Laryngitis

"The whole church is called to the poor. To me it speaks to the prophetic aspect of The Salvation Army's original vision - to call the church back to the poor. Now, we minister to the poor, or service the poor, but do we speak to the rest of the church about their God given responsibility to do the same? Perhaps we are too busy trying to get The Army to love the poor again. Our prophetic voice is turned inwards, and we actually have lost our right to speak to the greater church. If only our denomination would care for the poor again, perhaps the message about the whole church's responsibility to the poor could again emanate from the lips of Salvationists."

Rob Perry

Still shaking my head

I walked in the corps Sunday morning and saw a friend (a new Believer) wearing this bright yellow t-shirt. Getting closer I could read the bold black lettering on the front that said FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS GO TO HELL. For someone very new to the faith he's not shy about it! On the back of the shirt it read, 'Sin kills'.

Then, another friend walks in the office and drops a bomb...she and her boyfriend are thinking about moving in together (this isn't good, but it's not the bomb), she knows in her head that this isn't God's way, but she is really feeling confused about life and relationships. Here’s the bomb. It turns out she received advice from a professing sister in Christ during coffee the other day. The advice was to go ahead and move in together...evidently this person should have been at the corps Sunday to read the t-shirt...front and back.

To my confused friend...God loves you and wants for you to trust Him. His plans for you are for a hope and a future. Follow Jesus, let Him direct your path.

“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when [women] will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." 2 Timothy 4:2-4

Deana

The ministry of presence - A prayer for 614 Regent Park

For a small community, Williams Lake experiences a lot of death, most of which is within the First Nations community. It often goes unnoticed by us city dwellers; no obituaries in the paper or funeral service announcements. Recently, a family in our corps lost a family member in a tragic car accident. The funeral was held out of town on reserve and was set for a time when we were out of town. We made arrangements for people from the corps to attend. As it turned out this gesture meant a great deal to the family as they expressed their appreciation and thanks to the corps body for their support. The ministry of presence is powerful, the previous post by Sharon spoke to this in the context of Jesus' presence.

Yesterday, Geoff called from Toronto to tell us a mutual friend had died. Corps 614Toronto is grieving the loss of a friend and loved one, the loss of potential and more infuriating, the loss of a battle. In the midst of this grieving God is there. The Lord's redeemed will return to Him, sorrow and mourning will flee away. He is the One who comforts. (Isa.51)

Loving Father, thank you for being present in all things. Use your Spirit to bring comfort and peace into the hearts of friends who are sad today. Give your strength to servants who will minister in your Name to help bring healing to broken hearts. Give your power to leaders who keep fighting for justice and mercy. Give your hope to everyone who is burdened and struggling for answers. In the powerful name of Jesus, amen.

Deana

Davinci is Left Behind

Welcome to Friday...
Okay, I'm an idiot...not because I went to see the Davinci Code, but because I stayed up till midnight to see the Davinci Code. Anyway, here's my thing today - I think "The Davinci Code" and "Left Behind" are the same movie. The only difference? In Left Behind Jesus doesn't have a wife. Wait a minute...yes He does...the bride of Christ. Okay, they're the same movie.

There are some differences between Davinci and Left Behind though - LB had more action and was easy enough for a 7 yr old to follow. DC was boring in a way that I don't think even a couple of Knights Templar banging coconuts to emulate the sound of hoofbeats could have fixed.

The basic premise: take a belief, theology or theory...blog it, market it, promote it, write tons about it and throw it out as a movie all to justify your position and dare I say it, make a whack of money. If you're lucky...a bunch of angry christians, and throw in the Pope and Jerry Fallwell (They could be the same person too), will come out crying and screaming heresy to boost interest and draw the crowds, something LB failed to accomplish. They should have tried this..."EX FAMILY TIES STAR HAS BEEN LINKED TO THE PROPOGANDA MACHINE OF THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT". Can you imagine what the gnostics could have done if they had the internet? At one point I suggest to my friend and author (not my author), Geoff Ryan, that I kidnap him and he could read me an excerpt from his book, "Siren Call of a Dangerous God", and I would turn my life around. He could forgive in court, and after a couple of years in prison (doing prison ministry of course) we could share the spoils. We'd have Siren call bumper stickers, lunch boxes, journals, and a could go on a world speaking tour, and maybe even...I pause to inhale...yes, maybe even "OPRAH"

Anyway, all this to say its a bunch of hubbub about nothing, and about my whole Davinci Code is Left Behind? I'm not serious there either. Davinci had way better actors.

