Money, Money Money!

Well, God is good isn't He. I just finished paying tuition, which was very expensive, and barely on time. Today is tax day in Canada, so my beautiful, gorgeous, and well respected wife opened up my T4's. Well, one from Safeway wasn't a T4, but a check for a substantial amount of money. Apparently, I got reimbursed my wages after the raise came from the union after I quit Safeway. God knows our needs before we ask Him, and provides when we need Him.

Last Day

This will be my last day in Calgary for a long time - I hope. I write my last final in 6 hours on Joshua. Then I'm done, done, done, done, done! It is very hard planting a church while you are going to school almost 4 hours away. Now I get to focus on my family and church planting. Speaking of church planting, Dwight Huffman, the head of church starting for Canada will be in Medicine Hat on Thursday prayer walking (more like prayer driving since it will rain) the city with me. Pray that God will honour our work in Medicine Hat and that we can get a core group started soon.

The Exclusivity of Religion, The Inclusivity of Christianity

Yes, I know, the title is a paradox. There are so many religions that say they are the only way - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc. Secularists say that religion has to go, and the religious say that secularism has to go, and fundamentalists say everything has to go, except what they believe. I was on Nick Malazzo's blog, Symbiosis, this morning and found a great sermon discussing this and the great points that secular society brings to the table and, the great points other religions bring to the table and what Christ has to offer. Click here to listen.

God, Ozzy and Me

I am reading my way through the Book of Joel right now, and seeing the judgement and grace of God. I have noticed that being a father has drastically changed my view about God, especially in the Old Testament. When I would read the OT, I would see God saying, "Shape up or ship out!" However, now I see God saying, "Look, your actions and your lifestyle are going to take you to a place where you don't want to go and I certainly don't want you to go there either. Will you please make adjustments in your life so I can start blessing you again. Get back on my plan for your life, where you will find peace."

I haven't read Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, in a LONG time, so i went online this morning after reading my Bible and looked to see what Ozzy had to say:

"Seekest thou great things for thyself?" Jeremiah 45:5

Are you seeking great things for yourself? Not seeking to be a great one, but seeking great things from God for yourself. God wants you in a closer relationship to Himself than receiving His gifts, He wants you to get to know Him. A great thing is accidental, it comes and goes. God never gives us anything accidental. There is nothing easier than getting into a right relationship with God except when it is not God Whom you want but only what He gives.

If you have only come the length of asking God for things, you have never come to the first strand of abandonment, you have become a Christian from a standpoint of your own. "I did ask God for the Holy Spirit, but He did not give me the rest and the peace I expected." Instantly God puts His finger on the reason - you are not seeking the Lord at all, you are seeking something for yourself. Jesus says - "Ask, and it shall be given you." Ask God for what you want, and you cannot ask if you are not asking for a right thing. When you draw near to God, you cease from asking for things. "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him." Then why ask? That you may get to know Him.

Are you seeking great things for yourself? "O Lord, baptize me with the Holy Ghost." If God does not, it is because you are not abandoned enough to Him, there is something you will not do. Are you prepared to ask yourself what it is you want from God and why you want it? God always ignores the present perfection for the ultimate perfection. He is not concerned about making you blessed and happy just now; He is working out His ultimate perfection all the time - "that they may be one even as We are."

I have been a driven person most of my life. Before Leigh and I were married, I was working 3 jobs, going to seminary full time, running a youth group, running a home group, and was the minister of evangelism at our church. People used to ask me how I did it, and I would tell them that God enables me to do it, but I was really thinking, "Because I'm not lazy, get off your butt and start doing something for God."

Lately God has been showing me (and today in particular) that I have not been fully abandoned to God, but have been fully abondoned to not portray laziness. I know that a lot of people are not like me in the lack of laziness issue, but most are like me in that we are abondoned to something else - a mindset, an activity, a person - instead of being sold out to God.

Dr. Peacock told us many years ago that we cannot fully understand the New Testament until we understand the Old Testament. As I am reading the Old Testament, there is a ton of marriage allusions between us and God in there. That is why love God (Be abandoned to God in all things - heart soul, mind, strength) is the first commandment.

I'm working on it - it's not easy, but it sure is worth it.

Second mission team

We are so excited that our second mission team will be coming the end of May from Rome, Georgia. They have come to Medicine Hat four times before and have been praying that God would bring a Church planter to Medicine Hat. They have cultivated some friendship for us so we are very excited. Please be in prayer for the following people.

Craig Bagwell
Randy Todd
Chris Holland
Kim Holland
Jerry Lee
Jennifer Parr
Jarrod Roberts
Steve Karakos

Pray for safe travel, easy border crossing and for new friendships to be made. Please also pray for us to show the love of Christ to a city that is hungry for the gospel but many have been hurt by the church in general. Pray that we can get a core group of people formed.

