This past summer I introduced myself to Jay and Andrea, a new family on our street that has a young daughter in Riley's kindergarten class. Jay is in construction and trying to get his mudding and taping business off the ground while working another construction job, and Andrea is a stay at home mom who is expecting another little one in December.
I walk to Tim Horton's about 3 times per day. It's about a five minute walk and I have to walk past Jay and Andrea's house to get there. About three weeks ago, I was walking home with my large double double, and Leigh's ice cap when I had a great conversation with Jay and Andrea. That conversation turned into a Gospel presentation. Andrea asked a great question and that was, "Can you ever do anything so bad that God will never forgive you?" I quoted Scripture to her from Romans 8:38-39 and that seemed to help her very much. For the next few weeks we didn't talk much. I saw Andrea at school when I would pick up Riley, we would have small talk, but nothing much.
Now this is where the story gets interesting. Last year somebody gave us a minivan. The CNBC (at that time CCSB) put brand new all season tires on it for us as a gift, and two weeks after we moved to Medicine Hat, the van gave up her last breath and died. Two weeks after that we bought our Jeep; however that van has stayed in our front driveway to this day. It has brand new tires, and I just can't bear sending the van to salvage with brand new tires. I wanted to give somebody the tires, but have not seen anybody in need.
Yesterday I was walking to Tim Horton's and spoke with Andrea and Jay and noticed that all four tires on their car were almost bald, and the snow is going to start flying in about 2 weeks. I told them about my predicament with the van and told them if the tires fit, they can have them for free. After I grabbed my double double, Jay came down to my place to check out the tires, and they will fit his rims on his car.
On my way back from Tim Horton's tonight Jay came running out of his house to meet me and after talking about Alberta Beef for five minutes he brought up the subject about God. He said, "Andrea didn't tell you this because it seemed a little too weird, but the night before you offered us the tires she prayed and asked God how we are going to pay for new tires." So here is two grown bald men, one with tattoos from his neck down and the other in a black hoodie, under a street light talking about the goodness of God. Both Jay and Andrea have not yet started a relationship with Jesus, but I invited them to go to Bible Study with us tomorrow night. He said, "I'm not sure if Andrea would go, but I really want to."
So can new rubber equal new life? I don't know, but when we give ourselves and our possessions away for the Kingdom of God, He has a way of using that to make Jesus more attractive to those He died for.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
The US Financial Crisis 2008
It seems these days that everywhere you look on the news, everyone is talking about the financial crisis in the United States. Just last night, Washington Mutual was sold to JP Morgan for 1.9 Billion dollars. Banks are falling, crumbling like crumbs from stale bread, and people are losing their homes all because of people's greed. I am by no means a financial guru, but I did sell cars for 2 years while I was in Texas. One thing I started saying after my first 8 months of selling cars is that something like this would happen. This is why:
I have seen my fair share of credit reports, and the average American is is within a month of bankruptcy at any given time. People are so far in debt because they want things they can't afford (the same is true with Canadians). However, the US government is in the same boat as the average American. As of September 27, 2008, the US National Debt is $9,853,481,831,514.09. That is just shy of 10 Trillion Dollars! Now I don't know anything about the buyout plan the Bush government is proposing, but I do know that there are a lot of people against it, saying it will raise taxes and increase inflation.
It looks like the United States is in need of a financial saviour. Someone to cancel the debt of Wall Street, the debt of the nation, and the debt of the common family. Just for that national debt to be erased, each American, (man, woman and child) would need to pay $33,000 each! For a family of four that would be $132,000 and that is just to cancel the debt, that does not include government funded programs, wages, military and the like! In 2003 the average American family was in debt over $18,000 not including mortgage or car loans! It seems like America has a problematic lifestyle of debt that is next to impossible to dig out of.
Now before we go and start pointing the finger at the Americans for their debt we need to look at ourselves first. We all have ENORMOUS debt called sin that makes the US financial crisis look like a minor mishap.
We have sinned multiple times against Almighty God. That is a very scary idea when the Bible is very clear that only 1 sin will land you in hell for eternity. There will be no purgatory, do not pass go, go directly to hell.
Most of us think that we are good enough to get into heaven, but lets look at it this way. Let's just say that you are a really good person and only sin 3 times per day. That is 1095 sins per year. Now lets just say that some of your days were better than others and you only sinned 1000 times per year. The average person in North America lives to be over 80 years old. So, a really good person would sin well over 80,000 times in their life. Remember 1 sin lands you in hell, and so a really good person deserves to go to hell 80,000 times over. Where are you standing right now?
Just like America needs some sort of financial saviour, we need a Saviour who will cancel our debts also. Imagine that you are in a court room and the judge looks at you and tells you that you are guilty of committing 10 of the strictest laws in Canada. He tells you that you will spend the rest of your life in jail or pay a $9,853,481,831,514.09 fine. Chances are you don't have that money since the US government doesn't have it either. So what's going to happen? You are going to suffer the consequences by rotting in jail.