Even better...go see "Over the Hedge". It's far more truthful, the laugh will do you a ton of good, and you won't be upset you wasted your money.
rZ

CLARION call to Justice

From:
Clarion-Journal of Spirituality and Justice
November 2005
www.clarion-journal.ca

Brevity of Life - The Present Christ

Life is so short isn’t it? Maybe it doesn’t seem that way when your young say 20’s and 30’s but as I get older and I’m not really that old (40) it just seem to start zipping away. I recently visited my mom and dad in Nanoose Bay and they are 85 and 83 respectively. I guess its been awhile since I saw them last and they are more bent over, they talk the same but a little slower, everything seems to be at a slower pace for them now. I really value my time with them and wish that we lived closer. They have done so much for me; they adopted me when they were both in their 40’s. I want to make the days and minutes count. I want them to know how much they mean to me. I call them often and write letters and send pictures. Sometimes I wish that I could go back in time and spend more time with them doing things that they now cannot do. Even a trip to the mall is difficult for mom, she has arthritis and doesn’t really enjoy outings. My twenty two year old son and I went with dad to walk on the beach, one of my favorite memories from childhood. But we couldn’t walk for hours like we used to, its kind of sad how time marches on and the older we get the faster time seems to fly by. And in an instant it can be gone. You just never know what might be around the next corner.

I recently lost a nephew. He was only 19. We barely knew him, the family had drifted apart for various reasons. It was sad for so many reasons. I have a lot of nephews and nieces, too many to count on all my fingers and toes. I don’t want to let any more time go by with out letting them know that although miles may separate us they are always in my prayers. Family is like that sometimes; close in our hearts but miles and miles may separate us. Or they may live close by…in the same town but we hardly see them. Maybe our lives seem to take different paths.

Death can come so suddenly, we may never get the chance to say again “ I love you”, or I really liked the times we… One of my favorite verses is “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). It helps me to remember that I can’t go back in time, I can’t change the way I did anything…but Jesus was there. I may not be physically close to all my family members right now…but Jesus is there. And tomorrow will bring a new day I might get the chance to talk to family or see family and Jesus will be there.

Sharon Duffy

Fresh Blood

Thanks to Kevin Metcalf (Downunder), Paul Trickett (Downeast), and watch for a new writer, Sharon Duffy (Downthestreet). Comments or critique? - blogger614@yahoo.com. Peace
rZ

Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges...

Isaiah 61:5
Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.

Today their called “migrant farm workers”...some call them “illegals” (definition: their mom’s egg was fertilized and grew south of California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico) It seems lots of people south of the border are getting really excited about them while others echo the writer of Lamentations: (read it with a moan of pain – like Eeyore)

Lamentations 5:2 - Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, our homes to foreigners.

The Proposition: If everything we have comes from God, then it includes the land and resources. Either a. borders are opened to allow the foreigners and aliens into the land (to work at jobs that no one in the land will work) or b. bolster their economy with resources rather than collapsing it based on speculation with the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Isaiah’s perspective offers these actions as the type of justice Yahweh loves (v.8).

Meanwhile North of the border, Steven Harper is loosening restrictions on adoption of children from foreign countries. Are we sure he’s really a Conservative, or is he a conservative? I'm starting to like him.

rZ

Music and Worship

I had a good laugh reading Geoff Ryan’s article, Real Men Don’t Sing (Or Do They)? at theRubicon.org. I don’t usually like “church” much more than Geoff. But I don’t know if I could bear it at all if it weren’t for the music.

I guess I’m not a very smart person – I’m not really offended by the theology of most of the songs. And I love music. So I’d really find it hard to say that I like one style more than another (commercial vs. traditional for example). What bugs me is the poor quality of the music sometimes.

It was Martin Luther (not William Booth) who said, "Why should the devil have all the good music?" (or something remarkably similar to this in German). Knowing even a little about Martin Luther requires one to put some emphasis on the word, “good”.

What sort of music does the Lord require of us? Good music!

First of all let’s agree that the Lord does, in fact, require music in worship. Music is His gift to us which enables us to present our gift back to Him in worship:

Psalm 30:4 - Sing to the LORD, you saints of his…
Psalm 147:74 - Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make music to our God…

I think the Lord wants us to take this seriously… to sing and play for Him with the respect that is due Him.

Isaiah 5:11-13 -
Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands. Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst.

