To my friend Steve...Goodbye until we meet again...

For some strange reason Steve thought I might have "fun" with this photo...hehehe

Through the years we have had the honour and privilege of walking on this journey of life with friends.

One such family had slightly more kids that we, 12 to be exact.

The last few years has meant we would get together weekly, for our "NCIS" night.  The kids would play, and we would watch some great TV together....have some goodies and a few laughs.

We looked forward to it every week.

The father of this clan, Steve, has been a good friend.  Possessing Mr. Fix-it talent that I could only dream of, he has been a blessing to our family...from installing our kitchen cupboards, to going with me a a 90 minute drive to check out a car that my daughter wanted to buy.

When he was first diagnosed with cancer, we were all stunned.  A Dad of 12 kids?  Cancer?  This is some type of joke.

But it was reality.  It hurt.

And it reminds each and every one of us of our own mortality.

In the midst of all of this journey....Steve died the way he lived.  Stoic.  Dignified.  With Faith that this is NOT the end.

I told him that he was teaching all of us.  His response to me was he "was learning himself".

Steve was focused:

"But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" -Philipians 3:13-14

So, once again we cling to these words:   

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." -2 Corinthians 4: 16-18

On Wednesday, September 24.....he passed from this life into the next.

And so what  do we hope and trust for?  Why do I know that I shall see my good friend Steve again?  It is found in Revelation 21:4 (The Message)

"I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate.”

Goodbye my friend.  Until we meet again....on that glorious day when God moves into the neighborhood.

Frederick Buechner on "Funerals"

Came across this and found it meaningful....

In Aramaic talitha cumi means "Little girl, get up." It's the language Jesus and his friends probably used when they spoke to each other, so these may well be his actual words, among the very few that have come down to us verbatim. He spoke them at a child's funeral, the twelve-year-old daughter of a man named Jairus (Mark 5:35 - 43).

The occasion took place at the man's house. There was plenty of the kind of sorrow you expect when anybody that young dies. And that's one of the great uses of funerals surely, to be cited when people protest that they're barbaric holdovers from the past, that you should celebrate the life rather than mourn the death, and so on. Celebrate the life by all means, but face up to the death of that life. Weep all the tears you have in you to weep, because whatever may happen next, if anything does, this has happened. Something precious and irreplaceable has come to an end and something in you has come to an end with it. Funerals put a period after the sentence's last word. They close a door. They let you get on with your life.

The child was dead, but Jesus, when he got there, said she was only asleep. He said the same thing when his friend Lazarus died. Death is not any more permanent than sleep is permanent is what he meant apparently. That isn't to say he took death lightly. When he heard about Lazarus, he wept, and it's hard to imagine him doing any differently here. But if death is the closing of one door, he seems to say, it is the opening of another one. Talitha cumi. He took the little girl's hand, and he told her to get up, and she did. The mother and father were there, Mark says. The neighbors, the friends. It is a scene to conjure with.

Old woman, get up. Young man. The one you don't know how you'll ever manage to live without. The one you don't know how you ever managed to live with. Little girl. "Get up," he says.

The other use of funerals is to remind us of those two words. When the last hymn has been sung, the benediction given, and the immediate family escorted out a side door, they may be the best we have to make it possible to get up ourselves.

~originally published in
Frederick Buechner: Whistling in the Dark and later in Beyond Words

Pain & Suffering

Last year around this time I came across this book by Timothy Keller: "Walking with God through Pain and Suffering.

Little did I know how timely it would be, but I guess that God knew.

 The book was so much more than I expected....theology, contextual history...philosophical ideas, amazing!

For many years I have held to the belief that if God truly is in control, then everything that happens, and I do mean EVERYTHING, has value.

I guess my own upbringing was that as well.  We were not taught answers to everything, but purpose...trust.

I struggled with that for many years.  Especially in light of what my grandparents went through, and my great-grandparents who were lost to famine...labour camps, persecution.

There is meaning there.


I went away in October of last year for my annual private retreat.  My time away to just think and pray and process.

I took this book and both listened and read.

Little did I know that our Mom would get cancer, and then leave us just 2 months after her diagnosis.

I think I was being prepared.  Who knows.  But I understood a little more...or at least, looked at things a little differently.

