Sunday, March 28, 2010

Mennville EMC


Presentation by Mike Petkof CEF missionary to the gypsies of Greece.
Gypsies have no rights in Greece, and get their squatter's camps destroyed from time to time. Renee worked at one of the camps when she and Karyn went to Greece in 2004. Ministry in the camps is effective and appreciated in a country that protects the Greek Orthodox Church with anti-proselytizing laws.

Dwight Plett pastor: Lorna has been suffering pain and not sure why. Thanks for your prayers and support. It's good to be part of the Mennville family.

Palm Sunday.

Jesus did some house cleaning at the temple. For the 2nd time.

Zeal for God's house will consume me.

As a 12 year old, Jesus spent 3 days discussing theology with the priests. No wonder he got upset when the Gentiles got displaced by the merchants. Who are we blocking or excluding from worship?

Jesus was not always meek and mild.

It is important:

1. Not to hinder others from worshipping.

2. Sometimes there is a place for righteous anger. It may be wrong not to get angry sometimes.

That last week Jesus spent every day at the temple.

He prophesied the destruction of the temple by the Romans.

Adam and Eve had a perfect life but then they sinned. God promised restoration.

Why did it take so long for restoration? Not sure.

Leviticus - God described the ideal new world. "To be my people."

Israel rejected God's leading and asked for a king.

What if Jesus had been accepted by Israel and he had become king?

Jesus promised us his Comfort - Counselor.

We are now the temple of the living God.

There is a new age coming. There will be no temple there for the lamb is the light and God will be our friend.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Fishing off Matlock



What's the most comfortable way to fish on the ice? Out in the open? In a tent? In a heated car? Doesn't really matter as long as you catch something!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Dr Gus Konkel Paul Saul

Presentation at www.Eastview.org
Who were the movers and shakers of Paul's time?
Pharisees
Saducees
Esseneres

Who was Saul? (Paul)
Pharisee
Circumcised
Hebrew
Benjamin
Keeper of the law
Zealous
Faultless. Willing to kill people who disagreed with him and his interpretation of the Bible.

Something happened to him so now he says it is all waste.
Phil 3:2 Beware of dogs -Paul used the Pharisee term for Gentiles in referring to the Pharisees. Mutilators.

The difference between Saul and Paul is how he reads the Bible.
Saul felt entitled to the racial claims of superiority. Paul the Christian has a different view of his connection to Abraham

What began the transformation? He was on his way to Damascus to kill Christians when he encountered Christ. Not Jesus.

Gal 1:11 Jesus walked the shores of Galilee. Christ is the risen anointed one.
Ps 2:1-2 the nations rage against the Lord and his Messiah Christ.
Peter confessed that Jesus is the Messiah of Psalm 2

Paul says his Gospel comes from direct revelation. Not from eyewitnesses of Jesus.
Paul knew the Bible - he had to learn to understand it. For that he needed direct revelation from God.
He made it clear that he encountered the resurrected living Christ. Not through Peter. Peter knew the old way of reading the Bible was wrong. But he sided with the Jewish ethnic church.
To prove that Paul was preaching the pure gospel, separated from the ethic components, he needed to make it clear that their ethnicity and customs are not part of the gospel.

Galatia was a long way from Jerusalem and most people had never heard of circumcision. Some people read the Bible and felt it was required. Paul did not read it that way.

There is a Chistian way of reading the Bible.

Rom 1:16-17 the gospel - the power of God - for all who believe.
Belief is a Cognitative act - with faith.
The just shall live by faith. Quote from Hab 2:4
You become a child of Abraham strictly by faith and trust - not pride or puffed up relying on ethnicity.
The gospel is submission and trusting the Christ the anointed risen one.
Gal 3:6

Do Christians and Muslims worship the some God? God - Identity (God of Abraham) vs. Understanding who God is. I am President of Providence but at home I'm dad. Different understanding of who I am.
Christians Muslims and Jews all worship the God of Abraham but they have different understandings of what God does. Some think God heals them every time they pray.
We all have a partial understanding of God.

Dr. Stephen Hawking was in Sudbury Ontario Researching neutrinos. When asked if he believes in God he said he did not know the meaning of question.

I believe in the God as revealed in Scripture.

