You thought you were busy

I know that I said I wouldn't blog again this year but I couldn't resist showing everyone this:Santa According to An Engineer

There are approximately 378 million Christian children in the world according to the Population Reference Bureau. At an average census rate of 3.5 children per household that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at least one good child in each.

Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west. This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh; hop out; jump down the chimney; fill the stockings; distribute the remaining presents under the tree; eat whatever snacks have been left for him; get back up the chimney; jump into the sleigh; and get on to the next house.

Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations, we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household--a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks. This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second--3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run at best 15 miles per hour.

The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized Lego set weighing two pounds, the sleigh is carrying over 500,000 tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the flying reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can't be done with nine of them--Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth, the ship not the monarch.

Six hundred thousand tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance--this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip.

Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of acceleration from a dead stop to 650 miles per second in one-thousandth of a second, would be subjected to centrifugal forces of 17,500 g's. A 250 pound Santa which seems ludicrously slim would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4.3 millions pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.

Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now.

Merry Christmas!

I know Dan Sawyer would enjoy this!

PJ

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Well today is the last day I will Blog until 2007. It has been an amazing year at Life Church. When I look at what God has done in only one year around here, I'm humbled by His goodness. I'm not just talking about having a new building although that's great. But I'm talking about all the new people that God has brought into the life of our church. It says in The Bible that God will build His church and He has truly done that this year. I love the fact that I look forward to seeing everyone every week, it really feels like family at Life Church.
To all those who have served so faithfully this past year, I say thank you, because without your help and vision this could not have happened.

I want to tell you one story that will highlite the goodness of God in our church. On Monday I received a phone call form Colette Myers who works at Tribute communities. The folks at Tribute had a Gift exchange They were supposed to buy each other toys, and then donate the toys to charity. Well after they were done exchanging gifts the person in charge of the gift exchange asked if anyone knew of a charity that they could donate the toys to. Colette suggested Life Church. To make along story short we had hundreds of dollars worth of toys dropped off at the church on Monday (see pic).
Last night Christa and I had the privledge of dropping off some those toys to families that could use the help. It was awesome. We also got to donate a lot of the toys to Roy and Jen Hyde. They are going to deliver those toys to the children that go to Glen St. School. (the poorest school in Durham). What an awesome Christmas opportunity this has turned into. All because the folks at Life Church are willing to partner together to see great things happen.

This Christmas I want to wish all of our Blog-nation a very Merry Christmas. Make sure you show the love of Christ to those you meet this year.

Merry Christmas

PJ

Pic's with Santa

Well, we are down to the crunch time of Christmas, and I know that we are all really busy probably too busy to be reading blogs. So today for your enjoyment I have put our kids picture with Santa up for display. This one turned out OK! If you have any pictures with Santa, feel free to post them on our Flickr photopage!

Merry Christmas from Abbi, Andrew, and Aiden

PJ

Getting the point!

I had this story given to me the other day I think it's makes the point of Christmas very clear.

A woman was out Christmas shopping with her two children. After two
hours of looking at row after row of toys and hearing them ask for everything
they saw on those many shelves, she was feeling the overwhelming pressure
that so many of us feel during this holiday season, and was relieved when she
finally made it to the elevator.

When the elevator doors opened, there was already a crowd of people in
it.But determined to get this day over with, she pushed her way into the
elevator dragging her kids and packages.

When the doors closed she couldn't take it anymore and stated, "Whoever
started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up, and
shot."

From the back of the elevator everyone heard a quiet calm voice
respond, "Don't worry, we already crucified him." For the rest of the trip down,
the elevator was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.

Don't forget this year to keep the One who started this whole Christmas
thing in your every thought, deed, purchase, and word. If we all did
it, just think of how different this whole world would be.

Don't lose the purpose of Christmas in the preparation for Christmas!!

PJ

Christmas Spam!

I hate spam! I get at least one hundred spam emails a day! Now I must admit that most of those emails go to my bulk box and I never see them, but once and a while they get through. I think my least favorite type of spam is the bate and switch spam. The ones that when you first open them they look like an email, but then they switch to an advertisement about stock. Honestly why would someone do this as a form of advertising? Who in their right mind would want to invest their money into a stock option that was advertised through spam? Even if the product was legitimate, the advertising would make it seem fake.

