Yesterday I had the most interesting moment. Andrew was attending a play group and I had to take him to it because Shannon was busy. So once the kids go into their program all the parents go into their own little group. So hear I am with about 7 other moms. (can somebody say awkward!) So anyway today there was nothing planned for the parents so I decided to read a great book called the Reformission by Mark Driscol. So I'm reading my book and Mark was writing about how we as believers have to enter the messy world of non-believers if we are ever going to reach other people. He was talking about some of his experiences he has had being in awkward situations as a believer among people that weren't. As I'm reading, my attention is drawn to the conversation the other moms are having. They were talking about physics. Over half of them were into calling physics or going to different spiritual conventions in Toronto. One lady had just been to a conference with a series of speakers all of which were mediums or intuatives.
I found this really interesting because they were describing what went on at these events. If I'm being honest it sounded allot like some prophetic conferences I have been to in the past. I was intrigued that the speaker would sense things and then call things out in peoples lives. The lady that was speaking had been convinced that this person was talking about her grandfather. She said she went in with doubts but came out convinced that this was legit.
Just as they were talking the kids came running out to their parents and the conversation quickly ended. I had one thought as I sat among these moms. Wow,we've got allot of work to do.
We need to be salt and light in this world that is full of rotting lives that live in the dark. God send me back to the physic moms so that I can lead them to Jesus.
Be the Church
PJ <><
Friday, March 23, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Don't forget to SOAK
Hi everybody,
Tonight I have to do something I always dread, I have to drive all night to Sault. Ste Marie. 8 hours of rocks, trees and small towns, and best of all I get to do it at night. Anyway I hope to listen to a book on Cd to make the time go faster.
I just want to remind everybody today about our Sunday night SOAK. Paul Schibetta is our worship leader and it's going to be a great time. Come prepared just to Soak in God's presence and bring your needs and the needs of your family to God.
Ask, Seek, Knock and SOAK Sunday night at 6:30pm.
See you there!
PJ <><
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
A Lesson From Coffee Cups
Someone sent this to me the other day and I thought you would enjoy it!
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and and assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to coffee.When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other's cups. Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, the money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes by concentrating on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee."The happiest people don't have the best of everything... they make the best of everything. Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.
Be careful how you spend your life, and enjoy the coffee.
PJ<><
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and and assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to coffee.When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other's cups. Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, the money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes by concentrating on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee."The happiest people don't have the best of everything... they make the best of everything. Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.
Be careful how you spend your life, and enjoy the coffee.
PJ<><
Friday, March 09, 2007
An Early Spring Ahead!!!
I just remembered this week that we spring ahead a month earlier this year. The U.S. decided to set daylight savings time a month earlier than usual, so we also are setting our clocks ahead 1 hour on Saturday night.
Always on a Saturday night! How many people are going to come to church one hour late this Sunday, I'll guess 1/3 of our church will. It's a fun game.
Anyway if your reading this don't forget to put your clocks ahead 1 hour on Saturday night. In the immortal words of K-OS "everyday is Saturday night but I can't wait for Sunday morning!"
This Sunday we are going to look a 1 Peter 2. I've been studying this chapter all week and it will challenge you to make a choice. Are you in with Christ ready to give up everything to follow him? Or are you a religious person that wants to add religion to your life, to make it better? Come check it out, you won't leave the same. (That's the point)
See Ya Sunday (spring ahead!)
PJ<><
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Playing with God's Money
This weekend the Toronto Star posted an article about a church in Toronto called "The Prayer Palace." This is a clip from the article....
After worshipping at the Prayer Palace this morning, Hyacinthe Houghron will, as she does every second Sunday, stuff her tired green minivan with a small feast: six coolers of homemade soup, a mountain of sandwiches, cakes and sweets. Loaded down with second-hand clothes pulled from the ceiling-high piles in her hair salon, she'll give out the goods to homeless people on downtown Toronto's grittiest streets.
Missions like this aren't cheap for people like her and other volunteers at the church. "We're poor folks," says Houghron, describing the majority of the 3,000-strong congregation who attend the spaceship-shaped church at Hwy. 400 and Finch Ave.
The hairdresser scrapes together $600 of her own money each month to keep up the program because the Prayer Palace – one of Canada's largest evangelical churches – stopped running it five years ago. Other charitable works, like a promised orphanage in Brazil, either dried up or never materialized. Meanwhile, the three white pastors – Paul Melnichuk and his 40-year-old twin sons, Tim and Tom – lead lavish lives in contrast to the mainly working-class black families that make up the bulk of the church.
Between them, the pastors have amassed a real estate fortune worth about $12 million. Each owns a multi-million-dollar country estate north of Toronto (Tim's is worth as much as $5.5 million), they share a Florida vacation villa, and the pastors and their wives drive luxurious cars – among them a Porsche Cayenne SUV, a Lexus RX 330 SUV and a Mercedes-Benz CLK 320 convertible. Congregants are largely unaware of the pastors' extravagant lifestyles.