Lamin Sanneh, Professor at Yale, a Muslim became a Christian by reading the Koran. He reached the Christian understanding of God. The church took 300 years to reach a clear understanding of God. We need to be patient with each other

Genesis- how did Saul Paul read it?
Ch 12:1-3 All the nations CAN be blessed through Abraham
Ch 11: when Creation was made there was nothing. The flood reversed it back to water. God said-Replenish the earth. Babel said No. We will build our name. The sin that never stops. Racism and nationalism. God intervenes a 2nd time.

Gen 9:1-7 fill the earth. Creation starts over. Human government is established to control violence.

The Tower. Our City our name.
Abraham- God's Nation -God's name. God reverses the ambitions of the Tower builders. All the nations MAY be blessed.
Paul the Christian understands the promise -Abraham is going be the father origin of redemption. All who understand the promise.
Paul's My Gospel is the good news that God is bringing the whole world to himself.
How does Abraham's family come about? not by natural means -not by ethnicity. By God's doing.

Gen 15:1 revelation vision. A vision takes place in your mind. We dream often. Visions happen only periodically. Mysticism is what happens to Muslims who see Jesus.
Wife had a vision of a visit of Jesus calling someone home before her brother died.

Abraham had a vision. Gen 15:5-6 he believed and God counted it as righteousness. Paul quotes this over and over again.

The smoking POT is how God is revealed as in sensory terms.

Sara was 99 - quite a while after the hot flashes. The point is God creates his family. Learn to TRUST is the point of Abraham's life. Trust is faith.

Gen 17:7 is another important part of Paul's understanding of the Bible.
Circumcision becomes a sign- what is sign? What kinds of signs do we have?
Communion Baptism
A sign is a Confession
Can you be a Christian and not be baptized? Not take Communion? Not be a Christian?
Circumcision is a sign that God's family does not need the ability for human reproduction.
God's family is for all the nations.

The promise is for all the world. Isaiah 51:3 all the islands and coastlands.

Paul understood the underlying meanings of the promises by revelation.

The promise goes beyond this world.

The epistles are letters vs. the stories of Jesus in the gospels.
Matt 18:15-18 take i-hedi sprite to the church.
16:18 On Petra cliffs I will build my church.
Paul does not focus on Jesus as much as on the fulfillment of the promises of Abraham.
Gal 3:9 Works of the law vs. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
To belong to Jesus is to be a child of Abraham.

Scriptures are not about rules on becoming Christians but a way of helping us understand how to walk.
You can't force someone to love or to have the joy of the Lord.
There is a transforming power that is not a list of rules to make God happy

Blessed are the meek

Change the world? Has your life changed? Change is part of everyone's life. Sometimes that is a threat.
Some of us need to have 5 things going on at the same time.
For some of us life is boring. Some of us may want change for the sake of excitement.
What is loyalty?
We have a changing world since Adam and Eve.
We are all about me. Why do we chase the ME? We always want to change our environment for my way or the highway.
Matth 5:1-5 Blessed are... The Meek...
Jesus reveals the blueprint exemplified on how to be free of selfish ambition
Blessed are those who consider themselves nothing. Lost. The worst sense of poverty for a soul is when thy have no sense of the need for God.
Meek: Deficient in courage Or the Greek meaning: strength under control. Like a stallion under control. Not to hurt a fly.
Not weak - lay down your pride, and agree with what God want to have done in your life.
People in Jesus' time were waiting for release from the terrors of Rome.
Some are waiting for a Brad Pitt to sweep them into lala land.
Along comes Jesus of Nazareth and says Blessed are the Meek.
People don't want to walk that second mile.
In our culture meekness has been rejected and replaced with a vacuum of barbaric behavior.
Gal 5:22 Holy Spirit creates gentleness...
Meekness speaks the truth with love. Not just niceness.
Num 12:3 Moses was the most meek person on earth. But he stood up to Pharaoh in the power of God.
Abraham the father of our faith. Gen 13:8 he could have pulled rank on his hitchhiking relative. He did not, but took what was left.
Rom 12:10 the Meek will inherit the land.
the God who promised to give me strength helps me to relax. Forgive restore. Because Jesus forgives and restores me. He is in Control of the Meek.
He came as a baby- he is coming as Lord sitting on his throne of ultimate power.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Beatitudes: blessed are those who mourn

Delbert Enns pastor
www.Eastview.org
Matthew 5:1-14 God blesses those... They will be comforted.