Sometimes in the church we have been guilty of spam marketing. We have been masters of the Bait and Switch method. We put on an event and advertise it as a fun event with free food and lots of fun. So people come expecting that, but then once we get people in the doors, we tell them about how they need God or else they are going to hell.

Now the gospel is the greatest truth that could ever be shared, but sometimes we cheapen it and even cause mistrust towards Christianity by our spam!

Make sure that you share the truth in love this Christmas. The best way to share the gospel with people is through relationships. So have someone to your house this year, not to convert them, but simply to love them. Someday you will have the opportunity to share your faith, but don't force it, let the Holy Spirit do His work.

Don't send out spam this Christmas!

PJ

High Definition Faith

Last week Shannon and I bought our Christmas gift for each other. We decided to purchase a new High Definition Television. Now this TV is extremely cool, because the picture is so clear you can see every detail on the screen. When your watching football you can see the blades of grass, hockey, the scares in the ice from skates. It's really cool.

It's funny but I never knew how unclear my picture on my old TV was until I saw a High Definition TV.

I think my faith journey is similar to shopping for TV's. You think that you have it all figured out. You think that you finally have a clear picture of who God is and then something will happen, and you realize that your knowledge is still so limited and there is so much more to know. Even David knew that God was so big he could never grasp all of him.

I look behind me and you're there,
then up ahead and you're there,
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful
I can't take it all in! Psalms 139:5-6

So Maybe the point isn't to have the whole picture but just to allow the picture to get better all the time.

I want to know God in High Definition!

PJ

Finding truth in Jazz

Last week I went to see Rob Brown play with his jazz band called Rinsethealgorithm. If you want to check out their music go to : www.myspace.com/rinsethealgorithm.
It was a little Jazz club in Toronto and the atmosphere was really cool. The band began to play and I was amazed. Now I'm not a huge jazz fan, but I think I can appreciate good music and this band kicked.
Their was lots of solos and the talent was amazing. The neat thing about Jazz is that you have a lot of freedom to improvise and create. Their is a basic musical outline that the band follows but when you are playing you can create new flows and solos within that basic structure of the song. So although their is a definite song being played their is still the freedom to improvise within that song.
The leader of the band was Rich Brown, Robs big brother (I bet that wasn't a quiet house growing up). He would give the band subtle cues when to go to a bridge or come to a close. It was really cool to see how the whole thing came to create an amazing song that may never be played the exact same way again.
It reminded me a lot of my life. God is the one directing the band, he will give me cues of which direction I should go in, when I should go in this direction or not in this one. The melody is laid out in the Bible, and I have all the freedom in the world to create and explore as long as I stay with in the framework of the scripture. My song is unique and beautiful to God, and the really cool thing is that my life is lived only once and it cannot be played again.

Yeah Wednesday night was a great musical and cultural experience for me, but on some level I discovered more truth about how great God is. So I had a spiritual experience too, while listening to Jazz.

Keep up the great work Rob and Rich, you never know what God will do with your talent.

PJ

I'm back from my Ho, Ho, Holidays

Hi everybody! We just got back from a week of vacation and it was great! We got all of our Christmas shopping done, and we are close to being ready to celebrate Christmas. It took a whole week! We are really busy today at the church because we are decorating the church for Christmas. Man Christmas is alot of work. I'm sure you are in the middle of your Christmas time crunch as well.
Today I just want to encourage you to slow down and enjoy Christmas this year. I have been known in the past to be a bit of a grinch at Christmas. It's so busy and so expensive that you can begin to detest it. However this year I vowed not to do that and so far so good. Remember it's not about the presents and it's not about getting the nicest Christmas tree (and then seeing it on sale somewhere else). It's about celebrating the mercy of God to us. He loved us so much that he sent his only son, to live as an example of what God is like and then die as a sacrifice for our sin. That's really what it's all about!

