Moose's Place

Fellowship of Believers

2009-10-21T02:12:00.002-06:00

I have been really stirred in my heart lately on the subject of how important the fellowship of believers really is. God designed us to be like coals, to be set afire in the presence of other believers. When we move ourselves out of fellowship and outside the fire, as it were, we find that our light grows dim, and that is when satan comes at us. Even in the midst of spiritual battle in community, we can find we can grow discouraged, how much more is that darkness when we are by ourselves. Like a coal that is pulled out of a fire and left to cool, the light goes out, we become insignificant to the light and warmth of Jesus in our world, and we find we are truly alone. It is when we come back into the fellowship, that we find that even though it may be uncomfortable to someone who, like myself tends to be a bit of a loner, and even, yes a bit antisocial, finds myself encouraged and "lit" by other believers. It is true what is said "surround yourself with people you aspire to be like" and you will be like them. Just as we are to surround ourselves, and bathe ourselves in Jesus Christ's presence, we become like Him, so when we surround ourselves with positive, Godly people, we become like them as well. Jesus said Himself "wherever two or more are gathered, in My Name, I am there, in the midst of them". So true is this statement. This does not discount intimate worship and time with God alone on our sojourn's with Christ, but does speak to our need for other believers in our lives for victorious Christian living. Jesus said to "take up your cross and follow me daily" but then we find that fellowship with other believers helps to also share the burden of that cross. We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, here on earth, and in the heavenlies, we are to be encouraged that we are not alone, unless we choose to be. I suppose the imagery of the coals and the fire really was impressed on me again, when up at Tobin Lake at Wilderness Ministries I found myself staring into lots of campfires, playing guitar and meditating on the goodness of God. One last story before I go on this topic.
A man had not shown up to church for a while, found that there were too many hypocrites there, had been slighted too many times, and generally had become cynical about the whole thing. He decided it was better for him to stay at home, by his warm fire than to go out into the winter for church. One day, the pastor shows up at his home. The man lets the pastor in, offers him a warm cup of tea and a sit by the fire. Concerned, the pastor inquires into why the man hasn't been to church and the man shares his views. Quietly as they are both sipping their tea, the pastor places his cup down, and removes the poker from the fireplace. He removes a single coal from the fire off to the side and sits back down. As they quietly sip their tea, they watch as the coal's light fades until they cannot see any light but ash. The pastor then moves the coal back into the pile of coals and they watch as the coal starts to burn again, and glow like the other coals as the flames warm the room. The pastor finishes his tea, thanks the man, and leaves. The man shows up to church the very next Sunday.
I love this story, and I have to admit I am readily more interested in allegory. A couple things we can glean, like the pastor, we have to be ready and willing to reach out to those we do not see in church, to care enough to give them a call or take them for coffee so that they feel like they do indeed belong, are missed, and are loved. People will do what they want, but we must not leave a man behind. Love in action speaks louder than any words. I believe it was St. Francis of Assissi that said "Preach the Gospel continually. If necessary, use words." We are to be the salt and light to this world. We need to encourage one another and love each other, and by saving someone else, we find that we end up saving ourselves as we draw near to Jesus, the ultimate saviour.

God Bless You All Real Good! Moose

A Few new things...

2009-10-09T01:31:00.014-06:00

Hey all, well its been a while since I been on this thing... wow February... that's quite a while... been a lot has happened between now and then... first things first though, please watch and if you think a good blog add this guy to your blog roll: http://crossmanministries.blogspot.com This man is like a brother to me and is involved in a really cool ministry that God has called his family to. Pray for him and for the funding and the people to come into place for this simply HUGE vision God has given him.

In other news... lol... Living in North Battleford has been awesome... waking up to a wonderful wife every day is incredible, and God has been blessing me here in every way. God is indeed good. Still going to the R.O.C. or the Reclaim Outreach Center in North Battleford, getting to play guitar once in a while :) It is a street level ministry with a soup kitchen, used clothing, and men's temporary housing. My friends Don Toovey who used to tour with Double Portion and Pastor Len Beaucage are good solid men who love street people and are incredible ministers of the gospel.

I am still working at Bannerman Photo, (I actually built this website for them :) but have resigned from the hospital. The tech job at Bannerman's went full time and I needed my weekends to spend with my sweetheart, so though a drop in income, it is so nice to have a life now :) I can even get out to church more too...

Darcy's oldest has graduated and is getting his welding ticket, we now have the second oldest living with us and the youngest is still living with his father. Days can be stressful sometimes... the whole kid thing / teenager thing can be as anyone will tell you... hormones lol...

We got away to Tobin Lake to Wilderness Ministries this year, both Dillan, the youngest and Taylor, the second oldest came with us. It was awesome to see how much they really enjoyed being out there. They didn't want to leave which was pretty amazing considering no PS2, Internet, or Cable TV... LOL... They even bore through the Country style Gospel music lol... in spite of it being a little on the cool side with rain :)

I ended up going back up for the September long weekend as Harry and Joanne Cash Yates were up and ministering. I even got to play around the campfire with some Double Portion crew... was an awesome weekend... again cool and rainy but still bearable in a tent with a tarp :) My brother Kel and his family were able to make it up as well and made for an awesome visit.

Another development is that even though I still do not have the funding to get my old shovelhead harley on the road, God saw fit to bless me with a 1980 Yamaha 650 Special... even made it affordable $500! Usually the motor sells at salvage for a buck a cc... so just the engine is worth $650! You can do the math there and see what God did... He is an awesome God... is good to be up riding again... though not my old Harley... God is giving me the little things to be faithful with before He gives me the big things. God is good.

Anyways... got up to get a drink of water... ended up writing this lol... heading to Carrot River for Thanksgiving with my family, going to jam with my brother Kel and get to see my cousins new little baby girl... and of course two of the joys of my life, my little nephews

Caleb and Jo... going to be awesome.

Well God Bless you all, stay safe and warm :) Snow is here...
Steve "Moose" Funkner

What an awesome weekend...

2009-02-16T20:52:00.002-06:00

Had a super weekend! Traveled to Saskatoon to spend some time with my brother Chuck and his family for a movie nite and burgers... Best American ice tea you ever tasted! Spent the nite there and then next morning got to spend time with my Saskatoon church family at Hope Fellowship. Was so good to get together with a lot of brothers and sisters I haven't seen for a while. Went to Joe and Sarah's for lunch and then a pleasant surprise, went to see the Monster Truck show at SaskPlace. Was an awesome afternoon of hanging out with two of my spiritual brothers in arms Joe and Darcy. I posted a few pics and Vids on my facebook... It has dawned on my how much I miss having guys to hang out with and share my heart with. I have not really found that in North Battleford. Of course I can share my heart with my wife, Darcy, but not the same as the brotherly camaraderie one feels with Christian brothers. Then again there was never much a church like Hope Fellowship either... The church I am at is the Reclaim Outreach Center, and that is what it is, an outreach, the tight brotherly camaraderie is just not there yet... it is a newer church only 2 years old, and it has gotten me playing guitar again, helping lead worship... just miss the brotherly love of Hope Fellowship... God is blessing me where I am, I know it... but just lacking in that dept. My friends that read this, you can feel free to pray for me in that area :) In other news... still working at Sask Hospital casually... at Bannerman Photo more so becoming a full time job... the other job opportunity I was looking at wasn't as good as I thought, so I am happy where God has me right now. I enjoy my job at Bannermans... doing more and more Photoshop work... I love that... designing collages for people, doing photo touch ups, I love designing stuff like that... Fixing the 10 or so computers around the place lol... sometimes can be frustrating... but I do like the work. Seems God has me in a holding pattern for now that sometimes I want to buck out from... but all around as a friend of mine once said "Its all good" Lord Bless Ya'll -Moose

Haven't watered this thing in a while :)

2008-09-02T01:21:00.003-06:00

Been a while since I logged in here... Been a busy summer... working two jobs, one at Saskatchewan Hospital as a Care Aide and at a Photo Lab in North Battleford. Being at the bottom of the totem pole works not too bad in the summer when all the the people with Seniority are on holidays... Got to spend about a week up at Wilderness Ministries this year, muchly needed, but all too short. Was a good time for R&R and time to reacquaint with friends and family. Was awesome this summer to see Rick and Bebe a few times, Double Portion and Ron and Donalda. Been also busy helping Don lead worship at my church at the Reclaim Outreach Center or the ROC as we call it... been kinda getting back in the saddle with that again... Generally life is good, marriage is good, still in Newlywed stage with my honey I married last August, a few bumps with the kids here and there, but all in all pretty good. A new life and a new sense of direction. Saw all 3 of my cousins from Carrot River married this year... was awesome sharing that with them and really helped get us closer together for sure... Got some new Cousins in Law :) Awesome people all... Looking at another job opportunity in the wings... see what that holds... am surrounded by a lot of positive people, life can only get better :) A different view from where I was just a couple short years ago... still not a millionaire ;) LOL... but life is generally good... enjoying life in North Battleford and the quietness of it all... Biggest things are missing my family up in Carrot River, my old church family in Saskatoon... but all in all, not really big things in the light of eternity :) God is Good. Well... thats all I can think of right now... Blessings... Moose

Bill's Baloney: Professional Association of Idiots

2008-07-08T01:01:00.002-06:00

Bill's Baloney: Professional Association of Idiots

Man Do I EVER Agree with this guy! Just watching some of the Calgary Stampede Bullriding "Competion" and thinking how Idiotic these guys are. How 'bout making a sport where we spin a barrel on a gun and point it at our heads and see if it goes off when we pull the trigger... oh yeah... already invented that... its called Russian Roulette... Sheesh. And they say motorcycle riding is dangerous... uh... yeah RIGHT.

Wow... Turning 40...

2008-04-16T16:29:00.002-06:00

Well today is my birthday. 40 years old... WOW never thought I would be 40, weird thing, 10 more years is 50, scary how the years go past a guy. I had seen it coming for a while, white hair growing in, but now, 40... Reminds me of the song by Randy Stonehill, called, Turning 30, just adding another 10 years lol! I remember when 25 was a big deal, then 30, 40 seems so far off... and 50 well, only OLD people were 50. Got kids calling me "SIR" at gas stations, sheesh! I don't feel like a "Sir" I still feel like an 18 year old at heart, though my body would disagree some mornings... some days almost feel 80 lol... noticing other friends of mine, turning grey, kids graduating, going to college, etc. and realizing we are all getting older. Realizing that now, more than ever, only the things that really matter are worth anything on this earth. Friends, Family, God... how we fight over such minor things that in the light of a lifetime are really trivial. Learning that picking our battles is so important. Thinking that more or less, on average, half of my life is over. What I want to do with the last half of my life and how much of the first half I had squandered in nonsense, or as King Solomon said "Meaningless" stuff, and a lot of life's stuff is meaningless. A lot of life needs to be lived a lot more purposefully for sure. LOL! Rambling on lol... it seems here. Life is too short someone said, and I do believe it now. We are just a blip on the radar of eternity, and what we do here somehow makes a Huge difference on what happens in life, here and ever after. As I get older I realize that spirituality and faith is much more of value than things that pass away. The afterlife now tends to hold more sway in the panorama of my vision than it used to when I was younger, and there is more of a need to get to the point of issues, issues that matter than when I was young and foolish. Time seems to have gotten up from a crawl and started running away from me, more and more, and when captured for a while, time is more and more valuable. Mabey these are all things everyone goes through when they get older and become more reflective on their lives, I don't know. Never been here before :) But life definitely does get more interesting the older you get. Ask me again when I get another 40 years under my belt LOL!

God Bless Ya'll Real Good! Steve "Moose" Funkner

Very intewesting gwasshauppa...

2008-03-26T17:15:00.002-06:00

LOL wow apparently someone thinks my ramblings are actually worth money :) Imagine that! Got this funky email in my Gmail (hey that rhymes)... whether legit or not, still to see, but an interesting forum nonetheless... check it out... http://doingfine.org (If this advertising offer is real, doingfine.org just got some free PR at the very least ;)

Got an interesting chuckle out of this anywhoo :)

God Bless,
Moose

Advertising Inquiry - mooseplace.blogspot.com

Client profile :

DoingFine (http://doingfine.org)

New project (<1 month old)

Theme A forum dedicated to those things that came out right

and worked out fine.

We'd like either a 150x150 button, 160x600 skyscraper or 468x60 full
banner (or footer). Alternatively, we may be interested in text-only
advertising.

This would be a weekly, monthly or yearly arrangement. In either case
we will require a one time, one day (24 hours) free placement in order
to test the quality and quantity of traffic your website can actually
provide*. Within this interval, we will make a final determination,
based on the traffic volume, quality, and your asking price. Should
we find your terms acceptable, this trial day will count towards the
agreed interval.

Kindly let us know if you would be interested, which arrangement best
suits your editorial needs, and what rates you would like to charge.
We prefer using PayPal but may be able to accommodate alternative
payment methods.

Thank you.

*Please note that we employ software that reliably detects autoclick
and autosurf bots, pay per click and paid to surf type traffic, and
other such non-human traffic. This may be a concern for you,
especially if you are buying "bulk traffic", or employing the
services of dubious "SEO experts".

Larry Norman Dead at 60... Wow...

2008-02-27T21:10:00.001-06:00

The World is just a little darker place today...

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gj4mgUcw46lfZXbioOJCJMBA8Nag

Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman dead at 60

1 day ago

SALEM, Ore. - Larry Norman, a pioneer of Christian rock, has died at age 60.

Norman died of heart failure Sunday at his home in Salem, said his brother, Charles Norman. Norman earned his biggest commercial hit as the lead singer of the folk-rock band People! The band's cover version of The Zombies song "I Love You" was an international hit and peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard chart in June 1968.

Norman left the band on the day its debut album was released, when some members began experimenting with Scientology.

Though Norman never again hit the Billboard Top 10, his solo career proved durable and influential.

Norman's first solo record - the 1969 release "Upon This Rock" - is considered the first Christian rock album. He later started his own independent label, recording additional solo albums while discovering other Christian artists. It all led to him being dubbed the "father of Christian rock."

Larry Norman was born April 8, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas. His family moved to San Francisco when Norman was young and he developed an interest in the music of Elvis Presley.

He accompanied his father on Christian missions to prisons and hospitals and was inspired to write rock songs that included spiritual messages, Charles Norman said.

Charles Norman said his brother practised what he preached, even stopping taxi rides while on tour to help homeless people.

Norman was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2001 and cover versions of his songs have been recorded by artists ranging from Petula Clark and Sammy Davis Jr. to DC Talk and Rebecca St. James.

At the time of his death, Norman was working on an album with Modest Mouse singer Isaac Brock and former Pixies singer Frank Black, who cites Norman as a major influence.

Struggles... in Life...

2008-02-23T22:08:00.002-06:00

Well... have been job shadowing at Sask Hospital now for a few days... have now got a couple Continuing Care Aide courses under my belt (there are 16) and the job prospect is looking good for a job at Sask Hospital in North Battleford when I get done.

Financially seems we are still struggling since the move, marriage etc. but am hoping things will get cleared up when I start working again hopefully.

Biggest thing I am struggling with is the existing family baggage that came with the beautiful woman I am madly in love with.

In some sense I do love her boys, some more than others, but I find I have personality conficts with one of them and I do not know how to deal with it. I recognize the conflicts as just that, personality conflicts, but there are power struggle issues as well that frustrate and anger me. Somedays I just do not know what to do. The kid is just like his father, Type A, world revolves around me, irresponsible, and an opinion on everything even if they know nothing about the subject. Drives me crazy.

I have to deal with these people and yet, Jesus says I am supposed to love them. This is very difficult for me. I try, Lord I try... but it seems I more swing around to the end of anger and frustration than love and forgiveness. Praying for them is like praying for a wall to become sand... and every time I am around or have to deal with one of these two individuals I feel like I have to bite my tongue. It does not bring peace to me, nor my beautiful wife, or the other people in my family, but on the other hand, if I bottle it up thats not good either. Being a stepdad I feel like I have no opinion in the matters of the existing family and if I do say something it just seems to offend people because even though what I say is the truth, people do not want to hear it or do not want me to rock the boat.