Yesterday

I took the greyhound yesterday (Monday) for the last time to Calgary!!!! I usually leave on Tuesday mornings, but because the roads are bad, I thought I'd leave on Monday so I would be sure to be on time for school on Tuesday. I took the 1:55 afternoon bus, and boy was it packed.

I sat at the very back since it was so full and there was 3 young women and one of their boyfriends, just touring Canada on the bus. They all wanted to talk so we talked. Then I saw one of the ladies open a book, and it looked like Hebrew inside. So I asked her if she was reading Hebrew literature - and lo and behold she was reading the Koran.

I have never read the Koran before and she let me read it. Wow. The first page talks about Jews and Christians and some other religion that starts with an "S", and how Allah is very upset with them. I tried reading more, and it definitely does not read like the Bible. It is very choppy - at least in the first book that I read.

Anyway my new Muslim friend, Filson, and I began to talk more about our beliefs. We had a great time and one of the other young ladies was right into listening to us. I never knew that talking to a Muslim could be so much fun. Anyway, Muslims believe that Jesus is a prophet and nothing more. They respect Him as a prophet, but he is one of the minor ones. I asked her if she followed the Law of Moses, and she does. I told her that Moses says that all false prophets are to be stoned, and to tell if one is a false prophet - He just needs to give one false prophecy. Jesus never claimed to be a prophet - He claimed to be God and the Son of God.

Filson knew the Bible a little bit. She was born a Muslim and has Ethiopian ancestory, but was baptized a Catholic so she could go to a Catholic school, but practices Islam.

Filson does not believe that Jesus is God, and she doesn't understand how we as Christians can believe in 3 Gods in 1. She said, "That doesn't make sense." I told her to take a look at water - solid, liquid, gas - but still one hundred percent water. "Good point says our other friend."

"Well Jesus was just plain weird - talking about drinking His blood and such." Filson said. I told her the story behind it and that Jesus was celebrating the Passover with His disciples - then I had to give her the story of Passover, and then how that applies to Jesus Christ and His blood.

I feel so sad for my new Muslim friend, because she told me that she has no guarantee of salvation, in which I have since Jesus Christ payed my penalty.

Please pray for me new Muslim friend, Filson, and all the others that heard the Gospel yesterday that they would experience the Salvation Christ has to offer.

Why We Didn't Go To Church Today

It's not very often we opt out of going to church. We love the church we are attending right now. As a matter of fact the worship minister at the church we are going to tried to start a Canadian Southern Baptist Church with another good friend of mine here in Medicine Hat about 8 years ago. The reason we didn't go to church today was because we needed to dig ourselves out of our house. We got so much snow last night that it came up to Riley's waist. The snow came up to my knees in our backyard and we are supposed to get another foot of snow today. Yippee! By the time I'm finished shoveling this snow, I will end up looking like a Greek god.

Answered Prayer

I was starting to get depressed today. I turned 31 yesterday and I realized today that I haven't shared the Gospel in a day and a half. Some of you might be thinking it's just a day and half, like what's the big deal? Sharing the Gospel is what I love to do. It's my life, it's my favorite hobby, it's everything. Ephesians 1:7,8 says, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight..." God lavished this upon us when we accepted Jesus Christ. That meant He gave it to us in abundance, because our sins needed it in abundance.

Anyway, let's get to the answered prayer part, the previous statement was me getting excited over Jesus again. Hang around me and you will either get annoyed by Jesus or fall in love with Him.

A friend of mine called me from Evansburg today and we talked for almost an hour. I asked her to pray for us because we were having a hard time starting a Bible study. I specifically asked her to pray that we would get at least one Christian who wanted to partner with us in reaching Medicine Hat with the vision God gave us for Pathway. I went to Tim Horton's tonight and met Kelly. Kelly wants to help us and will be at our place for Bible Study on Friday night. He even walked with me to my house to find out where it was and he lives just a few blocks away! Praise God!

A Good Lesson Learned

While one is a church planter, he will invite many people over to his house for coffee and a Bible Study. I invite many people but none of them seem to show up. We had some friends from church over tonight and they showed us something about our new house that could be the reason why we don't have people over. They had a hard time finding our house because we don't have any house numbers! For any potential church planters out there, remember - house numbers are essential.

