Thoughts on Life

Hip 2 B Holy

2009-05-20T09:52:00.002-04:00

Hi Guys,

I wanted to take this opportunity to advertise a special coming up on Global May 25th @ 10pm. The name of the program is hip 2 b holy and it's a look at different ways Canadians are coming back to faith in Christ. This video is a little clip about the Alpha program which has seen some success in Canada. I want to encourage you to watch this show or PVR it. It's not to often we see a Canadian documentary on Faith. Maybe we can all learn something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2GYXl2iI10

TTYL

Jamie

Footloose

2009-05-11T19:31:00.003-04:00

This article came across my homepage today and I thought it was very interesting. The story has been labelled a real life version of the movie "Footloose".

Trip to prom could cost student
Published : Friday, 08 May 2009
Sharia Davis

FINDLAY, Ohio - Seventeen-year-old Tyler Frost of Findlay has a difficult decision to make this weekend.

Even though he is a senior at Heritage Christian School, a fundamentalist Baptist school in Hancock County, Tyler wants to attend his girlfriend's prom on Saturday. She attends Findlay High School.

But in the eyes of Heritage Christian principal Tim England, Tyler will be suspended and won't be allowed to graduate with his class.

It's a question of morality and obedience.

Tyler said he's never had any problems with Heritage Christian up until now.

Earlier this week, he presented a letter to his principal asking if he could go to prom at Findlay High School with his girlfriend, but he never thought England would punish him for actually going.

Tyler said Heritage Christian wanted to expel him, but that punishment was reduced after his family threatened to file a lawsuit.

"I kind of expected he say something to me about him not approving of it," Tyler said. "But I didn't think it would be anything this serious."

Principal England said this is serious, and it goes against the school's policy, which forbids "dancing, rock music, hand holding and kissing."

England believes if Tyler goes to prom with his girlfriend at Findlay High School, he could be tempted to do ungodly things the Bible doesn't approve of.

"At a prom there will be many young ladies dressed in current style low cut dresses," England said. "How does a young man not have lustful thought like that?"

"Definitely the temptation will more than likely be there, but after going to school for 13 years I'd like to think they would have a little bit more trust in me to overcome temptation," Tyler said.

Principal England said the fundamentalist Baptist school came to the conclusion to suspend Tyler if he goes to prom. The school will also ban him from walking with his class on graduation day, which is scheduled for May 24.

Tyler will also receive an incomplete on his assignments, but the school will give him his diploma.

"Christianity is a growing relationship with Jesus Christ," England said. "If you're going to grow and become more like Him you have got to be more obedient to what he says."

"As long as he's in school, I 100% agree he has to abide by any law or religion or whatever they push," said Stephan Johnson, Tyler's stepfather. "But after school it's up to me and his mother and his family to make the rules."

Tyler has decided to attend prom on Saturday with his girlfriend at Findlay High School.

His family is in the process of filing a lawsuit against Heritage Christian School because their standards shouldn't interfere with their son's personal life.

____________________________________

So what do you think? Is this what it means to be in the world but not of it? Does growing in your faith mean not listening to rock and roll and going to prom?

I've been to some churches where many rules are put into place in order to "protect" their congregations from being tempted in a variety of different ways. But what about matters of the heart? What about a person's own choices?

I'd love to read your thoughts!

God's Earth

2009-04-30T10:32:00.003-04:00

Last night I took my children to the Movie Disney's Earth. (I had cereal coupons for free movies that we needed to use up). Anyway I knew it was going to be a documentary style movie, but what I wasn't expecting was the spiritual experience that it was for me. It was incredible to see the masses of caribou migrating south, and the thousands of bird that would fly in the air without running into each other. The elephants or whales that knew instinctively to travel thousands of miles to find water or food. The Cinematography of this movie was literally breath taking. My two favorite moments were when there was a shot coming over a massive water fall and also the scenes of the Northern Lights, although I think the were the Southern lights because they were at the South Pole.

God is AWESOME! He created the massive water falls and the floods to happen at the right time to nourish the animals. He created birds that have such intricate detail and colour that you would think an artist painted each one. I think the movie was narrated by James Earl Jones and there was one point where he said that these life forms survive by the water movements through lakes, rivers and the time work of the seasons.

"Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. " Luke 12:6-7

If he cares that much about a sparrow, how much more will he look after you

See the movie, it will make you want to worship our awesome, creative, and all powerful God

SELAH

Jamie

Authentic Lives and Castles

2009-04-16T12:03:00.005-04:00

I just started reading a book by Mike Pilavachi called "Soul Survivor" and am already loving it. Side note: I think I love it even more because I paid $2 for the book @ a bankruptcy sale. Thank-you, recession :). For this week's blog post, I thought I'd stick in a little excerpt from the book that has challenged/inspired me... hopefully it will do the same for you.

"The urgent need for the Church today is not for more clever people to explain Jesus better. It is not for more attractive people who by their looks and personality will make Christianity suddenly more trendy and appealing. It is not even for more committed and disciplined people who will advance the cause of the kingdom of Jesus by grit and hard work. The great need today is for deep and authentic people."

What an interesting quote. I've been thinking a lot lately about reasons people are no longer interested in the Church, and I think Mike is making a very good point here. Mike goes on to say:

"Instead of engaging the world, too often we act as if the church were a castle. We hide there together, protected by the moat, with the drawbridge up. Then once a year we feel guilty and decide to go out and do some evangelism.... The day arrives, the drawbridge is lowered and we rush out to witness. After a week we run back to the castle of the church, dragging the few unfortunates we have captured more by accident than design. We raise the drawbridge and for the next few months do things to ensure that our captives annot communicate with non-Christians either. And we call that evangelism. Antievangelism would probably be a more accurate description. The God who sent Jesus does not want us to let down the drawbridge and conduct hit-and-run raids once a year; He calls us to break down the walls of the church - to be a church without walls, a church for the community."

Let's work this week on living honest, authentic lives... and not lock ourselves away from the life (and lives) that surround us.

Prosperity Gospel ????

2009-04-08T13:05:00.003-04:00

This is powerful and has been requested by alot of people, so here it is. The man speaking is Rev. John Piper and he is addressing the false prosperity teaching that is present in North American Christianity. Jesus is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him, in the midst of loss, not prosperity!

April 2009

2009-03-04T10:40:00.004-05:00

We have been batting around the blogotional for almost a year now. We have made the decision to re-introduce the Blogotional in April 2009. We are revamping our website right now and when we launch it, we will be reintroducing the Blogotional to a whole new generation of Lifers. So the spring will bring new life to the blogotional. All we ask is that people leave comments once and a while so that we know that you are reading it, and also so that we can make it more interactive. We want to know your thoughts, not just have you listen to ours.

See you in April

Coming back to Life!!

2008-09-10T14:20:00.002-04:00

The Blogotional has been dead for a while now, because we were not sure what to do with it. However I just want to let people know that we are working on Reviving it, in a bit of a different format! So soon we will have a Blogotional again!!!

A Picture of Life

2007-11-05T12:47:00.002-05:00

Just in case you missed the world debut of our new promo dvd, here it is. We've made them in a mini-dvd format that is only slightly bigger than a business card - perfect for sticking in your purse (or man purse) and giving to friends or family that you would like to tell about Life Church (and invite them out).

Hello

2007-08-07T15:13:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that YES it is true the we have taken the summer off from Blogging, but we are planning on returning soon, so have patience and enjoy the sun. We'll see you in September!!!

Hello everyone!

2007-06-07T12:43:00.001-04:00

Just wrote a nice long blog and it got erased, so here's the point form version.

1. Blogging will be irregular for the summer months due to holidays and stuff like that.
2. Don't forget the Summer Series coming up July 5th through August 9th
- No Sunday service, but rather a Thursday night service
- Fun stuff for the kids and a BBQ starting at 6pm
- Kids program in the new Jungle room
- Sanctuary transformed into a cottage feel
- 1 hour service

So get ready for something new coming July 5th

Blessings

PJ <><

Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?