I know this is kind of a cheesy keep the Christ in Christmas thing, but although the saying is way over played, it is true and it's help's us keep perspective when were standing in the line at Toy's r Us.

Merry Christmas?

PJ

Miracles for $49.95

Last night was a rough night. Aiden decided to wake up to eat at 3:30am. So we fed him and then put him back to bed. However seeing he had slept for most of the evening he was up and ready to party. (this is what you have to look forward to Jeff and Cydele!!) Anyway, seeing I was wide-awake with my buddy at 4:30am we decided to watch some TV. Have you ever seen what’s on TV at 4:30am? Basically TV consists of 2 things at that time: infomercials and TV evangelists. So I watched them for a while. First there’s a guy selling a real estate course. He promises that if you will send him four easy payments of only $49.95, this course will train you how to make big bucks in real estate. Then come the testimonies of all the people who have made thousands of dollars through this life-changing course. One thing I noticed was the little legal line in fine print that was displayed during the testimony time that said results not typical.
After a few minutes of this commercial I turned the channel and caught a late night TV evangelist. So I decided to watch him. He was telling people the promises of God’s Word to heal them through prayer. He said that if you were willing to give a gift to his ministry of $50.00 or more then he would send you a vile of miracle spring water. This was special water that he and his team had prayed over and when you receive it you could dip your finger in it or pour it all over yourself and you could receive a miracle. Then came the testimonies of people that had been in this man’s services. They were testifying to how God had healed them and touched them in that service. (No legal line this time, I think there should be one)
Both the infomercial and the evangelist promised miracles that would change your life, if you would send them a mere $49.95. It’s interesting that both of them promised miracles for money. I have to admit I turned off the TV and felt rather ill. I hate it when I see these Jesus infomercials. First off Jesus didn’t die so a man like this could make money. In fact he didn’t die simply to provide miracles for $49.95. He gave his life so that we can have relationship with God and walk with him.
Don’t get sucked into this world, so many people do. Be wise and discern what is real and what is not. The miracles that Jesus can do for you are not for sale, all you have to is give him your life

When I was watching the evangelist I wished I had a Magic Bullet. (Ha, Ha)

PJ

Obsession for Men

So last week I saw the movie "The Prestige" Great Film! It was about two magicians that compete against each other and spend there lives in seach of the greatest trick. The moral of the story is that the greatest trick was the fact that they wasted their lives in pursuit of a trick, instead of living them. (there's alot more to the movie then that).
Good point! It really makes you think about what is important enough to spend your life pursuing. Money, education, fame, power, what about happiness?
The reality is that all these things may come and go, but there is one thing that is constant and only one thing GOD. We are designed to spend our lives pursuing after Him.
Romans 9:17 "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth"

We can chase after many things in life, but if we don't chase after God all those other things will disappear.
In the final scene of The Prestige, the magicians are finally face to face and one of them has been shot, and is about to die. At that point he realizes that he had been tricked and then dies. Some day we will be standing before God. I hope that you will read his word and chase him now, or you will be like that other magicain that found out the truth too late!

PJ

I had a picture and everything but it doesn't seem to be working today!
Sorry, no spell check either:(

The Lie of Perfection

The last thing that I want to do is another blog about Ted Haggard! It seems that everywhere on the internet and in the media everybody is talking about Ted's indiscretion. Although I'm saddened by the news, I'm more saddened by the reaction of the Christian community, however I must admit the we do set ourselves up for it. As a Pastor I'm a professional Christian, you could almost say I'm paid to be good! So what happens if a pastor isn't good, well first thing we do is fire him! Why? Because he's not perfect like we made him out to be. I have lived through some tough stuff with pastor's that have been let go of their positions due to "immorality" and it's a really harsh reality. What other job can you lose if you sin? Sometimes you don't just lose your job, but you lose your reputation, and possibly your family. Wow! You can even be the president of the United states and get away with more.
Now with that said, I do think that as a spiritual leader I need to practice what I preach. I think that if I was struggling with some major sin issue in my life I would need to take time off to get things back together in my life. But don't think for one second that the image pastor's sometimes are forced to portray of perfection is true, because it's not. We all struggle with stuff and we all have sinned and gone astray. I love Life Church because I can be real with you, we believe in authenticity and that is something I value. In a book called Making Sense of Church the author Spencer Burk says this:
The church has trouble admitting we're sinners:
"As a culture, we've long since abandoned the idea of perfect leaders and perfect plans. When we see individuals and ideas presented in neat, airbrushed packages, we're cynical. ... The church, however, has been reluctant to admit this reality. Despite all our talk of sin and needing a Savior, we insist on looking like the exception. By fixing our attention on tightly worded tracts, well-executed programs, and other people's problems, we avoid having to see ourselves as we really are. People attending church today, however, have little patience for this kind of sanctified denial. Instead, we hunger for a place where honesty and authenticity are embraced." (37)