Apparently a drunken – or even half-hearted – music ministry will not be effective in helping to quench the spiritual thirst of the people.

In the Old Testament we see that the people of God took the commands of the Lord quite seriously. Entire clans and families spent their whole lives preparing for the music of worship.

1 Chronicles 25:1-31 - David, together with the commanders of the army, set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying [i.e. proclaiming the Word of the Lord], accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals. Here is the list of the men who performed this service…
All these men were under the supervision of their fathers for the music of the temple of the LORD, with cymbals, lyres and harps, for the ministry at the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun and Heman were under the supervision of the king. Along with their relatives—all of them trained and skilled in music for the LORD - they numbered 288. Young and old alike, teacher as well as student, cast lots for their duties…

Clearly the Lord expects our best.

1 Chronicles 15:22 – Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skilful at it.

By the end of the Old Testament the people were no longer obeying these commands. They had become quite sloppy in worship. The Old Testament closes with a strongly worded wake up call about these things. The book of Malachi is loaded with the Lord’s criticism of our half-hearted preparation for, and participation in, worship.

Malachi 1 - If I am a father, where is the honour due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the LORD Almighty. "It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name…But you ask, 'How have we shown contempt for your name?'… "You place defiled food on my altar. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the LORD Almighty… "Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?" - says the LORD Almighty… "Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD Almighty, "and I will accept no offering from your hands… "When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?" says the LORD… "Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is to be feared among the nations.”
I don’t think the Lord wants to be cheated by a half-hearted effort in any aspect of worship – including the music. If we have “an acceptable male in the flock” then that is exactly what the Lord requires. In other words we are to present our best. If we have good musicians available in our congregation then that is what we are obligated to offer. Nothing less will be acceptable.

None of this teaching is rescinded in the New Testament. Jesus said…

Matthew 5:17 - Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets [i.e. – the Old Testament]; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

In fact the New Testament not only commands us to make music… it also tells us that we are to use this music as an effective way to teach people about the Lord.

Ephesians 5:19 - Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord…
Colossians 3:16 - Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

In presenting our best to the Lord we must be content that we have been obedient to His will. We can’t guarantee any particular result. We can’t be sure that the entire congregation will be pleased with our offering. It doesn’t really matter. Worship is not about them. It is not about us. It is about Jesus. We will have to leave the results to Him.

Ezekiel 33:31-32 - My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice.

Kevin Metcalf

Turnaround is Fair Play

HAHAHAHAH....let justice prevail. So, I pull a U'ee turnaround in the Corps van at an intersection. I'm not sure if the driver I cut off saw the Sally Ann Shield, but the cop who pulled me over sure did. The youth in the van saw the cop. I didn't. I have now made an illegal turn, caused a dangerous situation for another vehicle and to boot? I don't have my wallet on me. You know you're in a small town when the first words out of the officer's mouth are, "Hellooooo Mr. Zelinsky". After a number of very pointed and embarrassing questions pertaining to my driving habits he let me go to the laughter and jeers of the 6 youth in the back of the van. Taking the high road I said, "God just gave us an illustration of His grace. I deserved to get a ticket, but was let go without paying the penalty." My son replied even quicker, "So dad, do you think he read your blog?" (see May 11).
rZ

Friday Funnies

One liners from our childrens pastor Joe
"If God wanted us to be vegetarians then why did He make animals out of meat?"

"You married your wife for her looks, but not the look she's giving you right now."

From Rick:
"If all the raindrops were lemondrops and gumdrops....I'd be 300 lbs."

From our Wed Rotary meeting: They're building a new rec complex in our town. They introduced, "The big Cats from International Coliseum Enterprises", and I offered this..."Can you think of another way to introduce them? Christians get nervouse when they hear "Coliseum" and "Big Cats" in the same sentence...

Knock knock: Who's there?
The interupting cow: The interupting....MOOOOOO

Clean Needles for my Harm

Okay...so my 15 yr old son has, in the last 2 wks, had special guest speakers in his planning class speaking about Harm Reduction. If you shoot up with needles then we can give you clean ones. Having sex? Help yourself to the condoms at the door. Got a dirty crack pipe? Come to the Boys and Girls club for a clean one. Have a problem with gambling? Don't quit...wear a watch and limit the amount of time you spend gambling...Whatever happened to harm prevention? Out of all the speakers in the class...not one told them not to engage in the behaviours. They only told them where to get the "goody bags" if they did engage. I can see it now. 1 am Saturday - "I'd love to smoke crack or meth, but my pipe is dirty. I'm gonna wait till 9am on Monday when the health department opens". Hit your head with a hammer already. This isn't going to happen. Harm prevention is not the answer. Abundant life in Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to stay standing. That is the only answer.