2007-05-15T12:26:00.000-04:00

Ok Life Church, here's the question are you smarter than a fifth grader? Take this test, and then report back to us your results. I love this show, but the weakness of it for me is the US. content, however the test is still fun. So go to this link : http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/newsletter/mu-html/ny-et5thgrade0227-quiz,0,3118508.triviaquiz?coll=orl-middayupdate-utility

Just to let you know I scored 68%

Not too bad.

PJ<><

Protecting your mind

2007-04-27T11:52:00.000-04:00

Here are some thoughts from Rick Warren on Protecting your mind. I found this helpful, and hopefuly you will too.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to “capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ.” (NCV) The Bible is very specific at giving us five things that we are to guard our minds against. Share these with your staff members and the key leaders of your church.
1. We are to guard our minds against false teaching. First and foremost we need to watch out for doctrinal errors that can divert us from the true Gospel. Scripture encourages us to contend for, “The faith which was once and for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 1:3 NKJ) That means the message has been around for awhile. In fact, I tell my people “If it’s new, it’s not true” – because the biblical faith we believe is the one that was handed down from “the saints.”
How do you guard your mind against false teachings? Know the truth. If you know the truth, you can instantly spot a lie. Treasury agents are not trained to detect counterfeiting by handling counterfeit bills. They give them real bills and study them so well that when a counterfeit dollar bill is put in their hands, they immediately know that it’s false.
2. We are to guard our minds against temptation. Psalm 101:3 says, “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.” (ESV) That’s a good verse to put on your television. When was the last time you actually got up and switched channels because what you were seeing was worthless? A. W. Tozer says “ America has lost its ability to blush.”
If we’re going to guard our minds we have to be careful about what we watch because it causes temptation. The Bible says very clearly that sin starts with a thought. You sow a thought, you reap an action. You sow an action, you reap a habit. You sow a habit, you reap a character. And it destroys you. The mind is a strategic battlefield, and if Satan can get your thought life, he’s going to get you. So those harmless fantasies are not harmless at all.
When I start to feel tempted, I often say, “Lord, I mentally put on the helmet of salvation that Scripture talks about in Ephesians 6:17.” What does a helmet do? It protects your mind. When I do this, I’m saying, “Lord, I want you to cover my mind with your blood. I will be guarding my mind from temptation.”
3. We are to guard our minds against counterfeit spiritual experiences. Those who don’t do this end up in a cult. Galatians 1:6-8 says even if an angel tells you something different than what the Word of God says, don’t believe him. A lot of times these so-called Holy Spirit inspired flashes come from the devil – or because you ate a bad pizza. I believe the Holy Spirit works calmly and deliberately.
4. We are to guard our minds against pride. Pride is the sin that God judges quicker than any other single sin. Aaron got prideful, and God smote him. Uzziah got prideful, and God smote him. Pride is the sin that got Satan kicked out of Heaven. As a leader, you’ll be tempted by this. People will tell you things that will puff you up. You have to remain humble and not let pride enter your mind.
5. We are to guard against an overworked mind. As pastors, this is one of our greatest areas of failure. We strain our minds too much. This can cause failure in your life. The constant study, reading, and dealing with people overworks our minds and lowers our ability to make sound judgments. That’s why we need to be taking a day of rest every week. Either we get away or we’ll come apart.

Have a great weekend, see you on Sunday!

PJ <><

Computer Fun!

2007-04-24T12:33:00.000-04:00

Someone forwarded this to me and I thought it was funny, so I thought I would let the Blogotional generation play along. Here's what you do.

1. Go to Google
2. Click on the Maps section
3. Click on the get directions tab
4. Type in New York as your starting point
5. Type in London as your ending point
6. Click on the get directions icon
7. Scroll down to instruction #24

If you can do that then you're awesome

Have a great Day!

PJ <><

Short and sweet!

2007-04-17T13:14:00.000-04:00

I would like to apologize to those who came to Life Church on Sunday. I see that my sermon was a little lengthy and so this blog will be short!

"Always share the gospel, if necessary use words" St Francis Assisi

I should follow his advice!

PJ <><

Making a Difference 2!

