Reviving the Soul

I've been enjoying Psalm 19 this week:

7 ¶ The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring for ever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous.
10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
11 By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
12 Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Lord give me living understanding. Give me wisdom and revelation and insight into the depth of your ways. Forgive me for when I have not esteemed your precepts and your ways.
I ask for light to come to my eyes that I would walk rightly; that I would be able to follow you and not stray from you, turning to the left or the right. Come and touch my heart and revive my soul through the power of your word.

Something I Saw

One of my Monday morning habits is to open up the paper to the culture section of the Edmonton Journal and look at the weekend box office movie report. I'm curious to see what the top films were and how much money they made. Meaningless information, I admit, but I'm a curious monkey!

This weekend the horror movie Saw IV came out and I was quite surprised this morning to see how well it did at the box office. The Saw movies come out each year at Halloween and this forth installment ran up an opening weekend of $32.1 million in the U.S and Canada. The franchise of movies have taken in a combined total of $165 million worldwide! This is truly staggering.

$32 million, despite being panned by virtually every reviewer around!

What grabbed my attention and made me laugh this morning was the quote in the Journal by Gitesh Pandya of Box Office Guru saying "Audiences have a very healthy appetite for this particular brand of horrr."

HELLO? LOL! While I understand what he's trying to say, the ironic word play is simply too much! How on earth can you have a 'healthy' appetite for torture horror movies? There is nothing remotely healthy about choosing to watch such things.

Anyhow, that's my ramble for today...

just something I Saw today in the paper!!

Not a Tribal Deity

I was feeling a little lethargic this afternoon in my spirit, and then I picked up John Piper's book "What Jesus Demands of the World" and started looking at it. As I was reading, I came upon the following quote:

Did He make demands on the whole world?

One may ask, did Jesus give all these demands to the world, or did he give them only to his disciples? Is this an ethic for the world or just for the followers of Jesus? The answer is: The demands he gave only to his disciples are also meant for the world because he demands all people everywhere to become his disciples. That is the point of his final command: 'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you' (Matt. 28:19-20)

Jesus dares to lay claim to 'all nations' - all ethnic groups on the planet. NO exceptions. Jesus is not a tribal deity. All authority in the universe is his, and all creation owes its allegiance to him.

In the background Luke Wood is singing Kevin Prosch's classic refrain,

"He will come to us, like rain, spring rain...
He will come to us, like rain, spring rain..."

I felt that kind of spring rain on my spirit, as I read Piper's quote...

"He dares to lay claim... no exceptions...Jesus is not a tribal Deity"

So Amen Jesus. I will arise again and stir up my spirit to follow you again.
Come and lay hold of your claim to all of me. No exceptions Jesus. You are God and I gladly surrender to your leadership. Come and have all of me. My time, my money, my hopes, my dreams... all yours.
Come now to me like the spring rain. Cause your living water to flow inside my spirit!

If we ask, you will come
Send your rain on everyone
If we ask, you will come
Send your rain on everyone

So Lord we ask, for you to come
send you rain on everyone
So Lord we ask, for you to come
and send your rain on everyone

For every heart needs rain, spring rain
For every heart needs rain, spring rain

-Kevin Prosch

Reflections

This morning I spent time in John 4:1-42. As I read I wrote down some of my observations:

v. 6 Jesus was tired by the journey... I love that... sometimes I feel tired too!
v. 7 Despite being tired, Jesus saw the divine opportunity and responded to it.
v. 10 Do I know who it is that loves me today? Do I know who it is who is looking at the response of my heart?
v. 14 The promise of springs of living water on the inside... astounding!
v. 22 Salvation comes from the Jews... there is lots there.
v. 23 God desires worshipers
v. 34 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me' Jesus desired to obey
v. 35 Don't say 'four months from now'.... no excuses; no delays; the time for salvation is NOW
v. 40 'They urged him to stay...and he stayed 2 days'... link to v. 9 'Jews do not associate with Samaritans)
v. 43 Initial faith based on the testimony & faith of another; further, deeper faith when they hear and know Jesus themselves!


Here's a prayer I wrote afterward:

Today Jesus I want to know you personally again. I want to really know who you are. I NEED to know you. I want living water flowing like a stream inside me. I want to have life on the inside. Bring restoration. Come, make all things new. Come and make all things new! Cause my response to be to worship you in spirit and truth, and the desire of my heart will be to obey you so that I might now stray from you. And I will have boldness to testify and speak of you to others; no more excuses saying 'it's not the time'; let me find the strength that comes from doing what you want me to do...yes, out of the overflow of my heart I will speak!

Glenn Beck Rules!

