tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50147741997262024532024-03-13T15:32:35.436-07:00Convenient TruthDrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.comBlogger227125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-57946445264961518322016-07-30T08:27:00.003-07:002016-08-02T16:20:07.525-07:00The beautiful fruit: a reminder from the Lord<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">One of God's many attributes is that He is self-revelatory -- i.e. He makes Himself known to us in His way ... and sometimes, those ways can be surprising -- and surprisingly glorious.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My wife, Amelia, and her mother came home yesterday with an egg-crate full of fresh figs, bought from a chap on the Saanich Peninsula. Delicious! Hasn't this been an amazing summer for fruit? We've been enjoying "two-bite" cherries, amazing peaches, blueberries and blackberries ... my friends in Otter Point realized last week they have to pick their apples NOW because their tree is so full and those babies are READY! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Come to think of it, our apple tree has exploded with apples this year -- it hardly bore anything last year; these ones are not quite ready -- but they will be, soon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It almost makes you forget the turmoil and strife in our world. But the turmoil is man-made, and the solutions, so far, have just brought more turmoil.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And here we have these magnificent fruit crops, which are the product of that ages-old partnership between humans and God: a combined effort of what we need to do and what we leave to Him. (Isaiah 28:23-29 refers, in part, to that partnership.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There it is: God, revealing Himself in a beautiful way that is both understated and spectacular, that He is here, reaching out to us through the branches and bushes to give us the very best.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19.32px;">He's reminding us, too, that even in the face of all the things that worry us and cause us fear, don't despair. He's there, calling to us to turn to Him with all of our issues.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-20722182789924072016-07-12T08:45:00.001-07:002016-07-12T08:47:32.052-07:00Racism: Is "understanding" what it's about?The inter-racial strife we're seeing in the United States is bringing pleas for greater understanding. White people, the thinking goes, have to make a greater effort to understand black people and they're "experience", as a way of reducing racial tension.<br />
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That seems like a good idea, but is that a Biblical approach? What did Jesus tell us to do?<br />
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Was the "new commandment" He gave us in John 13:34 that we <i>understand </i>one another?<br />
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No: He calls us to <i>love </i>one another.<br />
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Understanding others is an unrealistic concept. How can I "understand" an entire race made up of individuals with individual experiences? Indeed, who says you can apply any one set of "understandable" attributes to a particular race?<br />
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Doesn't that lead to stereotyping, of a condescending, rather than hostile, kind? How do I "understand" someone, anyway? Do I Google "understand black people"? Do I plunge into a study of the history of everybody who Isn't Like Me and not emerge until I've got it down-pat?<br />
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What if I find I can't understand someone? What if I can't fathom abject poverty or persecution? Do I give up on the idea of racial harmony?<br />
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And how can I deal with the here-and-now if my nose is buried in history?<br />
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But <i>love </i>picks things up in the here-and-now and moves forward; it levels the playing field, which is exactly what Jesus wanats of us. It allows us to move past skin color and ethnic background to see people as the children of God that we are. We come to the revelation that, as Kenneth Copeland once said, there are only two races in God's eyes: those who know Him and those who don't.<br />
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Striving to understand another perspective only lasts as long as our energy and determination to keep learning. For some, that determination might do a fast fade as soon as someone in the group we're trying to understand says, "how can you ever understand what I've gone through?" On the other hand, love -- submitting ourselves to everyone else -- lasts forever and cannot fade.<br />
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Most importantly, <i>love </i>brings God's will onto a situation. We've tried to "understand" people and to legislate equality and niceness, both of which are man-made devices to address a situation that, deep down, we know is beyond our control. But God is standing by, waiting for us to call Him in, and the way to do that is to fall back on Jesus' New Commandment.<br />
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One more thing: Jesus warned us there'd be days like these. He told us, "because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold." [Matt. 24:12] We're seeing both happening now. The encouragement to draw from this is that seeing the predictions of 2,000 years ago and more coming to pass should be proof that God is alive and we should look to His word to find out what else is happening. For those of us who <i>do </i>know what else is going on because we've read the book, we know how to focus our efforts and attention -- and it's not on the things of this world.<br />
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But to my main point, ask yourself this:<br />
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Would you rather be loved or understood?<br />
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<br />Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-20474419415682094022015-12-22T08:14:00.001-08:002015-12-22T08:53:34.330-08:00Merry Christmas, 2015! (War is over)<b><i><br /></i></b>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2xOLoX-yZfc/Vnl2hAbTrtI/AAAAAAAAGF0/xRNFqx0xvzk/s1600/Dali%2B%2BChristmas%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2xOLoX-yZfc/Vnl2hAbTrtI/AAAAAAAAGF0/xRNFqx0xvzk/s400/Dali%2B%2BChristmas%2B1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><b><i>-- "The Nativity" -- Salvador Dali, 1959</i></b></td></tr>
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<b><i>And suddenly, there was with the Angel a multitude of the Heavenly Host, praising God, and saying, "</i></b><b><i>Glory to God in the highest! And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"</i></b></div>
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<b><i>-- Luke 2:14</i></b></div>
<b><i><br /></i></b>Recently, I was struck by something I'd puzzled about for many years: John Lennon's declaration that "War is over, if you want it".<br />
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The Angels' song, heard by the shepherds outside Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago, was actually a declaration of war: war on war, in fact, as only God can do it. With those two sentences, He changed the game, and with World War III blazing all around us, let's take a breath and contemplate that.<br />
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The movie <i>Miss Congeniality </i>spoofed a recurring theme in the hopes and dreams of beauty pageant contestants -- to work for "world peace". A friend of mine recently sent her own non-religious holiday greeting with the words <i>Pax in terra. </i>But if you parse the Angels' song, you actually find that "peace on earth" is just one of three interconnected ideas:<br />
<ol>
<li>Glory to God in the highest</li>
<li>On earth peace</li>
<li>Goodwill toward men</li>
</ol>
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I believe those three are not only interconnected, they're inseparable. We are to give the greatest glory to God -- glorify Him with our words, our actions and most importantly our love; and extend goodwill towards everybody, regardless of their declared Religion, background or past -- remembering that "goodwill" actually means God's Will, and His Will is for us to have more abundant life.</div>
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When we do that, we have peace on earth.</div>
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Can we have peace on earth <i style="font-weight: bold;">without </i>giving God the highest glory and extending His will towards people?</div>
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Have we even tried?</div>
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War is over, John sang, <b><i>if you want it.</i></b></div>
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As I contemplate that, I realize that God has done His part to end the war. He's given us an "out" through the Birth of His Son, that breaks us out of that vicious cycle that comes from the human desire to want "one last lick", but it's up to us to receive it. It's up to us to declare, "war is over".</div>
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This Christmas, and heading into 2016, I pray that we'll all reach out, in our way, to receive that amazing Gift the Lord has given us: the solution, that smashes the chains of our own human nature and the yoke that comes with it, and truly sets us free.</div>
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Merry Christmas, everybody!</div>
Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-9999739459843634682015-11-20T10:41:00.000-08:002015-11-20T10:41:07.739-08:00Jesus Warned Us There'd Be Days Like These ...<br />
Out here on the Left Coast, we've just come through some of the most ferocious storms in recent memory. On Southern Vancouver Island on Tuesday, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-storm-power-vancouver-victoria-ferries-1.3322975" target="_blank">we had winds touching hurricane force</a>, and caused the <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2015/11/governor_declares_state_of_eme.html" target="_blank">governor of Washington to declare a state of emergency</a> after at least three people were killed. Colorado, Kansas, Illinois have also been whacked with unusually strong storms.<br />
<br />
In the US, <a href="http://newsdaily.com/2015/11/el-nino-indicator-hits-record-high-adds-to-weather-risks-noaa/#66Jrxo8ZlqS6Mglr.99" target="_blank">NOAA is warning of more to come</a>, thanks to a really bad El Nino.<br />
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There's also another round of international negotiations and finger-pointing over climate change as more evidence mounts that big changes are happening.<br />
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On top of that, there are the terrorist attacks -- each day seems to bring some new report of inhumanity. I wrote <a href="http://veryconvenienttruth.blogspot.ca/2015/11/the-paris-attacks-can-we-try-something.html" target="_blank">in a post last week</a> about how Jesus warned us, nearly 2.000 years ago, that these things were coming. Today, I'm reminded that He also told us this:<br />
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<b>"... because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold."</b><br />
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The love of the homeless and impoverished in cities like Victoria and Vancouver has never been particularly warm (as I write this, an extreme weather alert -- for cold -- has been issued in Vancouver) and different levels of government are spending more time declaring the situation is another level's responsibility than doing something about it.<br />
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The response to the refugee situation is strikingly un-loving. Maybe even moreso, because of the hostility towards these millions of innocent people, trying to escape murderous situations in their home countries.<br />
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Countries that may have seemed like safe havens have blocked their entry, even for temporary asylum. (Read the Facebook posts from my friend, journalist Iayisha Khan, from Lesbos, Greece.) Indeed, a better word would be <i>refusees, </i>rather than <i>refugees. </i><br />
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In North America, the refusees have become a political football, with right-wing politicians -- many of whom profess to be God-fearing, church-going Christians -- declaring that because these people are presumed to be Muslims, then there are <i>bound </i>to be terrorists among them.<br />
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<i>A "selah" moment: </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Give me your tired, your poor,</i><br />
<i>Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free,</i><br />
<i>The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.</i><br />
<i>Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost, to me,</i><br />
<i>I lift my lamp beside the golden door."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>-- "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus -- the poem engraved on the Statue of Liberty</i><br />
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All this is not Doomspeak, by the way. Rather, it's to point out that these are wake-up calls -- symptoms that we need to change our focus, strengthen our relationship with God and endure to the end (Matt. 10:22), because what comes next is ... Jesus returns. As we do that, dealing with the symptoms -- like caring for the environment and caring for others -- follows as the night the day.<br />
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Many non-believers (and even some "liberal" Christians) tend to dismiss the Bible as an "ancient book" that's out of step with today's times. Consider what this "ancient book" has predicted about what's going down now: maybe it's not that out-of-step, after all.Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-10224735043185014822015-11-15T10:13:00.001-08:002015-11-16T13:02:33.457-08:00The Paris attacks: remember the antidote to fear<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">We cannot give in to fear following the terrorist attacks in Paris.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Since Friday, there's been talk of tightening borders, turning away refugees on the outside chance that there's a terrorist among them, continuing the bombings on IS sites and "war", in general.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">In Canada, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">there are already “I told you so’s” coming out of the political and journalistic
circles in Canada about our new prime minister’s campaign promise to withdraw