2007-04-10T12:34:00.000-04:00

Hello Life Church,

Well we had a great Easter weekend, and God did some amazing things in our lives over the weekend. Jesus is alive and moving throughout the earth today!

Jesus says in his word that we will do great things for him and through him, and today I wanted to report on one of those great things that we have done in the name of Jesus.

I challenged you that on Good Friday we were going to take up an offering for the YWCA. Over the last few weeks we have been addressing this issue. (Read former Blogs).

Anyway, I want to say how proud I am of you. I'm privileged to Pastor such a generous church. This weekend we raised over $700.00 for The YWCA emergency shelter.

This week I will have the privilege of delivering the money to them.

On the weekend we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, we can be a part of resurrecting an organization that helps the poorest people in our city.

I'm proud of you, and more importantly Jesus is too.

Lets' keep it up!!

PJ <><

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor."Lk 4:18

Actually Doing Something!

2007-04-03T10:44:00.000-04:00

Hi Everybody,

Sorry about not blogging at all last week. Life has been extremely busy over the past few weeks. Anyway today I wanted to give our Blogotional world an assignment. Last week Christa brought up the story about the YWCA closing and this is a problem I think we can solve. A few people have expressed interest in volunteering to make a difference in this situation. (Which is awesome). So last week I met with Eva Martin Blythe, the YWCA director to see how we could best help her solve this problem. She encouraged me to get you to write our provincial politicians so that they would release some more financing to get them back on their feet. The majority of their income comes from the provincial government.

Now I know that some people want to physically help, and there will be opportunity for that in the near future, but for now letter writing is the best thing we can do.

So if your reading this blog then chances are you know how to use a computer, so I'm asking you send an email letter to the following people. First there is the Oshawa MPP. His name is Jerry Ouellette and his email is jerry_ouelletteco@ontla.ola.org. You can just click on the link and it will get you there. The second person is the MPP for Whitby Ajax. Her name is Christine Elliot and her email is christine.elliottco@pc.ola.org .

Folks if your like me, then you don't usually act on these kinds of requests. However this issue is one issue that I think we can make a real difference in. The reality is, that it's easier for you to say "Wow, somebody should do something about this." but that won't change anything.

Let's make our faith real, write an email. It doesn't need to be long, It just needs to state that you live in Durham region and you are disappointed that the YWCA has had to close due to financial issues. You believe that this is a vital service to homeless/abused women and their children in our city. Then you tell them that you would like to see a solution to this issue, and you hope that your MPP will do something about this.

Do it!!

PJ <><

Physic Moms

2007-03-23T14:38:00.000-04:00

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 <><

Happy (Belated) Colbert Day!

2007-03-21T11:22:00.000-04:00

Well, if you didn't get a chance to celebrate Colbert Day yesterday, take today, the first day of spring, to enjoy it. If you missed the blogotional coverage of the way this day was established, click here, here or here. Here's a little clip from the show:

Apparently the day was so big that it even made it into national and provincial news... click here to read an article about it.

Don't forget to SOAK

2007-03-15T12:13:00.000-04:00

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 <><

A Lesson From Coffee Cups

2007-03-13T12:14:00.000-04:00

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<><

An Early Spring Ahead!!!

2007-03-09T10:23:00.000-05:00

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<><

Playing with God's Money

2007-03-06T12:57:00.001-05:00

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 <><

In God we trust

2007-02-22T14:20:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you already know that on every piece of U.S. currency the phrase in God we trust is inscribed on it. I always used to think that was a way of declaring to the citizens that this country believes in God. However in preparing for this week sermons I think it is interesting that they put In God we Trust on Money. I would suggest that most people probably trust money more then God.

Money promises you security, Significance and freedom, but in actual fact on God can provide these things. Only God can truly give you eternal security, on God can make you have significance by being his child, and only God can give you true freedom.

I know a lot of well off people who live scared of being robbed. I know a lot of rich people that still feel they need to make more money to really be noticed, and I know A lot of rich people that may have money but they aren't free because they have to maintain and make more money.

The love of money is the root of all evil, and God says in Matthew that you can't serve both God and money, so you need to decide who are you going to serve.