I'm watching the Glenn Beck show on CNN right now. Great stuff!! Ha Ha Ha!
Seriously, it's very entertaining.

Tonight's show is entitled "Liberty in Peril". It's complete with dramatic music at the beginning and end of each segment of the show.

There was a great segment about the evil of free-trade (NAFTA). The humorous part of all this, is the idea that America would be in any way nervous about the economic impact of increased free trade with such comparatively small economies such as those of Canada and Mexico!

Now concern about the impact of India and China on the American economy makes more sense!

What I find so interesting is the idea that there is so much concern about the state of the nation. Is American liberty in peril?

As I pointed out in a previous post, CNN has a real habit of providing programing that is designed to stir up fear and unrest about the state of the nation.

For example:
"Planet in Peril" is on the screen virtually all the time, in every show.
or
"Liberty in Peril" with Glenn Beck!

I admit that the 'drama' of his program is one of the reasons that I watch it... but I do think that in many ways it does serve to undermine Americans faith in their own government and the safety, stability and future of their nation.

One of the major messages that is getting broadcast over and over again is essentially: "Our nation is screwed up! The government is inept, the planet is falling apart, our borders are not secure and the terrorists are more and more of a threat to us."

It's with a kind of morbid fascination that I watch these things! Entertaining on one level and yet disturbing on another.

"Liberty in Peril"!! Ha Ha.... that's a hot one! LOL!

Who comes up with this stuff?

Glenn Beck rules!

Wildfires and Drunken Elephants

I've been watching some of the coverage of the California wildfires that are going on right now. The numbers reflecting the impact are staggering:

1000 - 1400 homes destroyed
500,000 people evacuated
1200 square km burned.

It made me think back to the forest fires that burned hundred's of homes in Kelowna a few years ago. This summer when Pam and I were in Kelowna, we could still see the extent of those fires, especially from the middle of the lake.

A friend of mine actually saw those fires in a prophetic dream prior to when they actually started. I don't recall if there was a specific message related to the Kelowna fires (I'd have to ask him) but I remember how stunned I was when he told me about it.

I wonder if there is any prophetic significance to the California fires. I suppose there's lots of prophetic words out there by now! There is lots of recognition that climate change is certainly a factor, however I can't help but wonder what the Lord is saying in all of this. Not saying He's causing it necessarily (although I don't rule that out!) but in the midst of it, what is God saying?


One a slightly more humorous note, there was a new article today which I loved, about some Asian elephants that wandered into a village in India looking for food. What they found was large barrels of rice beer. The elephants drank so much of the rice beer that they become drunk (can you imagine how much beer that would take!!) The story actually turns tragic when one of the elephants stumbled up against a high voltage electric pole, knocked it over and got electrocuted; other elephants came to help and they too got electrocuted. (again, we're talking about a seriously high voltage pole!) Many other elephants in the herd ended up safe.

Here's an interesting thought: why do we (I) tend to look for prophetic significance in a large-scale serious event like the wildfires, but not so much in the initially humorous, turned tragic tale of drunken elephants in India? Obviously God can and does speak through all types of events, yet why do we look for it in the one, more often than the other?

Last night

Last night I had a dream. It was one of those dreams that was quite clear when you woke up but faded quickly and you're left with the main point.

In the dream, I heard the Lord say over me, "He is a brand plucked from the fire". Something really bad was about to happen to me and the Lord stopped it. I don't remember exactly what it was; I don't know if it was an action by satan or by God's angel, or even by men, but God stopped it. I have this strange sense that whatever it was, I deserved it. That's still pretty clear to me. But God said no.

Anyway, I woke up this morning with that phrase 'a brand plucked from the fire' totally in my head! I thought it was in the Bible, but I wasn't sure because the language seemed unfamiliar to me.

It turns out that it's from Zechariah 3:2, in the KJV or NKJV version. (I'm more used to reading the NIV, which explains why it was vaguely familiar).

I wish I knew more about this. It was so strongly from the Lord, and the phrase has been ringing in my mind ever since I woke.

Here is the verse in context, in the NKJV:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.
And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”
Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.
Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”
And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the LORD stood by.
Then the Angel of the LORD admonished Joshua, saying,
“Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘If you will walk in My ways, And if you will keep My command, Then you shall also judge My house, And likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk Among these who stand here.
¶ ‘Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, You and your companions who sit before you, For they are a wondrous sign; For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH.
For behold, the stone That I have laid before Joshua: Upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ Says the LORD of hosts, ‘And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
In that day,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘Everyone will invite his neighbor Under his vine and under his fig tree.’”
¶ Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep.

