Forget Not!

We just finished Thanksgiving weekend. The scripture passage I used was Psalm 103:1-5. (New International Version)

Psalm 103
Of David.
1 Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

2 Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-

3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,

5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The words that stood out in this passage to me are those that are bold: Forget Not! It is an ailment that too many people have, including myself. When I contemplate the benefits and blessings God bestows in my life that he forgives my sins, heals my diseases, redeems my life from the pit, crowns me with love and compassion and satisfies my desires I am amazed. But even more surprising is that time, complacency, busyness and the heaviness of life can cause be to have a form of Spiritual Amnesia. I forget His benefits.

As I write this, I am discouraged. It is the discouragement that comes when something does not live up to your expectations. My temptation is to embrace this disappointment and in doing so forget His benefits. But today, I will choose to rest in his benefits. I choose to remember his forgiveness, I choose to remember his healing in my life, I choose to remember that he redeems my life from the pit and thank him that he continues to redeem every part of me for his purposes, I choose to remember that I am crowned with love and compassion and I choose to remember that he alone satisfies my desires and that contentment can only be found in my relationship with God through Christ.


From my inmost being...I will not forget, I will not forget, I will not forget.

Back From Holidays

I'm back from holidays. They say that "a change is as good as a rest", so I'm good. I think that you should really have a buffer between holidays and returning to work. A period of time when you can recoup from your time away and get your bearings again. Sometimes having fun is too tiring (boy that makes me sound old. I wrote on my Facebook status that I was having a coffee after supper and my brother told me I was living on the edge. Coffee after six has become risky business.

The prophet Joel stated that young man would have visions, older men would have dreams. I hope and pray that I still have some visions in me.

The King of Kensington

Back in the day there was this television show called the "King of Kensington" It was a Canadian show, so probably only a select few of us remember it. It was about a guy from a section of Toronto (Kensington, hence the name)who everybody new. The theme song sang, "When he walks down the street he smiles at everyone he meets". I think I met our town's "king" the other day. I actually didn't meet him, I saw him. I was driving and a number of vehicles slowed down in front of me. They were all slowing down, smiling and waving at one individual walking down the street. I looked to see who it was and saw a man that I didn't recognize, but as I looked more closely I could see the logo on his shirt. The King of our town wheres an LCBO shirt. The most popular guy in our town works at the liquor store.

This kind of hit me hard. Don't get me wrong he is probably a wonderful, pleasant gentleman who cares for his family, but a man who dispenses alcoholic beverages by the case is the towns most popular guy.

I've been doing a series of sermons about Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom of God in the Parables and the thought came into my head that if we are truly being His kingdom shouldn't its impact be felt and seen in our community. As we invest our lives in people and establish kingdom projects in our community it will begin the process of transforming our lives, our churches and our towns. If we were dispensing the kingdom in our community maybe we would become "Kings" in our own little Kensington's.

I'm Back...I Think

Being I haven't blogged in 9 months or so I thought I should reappear. Let's get this thing rolling again.

Simplifying Your Life - What Matters Most

In his book, “How can everything be alright, when everything is all Wrong?” Lewis Smedes shares these thoughts on filling your squares with what matters most.

I bought a brand-new date book yesterday, the kind I use every year— spiral-bound, black imitation leather covers wrapped around pages and pages of blank boxes. Every square has a number to tell me which day of the month I’m in at the moment. Every square is a frame for one episode of my life. Before I’m through with the book, I will fill the squares with classes I teach, people with whom I ate lunch, everlasting committee meetings I sit through, and these are only the things I cannot afford to forget. I fill the squares too with things I do not write down to remember: thousands of cups of coffee, some lovemaking, some praying, and, I hope, gestures of help to my neighbors. Whatever I do, it has to fit inside one of those squares on my date book. I live one square at a time. The four lines that make up the box are the walls of time that organize my life. Each box has an invisible door that leads to the next square. As if by a silent stroke, the door opens and I am pulled through, as if by a magnet, sucked into the next square in line. There I will again fill the time frame that seals me—fill it with my busy-ness just as I did the square before. As I get older, the squares seem to get smaller. One day I will walk into a square that has no door. There will be no mysterious opening and no walking into an adjoining square. One of those squares will be terminal. I do not know which square it will be."

The challenge to each of us it to fill our squares wisely. John Ortberg states that each of us should prioritize these four areas in our lives.

1. God
2. People
3. Calling
4. Joy

Simple living means filling our squares with what matters most.

Book Review - Rest of God by Mark Buchanan

I started this book about a year ago. I thought it was an interesting concept and began to slowly work through it. I would read other books and then come back to it. My reading the book is kind of an allegory to the point of the book. Buchanan feels that we need to develop a Sabbath principle in our lives, a day focused for Worship and rest. Society has placed us on a treadmill of activity and we work and leisure ourselves to the point of exhaustion. As I read the book I found myself thinking this is an important Biblical concept and then I would get drawn to something else. I've come to realize, as Buchanan has, that I am not a machine made for constant activity. I am a human being with limits. Not only do I have limits, God seems to have put within me a default setting that needs Sabbath. I am not complete with out it.

I found the book a little slow at times, Buchanan's long description of things a little tedious, but in the end I found myself saying, "I need to go through this again". I need to slow down even more and fully embrace the principle of Sabbath laid out at the end of each chapter. I must be obedient to God and work this principle out in my life.

Simplifying Your Life - What is Life?

Many have sought the meaning of life or to figure out just what life is. Some have broke it down into biological terms, others into psychological terms. In what I deem to be a great moment of epiphany a number of years ago, I think I came up with the right answer. I was giving a teenager a ride home and she asked me that question, "What is life?" I pondered for a moment and said, "Life is relationships" Jesus summed up life when he said that the two greatest commandments were to Love God (relationship)and love people (relationship).

In the Old Testament when the principle of Loving God with heart soul and mind was given. It was followed by a command to lay this principle down in our families (relationship).

Statistics in Canada show that 1 out of 3 marriages will end in divorce. People are switching churches with the seasons because of fractured relationships. In a transient society relationships have become disposal and they do not need to be maintained. The point I'm trying to make is that our relational distress, is causing us lots of stress and complicating our lives.

Paul taught that we should: "Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." Ephesians 5:15-17


After this verse, he goes through specific rules in maintaining key relationships in your life. Paul is encouraging us that a person who is living carefully, diligently maintains there significant relationships. Those who don't are fertile ground for complicated, stressful lives.

Life simply - maintain your significant relationships.