I thank God for my Church, and I thank God for his grace on all of us!

Jesus said "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." John 6
Let's all work at abandoning our lives of sin, but let's not throw stones either!

PJ

Dancing with the Stars

Lately I have been watching the show Dancing with the Stars. Maybe you've seen it. I'm cheering for Joey Lawrence. (You know Joey from Blossom). Anyway I got this email from Jeff Marchant the other day and it made me think. Read this:

Dancing with God
When I meditated on the word GUIDANCE, I was drawn to "dance" at the end of the word. I reflected upon how doing God's will is a lot like dancing. When two people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn't flow with the music, and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky. When one person realizes this and lets the other lead, both bodies begin to flow with the music.


One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back or by pressing lightly in one direction or another. It's as if two become one body, moving beautifully. The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other. My eyes drew back to the word GUIDANCE. When I saw "G," I thought of God, followed by "u" and "I." "God, "u" and "I" dance" . God, you, and I dance.

When we let God take the lead in our lives, the dance turns out beautiful. When we try and take the lead it becomes awkward, uncomfortable and messy. Jerry Springer was one of the dancers on show. He admitted that he can't dance but yet he made it into the top 5 teams, his secret was letting his professional dance partner lead.

Let me encourage you today to let God take the lead your life, then you're not just dancing with the stars, now you're dancing with the creator of the universe. How awesome is that!

PJ

Staying on Track

Sometimes you think about useless things. For me I have the most useless thoughts while I'm driving. Last week I was waiting for a train (tracks near the church), and I had this thought why did they make trains roll on two tracks instead of one. In fact the only train I know of that rolls on one track is the monorail at Disneyland. The reason for two tracks is balance, the weight of the train is balanced on two rails.
It makes me think about a verse I was reading in the Bible yesterday. One that I never really noticed before.
John 17:15 - My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
Jesus was praying for his followers because he was leaving earth soon. He knew that people would have a problem with his followers because they would follow kingdom principles instead of the worlds, yet he prays that we would remain in the world.
For us to be relevant Christians in 2006 we need to be in the culture of the world, we need to be able to relate to people in everyday life. As Pentecostals we have a tendency to separate ourselves in the name of holiness, but sometimes all that does is separate us from the people we are supposed to reach. The word for this fundamentalist behavior is sectarianism. Not allowing yourself to be involved in anything secular.
Jesus also prays that we would be protected from the evil one. Sometimes believers will become so immersed in the world that there is no difference between their lifestyle and the lifestyle of a non-believer. That is called syncretism.
Jesus prays that we would become neither a sectarian or a syncretist, he wants us to be real people that don't disengage from culture but yet stay away from sin.
If we don't, we either become irrelevant or we fall into a destructive lifestyle and either is a train wreck.

Just some thoughts to help keep our lives on track. I hope this blog helps you not get derailed (I had to say it)

PJ

Masks

This morning we had to get up really early at our house. (I'm still tired) We had to get up early because we had to transform Abbi into Cinderella by 8:00am. Today she was having the Halloween party at her school, and all the kindergarten students were dressed up. I saw lots of princesses and spidermans as well as a few Ghosts and goblins as well.

There was one little boy that was wearing a mask and he could hardly see out of it. His Mom was trying to adjust it to make it fit better so that he could at least walk in a straight line.

