Hip 2 B Holy

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

God's Earth

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

Prosperity Gospel ????

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

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

PJ

Coming back to Life!!

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!!!

PJ

Hello

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!

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?

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

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

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 <><

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 <><

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<><

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<><

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 <><

In God we trust

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

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<><