But wait...Do we practice Harm Reduction? We feed people and keep them alive for one more day until they can get help. Sucks...is that true?

I have to quit blogging now. I'm being pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt, driving too fast and typing on my laptop while driving. I'm hoping the cop is going to show me a safer way to do all of this, and then let me go...

Rick Z

A Dysfunctional Family

Church is a great picture of family…sometimes a dysfunctional one. Lisa, my wife, and I believe that our corps is our family, but sometimes I think we’re a dysfunctional family. We’ve been walking through the book of Acts and see a healthy and passionate church. If three thousand people came to know the Lord in one day in our town that would be half the town! The believers met together in worship, they ate together and even shared their possessions with each other. They functioned like a family. I was thinking about this when it hit me. Believers meet together for only a couple hours on Sunday and once in a while we meet in the week for some sort of teaching and fellowship and then wait for Sunday to roll around again. If this was our blood family we’d say, “Only a truly dysfunctional family would live like this.” Guess what. That’s us. We are a dysfunctional family. Should we be surprised there are only 35 of us meeting together? The family of God needs to meet, eat, and wash feet together. We may still look dysfunctional to others, but then again, most families suffer a little dysfunction.

Paul Trickett

My Children

*MY CHILDREN*

Everyday faces go by,
it is my family.
I can feel myself being pulled away
even I try my best to stay near.

The older children are so far away,
I cannot reach them.
The further they pull away,
the more I hold my three younger ones.

It hurts so much to see their pain.
But I cannot help because I don’t know the real problem.
I love each one dearly in my own way.
How much can I take?

My heart is tearing apart piece by piece.
I cannot fall apart because they all mean the world to me.
I worship the ground they walk on.

Jesus I know you are there.
Please help me and my family,
to walk on the road of healing together.

Trina Alphonse, Williams Lake, BC, March 7, 2004

my friend Trina wrote this...she is my age (around 40). She is Native, and has experienced deep pain as a Native woman, daughter, sister, mother and wife. She survived residential schooling by being too rebellious. She got sober to rescue her children from abusive foster care. When I think of Trina I am reminded of Job (6:2,3a) "If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales! It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas— ) Her strength humbles me. She is my hero, we walk the road of healing together believing the "[Lord] will turn their mourning into joy. [He] will comfort them and exchange their sorrow for rejoicing." Oh God, let it be so.

Deana Z

Fishers of fish

gotta change the pic

Runner's Journal

Okay, so I went on my holidays and was looking at photos of myself and thought, “dude, you gotta lose some weight”. Then we took my cat, Louise, to the vet and even she is overweight. Between us we weighed 271 lbs. Okay, maybe I should try dieting. Nope, I’ll be eating donuts in 3 days. Vegetarianism? Nope, I don’t hate plants enough to kill them. My problem was solved because Deana had signed us up for a running course. She may be after the insurance money. Anyway, now I’m a runner, of sorts, and along with about 45 other people we run every week.

The first week we ran for 30 seconds and walked quickly for 4.5 minutes, and we did this 8 times in total. Sounds easy, but tell that to my heart, lungs, legs, brain etc. I’m glad I’m a person of faith because I thought I saw Jesus coming for me. It was the headlights of a car. Note: run on the sidewalk. My son came running with me and can talk and breathe and run for 20 minutes solid. I told him to try putting his sister on his back and then keep up with me. Now, thirty seconds doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was the next 45 seconds it took for my belly to stop shaking. That was a killer. We’re up to 3 minute increments this week, and I don’t feel like I’m gonna die anymore, but the goal of running for 5 km straight seems so far off.

Faith is like this. Some of us carry a load of hurt, disappointment, the pain of abuse or rejection, and we try to keep our faith in God strong, but it’s really hard. So many of our friends stumble under that weight, and they struggle so hard just to keep their feet planted on the ground. Some of us get really impatient and we want to put on new runners and think we can just start running full out. We push for the end run, and get discouraged because we can’t maintain the momentum. For some of us we don’t get why people can’t have faith because we fail to walk in their shoes. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly" (Matthew 11:28-30, Message). Our running coach, Cherie, tells us every week that it will get easier. Just take it one step at a time. Good advice for runners and good advice for people trying to exercise their faith. As for Louise? She’s on a diet.