Money isn't evil, but the love of it will end up destroying anyone.

PJ<><

Sickness

2007-02-20T15:32:00.000-05:00

Well as most of the Life Church family knows this weekend I was struck down with an illness. I had a case of the flu. I was still able to preach on Sunday, but it was a struggle.

Sickness is horrible, it takes away all your energy, it makes your body ache and you can hardly breathe. It was really aweful. In fact I'm still not feeling 100 %.

Sin is like sickness except your born with it. Sin takes away life, and ruins your health. Sin brings pain into your life, and it can separate you from God.

My body is strong enough to deal with my case of the flu (with the help of Cold FX). However my spirit cannot deal with the sickness of sin all by itself. No matter how badly I may want to feel better I was powerless against my flu until my body began to heal.

Often we will try and deal with the sin in our lives through shear will power. But yet we still fail. God is there ready to help us with our sin, all he asks is that we invite him to do so. Don't try and do it your way, but let God help you deal with your own case of sin.

I'm getting better, soon I will be back to full health, I just pray that I will also continue to get better at giving my sin over to God.

PJ<><

Forcast for love

2007-02-15T14:45:00.000-05:00

I wanted to put this video on the Blog today to highlite on of my favorite comedians. His name is Shaun Majumder. He is from Newfoundland and he is hillaroius. He is often on CBC (That's why you probably have never seen him). Anyway I thought you would enjoy this.

Weather Watch

Add to My Profile More Videos

PJ<><

Bad Timing?

2007-02-13T14:49:00.000-05:00

I was in the line up for Tim Horton's today on King St. when all of a sudden I was hit with a commercial. The commercial was for Dairy Queen's newest Ice Cream Bar.

It was -21 degrees, and a thought came to me. Who was the genius that decided to market a new ice cream treat in early February? I would go Donald Trump on that person and they would be fired?

It also made me think of another picture. The guy who was standing on a milk crate preaching on Spadina Rd. in Toronto. People were busy going to and from work and he was telling them to get rid of all the sin in their lives.

Now I'm not a big Soap Box preacher myself, but if you were to go retro and do that wouldn't the love and grace message be more fitting. I'm not a marketing expert but, telling a bunch of people in a hurry how bad they are, isn't going to draw a crowd. It might just draw and egg aimed at your head.

People are people and they need to hear about the love of Christ. My Dad used to say, "You've got to catch the fish before you clean them."

Matthew 22 says the greatest thing you can do is love God completely, then show other people love." I think that message is always appropriate!

Happy Valentine's Day, buy your sweety some Dairy Queen, I hear they have this really great new ice cream bar!

PJ <><

Just Cause?

2007-02-08T13:10:00.000-05:00

On Sunday I'm starting a new series on commitment here at Life Church. This Sunday I'm talking about the word love. The word Love is used so many different ways in the English language, and we are going to explore what kind of love you should have for Christ.
However in studying up for this sermon, I've come across a few words that have double meaning in our language. Words like run. You can run a race, you can have a run in your stockings, and right now my computer is running. All these are the word run but really they have different meanings.
There is one phrase I want to Blog about that is the phrase Just Cause. There are two meanings to this phrase that are almost by-polar opposites. Let me show you what I mean:

I'm doing this because it's a just cause. ( I'm doing this because it's stand for justice, and I believe in it.) OR

I'm doing this just 'cause (I'm involved in this activity because I have nothing better to do)

The two phrases are almost exactly the same yet the have completely different meanings.
Why do you do the things you do. We live in a world that worships entertainment, we spend hours a day doing stuff so that we're not bored. Yet, Volunteerism numbers have dramatically dropped, because people say that they are too busy. I think we need to re-evaluate our lives and how we spend our time. Are we living for Just Cause or are we living Just 'Cause.

Make your life count for something, or else you'll live for nothing!

"In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

PJ <><

If you don't have anything nice to say.....

2007-02-06T13:37:00.000-05:00

Today it's -12 degrees
We are going on our 17th day below 0
I haven't seen the sun in two weeks
I have a blasting headache
My kids aren't feeling well.