from the anti-IS coalition.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">On Twitter yesterday, someone asked rhetorically why we're concerned about France when we "don't give a rat's butt" about what's happening in Africa.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Actually, that assumes that people <i>don't </i>care about what's happening in Africa, and it totally misses the overall point here.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">"Caring" about "what's happening in Africa" implies that the name of the game is to fight Islam and, essentially, hate Muslims.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">But that's not the name of the game. This is not about hating anyone -- there's already enough hatred going on, so to hate someone in return is to return evil for evil.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">The Paris attacks are particularly poignant for people in the First World because they remind us that they can happen in our back yard, and aside from the thousands of people whose lives have been turned upside-down and inside-out by the carnage on Friday, millions more (billions, perhaps?) are walking in fear that they could be next. And that just magnifies the impact of the initial attacks.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">What's more, people are afraid that, because intelligence, vigilance, military action and even peaceful, tolerant "outreach" towards other groups has not worked, they are totally powerless in the situation. And that's FEAR.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Forget the A-bomb and the H-bomb: one F-bomb can spread destruction all over the world.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">(I know "F-bomb" generally refers to a word that's been increasing in social acceptance lately, but we're going to appropriate the term for these purposes.)</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">And what's the antidote to fear? If we keep that in mind, we'll realize that we have more power over this situation than we could ever imagine.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><i>"... there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love." <b>1 John 4:18</b></i></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Combating fear does not mean strapping on a bulletproof vest and toting a sub-machine gun wherever you go. It means extending love to our enemies -- and given that the "enemies" turned out to be people walking among everyone else in Paris, that means, extending love to </span><i style="line-height: 18.4px;">everyone -- </i><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">just in case. </span><i><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">("Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels." <b>Hebrews 13:2</b>)</span></i><br />
<i><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Because, you see, this is a spiritual war. </span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">The IS communiqué after the Paris attacks closes with “Allahu Akbar!”, and the terrorists are all described as Islamists. This means that, whatever scriptural grounds they have or don’t have for killing people, they believe they have a license to kill, and this license comes from On High. </span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Worldly weapons have no real power against that. All they'll do is kill the people you can see, but others with the same spiritual mindset will come along, as we've seen ever since 9/11. The prediction by </span><a href="http://veryconvenienttruth.blogspot.ca/2014/10/the-elephant-in-room-revisited.html" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">British MP George Galloway, </a><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">that if we were to take out Osama bin Laden today, 10,000 more would rise up tomorrow, was never more </span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The Apostle Paul writes that “we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.” (Eph. 6:12) He also writes, “the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong
holds.” (2 Cor. 10:4)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This means
turning (back) to God; not trying to do things in our own strength and wisdom;
forgiving our enemies – especially our enemies – and loving all,
unconditionally, as God loves us. The effect of that is guaranteed in the Word
of God to break out of the pattern of you-hit-me-I-hit-you-back that
perpetuates the carnage and misery. It means praying and connecting with God
through His Word, so that we’re aware of where danger lurks and wise as to what
to do about it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(It also
means you don’t “lead with your face” by going out of your way to insult
someone else’s religion, even in the name of free speech. Jesus says we’re to
be wise as serpents and <i>harmless as
doves.)</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">The beauty of this approach is that it engages each and every one of us in this spiritual war. We don’t have to rely on the military, espionage and counter-espionage, or politicians of any stripe. What's more, the Word of God also <i>guarantees </i>victory and (this just in) we're no closer to victory now than we were 60 years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">How can we believe that the Bible holds the answers? Because it’s already told us it would happen. Jesus warned us we would see wars and rumours of wars – and what is terrorism but a “rumour of war”? But in the same talk with His disciples, He also says that “he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved” (Matt. 24:3-14)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">On a spiritual level, this de-fangs the enemy. Terrorism thrives on striking fear into people's hearts, and heaven knows, it's working. But the antidote to fear is love. The Apostle John writes, (1 John 4:18)</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Hmm ... "He that fears is not made perfect in love." Do you catch the nuance there? Even though we may be the ones being terrorized, hated, attacked, and even killed, <i>the onus is on us to love and forgive. </i>But that also means we have the power to overcome terrorism -- by refusing to walk in fear, and refusing to be afraid to love.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yes, I know
some will say this sounds simplistic and weak-kneed, but we have to ask
ourselves, How is the current approach working so far?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-23770088641489814662015-08-22T07:00:00.000-07:002015-08-23T06:44:35.475-07:00Humans as "Super-Predators"? There's a Commandment for that!A couple of University of Victoria researchers are about to <a href="http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/super-predator-humans-harming-ourselves-uvic-study-1.2037292" target="_blank">publish a study on humans as "super-predators". </a> It's an extension of something people have talked about for a long time: over-fishing, over-hunting and over-using our resources in all ways.<br />
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The study acknowledges that, on the one hand, hunting at a rate greater than that of lower animals -- who tend only to take only what they need for themselves or their immediate group -- is necessary, because not everybody hunts or fishes. But we tend to over-do it, and that's led to extinctions and threatening of species, not to mention deforestation and its effects, for the sake of creating more pasture land for livestock. Throw climate change into the mix, and it's a recipe for catastrophe.<br />
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Just in case we didn't have anything more to worry about.<br />
<br />
In my book, <i><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/131911" target="_blank">A Very Convenient Truth, or, Jesus Warned Us There'd Be Days Like These, So Stop Worrying About the Planet and Get With His Program!</a>, </i>I point out that humans were actually placed on earth to "have dominion ... replenish the earth and subdue it." Over-use of any resource, including the animals who were given to us for food, leads to environmental trauma.<br />
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What's interesting, though, is that the authors of the study refer to human behaviour as "unnatural", as if humans are <i>supposed </i>to be just like animals. But we're not: we're <i>different:</i> in fact, Scripture tells us, we are created on a higher level so that we can care for and nurture creation, and enjoy it at the same time.<br />
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(Indeed, I'd suggest that the way any animal or human behaves is not <i>natural </i>but <i>creational: </i>according to the way God made us all; but that's for another time.)<br />
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But because we tend to over-do things and respond to animal instincts, God gave us His Commandments to point us in the right direction. You'll find those instructions throughout the Old Testament (particularly in Leviticus), including the proper use of land and the way to kill for food. Those instructions usually require faith -- the knowledge that God will reward our obedience by providing for us what we need*. Stepping away from that obedience leaves us without His protection, and while we might get a short-term fix for our needs, we lose out in the long run. Indeed, we see the results every day, as the UVic researchers have pointed out.<br />
<br />
The authors of the study suggest that humans could learn a lot from lower animals when it comes to killing animals for food, but we have to remember that a lot of people who eat meat are not the ones who kill it. So where's the happy medium between necessity and overkill?<br />
<br />
The Word of God, as I say, provides the instructions we need. Remember that the Word was given to us long before there was any idea that over-fishing or over-hunting would ever be an issue. Yet God saw it coming, and gave us His Commandments to save us from that.<br />
<br />
But while the answer to this super-predator situation implied by the UVic researchers appears to involve nothing more drastic than a complete re-set of the thinking and behaviour of our entire species, the beauty of our relationship with God is that He has provided us with an "out" -- one that does not rely on someone else taking the lead. In Christ, each of us, individually, can repent for the sin of failing to follow those Commandments, turn back to Him and re-start with a clean slate. Indeed (and here's the basis for my book), He promised long before Jesus came that if people repent and turn back to Him, "I will heal the land".<br />
<br />
---<br />
<i>*I should point out that what God knows that we need is significantly different from what we think we need: it's usually more, so that when our "cup runneth over", it spilleth onto others. "Blessed to be a blessing," and all that.</i>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-35015037027997259072015-08-05T14:51:00.000-07:002015-08-06T11:46:53.654-07:00"Just too big for humanity?" You better believe it!<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">“It’s easy to be cynical, and to say climate change is a kind of challenge just too big for humanity to solve. I’m absolutely convinced that’s wrong.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">-- US President Barack Obama</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">I don't know about you, but I've never really thought that the cynics' response to climate change was to say it was "too big" to handle. As I've seen it, cynics question whether climate change is actually happening, or that if it is, it's caused by human beings. But as he rolled out his <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/opinion/obama-takes-a-crucial-step-on-climate-change.html?_r=0" target="_blank">climate change action plan</a>, the President made his dramatic statement. It's a dynamic statement, to be sure, ranking with Franklin Roosevelt's "the one thing we have to fear is fear itself". But while FDR's aphorism still rings true today, to say that climate change is too big for humanity to solve is not only un-cynical, it's Biblical.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">As I point out in my book, <i><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/131911" target="_blank">A Very Convenient Truth, or, Jesus Told Us There'd Be Days Like These, So Stop Worrying About the Planet and Get With His Program!,</a> </i>we're seeing events today that were foretold 2,000 years ago and more. Some of them could be attributed to climate change and some not. The whole end-times plan of God is to bring change of all sorts, so it's worthwhile to hit "pause" and see if we really want to be fighting these changes, or whether that will put us on the wrong side of God.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">There's no question we've been messing up the planet, big-time. Regardless of what the climate-change deniers say, we've been placed in Creation to be its lords; to care for it, nurture it, and "replenish the earth and subdue it." The environmental troubles we're experiencing now come from our using the earth beyond our ability to replenish it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">The trouble is, we've been doing that to God's Creation for thousands upon thousands of years, and the President's plan presumes to un-do that in 15 years I'm afraid it's true: this is beyond humanity's ability to solve -- <i>on our own. </i>We need to turn to God for help, wisdom -- and a whole lot more. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">In reading through the President's speech and the accompanying background material from the White House Press Office, I see claims about numbers of lives saved, jobs created, money not spent on health care, but those are all debatable. What's more, the alternative energy it proposes is natural gas: have a look at the two excellent HBO documentaries, "Gasland" and "Gasland 2", and decide whether that's an appropriate alternative.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">Even more unsettling is that Press Office Backgrounder includes a number of "Progress" reports, but all of these are reports on laws passed and regulations instituted over the years. To my mind, that's policy, not progress; "progress" should mean tangible benefits, results from the efforts taken to date -- particularly since the first Earth Day in 1970 -- that indicate that those efforts are bearing fruit. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">Two more things to keep in mind here. One is that, while FDR said, "the one thing we have to fear is fear itself", climate change policy is about nothing <i>but </i>fear: <b>fear </b>of rising ocean levels; <b>fear </b>of drought; <b>fear </b>of violent storms; <b>fear </b>about possible extinction of species. Fear is not of God; a policy based in fear is not going to have God's blessing.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">That's why, when Jesus tells about these very events and even says "these are the beginning of sorrows", He quickly adds that, "he who endures to the end shall be saved." (Matthew 10:22) That's why Psalm 91 says, "only with your eyes will you look and see the reward of the wicked" (Psalm 91:8). We're warned about these things not so that we'll be terrified and try to fight the events -- we're warned so that we'll be prepared and know that God is at work and so long as we stay close to Him, we'll know what to do about it. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">Yes, climate change is cause for concern: it is a wakeup call for us to clean up our environmental act, but not out of some desire to halt or reverse that process, but out of obedience to and love for God. He gave us this wonderful Creation and He gave us an assignment to be its caretakers. He also gave us specific instructions on how to take care of it -- we are not left to figure things out for ourselves.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">But more than that, climate change is one of many signs that God is on the move and we need to turn to Him, read His Word and find out what we are to do about it. That's something anyone can do, without pointing fingers, judging your neighbor, waiting for governments and corporations to come onside or (you gotta love this one) spending a whole lot of money.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">The Word of God is anything but Doomspeak. It's all about hope and definite promises. Take note, for example, of the number of times the word "shall" appears in connection with the results of our following God's will. But (and here I go again with this one!) what could be more compelling than the promise the Lord gives King Solomon in 2 Chronicles:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><i>If I shut up Heaven that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the earth, or if I send pestilence among My people; if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land. </i>(2 Chron. 7:13-14)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;">A better climate change policy would be very hard to find.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-49513865434124188042015-07-20T12:39:00.000-07:002015-07-20T12:51:28.317-07:00A Day on the Farm<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KcYgwkDabco/Va1FzuKApqI/AAAAAAAAF4Q/Yw2oeGFXowk/s1600/SOOKE%2BLOCATOR.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="217" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KcYgwkDabco/Va1FzuKApqI/AAAAAAAAF4Q/Yw2oeGFXowk/s400/SOOKE%2BLOCATOR.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>Victoria is the "bare" spot to the right; Sooke is towards the bottom left</em></strong></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My wife, Amelia, and I spent this past Sunday volunteering at the <strong>Sooke Farm and Food Garden</strong><br />