Just before the judge slams down the gavel, somebody you don't know walks into the courtroom with a brief case. He says, "Your honour, I love the defendant very much." opens up his briefcase and shows the judge $9,853,481,831,514.09 in cash and says that he would like to pay your fine. What would you do? Would you take the free gift or would you go to jail for the rest of your life?
You see, that is what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross. He payed your sin debt so you didn't have to. It is a gift, but a gift needs to be received for it to truly be a gift. So how do I receive this gift?
You need to believe that Jesus paid your penalty and stop living life your way and start living life His way. The Bible says that we need to confess Jesus as Lord. That means He will become the boss of your life instead of you. You will live life on His terms.
You may be saying that you don't want that. Let's just review for a second. Banks are folding, people are losing their homes, the government is saying the dreaded "R" word, and we all know that it looks worse than the dreaded "R" word. Do you really think that if the Americans were able to get all of their debt canceled - from Wall Street, to US Government, to the average American family - would really say, "Wow, that was great, let's go into debt again!" Or would they rather put up new laws to prevent themselves from ever getting there again?
The question now becomes, do you want to live your life like a financial crisis, or do you you want to live it with eternal security?
I have seen my fair share of credit reports, and the average American is is within a month of bankruptcy at any given time. People are so far in debt because they want things they can't afford (the same is true with Canadians). However, the US government is in the same boat as the average American. As of September 27, 2008, the US National Debt is $9,853,481,831,514.09. That is just shy of 10 Trillion Dollars! Now I don't know anything about the buyout plan the Bush government is proposing, but I do know that there are a lot of people against it, saying it will raise taxes and increase inflation.
It looks like the United States is in need of a financial saviour. Someone to cancel the debt of Wall Street, the debt of the nation, and the debt of the common family. Just for that national debt to be erased, each American, (man, woman and child) would need to pay $33,000 each! For a family of four that would be $132,000 and that is just to cancel the debt, that does not include government funded programs, wages, military and the like! In 2003 the average American family was in debt over $18,000 not including mortgage or car loans! It seems like America has a problematic lifestyle of debt that is next to impossible to dig out of.
Now before we go and start pointing the finger at the Americans for their debt we need to look at ourselves first. We all have ENORMOUS debt called sin that makes the US financial crisis look like a minor mishap.
We have sinned multiple times against Almighty God. That is a very scary idea when the Bible is very clear that only 1 sin will land you in hell for eternity. There will be no purgatory, do not pass go, go directly to hell.
Most of us think that we are good enough to get into heaven, but lets look at it this way. Let's just say that you are a really good person and only sin 3 times per day. That is 1095 sins per year. Now lets just say that some of your days were better than others and you only sinned 1000 times per year. The average person in North America lives to be over 80 years old. So, a really good person would sin well over 80,000 times in their life. Remember 1 sin lands you in hell, and so a really good person deserves to go to hell 80,000 times over. Where are you standing right now?
Just like America needs some sort of financial saviour, we need a Saviour who will cancel our debts also. Imagine that you are in a court room and the judge looks at you and tells you that you are guilty of committing 10 of the strictest laws in Canada. He tells you that you will spend the rest of your life in jail or pay a $9,853,481,831,514.09 fine. Chances are you don't have that money since the US government doesn't have it either. So what's going to happen? You are going to suffer the consequences by rotting in jail.
Just before the judge slams down the gavel, somebody you don't know walks into the courtroom with a brief case. He says, "Your honour, I love the defendant very much." opens up his briefcase and shows the judge $9,853,481,831,514.09 in cash and says that he would like to pay your fine. What would you do? Would you take the free gift or would you go to jail for the rest of your life?
You see, that is what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross. He payed your sin debt so you didn't have to. It is a gift, but a gift needs to be received for it to truly be a gift. So how do I receive this gift?
You need to believe that Jesus paid your penalty and stop living life your way and start living life His way. The Bible says that we need to confess Jesus as Lord. That means He will become the boss of your life instead of you. You will live life on His terms.
You may be saying that you don't want that. Let's just review for a second. Banks are folding, people are losing their homes, the government is saying the dreaded "R" word, and we all know that it looks worse than the dreaded "R" word. Do you really think that if the Americans were able to get all of their debt canceled - from Wall Street, to US Government, to the average American family - would really say, "Wow, that was great, let's go into debt again!" Or would they rather put up new laws to prevent themselves from ever getting there again?
The question now becomes, do you want to live your life like a financial crisis, or do you you want to live it with eternal security?
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Awesome Night
We had an awesome night last night. It was the very first night for the Medicine Hat College Christian Faculty prayer night. I was the only non-faculty member their last night. There were about 12 fine Christian faculty at the prayer meeting, all wanting to see their students come to know the Living God, Jesus Christ. I was asked to share the vision of Pathway, so I did, and let the faculty know that I will be starting a student ministry on campus also. They are excited about that opportunity. There are some underground Christian groups right now through ESL, but nothing publicly recognized within the College. Please pray that God will open up the hearts of those students at Medicine Hat College and that we would be the light of Christ in a very dark environment.
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