I know coming into a family as an outsider is a difficult thing, I saw my stepdad Dennis deal with us when he married my mom, but I do not remember the power struggles and blatent lack of respect and irresponsibility that seems to crop up with these people I deal with. It truly is frustrating and I try to love and care through it, but find it truly hard to do. I pray for forgiveness in my heart and theirs, I pray for change, but it seems it does not come. In my heart I want peace, and I know that the unrest in our family causes my wife a great deal of unrest and sadness. I just do not know what to do anymore. God knows I try.

Oh well... this is just me ranting and raving... sorry, no wonderfully spiritual truths or postulating... just me typing and blurting out what is on my mind. Gotta be real. Moose.

LifeUpdate...

2007-10-22T04:31:00.000-06:00

Well... been a while since I been on here... with the advent of Facebook, marriage, and a move, been quite busy lately. Been enjoying being busy at taking some time off work and collecting some well earned Employment Insurance. Been over 17 years since I remember doing that. It is good. Rest and Relaxation, going to the gym again, getting stuff sorted out from the move, and really getting to spend a lot of quality time with my new family. Marriage is wonderful. I never thought I would ever say that 2 years ago or so, but life has really turned a corner for me. I am in love like I have thought possible, and the whole dad thing is working out. Taking some time to do some of the things I have wanted to pursue, reading, getting in shape, and following my favorite teams the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Calgary Flames. Funny thing, I used to almost literally LIVE on the computer, but nice to live in the analogue world and check out what it has to offer. North Battleford is a wonderful place to live, and being in a valley, it is truly beautiful as well. There is lots of history here, and lots to see and take in. The job hunt is half hearted right now, enjoying my holiday in life and soaking it all in. Seems as I get older I seem to appreciate the finer things in life and am more aware of the brevity of it and the need to really make each day count. Our next breath is not guaranteed to us and we must really live life to the fullest or lose the wonderful-ness of it all. I have done things I have wanted to do, things small and some great. Small things like actually watching Casablanca finally after all these years, movies that people say you should watch but never had time to do before.

More time for devotions, Bible Study, ministry... things that actually count for something in the long run. I am pressed with the knowledge that our time on this earth is short and we do not have a lot of it when you think of how fast it goes by, those who have left this earth ahead of us and those who have been wise enough to share that experience. Millions have gone before us and the thought that really presses me is what legacy am I to leave behind? What mark on this earth will I leave, where does it really matter? I am more and more convinced that once all our our deeds are put to the flame of God, only what has been done for Him will be eternal. We scurry about like ants in a hill, focused on moving so much miniscule pieces of dirt from here to there, only to find that there is a larger call, something much bigger we are to do, for when we are gone, all that we have left is dirt and ash, but what we have done for God is real and immortal. Cynical, mabey, but I believe that is the real, reality of life. After we have earned our dollars, paid our bills, lived in the bubble we call our lives, what have we accomplished? Have we healed the sick? Bound up the broken hearted? Set at liberty them who are bruised? Have we REALLY made a difference in someones life of have we hurriedly rushed by in the midst of our small lives filled with indifference or worse, apathy?

(Isa 61:1 NIV) "The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,"

(Isa 61:2 NIV) "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,"

(Isa 61:3 NIV) "and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor."

(Isa 61:4 NIV) "They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations."

Do we weep over our cities and towns like Jesus wept over Jerusalem? Or do we brush people off as someone else's responsibility, mabey missionaries, or pastors? DO we REALLY believe we are the hands and feet of Christ or just his judgemental voice when we see something is wrong inpinging upon our rights? Do we REALLY love the world and its people or are they just too bothersome to deal with as we go about our self centered lives? These are things I have been noticing in my life and in the lives of other Christians. Why does the world not take the Christian church seriously? I believe this is why. We are truly too focused on our rights, money and our selves to seriously care about anyone else. Further, people are struggling on how little they love themselves to reach out and love others. They can barely make it day to day looking after themselves let alone others. We are truly living in Laodecia. The fires that once burned bright we have let them grow dim. The very one we swore that we would die for has been forgotten.

(Rev 3:14 NIV) ""To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation."

(Rev 3:15 NIV) "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!"

(Rev 3:16 NIV) "So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

(Rev 3:17 NIV) "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked."

(Rev 3:18 NIV) "I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see."

(Rev 3:19 NIV) "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent."

(Rev 3:20 NIV) "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

My heart has been broken lately for those I have walked by who Jesus wanted me to love. There is really only one remedy He provides, repentance. More and more I am amazed at the call we leave at the altar for unbelievers to open the door to Jesus' knocking, only in amazement to find that it is us, the Christians Jesus is calling to. May we really be refined in the fire that we could be Gold in faith and deeds, in love and mercy, to rebuild the ruins of our cities physically and spiritually, to be the anchors and hearts and hands of our Lord. These are things I am walking through right now and I believe is on the heart of God. Prayerfully seek God in your life as I seek Him in mine to see where we can best serve Him and not our own desires. Just stuff on my heart. Blessings... Moose

Wow what a WILD RIDE last couple Days!

2007-08-06T16:00:00.000-06:00

Hey fellow bloggers traveling the data stream of life...

What a wild few days... Well every one seems to be asking me how the wedding went... Got one good solid answer. I AM MARRIED LOL! MUSTA WORKED! We are officially wedded and Darcy and I are on our honeymoon at the West Edmonton Mall... IT is INCREDIbLE to say the least. Just came from a sealion show that was one of the wildest things i have ever seen, we had an awesome nite soaking in the hot tub in the Roman Room in our suite complete with wine and cheeze and fresh fruit. After a good nite sleep on what I can only describe as the comfy-est bed I have ever slept on, off this morning to complimentary brekkie at the Europa Cafe, bought some swim trunks for the water park, and took pics there and back, the sea lion show... and then swimming later, going to a comedy club to watch some comedians on bourbon street and hit the hot tub again with a bottle of bubbly for tonite... wow what a wonderful day. it is amazing. Gonna meet with a buddy here mabey and stop at a friends in Lloydminster tommorrow am as well as trip back home. GOnna miss living at the mall... it is so incredible here... too many things to just do in a day or so... oh yea found a chinese place with INCREDIBLE bubble tea... had watermelon and it BLEW my mind. It is so incredible doing all this with the lady I now call my wife and sharing such wonderful experiences with her. We DEFINITELY plan to come back! Photos and more to ocme at a later date! God Bless You Good! Moose

Wow I am getting married in a month...

2007-07-07T09:15:00.000-06:00

One month to go... and my life becomes altered once again, a paradigm shift from single and living on my own to married with children and not the sitcom... another big move (physically and metaphorically) and a whole new life in a small Saskatchewan city. North Battleford to be exact. The whole North Battleford / Battleford area is beautiful, the pace is slow, and a lot of people do not obey yield or stop signs lol... you don't expect to get anywhere fast out there as everyone seems to be moving at a much slower pace... LOTS of farm plates lol... nice to see there are a few amenities that Saskatoon has, a Canadian Tire (very important if you are a guy), Mark's Work Wearhouse (very important if you are a big guy and thats all you wear), and of course a Walmart. McDonalds and A&W are there too, but I prefer the Subway... even a Vern's Pizza. In Saskatoon the Co-op is a smaller business... in North Battleford they have their own MALL lol... and of course there is a Sobeys... We discovered that one of the hotels on the outskirts of North Battleford has a Smitties and a larger discovery is a dessert with the name ROLO in it... mmmmmm... town is full of history, the Northwest Mounted Police had a barracks there and a fort, and the whole place seems to live up to its slogan "Where the past is present" although LOL my first thought was oh no going to be living in a backwards hick town lol... at 14000 people seems everyone knows everyone there... http://www.cityofnb.ca/ theres the website if you are curious lol...

Oh yeah... back on track here... I love bunny trails lol ya never quite know where they gonna end up... yeah so new life... married with children... hmmm... yadda... yadda... oh yeah, new church... Living Faith Chapel or the "LFC' as it is named my new church... we are still trying to figure out how two entire households are going to meld into one, lots of stuff... and I already pared it down... that is going to be quite a challenge... it really has hit though that in one month this whole new life kicks into gear... seems like not a lot of time and so very much to do... on the other side of this I am sure it will look pretty amazing as well... got a lady who is so amazing beside me through this all, soon to be my wife... It is going to be so awesome. I cannot wait to take a month off either... at the prompting of my sweetheart, I decided that is what I am going to do... spend some time with the boys... do some r&r... do a lot of work getting settled in...

Darcy is getting her dress made... fittings galore... we are making our own cake... she is making all the decorations... what a lady... I just have to pay for the actual wedding... the catering and the location and the photos... some new clothes to get hitched in lol... I am sure looking forward to the honeymoon, some time away just me and her... plan is still for West Ed mall Roman room... I cannot wait to crawl into the Jacuzzi lol... one of the few places where you can go ice skating AND swimming in the same afternoon under the same roof LOL... it should be awesome...

Its all sinking in and looking like it is going to be a wild ride...

Shameless URL plugs...

2007-06-04T08:06:00.000-06:00

Been spending a LOT of time on a couple of website lately (still dunno if that is good or bad) and just wanted to share these with my blogging world :) One is www.facebook.com a very interesting site whereby I am rediscovering all sorts of people I havent talked to in ages. Very cool. The other is www.pogo.com purely a game site, got the full membership as a gift from my sweetheart and good way to relax after a day at work...

Of course one site on lots too right now is www.nhl.com for obvious reasons :) I am a Calgary Flames fan but cannot help going with a Canadian team for the Stanley Cup (guess its the patriot in me) GO SENS GO!

My two cents ;)

Check this blog out...

2007-05-13T18:03:00.000-06:00

For those who don't know this is my fiance's blog http://afriend4everw3.blogspot.com her name is Darcy. God Bless - Moose

Love, Actually...

2007-05-13T16:51:00.000-06:00

Well... just a couple more months until the wedding... seems it is drawing so close and days when it cannot get here fast enough lol... every day is a gift from God and the more days I live it seems these days, the more convinced I am. There is absolutely nothing in this world that isnt laid up by God's own hand, good or bad all things work to the good for those who love God. I am truly amazed at His blessings that are truly new every morning, how redemptive of a God He is and how much He truly loves us. I am blown away by agapao love, unconditional, pure and sweet from God the very source and who is comprised actually of love. In the Gospel of John we find that God calls Himself Love itself.

(1 John 4:8-10 NIV) "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

9 "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him."
10 "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

What a God! The very essence of love, the very ingredient in our lives in its purest form. And that He not us, made the first step in loving us, the God of the universe. Think about that for a moment. WOW. He sent His son to die for us, His son. How many fathers would send their children to die for someone else? Not for Himself but for us. Amazing Love. This is never so evident when we read in 1 Corinthians 13 called the love chapter the following:

(1 Cor 13:1-8 NIV) "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."
2 "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
3 "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."
4 "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud."
5 "It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."
6 "Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth."
7 "It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
8 "Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away."

If God is Love, and we substitute God for Love in this chapter we find a very wonderful picture of God's love for His children.

(1 Cor 13:4-8 NIV) "GOD is patient, GOD is kind. GOD does not envy, GOD does not boast, GOD is not proud."
5 "GOD is not rude, GOD is not self-seeking, GOD is not easily angered, GOD keeps no record of wrongs."
6 "GOD does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth."
7 "GOD always protects, GOD always trusts, GOD always hopes, GOD always perseveres."
8 "GOD never fails."

Did you catch that? Did you see that? God never, ever, will ever fail. Ever. He is more solid than the bedrock beneath your feet. More true than the North Star. That will all pass away but He still will REMAIN. What a God. And this is the unwavering love He has for us. The love He expects us to have for the world. Unconditional love.

I have been so amazed at how, when we fail, God never does. When we have given up, God is still on our side. When we sin, God has already provided a way of atonement. He already did the work, we just have to accept what He is and own it in our hearts. Amazing.

How does that fit in my life you might ask... lol... looking at what I have written above I had to ask my self that same question lol... well... not really...

I am the most in love with anyone I have ever been in my life. I am experiencing agapao love like I never have before. A pure unconditional love that only seeks to love me back. I am convinced that my finance is a gift from God as there is no way the two of us could be so made for each other by accident. The past experiences bad or good have moulded us each to be exactly who the other would ever want or need and I am truly amazed. I cannot live without this woman it seems, we live in two different towns until the wedding and I long to be close to her whenever I am away. I have never written so many love letters or sung as many love songs to anyone in my life. I have never dropped all my walls of protection around my heart like I have with her. It is like I expected her to fight her way into my heart and she walked right in to the center of it without firing a shot. Never have I ever had my heart so conquered so amazingly and it was with unconditional love, pure, kind, gentle and simple. I believe that is why there are so many allusions to God's love being to that of a groom for His bride. A love like that cannot be stood up against. You can try, but when someone is pouring out pure, agapao love on you it is pretty hard to keep hard against that person lol... and in this case I didnt even want to try.

I find it amazing that a heart can be broken so hard and still have the capacity to love again. Each day, my heart heals more from my past, and each day past hurts dissapate more like a bad dream. Each day with my love seems like another day of opportunity to love again and the longing to be man and wife preoccupies my mind.

I know what love sickness means now lol... it is true that absence does make the heart grow fonder. Not being able to see my fiance daily is hard. Harder than I thought it would be. Of course never had a relationship quite like this before. I cannot wait for the next email, phone call, webcam, or trip out to see her or her to see me. I have never had my heart long for someone like I do for her outside God.

I guess that is what it is quite like really and I have a whole another appreciation for what God must be going through. He wants Jesus to come back for His bride the church... I cannot imagine how stir crazy God must be going longing to wed with His church. The love and longing God has for His bride. WOW... if He is experiencing even half of what I am WOW... lol of course I know that His love is so much more for us than man for woman, but WOW... that is some kind of love. The fact that He is waiting is even so much more amazing. I have a lot more empathy for God's heart for us now that I am actually experiencing kinda the same thing, though obviously not on the same scale...

And God wants the same with us that we want with our bride, communion, to be together, to talk, to love. How He must long for us when we are too busy for Him. That is why we must know Him, not know about Him, not of heard about Him, KNOW Him... Know what is in His heart, what makes Him laugh, cry, makes him happy or sad. I hear His voice and know who it is on the other end of the line.

If He loves us like I love my bride, His heart must jump whenever He hears from us like mine does when I hear my fiance on the other end of the phone, to hear the words I love you to Him must make His heart soar like mine does when my love says that to me. To have His love poured back to Him like my bride pours back hers to me must be truly amazing on a celestial scale.

Wow... I guess our needs and His needs are not really that different at all... The need to be loved.

God Bless... Moose

Its My Birfday ;)

2007-04-16T09:44:00.000-06:00

Well... had to change my age from 38 to 39... yikes... 1 year away from that old age 40 line... lol... downhill? Uphill? Dunno until I get there won't know... Somedays I can feel it in my body, but then again am outta shape lol... Got friends who are 40 and they don't seem worse for wear, and about this mid life crisis thing... when does that happen? Have I been through it? Lord I hope so lol... I think about my new life in a few short months, it is truly amazing... Got a new place to live, my house is sold... gonna have a new wife, TOTALLY head over heels in love... divorce is finalized... gotta new (new to me) car (1989 Corolla), Camry was totalled this Christmas... gonna have... kids... wow... I am a dad in training imagine that! ... 3 boys... with much fear and trepidation I might add and a bit of humor... The 12 year old stared wonderously at my face and declared... "WOW are you EVER getting a LOT of grey hair" lol... Geez... thanks kid... lol... to which I commented its you guys LOL... KIDDDING!!!! To which we all got a good laugh. My fiance swears that my hair is gonna go grey real quick once I move in lol... I am thinking to myself... SELF... strap yer butt inna chair... gonna be a WILD ride lol... Was awesome hanging out with the boys this weekend watching my team (The Flames) lose and their team (The Canucks) win... I find myself more and more loving those kids... especially when in amazement we are watching American Chopper and I find the little one snuggling up to me to watch TV... wow cannot describe that feeling... I kinda feel... well... like a dad... and the look on my lady's face when that happens is amazing... sure feels cool to be part of family. That and discussions about a possible little one in the future... wow never been there before... God truly is amazing... I feel like Job from the Bible after satan wrecks his life... the blessings pour in. If you never read it before it is quite a read... sure lets ya know where you stand in the spiritual food chain of God's kingdom... Man this really got longer than I intended it to, but thats ok... my heart had more stuff in it than I thought it did. God Bless. Moose

Added Wedding Countdown...