Humbled

I finished one of my assignments today for my Joshua class and thought that it would be nice to take a break - so I walked on down to Tim Horton's. I got a large double double and a Canadian maple (I had free roll up the rims for both), then I proceeded to walk to the other end of the restaurant which was empty. Medicine Hat is the sunniest city in Canada and today was no exception - a nice 75 degree day with full sunshine coming straight through the glass windows at Tim Horton's. I knew that if I sat there, not only would I burn my head, but I would also probably blind everybody is the store, so I went to the other side and found a table that had a news paper. As I was reading the news paper, there was a young couple beside me and she was telling her boyfriend that tough guys where pink. If you know me, you know that I don't know when to shut up and I replied to her, "Well I guess I'm out of luck then." Both her and her boyfriend started to laugh and they invited me to their table.

We started to talk and I noticed that he had a wooden cross around his neck, so I told him that was a nice cross and asked where he got it. Well that conversation led to me being able to share my testimony with them. I let them know that I was a pastor and now I am a church planter and I have been on both sides of the pulpit. I told them that I love Christians but I can't stand religious people. That opened them up even more and I let them know that we will be doing a lot of house churches that meet corporately. They took a brochure and my business card.

I am humbled that God would intersect my life with theirs. I am humbled that God would even use me. I just want to thank Jesus that He would use a very imperfect person to share His perfect plan of salvation in a city where over 90% of the people don't know Him.

True Friends and Great Fellowship

There is something different about Christians. When Christians meet for the first time and start talking, it's like we've known each other forever and we just got reunited. We have a prayer support group on our facebook account and there are many people on there that we have never met or have met just a few times, but they are committed to pray for us and the needs and challenges that face us on a daily basis. Early this morning, we got the dreaded phone call. Leigh's father had a heart attack. He is still alive and is in ICU in The Memorial Herman Woodlands Hospital. We got the phone call about 4:00 this morning and by 5:00 this morning I put the prayer request up on our facebook group. By 8:30 this morning we have received email, after email, after email telling us that these great Christian people have been praying for my father-in-law. There are people in Canada from BC to PEI praying for him, people in the States from Texas to Georgia praying for him and also people in Chile praying for him.

Never underestimate the power of prayer, nor the bonding power of the fellowship of believers. Thank you all for your prayers and reminding us just how much you love us.

God Is Going Gangbusters

I just led another person to Christ about half an hour ago. I met him at Tim Horton's tonight and I gave him a brochure and a business card. He called me about an hour ago, and I picked him up. We talked for a bit and I shared the Gospel with him. He is now in the Family of God. He will be here for Bible Study tomorrow. Praise Jesus! That is 3 salvations in the past week!

Bars, Bible Studies, and Brain Tumors

I had an interesting night tonight. I went to the Lizard tonight. It is the bar where I met Brian two weeks ago. I figure the bar is a great place to meet lost people who are willing to talk. Tonight I met Curtis. We started talking and I asked him what he did. He works in the shop at a car dealership, sometimes he bounces at a bar in Medicine Hat, and he talks to kids in high school about the dangers of drugs since he is also a recovering morphine addict who has been clean for 4 years. He asked me what I do, "I'm a church planter."

"What's that?"
"I find people who are interested in God or in spirituality and show them how the Bible applies to their life in the 21st century."

Well, it turns out that he has read the Satanic bible, and is wanting to read the book of Mormon also. I was able to share the Gospel with him at the bar. He didn't accept Christ, but he is going to come to a Bible study at my house on Sunday afternoon. He took a brochure and was looking at it and he saw the place where it says, "We also value relationships. When you come to Pathway, we want you to know that no matter your income, age, profession, education, race, or your past, we value you as a person and welcome your friendship." He said that he could tell that I wasn't judging him for his past. After that, he took my card and I saw him punch my phone number into his cell phone!

Then I asked the bartender, Amanda, if I could pray for her. She said, "Where could I start? How about praying for my sister, she has a brain tumor." So we prayed for her sister right there in the bar. She got a prayer card from me and when God answers her prayer, she will send it back telling how God answered it.

It's also very nice to have 4 cokes at a bar and only cost $2 - just in case any of you were wondering if I drank at the bar.

Witnessing Encounters Of TheThird Kind!

