourite thing, running around the yard, a favourite thing, chewing a shoe, digging up the flower bed, or lying in the sun, all favourite things. To face it, I see myself as a mutt, a mongrel, a Heinz 57, just a common everyday dog. Not much to look at, not much to write home about. But I am me and I enjoy all my favourite things. I am nothing special. No pedigree and no better then anyone else. During the life I live, God has let me do human things. Some mistakes but some good jobs at fetching. They say I even clean up pretty good once and a while. The reason I can be myself is because my master is God Himself. I live to please Him and in doing so I have joy that comes from being by His side and being loved. I have been adopted by the King of King and he lets me be my best self. He loves us no matter where we come from or how we look. On that day, when we hear Him calling, we know He will take us home, clean us up and we will eat at the Masters table. Care to join us?

Knit One Pearl Two

Easter is always the highlight of the year. This year was no different. It was a great time where we came together to celebrate the resurrection. There were no presents under the tree, just “Christ, ever always in me.” We were celebrating around the resurrected Christ and nothing more. What a great day!
I have other good days, quiet days of celebration where I reflect on life and its spiritual message to my life. One weekly event I look forward to is the day I am at Macassa Lodge visiting the residents. It happens every Tuesday morning. On arriving, the first thing I do is take walk down to “C”Wing to talk with a resident for a couple of minutes. I then wheel her over to “D”Wing and the activity room there. (Oh how I would love to have wheelchair races some day.) It is there that a number of lady residents get together for “Knit and Chat.” They have over an hour of activities revolving around knitting. I only stay a few minutes, tell them a cute joke or two, get them laughing as I make my way around the table connecting with them if only for a brief moment.
They enjoy their time together. Some are really good at knitting and they come back each and every Tuesday to show each other what they have been working on. One pair of slippers here, a baby hat or a scarf there. Many of them knit the same thing, squares. I haven’t measured how big they are but these ladies know how many stitches long and how many rows. Week after week they build the pile. So many colours and so many many many squares.
When they have enough, Mary, their volunteer leader, knits them together to make a blanket. What makes this so special is, these women spend their quiet days knitting just like they did before TV came along. A couple of ladies can’t even see what they are knitting, another moves so much slower now and still another doesn’t knit at all but her role is to roll the yarn for the others. The results are always the same, so many stitches and so many rows, so many squares and so much colour.
Corrie Ten Boom wrote in her book “Tramp for the Lord,” that we here on earth only see the bottom of our life tapestry. When we get to heaven, we will see the beauty of our life as only God can see right now, from the top. We need not worry about how it looks today, but how it looks to Him.
As I reflect on these women knitting, I am moved by the Palmists words, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Ps. 139. And the word in Ephesians, “God has made us what we are. He has created us in Christ Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do.”
Can we let go and let God create in us that heart that celebrates Him.. and I wonder if He is pleased?
Rob

Spring Weeds and Daffadils

Spring is here. Somewhere? You wouldn’t know it by what you see outside right now, but believe the calendar before the weather. Most of you know, more then “city folk,” that spring is a very special time of year. Anyone who is in some way connected to the earth recognizes spring and what is coming. The answer is - everyone together - WEEDS!
You know I am kidding. The real answer is that spring is the beginning of the life cycle. Spring starts with bulbs springing out of the ground. Then other things spring. Maybe that is where the word comes from. Over the years I have written about spring and new growth. One thing I have never said up until now is, spring is the time of year when we get to clean up the mess.
Take a look out your windows. In front of the marvelous sunrise is all that ‘stuff’ left by winter. We got a head start on spring last weekend. With the weather being better then this coming weekend, we took time to clean up all the damage from winters’ storms and snow. It is surprising how much there was. We now have nine full leaf bags on the driveway and this does not include the garbage. Most of the time as we clean up we have to ask ourselves where does all this come from? The garden looked great last fall. The mums and pansies were blooming and all the leaves had been raked and disposed of. It had been a wonderful growing season that stretched into January and the garden had been put to bed. Then winter happened.
The same can be said of our lives. Winter happens to us. These are the times that mess up our lives when we let our guard down and the world seeps in. Storms of life come and some rain must fall. When the storms pass by we pick up the pieces and start again. Easter is that time when we start fresh with the beauty of Christ coming alive in us. Lent as we understand it, is a time of cleaning up our lives. A time of giving up something for God and living without the sin, garbage and debris. To move on in our relationship with Christ there is a need to clean house. We have to remove all the things that inhibit us from being productive and as beautiful as God intended for us to be. The writer of Hebrews says, “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles . . . ” The wonderful part of this is, we get to bloom for Him. How much ‘spring’ is in you. Happy Easter! He Is Risen!
Rob