2007-03-30T10:08:00.000-06:00

Figured I wanted a good way to track and share when I get married... going to be so awesome... life is incredible these days, going to church lots at Living Faith Chapel in North Battleford, an Apostolic Church with my honey and a couple of her boys. Here is their website here: Living Faith Chapel Although not quite the family atmosphere or freedom to worship as Hope Fellowship, it is a good bible based church with an awesome pastoral team with a great heart for its people and its community. Been spending quite a few weekends out in North Battleford with my new family so thats why I haven't been around much Hopers :) Am hoping to get out to Hope this weekend though and see you guys. Miss you all. Got a new car, well new to me now after my Christmas car wreck... its a 1989 Toyoto Corolla, bare bones no frills car, but runs good and is certified and has been gone through with a fine tooth comb. House Sold so now awaiting possession and so now focus is on wedding August 4th and the move out to North Battleford. Which reminds me, if anyone has a truck i could borrow, or hitch a ride with to North Battleford with a couch and a boxspring, let me know. I got to get those out of my landlords garage asap... Hmm what else is new... Lotsa Juno hype around Saskatoon, big name music industry hits small town Saskatchewan lol... Bike Show is on this weekend, as well as Tattoo show... Still working at Leah Brisdon & Associates, brisk real estate market now, not much out there for sale and whatever is getting snapped up by investors... still working at SAI until mid July, working this weekend... Spring has finally sprung so now getting the bug to get my bike together and riding... Heading home weekend after next for Easter with my family... well better get back to work here... God Bless All... Moose

An Interesting Perspective on Muslim Extremism

2007-01-29T12:17:00.001-06:00

Wow Haven't Been HERE lately :)

2007-01-01T02:47:00.000-06:00

Wow... lots to catch up on where do I begin... hmmmm HAPPY NEW YEAR for one I guess... hoping this next one is going to be better than my last 2 lol... lots has happened since my last blog(s) I am divorced now... and have a girlfriend... she is from North Battleford and a sweetie... I am now engaged to be married and we did the official ring thing this weekend... am on holidays from December 15th to January 15th, moving, selling my house and moving into a basement suite... hmmm totalled my car off trying to clear an intersection as the light turned red, girl clipped me coming through on a green... still gotta see where that all turns out... still going to Hope Fellowship MB in Saskatoon, though have not gone there for a while, been going to my fiance's (wow that word sounds weird) church in North Battleford when I am out there, an apostolic church which is pretty cool... I go back to work at Century21 on the 15th of January so have to be all moved in to my suite by then, cool thing is it is only 2 blocks from work... my fiance has 3 boys so instant family, 15, 12 and 8... she is so cool, works as a nurse's aide and loves God... It was a total miracle how we met on cupid.com and amazingly worked awesome. She is a perfect fit for me like God custom built her and me for her. We are both the same age (38) and we are so compatible it is amazing. The big day is going to be August 4th 2007 and we are going to have a small wedding at the Western Development Museum in the little Anglican church there. It is so cool they have an entire downtown street built there, the church being an entire building they moved right indoors and the only one not a reproduction. It seats 24 people, but can squeeze 35 in if some stand... going to have it catered and rental etc. is only going to be $800 which is cheap for a wedding... cool thing is pics can be taken at the old time photography shoppe there and catering is in the restaurant in the building as well so no rain outs... going to be a small wedding with family and close friends... honeymoon will be west edmonton mall fantasy hotel rooms should be a blast. Lots of changes in my life and seems in a lot of ways starting over again but feels so right. Am really excited about how God has been putting this together. I have always wanted a family and to have a ready made one there is amazing.

I can only thank God for His goodness one song I had been singing lots was Blessed Be Your Name, one of the key verses is "You give and take away" it had been seeming that God had been taking and taking away for so long I never ever thought about the giving end, seems all that taking was so that He could bless me and remould me after I was broken and shattered. Through it all I have Blessed God, not that it all has been easy and good and I have kept it together because I have not, but He did, He truly carried me when I could no longer stand or walk. Blessed Be His Name. God is good.

Another song I have been listening to lots is the last song on the disney movie "Cars" It is called "Find Yourself" by Brad Paisley. Here are the words.

Find Yourself
Brad Paisley

When you find yourself in some far off place

and it causes you to rethink some things

You start to sense that slowly you're becoming someone else

And then you find yourself...

When you make new friends in a brand new town

and you start to think about settling down

The things that would have been lost on you are now clear as a bell

And you find yourself,

yeah thats when you find yourself

Well you go through life

so sure of where you're headed

And you wind up lost

and its the best thing that could have happened

Cause sometimes when you lose your way, its really just as well

because you find yourself,

yeah that's when you find yourself.

When you meet the one, that you've been waiting for

and she's everything, that you want and more

You look at her and you finally start to live for someone else

And then you find yourself,

yeah that's when you find yourself

Well you go through life

so sure of where we're headed

And you wind up lost

and its the best thing that could have happened

Cause sometimes when you lose your way, its really just as well

Because you find yourself,

Yeah that’s when you find yourself.

This song is so powerful to me, because for a while I was so lost, hangin on to Jesus was all I was doing, practically losing my faith for a bit, life had knocked me down so hard was not sure where I was... seemed I had bearings and all together before my marriage break up but your faith is never as crucial as it is when it is tested. This song expresses where I was and where I am now. Sometimes God takes us places and through trials that clean off a lot of crud and sometimes when we lose our way it is really just as well as God needs to sometimes break and crush our hearts before he can use us. But after the breaking and the crushing, there is the remolding and the recreating. Interesting things about this song is that I did find a new friend in a brand new town, who stands with me and encourages me, who helped lead me back to my faith, who encouraged me and showed me that I could love again, that there is such a person is a soul mate and that I can love again and live for someone else besides just living in survival mode. Everything does become clear as a bell as I realize now I had to go through all the bad stuff all the valleys to climb up on the mountain. I realize now that every thing be them bad or good experiences mould us into the people we are today, we do slowly become someone else, that person is Jesus. Our hearts broken become to beat as His does, unconditional love begins to flow where only judgemental religiosity or conditional love once did, gentleness and kindness, real love and joy flow where pain and anger once flowed, in a real sense God has to make the channels of our lives, the bedrock of our river beds cut out through pain so that He can pour His blessings through them. Joy does not cut the bed of a river of life, pain does, and then He can pour out more joy because we are them moulded to hold it. God then can use us to full capacity. In finding myself, I have found my faith again, peace, joy and unconditional love. God has given me the gift of Darcy to show me that His blessings do indeed still flow. God is so Good.

I am still working at Saskatchewan Alternative Initatives as well and will need prayer when I move to North Battleford to find a job as I will be leaving my job of 9 years or so at Century 21. As well if anyone has an extra vehicle I sure could use one while SGI drags their feet lol... any extra hands in moving would be cool as well... Anyways thats a quick update, not sure when again I will be on here again but God Bless until I do.

King of the Hill - Megachurch

2006-06-01T10:10:00.000-06:00

Haven't been 'round these parts lately...

2006-05-20T15:36:00.000-06:00

Well now... here's a place I ain't been in a while :) was browsing the new TangoSierra website at http://www.tangosierra.ca and they asked for a website address... hmmm... well now... only one that I can think of so I entered this one... well... after checking it I saw that hmmm... I haven't wrote anything in here for a very long time...

Summer is the season and sitting around in the house on the computer really is not as attractive as it was in the winter :) Still working at my regular job at Leah Brisdon & Associates Century 21 Dome Realty Limited in Marketing and Advertising and have recently picked up another weekend job as well working with a couple really neat people in their home in a support capacity. (Thanks Tim at Saskatchewan Abilities Initatives) been a little busier now... seems most of my time is thrown into just living and the day to day stuff...

Hmm what other things have happened... my favorite team, the Calgary Flames are out of the Stanley cup running... and I find myself cheering for the Edmonton Oilers... kinda feels like Darth Vader going over to the dark side if you understand these two teams rivalry :)

So getting excited about football season again... Hopefully the Roughriders will win the Grey Cup this year...

Still have not been able to get my Harley back together again... engine is still in the shop after It blew up on a road trip a while back... so just waiting to have the cash to get that out and been thinking of selling it and buying a Honda... seriously... to be a Harley guy to make a decision like that well... see the Darth Vader comment above LOL... tired of sitting out Spring riding because of a busted bike... would love to just throw my leg over my bike and ride every year... so been thinking about that... I really do miss the therapeutic side of riding motorcycle...

What else to say... hmm... gotta mow my jungle outside... before I lose my dog in it... got a new cat named Felix about a month or so ago... he is 5 months old... totally black with a few wisps of white on his chest... what a handful... like having a monkey around the house... it is nice now for my other cat to have a buddy around as I am not so as much and basically pay my mortgage to have a place to sleep LOL...

Oh well... that is about as colorful as my life is right now... lots of other things to share... but mabey that is for another day...

God Bless,
Moose

Off the blogger map lately...

2006-03-27T15:49:00.000-06:00

Been kinda off the blogger map lately...

In my life lately I have been up to lots, but just not on blogger lately...kinda figured I better add something before this thing vaporizes :)

Things that have been going on in my life lately...hmmm...

Well...after 6 illustrious years, I now have resigned for 5 more years of house debt, yes my mortgage papers did arrive...got a great new rate and it is locked in at better than prime for the next 5. So...I still have a place to live for the next while :) Thats good...

Actually my whole financial picture is looking a little brighter lately...

Might be starting a new job soon, spending time with handicapped people at their homes, had the job interview and that went well...

Gonna be different holding down two jobs, but the financial gain is going to tremendous.

Still working out at the gym early mornings, thats been going great. It feels good to be getting back into shape and the energy levels coming into work in the morning makes ya really want to get at it...

Hmm...what else...got to hang with TangoSierra this weekend...did guitar tech for them, had the best seat in the house and got to help out.

Their songs Ballad of Birmingham, Why Baby Why, and Just a Man have been playing on the local radio stations as well as those across Canada. Pretty cool stuff.

Saturday I slept in...Got home late from helping load the gear for the band and Saturday evening went to a Steak supper with some friends and shot some pool...it was nice to relax.

Spring is here so I am getting the bug to get my Harley back together and get riding again. This weekend was the bike show, I missed it, but heard a couple guys were already riding around Toon town...

Memo to self...get building the bike...

Hopefully be getting the Harley back together or started this weekend Lord willing...see what happens...

Was good this weekend to get to visit with friends and people from my church I hadn't visited with for a bit...was really cool...

Anywhoo...thats whats up in my life right now...

God Bless,
Moose

Japanese IQ Test...

2006-03-13T14:51:00.000-06:00

This is a test some Japanese applicants have to take when applying for a job in Japan.

Dunno if that is true, but this is a fun puzzle :)

The object of the game is to get everyone across the river.

http://freeweb.siol.net/danej/riverIQGame.swf

Click on link, and then click on the big blue circle. Use the rules below.

"Everybody has to cross the river". The following rules apply:

· Only 2 persons on the raft at a time

· The father can not stay with any of the daughters, without their mother's presence

· The mother can not stay with any of the sons, without their father's presence

· The thief (striped shirt) can not stay with any family member, if the Policeman is not there Only the Father, the Mother and the Policeman know how to operate the raft.

To start click on the big blue circle on the right. To move the people click on them. To move the raft click on the pole on the opposite side of the river.

This can be done in 17 moves. The solution is in the comments if you need the answer :)

Me an' King Kong...

2006-03-09T14:57:00.000-06:00

Hey all my blog reader buddies, friends and countrymen er...and women out there, lend me your ears...er...mabey not, that would be kinda gross...

Fourscore and Thirty years ago...oops wrong speech...

Well haven't seen King Kong yet...who would like to go? Seriously, its at the cheap seats...lemme know...it is 3 hours long I hear :)

Been a busy week...lots happening in my life...and speaking of King Kong, been working out now...hows that for a graceful sagueway LOL...NOT!

Which reminds me of a joke..whats a Henway? About 5 pounds LOL...sorry bout that... :)

Anyways...Been getting up at 5:30 every morning for the last 3 weeks...working out and trying out various gyms in the city...its been good, I've got that wonderful Run over by a Mack Truck feeling and I feel fine :)

My training buddy Wilf is awesome, the guy has probably forgotten more in his last 45 years of training than most trainers in the gyms know. What a blessing to be learning from this guy.

I have trained to the extreme twice in my lifetime and achieved my goals, this time I am making this a way of life and gonna knock my goals outta the park.

The early mornings are killers considering I am a night owl, but lo, unto the Moose, it was good.

The feeling of walking into work all pumped for the day with muscles burning and energy peaking is just unbelievable and I would not trade it for the world.

Just trying to decide where to take out a membership...

The City of Saskatoon leisure pass is the cheapest getting you into the Field House, Harry Bailey and ALL the PADDLING Pools for $35 a month LOL!, but I gotta admit I love all the new stuff at Mawson's Fitness Center.

I worked out at Fitness Focus just down from my work and I enjoyed that as well. They have a little older equipment, stuff a lot newer than the Field house, but LOTS of it and really good stuff, and I can work out then have a shower and just come right down to work.

Wilf my trainer has also taught me many exercises I can do at my house with equipment totalling less than $50...all lightweight stuff with Huge gains...as well as a walking routine for cardio.

Essentially all weightlifting and training involves is the stretching of muscles by resistance, pushing, pulling, stretching, and here is my big word for today, a funky word called abduction (not the alien version :)

This mixed with cardio, the stretching exercises give you mobility and endurance as well as strength.

This is so you don't end up with being a gorilla that has limited mobility and can only swing vines and not climb trees (ok...WEAK analogy., pardon the pun)

So far I have lots 10 pounds in 3 weeks...pretty good results so far, but far from where I want to be...I want to get my V shape back when my lats, arms and chest were huge but my gut wasn't LOL...I was 334 when I started, now am at 324 as of this morning...shooting for 265 of muscled swartzenager man mass...(sorry folks, thats the left over testosterone speaking LOL)

Gotta admit, that burning sensation after a workout is like an old friend I lost contact with.

I used to be addicted to that burning feeling and could not live without it...mabey one day I should post a pic when I was at my prime if I can find it...its ok folks, I am wearing a shirt in the pic :) and its ok...I have absolutely NO Clue where it is LOL

So here I go again...this time no turning back...aint gonna stop until, like well...never hopefully, hopefully I can do this for the rest of my life, no, I Will do this for the rest of my life...I gotta...

I am 38 and this is my last real shot, from what I understand to make it and have the skin and muscle tighten back before it is too late.

I am looking forward to reasonably the same energy levels I enjoyed when I was slim and the feeling of health that accompanied it.

All that changed a few years ago when I had a bad bike wreck. (translation: BIG OWIE)

A guy in a cage (bikerspeak for car) decided that I did not need the particular piece of pavement that I was riding on. Turns out he wanted to drive his car on the SAME piece of pavement. JUST as I had started to cross it, he pulled out right in front of my Harley-Davidson Sportster (copyright, registered trademark), right in front of my tire.

I remember saying to my self...Self :) whatdaheck is a Oldsmobile Delta88 logo with attached fender AND attached CAR doing in front of my bike...

Deep Breath, Surrealistic Awareness, Panicked Freakout!

Whammo...Ya haven't lived until ya seen a FLYING Moose...LOL...Rocky and Bullwinkle got nothin on me LOL! Flying squirrels HA! I laugh at flying squirrels! I became a living LAWN DART... skypavement skypavement skypavement...THUD BANG CRASH!

What a rush!...I wanna do that again!...can I do that again? Please, can I, can I, huh? NOT! MAn THAT sucked! (Can you sense the sarcasm just a lil bit?)

If you have a motorcycle wreck on your list of things to do before Jesus comes, CROSS IT OFF! It ain't as fun as it LOOKS!

So...ater the dust, followed by my motorcycle, and Me had crash landed from Jupiter...I had another knee and a spulittin headache...

I remember saying to my self...after setting my leg (which felt like it weighed a ton!), WHEN the shock wears off, THIS is REALLY gonna HURT!

And yea, lo when the Moose went unto the Saint of Paul's hospital, lo the pain, it did hurt... :)

BOY did it hurt...