And all my credit card bills from Christmas are due.

My Dad says, if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all.

So this Blog is over!!

PJ<><

Sunscreen in the Winter

2007-02-01T13:34:00.000-05:00

It's another dark day here in Oshawa, the kind of day that makes you wish you were on vacation. Some sunny place where you could lie on the beach and put on your sunscreen and just relax. When I was on my way to the church today I heard this song play. The song was called "Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen." by Baz Luhrmann.

The Lyric's were actually from an article in the Chicago Tribune called "Advice like youth, is probably wasted on the young" by Mary Schmich. The song's not that great but the Lyrics are awesome, so read on:

Wear sunscreen.If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing. Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours. Floss. Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself. Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch. Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own. Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room. Read the directions, even if you don't follow them. Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out. Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Cool Eh!
PJ <><

The Gospel Recall!

2007-01-30T11:22:00.000-05:00

Check this out, it's provokes some thought!

RECALL NOTICE
The Maker of all human beings is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in the primary and central component of the heart. This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units, code named Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units. This defect has been technically termed "Subsequential Internal Non-Morality," or more commonly known as S.I.N., as it is primarily expressed.

Some other symptoms include:1. Loss of direction 2. Foul vocal emissions 3. Amnesia of origin 4. Lack of peace and joy 5. Selfish or violent behavior 6. Depression or confusion in the mental component 7. Fearfulness 8. Idolatry 9. Rebellion

The Manufacturer, who is neither liable nor at fault for this defect, is providing factory-authorized repair and service free of charge to correct this SIN defect. The Repair Technician, Jesus, has most generously offered to bear the entire burden of the staggering cost of these repairs. There is no additional fee required.

The number to call for repair in all areas is:P-R-A-Y-E-R.

Once connected, please upload your burden of SIN through the REPENTANCE procedure.
Next, download ATONEMENT from the Repair Technician, Jesus, into the heart component.
No matter how big or small the SIN defect is, Jesus will! replace it with:1. Love 2. Joy 3. Peace 4. Patience 5. Kindness 6. Goodness 7. Faithfulness 8. Gentleness 9. Self control
Please see the operating manual, the B.I.B.L.E. (Believers' Instructions Before Leaving Earth) for further details on the use of these fixes.

WARNING: Continuing to operate the human being unit without correction voids any manufacturer warranties, exposing the unit to dangers and problems too numerous to list and will result in the human unit being permanently impounded. DANGER: The human being units not responding to this recall action will have to be scrapped in the furnace. The SIN defect will not be permitted to enter Heaven so as to prevent contamination of that facility.
Thank you for your attention.

GOD
Please assist where possible by notifying others of this important recall notice, and you may contact the Father any time by "kneemail" - I AM available 24-7, no voice-mail, no waiting.

Make sure you take care of your heart!!

PJ

Learning to Commit

2007-01-25T13:32:00.000-05:00

Today is a very cold day. Officially it is the coldest day of the year. When it get's this cold it reminds me of my favorite winter pass time - Snowboarding - I used to do alot of snowboarding an I even was put on a team at one time. I have some great memories, good friends and good times. My favorite memory was when I was at Whiteface mountain in New York state. We had gone off trial as we usually did and we found ourselves in a tight spot. The only way we could continue our journey down the path that we were on was to jump a 11 foot cliff. There as no other way,(except to walk back up the trail). We had a choice to make, we had to decide to commit to running this trail all the way down the mountain, because once you start going you can't stop. So with a deep breathe we hit it. It was scary, exciting, difficult and wonderful all at the same time. I'll never forget the moment we arrived at the end of the trail. We looked back at what we just rode, and then screamed about how awesome it was. We felt so powerful because we had conquered the Mountian, we took a chance and we were victorious.

Listen to this quote from a playwright named Johann Wolfgang von Goethe;

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way, Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power ... in it. Begin it now.

Don't let your dream stay in the inactive world of good intentions. Even if you fail you will have tried and that is what life is all about. The journey.

If I hadn't gone down that ski path. I would never have had that awesome moment!

Live it, act on it, do it.

PJ <><

Soak yourself!

