Have we lost sight of sin?

Have we lost sight of sin? Do we know what it is?

When people do crazy evil things that result in things like the Newtown tragedy (shooting) or the recent Tim Bosma murder, we call the evil doers crazy, sick, etc, which they are, but do we associate their actions with sin and a fallen world?

Do we understand sin and its dark deceptive ways? When a person hurts us with something they say, do we associate it with sin, the same sin that is in us, but may have different outlets and outputs. Or do we condemn that person?

People involved in heinous crimes have the same root issue we all have, "sin". They may have had poor upbringings or other circumstances that they will argue contributed to their poor choices, but at the core of the issue is sin. These people will pay severely for the consequence of their sin as will the innocent lives their sin has forever disturbed.

Sin, its all around us, its part of our daily lives. We live in a fallen world, a dark sinful world.

What am I doing about sin in my life? It may be anger issues, coveting, lust, pride..............am I taking the necessary measures against sin? Only God can combat sin.

One day we will be made perfect.....that is if we have accepted Christs free gift. One day sin will be conquered for eternity.

Ephesians 6:10-18 (http://www.biblegateway.com)

New International Version (NIV)

The Armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Whats really required to have a good time?

Its the long weekend, time for a good time!!

The talk is that the LCBO will strike in Ontario closing the liquor stores. This would of course disrupt a lot of long weekenders good times.

So what is required to have a good time anyway. What are the essentials? Is it booze, dope, sex? Can you go to a party without booze and have a good time? It it possible to enjoy a long weekend with limited alcohol? Could that really be possible?

If my reliance is on booze to have a good time, how much depth do I have. Now I am a man who enjoys a drink here in there, but's its never been the determining factor in whether I can have a good time or not. That is more a reflection of who I am and the depth of the relationships I have. That's what is essential to me having a good time. If the centre of my being is happy, I am happy and not reliant  on very superficial things like a drink.

Is the centre of your being happy, what makes or breaks your day? Is whatever you are relying on for your happiness working? Do you have lasting happiness?

Do you have inner peace......that's whats central to a good time.

Matthew 11:28-30 (http://www.biblegateway.com)

New International Version (NIV)

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Come to me / Kari Jobe

An emotional make over in process.....

Coming up here in May I will go for more testing on my lungs. Scans in 2012 saw a nodule on my one lung. Subsequent testing in 2012 showed no additional growth so the medical staff determined to followup here in May to do a comparative test.

While I feel well, its the uncertainty this kind of thing and the health issues we have experienced in our house over the last 8 years that have worn our emotions thin. When I experience back issues like I have this spring, it's easy to connect the dots and think "oh NO" is this the cancer, after all back pain is how they found it in the first place.

Everyones coping mechanisms and ability to handle stress are different. For me I came to a breaking point about a year ago. I simply had come to the end of my rope and what I could cope with. My emotions were raw, my anxiety issues were bad and I was struggling with depression. Poor administration of antidepressants and thinking I could be superman and work through chemo didn't help. I was mentally spent.

Over the last year I have learned and done some important things that are helping me cope better;
- recognising how Satan can twist ones thinking. It's OK for Christians to be real, to hurt and to show it. We don't have to be Macho and always at our Sunday best. We can be real.
- sometimes we have to step back, do less so we can take care of what's most important, "relationships"
- ones journey can be very lonely as mine has been at times. Not everyone is going to be able to love on ya the way you might hope, some will say and do some hurtful things, stick to those who truly love you by their words and actions
- I am a contemplative silent muller, I am learning to better communicate my feelings, especially to my wife
- since both my wife and I have health challenges, we have the stress in our house that these things add, it is important for us to take time away. Maybe it's dinner, a weekend away, etc. Satan would love nothing better than for these stresses to be our ruin.
- the antidepressants I was on were doing more harm than good. I am not against them and have used them successfully in the past. As the doctor said, the one I was on simply was no longer a fit.
- working out has been a good replacement for the antidepressants and my progress has been closely monitored
- seeing a psychiatrist and learning more about myself, who I am, why I do what I do, how life has affected me, and how I can improve my coping mechanisms by disciplining my thought patterns. It's no easy task and there are plenty of things anyone can worry about. Basically I have had to change the way I handle stress, I can't just suck it up anymore. I am learning to recognise better how it affects me and what I need to do to cope. Sometimes it's breathing exercises, sometimes it's working out, sometimes it's talking it out, sometimes it's praying and sometimes it's all of the above.
- learning to deal with the facts. I am naturally a sensitive guy that can easily visualise things and sense how things will unfold. Being in a worn out state, these tendency's sometimes led me down bad paths. I am learning to deal with the facts more. For example, I might foresee my boss having a concern with something I said or did, but rather than dwell on this thinking I have to train my thoughts to think, unless I have been given the facts, I don't worry about it, I try to leave it in Gods capable hands
- it's one thing to say we trust God in all things, it's a whole other thing to regularly do it in faith, to allow him to be part of your every day. When you are at your end as I have been, even the trivial seems overwhelming. The moments and days when I am able to rest in the fact that no matter what happens to my health or my wife's, that God is in control, are pretty good days. When I start operating on my own and letting my mind dwell on misfortune or worry I run into problems. Although my psychiatrist is not a Christian, living in the moment as he says, is quite biblical, but like I said it takes faith to live it out and to truly abide in God so he can abide in me.