Hurt so bad it laid me up from August straight through to January...even had to learn how to walk again...that took some doin...FUN!

And thats where the forward protusion upon my abdominal musculacar, and the accompanying pounds came from...

And lo the Moose was found with a tummy :) LOL...

Oh well...that was then, this is now...

Doing sometin about that...

Because I can. Because I choose to. Because I have to for me.

My Trainer buddy wants me to take some pics of me now (and potentially break a perfectly good camera) so I can compare them when I get sexy LOL...(see Shrek 2 for the reference to that one :)

Hopefully I can have as stunning a turnaround as an old donkey to a white stallion...we will see...

Which reminds me of one of my favorite jokes in that movie:

Shrek, Donkey and Puss are in the bar, bartender (the ugly stepsister) says to Donkey, now a horse, "Hey, why the long face?" LOL...I love it! Some of you will get that one, some will not...email me for the explaination...also: See vaudville / slapstick humor for reference.

And so on that note, gotta go...me and King Kong are hitting the weights, I am spotting for him :)

Bless Yas,
Moose

Movie Night Update

2006-03-07T10:08:00.000-06:00

Well I have had a coupla requests for reviews on the movie and one on the drink :)

Fun with Dick and Jane is corny. I will admit that. But, if you have a signicant other, bring them to it. It will make you want to pull them close to you through this movie I believe.

I went alone, but that is how I would feel.

This movie makes you realize how precious having someone in your life is and how even though you go through trials, how sticking it out really strengthens a relationship.

It was pretty clean, no sex, few expletives, and a very physical comedy appropo for Jim Carey.

Alec Baldwin plays a really easy to hate bad guy and plays it to the max. Being an Alec Baldwin fan, he reminded me of the part he played in the Cat in the Hat as well.

There is a part of the movie where Alec Baldwin is out hunting. It is Halarious what happens. That is all I am gonna say. You gotta see it, I laughed so hard!

There is another part where Jim Carey is on Money News. If you watch the movie look for it...notice what happens on the right side of the screen...it is really funny!

I was recommended to go see it, and I would recommend it as well.

It did take me a little off guard as it was not exactly what I expected from the outset of the movie.

That I like.

They mixed it up, in the beginning it was pretty believable, but some parts later in the movie are really out there.

All in all I would give the movie a hmmm...7.5 to 8 out of 10 stars.

It is entertaining and has a few great laughs.

Not as good as Bruce Almighty but coming up to it.

Here is all the skinny on the movie from the Internet Movie Database :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369441/

As for the Iced Skor Frappe, it was nummy. (Tough Biker word for tasty :) LOL!

As far as a Skor taste, it was a little on the weak side, but the overall flavor and texture was good. I would give it an 8.5/10 a really must try if you are waiting for the movie to start.

That is my review of the movie and the drink, such as it is :) Hope this helps those who asked :)

Still want to see King Kong...last weekend was the first at the cheap seats...Mabey this weekend...

For those who don't know King Kong was a project Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) has always wanted to do his whole life. I imagine it is going to be good being his life's ambition and work. I am looking forward to seeing it one day...once again mabey this weekend...have to see...

Bless Yas!
Moose

Bored....Hangin out...

2006-03-04T21:25:00.000-06:00

Bored...Hangin out...

Well, after driving around for about an hour tonite, trying to decide what to do...

Usually I hang out at my brother Chuck's place and eat burgers and watch movies, but he is out of town for the weekend...

What the heck to do that won't get me in trouble?

Scooted by the church nutin happenin there, by work to check my emails to see when that Bridges on 20th Street thing started...dang...too late...

So I drove around town, after another momental snowfall, sliding around, enjoying the warmth of the car...

Drove over the Sid Buckwold bridge, whoever Sid Buckwold is...cruised down 8th street and checked out the sites and sounds...

Hey, I said to myself...Self...I wonder if King Kong is playing...it is 9:00 at night, usually movies start after 9:00...well...parked the car and came in...Nope

A big No way on King Kong...but friends of mine said that Fun with Dick and Jane was a good movie...so...I bought a ticket...cheap seats at the Rainbow...oh buht yo!

Dang...starts at 9:50...now what to do...

Feel like that guy on the song "Another Saturday night and I ain't got no money, got some money but I just got paid, now I wish I had someone to talk to...I'm in an awful way"

LOL!...pretty bad when your social life reads like a bad song...sheesh...

Oh well...so here I am wondering what the heck am I gonna do for 50 minutes or so...

So I said to myself...Self...lets go to Jimmy Java for a Iced Skor Frapp...whatever the heck that is...sounds tasty...

So here I was sitting and I looked over...hmmm...computer screens...

I then said to myself...yah you guessed it...Self...hey there aint no one else around to talk to...or least that I know...

So I said to myself...computer screens...tasty...I can kill LOTS of time with a computer...so I bought a 1/2 hour to kill some time...

So here I am waiting for the movie to start, killing time and talking to a computer...LOL I am losing it...

Live on Location from Jimmy Javas...LOL

So I hope this movie Fun with Dick and Jane is good...I hear it is...it stars Jim Carey, who I don't normally watch but just got to see Bruce Almighty and even though I was really worried about how sacriligious it would be, I really enjoyed...so here goes...

Should be interesting...

We will see...

Well...got 10 minutes...gotta get some popcorn and munchies...find a seat...

Later,
Bless yas,
Moose

I have not Fallen off the Face of the Planet...

2006-02-22T20:14:00.000-06:00

Nope I have not Fallen off the Face of the Planet…

Yes, it has been a month since I have posted anything on my blog.

My life has been pretty crazy lately and I haven’t really had the time to do so.

So here goes…

A lot has happened…where to start?

Ahh yes, the beginning…

Ok…hmm…

“In the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth” –The Bible

Ok…mabey not THAT far back…

In a previous blog I mentioned that I had gone to Winnipeg to visit my inlaws who have really been there for me and still love me as a son in spite of the mess with the separation from my wife.

I had a vision before I left, a while before Christmas of a mountain.

I had prayed with a friend of mine who is one of my accountability partners about possibly going to Lloydminster, Saskatchewan & Alberta (town straddles the border – long story lookit up on Wikipedia…) to help a friend set up a biker church.

The vision I had of the mountain was forgiveness for my wife who had left me high and dry financially, emotionally, and physically and had relocated to another city, namely Calgary, Alberta with another guy.

This mountain was so high I could not see the top of it, clouds obscured the summit and it seemed impossible that I could ever scale it.

On my way back from Manitoba God spoke to my heart and said “Do you want Marianne back in your life or Back in my Kingdom”

I cried out to God I want her back in Your kingdom, if that is the choice I have to make I choose your kingdom.

God then told me that if that is what is in my heart that I would have to let Him help me to forgive Marianne.

I felt something break in my heart and in the coming days I could see that He had given me His heart for Marianne.

This heart was not Phileo (Friendship Love) or Eros (Sexual Love) but He had put His heart of Agape (Unconditional God Love) in my heart.

He gave me a burden for my wife to come back to Him and to see her redeemed from her bondage to her mental sickness, alcoholism, and adultery. He gave me a burden to pray that she would forgive herself and God gave me a mission to love her unconditionally with the love that He has for her.

I wish I could say it has all been easy, but it has not. However, God has been pouring in and building in me peace, joy, and faith ever since.

I cannot explain how much freedom comes with that forgiveness, it is truly amazing the power of God that was released with I released Marianne to Him.

I know that God is working in Marianne’s life and I know that God has been speaking to her heart, in that still small voice calling her back to Himself.

It is now up to her to listen.

God has shown me that as her husband I was beating myself up for failing as the Priest in our home and as the head of the house I felt that I failed because my wife fell away from the Lord.

He has since shown me that I am responsible for my actions now. Marianne has joined herself to another and I am no longer the covering for her. She has divorced me in her heart. She has rejected me as the head of our house and has joined herself to another.

I have taken responsibility for my actions and now she must take responsibility for hers, but that is not my responsibility to change her it is now in God’s hands and in her will.

By releasing her to God and forgiving Marianne, I have inadvertently now given God the freedom to do something in her life. When I was in Unforgiveness, Bitterness, Pain and Anger he could not. I was literally stopping God’s hand.

I prayed with a pastor friend of mine about Marianne and after not hearing from her for months she called me. It was quite amazing actually.

She is getting some treatment for her mental disability, and has been calling regularily ever since.

God has since shown me another vision of me standing on a plain, looking back at the mountain of forgiveness From the Other Side.

By forgiving and releasing Marianne to God, it seems that God has been able to release me from my bondages of anger, pain, bitterness and Unforgiveness.

It is truly remarkable actually.

So where am I now…

Well…in the wake of all this God has not shown me if I am to get back with Marianne or not.

In fact, God has been quite silent on the issue.

He has been illuminating my path of faith just a foot in front of my feet it seems, just enough to follow, but not enough to see where I am going…

I guess that is what is called walking in faith…

God has not given me any direction but to follow His light and trust that His plans for me are for good and not for evil and are to give me a future and a hope.

So this is where I walk.

God has also told me to stand in faith and dig in as I march.

There is a movie I love to watch, it is not a Christian movie by any stretch of the imagination, but has a lot of cool analogies in it.

The movie is called The Thirteenth Warrior and stars Antonio Banderas an outcast from the middle east who is exiled to be an ambassador in other countries.

Antonio’s character encounters a group of Vikings who get called upon to protect a village on the outskirts of Norseland that is being ravaged by a warring barbarian tribe.

I was asking the Lord one day what is my purpose in my life? What am I to do now that Marianne and I am not together, that it looks like she is going to go ahead with the divorce in April, and that financially everything looks a mess.

His exact words were to stand.

When you have done all to stand, stand therefore, submit to God, resist the devil and he shall flee from you.

He gave me this image in my mind from the Thirteenth Warrior of the Viking King in the movie, after the Calvary had broke through the walls and was stampeding through the village, how the Viking King grabbed a large sharpened pole, jammed it into the ground and stomped his foot on it and how he called another Viking to do the same and Antonio Banderas’ character to do the same.

Antonio you can tell is nervous, 3 guys standing with sharpened poles facing off against a stampeding horse calvary barreling down on them, but something happens…

He looks at the Viking King who stands so brave and courageous and does not flinch and is such an example that Antonio gets inspired that he can actually do this, as crazy as it sounds, this will work because the Viking King is being the example, he is doing it first, and he is unflinching, stoic, and there is no doubt. This will work.

Antonio gets courage from his leader and in doing so these 3 men avert an entire calvary.

God explained it to me this way.

I am like the Viking King. Stand. Watch. Take Courage for I am with you. Look to me. Take your courage from me. I know what I am doing and even though everything looks crazy in the natural, I am with you. Let me strengthen you. Stand with me and this army that flies against you will fall. Do not look with eyes of fear and the flesh, look with MY eyes of strength and Spirit for your strength and power will come from me. Look to me. I will win the battle. Stand and I will deliver you.

Do not be afraid or be discouraged, go out and face the foe tomorrow, for I AM your God. I will be with you, do not be dismayed. You will not have to fight this battle, stand firm and see the deliverance I will bring you my child I love. Look with my eyes of faith, not with your own. See what I see, look to what I look. Walk on the water with me and I will be with you.

A lot of things have been swirling around me, a lot of things in the natural right now and in the flesh look hopeless, but God has not called me to look to those things, He has called me to look AT HIM. To follow Him and to obey Him. He is building faith in me that could not be built any other way.

Though He slay me yet will I serve Him. I am a Bondslave who wishes not to leave His master and chooses to love Him no matter what.

How am I doing?

In the words of Ernest Shackleton:

Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), the invincible Antarctic explorer whose fame came from his expeditions -- none of them successful -- to reach the South Pole.

"MEN WANTED FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. SMALL WAGES,
BITTER COLD, LONG MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS,
CONSTANT DANGER, SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL. HONOR AND
RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS."

I am walking by faith…it is all I can do…

God Bless,
Moose

Faceless Man - Creed

2006-01-22T21:51:00.000-06:00

Faceless Man - Creed

I spent a day by the river
It was quiet and the wind stood still
I spent some time with nature
To remind me of all that's real

It's funny how silence speaks sometimes when you're alone
And remember that you feel
It's funny how silence speaks sometimes when you're alone
And remember that you feel

Again I stand, Lord I stand,
against the Faceless Man
Again I stand, Lord I stand,
against the Faceless Man

Now I saw a face on the water
It looked humble but willing to fight
I saw the will of a warrior
His yoke is easy and His burden is light

He looked me right in the eyes
Direct and concise to remind me
To always do what's right
He looked me right in the eyes
Direct and concise to remind me
To always do what's right

Again I stand, Lord I stand,
against the Faceless Man
Again I stand, Lord God I stand,
against the Faceless Man

'Cause if the face inside can't see the light
I know I'll have to walk alone
And if I walk alone to the other side
I know I might not make it home

Again I stand, Lord I stand,
against the Faceless Man
Again I stand, Lord I stand,
against the Faceless Man

Next time I see this face I'll say
I choose to live for always
So won't you come inside
And never go away

Next time I see this face I'll say
I choose to live for always
So won't you come inside
And never go away

Again I stand, Lord I stand,
against the Faceless Man
Again I stand, Lord I stand,
against the Faceless Man
Again I stand, Lord I stand,
against the Faceless Man.

I've been tagged!

2006-01-03T23:50:00.000-06:00

I've been tagged!

OK...I've never been tagged by anyone before but was by finallyfreeinhim on her blog…so…here goes…

7 things (I would like) to do before I die:

1. Take a trip to Sturgis South Dakota.
2. Spend 3 months in Europe touring on a Harley.
3. Be Debt Free.
4. Totally own my own string of rental properties for revenue.
5. Use that revenue to live off and to help others.
6. Go on a missions trip.
7. Married with Children.

7 things I can’t do:

1. Eat Brussels Sprouts or Turnips.
2. Eat Bugs.
3. Be Fake.
4. Not Care.
5. Tell a joke with a straight face.
6. Lose Jesus.
7. Figure God out.

7 things that attract me to blogging:

1. An outlet to express myself.
2. A way to touch people’s lives.
3. A way to get to know people’s heart in a way I could never do in person.
4. Meeting people from all over that I would never meet otherwise.
5. Seeing God move.
6. Learning about the walks of others and reading their insights into faith and scripture.
7. Encouraging People in a way that I have only recently begun to understand.

7 things I say most often:

1. “Yabba Dabba Doo” (when I am bored or in an awkward moment)
2. “Dang”
4. “Excellent”
5. “It’s all Good”
6. “Lord Help Me God” (frequently)
7. “On the Upside” (yeah I am an optimist)

7 books I love:

1. The Bible. Yeah, I know what you are thinking…Christians always would say that…Just two points to consider:

There is no plan “B”

See number one. Repeat as necessary.

2. My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. Read it. Its My Devotional. ‘nuff said.
3. He Still Moves Stones by Max Lucado.
4. Ok…pretty much everything by Max Lucado.
5. Hind’s Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard.
6. Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan.
7. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

7 movies I watch over and over:

1. The 13th Warrior.
2. The Wild One.
3. The Passion of the Christ.
4. It’s a Wonderful Life.
5. The Spirit of St. Louis.
6. Ladder 49.
7. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Cartoon Movie)

7 people I want to join in too (you been tagged!)

1. firestarter
2. cwg
3. laconiclogic
4. minstrelmusings
5. lt
6. carebear
7. nin

Nope, I did not fall off the face of the planet...

2006-01-02T15:50:00.000-06:00

Nope, I did not fall off the face of the planet…

Well, Christmas was good and bad...Christmas was kind of hard this year with the breakup from my wife Marianne, but it was good to be with my family, got some neat stuff, and got to hang with my nephews and nieces.

I went to Carrot River (my hometown) on the 23rd…had new years eve service with my family, ate, ate some more, got some presents, ate some more, had Christmas with my family, ate some more, and visited with my brothers, nephews, and various other relatives.