<strong>Tour</strong>. This is a semi-annual event, where the small, usually organic, agriculture operations in the Sooke Region (about 20 miles west of Victoria) throw open their gates and let the public in and learn as much as they can about growing food. (You can learn more about the tour and about Sooke's local farmers on the Sooke Food CHI website -- <a href="http://www.sookefoodchi.ca/">www.sookefoodchi.ca</a>: CHI stands for "Community Health Initiative" and is pronounced "chee".)<br />
<br />
We greeted people at the ALM Organic Farm, and handing out maps containing their "mission statement". That statement includes a commitment to "live lightly on the land."<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DY2JV2VTiYQ/Va1Iklqo8BI/AAAAAAAAF4Y/ZJY5JXQZcCY/s1600/SOOKE%2BFARM%2BTOUR%2B2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DY2JV2VTiYQ/Va1Iklqo8BI/AAAAAAAAF4Y/ZJY5JXQZcCY/s400/SOOKE%2BFARM%2BTOUR%2B2015.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>Nearly 200 people visited ALM Organic Farm </strong></em><br />
<em><strong>on this blazing-hot Sunday</strong></em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It reminded me of the Biblical commandments about land use: "replenish the earth and subdue it" (Gen. 1:28), which I take to mean that we're not to take from the earth more than we're able to put back; and the Land Sabbath mandated in Leviticus -- that we're to work the land for six years, then not touch it for one year (and in that sixth year, the land will produce enough to carry you through to harvest time in the first year of the next seven-year cycle).<br />
<br />
I saw that some portions of ALM farm were lying fallow, so I asked Marika, one of the workers, how much of the land they leave fallow and for how long. She replied that they try to leave 25% of the land fallow for two years, then work it for 5 while another portion rests. That doesn't just rest the land, you understand: it also reduces the demand for water, which has turned out to be a big deal here on the not-so-Wet Coast.<br />
<br />
Through all that, I couldn't help thinking how close that was to the Land Sabbath, and that got me thinking some more: in Chapter 7 of my book, <em><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/131911" target="_blank">A Very Convenient Truth, or, Jesus Told Us There'd be Days Like These, so Stop Worrying About the Planet and Get With His Program!,</a> </em>I pose the question, How do we observe a land Sabbath in an urban environment?<br />
<br />
One suggestion is to reduce one's food purchase -- and therefore, the demand on the land -- by one-seventh, thereby reducing the demand on the land by that much. But another way, that occurred to me as I greeted the people, is to patronize small farms like ALM and farmers' markets, whenever possible. These are people who understand the give-and-take nature of food production and supporting their operations and their practices will, by extension, be your way of ensuring the land gets regular rest.<br />
<br />
Of course, not all places are handy to small farms or farmers' markets: these people have little choice but to purchase from the larger operations. But supporting the small farms where possible will reduce demand on the larger operations, which will, in turn, reduce their demands on the land and should also, theoretically, reduce prices.<br />
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I suggest doing this prayerfully, asking the Lord to bless the farmers you patronize. That way, you're doing it for the glory of the Lord (as opposed to doing it to show off how environmentally aware you are), and you're ensuring that the promise of the Land Sabbath will be fulfilled.<br />
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One final thing: do you notice how, in Genesis 1:28, "replenish the earth" comes <em>before we subdue it</em>? Making sure we can replenish what we take out of the land has to be topmost in our minds, coming before satisfying our needs.<br />
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The world's focus has been on climate change for nearly a quarter-century, but that focus is way too narrow for the changes we see around us. We need to be more mindful of the way we're treating Creation as a whole, but we also have to be aware that the changes we see are not a sign of man's destructiveness so much as they are a reminder that God is always on the move.Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-83716129949917018042015-06-18T08:21:00.000-07:002015-06-18T08:21:10.997-07:00Environmental Change: The Pope Speaks - others react - but are we missing the point?The Pope's <a href="http://ow.ly/Oul9h" target="_blank">encyclical on climate change</a> is stirring up a lot of reaction today. Some of it is, sadly, predictable: oil companies are fixing to lobby the Vatican ... Protestants in the climate-change-denial movement are telling the Pontiff to stick to religion and leave science to the scientists ... one critic has accused the Pope of being motivated by "megalomania" in getting on the climate change bandwagon ... <br />
<br />
But something is being lost in the rhetoric. We were told 2,000 years ago that this was going to happen. The environmental changes we're seeing now are a wakeup call, but not just "clean up our environmental act". Rather than try to “fight” climate change or reverse it, we have to re-focus on what the Bible tells us to do:<br />
<ul>
<li>Remember the First Great Assignment – “Be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it” and that we are to “tend the garden and keep it” – in other words, clean up our environmental act</li>
<li>Push past the vitriolic “debate” over climate change, which is totally inspired by the enemy to keep people at one another’s throats, and get on with the job of healing the sick, cleansing lepers, casting out demons and leading people to Christ</li>
<li>Remember what God tells Solomon:</li>
<ul>
<li><strong><em>"If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land"</em></strong> (2 Chronicles 7:14)</li>
</ul>
<li>Remember that, if we have committed sin by dropping the ball on the First Great Assignment (and we have!), Jesus’ Sacrifice on the Cross allows us to repent for that and change our ways. </li>
</ul>
It’s a pity that Environmental advocates tend not to be Believers; the Bible contains not just the commandments but the formula for acting that is needed to respond to environmental changes. Things like the Land Sabbath, tithing and declaring the Word of God over a situation (like Elisha at the waters of Jericho) can all be applied to an environmental situation, but have they really been tried? And more to the point, look at how well <em>not </em>trying them has worked out.<br />
<br />
Like Pilate, people trying to resolve environmental issues are crying out, “What is truth?” when, in fact, they’re staring the Truth right in the face. The solutions are right there, but for whatever reason, they don’t want to consider them.<br />
<br />
It’s important to note that, while many environmental scientists assert that human activity causes climate change, I have yet to hear any of them say that any kind of human counter-activity will actually stop it. A few years ago, I asked that question of a prominent expert on climate change, and his response very neatly sidestepped that point. God’s Word, however, promises without reservation that turning to Him will save the planet.<br />
<br />
If we allow this to fall into the realm of worldly science, we won't see the forest for the trees: there's too much room for debate as to the extent of the impact of human activity on climate change, or the extent of any action humans might do to mitigate it. The debate is too rancorous, too personal, too focused on "who's right" rather than "what's right" for it to be truly a God-centered discussion. We need to bring the discussion onto another turf with different rules, starting with the Word of God.<br />
<br />
I go into detail on this in "<a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/131911" target="_blank">A Very Convenient Truth -- or, Jesus Told Us There'd Be Days Like These, So Stop Worrying About the Planet and Get With His Program!"</a> It's an e-book, available in most online bookstores. It could give you a new perspective -- and new hope in the face of the Doomspeak that dominates the current discussion.Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-11856468496633060362015-06-04T13:10:00.001-07:002015-06-04T13:18:07.497-07:00How to Keep the Church Relevant - Suspicions ConfirmedA new report, <a href="http://www.premier.org.uk/News/UK/Report-links-social-action-to-church-growth?utm_source=Premier+Christian+Media&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=5777938_Daily+news+4+June&utm_content=social+action&dm_i=16DQ,3FUAA,61BMZE,CB6SX,1" target="_blank">cited by Premier Christian Radio in the UK</a>, shows a link between church health and its involvement in social action. It confirms something I've suspected for a long time: there's been a great deal of wailing and gnashing of teeth over how to make the church "relevant" in the 21st Century, and the sight of Christians, walking out the Great Commission <em>even when it's not convenient or comfortable, </em>is a great way of solving that issue.<br />
<br />
Somebody has to do it, after all, and if that "somebody" is glorifying Jesus in the process, that's what God wants -- both for the people being served and the non-believers, watching from the sidelines.<br />
<br />
The name of the game is to provide Hope and point people towards Jesus and the Kingdom now and in eternity, by whatever means possible. It's one thing to run a soup kitchen; quite another to remind people that Jesus died for them, too, as you hand them the meal or the change of clothing or set them up with showers as we do at The Lord's Rain and Gospel Mission. It's one thing to say, "Next!"; and quite another to say, "you don't have to keep living like this, and Jesus has given you a way out". Not everyone will receive the message, but it's up to us to keep delivering it.<br />
<br />
We have to remember, mind you, that Social Action does not necessarily mean "fighting for justice". Often, that's mistaken for <em>revenge, </em>and that's God's department. We need to remain in prayer, study the Word for the insights we need in how to approach a situation and, when in doubt, do it God's way. <br />
<br />
A few things are worth noting from the rankings in the survey. <br />
<ul>
<li><strong>helping the homeless</strong> has moved from #22 in 2012 to #1 last year, in terms of having an effect on church growth;</li>
<li><strong>caring for the elderly </strong>has gone from #8 to #3;</li>
<li><strong>helping the jobless </strong>has gone from #19 to #11; and</li>
<li><strong>relationship advice </strong>has moved from #27 to #12: could it be more people are looking to the church for answers?</li>
</ul>
What's also interesting is what isn't on the list. "Environmental Concerns" didn't even crack the top-16, and yet that's The First Great Assignment (see my book<em>, <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/131911" target="_blank">A Very Convenient Truth</a></em>). Also, there's no mention of churches' getting involved with substance abuse recovery -- another area where we should be involved, especially in urban ministry.<br />
<br />
All in all, the survey gives some good insight for churches looking to keep themselves -- and Jesus -- top-of-mind. Get involved with people, don't get weary or discouraged ... and they'll get involved with you.<br />
<br />
<br />Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-40664339050064652262015-04-05T17:42:00.000-07:002015-04-05T17:42:50.225-07:00Why does the "Religious Right" continue to play into the enemy's hands?The latest <i>fuss du jour </i>in US politics is a law that some states are trying to bring in that would allow, as I understand it, a business to refuse to serve certain types of people on the basis of "religious freedom". OK ... I'll pound this home with a mallet: it would allow businesses like florists and bakeries to refuse to cater gay weddings.<br />
<br />
This, of course, has brought the predictable polemic on all sides of the equation, and sadly, it's one more notch on the enemy's rifle-butt. Because the "ambassadors of Christ" are once again allowing themselves to be portrayed as hate-mongers and people who quite possibly need Jesus are being driven away.<br />
<br />
What did Jesus tell us to do?<br />
<br />
Spread the Gospel.<br />
<br />
Love one another -- even the ones who disagree with you and may well hate you.<br />
<br />
Make disciples of all nations.<br />
<br />
DON'T YOU SEE THE OPPORTUNITY? If someone walks into your business and they evidently hold a world-view different from yours as a Christian, YOU HAVE A CAPTIVE AUDIENCE! Take the job, and while you have them there, witness to them about the glory of Jesus, God's love, and the miracles He's done in your life. Tell them what a sinner you were until you met Jesus. Give them one of those "Power in your Pocket" versions of the Book of John. Exude love and welcome and, above all, NO JUDGMENT.<br />
<br />
Maybe they'll walk out and not do business with some religious freakazoid. Maybe they'll nod politely and wait until you're finished. And maybe ... just maybe ... perhaps way off in the future ... they'll consider that Christian who didn't turn them away, but who cared enough to share his/her deeply held belief and the good news that was too good to keep to him/herself.<br />
<br />
To my mind, that is the true nature of "religious freedom" -- not a defence, but a powerful weapon of attack: the bright light that darkness cannot overcome.Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-77985804981320198452015-04-04T09:20:00.000-07:002015-04-04T09:24:39.135-07:00It's Friday ... but Sunday's comin'!Gotta share this ...<br />
<br />
It's nicked from a weekly letter John Fischer sends to his member/partners, of which I am one, and it was nicked from a famous sermon by Tony Campolo, who based (not nicked) it on a sermon by an old black minister at Mount Carmel Baptist Church.<br />
<br />
(If you don't read <a href="https://catchjohnfischer.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">John's daily postings on "The Catch"</a>, I really recommend subscribing or at least having a look.<br />
<br />
This is John's writing, as he paraphrases and gets to the meat of the message. Read this, and get ready to start jumpin'!<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px;">In celebration of our yet to be answered prayers and as we face into Friday … let’s listen to what the real black minister from the Mount Carmel Baptist Church has to say to you and me as we enter into the drama of God’s salvation. </span><br />
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It is Friday, and you and I are acutely aware of the darkness of the cross and of all human suffering. But the power of God is pulling us<i>through</i> suffering into glory. We know in our bones that <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060170" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> is not the last word, not the last day.</div>
