You Look Just Like . . .

It’s been a long time since I grew any. I presume it’s probably the same for each one of you as well. Let me rephrase that, I have long since grown any taller. Might have grown other ways, but 5 ft 8 inches was about it for me. I was at a family function yesterday and I was taken by the fact that I was probably the shortest one of the bunch. Well, except for Keith. We come from a family of mostly taller people. Most of them are at least 2 inches taller then me but that’s okay, they don’t look down on me.
I have also quit growing other ways. A month or so ago, while talking to a fellow minister, he said he feels too old to go back to school. He cannot see himself going back into the classroom at sixty plus. He might have something there. Think about it for a second. Okay a few second. Could you see yourself back there? Sitting in a lecture hall, trying to concentrate on what the prof was saying and keeping focused while trying to push back from your mind all the things you are thinking about outside those four wall? Not an easy task. And to study for a final exam? I don’t think so.
Then I started thinking about the gym. I used to work out five or six days a week. Now that I am older, scratch that, more mature, I no longer see the need to build my body. Don’t think it would happen anyway. Something to do with the lack of testosterone or something like that. But the cardio three days a week seems to be helping me breath better. So many things have stopped happening physically, and Bernard, don’t you say a thing about my hair.
Fortunate for us there is and will always be one place where we can grow. That place is in our spiritual lives. One verse comes to mind right away, “but grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.” That is continual activity. When we read but one verse, and dwell on it, we grow from the experience. Peter also writes, “that I may know Him . . . ” Getting to know someone is a daily thing. We need to continually be in Christ’s presence to keep the growth process active and vibrant. And so we should never stop growing in any way. Not even for a few days when we are not in church. Peter wants us to join him in our getting to know all about Jesus.
It has been said that dogs and their owners grow to look alike. Could the world say that about us as we grow into the reflection of Christ?
Something to think about
Rob

Hit Me!

Have you ever wondered how important you are? If you would like to count, you can say, kids, parents, spouse, and some brothers or sisters. Then you start to run out of names. I was listening to someone talk about twitter the other day and they mentioned that someone like Justin Bieber has X amount of followers. Football and hockey personalities have the same. And believe it or not, so do many well-known Christian preachers, like Rick Warren and Andy Stanley.
It is just mind boggling how important some of these people are to others. I guess this question comes about from something I read on Yahoo.ca. It went something like, “Did you see, so and so’s wedding dress?” Well, I don’t care but I guess there are thousands who do.
That got me thinking. So, I typed into the Goggle search engine the word, Christian. There are 791 million sites related to that word. Add “ity” to the end and we have 67.4 million. So, type in God and there is 967 million sites, Jesus, 401 million, Christ, 224 million, Jesus Christ, 70.6 million, Holy Spirit, 22.1 million and Barlow gave me 165,000. I guess I’m just a drop in the bucket.
But this is so wonderful that there are that many places where we can go and read about God and Jesus and the HS. Only a few years back, we had to go to libraries and search for what we thought we needed. Today it’s at our finger tips. How things have change. How cool is that?
This was exciting to me to know that so many individuals sat and entered so many things about God. It moved me to realize that God is not dead nor is He not thought of or just something out there. He is the God of the universe and there is no doubt about it.
Just for fun I decided to type in my proper legal name. What I received on the screen was, ready, 14 sites that had my name. I looked at them quickly and realized that I was the person who put 12 of them on the web. Only two have been added by someone else. Compared to God, forget the bucket, I’m a minnow in the ocean. But while I was going over this in my mind, God said to me, “That’s okay child, I know who you are, and know the number of hairs on your head and I sent my Son to die that you might have life and have it eternally.”
The wonder of it all is, He says that same thing to you.
Something to think about.
Rob

Doing some more thinking lately. Seems like I have too much time on my hands and nothing to do. Not really, just no enthusiasm to get up and get going due to all this rain. But I have been thinking. . . and getting pretty serious with myself.
I read about people in the bible asking for a sign. The floor is supposed to be wet and the wool dry and then the next night, the floor dry and the wool wet. It was as he asked but then he still wanted more of a sign. What’s about that?
Just wondering if that is the same with us. We ask God for a sign about this and that. “Should I do, such and such? If so, give me a sign.” Or we say we are ready to go and be committed, “If you give me a sign I will do anything you want.” I know someone who did that continually. Had many signs but never believed any of them were from God.
How does this work? “Lord, I will dedicate my whole day to you tomorrow if the sun comes up and there is not rain.” The sun came up and they say, “It was going to come up anyway”, and they just go about their regular activities.
Even thought about what I would ask God and how He could tell me with a sign. Well for a minute or two.
The thing that got me thinking was a line I read. It is the reversal of this line. It has to do with really and true dedicating our lives to God. Do we really mean what we say and say what we mean? We say we are Christ followers but are we. We say we give our lives over to God but maybe we keep 44 minutes to ourselves so we can watch two episodes of “Two and One Half Men”. What’s with that?
This is the line, read it with care: “What if God is asking us for a sign?" Wow! Man, does that ever hurt. Unfortunately for some, it’s true. I include myself in those some. Just think about it for a while. I have been. Take an afternoon to digest what it is saying. Take the day off if need be to search your heart and feel how your life is in alignment with God’s will for your life.
We ask God all the time to take our life, to make us an instrument of His love. But then we just might hear God softly saying, “Show me”. It’s past time for us to be able to say to Him, “Here is a sign to show how much we love you and worship you in our lives.”
And that my friend is something to think about.
RB

What Sign?