My Mom knew that as well.  Her words to me in hospital were "I know people are praying for me.  God suffered for me, I can suffer for Him".

So, she saw and understood the value of pain and suffering as well.

This book was helpful to me...it pointed to something bigger than me.  

A plan. A Purpose.  A Person.

I'm thanking for this revelation.  The still small voice that gently leads and directs.

Grace abounds.

Leave No Man Behind

I am not, what you would call, a perfect Dad.

There, I've said it.  Actually, I feel grieved to even think it. I am so NOT where I thought I would be at this point in my life.

After all, Dad's have dreams too.  When I started on the parenting journey with my dear wife, I thought I knew it all.  After all, I knew where my own parents had failed, where they had made mistakes, and I would be the one who would right them!

LOL.

It seems I was mistaken.  Either I made the same mistakes, aka doing what EVERY parent does, or I just blew it because, well, because I just blew it.

That being said...I DID actually learn an important and pivotal part of parenting.  Actually I learned it from my Dad. (Perhaps the GREATEST Dad of all times)

Leave NO MAN behind.

Basic military principle.

I saw it put into practice a few times by my Dad for those close to him.

There were probably stories and circumstances I knew nothing about...but I did know my Dad was following this principle.

And so I do too.

I do it for those closest to me.  Even in the midst of great turmoil...I will search for you and do my best to try to rescue you.

That means a lot of different things based on the circumstances, I know. 

But it means to me that family does not give up on family.  It is a legacy given to me by my Dad...and so I leave it with my children.

Go and do likewise.

Post-Charismatic 2.0

Well, I finally finished this book by Robby McAlpine.

I guess I should have written about it sooner. He does, after all, write a whole lot about a whole lot of things I believe!

I've seen a lot in my short 54 years on this earth.  I've seen a lot of weird things too.

More often than not, I have felt like Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof.

That is, he is asked repeatedly to bend and bend.  At last he draws his line, and he stands his grown.  The answer is no.

"If I try bend that far, I'll break", states the character Tevye.

Through the years, on this faith journey, I have had to bend.  Some of these blog posts here deal with some of the topics I have had to deal with.  Disagree with close people and friends about.

For every post here, the reader has no idea the struggle I have had to deal with in deciding not to bend.

Even now, I write these words only for those after me.  That you muster the courage in your own faith walk to just say no.

Sometimes it might mean just walking away from the situation.  Other times, it can mean much more.

I don't pick fights.  I don't look for battles.  But I do look and seek for truth. 

Robby's book is a balanced and well-thought out description of someone deciding that they could bend no further.  But rather than walk away from it all, he decided that Truth was still worth pursuing.

Jesus stated in John 14:6:

"I am the way and the truth and the life.

He Himself  is worth it.

Not some silly bells and whistles show, where everything is accepted and nothing is discerned whether it is right or wrong.

Happiness and Truth is found in a person, and no where else.  His name is Jesus.

Thanks, Robby McAlpine for reminding us of that fact!!

So you want to be a prophet?

Some great advice from Robby McAlpine:

So, you want to pursue the gift of prophecy...

Biblically, this is a very good thing. In fact, the apostle Paul encourages people to "eagerly desire" this gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 14:1).  To seek the gift of prophecy, to strengthen, encourage and comfort people (1 Cor. 14:3), is very commendable.

Ultimately, we all know that it's the Holy Spirit who decides who gets what spiritual gift (1 Cor 12:7-11), but Paul also encourages us to seek God for the gift of prophecy.
But suppose we're past the point of asking. We feel like we've maybe received the gift of prophecy. Perhaps God imparted a spiritual gift during a prayer time (without or without somebody laying hands on us for that purpose). However it happened, the gift of prophecy appears to be part of our spiritual tool kit.

So, now what? What's a newbie prophetic person to do? What are our first steps?

Go to a Bible school.

Preferably a non-charismatic one.

Yes, yes, I know -- I've heard the joke about cemetery seminary, and also all the horrified warnings about getting "filled with man's wisdom". (sigh...) Frankly, that kind of thinking is a steaming pile of bovine by-products, if you catch my meaning.

Here's the thing: anybody claiming prophetic ministry these days will always tell you that "the Bible is our final authority" and that all prophetic words need to pass the Bible Test.

More......