my experiences

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An Early Birthday Present

I got an early birthday present this year.  I was going to be away on my birthday, so my son thought it best to give me my present early – either that, or he wanted to get it out of his trunk to free up some space.  So what was it, you ask? … It was a new golf bag.  But not just any golf bag – it was a Taylormade, Toronto Maple Leaf golf bag!

I know some of you are thinking, “But the Leafs play hockey, not golf.”  And some of you are thinking, “That makes sense:  the Leafs are the best golfers because they get an early start each year.”  I’m not sure if my Maple Leaf golf bag means I’ve jinxed the Leafs to miss the playoffs for another 3 years or not, but I’m willing to take the chance.  The bag is pretty sweet.  Way to go, Mike – great present!

I also received another early present and this one reminded me of the presents I used to buy my Mom when I was a teenager.  When it came to buying presents for her, I always looked for things that she might be able to use … you know, necessity kind of things, like household items.

I’m not sure how many times I bought her drinking glasses, but it was more than twice.  Our juice glasses were so small you barely got a good taste of the orange juice in them.  I calculated that if I bought bigger glasses that would mean more juice.  My mother applied another formula that the bigger the glass, the larger the gap between the juice and the top of the glass.

I thought I was getting her great presents, things she’d really like.  She was always appreciative, but now that I think about it, they weren’t really presents.  Those glasses were more like necessities, items you’d go out and buy yourself because you didn’t want your teenage son drinking out of the carton any more (like that stopped me).

Those memories came back to me because my other early birthday present was tools for our trailer. It was great to get the tools, but I would have purchased them as necessities.  Why waste a good present on something I need?  And that’s when it dawned on me:  those are the kind of presents I used to give my Mom!

You know, I wonder sometimes if we do this with God, as well. We come to church to worship. We sing songs about Him, and listen (intently) to the preacher tell us how we can know, love, and serve God better.  And we think we are giving God a great present.  “I’m worshipping You, God.  Isn’t that great?  Aren’t you pleased with my present, God?”

However, worshipping God is one of those necessity kind of things.  The Bible says that if we don’t praise Him, the rocks will!  When we worship God, whether it’s by praying, serving, singing, reading or listening, we are just doing what we ought to do.  It’s a necessity.  We should never think we are giving God something He doesn’t require from us.

That doesn’t mean God isn’t pleased when we do worship Him.  He is always appreciative when we give Him glory … just like I really was pleased with the tools I got as an early birthday present.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: In what ways do you give God worship?  Leave your comment below.

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Coupons Can Lead To Trouble

The other day I was in a bulk food store with my wife Lily. We needed to buy more oat bran cereal for me.  I cook up oat bran every morning and have it with half a grapefruit. I enjoy the grapefruit and I tolerate the oat bran. I’ve been doing this for years (apparently it’s very healthy) … not very tasty, but healthy.  But, I’m getting away from my story.

We were in Bulk Barn, and Lily had a discount coupon but had to spend $10 to use it.  We started looking in all the bins and I started salivating.  The candy looked SO good.  We could have spent $10 in about 30 second and been out of there. I just kept saying, “Hey, these would be nice”, and Lily just kept on walking.  I was gravitating towards the chocolate covered almonds, or the wine gums, but then the chocolate covered raisins, and even the allsorts looked appetizing.

Lily, realized she had to get me thinking in another direction fast because buying candy seemed to be the only thing on my mind.  She started suggesting chips instead, but not chips that any normal human being would like.  She pointed to the kale chips and the hummus chips!  Now, I haven’t tried them – and I never will – but what amazed me was how those products could even get to market!

When it was all said and done, I settled for some honey-roasted peanuts … not my first choice, but I was going to buy something and this seemed to be the better choice:  tasty, but not too damaging.

Here’s the thing:  I have this sin nature in me that pulls me toward sin.  I could blame it all on Satan but the fact is, I’m pretty good at sinning on my own.  Like the candy at the store, there is a pull towards it.  In order to keep me from giving in to that temptation I need some kind of help, like Lily whispering in my ear, “No”, to the strawberry marshmallows.

That’s what the Holy Spirit does; it’s His role.  He is with us all the time, but He won’t overpower us.  We can ignore Him or say “no” to Him very easily.  The key for me is to listen to Him more, discipline myself to hear Him, and follow what He tells me.