If you have any thoughts on all this, please post a comment!

One of the best

Last night I went with my friend Al to watch the 2nd half of the Monday night football game between the Colts and the Jags. It promised to be a pretty good match-up but the reality was that the Colts were totally in charge. We decided to ditch the game and go to a movie instead.

So we went to see Michael Clayton. We were sitting in the theater with the normal music and ads on the screen when suddenly the sound disappeared. We were left for a very long time sitting awkwardly in the room with several other people, in deafening silence. It was well past when the movie was supposed to start, so I decided to go and find somebody to get things going. The movie theaters are automated these days so nobody who worked there had realized things weren't working out. After several attempts to get things going we were still sitting in silence. After about 20 more minutes of waiting and listening to the mindless chatter of the bizarre couple in front of us, I voted that we leave.

I'm not normally like this, but I went and asked for the manager and told him that I thought we deserved some free passes for having to wait for nearly half and hour. He immediately agreed and suggested that we go back to the counter and get a refund while he got some passes. When he came back to give us the passes, he said that if we were still interested they had just got the movie started; it wasn't all that late, so we went back to watch the film.

If you're into really good drama movies, Michael Clayton is one of most enjoyable movies I've seen in a long time. Probably the best movie I've seen all year. Really. Other than some rather offensive dialogue at the start, it's very well written and well acted. The story seems a bit confusing at first but it quickly comes together and I thought it was a simply outstanding movie. Tom Wilkinson gives a totally amazing performance and I thought that Tilda Swinton was strong in her role as well.

You kind of need to like a John Grisham style movie, and I'd go so far as to say that Michael Clayton is a better story than most of Grisham's work.

I really liked this movie and most likely will happily see it again. As I've already said, it's simply one of the most best movies that I've seen this year.

Confidence

This is my confidence
This is my confidence
I'm living for another age
I'm living for another age!

The Problem with CNN

I am a sucker for American politics. I've always enjoyed politics (perhaps why I took Political Science as a minor in University) but as I've gotten older I've come to like politics even more. Especially American politics. Thus I regularly tune into CNN news. Part of their programing is talk shows, and investigative news shows etc.

The problem is that so many of these shows are not even close to being objective. Yes, I know... news is almost always biased. (just ask a few Canadians about CBC!) So maybe the bias might be to the left or to the right of the political spectrum but a LOT of CNN shows have a different bias: they SLAM the American government. ALL the time! Just watch Glenn Beck or Lou Dobbs (he's the worst) or even Wolf Blitzer.

They claim to be the 'most trusted name in news' but I think they're the 'most NEGATIVE name in news'!!

I'm not an American but I'm floored at how much cynicism and negativity they have in their own government. They regularly disparage George Bush and have 'guests' on their shows that do the same. Basically they think their own leaders, regardless of whether they are Republican or Democrats are totally incompetent.

Today there was an interesting twist in all this: Glenn Beck had this bizarre show where he was applauding President George Bush for making a much publicized reference to a possibly impending 3rd world war; the result of the current nuclear program that is being developed in Iran.

I like Glenn Beck. He's blunt and highly opinionated which makes for funny TV. (my favorite was his recent interview with John Hagee!!) He seems to know a lot, but "here's what I know" (ha ha):

It doesn't help to spread paranoia amongst the general populace of the United States about a possible situation that they can do absolutely nothing about. Paranoia is becoming epidemic in the excited States! People are worried about the lack of security at airports, the continual influx of illegal immigrants, and there is a continual focus on the inept government's inability to do anything about it.

So my basic point is that I think it is a HUGE problem to have this kind of negativity and cynicism toward the government continually broadcast to millions of people. The reality is that there simply isn't enough interesting news going on in the world to support a 24/7 TV news station; this inevitably must lead to such biased interpretations of the actual news.

This WILL have an increasing impact on the nation. It has to. As we look toward the 2008 Presidential campaign, you have to wonder how much impact it already will have!

I regularly wish I could contact these guys with an honest question of why they slam their own government so much. Like, why does't Lou Dobbs run for office, since he's got all the answers and thinks that the government are filled with idiots?

Don't get me wrong: I'm not speaking for or against the Bush administration. Here's what's going to happen, regardless of who wins the Whitehouse: these program hosts will continue to critique and slam the government.

So if you wonder whether I'm right on this or not, tune into CNN and watch Lou Dobbs, or Wolf Blitzer. Better yet, check out Glenn Beck, and have yourself some good entertainment!