2007-01-23T10:18:00.000-05:00

So we have started our once a month SOAK prayer times here at Life Church and the first one was great! However people have been asking me what they should do until the next one. Because SOAK is only once a month, it isn't frequent enough to be your only prayer time. (That's the point) SOAK is designed to add to your already existent prayer life, not to be your prayer life. So this morning I wanted to give you some tips on how to have your own personal SOAKing time everyday:

- Find a quiet place - A peaceful environment helps you to become peaceful on the inside.
-Listen to worship music - You may want to use quiet instrumental or quiet worship music.
-Quiet down your busy thoughts - Initially your thoughts can be racing all over, but know that the Lord is with you. Turn your attention to Him. Wait for your thoughts to settle.
-Invite the Holy Spirit to come and soak you in His presence - Surrender your mind, body and soul in prayer to the Holy Spirit. Humble yourself before Him.
-Focus on the Lord’s presence - Open your heart to God. You are learning to abide in Him. You are learning to focus on Him and His presence.
-Rest in faith and believe that God is working within you - It isn’t about what you can accomplish through your efforts; it’s about what God is doing in you.
-Give time to soaking in God’s presence - The more time you can spend in His presence, the better. Start with 20 minutes in His presence. You will find as you do this, in a very short time you will want to spend more time in His presence.
-Watch as God changes you - You will leave refreshed and full of the Holy Spirit. Your life will be different because God is changing you through soaking in His presence. You will have an impact on the world around you as you carry God’s presence with you wherever you go.

If you spend time SOAKing in God everyday it will transform you:
“Intimacy with God is the key to fruitfulness in every area of our lives. As we become more aware of His presence in us… so do other people. As we become more affected by His presence in us… so do those around us. By taking time in the secret place with God, we start to walk by the spirit in everyday life. We find that rather than striving to achieve things for God, He is building His kingdom through us.” CTF ministries

So what's stopping you? Go ahead and have your own time with God, it really is life Changing. Oh and by the way, our next Life Church SOAK prayer is February 25th at 6:30pm with the worship team from Mondays in Hamilton.

PJ <><

A Lesson From Lightning McQueen

2007-01-18T15:30:00.000-05:00

OK I'm a Dad, and my son loves the movie Cars. Alright so it's not just him, I love it too. Even though this movie is incredibly entertaining there are some good life lessons in the movie as well.
If you've seen the movie, you know that the movie is set in the little town of Radiator Springs, this little town a one time was busy because it was located on the famous route 66. But an innerstate had been built near the town and so they lost the traffic and now the town is basically a ghost town, except for a few locals.
This is where Lightning McQueen gets stuck and he has to learn how to live in this small town environment. At first he hates it because he has his eyes only on one thing Winning the Piston Cup. But over time the local personalities grow on him and soon he learns to live and love in Radiator Springs.
Do you know how to live and love. Do you know how to embrace you life now, rather than always trying to look for the next win. Before you know it, you may miss your life. John 10:10 says "Jesus came so you can have life to the fullest..."

Slow down and smell the roses before they are gone, Maybe you need to get off the Highway and take route 66. Live and Love now because you never know if you have tomorrow.

Kur-Pow!!!!!

PJ

Why Men Hate Church.

