Flickering Pixels Group Blogging Project Chapter 12

Previous Post 10:02

Chapter 12 of our Flickering Pixels group blogging project is now up and running. You can check it out here. Great chapter this week on conflict and loving others. Check it.

10:02

Previous post Cleaning, packing, moving and the like

I just posted this on the Thailand blog that I have running for the trip we have over there next week. I thought I would post it here too for you as It is something that I believe in deeply and am blown away that I get to do this. The below entry can also be seen here.

Every day at 10:02 I say a prayer of thanks and ask Jesus to send more missionaries out. The reason that I do this at 10:02 is because of Luke 10:2 where Jesus says “The harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. Pray then to the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers into the harvest field.” Translation is that there are a ton of people out there going to hell because they don’t know Jesus. Whose fault and responsibility is this? Well I believe it is ours, the Christians, those who follow Jesus.

James 4:17 say’s “He who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it sins.” What more good is there to do than to go and tell others the the Kingdom of God is here. I don’t mean just with words, but with actions. The good news that Jesus cares for the poor, the lonely, the voiceless, the hungry, the widow and the forgotten. The good news along with a hug, a sandwich, an activist, a voice.

In the next few days there are 45 of us heading over to N. Thailand to do just this. We are going to share the good news of Christ with those who do not know. Now there are many of them who do know, but there are also many who do not. We are going to do this through building projects, kids programs, playing with orphans, and just being there.

The other thing that I pray  at 10:02 is a prayer of thanks. I want to always give thanks to Jesus, He is worth of it. It is so much in my nature to complain or ask for things, but rarely do I take time to give thanks, unless something super crazy comes up. I want and do thank God that He is and will continue to send out more missionaries. As you prepare to get on the plane, thank Jesus that you can do this and ask Him to use you to bring others to him.

Cleaning, packing, moving and the like

These last few day’s have been chaotic to say the least, not that chaos is a bad thing. We have been moving out of our house as it has been rented out. Not only are we moving out, we are moving in to my in-laws house. In law sounds like such a negative thing, maybe I should refer to them as Amy’s parents, or my little girls grandparents. They are cool and it will be good to hang with them for a bit. In addition, we are packing for Thailand, we leave on Friday.

All this has brought some stress into my life. Today, Canada day I just want to relax and do nothing but read, post, eat and chill, but it seems as thought that is not happening either as there are Canada day things to do and repacking and organizing that needs to be done.

If I look on the bright side of things, which I usually do, I see it as a new step in our lives. We came here for a year and that year is done. When I look back on my year I have only good thoughts and memories of our time in small town Canada. We connected with Amy’s family, the girls know what a combine is and I have a new respect for -40 weather.

I am also excited about the Thailand trip. I get to work with good friends, travel to SE Asia, eat yummy Thai food and maybe kill another dog for food. I also get to do this with my family. Amy, Emma and Abby are all coming this year. I want to do missions as a family, it is more and more becoming one of my values. The one thing I don’t like about it is the fear of losing a kid or them getting mas sick from eating leafy food, happened to me once.

Lots of great things to look forward to. Now, I am gonna get back to eating and resting. Happy Canada day all.

Flickering Pixels Chapter 10 and 11

Previous Post Flickering Pixels Chapter 9

Just a bit late on getting er up, but here is the last two chapters and posts on the book Flickering Pixels. Chapter 10 is covered by Graham Brenna and Chapter 11 is covered by Adam Shields as part of our Group Blogging Project discussing the book Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps. If you need a quick overview to what Flickering Pixels is about, please go here.

Man that’s Allot of Links. Enjoy

Flickering Pixels Posts Chapter 9

Chapter 9 of Shane Hipps book Flickering Pixels is talking about the difference between true character vs how the media makes people look, either through TV or specifically photographs. I know, I know,  this explanation doesn’t make you wanna go out and buy the book right away, but let me continue.

OK, here we go with the meat of this post. The thing that struck me the most was in the second paragraph where Shane pointed out that: Former generations had heroes, people who are well known for remarkable feats of bravery, brilliance, creativity or self sacrifice,” but that today, celebrities are well known just for being well known.
He used the example of Fabio and Paris Hilton. Most of us don’t know why they are famous, we just know that they are famous, well Fabio may be famous for this.