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The old, grey-haired black minister starts out softly and it is a simple sermon—with only one line. For half an hour he preaches that line over and over. For a half of an hour he stands us on our ear with just one line: “It’s <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060172" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span>, but … <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060178" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday’s</span></span> comin’!” </div>
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In a whisper he begins, “It’s <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060174" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span>; it was <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060175" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> and my Jesus was dead on the tree. But that was <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060176" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span>, and <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060182" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday’s</span></span> comin’!</div>
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Picking up the volume just a bit, he says, “It was <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060177" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span>. The cynics were lookin’ at the world and sayin’, ‘As things have been so they shall be. You can’t change anything in this world; you can’t change anything.’ But those cynics didn’t know it was only <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060179" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span>….but<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060185" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday’s</span></span> comin’!”</div>
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“It was <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060180" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span>! he begins to bellow. And <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060187" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Friday</span></span> those forces that oppress the poor and make the poor to suffer were in control. But that was <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060183" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span>! … <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060189" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday’s</span></span> comin’!”</div>
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Now the old preacher is shouting, “It was <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060184" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span>, and <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060191" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Friday</span></span> Pilate thought he had washed his hands of a lot of trouble. The Pharisees were struttin’ around, laughin’ and pokin’ each other in the ribs. They thought they were back in charge of things, but they didn’t know it was only Friday! … <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060193" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday’s</span></span> comin’!”</div>
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As he ends his message, he just tips his head back and yells, “IT’S <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060194" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">FRIDAY</span></span>!” </div>
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And all of us within this prayer ministry yell as one, “BUT <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1991060195" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">SUNDAY’S</span></span> COMIN’!”</div>
Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-88869511385596309292015-03-12T08:50:00.000-07:002015-03-12T08:50:25.360-07:00TransLink rant-2 -- Public health and the "idea" of TransLink An excellent <a href="http://veryconvenienttruth.blogspot.ca/2015/03/translink-untold-story.html" target="_blank">article in the Victoria Times-Colonist</a> offers another reason to approve funding for transportation improvements in Metro Vancouver. I'd touched on the topic of public health in my previous post (<a href="http://veryconvenienttruth.blogspot.ca/2015/03/translink-untold-story.html" target="_blank">see previous post</a>), but this report (which doesn't mention TransLink at all) goes into it in great detail.<br />
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<b>The award for Dumbest Comment So Far </b>in the non-debate over the TransLink referendum goes to the chap who wrote a comment on Facebook that supporters of the "Yes" side should "prove to me that a No vote means No Transit Improvements". Well, I can't say there will be <i>no </i>transit improvements, but the things Metro Vancouver needs in order to maintain livability require a major cash infusion, otherwise, they would have been done by now and TransLink wouldn't have been in "Service Optimization Mode" for the past 4 years. <br />
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Sadly, it appears that the "No" side is firmly entrenched in its view: that TransLink is evil in and of itself, is poorly managed and wastes money. Well, as I've mentioned before, Dominion Bond Rating Service would not give a AA bond rating, and bond-market managers would not invest over half a billion dollars in a poorly-managed organization. And you can look at BC Ferries and BC Hydro if you want real examples of wasting money. In the meantime, TransLink has been audited over and over, deficiencies identified and dealt with, and the belt has been tightened so much, the organization was suffering constriction of the spine when I left it just over 2 years ago.<br />
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Is TransLink evil? Far from it. The "idea" of TransLink is that, in a region as vast and varied as Metro Vancouver -- from the flatland of the Aldergrove to the mountains of the North Shore, with people needing to commute to and from Downtown Vancouver and more and more people staying within their sub-regions -- like the South of Fraser Area -- to live and work, public transportation needs to be integrated and mesh together. Major roads and bridges, pedestrian and cycling amenities, need to be part of that mix, too. The objective? To maintain livability -- so coveted by those who live there -- and to reduce mankind's impact on the environment, not just in the immediate area, but in surrounding regions and ultimately on the earth.<br />
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As I point out in my book, <i>A Very Convenient Truth -- or, Jesus Told Us There'd Be Days Like These, so Stop Worrying About the Planet and Get With His Program!*, </i>that is exactly the role God calls humans to perform. We are to be the caretakers, the custodians of His Creation, to "replenish the earth and subdue it" -- i.e. to enjoy what He has given us, but to make sure that our enjoyment does not overpower our ability to replenish.<br />
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The "idea" of TransLink is part of that calling. Maybe that's why it's come under such bizarre and often self-serving attack over the years.<br />
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*<i>Available as an e-book through <a href="http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/home/books/a-very-convenient-truth-or/9781465855701-item.html?ikwid=very%20convenient%20truth&ikwsec=Home&gcs_requestid=0CJjqreHrpLcCFYN85wodRXoAAA" target="_blank">Chapters</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-very-convenient-truth-or-jesus-told-us-thered-be-days-like-these-so-stop-worrying-about-the-planet-and-get-with-his-program-drew-snider/1120863949?ean=2940033046386&isbn=2940033046386" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a>, <a href="http://www.paperplus.co.nz/book/a-very-convenient-truth-or-jesus-warned-us-thered-be-days-like-these-so-stop-worrying-about-the-planet-and-get-with-his-program-9781465855701" target="_blank">PaperPlus</a> (in New Zealand), among others.</i>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-6626196921464865952015-03-03T08:17:00.001-08:002015-03-09T08:19:55.288-07:00TRANSLINK – AN UNTOLD STORY<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><i>First, full disclosure: I’m no longer employed by TransLink – haven’t been for the past two years, 1 month, 2 days and 23 hours and 51 minutes, as of this writing (not that I’m keeping track). TransLink took care of me when I was let go, but aside from that and the fact they helped feed my children and a whole lot of people on the Downtown East Side during that time*; I still believe in what the organization stands for and I have a lot of friends there, who have been working really hard to maintain the region's transportation system -- and, by extension, its livability. Other than that, I have no skin in this game.</i></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">The Sunday before last, I had to take the first ferry to Victoria – leaving Tsawwassen at 7am – so I got up at 4:30, caught the Canada Line SkyTrain at 5:15 and made it to Bridgeport Station in plenty of time to catch the #620 Tsawwassen Ferry bus. Had I missed one train, there would have been another six to 10 minutes later.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Less than 10 years ago, when I had to visit my father in Victoria, I would have had to catch the 98 B-Line from Granville and Broadway in order to connect with the #620 in Richmond. If I missed that one trip of the 98 B-Line, I was hooped: at that time of the morning, the next 98 B-Line bus would be 15 to 20 minutes later, and I would have missed that connection in Richmond. There was another time when I waited in vain for the one bus from downtown that would have connected me with the #620 at Ladner Exchange, because that one trip had been cancelled – probably a mechanical problem; there was no spare bus available and no way of communicating the cancellation to customers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">My point? First, that TransLink service has expanded to the point where we take it for granted that public transit will get us to where we need to go, pretty much any time we need to go there; second, in the couple of years before I left TransLink, some of the services people were taking for granted were </span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">already</span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> getting clawed back, as the budget tightened: one should think, then, about what the region might look like if the referendum is defeated.</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">And that's something that's been lost in this debate over the upcoming referendum on transportation improvements for the region. People against the tax increase have been portraying it as a referendum on TransLink itself -- its governance structure, in particular -- as if a "no" vote will mean the organization will get blown to bits.</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">It won't. A "no" vote will mean needed transportation improvements for the region will not happen. End of discussion. The vaunted livability of our region is at stake, but the "no" side -- with a BIG assist from many commentators, chasing the low-hanging fruit -- has reduced the polemic to the sheep's chant in George Orwell's <i>Animal Farm:</i> "Four legs good! Two legs bad!"</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;">Am I "blaming the media"? Well, you do the math: recently, a Vancouver Sun columnist wrote that “TransLink can’t get the
message right” (in the headline) and then cited the fact that the
Dominion Bond Rating Service had confirmed TransLink’s “AA” bond rating; the implication was that TransLink didn’t publicize a "good news" story that could have helped its cause.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In fact, the information was sent out from TransLink: <span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">in July 2012, I wrote and issued a</span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> </span><a href="http://www.translink.ca/en/About-Us/Media/2012/July/TransLink-Credit-Rating-Remains-AA.aspx" style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;" target="_blank"><b>news release about the DBRS</b></a><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">bond rating; the release also noted that TransLink had raised a total of $500 million in long and ultra-long bond issues in 2010, 2011 and 2012.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">As far as I remember</span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">, and a Google search appears to back that up</span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">, there was no pickup by the media, except for the web publication, VancityBuzz.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;">What’s more, DBRS itself issued a news release last fall, re-confirming that credit rating. Again, a Google search turned up no media pickup, even though newsrooms must get DBRS releases, because if a government – say, the government of British Columbia or the City of Vancouver – gets a downgrade from DBRS, the media are all over it like a fat kid on a Smartie.</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;">But a "good news" story from TransLink, handed on a silver platter appeared to stall at assignment desks around Metro Vancouver.</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;">One of the claims by the "no" side is that TransLink is fiscally irresponsible. I doubt that a bond-rating service would give high grades to a "fiscally irresponsible" agency or that bond-market investors would trust their clients' funds to one, either.</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">It's worth noting that the DBRS assessment also cited TransLink’s governance structure as one of the reasons for its positive assessment. Evidently, DBRS sees something positive about a billion-plus-dollar organization being run by an apolitical board whose mandate is to act in the best interests of the regional transportation system as a whole. You might want to r<span style="line-height: normal;">ead </span>the description of<b> <a href="http://www.translink.ca/en/About-Us/Governance-and-Board/Governance-Model.aspx" target="_blank">what’s required of the directors</a>.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">The "no" forces have also been very keen to point out that public money is being used to promote the "yes" side in the referendum. Former Vancouver City Councillor Peter Ladner (my former editor at </span><i style="line-height: 107%;">Monday </i><span style="line-height: 107%;">Magazine, by the way) wrote a very eloquent rebuttal to that, which I'll quote here (with his permission):</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">"The mayors' council is using public money-- apparently $4 million. My response is if the overwhelming majority of elected officials at the regional and provincial level, all the medical health officers, all the planners and most municipal councils see a yes vote as vital for the region's economy, health, environment, livability and social equity, it's their responsibility to ensure a positive outcome. They didn't ask for a referendum. None of them like spending public money persuading people to pay more tax. But they're being forced to fight it. How could they justify </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">not</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> spending money on it if it's that important? Selling reasoned arguments is far more costly than tossing out juicy, glib, misleading sound bites to an overstretched media.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">"As for the Better Transit and Transportation Coalition, we have been spending only what money has been donated by organizations, corporations, individuals, unions, etc. Amounts still TBD as the funding is currently being raised."</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">One more thing: this referendum is horribly unnecessary. The people of Metro Vancouver have already spoken and said what they wanted for a regional transportation network and how they were prepared to pay for it. In 2009, TransLink held extensive public