Spent the night at my brother Kel’s place and got to spend some more time with my nephews playing Toy Story 2 on the computer, and playing Lego, slot cars, and trains with my nephews Caleb, and Jonathan…very cool…Left Carrot River on the 28th…

I was going to go to Winnipeg before I went out to Carrot River but ended up going right after. Marianne's mom and dad invited me for supper on the 29th, so I left Carrot River on the 28th, drove to 'Toon town, ended up snagged at work, came home at 6:00, washed clothes, and then at midnight was back on the road without any sleep :) When I got to Winnipeg I was up for 24 hours...by the time I got to sleep I had been up for a lot more than that…I have a new appreciation for "health drinks" namely Monster, Full Throttle, and Rockstar...I drank a LOT of those...when I got down there, I had supper with the in-laws and a sort of after Christmas with my sister and nieces in law, as well as my in-laws mom and dad…the next day had breakfast with my buddy Dean who came to the Lord after I did from Thompson as well and hung out with him for the day. Was great to see where he works, went to the Winnipeg library (just had to check my hotmail), and got to go to a real neat Jamaican Restaurant. I drove out to and spent the rest of the day and slept the night out at Marianne's mom and dad's place 1/2 hour from Winnipeg, then the next day had brunch with my friend Dean, went to a hockey game with my buddy him and his family, (His boy was playing) hmmm...then came back to his place for supper…we watched Team Canada beat the US...then I spent the new year eve with Chuck Sheridan and Bondslave MC...got to meet a lot of the brothers there...spent the night at Dean’s place…then went to church with Chuck Sheridan at the Zion Apostolic Church where I ran into a girl from my hometown (weird huh?) named Carrie who was a childhood friend. Our parents were good friends as well. Wild to see her married with kids…we went out for a Chinese buffet, and then I went for tea with my sister in law, and then I drove back late yesterday afternoon...arrived early this morning.

Hard to believe I put on over 2000 kilometers this holiday…but it was worth every minute…

I ended up staying a little longer than I had planned, but as my roommate says “Its all Good”...so now I am back and start work tomorrow..."SIGH" oh well...all part of the process of life I guess...can’t wait till next year!

I just need a holiday from my holiday now…

Blessings -Moose

Choices...

2005-12-21T20:36:00.000-06:00

Choices…

What I do when I hurt.

I have noticed an uneasy amount of “fluff” entries lately on my blog.

Yes, they are all mine, but none really shares my heart.

That is because I am not sure what is going on in my heart right now.

The Christmas season is upon us and I am numb.

I have gone to the Christmas parties, been moved by Christmas concerts and worship, but my heart appears to be numb to the whole Christmas thing right now.

I have listened to Christmas carols till I am blue in the face and feel quite “unable” to “get” into the “Christmas Spirit”

It may be that I am unable to get to “Christ” right now.

I do not know if this is some kind of emotional depression, or mental grieving.

I cannot seem to care about anything right now.

Just going through life is big enough.

I do know that my heart is vacillating between weeping and stone and I do not know why.

Well…I do in part.

I have come to realize through a very courageous and honest lady at my church:

walkingagain

That I am not properly grieving a few things in my life.

Mentally, Spiritually, and Emotionally

It is like a ton of garbage on my back, and my heart is breaking, melting, and solidifying into stone all at the same time.

I am numb.

I know all the theological arguments; I know what I should be doing, but seem to lack the capacity to do so.

It is like the wind has gone out of sails, and my ship has ceased to move. Without the wind I am unable to steer as the currents of life wash me in some unknown direction.

I see people with their trees up, doing things with their holidays, spending time with family, and as Christmas gets closer, I find myself more and more depressed.

It will be the first Christmas without my wife.

Remembering the loss of my friend Lisa.

I am not sure if I have completely grieved the first.

I know I have not grieved the last.

The angry injustice that binds my heart,

To let the dead fly free,

To know that I may return to them,

But they may not to me.

God this hurts, but again it doesn’t. What is wrong with me?

Why do I live my life in such extreme valleys and mountains?

Why no consistency in my life.

I see others who appear to be so constant in their spirituality.

I appear to be on some kind of roller coaster ride…

I have been up and down more times than the dollar.

Screwup-Repentence-Restoration-Screwup-Repentence-Restoration

Please let me off the merry go round please.

Just for a few rounds at least.

Seems every time I deal with something, God brings another to deal with right after.

Enough already! Give me a break.

God…I know you want my faith.

I know you want me refined.

But the material you are refining is vaporizing.

It is tired, it is beaten, it is done.

Did you know that with extreme pressure and heat that a lump of coal becomes a diamond?

Or that with extreme heat, gold can be purified, separating the impurities to the surface to be skimmed off leaving pure gold?

I used to work in a nickel smelter.

The rock from underground is crushed, superheated, melted with electrodes in a furnace that uses more power than most cities per day, and is liquefied into molten lava.

As the liquid is further heated, silica sand and quartz is added to bind with the impurities.

Nickel does not bind to silica sand and quartz.

Iron and everything else does.

The silica and quartz is lighter than the nickel and floats to the surface.

Continued heating and skimming off the silica and quartz with the impurities leaves mostly nickel content at the bottom.

But it is not finished there.

It is poured out into huge brick lined ladles hoisted by 60-ton cranes and poured into things called converters.

See the nickel at this stage still has sulfur in it, which naturally occurs in nickel deposits, but does not all float to the surface like other impurities.

Weird thing is this impurity purifies the nickel further.

As air is introduced into the lava, it reacts with the sulfur causing the sulfur to burn autogenously, that is to say, you do not have to add more heat to the lava, the sulfur mixing with the air causes the lava to heat up as you add more air to it.

The temperature of the lava is determined by the air, so the more air you add, the hotter it gets.

To refine nickel, you blast as much air into the lava as possible.

The nickel lava gets so hot that if it were not for the bricks inside the converter, the nickel lava would flow right through the steel, like water through a mesh, even though it is two full feet thick.

I have seen a furnace breached by lava. It flows like water and is deadly.

After the sulfur is expended and more silica and quartz is added for the final skim, the nickel is still only 98% pure.

The nickel is then poured out again into the 60-ton ladles and poured into the anode line ladle.

The nickel is then poured into anodes, flat sheets of nickel rock, 3 feet by 4 feet long.

These anodes then go over to the refinery where they are placed in acid and the nickel is drawn out of the anodes by electrical charge onto host plates where pure nickel accumulates.

These pure nickel plates are then removed and cleaned of acid and then are sent out.

All this to say, that my heart literally feels like it is in this process…

The pain of crushing, heating, melting, skimming, re-heating, re-skimming, poured out, re-heated, re-skimmed, re-heated, re-skimmed, poured out, charged, molecularized, and plated…

Sometimes I, as a nickel atom just want to say STOP!

Let me off this thing.

Get me the heck outta dodge.

Sianara, Arieve derchi, Hostalaweigo, Hostamanaro Moochachos, Bon Voyage, Happy Trails, Nice Knowing ya!…

I probably did not spell the exotic goodbyes of the above properly but you get the picture…

Seems that God is not content to leave us where we are.

This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

Good thing: Get closer to God, know Him better, build relationship with Him, Faith Trust….

Bad thing: Owch. Did I mention owch? Yeah. Pain. Brokenness, Heart smashed to bits, melted into liquid, refined…

It is interesting as I read this again, that air (interestingly pnuema is the greek word for Spirit where we get the word pneumatic or needing air) is both needed in the sails to make them fly and is needed in the refining process to make nickel…things that make you ago hmmm…

But this is the way God created it…whoever says Christianity is a crutch, is easy, and the opiate of the masses…should have their head examined.

They obviously ain’t been there.

A crutch isn’t supposed to be knocked out from underneath ya every few minutes to see if you will stand on your own two feet, if this is easy, then I ain’t doing something right, and if this is the opiate of the masses…let me get stoned rather than deal with this (I would love to be oblivious to life)

For obvious reasons, getting stoned is not really dealing with life, it is just a metaphor, but knowing the truth can be a burdensome thing.

You have to live it. You have to choose it.

In the movie The Matrix, the main character is given a choice to take the red pill or the blue pill. One would open him up to the truth, one would leave him in la-la land where he already was.

The central character of the film, Neo, is presented to us in the opening part of the film as a loner who is searching for a mysterious character called Morpheus (named after the Greek god of dreams and sleep).

Neo is also trying to discover the answer to the question "What is the Matrix?"

Morpheus contacts Neo just as the machines (posing as sinister 'agents') are trying to keep Neo from finding out any more. When Morpheus and Neo meet, Morpheus offers Neo two pills.

The red pill will answer the question "what is the Matrix?" (by removing him from it) and the blue pill simply for life to carry on as before.

As Neo reaches for the red pill Morpheus warns Neo "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more."

The film as a whole and especially the choosing scene is deeply compelling, why is the choice between what you believe you know and an unknown 'real' truth so fascinating? How could a choice possibly be made? On the one hand is everyone you love and everything that you have built you life upon, on the other hand the promise of truth.

The question then is not about pills, but what they stand for in these circumstances.

The question is asking us whether reality, truth, is worth pursuing.

The blue pill will leave us as we are, in a life consisting of habit, of things we believe we know.

The blue pill symbolises commuting to work every day, or brushing your teeth.

The red pill is an unknown.

We are told that it can help us to find the truth. We don't know what that truth is, or even that the pill will help us to find it.

The red pill symbolises risk, doubt and questioning. In order to answer the question, you have to gamble your whole life and world on a reality you have never even experienced yet.

However, in order to investigate which course of action to take we need to investigate why the choice is faced. Why should we even have to decide whether to pursue truth?

One answer in short, may be inquisitiveness.

Many people throughout human existence have questioned and enquired.

Most of them have not been scientists or doctors or philosophers, but simply ordinary people asking 'what if?' or 'why?'

Asking these questions ultimately leads us to a choice.

Do you continue to ask and investigate, or do you stop and never ask again? This in essence, is the question posed to Neo in the film.

Unfortunately, once you have experienced truth there is no going back to the lie.

Some days I wish that God was not the only path. But He is.

Some days, I wish I did not have to go through this all. But I do.

Some days I just wish I would of taken the blue pill…

Blessings -Moose

How it happened...a shameless plug / review

2005-12-17T12:22:00.000-06:00

How it happened...a shameless plug.../...Review

Further down on my blog you will find an entry with a series of links to an awesome Christmas light show.

The band that plays the music is Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I have just discovered them myself.

I bought the their Cd called "The Lost Christmas Eve" that that song, "Wizards of Winter" is on.

The music is not your typical Christmas music. The rest of the album is interesting, some pieces stick out more than others, the interesting thing is a side story they tell along the story telling of Christmas, and what seems to me to be all the the right things of this season....

Not sure if they are Christian or not for all of you Secular v.s. Sacred purists, but a lot of the music has the right message, utilizing a mix of metal, jazz, blues, and various other styles...in a rock opera style...

This is actually one of a trilogy of their Christmas albums...

The album I really like in the trilogy has the song below off my last post. I love the entire album.
It is called "The Christmas Attic" and I actually like it better than "The Lost Christmas Eve"

Again, they mix up jazz, with metal, with full orchestration, Beethoven, Bach, and other classical christmas carols and pieces in ways you have never heard them before, and again a parallel story follows the music in rock operatic style as it proceeds through the album leading us through the various facets of Christmas.

I ordered both off Amazon.ca where you can hear the clips of the songs. I would encourage you to take a listen...

The third album in this trilogy is called "Christmas Eve and other Stories" which I am waiting for with anticipation.

Very cool music. I was blessed. Again, I do not know if these guys are Christians, but their music really spoke to me.

Here is the link to their website with all their lyrics and music:

http://www.trans-siberian.com

Here are the lyrics to two more songs that blessed me:

FIND OUR WAY HOME

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

He believed in the things

That he always thought he knew

And had done all the things

That he always wanted to do

Collecting

Each thing reflecting his worth

But now he pondered

How he had wandered this earth

For we all seem to give our lives away
Searching for things that we think we must own
Until on this evening
When the year is leaving
We all try to find our way home

He had time or at least then he
Always thought he did
And mistakes, well, he thought that time

Always would forgive
Each transgression
For his intention
Forgetting
Years he squandered
On things he now was regretting

For we all seem to give our lives away
Searching for things that we think we must own
Until on this evening
When the year is leaving
We all try to find our way home

For we all seem to give our lives away
Searching for things that we think we must own
But on this evening
When the year is leaving
I think I would be alright
If on this Christmas night
I could just find my way home

There is something about this night
That the Lord has arranged
That reaches deep into our souls
And causes us to want to change

And angels know things about us
That no else can know
And this Angel's heart it formed a plan
And then caused the night to snow

THE SNOW CAME DOWN

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

A railway station
On a long forgotten line
No destination
But it always leaves on time

He buys his ticket
As the train prepares to leave
Don't want to miss it
On this night Christmas Eve

He stared into the night no expectations
He watched the world go by without a sound
He saw the city lights arrive and fade away
While all that night
All that night
The snow came down

No conversation
As the snow fell from the sky
His consolation
That the world is well disguised

He stared into the night no expectations
He watched the world go by without a sound
He saw the city lights arrive and fade away
While all that night
All that night
The snow came down

He stared into the night, no expectations
But in his heart he wanted to believe
That somehow someone would be waiting there
Upon this Christmas Eve

And when his train it pulled into that station
He saw there was a single pair of tracks
Within the snow and leading to that
Station door
And he followed those steps back

And on this night of our salvation
Where dreams that have been lost
Can there be found
They walked away together
On that Christmas Eve
While all that night
All that night
The snow came down

In this last season of the year
This season that we trust
It's not only important to know for whom we wait
But to know who waits for us

And as they walked home together
To the light of Christmas trees
They could not help but wonder
About how this night came to be

While back inside the attic
The girl saw them walking through the snow
And she smiled with a child's delight
Thinking how they would never know

And suddenly she realized
Beneath this night of stars
Sometimes Christmas uses its own hands
And sometimes it uses ours

Blessings -Moose

The Three Kings and I - Trans-Siberian Orchestra

2005-12-17T12:09:00.000-06:00

THE THREE KINGS AND I
(WHAT REALLY HAPPENED)

Tran-Siberian Orchestra
(The Christmas Attic)

O Holy night
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear savior's birth

Now you all heard the story about Bethlehem
How the child was born and the three wise men
Heard the preacher tell it like the preacher does
But let me tell you, children,
That's not how it was

Now you might ask me what I'm talking about
But I know the part that they all left out

Now do you hear what I said
That Herod wanted those wise men dead
But on that blessed evening
My great great great great great great granddad
He saved those kings

Now granddad made his living
Playing jazz you see
But jazz wasn't big around one A.D.
So he got himself a job in the palace band
Where he heard about three kings
In the desert sand

Let me tell you children that at any time
Three kings in the desert that's a real rare find

But Herod heard of it too
And when he heard his curiosity grew
So he asked those kings to drop by
And my great great great great great great
Granddad
He wondered why

So the Magi told old Herod
That they had come here
To find a newborn king of kings
Who'd heal our sins
Then herod told his guards
To follow those Magi
And that the only king around here
Was gonna' be him

Then he told his soldiers as I recall
When they found that child, to kill them all
But granddad overheard what Herod said
And he had to act fast or else they'd all be dead

So granddad got to those kings
Filled them in on the plan, told them everything
When they heard what he had in store
They grabbed the gold
The frankincense
The myrrh, the jewels
The desert tents
And when they found
His plan was sound
They followed granddad out the back door

And what a night
It must have been
But when God is on your side
You kinda' know that in the end
You're gonna win

They traveled fast
They traveled far
And in the end they found
That they were standing with the Child
Beneath the star

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

And so you see we've reached the end
Of our story
When granddad and the kings
Reached that stable on the hill
And while I said that
Three kings in the desert is a rare sight
Angels singing in the desert that's far rarer still

Now I ain't sayin' that the bible was wrong
But ya' see the whole tale
Would have taken too long
'Cause way back then in the promised land
Every copy they sold,
It had to be written by hand

And granddad lived a long life
Stayed friends with those kings
And found a good wife
And eventually I came along
But that my children
That my children
That's another song

The next letter included a receipt
For one toy stuffed bear
Donating it to a small thrift shop
But somehow it was left there

For attics have their secrets
And toys will have theirs, too
Like who once held or loved them
When they last were new

Whether they were made of metal
Or they were cotton stuffed
Or how they had been left here
When they were not enough

And so it's here that they must wait
Between reality and dream
Hoping all will be remembered
And that all can be redeemed

Then in the sound of the wind
Whistling through a door
She thought she heard the sound of children
That had held this toy before

And she then thought to herself
As she now held it in her hand
That no one could save all the world
But we should save who we can

So she placed it near her candle
For she had decided in her mind
That when she left this attic
He would not be left behind

Wheel in the Sky

2005-12-15T02:15:00.001-06:00

Lyrics by Journey

Winter is here again oh lord,
Haven’t been home in a year or more
I hope she holds on a little longer

Sent a letter on a long summer day
Made of silver, not of clay
I’ve been runnin’ down this dusty road

(Chorus)
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’
I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’

I’ve been trying to make it home
Got to make it before too long
I can’t take this very much longer

I’m stranded in the sleet and rain
Don’t think I’m ever gonna make it home again

The mornin’ sun is risin’
It’s kissing the day

(chorus)
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’
I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’

So many things spoke to me through this song as I listened to it.