It’s not easy at times; my wants can be strong.  But the more I listen to what the Holy Spirit says when I want to sin, the greater the chance I have of avoiding giving in to my sin nature.  This battle will always be with me, but I will get better at it if I can make a habit of listening to Him.

It comes down to one temptation at a time.  Just win that one and then another.  And if you can discipline yourself to win a few – even a few in a row – you will start a pattern of giving in to the Holy Spirit instead of your wants.

Back in the Bulk Barn, even the Popeye Cigarettes started to look good to me.  (They now call them Popeye “candy sticks” so the kids don’t get the wrong message, but they can’t fool me, they’re the best tasting cigarettes you can buy.)  Anyways, at least I managed to leave the store without them.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: What do you find to be most difficult about listening to the Holy Spirit?  Leave a comment below.

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Pizza

Recently my wife Lily experimented with making pizza in a more healthy way for me.  She used pita bread instead of dough (and I just found out now, turkey instead of ham!).  I like ham and pineapple pizza so she made an individual sized pizza for me and then got creative with the one she made for herself.  She was pretty thrilled with the combo of ingredients she put on hers and offered to let me try it.

Now, there’s something you need to know about me and that is, I don’t really like sampling other people’s food.  I eat what I ask for or what I order when I’m at a restaurant because that’s what I feel like eating. I always say to Lily, “If I wanted some of what you are eating I would have ordered it.” There may also be an “I don’t want to have to give you any of mine” attitude in there too.

Lil was pretty proud of the pizza she made for herself and really wanted me to try it … like somehow I’d be completely taken by this new concoction and wouldn’t even want my ham and pineapple any more – fat chance that’s going to happen! So I gave her my standard line when she asked me to try it:  “Lil, I like my pizza; I don’t want to try yours.” This time she put on the pressure: “Please try it; it’s really good; I think you’ll like it.”  “No”, I said, as I took a big bite into my pizza and savoured the mixture of sweet and tangy in my mouth. But she wasn’t finished and kept asking me to try hers.

Usually I don’t give in.  But this time it seemed very important to her for me to try it, so I took a bite. I don’t know what was on her pizza (you’ll have to ask her) but it was no Hawaiian grade pizza, that’s for sure. She asked, “What do you think? Do you like it?” She also threw in an “Isn’t it great” just to help me with my answer. I thought for a moment and said, “It tastes like you would really like it.”  At that moment she remembered whom she was asking to try her food. She simply smiled, shook her head, end of conversation.

God seeks to get us to try new things. It might be a new ministry to serve in, or a new way to connect with him like through journaling. It could be to take a leap of faith, or maybe to seek help for a problem. Whatever it is, God wants to take us from our comfort zone into something better.  However, often we’re stuck in what we like and are comfortable with, and we don’t take God up on his offer. Or, we don’t give the new idea enough of a try to get to like it.  We should be more open to God leading us and not so stuck in our ways, because, unlike pizza that is a personal preference, God is always going to lead us into something great.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

(Disclaimer: in no way am I saying Lil’s pizza is better than mine.)

How has God pushed the boundaries of your comfort zone? Leave a comment below.

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The Birds

We have had some trouble with birds at our house this spring. Birds must think we like them.  And it is not just this year either.  Last year we had a duck make a nest in our bushes and lay 13 eggs and then abandon them.  Then, a few days ago, we went to barbecue and there was a bird nest right on the grill of the BBQ.  We had left it uncovered for a few days and what can I say, the birds like us. You know what it means when birds are making a nest in your barbecue . . . you’re not barbecuing enough!  We’ll be correcting that problem immediately.

The greatest evidence that birds are ready to move into our place, should we decide to vacate the premises, was the nest they were building right outside our front door. I went to get the newspaper one morning and there were bits of dried grass and twigs on our front step.  I looked up and saw a partially constructed two story with attached garage bird house on our porch light.

 I don’t mind if birds decide to use the tree on our front lawn or our shrubs to build their homes in but, our porch light is a little too over the top.  We decided we would encourage them to build their home somewhere else by removing their building materials from the site.  You’d think that would solve the problem.  But, no . . . it wasn’t long before the birds were delivering more material and equipment and the nest was well underway again.  We cleared it away once more. But, again they returned. For some time we played this game with the birds of them putting up nest material on our porch light and us taking it away.

