Stardust Fallout

Love this idea! So creative. Explaining and helping a...

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:56:54 -0700

Love this idea! So creative. Explaining and helping a child’s cancer treatment through the use of superheroes!

Got a number of requests so here is a copy of yday’s...

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 09:08:00 -0700

Got a number of requests so here is a copy of yday’s sermon!

Thetapestry.ca is doing a sermon series on generous and I had the honour of speaking on John 3:16. We also watched this video to get us ready. vimeo.com/22842397

Drew from a number of sources for this one.
Preachers: Matt Chandler, Judah Smith, Keller.
Books: Rodney Stark: Rise of Christianity, Radical: David Platt

Too much processed meat tied to premature death - Health - CBC News

Thu, 23 May 2013 07:12:16 -0700

Too much processed meat tied to premature death - Health - CBC News:

The list is long and includes deli meat, bacon, sausages, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, frozen meatballs etc.

Our desire to make profit, to buy cheap products, to consume things that aren’t good for us, to think small decisions don’t matter, to live with things rather than change, to push consequences into the future, to not think about what goes in to our bodies or the effects of our technology is a slow mix of life silting destruction.

Bill Gardner has come out with his much anticipated annual logo...

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:30:00 -0700

Bill Gardner has come out with his much anticipated annual logo trends for the year. Definitely saw a lot of these. Some great designs.

"When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:16:17 -0700

“When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he could be.”

- Attributed to Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer, physicist, biologist, and artist.

John Lennox is a charming, intelligent, explicator of the...

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:30:11 -0700

John Lennox is a charming, intelligent, explicator of the Christian perspective. It’s hard not to like this mathematician and philosopher of Science. In this Q&A session at Witswatersrand University he talks the non logical correlation between atheism and evolution that Christian and atheist both might have as well as why he himself is a Christian.

How To Have A Longer Marriage Than Kim Kardashian. | PsySociety, Scientific American Blog Network

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:41:44 -0700

How To Have A Longer Marriage Than Kim Kardashian. | PsySociety, Scientific American Blog Network:

Great little read from scientific american. This article talks about research around four behaviours (contempt, criticism, stonewalling, defensiveness) that could allegedly be used to predict which couples would remain married 14 years later with %93 accuracy.

Not a dry read though. Each behaviour comes with a clip from Kim Kardashian’s relationship w/ Chris Humpfries showing it in action.

"Prayer is our Christian duty. It is an expression of submission to God and dependence upon Him. For..."

Thu, 09 May 2013 08:23:23 -0700

“Prayer is our Christian duty. It is an expression of submission to God and dependence upon Him. For that matter, prayer is arguably the most objective measurement of our dependence upon God. Think of it this way. The things you pray about are the things you trust God to handle. The things you neglect to pray about are the things you trust you can handle on your own.”

- H.B. Charles, Jr.

What do you think? If this is the case there is a lot of self-dependence in me.

"Prayer takes place in the middle voice” writes Eugene Peterson. In grammar the active voice is..."

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:56:00 -0700

““Prayer takes place in the middle voice” writes Eugene Peterson. In grammar the active voice is when we take action, and the passive voice is when we receive the action of another, but in the middle voice we both act and are acted upon. We participate in the formation of the action and reap the benefits of it. “We neither manipulate God” (active voice) or are manipulated by God (passive voice). We are involved in the action and participate in its results but do not control or define it (middle voice).””

- Foster & Peterson on praying in the middle voice

Getting ready to have a good 10k sunrun with good friends....

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:48:43 -0700

Getting ready to have a good 10k sunrun with good friends. #runningforboston

"Well, first of all, many people today are simply not good at commitments of any kind. In one sense..."

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:54:36 -0700

“

Well, first of all, many people today are simply not good at commitments of any kind. In one sense it is hardly our fault. It is in the air. It is the mood of the times. Commitment means responsibility, and responsibility sounds confining.

For example it is common in our day to define freedom as the complete absence of restraint. Once we think about it - even for a moment we realize how utterly ludicrous this idea really is. Absolute freedom is absolute nonsense! We gain freedom in anything through commitment, discipline, and fixed habit. Demosthenes was free to be a great orator only because he had gone through the discipline of speaking above the roar of the ocean with pebbles in his mouth. George Frederick Handel was able to compose his magnificent Messiah only because he had schooled himself in musical composition. By means of intense personal discipline Flannery O’Connor was able to rise above a debilitating disease to become one of the finest fiction writers of the twentieth century. Freedom is the product of discipline and commitment.

”

- Foster on freedom arising from discipline and commitment.

It even seems to me that simply having freedom of expression does not mean that we are tapping into the full range/freedom of what expression itself allows. Good, convincing, clear, ease of expression comes from a discipline to it.

What then does this tell us of other disciplines. Those of prayer, of sport, or music, and so on? May you revel in the freedom that comes only from discipline.