Shane continued with the example of the pastor of the mega church. He or she is preaching live at one location while there are a few other locations watching him or her live, but on a screen. Shane pointed out that the video shows the talent of the preacher, not necessarily his or her character. Not that it is a bad thing to preach via satellite, people need to learn, but are we drawn to pastors or leaders because they are famous or because of their character and the content that they are delivering?

I teach at different YWAM schools and programs. Now I could easily just show up at these events, give my thoughts and ideas, pray and leave, or I could do these same things, but stay and hang out. Teaching and leaving doesn’t show the students my character, it just shows them my talent (or lack there of) and my heart. Now it is much easier for me to teach and leave, but if I want to be authentic and if I want people to learn more from me than just what I have to say then I need to hang out.

What struck me about this chapter was the whole idea of how the media is wanting us, or has created a way to show us people not as they truly are, but as they want us to see them.  We were created in the image of God, our creator. Society and our culture it trying, and succeeding in communicating that we need something more, we need to touch up what God has created. Basically telling us that we are not good enough and encouraging us to work on our shallow, surface things and not our character.

How have you seen this played out?

Do you follow people because they are known, or because you know them?

What reason are we giving people to follow us?

For the comments and to follow this blog project please check out Church Crunch

Flickering Pixels Chapter 8

Previous Post And The Winner is

Flickering Pixels Chapter 8 review is up on Church Crunch. It is a great post, worthy of discussion. Here is one paragraph of it by Jay Caruso. In Chapter 8, ‘The Dimmer Switch’, Shane discusses what he sees as a “hazard” with regard to conversion from non-follower to Christ follower. In modern culture, it’s common for people to recount the exact moment in their lives when they became Christ followers and often the implication is that if you cannot remember that exact moment, then there is a good chance that you’re not saved. Shane reminds us that the gospel writers don’t seem to be so concerned with that exact moment and in fact, it would be hard to pinpoint that exact moment for any of the disciples. For the rest of the post follow the link and read on.

Thanks, have a great morning.

And the winner is……

Previous Post Scared

I am always a proud dad, but today I have a piece of paper that goes with my proudness (is that a word)? Today Emma won 3rd place in the poster contest for the kindergarten/grade 1 classes. They are having a town heritage day in Aug. and every student from kindergarten through grade 5 made a poster. They had 9 winners and my little girl was one of them. I am attaching a pic here for your viewing enjoyment.

By the way, I suck at making posters, so she must of got it from my wife, who sucks less than me at making posters.

Scared

Previous Post Flickering Pixels Blogging Project Chapter 5&6A

A week or so ago, at the recomendation of my good friend Jamie Arpin-Ricci, I picked up Scared, a novel by Tom Davis. I will leave you with the trailer of the book, in stead of trying to explain it myself, but I will tell you that it had me from the start.

I began reading the book at 6pm and by 6pm the following day I had finished all 270 pages. If you know me, you know that I like to read, but I am not a speed reader by no means. The only other books that I have read in full over a 24 hour time span is C.S. Lewis “The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe” and the book of Jude (haha).

I have cared deeply about justice issues for a long time now and Tom brings these issues to life through his writing. There was a time at the beginning of the book where I thought it was a bit to Christian (that sounds bad) in that I felt Tom was forcing God in there, but after reading on, God became the center of the story. It all of a sudden made sense that he was in there, it wasn’t forced at all. Tom showed Gods heart for Justice like I have rarely seen before in writing or movies.

Have you ever read a book or seen a movie and while reading or watching you keep thinking of people to email and recomend the book to? This was me while reading Scared. I kept thinking of my friend Ingvar who loves to be moved by books. Amy, my wife who cares deeply about photography and Amanda, who cares about Justice and bought me a great book on Justice once (Mountains Beyond Mountains).

I want to leave you with a plea. My plea is that you would buy this book. It is Toms first novel and he has done a remarkable job on it. Also, when you have finished reading please recommend this book to someone else. Finally, if you are on Twitter follow Tom.

Flickering Pixels Chapter 5 & 6

So, I have missed a couple of chapters on the Flickering Pixels Blogging project. I am linking you to the posts and comments for chapter 5 and chapter 6 if you are and have been following along. Here is the link for chapter 5 and here is the link for chapter 6.

If you have any questions, or would like to get involved in future book blogging projects with a bunch of cool guy’s and girls let me know.

Laters.

Flickering Pixels Chapter 4

Flickering Pixels- How Technology Shapes Your Faith chapter 4 review is now up at Church Crunch