The making of a menu

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Tomorrow is our SPN – Senior Pastor’s Network.  We gather a few times a year.  To inspire one another, to learn, to push ourselves, to support and encourage.  Generally we do this in a 24 hour period.

My turn to host is tomorrow — or should I say, my wife will serve as our hostess.

So, tonight we went over the meals.  They will be great!  And we will house the three other pastors who will be here.  Our basement suite suits beautifully.

The menu is great.  Thanks to my very gracious wife!

And so, I’ll eat, drink and enjoy the “fellow”ship we journey on from noon to lunch the next day!!

International Worker’s Sunday

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Sounds like an awesome day!  And it was.

Ross spoke of working in a country we do not know.  Working with people we can not name.  The work is tangible and the people are real.  But to name names and places could create problems.

For many this type of visionary work is exactly what spurs them on. 

A mission that is worth living and dying for.  That is the Christian vision. 

Life here and now will continue in the after forever.  There really is no dying — just a new lease on life.  And that’s the same place we want everyone to exist — now and eternally.  So we push on  in mission to bring people to that life.

Where that mission takes us, we do not know.  And what we will go through, we cannot fathom.  But this we do know, this visionary work is worth the final landscape we will see someday!

Yesterday

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You think you can survive a mere ache in the back.  You try to adjust your daily walk, quite literally.  But the backache continues.  So, you add muscle relaxants and keep going.

By yesterday I realized — you can’t go full steam and come out the other end standing tall!  I also realized I was to be out with a group of youth in the evening, planning outdoor games and indoor refreshments.

Therefore, in good logical sense, using <if> <then> statements I spend the day in bed resting my back.  The evening went well — with 20-25 people playing hide and seek, and capture the flag.  I walked and ran slowly and had a great time.  This morning I’m a bit stiff and may have to rest a bit more.

A tidbit from yesterday — working with Muslim people to bring them to Jesus usually takes about seven years of relational interaction.  I wonder how long it takes to bring a secular or “turned off church” person in Canada to Jesus through relational interaction?  Some of our church people would say they are still working on some people 40 years later!!

Forming our values

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In California the state ballot on November 4, 2008 reveals that consistent standards (left/right wing) are not to be expected from voters.  If anything, you never know what will be the final outcome — don’t count your chickens before they hatch.  Or on the other side of things — even if God revealed the standards for right living, voters would probably differ!

While California voted to change the state constitution so that same-sex marriage is not allowed, they also voted for proper “cages” for animals (standards for confining farm animals), against more money to pay for renewable energy projects (cars, cities, solar), against notifying parents of the termination (abortion) of a minor’s child — and that’s not all. 

The vote that received the highest percentage vote was the vote against police and law enforcement funding and criminal penalties and laws (69.4%).   This vote included voting negatively against the following —

  • Requires minimum of $965,000,000 each year to be allocated from state General Fund for police, sheriffs, district attorneys, adult probation, jails and juvenile probation facilities. Some of this funding will increase in following years according to California Consumer Price Index.
  • Makes approximately 30 revisions to California criminal law, many of which cover gang-related offenses. Revisions create multiple new crimes and additional penalties, some with the potential for new life sentences.
  • Increases penalties for violating a gang-related injunction and for felons carrying guns under certain conditions.

Read the California state proposition vote outcomes here .