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To Fully Follow the Lord - Joshua 14: 6-15 |
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Written by Rev. Spence Laycock
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Monday, 30 January 2006 16:00 |
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I imagine it was about dusk as the first ones made it back into camp, then within minutes the whole team had arrived. There was an air of excitement as the word spread that the twelve men had returned and were about to give their report of what they had seen and experienced. A crowd of thousands of men and women and children gathered, their leaders at the forefront. Then they began to share their report and the first impressions were that it was going to be very difficult. The land of Caanan was rich but it was also heavily fortified. Quickly, Caleb, who was one of the twelve who had just returned, moved to the front of the group and quieted the people down. ?We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.? What happened next none expected. The other ten spies began to stir the people with absolutely negative conclusions. They said that they felt tiny like insects in comparison to the size of the giants who lived near Hebron . Feelings went from fear to hopelessness to rage. The whole thing turned into a mob scene in minutes, the people felt they had been betrayed by Moses. They began to shout, ?Stone them, stone them.? A number of men moved forward to grab Moses, Joshua and Caleb. At exactly that instant a great brightness was present in the tent of meeting, everyone saw it, this was the glory of the Lord and it stopped the people in their tracks. Before the dawn had come God had pronounced a sentence upon the nation, for every day the spies had been in Caanan the people would spend a year in the desert, 40 days became 40 years. The entire population of adult men over 20 would never enter Caanan, instead their children would experience the profession of being shepherds and from this place they would eventually . . .
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Last Updated on Monday, 30 January 2006 14:39 |
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Like a Summer Thunderstorm |
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Written by Dr. Harold McNabb
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Sunday, 29 January 2006 11:11 |
Introducing someone is easy enough if the person is there with you.
Introducing someone who is not present requires you to describe the person in terms that accurately portray who that person is.
For example, in a small rural community where populations are stable and folks know each other for generations, you might describe someone who is returning from many years abroad by saying, "She is aunt Grace?s youngest daughter." The person might add, "oh yes, that would make her Florence and Stanley Ferguson?s granddaughter. I know who she is."
That is pretty much what Matthew does with Jesus. He brings out the family tree and starts his narrative by locating Jesus in the family tree. He begins with Abraham, through David right through to Jesus. Thus his pedigree and roots are described to people who would know and care.
John?s on the other hand is how a more philosophical and poetically minded person might describe someone. He might say something like, "Ok, imagine all the characteristics of the perfect person and friend and imagine all of that from God totally in one person. That is Jesus"
Luke the gentile physician who had never met Jesus was in Judea with his friend Paul. He says he took the opportunity of . . .
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Written by Rev. Spence Laycock
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Wednesday, 25 January 2006 16:44 |
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What was the most sacred place that you have ever been in? The kind of place where awe and reverence for God were experienced, a place that was set apart from all other places, a holy place. You know, as I tried to answer that question myself I kept drawing blanks. There have been a lot of awe inspiring places like Notre Dame Cathedral in Montreal or the mountain ridges of the Yukon or the wonder of the light in the sky at daybreak that seems to breathe promise. But the most sacred place I could remember has been in the presence of other people as we together discovered the presence and reality of God?s holiness and grace. I remember praying with a woman in my office for healing and to both of our amazements it occurred right there and then and we were filled a sense of awe and worship at God?s grace and presence. I can remember a time of sitting in a friends living room and hearing of how someone had come to a place of faith in Christ and was selling his cabin, traps, fishing nets and moving back to town where the people were so that he could be a Christian there among them. I remember a time of decision in my own life where I cried out to God in the midst of uncertain circumstances and declared Him to be my God, whether I stayed or went, whether to do this or to do that?He is my God and I will seek after Him. These were the most sacred places that I could remember. Two things contributed to the sense of the sacred, my conscious awareness that I am in the presence of God in some . . .
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Written by Dr. Harold McNabb
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Saturday, 21 January 2006 19:53 |
In the mid 1930?s an unlikely horse became a racing sensation. Its name was Sea biscuit and was the perfect hero for the depression era when so many people saw their dreams end up on the scrap pile. Sea biscuit was an undersized underachiever that no one thought could succeed. Just another casualty in a tough and cruel world.
But the horse was rescued from the reject bin and becomes a legend, and recently the subject of a movie.
One of the main characters in the movie Sea biscuit, is a broken-down, unemployed cowboy named Tom Smith. Millionaire Charles Howard, who is about to engage in a horse racing enterprise, has a campfire interview with Smith, and asks why he bothered rescuing an old, lame horse that was sentenced to death because of a broken leg.
Tom replies, "You don?t throw a whole life away just ?cause it?s banged up a bit." Every horse is good for something, Tom claims.
And God says that about every person: "You don?t just throw away a whole life because it?s banged up a bit."1
And so God calls on Jonah to go to Nineveh, a great city in which God says, the inhabitants " do not know their right hand from their left." He is saying, they are ignorant and their . . .
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Written by Dr. Harold McNabb
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Sunday, 15 January 2006 16:00 |
On Pentecost island in Vanuatu, there used to be a coming of age ritual similar to bungee jumping. In fact this is where bungee jumping originated. The elders built a tower from bamboo poles; and then using vines, they make ropes which they attach to the ankles of the young participant. The young man then makes a head-first leap from the tower and plunges about forty or fifty feet toward the ground. The vines break the fall at the last second and the young fellow is spared becoming an upside down fence post. Or they don?t.
You jump and survive, and you are considered a man.
I am really glad that we don?t do anything more daunting than passing a driver?s license test..
Other cultures have their own process for life?s transitions.
A question I am sometimes asked is, "how did you feel called into ministry?".
At times I have asked myself the same question, and all I can say is it was a building conviction inside which I acted upon and that in spite of my own questions, has been confirmed strongly enough that I continue.
Very few receive a dramatic lightning bolt of certainty, though it does happen.
The gospels tell us of the calling of several of Jesus followers, and for each of them, its a different experience.
I suppose we remember the calling of James and John best. Jesus sees . . .
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