consultation sessions, which included a table-top exercise in showing what services were available and what existing and potential funding options could be used. You can read about it on the <b><a href="http://www.translink.ca/-/media/Documents/plans_and_projects/10_year_plan/2010_10_year_plan/2010_10_year_plan_consultation/2010%2010%20Year%20Public%20Consultation%20Final%20Report.pdf#search=%22consultation%22" target="_blank">TransLink website</a> </b>or, if you don't feel like reading the whole report, check out the <b><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/ups-and-downs-on-the-road-to-transit-growth/article15231058/" target="_blank">column Gary Mason wrote in the <i>Globe and Mail</i></a> </b>when talk of a
referendum was bubbling up in 2013. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Another canard gets shot out of the sky -- the one about TransLink’s “wish list”, it’s actually the <i>people’s </i>wish list, and we need to
remember that.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;">More importantly, we need to think of traffic congestion, crowded buses and trains, at least one bridge that will no longer be safe to use, pollution (much of which gets blown into the Fraser Valley, affecting the health of the people there, not to mention much of our food supply).</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;">Those are the real stakes. You have to wonder why anyone would try to divert people's attention from that.</span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">*My earnings helped support the work
of Gospel Mission (not Union Gospel), where I was assistant pastor for a while;
my flexible work hours allowed me to deal with Mission business as it came up.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-30440604205824141552015-02-25T06:47:00.001-08:002015-03-09T07:36:14.576-07:00Murdered for an "old book"?Lately, I've heard some interesting statements about the Bible.<br />
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One "big-time" pastor, for example, has referred to it as "a bunch of 2,000-year-old letters". Someone else -- a professing Christian -- referred to the Old Testament as "a book of Jewish stories" that was made obsolete when Jesus came.<br />
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This morning, I woke up with an image in my head: the grainy screen-grab of yet another video from IS. This one showed about 20 Coptic Christians, kneeling in front of a row of black-clad IS hoodlums, each hoodlum holding his knife at the ready.<br />
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Also today, there is a report that over 250 more Christians have been kidnapped by IS in Syria, and other <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-missionary-worker-abducted-from-school-in-nigeria/" target="_blank">news reports </a>that an American missionary had been kidnapped in Nigeria.<br />
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In other words -- keeping this in focus -- thousands of people are dying for the sake of that "old book". But rather than get dragged into an argument with people, we need to remember what we're supposed to do, and that includes waiting for the Holy Spirit to give us the words we need if we have to defend our faith. Satan has been saying "Hath God said ...?" for thousands of years, and we can't allow ourselves the luxury of responding or else we'll be hopelessly side-tracked from the work we're supposed to do as Christians.<br />
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What this boils down to, in fact, is variations on the tired old theme the enemy has been using since the Garden, "hath God said ...?" The object is to sow doubt (Matt. 21:21) and make us lose our resolve to follow the Great Commission. If we can turn on one another and fight over what the Bible says or even whether it's the Word of God, so much the better.<br />
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After all, the outright promotion of atheism is one thing, but we're seeing cases in which people with lots of followers are being outed as lukewarm Christians, as Jesus chastises in Revelation 3:15-19.<br />
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But consider Nehemiah 6:9, with the enemies of the Jews trying to subvert the rebuilding of Jerusalem: "... all were trying to make us afraid, saying, 'Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.' Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands."<br />
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That's where we're at now: the enemy is trying to make us afraid and is confident that we'll be weakened as we continue to promote the Gospel in the face of the ongoing assault on the Word. But we can't overpower that ourselves: we need to call on God to strengthen our hands in this work.<br />
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And it's written that this resolve brings results: "And it happened, when all our enemies heard of it [that the wall had been rebuilt in 52 days], and all the nations around us saw these things, that <i><b>they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.</b>" </i>(Emphasis mine.)<br />
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So we need to hang in there. Keep focused. Don't lose our resolve to spread the Gospel, heal the sick, bind the brokenhearted, love our enemies (<i>especially </i>love our enemies) and remember that the Word has always been and always will be. And part of the payoff is this: when we persevere and our own "wall building" project is complete, the naysayers, the lukewarm ones, will see that the work is done by our God, and -- who knows? -- they'll embrace the Truth, themselves.<br />
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We need to keep pressing forward, not listening to the barking cur of doubt, but praying with all supplication for the saints (Eph. 6:18), that is, both those who dismiss the Word of God and the people overseas being kidnapped, tortured and killed for its sake. We need to focus on spreading the Gospel, and most importantly, <i>living </i>the Gospel, so that people will see our good works and glorify God (Matt. 5:16).Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-52519905802661740622015-01-16T09:14:00.000-08:002015-01-16T09:14:02.033-08:00Leaving room for God<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's an expression used in an HBO film about Albert Einstein that came out last year: the notion that in his calculations on the workings of the universe, Sir Isaac Newton allowed for the possibility that God was at work and that we can never come up with any exact answers. The film's premise was that Einstein actually did come up with a precise calculation and -- although it wasn't stated in as many words -- we didn't have to look to God for answers anymore.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The premise of my book, <i>A Very Convenient Truth - or, Jesus Told Us There'd Be Days Like These, So Stop Worrying About the Planet and Get With His Program!, </i>is that, for all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the current state of the environment, the Bible provides us with some definite solutions. In it, we can see how we've been sinning by our treatment of God's creation, can repent and be redeemed through Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross, and that if we turn back to God, He promises to heal the land. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book also posits that what we are seeing now has been prophesied as preceding Jesus' return, although that's not an excuse to sit back and "let things happen": we have a job to do -- which is also distinctly spelled out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sadly, so much of our world today refuses to "leave room for God". Indeed, I've heard some professing Christians state that Jesus made the Old Testament, where the specific instructions -- like tithing and the Land Sabbath -- can be found, irrelevant.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't agree with that, but that's a discussion for another time. I was reminded, however, of a statement by one scientist/explorer/naturalist who most definitely left room for God in his thinking: Thor Heyerdahl.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2000, Heyerdahl was speaking at a conference in Victoria, which I covered for the radio station where I was working at the time. The quote that stood out for me was, "science has even come up with its own interpretation of God: the 'Big Bang'."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, recall that Heyerdahl's entire life was devoted to drawing attention to the way we've been treating the Earth -- God's magnificent Creation that He entrusted us to manage and nurture. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His inference was pretty clear to me: scientific theories try to replace God and make Him irrelevant, and we do that at our peril; because by declaring that the earth, the universe and all that's in them to be the result of a series of random events that just happened to come together in the right place at the right time, we're taking away the notion of <i>accountability</i>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It wasn't the only time Heyerdahl had raised the issue of accountability to God. In his memoir, <i>In the Footsteps of Adam, </i>Heyerdahl says, "there <span style="background-color: white;">still had to be superhuman and supernatural powers to trigger such a conflagration, not least to create order out of ensuing chaos ... [and] the heat from the Big Bang would have been so extreme that an act of creation would have been required to make life on earth afterwards." </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can we really, individually or collectively, hold ourselves accountable to humans like David Suzuki, or Al Gore, or accords drawn up in Rio, Copenhagen or Kyoto? I know I can't. But eventually, I'll have to face the Big Sir and answer for what I've done in my life, including the things I've done to use His handiwork beyond my ability to replenish it (Genesis 1:28).<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The challenge, as I see it, is for people in the environmental movement, many of whom reject the Bible as the Word of God and unquestioningly refer to God-denying concepts like evolution and adaptation, to consider even the remote possibility that the solutions that they seek and the comfort that they desire about the state of our planet are handed to them on a silver platter in those 66 books.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">===</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>A Very Convenient Truth </i>is available as an e-book through most online bookstores, including <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/a-very-convenient-truth-or-jesus-told-us-there-d-be-days-like-these-so-stop-worrying-about-the-planet-and-get-with-his-program" target="_blank">Chapters/Indigo</a>, <a href="http://www.inktera.com/store/title/7c3674e9-b315-439c-823b-c6075abd7a63" target="_blank">Inktera</a> and <a href="http://www.paperplus.co.nz/book/a-very-convenient-truth-or-jesus-warned-us-thered-be-days-like-these-so-stop-worrying-about-the-planet-and-get-with-his-program-9781465855701" target="_blank">PaperPlus</a>.</span></div>
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Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-8967966778171314302015-01-13T12:25:00.001-08:002015-01-13T12:45:14.445-08:00The right to speak: the responsibility to not offend<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Globe and Mail has been under fire in the past couple
of days for its <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/editorials/we-honour-charlie-hebdo-but-we-dont-want-to-be-it/article22388259/">editorial
explaining why it has refused to re-print the cartoons</a> that apparently led
to the massacre in Charlie Hebdo’s offices last week. Commenters both on the
website and elsewhere have accused the Globe’s editors of being “cowardly” and
knuckling under to bullies and terrorists. Some (and it’s interesting how many
of these people hide behind pseudonyms on the internet) have stated, darkly,
that they hope the Globe editors remember their own words if someone writes
something offensive to Christians or Jews.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Frankly, the Globe and Mail frequently prints articles and
opinion pieces that Christians might find offensive, so perhaps this current
controversy will give the editors pause to consider. But that’s not my point.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">First off, I </span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">don't</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> think it’s cowardly to decline to
re-print another publication’s material, after several of its employees got
killed because of it: fanatics tend to be guilt-by-association types, and if
the Globe had decided to re-publish those cartoons, anyone associated with the
paper – even those who disagreed with that decision – might have become a
target.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But almost lost in the name-calling was a very salient
point: why bother offending someone for their beliefs? It’s been long
established that caricaturing the Prophet Mohammed is offensive to Muslims, SO
WHY DO IT?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Is this a freedom-of-speech issue? Yes, but only to a
point. With freedom of speech comes responsibility: the responsibility to be truthful
and the responsibility </span></span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">not to offend.</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">
That’s especially true when it comes to matters of one’s belief. </span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">I've</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> had my
beliefs attacked – some in subtle ways, that make me think that maybe </span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">I'm</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> just
hearing the other person wrong; some in not-so-subtle ways.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">I've</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> been asked, in an interview for a job in a radio
newsroom, if my Christian beliefs would color my news judgment (I had been in
and around broadcast journalism for over 35 years when I was asked that). I’ve
heard someone close to me mutter “oh, shit” when I declared that I believe the
Bible. And those are mild, compared to the offences other Christians suffer
(being beheaded by fanatics, for example), but they still hurt. And we are not
to inflict that same hurt on others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Indeed, Christians <i>legally
</i>have freedom of speech, but when we come to Christ, we willingly surrender
that right. It’s like the old joke about the Model T Ford: “you can have any
color you want, so long as it’s black”. As Christians, we can say whatever we
want, so long as it’s from the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul tells us, twice, not
to offend people. “Give none offence,” he says, “neither to the Jews, nor the
Gentiles, nor the Church of God” (1 Corinthians 10:32). Later, he says, “Giving
no offence in anything, that the Ministry be not blamed.” (2 Corinthians 6:3) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Paul also reminds us, “That we henceforth be no more
children … <i>but speaking the truth in love</i>,
may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head – even Christ.” (Eph.