Winter is here again, looks to stay. Man I hate winter. I could settle for summer all year long...

If it just snowed on Christmas then melted away, I would be exuberant.

I can only pray that Global warming is a reality, I would love for where I live to become Florida :)

Ok..ok...I don't Really wish that...I know that global warming is causing things like Tsunamis, and what happened to Louisianna,

But I digress...

Oh yeah, the wheel in the sky...

Seems like I haven't been home in such a long time. I miss my family. They all live in the same little town and have most of their lives, I however have always had a restless heart and always longed for the big city amenities even though I really cannot stand living in a city. Dunno, never really felt there were ever many opportunities in my home town of Carrot River, Saskatchewan (which incidentally has no river nor carrots :) But I miss the people, my family, and every time I leave to come home it is that much more harder to leave.

Seems I have been running down this dusty road for a very long time.

But the morning sun keeps kissing the day, and with every sunrise, I know that God has given me one more day to do something with my life, and one more day closer to being who He has called me to be and more more day to be with my family both physical and spiritual.

I have been through so much sleet and rain in my life figuratively and physically and spiritually, and down so many desert, dusty roads, when I get home, on this earth, and in the next, even though I don't know where I will be tommorrow, I know that God does. This is what I was ultimately reminded of.

Yeah, its not a Christian song, but it reminded me of God. Kinda has a motorcycle riding feel to it. When the song takes off, I imagine my self taking off, shifting gears, the engine winding up...When it hits the chorus, I can just imagine cracking the throttle through turns...at one with the machine, feeling it respond to the lightest touch.

Those who ride will understand, those wo do not won't.

Mabey a part of me is still on the run. Even though this Mustang is in the corrall, my heart sometimes still feels wild and wants to run.

I don't know, I am the most free when I am blasting down the highway on my Harley, banging gears, leaning into turns, chasing the wind, breathing in the smells of nature, with a kalediscope of sky from horizon to horizon as my own personal art gallery, and life coursing through my veins.

Some of the most spiritual experiences I have ever had was on my Harley, running with others down the highways of life, the headlights bouncing in the pale moonlight, with a carpet of stars from horizon to horizon, on a warm summers night, with the wonderful drone of a V twin singing out its metallic song. The sound of straight pipes harmonizing to beautiful Harley music. Setting up camp to the headlight of a motorcycle, and going to sleep under the stars to the ping, ping, sounds of an old shovelhead cooling off in the dew filled night.

It is those times, that I am reminded that God is indeed good, and I am truly free.

Thanks for letting me bend your ear. Blessings -Moose

Curtain Call

2005-12-10T16:12:00.000-06:00

Curtain Call

Tonite is our last night for our Annual Christmas Dessert Concert of the Heart.

This is an opportunity to bring in others who do not know God or who have not been to our church a chance to learn about Him and hear our churches' heart.

It is the first one I have sang in and most definitely the first time I have ever played a Jamba :)

Was so blessed last night to see how God moved very differently through the exact same set of music, dance, drama, and worship.

God met everyone exactly how each different audience's needs were. What an awesome God we serve!

Was nervous because I haven't sang in church for a very long time. I used to be a worship leader in a couple of churches but basically have been just soaking in God's Spirit, healing and learning.

This was the first time that I have stepped out like this in my church.

And God was there.

I noticed that every time we sang, (I sang two songs with my Bible Study group and once with my Junior Youth Group each seating) that the songs changed from us performing to us worshipping Him in Spirit and in Truth.

In short. God showed up. And it was amazing. Each act signified an aspect of God and His Word.

Eternity: The show started with a power point "Love Song" about God, His love, and His plan. Wow Christopher, great job bro!

Creation: Then I sang with my Transformations group God of Wonders. Awesome job guys! You guys are such a blessing!

Moses & Passover: Then Pastor's wife Wanda, Tanya (From our Transformations group), and Krista sang O Come, O Come, Emmanuel and Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming Accapella with accompaniment by Arianna and Janet! Incredible! A little bit of our Angelic host on Heaven guys!

Then there was a music video by Kelly (My accountability partner and freind from my Transformations group) from the Prince of Egypt. The song There can be miracles if you believe was powerful set against short clips from the movie especially the parting of the Red sea, and Moses meeting with God at the burning bush! Wow...gonna have to watch that movie again!

Then there was a short intermission, with of course, desserts.

Angel: Then Tanya (Transformations...again :) Sang a song called Who Would Imagine a King with a video of baby Jesus on the screen...Powerful that that little baby was born a King, of this earth and the next! What an incredible reminder!

Star: Then my man Jessie :) did a monologue as the Innkeeper watching the Wisemen show up and worship Jesus...wow...that was awesome! Jessie was one of my Junior youth last year and man he is growing in God! Good job little brother!

Birth of Jesus: This was followed by an incredible song by Aline and Jamie. How Mary felt being with Jesus, the handmaiden of the Lord, the immaculate conception. WOW...Aline and Jamie are wife and husband respectively and between them they made up a considerable Dianna Krall in style at least! The song was called The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. It was simply amazing!

Then there was a question and answer time with the question how has God changed / affected your life. Man, I was blessed by the answers of our church. The testimonies of God's power were undeniable!

Light of the World: Next Dale, Andrew and myself got to do our song Joy the the World 60's rockin style with our Junior Youth. I played the Jamba and sang. Wow was that fun! Dale got ahold of these goofy Santa hats and the kids did actions / dancing to the song. What a Blast! I sure am proud of our Junior Youth they did a bang up job!

Crucifixion: Next Kevin, Tobi, and Corey did the Sticky chair routine drama short...man that was great. It started really funny and then got really serious as we ponder what Christ did for us. The chair was not supposed to be touched as it singnified sin, and as Tobi got more and more stuck to it, Corey kept reaching out to him. To the side Jesus was being crucified and as He died, Tobi was freed by praying with Corey...wow...what an awesome picture. The song this was done to was Jesus is still all right by DC talk...What a great Job guys!

As Corey and Tobi scoot off stage we were left to see Kevin as the crucified Christ, as the spotlight darkened on him,

God's Heart: Kelly and Lani were illuminated and started to sing Love Crucified Arose...what a powerful song. The words and the Title really hit me. Love Crucified Arose as in Jesus the embodiment of Love arose, and as Love Crucified a Rose, how God sent His Son, the Rose of Sharon to die for us. Incredible. Lani and Kelly are also husband and wife, and I was so blessed by their ministry.

The Church: Next was Lloanne, Aline, Stevie, Natasha, and Sonya who performed ballet dance to I Love the Lord...wow...that is all I have to say...that was the most incredible worship in dance I had ever seen...blew my mind.

Heaven: Our wonderful pastor then sang a song called This Little Child. Wow...I could not help but weep every time I heard this. The heart of God is so much in this song. As Pastor Terry sang the chorus the second time which goes "I Believe, and I wall always sing, this little child, Is a King, I Believe, and I will always sing, this little child is the King of Kings!" everyone involved in the concert stood up where ever they were and sang this chorus. What a powerful proclaimation. As we all stood and sang I felt in my Spirit a soaring and nearness of God that overpowered me. You could not have said you did not meet God if you were in that sanctuary...it was incredible!

At the end for conclusion and dismissal our transformations group sang Prince of Peace. Wow...that was amazing. We just worshipped...

After two sets of this last night, I basically floated home in God's Spirit, I got to hang with some incredible people from my church before I did, but wow...what a blessing. To say I had a good night is an understatement!

God is so Good! Well gotta go...having supper with my brother Chuck and going back to church tonite to let God do it all over again! Lord I am so Blessed! God Bless You. -Moose

Remember, however cliche it may sound, it is still truth : Jesus STILL IS the Reason for the Season!

So Encouraged

2005-12-09T00:29:00.000-06:00

So Encouraged...

Today I had a pretty good day at work. Got lots done, but that was not what made it a good day. It was a good day because I felt no pain today.

I was so encouraged last night and tonite by God.

I have been going to practices for our annual Christmas Concerts of the Heart last couple nights.

There are a lot of incredible people there with a lot of talent. I am so blessed to be in such a church.

I am singing in 3 songs, one with our wonderful junior youth I help lead, and two songs with my Transformations Bible Study group.

As I saw and heard through the hearts of the people sharing, I was so blessed and encouraged by how much our people in our church love God and others.

You know, it almost seemed like the fellowship of doing something together as a church almost seemed to eclipse the concerts coming up.

It was so encouraging to feel the love one for another our church has.

Of course we are going to do our best for the concert, there are actually 3 of them, two on Friday, one on Saturday.

We are going to worship God with everything we do. Our focus is God.

And then...

After I went and met my brothers Joe, Darcy, and Ryan down at Joe Dogs, our favorite sports bar / restaurant.

Man the encouragement when brothers dwell together in unity!

It was such a blessing to hang with other brothers who can encourage and pray and share struggles openly with each other, to know that you are not alone, and be encouraged that God can meet all our needs.

Watching some good hockey on the big screen did not hurt either :)

I am amazed lately how God has shown up at our meetings and ministered to one another 's hearts.

To share one another's burdens, to not have to be perfect, being real and open with one another without condemnation but only love and encouragement is awesome.

So here I am, I am physically exhausted, but spiritually blessed. I basically floated home tonite in God's Spirit :)

And no it ain't the root beers, the chicken wings, nor the ice cream baseball mits taking :)

God is Good!

Bless yas. -Moose

Sometimes I feel so good, I gotta scream...

2005-12-07T23:31:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I feel so good, I gotta scream...

I had a GREAT Day today. Sometimes a rare thing...

Thank God!

Was listening to one of my favorite bands, the Tragically Hip and they said it exactly how I felt it...

Their website is on my links if ya want to check them out.

Bless Yas -Moose

New Orleans is Sinking
Lyrics by the Tragically Hip

Bourbon blues on the street, loose and complete
Under skies all smokey blue-green
I can't forsake a dixie dead-shake
So we danced the sidewalk clean
My memory is muddy, what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking man and I don't wanna swim

Colonel Tom, What's wrong? What's going on?
You can't tie yourself up for a deal
He said, "Hey north you're south shut your big mouth,
You gotta do what you feel is real"
Ain't got no picture postcards, ain't got no souvenirs
My baby, she don't know me when I'm thinking bout those years

Pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire
Sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire
Picking out the highlights of the scenery
Saw a little cloud that looked a little like me

I had my hands in the river
My feet back up on the banks
Looked up to the lord above
And said, "Hey man thanks"
Sometimes I feel so good, I gotta scream
She said Gordie baby I know exactly what you mean
She said, she said, I swear to god she said...
My memory is muddy what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking man and I don't wanna swim

Hosea and Gomer - John Piper

2005-12-06T15:02:00.000-06:00

Like Gomer, "dark harlotry" runs in our blood. But God's love cascades over our crude lives. He makes us his wife, "blood-bought and beautified by grace." John Piper's poem "Hosea and Gomer" declares the glorious truth that "the steadfast love of the Lord is better than life."

The old man and his wife sat by
The winter fire and looked out high
Above the plains of Ephraim,
And saw around the last regime
Of Israel the shadows snake
Their way from east to west and take
Possession of Samaria.
"How long until Assyria,'
They thought, "would break Hoshea's rod,
And violate the wife of God?"

But strange as it may seem, the doom
They saw across the land left room
For hope. And when they looked into
Each other's eyes, as they would do
At night, they knew, as none could know
But they, that God would bend his bow
Against the charms of foreign men,
And take his faithless wife again.
They knew it could and would be done,
As surely as the rising sun
Drives darkness back unerringly,
And drowns it in the western sea.
They knew, because they had rehearsed
The tragedy and played it first
Themselves with passion and deceit.

"It's true that life is far more sweet,"
Hosea thought, "when it is lost,
Then bought again at dreadful cost;
And love grows strong when it must wait,
And deep when it is almost hate."

Such things as these he often said
To Gomer as they watched the red
And crimson echoes of the sky
Descend Mount Tabor's cliffs and die
In darkness far below. And she
Would say to him, "Your love for me
Was like a mountain waterfall,
And I the jagged stone. Of all
The knives and hammers once applied
None made me smooth or clean. They tried,
But harlotry was in my blood,
Until your love became a flood
Cascading over my crude life
And kept me as your only wife."

They knew as none but they could know
What it would mean that long ago
The Lord allowed his love to swell,
And married faithless Israel.

The passing of the years now found
The children grown and gathered 'round
This night: Jezreel and Loammi,
Hosea's sons, and at his knee
Loruhamah. The room was sweet
With memories, and each replete
With pleasure and with ample pain.
Among the memories one main
Experience above the rest
Embraced them all. It was the best;
Indeed it was the mountain spring
Of every happy stream from which
The family ever drank, and rich
With hope. It was Hosea's love.
The children stood in wonder of
The way he loved, and Gomer too.
But this had not always been true.

Hosea used to say, "It's hard
To be a seer, and prophet bard.
The price is high when he must sing
A song of ruin over everything
In lyrics written with his life
And lose his children and his wife."

And so it was, Hosea heard
The Lord. It was the strangest word
A holy prophet ever got:
And every pointed precept shot
Like arrows at Hosea's life:
"Go take a harlot for your wife,"
Thus says the Lord, "And feel with me
The grief and pain of harlotry.
Her father's name is Diblaim;
He makes fertility with cream
And raisin cakes. He will not see
Her go without a price, for she
Has brought him profits from her trade.
Now go, and let her price be paid;
And bring her back and let her bear
Your son. Call him Jezreel. For there
Is coming soon a day when I
Will strike and break the bloody thigh
Of Jehu's brutal house, and seal
With blood the valley of Jezreel.

And after that, though she's defiled.
Go in, and get another child,
And make your tender face like rock.
Call her Loruahmah and lock
Your heart against all sympathy:
`Not pitied' is her name. No plea
From faithless Israel will wake
My sympathy till I forsake
My daughter in the wilderness.

Now multiply once more distress:
Hosea, go beget a son,
For there is yet one child to shun,
And call him Loammi, in shame,
For `Not My People' is his name."

Hosea used to walk along
The Jordan rim and sing the song
His father Beeri used to sing.
Sometimes the tune and truth would bring
Him peace, and he would pause and look
At all the turns the Jordan took,
To make its way down to the sea,
And he would chant from memory:

Think not, my son, that God's great river
Of love flows simply to the sea,
He aims not straight, but to deliver
The wayward soul like you and me.
Follow the current where it goes,
With love and grace it ever flows.

The years went by, the children grew,
The river bent and Gomer knew
A dozen men. And finally
She left and traveled to the sea,
And sold herself to foreign priests
Who made the children serve at feasts
Until they had no shame.

And then

The God of grace came down again,
And said, "Hosea, go, embrace
Your wife beside the sea. And place
Your hand with blessing on the head
Of Loammi, and raise the dead
Loruhamah to life in me,
And tell Jezreel that I will be
For him a seed of hope to sow
In righteousness. Hosea, go,
The gracious river bends once more."

And so the prophet loved these four
Again, and sought them by the sea,
And bought them with the equity
Of everything he owned.

That was

The memory tonight, because
Hosea loved beyond the way
Of mortal man. What man would say,
"Love grows more strong when it must wait,
And deeper when it's almost hate."

Jezreel spoke softly for the rest,
"Father, once more let us be blessed.
What were the words from long ago
That gave you strength to love us so?
Would you please bless us with your rhyme,
And sing it for us one more time?"