"Strange as it may sound to modern ears, the contemplation of ones own death is among the most..."

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:02:00 -0700

“

Strange as it may sound to modern ears, the contemplation of ones own death is among the most time-honored approaches to personal transformation. In our day of runaway narcism it is a practice we would do well to revive. What would happen if you were to die today? If I were to die today? One of the most sobering insights from such a meditation is the realization that life would continue right on without us - and quite well for that matter. The sun would come up the next day. People would go about their normal duties. Nothing of substance would be changed.

This is a hard reality for us who carry the illusion that the world revolves around our decisions. How could anything of importance happen without us there? How dare anything of importance happen without us there! You see, we are a little like the fly on the chariot wheel in Aseop’s Fables, who looked back and declared, “My, what a dust storm I’m causing!”.

”

- Richard Foster on the importance of considering one’s own death.

Reflecting on this song today. Farther Along by Josh...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:05:08 -0700

Reflecting on this song today. Farther Along by Josh Garrels.

Farther along we’ll know all about it

Farther along we’ll understand why
So, cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We’ll understand this, all by and by

Tempted and tried, I wondered why
The good man died, the bad man thrives
And Jesus cries because he loves ‘em both
We’re all cast-aways in need of rope
Hangin’ on by the last threads of our hope
In a house of mirrors full of smoke
Confusing illusions I’ve seen

Where did I go wrong, I sang along
To every chorus of the song
That the devil wrote like a piper at the gates
Leading mice and men down to their fates
But some will courageously escape
The seductive voice with a heart of faith
While walkin’ that line back home

So much more to life than we’ve been told
It’s full of beauty that will unfold
And shine like you struck gold my wayward son
That deadweight burden weighs a ton
Go down into the river and let it run
Wash away all the things you’ve done
Forgiveness alright

Farther along we’ll know all about it
Farther along we’ll understand why
So, cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We’ll understand this, all by and by

Still I get hard pressed on every side
Between the rock and a compromise
Like the truth and pack of lies fightin’ for my soul
And I’ve got no place left go
‘Cause I got changed by what I’ve been shown
More glory than the world has known
Keeps me ramblin’ on

Skipping like a calf loosed from its stall
I’m free to love once and for all
And even when I fall I’ll get back up
For the joy that overflows my cup
Heaven filled me with more than enough
Broke down my levees and my bluffs
Let the flood wash me

And one day when the sky rolls back on us
Some rejoice and the others fuss
‘Cause every knee must bow and tongue confess
That the Son of God is forever blessed
His is the kingdom, we’re the guests
So put your voice up to the test
Sing Lord, come soon

Farther along we’ll know all about it
Farther along we’ll understand why
So, cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We’ll understand this, all by and by

Some friends of mine started a website called ohsoverypretty.com...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:51:46 -0700

Some friends of mine started a website called ohsoverypretty.com .. Its awesome. Check it out. For dinner wifey and I decided to make their cilantro quinoa patties (http://bit.ly/YMUnGS) But I thought they were too dainty so I turned them into mancakes. YUM

"God creates everything out of nothing - and everything which God is to use he first reduces to..."

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:19:26 -0700

“God creates everything out of nothing - and everything which God is to use he first reduces to nothing”

- Kierkegaard

Love… This… Post… Time travel, movies, and the...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 11:30:16 -0700

Love… This… Post… Time travel, movies, and the different types broken down. It actually gives a pretty good picture of all the different ideas behind what time travel could look like.

A few weeks ago I was blessed to be preach from Matthew 5:13-16....

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:04:58 -0700

A few weeks ago I was blessed to be preach from Matthew 5:13-16. We have been doing a sermon series on Jesus’ claims on himself (who he says he is) and this week we finished things off by talking about who he says we are. Salt and Light.

The Image is a painting was being done as I was speaking. How awesome is that!

"To pray is to change. This is a great grace. How good of God to provide a path whereby our lives can..."

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 09:00:18 -0700

“

To pray is to change. This is a great grace. How good of God to provide a path whereby our lives can be taken over by love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.

The movement inward comes first because without interior transformation the movement up into God’s glory would overwhelm us and the movement out into ministry would destroy us.

”

- Foster from his classic book on prayer.

Reminds me of Tolsty’s great quote “Everyone thinks about changing the world but no one thinks about changing [themselves]”

Great inforaphic on all the cuts of beef! Behold the cow in all...

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:37:51 -0700

Great inforaphic on all the cuts of beef! Behold the cow in all its delicious glory!

Sweet vid from BuzzFeed that helps you visualize what a 2000...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 08:45:25 -0700

Sweet vid from BuzzFeed that helps you visualize what a 2000 calorie diet looks like if you were to eat just one food. Lets just say DANG McDonalds FRIES?!?!! Why you gotta taste so good and be full of so many calories!?!