We finally decided that just clearing away the material was not going to do it. So we found some of our son’s old cologne (AXE, if anyone is taking notes) and sprayed it all over the top of our porch light.  Why did we use cologne? I don’t know, it just came to my mind as a good deterrent. The amazing thing was that it worked.  No more bird nest. We did, however, have a few 21 year old girls show up at the door looking for Mike for the next few days (just kidding).

Satan works on us a lot like those birds did. He is persistent, tempting us to sin time and time again. His hope is that we will give up and let the nest (sin) take up residence in us. It can be really frustrating to, time and time again, battle the same temptation, thinking you have dealt with it only to have it come back – sometimes in the exact same way.

We have to be as persistent as the enemy when dealing with temptation and not give in to sin. However, sometimes we need to do something a little more drastic.  We have to alter something so the temptation can’t come back the same way (like we did by spraying the cologne on the porch light). In this way, we mess with Satan’s plans and our own human nature in making sure we keep sin from making a nest in our heart.

I’ll keep you posted on other tips and tricks to use on birds.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

What have you found successful when dealing with temptation and sin?  Leave your comments below.

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On the Other Side of the Clouds

On a recent plane trip, I became fascinated by two very different realms that exist in our world. There is the realm below the clouds and the realm above the clouds. On the plane ride home from Calgary we flew above the clouds with the sun shining brightly all around and into the cabin of the plane. I noticed how some people shut their blinds so that they could sleep or to cut the glare on their TV screen while they watched a movie. Looking out my window the sun was unhindered and I found myself squinting to shade my eyes as I looked out.

Below the plane was this white base that seemed firm and as I focused on it, in my mind I could envision a vast landscape of mountains and valleys. It was pure white, clean and bright, inviting. On our descent, the clouds looked softer and billowy and certainly not solid like before.  They morphed into a wispy cottony substance as we enter them.

 This particular day, the cloud cover was thick and it seemed that we traveled a long way to get through the clouds.  Everything out my window was grey and it resembled thick smoke when it is whipped up by the wind. At one point, I thought, “How long are we going to be in these clouds?” I was surprised how thick they were.

When we finally got through, the scene was vastly different from above the clouds. Though it was only 1 pm, it looked like it was late in the evening.  The realm below the clouds was dark and grey, rainy and dull.  It was a complete contrast to the realm above the clouds.  The realm below was sun starved and I felt an immediate dip in my spirit.

Though this was the realm I live in, there was something about the realm above the clouds I wished was present.  Despite my familiarity with the terrain and the landscape, I had a longing for the bright warm and inviting sun.

So here’s my thought: When life seems rotten, when we’re down and things are going all wrong, internally we are in a realm much like I found myself in below the clouds.  In reality though, the sun is still shining – shining as bright as ever, providing warmth and light and goodness.  It just seems as if the sun is absent.

I envision the sun as God’s goodness and blessing shining on us.  For me to experience that once again, I turn to prayer.  I can’t break through my realm (through the clouds) to the realm above, but my prayers can.  Some times the clouds are thick and it seems to take a long time for my prayer to make it through them.  But that doesn’t mean God’s love isn’t shining down.  In the book of Daniel, he once wondered why it took so long for God to answer his prayer.  Look up Daniel 10:1-14. The angel tells Daniel his prayers were received right away but that he was delayed in responding, like there was a battle going on in the clouds.

Sometimes we have to pray for a long time before we see a break in the clouds, and the sun shining again in our lives.  But what I need to remind myself of is that my prayers are received by God instantly, and regardless of how long it is before my prayers are answered, God’s love and grace is shining down on me as bright as ever – even when I can’t see it. And that’s good to know.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

What are your thoughts on delays in answered prayer?   Leave your comments below!

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The Coffee Shop

I’m not much of a coffee drinker, in fact I don’t drink coffee at all.  I don’t think I have ever bought a coffee for myself, and if I have, it wasn’t to savor the flavor. Recently, my wife and I were in Calgary visiting our daughter who happens to love coffee.  As a result, I have now visited more coffee shops in the last 5 days than I have in my entire life.

Being new to coffee shops, I observed the various places we visited and made some observations. I found that coffee shops often use black boards to display their menus.  I’m not sure if that’s because they often make mistakes and chalk is easy to erase, or if the people who work there are really neat printers and like to show it off.