An emotional make over in process.....

John 15

New International Version (NIV)

The Vine and the Branches

4Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

saying goodbye to an uncle, he was a great man

Saying goodbye to family is never fun, since 1999 my wife and I have said good bye to 3 of my grandparents, 5 of my uncles, her great grandmother, her grandmother, her aunt and nephew. In 1992 I said good bye to my dad. It seems like enough, but we know that this is life.

The most recent has been my uncle Joe, he passed in his 75th year. I have so many good memories of all of these people who have passed on, but today it;s about uncle Joe.

My memories of uncle Joe go way back and include fun filled Martin family reunions where the uncles would play football with us.....what a blast it was, farm boy me spending a few days in the city at uncle Joe's......what a culture shock that was for me, Joe making trips up to our area when my dad was battling cancer,  Joe and his dear wife spending a night at our house when grandma passed......we enjoyed their company and the wine they brought, them visiting me in the hospital in 2005 when my wife battled flesh eating disease, Joe taking the time to call me to see how I was doing and just taking a general interest in me over the years.

Joe was a genuinely nice guy who deeply cared about people. He always called my mom on Christmas day, he would take her for dinner after dad had passed on, he was a true gentlemen!!

Joe had a great laugh, I have never heard one even remotely similar. It was his very own and the kind that you could not help but enjoy. It made the zd, zd , zd sound......very hard to explain in word, but it was awesome.

Joe will be greatly missed, but we take comfort in knowing that of those whom have gone before that have accepted Christs free gift, we will see again......certainly Joe will be one of them.

Love ya Joe....a new laugh has joined the heavens

Gaither Homecoming - When the Roll is called up yonder
Leann Rimes - Amazing Grace
Carrie Underwood with Vince Gill How Great thou Art
I'll See You Again Lyrics Westlife
Westlife - You Raise Me Up (With Lyrics)

Does hurt drive you more than you realize?

As I journey along I am realising how much of a role hurt plays on our society, in each of our lives. Maybe your thinking, "you just realised that bud".

As I study and seek council in my own life I realize that hurt is what often steers us. The challenge is where does it take us, where do we choose it to take us?

Have you ever stopped to think of how you are responding to hurt caused by: something someone said or did, dashed dreams, guilt from how you have behaved, abuse, coping with children with learning or other disorders, health crisis, marital issues...............

Hurt always leaves a void that has to be filled, but with what?

Hurt may lead us to over indulge in chocolate (me), sex or any means of filling the void. Hurt people often look to others, in some cases this is good, in other cases it leads to misunderstandings, affairs and more hurt. Hurt may cause rage, suicide, depression anger. If you are a christian hurt led you to God. If you have other beliefs, hurt and a deep longing led you there.

Figuratively speaking, "what is your comfort food" when you are hurting?

Hurt really does steer us and although we have a loving God who promises to meet all of our needs, how often do we choose that remedy first? He says come to me all you who are weary, but really is that our first stop, or are we more apt to stop elsewhere like the liquor store.

Where is hurt leading you?

Kari Jobe - What Love is This (Lyrics)

What love is this

I am not the perfect christian

How burdened are you with being the perfect Christian, with always doing and saying the right thing? Do you often feel burdened to say encouraging things, pray a certain way, read the bible a certain amount? How's it working for ya? Do you feel buried by a huge heap of expectations that you will never live up to? Is it squeezing the enjoyment out of you?

To a degree we all have a bit of Pharisee in us both in what we expect of ourselves and others. Remember they were the rule followers in the bible.

The older I get the more I understand why the greatest command is love. It is so central to all things good such as forgiving and accepting. God accepts that we won't be perfect until heaven and loves us anyway. I believe he wants us to try but not so much on our own effort.

If we love him and allow him to work in us, then it his effort, his work, not our human striving. If we cry out in faith, it is his strength. If we trust in all things, it is his doing. So why do we strive so hard on our own when we have a God who wants to be our everything?

Romans 3:23 (http://www.biblegateway.com)

New International Version (NIV)

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Will our kids question "the loving God"?

I suppose we all have our fears about our kids. We wonder how they interact at school and what they are being taught. After all in some senses they are raised by other people. They spend the day at school and only a few impressionable hours at home. We hope that they are hanging with the right crowd and making good friends.

There are signals of course, signals and signs of what they are being taught, of what is being impressed on them. Sometimes our kids are singing songs that I can assure you we don't sing here or they let words slip that they heard at school.

Those few hours we have with them are so precious and important. It's our opportunity to guide them and impress good habits on them.

One of my fears for our kids is there view of God. How will they view a loving God that in their sort lives of 8 and 9 years has allowed their mommy to battle with illness and experience a number of very close calls with death? What do they think of a God who allowed our family to get in a bad accident? How is there picture of God formed with the knowledge that their dad has cancer?

Information can always be handled in multiple ways. In our house, with our experiences, it's important for us and for our kids to focus more on how God has delivered us rather than the hard times we have encountered. Satan would have us focus on the negatives. He wants to choke out our happiness and any ideal we have that God is loving. Despite the challenges we know that we have a God that works in the details, a God that has journeyed with us and often carried us.

It's become important for us and for our kids to train ourselves to focus on God's goodness.

Proverbs 22:6 (http://www.biblegateway.com)

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Start children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are old they will not turn from it.