Mission report; Manitoba house builds relationships in the north end. Free breakfast Saturday. Witnesses for Jesus.

There is a song in the dessert. Maybe today is when you will hear that song.

Blessed = speak well of - eulogy.
Say it now: "I bless you and wish you well."

Malachi 4:1 has words of judgement and then there are 400 years of silence from God. Silence treatment is the worst treatment you can hand out.

Now Jesus brought words of comfort and creates a paradigm shift. The beginning of a new era where the weak inherit the world.
Those who weep will laugh now. Mother Teresa said the worst form of poverty is to think we don't need God.
During the Olympics Canada became the Nation of Canada.
Bored people are not excited. James 4:3 worldly pleasure seeking is not blessed.
Stories of disappointment - Henry had a chosen son Ted. Darcy and Ted got killed at the railway crossing.
Laurie's daughter has hyperthyroidism. An ongoing burden of health issues.
How do you deal with the pain? Get involved in church and community. Have time alone with God. Open God's Word. There is no one else but Jesus.
Friday Laurie's daughter went back to doctor with pain. Tests showed everything is "frightfully normal".
There is a sorrow only Jesus can deal with.

Psalm 32:1-5 joy for those .... forgiven. I confess my rebellion... You forgave me! All my guilt is gone.

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Lieutenant John Blanchard

Alliance Church, Edgewater, FL
Lieutenant Blanchard bought a used book and corresponded with the previous owner of the book. They agreed he would meet her at Grand Central Station. She would wear a green dress and a red rose on her lapel. The woman he saw that met that description was frumpy and old. When he approached her she re -directed him to a restaurant across the street where his beloved was waiting.
Jesus, the new high priest is sitting down because he paid the ultimate sacrifice. No more sacrifices are needed. I cannot live the Christian life on my own. A glove can't move on its own. Only when it is filled with the power of a hand can it move. Only when Jesus fills us are we empowered to move.
Jesus said, "the power of the Holy Spirit will come on you and you will be my witnesses."
Jesus left the message in the hands of eleven men who kept failing him. They were transformed.
I've seen all kinds of church problems. God's plan keeps moving forward in spite of that. The church will never be perfect. A marriage should be a safe place and so should the church. It's Community. 35,000 denominations in north America.
Emperors are trying to demolish the church but it is still here.
Jesus is coming back. Let's not get the journey mixed up with the destination. This is not my home. The cross was done for you. To live the Christian life can only be done with Christ in me.
Jesus knew that there would be horrible problems in the church.
He is coming back in power.
Do something great. Get lost in something bigger than you.

At The Oceania Beach Club


The wake-up view this morning.
Now we are off to church with Carlin and Marcia.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Florida Trip

Yesterday afternoon we decided to go to Florida after we found out our meeting in London ON was off. Turns out it might be on after all. Oh, well that's how it goes. I'll sign when I sign.
So far the trip has been waiting. Waiting for 2 hours in Winnipeg for the plane to arrive from MSP - then 2 hours more while they tried to fix the plane at G18. They couldn't fix it at the gate so they put us on the plane originally scheduled to go to Pheonix at 5:25. That meant they had to put the Pheonix people to another plane somewhere else. So we were 2 hours late leaving MSP and we'll be late getting to Orlando. Rent a car and drive to new Smyrna Beach where we rented a Condo right on the beach.
Tomorrow we go to church with Carlin and Marcia and lunch with them afterwards. I sure am looking forward to a few days of fellowship with them and some R&R on the beach.
We are planning to go home on Thursday and then to Ontario on Friday, if I still need to go.
Martha is reading the book ''Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of love" by Sue Johnson. My guess is that this is the best book ever written on the subject of marriage and the building of loving relationships. I highly recommend it for everyone.
I took a bunch of books along so I'll have lots to read while doing nothing.
They are showing the film "Smart Mr Fox" (something like that) on the flight. There are a few kids on board but not as many as usual. I suppose they are watching it.
I am writing this at 35,000 ft up, way above the silky clouds, with the sun painting the sky a hue of colors. I guess Renee gets a View a million times nicer than this every day. I miss her so much.