4:14-15 – emphasis added)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Or, as <a href="http://www.jerrysavelle.org/">Jerry Savelle</a>
puts it, “If you can’t speak the Word of God, shut up!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Does it <i>really </i>work
to the general good to offend someone else? Or does it only serve to reinforce
the comfort of hating someone else? And is this <i>really </i>a hill to die on for freedom of the press, when so many
journalists in Latin America are murdered for reporting on drug cartels and
corruption, and those deaths barely rate a sentence? And as the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/12/-sp-boko-haram-attacks-nigeria-baga-ignored-media?CMP=share_btn_tw">Guardian
finely put it yesterday</a>, why do the deaths of a dozen people at a magazine
bring hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets, when the killing of
thousands in Nigeria got little attention?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Truth tends to offend people, anyway, as Jesus, Paul,
Peter, Stephen and a whole bunch of others can tell you first-hand. There’s no
use in exacerbating it by getting personal and going out of your way to offend.
This is why Jesus told us that, when we are called out for our faith in Him,
not to worry about what we might say, but to wait for the Holy Spirit to do the
talking through us and for us. That way, it </span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">doesn't</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> turn into an argument over
who’s right: it doesn’t get personal and people don’t get hurt.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-60045921437650749932014-10-13T15:40:00.000-07:002015-01-11T08:18:32.168-08:00The elephant in the room -- revisitedAs World War III develops, the words of George Galloway keep coming back to my mind.<br />
<br />
Less than a week after the 9/11 attacks, as the evidence continued to point towards Osama bin Laden as the mastermind and the "Coalition of the Willing" was forming around the US and Britain to throw military might into the arena and crush the enemy, Galloway, the British MP for Bradford West -- then a Labour Party member -- declared that if they killed Osama bin Laden today, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/sep/14/houseofcommons.uk2" target="_blank">10,000 more bin Ladens would spring up tomorrow.</a> <br />
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So here we are, 13 years later, and doesn't it seem like his prophecy has come to pass? ISIS, ISIL, Boko Haram and other Muslim extremist groups are terrorizing, well, the whole world, and yet the best those who want to stop the terrorism can offer is more military might. That over-worked definition of insanity, attributed to Albert Einstein -- doing the same thing over and over, hoping to get a different result -- is spot-on.<br />
<br />
To be sure, my perspective is different from Galloway's in that he also contended that the West was the author of its own misfortune and what had happened on 9/11 was a drop in the bucket compared to what Iraqi civilians had experience because of sanctions and other actions taken by the US and others.<br />
<br />
For me, that was no time to say, "I told you so - you had it coming!" But as a Christian, I believed then -- and believe now -- the best response to 9/11 should have been no response. Or more accurately, that any response should not return evil for evil. Bury the dead, mourn them, remember them always -- and get on with life. But <i style="font-weight: bold;">do not rise to the bait. </i>Pray for the attackers and their supporters, Resiliency would have shown the terrorists that they cannot win. Living well, as they say, is the best revenge. Above all, I said, do not let the victims' collective epitaph be World War III.<br />
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I wrote that in a primitive (by today's standards) chat session -- a series of emails among a bunch of people who would just hit "reply all" to make their comments. One of them -- a Canadian comedian and social commentator of some note -- ripped into me for a weak, cowardly position and then demanded to be dropped from the mailing list. His sister -- a good friend of mine -- sent me a separate note, "my brother is an idiot: don't mind him", but I backed off the discussion.<br />
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But the inconvenient truth is, we're not dealing with a human army: we're dealing with an ideology, and recent history has shown that overpowering it with worldly weapons kills people, but not ideas. The Allies won WW II, but has Nazism or anti-Semitism gone away? France and the US spent more than 20 years trying to keep Communism out of Vietnam, and how well has that worked? Martin Luther King, jr., set out to end racial discrimination through means that, I believe, Jesus would have endorsed, and it was beginning to work; but he was killed and the Black Panthers stepped up with their "kill Whitey" message and 40 years on, I still hear "you people have been f**king up my people for 400 years!"<br />
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So how long has the West been battling Islamic extremism? And how well has it been working?<br />
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The fact is, God told us this all would happen back at the beginning. He said that the descendants of Ishmael -- the Arabs/Muslims -- would always be at odds with everybody else (Genesis 16:12 --<i>[Ishmael] shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him.</i>); Jesus also told us, two thousand years ago, that we would see the events we're seeing now (Matthew 24:4-14).<br />
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But along with these warnings, the Word of God gives us hope, in the knowledge that Jesus' return is at hand, and also gives us keys to handling the adversity by renewing our minds (Romans 12:2) and by following Jesus' instruction to "resist not evil" (or, as some translations put it, "do not resist the evil person"): do not fight back when attacked. Rather, He says, pray for that person, reach out in love and FORGIVE.<br />
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In the meantime, we go into spiritual warfare, using the weapons Jesus gave us as we receive Him: the weapons the Apostle Paul says are <i>not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds</i>. (2 Cor. 10:4) That is the only way we can battle an ideology.<br />
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At the same time, we live our own ideology -- our faith in Jesus Christ and the Royal Law of Love -- we are better able to show people who embrace the terrorists' ideology that there is a better way of living -- and people get saved.<br />
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As we do this, we draw closer to God, and as we draw closer to God, He promises to heal the problems in our lives. I get this image of God, watching His creation from the outside, saying, "Have you had enough yet? ... Had enough <i>yet? ... </i>How about <i>now?</i>"<br />
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Psalm 46 says <i>[God] makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire.</i> God -- not man -- makes wars cease.<br />
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There is an elephant in the room and His name is Jesus. <a href="http://veryconvenienttruth.blogspot.ca/2013/02/pink-shirts-and-elephant-in-room.html" target="_blank">I've said that before, and it's still true</a>. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life 100% of the time. People may reject out-of-hand the idea of using a Christ-based approach, but the fact is, we haven't tried it -- and maybe it's time that we did.<br />
<br />Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-80403816298546267592014-06-04T06:38:00.000-07:002014-06-04T06:38:27.969-07:00How can a loving God ...?<a href="http://www.worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/tiananmen-anniversary-irish-mass-grave-soccer-grandpa/assad-maidan-poroshenko-boko-haram-tiananmen-al-sisi/c1s16138/#.U48csfldWmE" target="_blank">Today's edition of "Worldcrunch"</a> has brought another barrage of tragic news, including the latest pogrom by Boko Haram in Africa, bloody battles in Eastern Ukraine and a mass grave of nearly 800 children in Ireland who had died at an orphanage between 1925 and 1961.<br />
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Someone, somewhere, is probably saying, "How can a loving God allow such things?"<br />
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It's a favorite mantra of atheists and agnostics, who want to make their case that there can't possibly be a God Who loves us, if these things happen in the world He created. Indeed, some Christians also find themselves asking that question.<br />
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It's often intended as a rhetorical question -- no answer expected. But it really isn't.<br />
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See, the tragedies in this world are not the fault of God. He created the earth and all that's in it, but He handed the responsibility for it over to humans. "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it," is the way Genesis 1:28 puts it. We have been given dominion -- lordship, headship, responsibility to nurture and care for the earth; we are to enjoy creation and make sure that it's replenished.<br />
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But as we also know from Genesis, we handed that authority over to Satan in exchange for a bite of fruit. And God, not being a liar or One to go back on His Word, can only stand aside, let us do what we see fit, and occasionally remind us that He's there to help whenever we ask for it. He sent His Son to show us how to re-take that authority through the Holy Spirit, but it's still up to us to exercise that authority.<br />
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In other words, don't blame God. Human atrocities are committed by humans.<br />
<br />
Indeed, He loves us so much that He sacrificed His Son in order to restore the authority we gave away.<br />
<br />
The more we fail to exercise that authority and follow what Jesus commanded us to do -- love one another -- the more we are responsible for the tragedies in our world.Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-74594867437470027602014-05-19T08:16:00.000-07:002014-05-21T06:49:04.941-07:00The Great Cat Conspiracy - continued<i>... actually, we could call this the Never-Ending Story ...</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Oddly enough, considering I've been a Cat Man all my life (even though our household also includes a magnificent Border Terrier), it wasn't until a few years ago that I started suspecting that cats were in cahoots pretty much all over the world. I <a href="http://veryconvenienttruth.blogspot.ca/2007/12/conspiracy-of-felines.html" target="_blank">blogged about this </a>early in my blogging career, when I first saw a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q&list=PLF449D8AC1250D1E1&feature=share&index=10" target="_blank">Simon's Cat cartoon</a> and realized that Peaches did <i>exactly the same thing as the cat in the cartoon, </i>except, of course, for the bit with the baseball bat; and that was only because I didn't have one handy.<br />
<br />
The suspicion was confirmed when others at my workplace (so many of my co-workers on the 17th floor at Metrotower II were cat people at the time that I'm sure the Evil Empire (otherwise known by its official title, "Human Resources") started to check into the definition of "discriminatory hiring practices") saw Simon's Cat and said, "<i>my </i>cat does exactly the same thing!"<br />
<br />
Now ... more evidence that the International Cat Conspiracy is alive and well. When I was little, I noticed early on that my cat -- a Siamese named Tuptim (as, in fact, were many Siamese cats at the time, thanks to <i>The King and I</i>) -- had an uncanny ability to pick the exact spot on a book or newspaper where I happened to be reading and curl up there. As it turns out, she was by no means unique.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Exhibit A</i></b><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-14yOq-uwNig/U3oYx-PrC7I/AAAAAAAAFAQ/2yvJfIQsnQA/s1600/cats+-+Take+Your+Cat+to+Work+Day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-14yOq-uwNig/U3oYx-PrC7I/AAAAAAAAFAQ/2yvJfIQsnQA/s1600/cats+-+Take+Your+Cat+to+Work+Day.jpg" height="187" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Exhibit B</i></b></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0Eg8zkIop8o/U3oY3Xdy5UI/AAAAAAAAFAY/jtDhgtqo5h0/s1600/CATS+-+MOORE'S+LAW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0Eg8zkIop8o/U3oY3Xdy5UI/AAAAAAAAFAY/jtDhgtqo5h0/s1600/CATS+-+MOORE'S+LAW.jpg" height="273" width="640" /></a></div>
