Dreams Unlocked

Doin' what I do. I have spent most of my adult life preparing and then delivering sermons. I have written and preached hundreds of sermons. I enjoy listening to sermons by other preachers. I do this to get fresh ideas and learn from their styles. I am pretty fussy when it comes to who I listen to. They need to be able to communicate well, but they also need to display some depth in what they communicate. Recently I have been listening to several well known pastors of very very large churches in the States. What I deduce from the majority of these type of preachers is that they are using the Christian world view and the Bible to address contemporary problems such as marriage, work, meaning of life, etc. That is a good thing. But it is not enough.  People will come to Jesus for a felt need in their life, but they will only stay with him once they recognize their need for a saviour. And this is what I find lacking in most contemporary preaching. Jesus is reduced to a ther...

Reason to smile - He's at the top of his game I saw Bob Dylan in concert for the 4th time last Friday. I've seen him in Saskatoon, Vancouver and Seattle. I have to say this concert was the absolute best of all 4. Dylan was loose, dancing, joking with his band. And he actually spoke!!! All the other times Dylan has just played and sort of stared glumly at the crowd. It was like he had been born again again on this tour. Again, no tracks off the new album, Tempest. I really love Tempest - I think its his best since his seminal Time Out of Mind. Mark Knopfler opened and played a full set of about 75 minutes. He was quite good, light on the Dire Straits and heavy on some of his newer stuff. Dylan continues to be quite an enigmatic figure, dodging and weaving from popular culture, leaving you puzzled as to who he is and what he's up to. I quite like on where his latest incarnation, taking dark themes of life and mixing them up with various musical elements - creati...

I am reading a very small but powerful book called "Abandonment to Divine Providence" by Jean Pierre de Caussade. Caussade was a French Jesuit Priest in the 18th C. I was struck by this passage: "Let us then endure without annoyance the humiliations entailed on us in our own eyes and in the eyes of others by what shows outwardly in our lives; or rather, let us conceal ourselves behind these outward appearances and enjoy God who is all ours. Let us profit by this apparent failure, by these requirements, by this care-taking and the necessity of constant nourishment, and of comfort; of our ill success, of the contempt of others, of these fears, uncertainties, troubles, etc. to find all our wealth and happiness in God, who, by these means gives Himself entirely to us as our only good. God wishes to be ours in a poor way, without all those accessories of sanctity which make others to be admired, and this is because God would have himself to be the sole food of...

Whoever claims to live in him, must walk as Jesus walked. - 1 John 2:6 I read this in an old out of print devotional book by E. Stanley Jones. Riffing on this verse Jones says that to walk as Jesus walked is to live as Jesus lived. How did Jesus live? In the following ways: 1. He was disciplined in reading the Bible and praying. "As was his custom, he stood up to read." 2. He gave away what he had. "Again crowds of people came to him and as was his custom, he taught them." 3. He loved everybody, including his enemies. 4. He fully surrendered to God. "Not my will, but yours be done." 5. Once he made up his mind, there was no going back. "As the time approached for him to be taken up into heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem." The takeaway? Read and pray. Help others. Love all. Surrender everything to God. Don't back down from challenges, even though they might mean great sacrifice.