"Wow," says Leslie Stewart, 63, who works in a paint factory six days a week and gives 10 per cent of his income to the church. "I never heard of anything like that. But if I release my tithe and they misuse it, they have to face God."
The Prayer Palace has a devoted congregation. Most worshippers believe in tithing, the practice of donating 10 per cent of one's income to the church, and each year they give a reported $3 million. "The people love (the Melnichuks)," Houghron says. "Pastor Paul ... loves the Lord. He does God's work."
In addition to personally funding the homeless program, Houghron – a staunch supporter of Pastor Paul – tithes and also gives him $100 to $200 cash for his birthday. "He's never given me gifts like that but he's given me spiritual gifts," says Houghron. "He encourages the work I do for the homeless."
The Prayer Palace offers several exuberant religious services each week. Conducting them, combined with the pastor's church-building efforts, qualifies the Prayer Palace as a charity under federal law, making the church exempt from taxes. However, a continuing Star investigation into Canadian charities has found the church devotes little money to charitable work. In fact, the church's most recent financial statements show that only $9,443 was spent on "benevolent and charity" activities in 2005. The church's annual "missions" fluctuate between $500 and $36,704 in the past few years.
Click here for the full article
I don't know how much of this article is fact, but I do know this. Jesus was Homeless and he never worried about acquiring stuff. He worried about helping the poor and the oppressed. It is sin to use the gospel as your own personal business. I'm not saying a pastor shouldn't earn a salary. However this is obviously wrong . Jesus didn't die so you can have a nice house. Sorry but this kind of thing really makes me mad.
Live generous lives!!!
PJ <><
After worshipping at the Prayer Palace this morning, Hyacinthe Houghron will, as she does every second Sunday, stuff her tired green minivan with a small feast: six coolers of homemade soup, a mountain of sandwiches, cakes and sweets. Loaded down with second-hand clothes pulled from the ceiling-high piles in her hair salon, she'll give out the goods to homeless people on downtown Toronto's grittiest streets.
Missions like this aren't cheap for people like her and other volunteers at the church. "We're poor folks," says Houghron, describing the majority of the 3,000-strong congregation who attend the spaceship-shaped church at Hwy. 400 and Finch Ave.
The hairdresser scrapes together $600 of her own money each month to keep up the program because the Prayer Palace – one of Canada's largest evangelical churches – stopped running it five years ago. Other charitable works, like a promised orphanage in Brazil, either dried up or never materialized. Meanwhile, the three white pastors – Paul Melnichuk and his 40-year-old twin sons, Tim and Tom – lead lavish lives in contrast to the mainly working-class black families that make up the bulk of the church.
Between them, the pastors have amassed a real estate fortune worth about $12 million. Each owns a multi-million-dollar country estate north of Toronto (Tim's is worth as much as $5.5 million), they share a Florida vacation villa, and the pastors and their wives drive luxurious cars – among them a Porsche Cayenne SUV, a Lexus RX 330 SUV and a Mercedes-Benz CLK 320 convertible. Congregants are largely unaware of the pastors' extravagant lifestyles.
"Wow," says Leslie Stewart, 63, who works in a paint factory six days a week and gives 10 per cent of his income to the church. "I never heard of anything like that. But if I release my tithe and they misuse it, they have to face God."
The Prayer Palace has a devoted congregation. Most worshippers believe in tithing, the practice of donating 10 per cent of one's income to the church, and each year they give a reported $3 million. "The people love (the Melnichuks)," Houghron says. "Pastor Paul ... loves the Lord. He does God's work."
In addition to personally funding the homeless program, Houghron – a staunch supporter of Pastor Paul – tithes and also gives him $100 to $200 cash for his birthday. "He's never given me gifts like that but he's given me spiritual gifts," says Houghron. "He encourages the work I do for the homeless."
The Prayer Palace offers several exuberant religious services each week. Conducting them, combined with the pastor's church-building efforts, qualifies the Prayer Palace as a charity under federal law, making the church exempt from taxes. However, a continuing Star investigation into Canadian charities has found the church devotes little money to charitable work. In fact, the church's most recent financial statements show that only $9,443 was spent on "benevolent and charity" activities in 2005. The church's annual "missions" fluctuate between $500 and $36,704 in the past few years.
Click here for the full article
I don't know how much of this article is fact, but I do know this. Jesus was Homeless and he never worried about acquiring stuff. He worried about helping the poor and the oppressed. It is sin to use the gospel as your own personal business. I'm not saying a pastor shouldn't earn a salary. However this is obviously wrong . Jesus didn't die so you can have a nice house. Sorry but this kind of thing really makes me mad.
Live generous lives!!!
PJ <><
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
