Daylight Savings Ends

This weekend marks the end of daylight savings in my neck of the woods. I like the fall because the clocks go back an hour... I love sleep. Another bonus is that sometimes people forget to change their clocks which means that there are a few extra bodies showing up early for church which is always great for set up.
This clock change got me thinking about time. Our whole existence seems tied to and even controlled by time. At the end of the day, however, the way that we experience time is really rather synthetic. With the addition of electricity and lights and now things like daylight savings etc. I realize we can really manipulate time, more often than not for reasons of commerce. We often talk about time as if we were subject to it without any say at all wishing we had more hours in a day to do this and that. The reality, however, is that aside from the sunrise and the sun set, we are really in control of the rest. The question that I have been pondering is how my schedule reflects my spiritual life.
This is my thought this week...if I am totally surrendered to the Lord who has complete authority and control of my life, does my calendar reflect this? Do I fill in my day timer and then try to fit in the spiritual things around everything else or do I give all that I am to God and ask that he would direct how I spend my time? Who is really in control of my life? Is it me, my employer, my family or my Lord? Of course, this may lead to many other aspects of my relationship with God such as trust. Do I really trust enough to give over control? Do I really trust God as provider should there be a decision between what God asks of me and what my employer expects? Do I trust that Jesus is the source of true abundant life when I decide that my child will not engage in every possible activity and opportunity? And there are many other questions that will come up I imagine.
I guess it really comes down to a question of authority. I am reminded of a passage in Daniel regarding one who "looked like a son of man," that I think lies behind Jesus' use of the title Son of Man. I think that Jesus was saying that what we read below applies to him:

"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."
Daniel 7:13-14

If Jesus has authority over all aspects of my life, does how I spend my time reflect this?

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Ok, surely the Dead Sea Scrolls have little to do with Pop Culture, but they have been on exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum and have been making quite a splash in Toronto. We managed to take the kids on a field trip (an advantage of homeschooling) to see them. It was quite an amazing experience. The scrolls, as well as all the history, artifacts and information to set the context, were truly amazing and I feel blessed to have been able to experience it. One of my favourite moments was seeing a stone water jar that would have been used in Jewish purification rituals. Having just read John 2, where Jesus turns the water to wine, the jar caught my attention. I rushed to the plaque to read about the jar discovering it was used for ceremonial washing, then opened my bible to check out the dimensions on the jars in the story. I estimated that the jar was approximately the same size, and realized that this would have been very similar to the kind of jar that Jesus had filled with water and performed his first miracle. It was like the story jumped off the page and came to life in my mind, more clearly and more realistic than ever before. It was when I rounded the corner, however, that the most profound moment came for me.
Just around the corner they had two stones that were a part of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The first was a cornerstone with a Hebrew inscription, indicating is was probably the place from where a priest would blow the trumpet announcing the start of Sabbath. It was cool to think that Jesus may have walked under that stone!
The second stone bore an inscription in Greek. Why a Greek inscription on a stone from the Jewish Temple? This inscription indicated that no non-Jew (hence the Greek for non-Jewish readers) was to venture past this place, into the the Holy part of the Temple, an offense punishable by death. It was while standing in front of this stone, that I was profoundly affected.
For the first time in my life, I felt (albeit in a very limited way) what it was like to be excluded because of my race. This is an inscription that would have kept me, a Gentile, out and kept me away from the place God had chosen to dwell among and meet with his people. I was not welcome. I was profoundly saddened. It lead me to think about two things. Firstly, I celebrated the fact that this was not God's final intention. Whether it be the fact that God has created all people in his image, or His promise to Abraham that his descendants (the Jews) were to be a blessing to all nations, God loves all of humanity. I take comfort from the words spoken through Isaiah,

"It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."
Isaiah 49:6

and Jesus himself who said,

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
John 10:16

I am thankful that Jesus would give His followers the task to be witnesses to "the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

I am especially encouraged by the visions of worship in the heavenly realms given to the apostle John who heard this new song:

"You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

Revelation 5:9

and who saw,

a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

Revelation 7:9

Secondly, I found myself asking if there are things that we still do that would cause people to feel excluded. What parts of our culture and context do we so mingle with faith that someone on the outside might have a hard time differentiating. What things might lead someone to conclude they are unwelcome. I am not talking about overlooking sin in the name of inclusiveness. There are some things that we would dishonour God by overlooking. But I think that there are probably many things that we could overemphasize to the point of excluding others. Are there things that have made people feel unwelcome and unwanted or like they don't fit in and thus impeded there hearing the Gospel or participating in the Kingdom community? Of the top of my head I am thinking of race, gender, language, culture, leaning style, personality types and I am sure the list could go on. I imagine that there are other things that I would never see from my vantage point. If you have any ideas I would love to hear them.
Well those were some of my reflections from the exhibit and all of this happened before I even saw the first scroll!