2007-01-16T12:05:00.000-05:00

This week I'm doing a lot of reading, on the topic of Why Men hate Church!. In Canada my experience has been that Church is something that is popular with Women and children but not really with the Man of the house. The Last Church I was at was over 70% female.
The story is all too common. Mom gets up on Sunday morning and gets the kid's ready for Church while Dad stays home and watches football. Even if you watch TV shows like the Simpsons or That 70's Show, Marg and Kitty are taking the kids to church while Homer and Red stay home because that's what REAL MEN do?
Now a lot of the reason why men don't go to church is in them. Rebellion, laziness, as well as apathy are personal issues that men need to overcome. However there are some other reasons why men don't like to go to church.
In the church we have become quite a feminine culture. We have implied that the most spiritual men in the church are the nice guys. You know the guys that don't cause any trouble, they are humble and patient, and loving. Yes it's true, all those those attributes are important, but we leave out the other half. When was the last time you went to church and heard a sermon on how to be bold, courageous, How to take risks or how to be tough for God. We have feminized our faith, in fact we have even feminized Jesus. We have shown the gentle Jesus meek and mild, but we often leave out the masculine Jesus that has moments of anger and is even sarcastic at times.
If you want to teach a pure gospel, then you need to show all the sides of Christ.
One of the books I'm reading is called "No more Christian Nice Guy", by Paul Coughlin he says this:
"When we are free from the myths that Jesus was the Supreme Nice Guy, that the Father is a cosmic teddy bear, and that the Holy Spirit is a docile, breezy presence, men will find the church more compelling and relevant."
So over the next few weeks we are going to look at Jesus, our theology, and even church culture and we are going to examine the masculine side of Christianity. So that we can have a Church full of Good guys that live for and love Jesus. Oh and by the way for all the ladies at Life Church, this series will help your marriage, (if you are married), and your view of what a man of God should be. Sound interesting? Check it out this Sunday at 10:30.

Let the Good Guy Revolution begin!

PJ

A Life Church Manifesto

2007-01-09T09:50:00.000-05:00

Often in Church we talk about Vision statement. These are phrases we come up with that describe a goal or a dream that we have. That's cool but often we never get there. Today I want to provide you with something different, I want to provide you with a manifesto to live by. What is a manifesto you ask? A manifesto is a publicly printed declaration of intent. This is something you can start today and it can change your life. I'm calling this the Life Church Manifesto. (A lot of it is taken from the book Chasing the Lion by Mark Batterson)
Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Grab life by the horns. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away. Live your life to fullest today!!

I encourage you to print this off and read it everyday, to remind yourself that you have today to live.

Be Blessed!

PJ

Just Checking

2007-01-03T13:07:00.000-05:00

Hi everybody, it's great to be back from Christmas holidays. We had a great time and lot's of R&R. This week I'm doing a Blogotional check. From time to time we want to see who's out there reading our blog, and hear some comments on how we could improve it. There are two ways that you can help us.

1. Please leave a small comment if you are reading this post on the blogotional. The reason why we are asking you to do that is because we want to know how many people are still reading this blog.

2. If you can think of any way to improve the blog and don't mind sharing it with everyone, you can just leave it in the comments section. If you have a comment but you don't want everyone to read it you can email me at jmcmillan_life@rogers.com.

Thanks for you help everyone, we want to make sure that we are using our time as your pastors efficiently.

Happy 2007

PJ

You thought you were busy

2006-12-22T11:16:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-12-21T14:28:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-19T11:32:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-12-14T10:32:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-12-12T11:47:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-06T09:46:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-30T11:47:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-28T10:52:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-16T14:01:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-14T10:55:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-09T10:59:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-07T12:52:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-02T14:17:00.000-05:00

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

2006-10-31T10:36:00.000-05:00

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

2006-10-26T12:36:00.000-04:00

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?

2006-10-24T11:15:00.000-04:00

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?

Block Frenzy

2006-10-23T10:35:00.001-04:00

Hi. I’m an addict. Alright, this isn’t THAT type of blog… and perhaps addiction is a strong term. But this game is really mesmerizing. My sister showed this one to me last week . At first glance it seemed incredibly simple and definitely doesn’t have much to it, but this game is WAY HARDER than it looks. In fact, the game says that if you can last 25 seconds or more you’re EXCELLENT. Now I’m no gamer, but I would like to think that I could make it at least 25 seconds through your average web game. THIS IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE GAME. The first time I tried I was out in less than a second. In fact, my highest score (after about 30 tries to date) is 17.495 seconds… putting me slightly higher than the average score, but below “very good”.

While you’re here, I challenge you to a game of Block Frenzy (click here or go to blockfrenzy.com). Post your best time here as a response. The winner will get a prize ;).

Lessons My Mum Taught me

2006-10-19T14:50:00.000-04:00

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, ÂI am the light of the world. If you follow me, you wonÂt have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.Â

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

2006-10-17T12:17:00.000-04:00

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