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and, lest you think this concept exists only in cartoons,</div>
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<b><i>Exhibit C</i></b></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PX2D3gsQep0/U3oZEhxLcjI/AAAAAAAAFAg/aXNQ50yEmE0/s1600/AMELIA'S+ASSISTANT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PX2D3gsQep0/U3oZEhxLcjI/AAAAAAAAFAg/aXNQ50yEmE0/s1600/AMELIA'S+ASSISTANT.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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Daisy Mae, who's "helping" Amelia, also finds my computer keyboard particularly comfortable, and I've had to develop a reflexive motion with my left hand, sweeping her tail away as I type. Even by not actually being directly on the keyboard, the constant "C" is significant. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IrxEIXtgT6A/U3obeXXXT1I/AAAAAAAAFAs/0k3JTYmHpC0/s1600/peaches+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IrxEIXtgT6A/U3obeXXXT1I/AAAAAAAAFAs/0k3JTYmHpC0/s1600/peaches+2.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"If she knew what she was staring at, <br />she wouldn't be a cat."<br />-- Walt Kelly (creator of </i>Pogo<i>)</i></td></tr>
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When she's not on the keyboard, Daisy Mae has another favorite place on my desk: under the lamp ... and on top of the router. She hasn't knocked me offline yet, but while she appears to be dozing in the lovely, relaxing warmth, she's probably communicating telecattically (like Peaches, on the right) with other cats around the world (those with the motto: "Opposable thumbs? We don' need no opposable thumbs!") to find out how to do that.<br />
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The Kaufman-and-Hart play, <i>You Can't Take it With You, </i>includes a woman who writes novels and uses kittens as paper-weights. When my parents produced the show at the old Avon Theatre in Vancouver in the 50s, they used real kittens in the cast. They were generally kept on the desk with saucers of cream, but one day they went walkabout. Dad went a-hunting and eventually heard mewing backstage and discovered the kittens had found a hole in the wall and -- being cats -- crawled in to investigate. Dad wound up ripping out most of the drywall before getting to the beasts in time to get them onstage. Even then, the constant "C" had not been factored-in, and this was a good decade before Moore made his prediction.</div>
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Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-15672240154405203102014-05-05T18:41:00.000-07:002014-05-08T08:37:24.367-07:00Trinity Western's Community Covenant and religious freedomMonday's Vancouver Sun has some <a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Opinion+Trinity+Western+misplaced+rights/9806513/story.html" target="_blank">excellent perspective this week</a> from Dr Emma Cunliffe, associate professor in the UBC Law Faculty, about the controversial Community Covenant at Trinity Western University.<br />
<br />
When the issue blew up a few weeks ago, with Law Societies in other parts of the country refusing to recognize TWU law grads because of that Covenant, I took a few minutes and actually <a href="https://twu.ca/studenthandbook/university-policies/community-covenant-agreement.html" target="_blank">read the thing</a>. It's full of all sorts of subversive stuff, like respect others, love your neighbour, treat others with dignity and humility -- a cynic might suggest that's the very thing that would turn off the legal community -- but the section on sexual morality is the one that people are exercised about. Certainly, it's been construed as anti-gay, although the actual wording is <b><i>pro</i></b>-traditional male-female relationships, so it also excludes people who have sex out of wedlock and/or live together without being married.<br />
<br />
(By the way, the love, respect, dignity and humility thing is something TWU would do well to apply to traveling fans of its sports teams. I work closely with the UBC Thunderbirds, and TWU fans are, far and away, the rudest, most obnoxious fans we can think of. I wrote a blog posting a few years ago, called <a href="http://veryconvenienttruth.blogspot.ca/2010/02/question-for-sports-fans-what-would.html" target="_blank">"What Would Jesus Cheer?"</a> and the response from some readers when a TWU student paper picked it up suggested I'd struck a nerve.)<br />
<br />
But Dr. Cunliffe hit a point that moves this into a completely different realm. She contends that<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> </span>requiring students and teachers to live by this Covenant on penalty of expulsion "<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">compels individuals to live according to a discriminatory moral code regardless of their true beliefs</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">." </span>I'd take it a step further: while the Professor focuses on the fact that gay or lesbian students would have to suppress their true feelings and/or beliefs, the notion of any organization imposing a particular code of conduct on those who want to be part of it smacks of cultism. Whether or not I agree with the principles is neither here nor there: the fact is, no one should be forced into agreeing.<br />
<br />
God gives us freedom of choice. Having given us dominion over the earth, He is not about to make Himself a liar by manipulating us. Yes, He makes it clear which He would prefer us to choose -- <i>I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that thou and thy seed may live ... and that thou mayest cleave to Him, for He is thy Life ... (Deut. 30:19-20 KJV) -- </i>but the choice is still up to us. No institution should presume to take that choice away.<br />
<br />
One is not known as a Christian by the things one hates or shuns: <i>"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)</i><br />
<br />
Love, in other words, is what defines a Christian. Is signing a Community Covenant part of that commandment?<br />
<br />
<br />Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-69726551015401067732014-04-30T08:01:00.001-07:002014-05-03T05:28:58.189-07:00A Sterling opportunity to forgiveThe media have been all over the Donald Sterling saga like the proverbial fat kid on a Smartie, and truly, what else could overshadow the threat of WWIII starting in Russia and Ukraine, than the shocking revelation that an 80-year-old white billionaire philanderer holds racist views?<br />
<br />
There have been some interesting viewpoints: <a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Angeles+Clippers+owner+Donald+Sterling+deserved+banishment/9788466/story.html" target="_blank">Cam Cole points out</a> that Sterling is not the first team owner who's acted or talked like an owner of the players; <a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/basketball/Steve+Nash+praises+commissioner+Adam+Silver+action/9788340/story.html" target="_blank">Steve Nash has weighed in</a>, asking rhetorically how much longer people will be taught racism; <a href="http://www.thestarphoenix.com/sports/dreadful+racist+gets+what+deserves/9790241/story.html" target="_blank">Christie Blatchford spares no ammo</a> in her delight at the NBA's response. <a href="http://youtu.be/pUWwSTniahc" target="_blank">Philip DeFranco offers a viewpoint</a> which is, well, <i>different.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
But something is disturbing in all this (besides the fact that no one appears to have batted an eye at the fact that this guy dumped the woman who stood by him for 50 years in favor of a woman who's about that much younger): I'm not hearing anyone utter the F-word:<br />
<br />
FORGIVE.<br />
<br />
I thought this when Don Imus made a racist remark about the NCAA Women's basketball champions a few years ago and was subsequently drummed out of the business. I think this when I hear representatives of ethnic groups in Canada which have been wronged over the years -- native Indians, Chinese immigrants from a century ago, Japanese-Canadians who were interned during the Second World War, etc., etc. -- express their outrage and demand apologies from their oppressors. Wouldn't Jesus remind them to <i>forgive?</i><br />
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Wouldn't Jesus remind us that casting the first stone is reserved for the one without sin? Wouldn't He remind us that if we don't forgive others for doing us wrong, how can God forgive us for what we do wrong to Him?<br />
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Forgiveness breaks the vicious cycle we get into when someone wrongs us. Like all of God's commandments, it goes against our natural instinct to hit someone back when they hit us. It also releases God's will and love over the situation. Sure, there may be soul- and flesh-satisfaction in barring Sterling for life from the NBA, fining him to the max and recommending a forced sale of the Clippers, but at the end of the day, what will that accomplish? Will Sterling be any less racist as a result? I realize it would be shocking to think that other old white guys who own sports franchises might also hold racist views, but will they come out of this with a refreshed way of thinking, or will they -- and other racist people -- simply drive their thoughts further underground and find more subtle ways of expressing them? (I note Mark Cuban's remarks at the end of Cam Cole's article and say that the guy has a point: indeed, that's a pretty scary aspect to this; because while I'm personally disgusted at this particular incident, what happens if, one day, the way I think and the things I believe run counter to the "accepted norm"*?)<br />
<br />
But I digress. I keep considering a series of "What if"s:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b>What if</b> someone said, "I forgive you for the hurt," and reached out with a hand of friendship? (As it's been said, hurt people hurt people.) </li>
<li><b>What if</b> someone said, "maybe you don't know me well enough - why don't we talk?"? </li>
<li><b>What if</b> someone said, "we don't agree, but we love you regardless and are here for you"?</li>
</ul>
<br />
Wouldn't that break down more barriers and accomplish more than a $2.5 million fine and public vilification? Wouldn't that shift the focus away from "us versus them" and onto "us and us, under God"? As the Apostle Paul writes, <i>There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal. 3:28)</i> <br />
<br />
Look at it this way: for over a century, we've tried to cure racial tensions by slapping down those who still hold those views and in some cases, trying to "re-educate" them, and we <i>still </i>have people with racist attitudes. Could using Jesus' approach <i>possibly </i>be any worse?<br />
<br />
It's an opportunity to let God do His work over a situation, and I hope we seize on it.<br />
<br />
---<br />
*<i>When people make statements that oppose the direction society has taken recently, they're sometimes told they're "on the wrong side of history". Which would you rather be: on the wrong side of history or the wrong side of God?</i><br />
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<br />Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-79847306231159603262014-02-21T06:38:00.000-08:002014-02-21T11:29:03.880-08:00Farewell -- and thank you -- to a friendSad news to wake up to this morning: <a href="http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/princegeorgecitizen/obituary.aspx?pid=169669436" target="_blank">the passing of my old friend, Rodd Crandall</a> -- known to the public as Peter Clemente. He was my mentor at CKPG Radio/TV in Prince George, where I worked in 1981. As a newscaster, his delivery could make you laugh or make you cry, and as assistant news director, he led by example: encouraging, cajoling, teaching; always giving. He set a standard and it was one you <i>wanted </i>to meet -- not because he might tear you a new one if you didn't (which he never would, anyway), but because you knew it was a standard worth achieving.<br />
<br />
Thanks in large part to his mentoring, I made it to the big time, landing at C-FUN in 1982. "There's one phrase that says it all for me, as far as C-FUN is concerned," he said, "and I want you to <i>nail </i>it!" His voice dropped into his best Dick Smyth/CHUM impression. "'WEST COAST WEATHER!'" Shortly after I started at C-FUN, I brought him an aircheck of one of my newscasts, and I could swear there was a bit of a tear in his eye when he heard me go into the weather forecast with that signature line. (It didn't hurt that C-FUN's equalization was boosted on the low end, so that I sounded like I was 6'4" and built like Ken Dryden.)<br />
<br />