Most of us have stopped dressing up on Halloween, we put away the costumes and the make up, but yet as adults we often put on a different kind of mask. I like to call it the I'm fine mask.

We can be having the worst day and yet when people ask us how we are we say "I'm fine." Why do we do that? Why do we act like things are OK when really there not? Now I understand that you're not going to lay your heart out to every person that asks you How you are doing, that would just make you look weird and needy. However a lot of us never let people into our lives when things are going bad, instead we wear our masks.
There are times when we will even try and trick God with our Masks. We will ignore the hurts and the wounds that life has given us and we will just pray I'm Fine prayers to God. What's an I'm fine prayer? It looks like this:

Hi God, I'm now going to pray for everybody else and ignore the problems in my own life because I'm Fine (even though you're not)

God can't be tricked, What God wants you to do is take off the mask and be yourself.

Matthew 6:7-8 says "when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

The mask that you wear doesn't trick God, all it does it is block your vision. We need to take off the masks with each other and with God if we are ever going to Be real.

What mask are you wearing?

PJ

Smashing Pumpkins

Last night the family and I went out for about an hour. We left at 6:00pm and we were home by 7:30pm. However in that short period of time a crime was committed. That's right our home was vandalized, somebody smashed our pumpkin.
It was smashed in the middle of the driveway, and so I stopped the van and got out and hide the body so that the shock of this crime would not effect our kids. After we put the kids to bed I went outside to investigate the crime scene. Where is Horatio Cane when you need him? Anyway I looked up and down the street to see if I was the only victim of the rampage of crime, it seemed that we were.
Then thoughts ran through my head, I wondered if we were targeted for such an attack, and if we were by who? Could it be someone that didn't like us because we did something to them? Could it be someone from Life Church that didn't appreciate the sermon on Halloween that I preached on Sunday? Who ever it was I knew one thing, I'll never figure it out.
It's interesting to me that when something bad happens we always want to know: WHY ME?
Why would I be the one selected to deal with this bad event. We ask ourselves questions like is it a test? Is there some kind of sin in my life and I'm being punished? Is there something God wants me to learn?
I remember when September 11th happened a lot of people were asking why? And some pastors tried to give answers to that question but all the attempts to answer WHY were pretty lame. Sometimes I think that there is no answer to that question, or maybe there is but only God knows what it is.
Solomon was known for his Wisdom. If there was any author in Scripture that should have the answer to why it's him. Yet after years of study and seeking answers this is what he came up with:
Ecclesiastes 1:2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
Wow I feel better what about you? Sometimes there is no answer that we can figure out to why? Why something happens, to good people.
However I do know that God is in control, and my job in this thing called life is to be faithful to Him through everything, good or bad.

I've got to go now and buy and new pumpkin!

PJ :)
P.S. I tried to put the pic of this up but It's not working, so if you want to see the pic of my smashed pumpkin, check out the lifechurch flickr site.

Devotion or Duty?

On Thursday night I was driving to the grocery store close to my house. Across the street from my grocery store there is a Mosque. Now this Mosque is fairly new and so being a church planter I'm always interested to see how full the parking lot of religious institutions may be. It was packed, I mean full and this was at 10pm at night. I have to admit that I was surprised to see it so full.
Now I know a little bit about Islam, and I know that as a Muslim you are supposed to pray 5 times a day. I wondered if this was the final night prayer session or maybe it was a special meeting. Whatever it was, there was certainly good attendance, so I asked myself this question. WHY? I know that if I was to try and do something at LifeChurch on a Thursday night at 10pm I would probably be here by myself. It's make you ask the question do people do religious things out of a sense of Devotion or duty?
Religion is a funny thing, because it is often fueled by duty. We do things like, go to church, give money, even pray out of a sense of duty. We feel that if we don't do these things then we have done something wrong, or we will not EARN our salvation or our ticket into paradise.
It's funny but I don't think that's the highest level of worship, in fact it may be one of the lowest levels of worship. Does God like it when I do something because I have to and not because I want to.
The people in the Old Testament used to do good things because they had to as well. This is what the prophet Isaiah said about that:
Isaiah 64 5-6 "You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. "

Isaiah is saying that unless you are doing your acts of righteousness out of a love and devotion for God they are like filthy rags and have no value to God.