Thanksgiving

Well, another Canadian Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was a great reminder of all that I have to be thankful for. We had a great service at church on Sunday morning before heading to the cottage for an amazing family dinner (there were bout 26 of us and there were actually five families missing!) Sunday night, followed by a relaxing day on Monday.
Saturday was a great day for me as well, really setting the stage for Thanksgiving. A good friend, her daughter and her grandson, invited us to go pick apples. We loaded up in the car, and after hitting a few of the expensive, incredibly crowded tourist driven farms, we finally happened upon William's Orchard. It was a little family run operation were there was no admission fees, no crowds, no rented animals for a petting zoo and where the picking of the apples was the actual attraction. For anyone who knows me, this was far more my speed! Getting out into the orchard truly helped my frame of mind and my heart and the Thanksgiving part of the weekend began for me. I remembered all the years that we had gone apple picking for my brother's birthday as I was growing up and was thankful for family. My own family and friends were there with me in the orchard and I was thankful for time them as well. I was also reminded of the year that I spent working at an orchard giving school tours. It was a few years ago now, at a time when the church I work for could not yet support a full salary for me. I took the part time day job to make a bit of extra money. My wife and I often look back to those years when we followed a call to come to Milton, where there was no salary, right after my wife had just lost her job (the salary we were counting on!) as some of the most formative and important years in our faith development. It is where we learned to truly trust in God, that He would keep his promise to always take care of our needs and that we could trust His provision. We often fall back on the lessons learned during that time when we followed obediently (crazily by the world's standards) and had no other choice but to trust and rely fully.
Well, as I was out in the orchard, another thought about God's provision struck me. I was thinking back to the spiel I would run the tour groups through, about the Bud turning to a Blossom, pollinated by the Bees which would become the apples we were picking (done with hand motions for added emphasis!). It really is an amazing process to think about and I was once again amazed at the care, attention and detail that God has gone to to ensure provision for the people He loves.
There is a song that my family learned at camp that speaks to this. We often sing it as a blessing before meals . I think that it actually came from a Disney film way back. It is simple, childlike, and yet is profound in its simplicity:

The Lord is good to me,
and so I thank the Lord,
For giving me the things I need,
The sun and the rain and the apple seed,
The Lord is good to me.
For every seed I sow,
An apple tree will grow,
And there will be an apple tree,
For everyone in the world to see
The Lord is good to me.

Many blessings and Happy Thanksgiving!
I'd love to hear some of the things you are thankful for...leave a comment.

Worship with Creation

It is that time of year again, when the air here in Ontario gets a little cooler and a little crisper. The leaves are beginning to change colour, and soon the horizon will be a veritable canvas of colours painted by the expert hand of our Creator. I love this time of year and I can't wait to get out into God's creation, to explore, to stand in awe of what is around me and to be led to worship. Of course, God's creation is all around us all the time, all four seasons of the year. I am hoping to use my excitement about fall to be a catalyst to start appreciating all that God has done around me all year long. With this in mind I started a new opportunity at church called Worship with Creation. The whole premise is to take one day a month, each month, to plan an outing into creation. My goal is to pick somewhere fairly local, and free (inspired by our Thirty Days of Almost Nothing experiment) and lead a group from church out into nature to experience some of the amazing things that God has for us right in our own back yard. As we experience God's creation up close, my prayer is that we would learn something more about its creator and to have a response of worship well up in our hearts.
We started last month with a visit to Grindstone Falls in Waterdown. We stood atop the falls, experiencing the mighty sound of the rushing waters while reading from Revelation 1:15 ... “and His (Jesus) voice was like the sound of rushing waters.” We then followed the creek down stream and witnessed both its beauty and its power as we traced its path carved through rock and wood. We were reminded of the beauty and the power of the resurrected Jesus.
Our next adventure will be to venture into some of the forested area atop the escarpment to experience the leaves changing colour to vibrant reds, oranges, golds and browns. I am excited to see how God may use this to teach us, inspires us, refresh us and nurture our souls.
Behind all of our adventures lies the thoughts articulated by Paul in Romans 1:20 "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." When we take a close look at all that God has made we may experience and come to understand something about God's character, God's power and God's nature. Whenever God chooses to reveal something about Himself to us then there is an opportunity to respond - and that response is worship.
So how about were you live? What are some areas that you could get out and explore?