He got his shot at the big time in 1984, just after I'd moved to Victoria. Before that, he and Joanne came to Vancouver a couple of times, and on one of these trips, he demanded I take him to The Penthouse. Yes, the strip joint on Seymour Street that's still grinding away, literally and figuratively. But he wasn't there to see the girls: Rodd wanted to see the legendary club and the people who hung out there; and overarching all of that, he wanted to see the owner, Joe Philliponi. He was just as legendary for his many years of involvement with the nightlife and all the, um, stuff that you would associate with nightlife, Vancouver and a strip club.<br />
<br />
So most of our attention was fixed on the bar and the coterie of "Damon Runyon types" who were perched on their stools. Suddenly, Rodd's eyes lit up. "There he is!" he hissed.<br />
<br />
In the middle of the group, as though holding court, was a thick-set man in a sport-jacket and tie. The Great One, himself. At one point, he got up from his stool and walked towards the office -- <i>coming right past our table.</i><br />
<br />
"Hiya, Joe!" Rodd called out.<br />
<br />
Joe clapped him on the shoulder. "Hey - how ya doin'?" and he went on into his office.<br />
<br />
"He touched me!" Rodd hissed at me. "He patted me on the shoulder!"<br />
<br />
I wonder if Rodd ever cleaned that jacket.<br />
<br />
It wasn't long after that, in that same office, that <a href="http://thedependent.ca/news-and-opinion/this-day-in-vancouver/day-vancouver-september-18th/" target="_blank">Joe met his end during a botched robbery attempt. </a><br />
<br />
When I told Rodd I was going to Vancouver, he was philsophical. "That's my job," he sighed, "getting people ready and pushing them out the door." Up until the early 90s, small- and medium-market stations were regarded as a farm system for major-market operations, and I'm sure many news directors felt like minor league baseball managers. But Rodd played an even more important role in my life, being one of about a dozen or so people who spoke Christ into my life. I was 25 and knew everything, including the "knowledge" that Christians were goofs who couldn't think for themselves and that the Bible was out of step with the times. Rodd didn't preach at me, but occasionally would inject a word or an observation into our conversations that made me stop and think -- or at least wonder, "why exactly was I rejecting it?". Eventually, it all sank in: <i>I </i>was the one who wasn't thinking ... and what we really needed was to bring the times in step with the Bible.<br />
<br />
Rodd's passing also reminds me that "someday" doesn't come. I returned to the Vancouver area around the time that he retired due to the health issues that eventually took him far too soon. We made plans to go for lunch, but I had to cancel at the last minute. We said we'd do it soon. That was eight years ago. Then they moved back to Prince George and we said we'd get together again "someday".<br />
<br />
<i>... ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life?</i><br />
<i>It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.</i><br />
<i>For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.</i><br />
<i>-- James 4:14-15 (KJV).</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I can say with certainty that I know where I should see Rodd next. Lord willing, I'll be there, too.Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-14982309897803899132014-02-15T05:25:00.000-08:002014-02-15T05:25:01.620-08:00Should Pastors Marry Couples Who've Been Living Together? (re-run)Well! If you ever think the Internet has a short shelf-life, here's proof against that idea. Fortunately, it's not something like an ancient Facebook posting warning the invasion from the planet Zargon was already manifest at the New York Stock Exchange or a blog entry from the time when I believed that when you die, your soul goes to a used-car lot in Buffalo. It's a guest article I wrote on <a href="http://www.ronedmondson.com/2010/08/should-pastors-perform-marriages-for-couples-living-together.html" target="_blank">Ron Edmonson's blog</a> back in 2010 about the question of couples who'd been living together, deciding to get married: should a pastor perform the service?<br />
<br />
I actually think the answer is a slam-dunk: yes, he (or she) should. My reasoning is spelled out in the blog, but it boils down to two passages in Scripture:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>(Peter said), "Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" (Acts 10:47)</li>
<li>(Jesus said), "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." (Matt. 28:19)</li>
</ul>
<div>
A couple shacks up, then decides to make a permanent commitment; and if they want to do so in front of God and a gathering of witnesses, why turn them away?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The posting generated 50 comments, most of which were very thoughtful but the discussion often moved into the question of whether couples should live together prior to marriage at all. Not sure that I'd recommend that for a couple who came to me for advice, especially given the statistics on such marriages. But there didn't seem to be a clear consensus on what to do when the couple had already been together.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
So while I wrote the piece to try to firm up some ideas in my own mind, the final answer, for me, remains: "It depends".</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
ANYWAY ... on Friday (Feb. 14), I got an email from the producer of a program, Up For Debate, on the Moody Radio Network. 3-1/2 years on, they discovered my blog posting and have asked me to take part in this week's show. It's on between 8 and 9am Central Time, or you can get more information and listen to the <a href="http://www.moodyradio.org/upfordebate/" target="_blank">podcast here</a>.</div>
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<br /></div>
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And it's another good reason to be VERY careful with your online postings!</div>
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<br />Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5014774199726202453.post-2586827593931123472014-01-15T10:26:00.003-08:002021-05-29T06:28:51.992-07:00What I learn from my dog<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><i>A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"> <i>-- Robert Benchley, US humorist (1889-1945)</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">I've been a cat man all my life. Ever since a little basket was handed to me at my fourth birthday party, containing a Siamese kitten, I've been hooked on cats. The man in the Kliban cartoon who's surrounded by cats and says, "It started innocently. Someone offered me a cat. So I thought I'd try one, just to see what it's like ... and I kinda liked it, so I had another ... and another ..." -- that could have been me.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">There have been a couple of dogs along the way: one that only lasted a couple of months when I was 7, because he turned out to be chronically ill, and one that belonged to my ex-wife. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">And then came Millie.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Amelia and I had cats. At one point, there were 5 of them around our two-bedroom apartment. Two of them died in their old age, and around the same time, Amelia started talking wistfully about getting a dog. For a time, she talked about getting a King Charles Cavalier spaniel, and it looked like there was some kind of conspiracy going on, because hardly a week would go by when I didn't see a KCC in some random location. But one day, we were visiting some friends on Vancouver Island who had a border terrier. Amelia remarked, "Jessie is such a nice dog, and great with kids and the cat. Maybe we should consider a border terrier."</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XP2rpV_c5XQ/UtbVS8uwVKI/AAAAAAAAElU/tKiHAy1Kk94/s1600/millie+and+sadie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XP2rpV_c5XQ/UtbVS8uwVKI/AAAAAAAAElU/tKiHAy1Kk94/s1600/millie+and+sadie.jpg" height="150" title="" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Millie and Sadie, on alert</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Before I could say anything, our friends said, "Well, one of our neighbors is a breeder, and she's just had a litter."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">We still had three cats at the time (we're down to 2 now), so I pointed out that our complex had a 2-pet limit as it was. "We'd have to buy pet offsets from our neighbors who don't have pets," I said.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">We arrived at the breeder's place, and one of the puppies ran straight to me and started chewing on my shoe. I picked her up and she burrowed into my neck. She practically ignored Amelia: even at that tender age, she knew whom she had to work on. 24 hours later, we were the proud owners of Millicent K. PupDog.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">As Benchley said, Millie has taught me about fidelity and unconditional love; and I had never experienced a situation where an animal would step up to protect and care for me. She saw me crash on my bicycle last summer and was absolutely frantic. While Amelia and a kind passerby re-set the chain and saw to the bike, I was in mild shock, and Millie spent her time licking my wounds. Another time, a dog that I thought was playing came charging a little too close to me, and Millie went into "repel boarders" mode, positioning herself by my feet and darting out to chase the other dog away.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">But the biggest lesson Millie has been teaching me so far is how to play. She loves to run, and seeing her race around the field at the park across the street, hair flowing in the breeze, reminds me of helmet-less Guy Lafleur, speeding down the ice. But if the other dog(s) are clearly slower than she is, she'll drop to 3/4 or half speed, looking over her shoulder as she runs. She'd rather canter than out-run another dog, so that she can play with him or her.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">It's the same thing when she and I play. When I throw a ball, she'll chase it, grab it and run back with it -- but she won't give it back. I have to chase her and try to get it away from her. She knows I'm not as fast as she is, so rather than out-run me, she'll bounce sideways while I do the "basketball shuffle" to try to corral her. Indoors, she has a variety of toys (it was very sweet when some of our dog-park friends came over with their dogs and Millie gradually brought out every one of her toys for them to play with), and when she wants to play, she'll bring one over and demand that I try to take it away from her.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This will go on for some time ...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">That leads to a tug-o-war and a lot of head-shaking on her part, as I try to wrest the toy from her jaws and she tried to yank it out of my hand, and I often wonder what the purpose in it is for her. She knows the stuffed teddy bear isn't an actual animal, and what could be so important to her about a piece of knotted rope, that it becomes a life-or-death struggle to keep me from having it? To what end is all this?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">It's then that I realize that for Millie, play is an end to itself. There is no competition, no desire to win. When she and Babz, a little Havanese, get together, they spend all their time wrestling -- not to harm each other, but because it's fun to grapple. When she runs with Tegan (a Jack Russell), Buster (Heinz terrier) and Horatio (Yorkie), the other speed merchants in our group, they actually take turns leading for the others to chase. Sometimes when we're at home, she'll get one of her balls and bounce it for herself. She even invented a game, in which I sit in a chair with my legs together and she takes her ball and rolls it down my legs like a chute, then chases the ball.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Participaction has launched a campaign called <a href="http://www.participaction.com/get-moving/bring-back-play/" target="_blank">"Bring Back Play"</a>, and Canadian Tire's "<a href="http://www.marketingmag.ca/news/marketer-news/new-canadian-tire-campaign-bids-us-to-go-play-86007" target="_blank">We All Play For Canada</a>" campaign ran through the fall. Play for the sake of play is something humans seem to lose sight of, and at an earlier age than before. Little league ballplayers and peewee hockey players are looked at as potential major-league material, and the resulting favoritism and competitiveness is probably a big factor in driving other kids away from play before their time. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">But dogs don't compete. Dogs don't keep score. Dogs don't trash-talk one another. Dogs play.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">We can learn a lot from our dogs.</span></span>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08082619819146849917noreply@blogger.com1