What a week! God was all over the place!!!! So it started of on Tuesday afternoon, and my brother picked me up from seminary and I was to stay at my parents place in Calgary. Patrick lives with my folks when he is in town since he is an over the road trucker. As we were pulling onto my parent's street he sees a guy outside shooting hoops. Patrick told me he has 2 packs of cigarettes and to give them to this guy, so I rolled down my window and handed him 2 packs of Marlborough's (it's hard to find them in Canada) he thanked Patrick and came around to his side of the truck and said, "Where the hell did you get these?"
"Texas." my brother replied.
"What the hell were you doing in Texas?"
"I've been an over the road trucker for about a month now."
"Get the hell out of here! My girlfriend's dad has been doing that for a while now too. I got a good job working for Hire a Husband - I'm making $25 per hour - just doing handy man work. Who the hell is this in your truck?"
"This is my brother Jason, he just moved to Medicine Hat from Texas."
"Get the hell out of here! What the f**k are you doing in Medicine Hat?"
"I am a church planter." I said.
"Expound." he said.
"Well, what I do is I find people who have an interest in God or in spirituality and I show them how the Bible applies to their lives in the 21st century."
"That is too cool!" he said, "I've been going to church for three weeks now over at Foothills Alliance."
"How do you like it?" I asked him.
"Well I've noticed a few inconsistencies." he told me.
"Tell me about some of the inconsistencies?" I asked him.
"Well, drinking." He said
"What about drinking?" I asked
"They don't drink." he said
"And the problem is...?"
"Well, I started reading the Bible - near the end - I think it's called John, and I noticed that Jesus drank wine."
"Oh, ya. He not only drank wine, He made a mother load of it also for his first miracle."
"Ok, so why don't Christians drink?"
"Well, first of all, God never told us not to drink. He told us not to get drunk. It's not because God doesn't want you to have a good time, it's because when we get drunk we don't always make the best decisions and our mind becomes under the influence of alcohol instead of under the influence of God."
"I understand now, he said."
"So, how are you and Jesus doing?" I asked him.
"Well, whenever I screw up, I ask for forgiveness."
"Try that in a court of law." I said, "You know, stand in front of the judge and tell the judge that you now understand the error of your ways and just ask him to forgive you."
"That ain't gonna fly." he told me
"I know. Now, picture yourself in the defendants booth in court and the judge says to you, 'Tanner, you have broken 10 of the strictest laws in Canada. You are guilty. You will spend the rest of your life in prison and rot there, or you can pay a $10 million fine.' Do you have the money to pay that fine Tanner?"
"No."
"So what's going to happen?"
"I'm going to rot in jail."
"That's right, but before the judge slams down the gavel to sentence you, somebody you don't know walks into the courtroom with a briefcase. He says, 'Judge, I love Tanner very much, and I have sold everything I have. Here is $10 million to pay his fine.' What would you say to that, Tanner?"
"I'd S**T MY PANTS!" he said.
"Well, get ready to crap your pants, because that's what Jesus did for you on the cross. He took your sin and put it on Himself and paid your penalty. Then He died and was buried and rose again 3 days later. He did this so you could have a relationship with God and go to heaven."
"Wow, I understand now."

That's when the Holy Spirit prompted me to stop and I gave him a brochure on our church. I told him that he probably would never come to my church, since it is 3 hours away, but to take it and it shares the Gospel a little more in the brochure. He gladly took it, and as we drove away, we could see him reading it and showing it to his girlfriend.

That was witnessing encounter # 1.

Last night I was able to lead a young lady who lives in Medicine Hat to Christ in the Calgary bus terminal.

We rode the same bus to Calgary on Tuesday and she sat a few rows behind me and asked me for a pen. She gave it back to me about half an hour later. Well last night I saw her in the Calgary terminal and we started talking. She is still in high school and is a sculptor who works with young children and handicapped children in her parents house. She teaches them how to work with clay. I told her about Riley and she is willing to work with him for free. I told her that I was a church planter. She asked what that was and I told her. She has been going to a well known church here in Medicine Hat on and off, but has never felt welcomed there. I asked her if she had ever read the Bible before, and she has never read it. I asked her if she and some of her friends would be interested in reading the Bible with me. She said that would be great. Well, I ended up sharing my testimony with her and she accepted Christ in the bus terminal.

God is awesome!

What A Day

What a day I had today. I left on the bus from Medicine Hat this morning and the bus was late getting in. Well, why wouldn't it be, I only had a test to do today. My sister was waiting in the truck for me with a subway sandwich ready for me to eat. By the time we got to Cochrane, we found out that the road that goes to the seminary was closed due to a bad accident, so we had to go arround. So as we went around the accident on a different road, we saw why the road needed to be closed. It wasn't a pretty sight. I realized then that if the bus would have been on time, I most likely wouldn't be writing this right now, I could be very well relaxing in a morgue.

I got to the seminary 15 minutes late, but still in time to write my test - got a 100%. Then my brother picked me up. I don't get to see him much since he is an over the road trucker. He was down in Texas last week and picked up some American cigarettes for one of his neighbours. His neighbour was outside playing basketball on the street when we were coming home. His name is Tanner and has had some bouts with the law. We all got to talking and of course he asked me what I did for a living, and I told him I was a church planter. When he asked me to expound, I told him exactly what I did and I found out that he has been going to church on and off during the past few months. I even got to share the Gospel with him, and gave him a brochure on our church (which also has the Gospel message in it) and I saw him take it to his girlfriend and open it up and start talking to her about Jesus! God is just too cool.