"Think not, my son, that God's great river
Of love flows simply to the sea,
He aims not straight, but to deliver
The wayward soul like you and me.
Follow the current where it goes.
With love and grace it ever flows."

"And children," Gomer said with tears,
"Mark this, the miracle of years."
She looked Hosea in the face
And said, "Hosea, man of grace,
Dark harlotry was in my blood,
Until your love became a flood
Cascading over my crude life
And kept me as your only wife.
I love the very ground you trod,
And most of all I love your God."

This is the lamp of candle four:
A bride made ready at the door.
A shabby slave waits her embrace,
Blood-bought and beautified by grace.

©Desiring God

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you do not make more than 1,000 physical copies. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be explicitly approved by Desiring God.

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. ©Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 888.346.4700.

Ryder Blog Dude

2005-12-04T23:49:00.000-06:00

Hey all...just added another Austrailian Brother to my blog links. He has some very interesting posts, this one was a great read and really made me think:

http://ryderboy.blogspot.com/2005/11/new-kind-of-christian.html

Check his website out. Goodstuff.

I also added another link to this site here: http://leadershipblog.blogspot.com/ Great reading with pastor interviews.

And lastly I added another link to this site here: http://philbaker.net/ A great news article style blog on Christianity today.

Blessings and good reading -Moose

The Best Christmas Light Display Ever...

2005-12-04T02:23:00.000-06:00

The Best Christmas Light Display Ever…

You have got to check this out…

http://members.cox.net/transam57/lights.wmv
Wizard in Winter

http://www.msftlabrat.com/funstuff/jingle.wmv
Jingle Bells

http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/xmaslights.asp
Snopes Information on the Display

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002ZDVGS
Order the Music

http://www.wonderlandchristmas.com/wizardsofwinter.php
Instructions on How to Do It Yourself

Very Cool! It is amazing what ya can do with some X10 stuff
a computer and a LOT of light bulbs!!!

Blessings! -Moose

Lisa's CBC Article

2005-11-28T10:58:00.000-06:00

Cabbie found dead in Thompson
Last Updated Nov 28 2005 09:00 AM CST
CBC News

An autopsy is being performed Monday on the body of a Thompson taxi driver who was found dead inside her cab early Saturday morning.

Police say the death of Mellissa Ivy Chaboyer, 35, is considered "suspicious."

Don Cameron, a dispatcher and driver for North Star Taxi, the company Chaboyer worked for, says he and the other drivers can't believe their colleague is dead.

"Right now we are really in a state of shock, because this sort of thing is really unheard of," he said. "Nothing like this has really happened up here in this community to anybody."

Cameron says the local cab drivers hope to have a meeting with the mayor early this week to discuss cab safety.

A vigil was held Saturday at the Thompson mall, close to the place where Chaboyer's body was found.

A Friend has Died...

2005-11-27T07:33:00.000-06:00

A Friend has died.

Lisa Chaboyer was a friend of mine who was like a sister to me when I lived in Thompson Manitoba.

She was a cab driver.

On Saturday November 26, 2005 at 1:00 in the morning she picked up a fare who stabbed her to death.

This (these) coward (s) is (are) still on the run, police have not caught anyone yet.

Police say that she put up a fight.

I have seen Lisa fight. She fought like a guy, man could she throw a punch.

I think it had to be someone really strong or more than one person. At any rate this is just semantics right now.

My friend is dead and I do not know if she knew the Lord.

God I pray she did.

I had not seen her in over 15 years, but yet I feel profound guilt at not sharing the Lord with her.

God I wish I did.

I know she had not been on my mind or had I even thought about her for all these years, maybe a couple times when talking with old friends from Thompson.

But I cannot shake a lack of responsibility for sharing Jesus with her.

I pray that God put someone in her path to do that.

Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, No One comes to the Father (God) but by me”

His words, not mine. According to Jesus all paths do not necessarily lead to heaven.

“For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that Whosoever shall believe on Him shall be saved” John 3:16

God I hope she made that decision to be saved. I have faith that God gave her every chance to make that decision.

God does not want any one to perish, but if anyone decides not to accept Jesus, God’s only path, they have decided to go to Hell.

He provided a way to heaven. I pray that Lisa chose God.

If she did not choose God, she had then chose Hell by default.

I wish I had led her to Him.

This just makes me more convinced that there is little time in deciding to live for God.

Our next breath is not certain. We could walk out the door today and be hit by a car, whatever.

Where are we going to spend eternity?

This is serious stuff.

If God asked you why should I let you into my heaven what would you say?

Could you answer Him?

“I have lived a good life. I am a good person”

Jesus said “All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God”

Again, His words not mine.

So if all have sinned, than being good enough is not good enough.

It is something else.

I am convinced it is WHO you KNOW.

In the book of Revelations, Jesus says, “In those last days they shall say, “Did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we not heal the sick” and I will say to them away from me for I never KNEW you”

Do you KNOW Jesus? Do you have a Relationship with Him? Do you accept what He has done for you by dying for you to pay for your sin enough that you will live for Him and give your life to Him, all control and all your will?

God I hope so.

When God asks why should He let me into His heaven, I will have only one answer.

You shouldn’t.

I have not done anything worthy of being let into heaven on my own deeds.

The only reason I should be let into heaven is because of that man right there, the man with the scars on His hands, on His feet, a wound on His side, and scars on His head.

The man who bled and died for me so that I could have eternal life.

I will know Jesus. I will recognize Him. I know His heart and He knows mine. I have a RELATIONSHIP with Him.

It was not what I have done that grants me to access heaven.

It is what HE has done.

I will say “That man bled and died for me. That man PAID for my life with His.”

“That man owns my life. Not me. Ask Him”

Satan will hiss, he is mine. I claim him. Look at what he has done with his life. Look at his failures, look at how he has sinned in his life. How can you let him into heaven?

God will then ask Jesus if I am His, If this is true.

And I KNOW that Jesus will reply:

“This one is mine. I love Him Father so much I died for him. Yes everything Satan has said is true. Apart from me you should not let him into heaven, however, because he has chosen to love me, to believe in me for his salvation by faith and has chosen to lay his life down for Me and make ME Lord, MY blood has ransomed Him from Satan and he is no longer the property of the enemy. He is under MY grace, and under MY mercy, MY blood has covered all his sins, I know him by name, he is my friend and my brother, joint heirs with ME and his name is written in MY book of life. He is mine for I have Redeemed Him and Satan you have no claim on him!”

I know that God will let me into His kingdom not because of what I have done, but because of what Jesus has done. Jesus conquered death by His resurrection.

Jesus is the only one that is not still in His grave. Mohammed is, Buddha is, Joseph Smith is, every atheist, agnostic, and ungodly is, Einstein, Darwin, and Freud still are too.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life by what He has done. He has conquered death. He has the keys to Death and Hades. Satan is defeated.

I believe this by faith. I have made a decision.

If you haven’t please do before it is too late.

If you have, please tell others before it is too late.

It may have been too late for Lisa. I do not know.

It is not too late for you.

Choose wisely.

Blessings -Moose

Been a long time...

2005-11-26T15:41:00.000-06:00

Been a long time, Been a long time, Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely,- lonely time –Led Zeppelin

Been a while since I blogged. Seems I have been on a dead run all this week.

Been a very interesting week spiritually.

Last Saturday was not my finest hour, I feel I blew it spiritually in a lot of areas.

Seems God gives us just enough rope sometimes to hang ourselves.

He lets us run our own race until we run smack dab into the wall of sin.

Only when our noses are smarting from face planting into the wall of sin that He finally has our attention.

Guess if we are never broken He can never restore us.

Living this cycle of victory-sin-repentance-victory et al gets weary after a while.

Sometimes I just wish God would just fix me up, just for a while and leave me to heal a bit before He calls me to something else.

But I guess that is not what faith is about.

I have done some body building in my life and I know that the first while when you are working out (approx. a month) you feel like a Mack truck ran over you.

You do not see the immediate benefits through the pain.

But if you persevere you do.

Muscles build, energy comes back, a general feeling of well-being and healthiness comes back to you.

But it ain’t fun at first.

Its breaking the old habits, it is getting through the pain to the payoff.

God I sure would love some payoff spiritually. Ok…I have.

Don’t get me wrong. God has taken me places I have never been spiritually and things have fallen off me in areas of my life like I have never seen in my life.

He has been trimming me like a vineyard dresser.

But Oh man that cutting off of the dead stuff hurts.

What I mean is I would like to see other areas of my life spiritually manifested, things I so long for.

A better financial situation, an end to the loneliness and ache of singleness, a generally better attitude about life.

Seems I just work to live, and live to work, to pay bills and try to survive.

Mabey I just need a holiday…I dunno.

Mabey I need some decompression time to refocus on what is important.

Things have happened this week that really have blown me away spiritually.

I am angry with my wife for leaving me. Really angry. Really hurt. I did not even know that I was consciously until God pointed it out. Now He is dealing with me on this. He is making me realize I never have fully forgiven her and until I do, it will tear me from the inside out like some bad Aliens movie…I must forgive. I must love her in spite of the pain.

I have more people around me and in my life who are also going through this. I am not alone. Other men experience similar things. We are walking this out together and I am not alone. I have other men to lean on and who pray for me as I do for them, men who really care about where and what is going on in my life and speak into my life in a very tangible way. For that I am truly blessed. Truly there are great blessings when men dwell together in unity. I am just realizing how deep those blessings are.

This world and the things that are in it are really not as important as I once thought. I attended a funeral of a colleague who has lost his mother. No amount of money, fame, things, is going to bring her back. We must fix our eyes on what is really important in this life, on what will really last.

Relationships are the key to Christianity. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. In short, maintain and build relationship with God and then the world. Only through relationships can God’s Kingdom grow.

Where two or more are gathered, there I am in the midst of them. God said this and as I have gathered with other people this week God has shown Himself true to His word. Monday night at the Junior Youth meeting, Later Monday night at my brother Scott’s place, Wednesday night at Transformations, Thursday night hanging with my brother Joe and getting to know another brother Ryan, in every case God came down and the fellowship was awesome. The Holy Spirit showed up every time and there were exhortations, correction in love, revelation, prophecy, encouragement, repentance or something else God did. What I am saying is that when God showed up, He always did something that when you left the fellowship to head home that gave you hope that yes, you can go on another day and that yes, you met with God through those meetings.

I cannot do this alone. I NEED God. He is not just a want but a hardcore need. I cannot do this thing called life without Him. When I do, I mess it up and end up in more trouble than when I started. I cannot live this life outside God. It is more painful, more trouble, and way less peace than I want or need. I need the peace and joy of God. I cannot live without Him. I must live in obedience to Him or I cannot live at all.

I need to spend WAY more time with God than I do. Power and Grace comes from spending time and KNOWING God, not just about Him. Spending time in His Word, building relationship with the Living God is the only way I can become truly living. When I spend time with the world I find I am spending time with death not life. I want to walk in life and peace and joy. This world is promised to pass away. We are not guaranteed our next breath. Through God we literally live and breathe and have our being. I need HIS Grace, God’s Real And Continual Enabling to go through life and become what He wants me to be, not what I think I want to be or think I need to be. I need to be what God needs me to be. Only then can I be truly happy and fulfill my destiny laid down by my Loving, and Sovereign God.

The pain will pass away. This too shall pass. There will be blessings at the end of this all. I will laugh again, I will love again. I will sing again. I must embrace the pain and let it teach me to trust in God. I must not try to avoid it but walk with it, until God removes it from my heart. I must be obedient and walk with His Spirit and let Him lead me where I am to go. God is faithful, He is trustworthy, and He has His very best for us.

Blessings -Moose

(Jer 29:11 NIV) "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

(Jer 29:12 NIV) "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you."

(Jer 29:13 NIV) "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

(Jer 29:14 NIV) "I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

My Virtual Pet - Tigger

2005-11-21T13:36:00.000-06:00

adopt your own virtual pet!

Move your Mouse around and see what happens!

A Song for Where I am At...

2005-11-20T01:14:00.000-06:00

A Song for Where I am At...

ARTIST: Kansas
COMPOSER: Kerry Livgren
TITLE: Carry On Wayward Son

Lyrics and Chords
{Refrain}

Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

/ Em G D C / Em G D - / 1st / x /

Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion
I was soaring ever higher
But I flew too high

/ Em D C D / / Am G F FG / Am G D - /

Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man
I hear the voices when I'm dreaming
I can hear them say

{Refrain}

Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man, well
It surely means that I don't know

On a stormy sea of moving emotion
Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean
I set a course for winds of fortune
But I hear the voices say

{Refrain}

No!
Carry on, you will always remember
Carry on, nothing equals the splendor
Now your life's no longer empty
Surely heaven waits for you

/ Em D C - / / Am G F - / Am G D - /
{Refrain}

I listened to this song tonite and really felt that this is exactly where I am at...

I love my church but sometimes cannot understand it. The people I mean.

People have told me how blessed they are at how God is shining through me at this time in my life.

I cannot see it. I see my self as a failure, a loser, who is constantly failing to live up to my God.

I know that in my weakness is His strength, but why does it seem I am always so weak?

I cannot seem to be the man that God wants me to be...

I cannot understand how God can show through such a mess as me.

I love people. I love deeply. I love passionately. I love God.

But I constantly fail to serve Him. It is like I am walking against the wind.

I cry out to God with a voiceless cry, like the cry one makes when screaming in their sleep, only to awaken and realize that the reality is worse than the dream.

I am torn apart. My heart is crushed and seems to pour out pain like a crushed grape pours out wine.

People get tired of hearing pain, but it is all that comes from my heart sometimes.

Sometimes there is Joy and Peace, but mostly there is agony.

Except when I am in the Presence of God. God I feel like Saul, needing music to make the pain, the rejection of God go away.

A soul torn apart. Is that really what you want from me God?

Longing, Loneliness, Pain, the hollowness of empty arms. How can this be your will O Lord?

Yeah, I know the answers from the Bible. I am Bible College trained. I know what the Bible says. I respect the Word of God.

But how does it change the way, the way I feel.

Faith is not based on feelings. It is based on truth.

What happens when the truth of agony seems to overrule the truth of God? What is more real?

My pain? God's Truth? What do I do with what I am experiencing?

It is honestly hard to tell in the midst of agony.

Like Peter not recognizing Jesus on the sea of Galilee, Sometimes, I have a hard time recognizing Jesus on the seas of my life.

Save me Jesus! He reaches out His hand, but sometimes it is not enough.

Everything passes away. Or hopes, our dreams, our possessions. What is truly valuable? Think about that.

Every time we are confronted with death, a funeral of a loved on or friend, what are we really here for?

Our work? friends? To have a bigger house? A better car? Or is is something larger than ourselves?

It has to be. Otherwise we live in vain.

Lovers and Marrieds, love passionately. Don't take your mate for granted. Dear God do not worship them, but love them as your most prized on earth.

Make amends. Don't hold grudges. Life is too short.

Love deeply, live passionately, care endlessly.

You may not have another shot at this life. In fact I guarantee you will not.

Time will move faster the older you will get. It will disappear even as you are looking at it.

Please use it wisely.

You only have this one shot at life. Make it count.

Another Kansas song to thing about.

Love you all. -Moose

ARTIST: Kansas
COMPOSER: Kerry Livgren
TITLE: Dust in the Wind

Lyrics and Chords
[Intro riff: / C Cmaj7 Csus2 C / Asus2 Asus4 Am Asus2 /
/ Csus2 C Cmaj7 Csus2 / Am Asus2 Asus4 Am / ]

I close my eyes
Only for a moment, then the moment's gone
All my dreams
Pass before my eyes, a curiosity
Dust in the wind
All they are is dust in the wind

/ C G Am - / G Dm Am - / 1st / 2nd / / /

Same old song
Just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do
Crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind, ohh

Now, don't hang on
Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away
And all your money won't another minute buy

Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind
Dust in the wind
Everything is dust in the wind
Everything is dust in the wind

Had an Interesting Week...

2005-11-19T11:42:00.000-06:00

Had an Interesting Week…

Have not blogged much this week.

Dunno why.

That is not to say I did not have an interesting week, just that I have not seemed to find time to bang out a blog last few days.