Sitting in the Hallway

I went to pop in and visit my friend Al Seeman up at Vanguard College. When I arrived I discovered that he wasn't in his office. I thought of calling him but then I was suddenly struck by how quiet it was in the hallway. I couldn't hear a thing. I decided to sit down. It was amazing to me how quiet it was; we don't live in a quiet culture. There's noise everywhere! It gets to the point that we can't really feel comfortable in silence. We don't exactly know what to do.

So I'm sitting in the hallway thinking that I should probably leave and get on with other things, yet I simply couldn't quite leave! I actually got up a couple of times and then sat down again! I just wanted to be in the silence.

At one point I picked up a copy of the 'Voice of the Martyrs' newsletter. Inside the front page was quote from the founder of the ministry which really struck me:

Crowned with Jesus, you are free from the worry of calculating results. You quietly follow your impulses,knowing that the law of God is written in your new heart. You know that God is as much your Father as He was the Father of Jesus Christ, and that He cares for every detail of your life.

Pastor Richard Wurmbrand

Tomorrow I'm going to the 'Lead Like Jesus' seminar. There are a lot of excellent speakers, so I'm excited about that; but at the same time I'm apprehensive because so much of what I've gotten from these kinds of seminars is quite the opposite to the quote above. What I've come away with in the past from the 'Leadership Summit' type conferences is that results DO matter! After all there are people to reach for Christ!! Okay, that's true, and I DO care about that, but somehow it can become a trap. Somehow it can become a pressure that move us (or keeps us) out of spiritual rest. Hmmmm..... interesting choice of words I just made there.... spiritual rest...

Anyway, so what was the Lord saying to me today in the hallway? Throughout the day I've sensed a number of things God impressing on me, but in that moment I think He was wanting me to find Him more often in places and moments of silence.

These days many people like to quote Zephaniah 3:17, about God singing over them; I'm reminded of the part of that verse "He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love".

Sometimes my response to that is to wonder why exactly God would delight in me, but lately I've been trying not to figure that out, but learn how to enjoy it. I suspect that there's more 'rest' in that response.

So here's to God speaking to us in hallways! :)

Viewer Discretion Advised

There are lots of TV shows these days that have the 'viewer discretion advised' warning at start of every section. This warning comes not only at the beginning, but after each set of commercials when the show returns as well. But what about the commercials themselves? Why do there seem to be no standards for the commercials themselves?

Currently there are commercials running for the upcoming vampire horror movie '30 Days of Night', which unfortunately is set to hit movie theatres in the next few weeks. I don't normally get so bent out of shape by the previews for these movies, but I particularly dispise this movie!

After several scenes from the movies which have been selected to give views a taste of what the movie is like, the closing clip is of a young woman wandering around outside, terrified out of her mind, crying and saying 'O God', 'O God', 'O God'. Then a very nasty vampire creature appears in and says 'No God' and then the scene ends with the girl screaming her head off and then they cut to the title of the movie.

I have thought quite a bit about this clip and believe me it's NOT because I am interested in the movie. I think these movies are extremely demonic in nature and are some of the worst commentaries on the sad and deprived nature of our western society. Who dreams these things up anyway? Oh, I'd say some people who have large, long-term demonic oppresssion in their lives!!

I think that the selection of the 'No God' clip is not without spiritual significance. I happen to believe strongly in God and also in the devil and I also believe that this 'No God' clip is spiritual filth that is being spewed out across our natiion. It is a message that is being delievered thousands and thousands of times into homes all over North America. We need to get this straight: it IS a message and it is NOT about the movie; it's way bigger than the movie. This message is being repeated over and over and over again in all sorts of differenct mediums, in books and TV and movies and music.

Like I said, I'm not normally given to such severe reactions, but there is something spiritual about this preview that just sets my spirit wild with righteous indignation. Each time I've seen it, I've wanted to shout 'there IS a God' and 'God is GREAT', 'God is GOOD', 'God is LOVING', 'God is KIND'. I've wanted to shout it out to counteract this filth and this lie.

Finally, on a less spiritual note, WHY is such a movie preview allowed to be shown on TV in the first place? What about the 'viewer discretion advised' warnings? This short preview is, in my opinion, more disturbing and scarier than many of the TV shows that have the warnings attached to them. I realize that these warnings really do very little to actually dissuade anybody from changing the channel, but the point is simply why do there not seem to be the same standards for commercials as for TV shows?

I will look forward to the hopefully short life-span of this movie and pray that is fades quickly onto the forgotten shelves of some local video store, joining the pathetic list of other such movies that eventually nobody remembers and nobody watches anymore.

The sad reality is that most likely enough people will go to see the movie in the theatres that more such films will continue to be dreamed up and produced.

View discretion is STRONGLY advised!