 I also found these shops unique.  They each had their own unique decor and expressed their owner’s personality.  There were a couple of things, however, that were common in all.  The tables were small and very close together.  Strangers were sitting inches from me and nobody seemed to mind or even notice that they were in my space.

The other common thing was the noise level.  It was loud in these coffee shops on two levels.  First, the coffee machines make an incredible amount of noise for only working with water, milk and coffee beans (our coffee maker at home is virtually silent).  And then there is the talking. People have to talk over the noise of the machines, but also over the voices of the people sitting about 4 inches from their right ear.

Also, from the “research” I did, people like to frequent the same coffee shop often. Apparently, it’s because they like the atmosphere, or the location, or maybe it’s the coffee they like … but I can’t really comment on that – I just had water.  It was good tasting water, mind you, and I am now becoming a connoisseur of fine water.

I started thinking about the similarities between the coffee shop and the church, and I think there are some parallels to make.  Churches have a personality of their own just like coffee shops, and people sit close together when they are in the sanctuary and stand close together in the foyer after church. You might even find yourself right next to someone you don’t know well or have never met.  It’s loud in church when we sing, or when the pastor is trying to emphasize his point, and it is loud in the foyer before and after church with people talking.

There is one difference, however.  People don’t mind going to the same coffee shop over and over again, sitting by people they see often, while never interacting or getting to know them. It’s different at church.  People will soon look for another church if they come and no one talks to them.

The biggest difference between the coffee shop and the church is God.  His love for us has connected us together and should draw us towards those who enter our church for the first time. His love should motivate us to take that first step toward them or open our mouths to say hello.

No matter how much you love that black stuff in your cup, or the atmosphere of the shop, coffee will never move you to open up to the person next to you.  Only God can do that.

Until next time!

Pastor Paul

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Birthday Cake

April 26, 2012

When I became a parent, life became dominated by doing things for my kids. At first they needed help with everything.  I remember the day before Karlie was born, we decided to go to the store. We just grabbed our coats and went out the door. The day after she came home from the hospital we decided to go out.  But first she needed to be fed.  Then she needed to be changed.  We had to pack a bag for her (just to go to the store). When we were finally ready to leave, I didn’t feel like going to the store any more.

In time, our kids became more independent.  I remember Mike, at one and half years old, telling Lily, who was trying to get him dressed, “I do it myself.”  But as they grew they still needed lots of assistance with things like tying shoes, homework, and driving them places.  And when they got older, the assistance they needed just became more expensive (car insurance, trips, university costs).

The other day however, I had an experience that seemed to turn the tables to them helping me.  Lily was turning 50 and I decided to make a cake for Lily.  Having a birthday cake on her birthday has always been a big thing for her.  Usually I buy one, but this was her 50th – a special birthday – and I knew it would mean a lot to her if I made her birthday cake.  The only trouble with that was, I’ve only made about two other cakes in my life.  I knew making the cake would not be too hard as the instructions are on the cake mix package.  But the icing, I didn’t have a clue what to do for that!  Well, a quick text to my daughter got me some help. She not only confirmed what flavour of cake to make, but she told me the kind of icing to make and she texted, “I’ll email you an easy recipe.”

That gave me a funny feeling.  It wasn’t me helping my daughter, it was my daughter helping me.  It was actually a pretty nice feeling.  She’s an adult now, and she’s looking out for her dad, doing things for him.  I kind of like that feeling; I look forward to more of these types of experiences.

The whole experience reminds me of how God longs to change our relationship.  Some of us spend years doing everything for ourselves and everyone else. But God wants to come alongside us and help us.  We are so used to helping ourselves, that we sometimes resist God’s help.  But having His help is a blessing.  And when we come to realize this truth, we will begin to appreciate His help.  We may even begin to seek His help more and more. You will find that God wants to help in the decisions you make, the problems you face, and the thoughts that race through your mind. He wants to direct your life.  You can resist and keep doing it yourself or you can receive the blessing He offers and let Him help.  The greatest thing we can do, is allow God to help us through life. Begin today to take Him up on His offer to help . . . with that career decision, with the purchase you are contemplating, or the life path you are considering.  We will experience the blessing when we seek Him for things we have always done ourselves.

Until next time!

Pastor Paul