Dreams Unlocked

I will never forget this past Easter. The day started with an early breakfast at my church (7 AM). I joked that I wasn't sure even Jesus rose from the grave before 7 AM. The breakfast was followed by 2 church services. I read scripture in the first one and prayed int he second one. I left the second service early to go to Cornell University. Every Easter all the Christian clubs on campus organize an event called "Easter on the Quad". This is a service of worship, testimony and a presentation of the gospel. I was invited to give the message this year. So, Felicia and the 3 kids and I headed up to the University. It was a beautiful sunny day. There appeared to be about 100 students preparing for the event, setting up chairs, hooking up the sound system, a worship team was practicing. I introduced myself to a couple of the organizers. I then told them I was going to play catch with my son until the start time got closer. Adam and I headed over to a piece of green a...

Some time ago a friend on Facebook asked me to explain what I believe as a Christian. This is what I wrote: I believe in God. I believe there is a Divine Being greater than the natural world who contains within himself all the properties of love and power. All that exists was created by him and for him. Human beings were created by God. We were created with the freedom to follow or reject him. Following God means believing what he has revealed about himself, and then acting on that data. Rejecting God means using our own lives and thoughts as the datum by which we live. I believe that the “evidence” of God comes to us in three ways. Creation itself leads me to believe in a Creator. When I look at the complexity, the intricacy and the sheer vastness of the created order – I simply cannot accept the idea that time+chance+matter somehow simply spat  out everything from spinning planets to carpenter bees. It’s too unbelievable t...

We are currently under a deluge of faith based films. I wouldn't call it a religious revival. More like Hollywood coming to the obvious realization that there are a lot of religious people in America who will pay money to go watch religious based films. Let me see if I can list all the religious films released or about to be released: Son of God Noah God's Not Dead Heaven is For Real Exodus: Gods and Kings Mary I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones that came to mind right away. Out of these I have already seen Son of God and Noah. The only other one I will probably see is Exodus. Son of god was a fairly well done film on the life of Jesus. It was marketed heavily to churches and churches responded by buying out entire theaters and doing follow up bible studies and sermon series based on the film. (Our church did this). I think attempts were made to do the same thing with Noah. But there was not that strong of a response. And after seeing the...

3 New Ithacans On March 25 2013, Felicia, Adam, Sophia, James and I got into our beloved Honda Odyssey and started off on our own odyssey towards Ithaca New York. Funnily Homer also headed off to Ithaca on his own Odyssey! Ours had far less perils and dangers. We arrived on April 2 2013. So one year has passed. Our first year as displaced West Coast Canadians now living in a well known college town in upstate New York. How's it been? Well, I'm glad I asked. Spring was a nice time arrive as the town is thawing out of winter. We were able to take advantage of many of the scenic state parks and hiking trails. Although not as beautiful as the land we left behind, it was still quite nice to be able to escape into nature when we felt like it. The summer was a nice slow ease into understanding the culture of Ithaca as well as observing the ministry patterns of the new church I was called to serve. Bethel Grove Bible Church is a small-medium sized church - around 35...