slaughtering innocents

Did you ever notice that most of the sacrifices in Jewish history involved young sheep and calves? Priests had to physically slaughter innocence as a symbol for sin. When we go against God and sin, we are slaughtering our innocence in favour of our disobedience....something to think about.

Bless me.....NOW

Last night we went to a Tommy Tenney conference at one of the churches in town...seemed to come in contact with a bit of "bless me" attitudes. On of the songs just kept on repeating "It's my day for favour" over and over again....what's your reason for living for Jesus? Do you serve him so he will bless you, or do you bless him simply because you love him? "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" What right do we have to demand God to bless us? Why should the Most Holy God come down and reward our selfishness? Last time I checked, Christianity was more about death than shopping lists.
"I am crucified with Christ therefore I no longer live"

soup kitchen saints

The people who frequent our soup kitchen in Bangor are a lot different from those who come through the soup line in Vancouver. For one, most of them live in apartments, some drive their own cars, some even work. A lot of them are on disability for some reason or another, and as I introduce myself to people, generally the first thing people talk about is their health condition.

But Jesus knows each and every one of them by name. He knows their hurts, and knows what gives them joy. He knows what it is like to feel hunger, to feel pain, to feel betrayed, but He also knows what it feels like to be victorious. Jesus is the "the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth"(Rev 1:5). He knows what it is to overcome all the junk that Satan hurls at us/me. He knows the path. He's walked it. And He's patiently waiting for us/me to follow in His footsteps.

Yesterday I chose to wallow in my own feelings. Today I choose to walk in victory.

"To him who loves us (that would be Jesus) and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father- to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen." Rev1:5,6

"To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne."-Jesus Rev 3:21

A family for me.

Here's another web article to check out:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/011/37.70.html

The White Lotus Project is a ministry to women and girls victimized by the sex trade in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This is a story of how one girl at the age of 17 was sold into prostitution by her own husband, but after praying to "The Real God" was rescued by a monk who paid 10,000 Thai baht [over $200 U.S.] to the brothel owners. He even took her into his home to live with his family.
There is a verse in the Bible that says "He sets the lonely in families". This is not some kind of mystical or divine reunion with long lost ancestors, but it is faith in action by actually inviting someone into your spare room, and allowing them to be a part of your family. I am currently living in a spare room of a family in Bangor Maine. My old room now houses a family of four for the time being. In my brother's house, you will often find one of his friends sleeping on the couch most nights. I have a friend who offered her own bed for a night to someone who was so dirty that she had to throw out the sheets she had slept on. Stephen and Danielle have a ton of international guests stay at their house throughout the year as people come to Vancouver to check out what this thing called the 'War College' is all about.
Justice is love in action. Micah 6:8. Let's live it out.

Justice? What's Justice?

I just read a very powerful story online about a little girl's life. Please read it. SO many times I think we like to talk about God's justice, without actually taking the steps to walk in justice. Who was it who said "the world is the way it is because it's full of good people who do nothing"? Micah 6:8 tells us to "What does the Lord require of you? To ACT justly, and to LOVE mercy and to WALK humbly with your God." Lord, help me to step up to the plate.

http://www.ashaforum.org/about_asha_story.htm

Miciah

I have a new favourite name; Micaiah. He's a guy from 1 Kings who stood up to a bad king and 400 prophets with a true word from the Lord. He chose to listen to the One voice rather than the popular voices, and even went to jail for it until the king came back dead and people started to believe him for a change. Lesson for the day....don't stop listening for what God has for you, cause otherwise you might end up dead. The end.

Welcome to Bangor!

So, it's been a while without blogging, and much has happened! Rob and Heather got married, mom spent three days in the hospital, and left healed, I switched a few time zones, got a blitzkrieg vacation with the family, and am now finally settling down in Rainy Bangor Maine. (Apparently it's not like this forever, just most of the time!) The people here are really warm, which makes up for the cold and wet feet.
Youth Councils was definitely a culture shock, but the youth here are great and I'm finding already that I like them. I'm staying with a lady named Mary and her family, and she reminds me of my mom. Danny is this big teddy-bear of a guy with a huge heart for God. Doug and Deb (aka the Majors) made us breakfast for supper, and today I met this guy named Tom from the soup kitchen who reminds me of my Grandad in a lot of ways. I think I'm on a bit of a transition overload, but it's good. God is good. Tomorrow I'll be volunteering at the thrift store to remember what working looks like. Apparently it's like spring cleaning every day. Sounds like fun.
Grace,
Aurora

Dancing Evangelism

Last week we had a class was with Captain John Evans from Australia. He asked us to sum up the Gospel in 10 words or less, and this is what he used. "We're all bastards, but God loves us anyway." Great stuff. We also talked about the difference between a wrestling analogy of evanglism, versus the salesman analogy of evangelism, versus evangelism as a dance. Really interesting concepts, and quite out of the box, really.
It was good times. I liked it a lot.

No more control

My two new favourite quotes from this month's JAC issue. (see www.armybarmy.com if you don't know what I'm talking about)

"We want no more control mechanisms, only discipleship" (Rowan Castle in his "Warfare Manifesto")

"Lead, Follow or get out of the Way" (Phil Wall)


Another thought, If Jesus had a catchy acronym to sell his philosophy of life in his day, it would be;
1) WWMD (What would Moses Do) Don't believe me? Check out Mark 10!
2) "God said it, Isaiah wrote it, I'll do it. Now you do it too!"

Grace!
Aurora