Doing some more thinking lately. Seems like I have too much time on my hands and nothing to do. Not really, just no enthusiasm to get up and get going due to all this rain. But I have been thinking. . . and getting pretty serious with myself. I read about people in the bible asking for a sign. The floor is supposed to be wet and the wool dry and then the next night, the floor dry and the wool wet. It was as he asked but then he still wanted more of a sign. What’s about that? Just wondering if that is the same with us. We ask God for a sign about this and that. “Should I do, such and such? If so, give me a sign.” Or we say we are ready to go and be committed, “If you give me a sign I will do anything you want.” I know someone who did that continually. Had many signs but never believed any of them were from God. How does this work? “Lord, I will dedicate my whole day to you tomorrow if the sun comes up and there is not rain.” The sun came up and they say, “It was going to come up anyway”, and they just go about their regular activities. Even thought about what I would ask God and how He could tell me with a sign. Well for a minute or two. The thing that got me thinking was a line I read. It is the reversal of this line. It has to do with really and true dedicating our lives to God. Do we really mean what we say and say what we mean? We say we are Christ followers but are we. We say we give our lives over to God but maybe we keep 44 minutes to ourselves so we can watch two episodes of “Two and One Half Men”. What’s with that? This is the line, read it with care: “What if God is asking us for a sign?" Wow! Man, does that ever hurt. Unfortunately for some, it’s true. I include myself in those some. Just think about it for a while. I have been. Take an afternoon to digest what it is saying. Take the day off if need be to search your heart and feel how your life is in alignment with God’s will for your life. We ask God all the time to take our life, to make us an instrument of His love. But then we just might hear God softly saying, “Show me”. It’s past time for us to be able to say to Him, “Here is a sign to show how much we love you and worship you in our lives.” And that my friend is something to think about. RB

It's Quiet Right Now

It’s real quiet here right now. And I am loving it. No sounds of cars running up and down the street. No neighbours out yelling for their kids. No lawn mowers, or leaf blowers or weed whacker. Not even too many birds chirping away content with what is happening in their fly zone. Just the odd peep and then quiet. Absolute, undeniable, unrecognizable quiet. Doesn’t happen often does it? There seems to be only the odd moment now again and I guess now is that glorious moment for me and those who recognize what is actually happening.

We no longer live in a world that is devoid of some sort of noise. Our kids are constantly listening to something. Either from their MP3’s or IPods or cell phones or just the click click click of their thumbs running over the keyboards of their smart phones or I pads or all ten digits dancing on their computer keyboards. They are constantly surrounded by some sort of sound. So much for my silence, the fridge just started up. Just kidding.

How our world is changing. Even when we go into church things have changed. I can remember, now don’t date me, when we were encouraged to sit in absolute silence, just to prepare our hearts for worship. That to is gone. Our services are now filled with “Music that helps us prepare our hearts. Or some other such thing. We even fill the time before services to talk to everyone else who just happened to show up early and wanting to share every detail of their complicated, overloaded schedule of life. And their conversation always ended with the statement, “Hope the minister isn’t too long winded today as we have to. . .”.

Maybe we all need to just chill. To look for moments like this. Time when we can kick back, close our eyes, and just enjoy the peace that only silence can give us. How about the scripture that says; The peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep you hearts and minds. . . . Doesn’t your bible also read, “Be still and know that I am God”? In quiet, our heart can hear the whisper of God to our hearts ears. In quiet moments just like this, we might make time where God can get a word edgewise.

Something to think about.

Celebrate More Then A Wedding

I don’t know about all of you, but I love to celebrate things. In the last few weeks, we have had much to celebrate. First there was the wedding. I know, none of us were invited but we were up at 5:00 a.m. to watch the "telly" and see all that was going on. A once in a lifetime event. Well, that is what it’s supposed to be. It is a moment in time when one women and one man commit themselves before God and the world, their love and devotion to one another that if for a lifetime. The thing I noticed most was William’s hair. I think he is catching up to me.
Then there were two important yearly celebrations. Last Sunday we celebrated our Mothers. One day a year set aside to thank them for all they endured, having us and raising us. For some of us we really made them work. Not an easy task raising some of you. Of course there are others like me that we such angels, our moms must have thought they hit the lottery. Just kidding.
There was another yearly celebration two weeks ago. It was our Easter. Resurrection morning! It is the high point of the Christian calendar. Even more so then Christmas. It is one special day each year when more people attend church then any other day. A day recognized not just for the resurrection but for what Christ did on our behalf. And we get to thank Him in a special way every Easter. What a day of celebration.
But we have another celebration. Another day when we can get up in the morning, smile at the day and make our way to church. A weekly opportunity to worship. It is not once in a lifetime, or one day in a year, but each and every week. A time when we take a break from the world and place ourselves at Jesus feet. Where we turn our face to heaven and God hears from heaven. My bible reads in Psalm 100; “Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” Come celebrate with the rest of us as we worship God who loves us and wants to have a visit each and every week.
Something to think about.
Rob