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We have been making our way through Luke in our sermons.  Pastor Ryan Lee was up today to speak on Luke 11.

The Lord’s prayer, evil spirits coming back to take over, the sign of Jonah, Beelzebub, criticism of Pharisees and scribes.  All there!

Pastor Ryan did what I have never seen or heard before.  He turned the chapter into one theme.  I’ve read commentaries, heard numerous sermons on Luke 11.  This is the first time that I heard such a powerful presentation of what I suspect was the theme Luke was after.  The theme:  We can all try to do things on our own.  We can set up our own rules, we can hope for power that is our own, we can expect that our life is fine without adding anything else.

And Jesus wants us to see the exact opposite.  We must come to depend only on Jesus.  No one else – not even ourselves.  You can catch the sermon at http://www.sermoncloud.com/kindersley-alliance/luke-11/

Let me just prepare you.  You may come with all the other sermons you have heard.  And you might miss the theme Ryan is working to elaborate.  Listen carefully.

There is something about winter.

As snow falls and we become confined to a house or residence, we begin to feel restricted.  We can hibernate for the sake of rest.  Most of us become agitated and grumpy.

For most of us here in Kindersley, we have hit almost six months of winter.  Half a year.

My hairdresser this week commented on this negative attitude.  She has taken up the positive attitude that winter is great.  The crunch of snow, the white that is bright white, the enjoyment of outdoor activity.  When people come in complaining she overwhelms them with the good side.  And, I imagine, the room’s atmosphere changes and the sunshine begins to appear.

What if we began a contest?  Let’s see how many good things about winter we can talk about.  If you want to comment below, I’d love to hear what you have to say.

A few weeks ago our associate pastor talked about Paraprosdokians in one of his sermons.  Here is a part of a recent email forward from a friend!

Paraprosdokian – “Figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently used in a humorous situation.”
“Where there’s a will, I want to be in it,” is a type of paraprosdokian.
    1. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
    2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it’s still on my list.
    3. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
    4. If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.
    5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
    6. War does not determine who is right – only who is left.
    7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad

Lots of fun.  Do you have a paraprosdokian in mind?

Yesterday I cleaned my oven.  The first time I’ve cleaned “my” oven.  I ran across a magnet that said, “Jill’s kitchen.”  That probably describes the area in which the oven was placed.

I had helped clean the oven previously.  The oversight was my wife’s.  Mine was a bit of the grunt work (and sometimes cleaning oven racks requires just that).

The work yesterday was all mine.  From the planning to the scraping to the execution of the task. 

Interestingly, when I was done, I realized I had not cleaned the top of the oven.  That will await the next cleaning.  Sometimes the things that we see are the areas that get attention.  Next time around  I have listed in my mind to follow up on the unseen areas as well.

All in the learning! 

This also was the first time my son had a birthday without his mother around.  I sent greetings (snail mail, phone message, email and facebook).  The year of firsts is not mine alone!!