That brings up a lot of questions though. Should I go to church or give to God even when I don't feel like it? Is it based on feelings? Is there a place for duty in our relationship with God?

Well I don't always feel like I love my wife or my kids, sometimes we have conflict (Yes It's true) but yet I know that I love them, and when I serve them it's out of love. So how do we know when it's love and not guilt that spurs us to action?

Maybe there is a place for duty in our relationship, but if there is it must be duty because of devotion.

I'll let you think about that.

Maybe we can learn something about commitment from the Muslim community?

Lessons My Mum Taught me

So last week we had our grand opening service. The stage in the church is black, so to lighten things up a bit we put Yellow and orange Mum's on the stage.

It looked great, made everything come together. At the end of the service some of the ladies in the church were moving the Mum's out of the sanctuary into the lobby of the church. I was about to ask why when I realized that it was because the Mums needed to be in the light to survive.

Yesterday Christa talked about gravity and needing to stay in the light. She was quoting a John Mayer song ( I think she likes his music, just guessing). Anyway in the songs Mayer says he needs to stay in the light. That's what made me think about these Mums, they need to stay in the light to survive as well.

We can be so busy everyday running around doing the day to day stuff, that we forget to take some time to get into the light. As Christians how long can we survive without exposing ourselves to the light of God.

I remember growing bean sprouts in Science class. Some we grew in the light, and others we put in the darkness. The ones that were in the light were healthy and strong, but the ones in the dark, were off color and weak.

There are a lot of us that are weak Christians, and I think a lot of that has to do with how much time we spend in the light. That's one of the reasons why we do this devotional blog to give us some time each day that we can spend in the light to make us just a little bit more healthy.

John 8:12 says "Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

How much time do you spend in the light? Then again I'm talking to the people that actually do read this blog. I guess I might be preaching to the choir a bit.

Check out the blog next week, and make sure to comment don't be a lurker (nice word)

PJ

The Blank Canvas

Well here we are in our season of new things and today is the first day of our blogotional!

There have been so many great things happen in the Life of our church over the past few months that I have to say, God is really blessing us right now. Sunday was great, but to be honest now I'm really excited to see what God is going to do.

I really been thinking about what I should write about being the first blog. I feel in my heart that I want to talk about a blank Canvas.

I remember an artist once telling me that they had the most amazing feeling when they would stand in front of a blank Canvas because of the potential it had to become the most amazing piece of art that has ever been created!

Today I have that blank canvas feeling, it's a feeling of excitement mixed with nervous tension because the potential is there for success and the potential is there for failure to, but most of all there is this feeling of freedom, freedom to create something new, and that is how I feel about life church and the blogotional, and even my little family.

There are so many directions we could go, and so many good things that we could do as a church and as individuals how do you know which decisions are the right ones? When an artist paints a picture, how do they know that there brush stroke is going to look right and add to the picture that are painting? Especially the first few strokes.

The reality is that when you start something new there is an element of risk, but that is what makes it exciting. It's alot more exciting then just copying someone else's painting.

In your life maybe God is challenging you to do something that has never been done before and you wonder what you should do. What is it going to look like?

I think you should take on the challenge, because at some point we all have to do something new, something never done before, or life would just be full of copies and there would never be anything original. That sounds really boring to me!

"The definition of insanity is to do the same thing and expect different results"

In the Bible Jesus says "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. " Jn 14:12

The painter paints from his heart and he sees the painting in his mind before it ever hits the Canvas. We as Christian's have a connection directly to God through what Jesus did for us on the cross, and he gives us a vision of what we should do before it ever becomes reality the question is do we have the trust and courage to do it?

I guess I'm thinking about this because at Life Church we are trying really hard to do things differently, and even this blogotional is something new, the first stroke of the brush on what we hope will be a great original piece of art.

I'm really excited because I think this canvas will turn into something great as long as we hear from the master painter and have the courage to paint!

Are you ready to grab a brush and paint?

PJ