Hmmm Where to Begin…

Monday night, my friend Scott invited my over for supper, he made this awesome road that was marinated in red wine and tomatoes that you could cut with the edge of your fork. Mmmmm! It was good to have a home cooked meal for a change. I don’t get many of those lately.

Seems I am munching on all the wrong stuff, TV dinners, Scottish Dining (McDonalds), or worse.

It was great to eat a meal that was healthy (

Monday night at Scott’s place we have been going through Chuck Missler’s “The Bible in 24 hours” with another friend of mine I went to Bethany Bible Institute (since renamed Bethany College with Glenn, who just had a baby, well technically he didn’t, his wife did, but…yah get the picture (

Tuesday night I worked later and then met an acquaintance from church Bruce for coffee at the Canadian Coffee Icon Tim Hortons and then came home and watched Oscar with Sylvester Stallone. Man I laughed my butt off (ok…figuratively) If you have not watched this movie, put it on your must view list!

Wednesday night I went to Transformations Bible Study with a bunch of people I am really starting to be wowed about. Transformations is a small group Bible Study developed by a guy named Greg Mitchell and it is a powerful study of the nuts and bolts of Christianity. Seems as we are meeting together more and more the Lord is really doing incredible things in our group’s lives. It is simply amazing to see and hear these people open up and literally shine for God. It is so encouraging to know that others walk rough roads, and that you are not the only one who is. The last week or so we have been going through church family and what it means to be in the family of God, how it is like planting your roots down by a stream whereas being outside a church family is likened to being in a parched desert. This is so true.

A lot of my life I have done the lone wolf thing, being part of, but not really JOINING a church. Sure, I have had membership in one church before, but I did not really place my self under the leadership authority of that church and still did my own thing when the rubber met the road. Here I have joined a church, have placed myself under the authority of the church and am allowing the leadership to lead me. Sure, it can be scary sometimes, you are not in control, sometimes admonishment comes instead of praise, but one thing I have noticed, I am growing in and closer to God. I am being encouraged to press on in spite of the mess my life looks like in the natural. I am being loved by people in my church who have the courage to be vulnerable and share their hearts. I am being prayed for and built up. I have come to realize that whatever small offenses that I can sometimes fall into are no match for honest love and forgiveness, and the price of such small things is trivial in the light of fellowship with God’s people.

Wow…where did that bunny trail come from eh? I start sharing my week and well…that is ok…who I am becoming is much more important than what I did this week (

Thursday…hmm…went to a StarPhoenix Christmas thing with food etc. at the Mendel Art Gallery. We advertise at work quite a bit with this company so every year they put on this event as a kind of thank-you to the Realtors that have advertised with them.

After that, I went to church as I am a Junior Youth Leader. It was great hangin’ with our kids, sharing the story of Joshua and Jericho, playing Israelites and Philistines, and snacking on cookies. Just the hang time with these kids is so cool, seeing them go from these Mexican jumping beans to when they settle down, spiritually hungry kids. It is so cool to see them changing before your eyes, really GETTING it, about what God is about, and seeing them grow in God. God has really given me a love for these little guys and I am so blessed every time we get together to see what God is going to do next! To see God’s kingdom being built in these kids is so awesome. To be able to minister and hang with my buddy Dale is just the icing on the cake, youth leadership in our church is in good hands.

Friday night I went to Concerts of the Heart, a coffee house style worship night for the people of our church to share their hearts through the arts. I was so blessed to be able to go and hear people sing, see people dance, and hear the hearts of people in a way I have never seen them before. Very cool. I got to hear Lighthouseforever sing, who by the way is in my Transformations group (brag brag, what a heart for God!) and really blew me away with her song to God (Unbelievable song Chelsea! Ya did good!), Nin and her sister Carebear worship powerfully in dance (The Holy Spirit showed up guys! Incredible Worship! God is so proud of you guys!) Nin and my brother Christopher are also in my Transformations group (brag brag, you guys are such blessings!), Nin also did a song with 2 other ladies about family in the church, wow, what an incredible song! I was so blown away by how these guys are moving in their giftings, seeing people in my church stepping out in faith on to the water, wow, I and a lot of others in the church are like, standing on side of the race course going GO, GO, GO! It is so awesome and so encouraging to see people walking on the water, ya just want to cheer them on! I also got to spend some awesome time with a few of my brothers in the Lord that have a really special place in my heart the Dales (, Corey, Kevin, Jeremy, and one of my best friends Firestarter. Man it was good to see you bro! Firestarter and CWG are two brothers that have walked a lot of stuff with me and I am truly blessed to have you two brothers in my life.

I realize that though I may not be the most wealthy person financially, or may not drive the most nicest of cars, or live in the best area of the city, I am rich. I am rich in friends who love God passionately and wholeheartedly. I am rich in that I have a pastor whose heart is to see his church fall passionately in love with Jesus and be transformed by God. I am rich because I have a church board that shares this same vision. I may not have a lot of money but I am rich because I am loved. First by God, and then by friends, brothers, and sisters. I would not trade the wealth of the world for the least of any of these. I have a family called the church who loves me in spite of myself, and am blessed with a flesh and blood family who all know Jesus and who stand by and encourage me.

God has made me truly rich in the things that matter. I am so thankful.

El Shaddai, Adonai, Lord Jehovah, Elohym, Yahweh, El Elyon, El Olam, Fairest of Ten Thousand, Lily of the Valley, El Berith, El Roi, Everlasting to Everlasting, Alpha and Omega, Beginning and the End, The Word, The Spring, Mighty Counselor, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father, Almighty God, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Might Shepherd, The Lion, The Lamb, The King Eternal, the Only Wise God, I Am that I Am.

(Rev 5:1-14 NIV) 1 "Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals." 2 "And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?" 3 " But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it." 4 "I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside." 5 "Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals." 6 "Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth." 7 "He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne." 8 "And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." 9 "And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." 10 "You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." 11 "Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders." 12 “In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" 13 "Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" 14 "The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped."

What a weekend

2005-11-14T00:19:00.000-06:00

What a weekend

Had an interesting weekend.

Friday was Remembrance Day.

I got to sleep in and took in the Act of Remembrance on TV.

I am always humbled by how costly my freedom was to redeem.

As I see the veterans walking by, and the tears as they remember fallen friends and allies, I am reminded how costly that freedom was.

Men and Women died so that we could be free.

Just let that sink in for a second.

Or as I did for a few minutes on Friday.

Call me a Patriot, but I am proud to be a Canadian and every chance I get, I thank our vets for what they did for me.

I saw an interesting bumper sticker one day...

If you can read this, thank a teacher, if it is in English, thank a Soldier.

We could of all been speaking German if our Vets did not go to war, German Subs were in the St. Lawrence seaway during the second world war. They were that close.

I am reminded of a poem that is displayed at the Canada Remembers Air Show every year:

It Is the Soldier
by Father Dennis Edward O'Brien United States Marine Corps

It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the Soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.

It is the Soldier, not the lawyer,
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the Soldier, who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protestor to burn the flag.

Mabey I do not fit into the typical pacifistic Mennonite Brethern conscientious objector mold here, but then again, my entire church does not quite fit the typical Mennonite Brethern mold.

I do believe that some things are worth fighting for. Freedom is one of them.

I always get choked up when I participate in an act of remembrance. I think of the men and women who died, the families left to mourn, friends left on the battlefield, and the price at which our freedom was bought.

I hope I never forget.

One of my Great Grandfathers (Filby) served in the first world war and was decorated by King George for an act of bravery in India, one of my Grandfathers served in the second world war in the Canadian Military (Shore) in England and married my grandmother who became a war bride, and my other Grandfather (Funkner) served in the German army and saw his best friend sawed in half by machine gun fire when fighting the Russians.

It is interesting that I have a British heritage and a German heritage. I grew up being babysat by my Grandmother, (my first word was G-air-age or Garage used to drive my mom nuts!) but later spent a lot of time with my Grandfather where I learned a little German.

So I grew up as a British German...

My grandmother used to tell me stories how when my great grandfather was fighting on Christmas day, how both armies laid down their weapons and came out of their trenches and exchanged cigarettes and alcohol and sang Christmas carols, the next day they were shooting one another again.

Under any other circumstances but war, they could of very well of been friends he said.

Amazing.

Friday afternoon I spent with a friend working on the Tangosierra.ca website...

Friday nite into Saturday morning :) I spent with my brother Chuck watching a movie and hanging out...and a longtime friend Amanda showed up in Toon Town. What a blessing it was to see her and Julienne.

Saturday I slept in again :)

Got a few things done, and Saturday night I went to House of Worship (their blog is houseofworship.blogspot.com) to soak in God's presence. What an amazing night.

God showed up and I just worshipped full tilt for a couple hours.

Man I needed that so much.

Thanks Jayson and Teegan and the band, God really moved through you guys. Great seeing you out Amanda and Julienne :) You guys followin' me around or something? LOL! You guys are such blessings!

Sunday it was off to church where I got to see some really cool people in my church get baptized, and I got to hang with my crew of Junior Youth and share about the Disciple Simon Peter, I am always blessed hanging out with our Youth in our church.

Oh yah...my buddy Dale turned 40! Man he don't look a day over 50 LOL! Actually ya wouldn't even know he was 40...he's got the heart and energy of a 20 year old. Dale is our youth pastor in our church, my immediate superior for youth, and an awesome friend of mine, with a passion and heart for youth that is incredible.

After church I went over to a Saskatchewan Roughriders party at Jonathan's place. My buddy Scott was there as were a lot of guys from my church. It was a blast. Unfortunately the Riders lost. That's it, that is all...they are outta the game for the rest of the season now...

Watched the Stampeders v.s. Eskimos game...that was an awesome game. Eskimos won. That was pretty cool.

All in all it was a pretty cool weekend, got rest, got relaxation, and had fun and fellowship.

Can't wait to see what is happening this week...

Bless Yas all! -Moose

Oh yah...found another friend who has started blogging now! Check her blog out and encourage her! She is an awesome writer and she has some very cool insights on her blog.

Here is her site: http://www.walking-again.blogspot.com/ I also added her to my Sisters in God menu on the right if you want to check her site out.

Ryno Blog Dude

2005-11-10T02:33:00.000-06:00

This Aussie dude posted a comment on my blog and man I was blown away by his blog. I just wanted to share these with you all. Check his blog out. Ya know I don't normally do this but these are must reads. I didn't get his permission to link to these, so --->Ryno, if this ain't cool lemme know.<---Your blog is a real blessing man.

Here is his website: http://rynospace.blogspot.com

http://rynospace.blogspot.com/2005/10/blame-or-gain.html

http://rynospace.blogspot.com/2005/09/as-big-as.html

Bless Yas -Moose

Last Weekend

2005-11-09T19:02:00.000-06:00

Last Weekend

Thought I would drop an update on what happened last weekend.

I had asked a lot of you personally and in my blog all to pray.

Thank you for all that did pray for me.

I went up to Wakaw Lake to seek God on His direction in my life and just get alone with Him.

One non-spiritual thing I wanted to do was to Listen to the Saskatchewan Roughriders game on the radio against BC...which they won! What a game...

But I digress...

Actually this is the type of stuff God wanted to speak to my heart about.

Losing focus.

Even though a lot of Roughrider fans would say that watching our team win is a spiritual experience it was not the reason for my weekend.

I sought God and He met me.

I brought up a loaner guitar and my Bible and set out to find God's will.

I was looking for something profoundly miraculous.

God brought me back to the basics.

I was looking for a solution and miraculous end for my problems.

God brought me the grace to perservere though my problems.

And God bonked me on the head.

With His Bible.

Didn't you know that God was a Bible Thumper didya?

After worshipping Him during the weekend I was drawn to read through the book of Phillipians while I was out there.

This is what I have learned.

(Phil 1:19-24 NIV) 19 "for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance." 20 "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death." 21 "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." 22 "If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!" 23 "I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;" 24 "but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body."

God has a purpose for my life. I see part of the scope of this, but there is so much more. I do desire to be with God but know in my heart that He is not done with me on this earth.

(Phil 2:5-11 NIV) "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:" 6 "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped," 7 "but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." 8 "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!" 9 "Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,"
10 "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth," 11 "and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

(Insert WOW here.)

Servanthood, our Saviour, humbling Himself to death on a cross and glorification for endurance and perserverence and Obedience. Yowch. Obedience. Gotta stick in my boots whatever what.

(Phil 3:7-11 NIV) "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ." 8 "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ" 9 "and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." 10 "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death," 11 "and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Knowing Christ is Key. Faith in Christ is Key. Fellowship of sharing His sufferings is Key. Owch. Did I mention I don't do suffer well?

And the Doozie (as if the ones above were not)

(Phil 4:4-9 NIV) "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" 5 "Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." 6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." 7 "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." 8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." 9 "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."

Rejoice. So important I am gonna say it again. Rejoice! Be gentle. DO NOT WORRY! Man that is a tough one. Pray and Petition with thanksgiving. And THEN the peace will guard my heart and mind. Not the other way 'round. That alone is a brain rattler. Then the focus verse. Think about the good things of God. Not how I am going to pay my bills, not how I am going to get though another day, but on God. Then just to nail the point home PUT IT INTO PRACTICE. It just ain't thinking about it here. Its doing.

As I think it was Snagglepuss in the old Hanna Barbera cartoons that used to say about Thinking:

"I'll do the Thinnin' Round here!"

I got to let God do the "Thinnin'" in my life.

I gotta be obedient and actually Trust that He has the best for me no matter what. Back to the whole faith issue. Do I actually have the faith to believe He has the best for me? Somedays I think so. Some days I know not.

So what happened this weekend? God admonished me, drew me close, let me weep, and get up off the ground...again. I met with God and He met with me.

It really does not matter that I fall. I will fall. It is the direction I am looking when I get up.

No instant miracles here. No fantastic lights or journey's to the 6th heaven. Just allowing God to get me back to basics in His amazing grace to accomplish all He has set out for me to do.

God's Real And Continual Enablement. Thats GRACE. And that really is amazing.

Blessings -Moose

House of Worship

2005-11-09T18:43:00.000-06:00

For all those Spiritual Soakers out there :)

An awesome time to hook up with God.

House of Worship is a night of worship that was created out of a hunger to know God more and encounter Him with other people who desire His presence with like passion.

This monthly gathering takes place at 7pm on the 2nd Saturday of every month at Victory Church (830 Idywyld Dr. N)

Upcoming gatherings: November 12, 2005, December 10 ,2005, January 14, 2006

Here is their url: http://houseofworship.blogspot.com/

Blessings -Moose

Steeping

2005-11-04T10:32:00.000-06:00

Steeping

I am feel like I am doing that right now in my life.

What a good picture.

I am the water, God is the teabag. (ok…just for this analogy…)

I am physically and fundamentally being changed by heat (trials) and God’s Essence transforming me from one thing to another.

God is inside of me, changing me, transforming me.

And it ain’t pretty some days.

This weekend I go to steep in God’s presence.

A friend of mine has graciously offered to let me stay up at his cabin for the weekend.

A guitar, a bible, and God.

To be still and know that I am God.

A time for me to listen and respond, and sort out a few things.

Do I have questions? Boy do I ever, but I am trusting He has the answers.

I really want God to change my heart. I love intimacy with God. It is so refreshing.

I just don’t like the pain that happens sometimes.

But, just like a doctor has to cause pain to remove a cancer, God sometimes has to cause pain to heal us.

But when the cancer is gone, oh what relief, joy, peace, and knowledge that you are right where God wants you.

“All things work to the Good for those who love God”

Some of those things that happen are not necessarily good, but in the end, they will be.

I am reminded of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

The children thought that it would be grand to run and play with Aslan.

One of the children asked Mrs. Beaver if Aslan was safe.

Oh no she replied. Aslan is not safe. He is the King of the whole wood.

…But He is Good.

I will go through the pain to experience that.

I believe that while embracing Jesus, God my Father and the Holy Spirit is not necessarily safe to my flesh…

…it will be good, and it will be healing.

Please pray for me.

Thanks and Blessings,
Moose

Steep

2005-11-04T09:39:00.000-06:00

Steep

yourself in the presence of the Holy Spirit

Steep

yourself in fellowship with good friends - and new friends

Steep

yourself in some steeped beverages and goodies

It’s Steeped Worship, on this Friday, November 4, 2005

At 7:30 pm for all Young Adults
Hope Fellowship Church
809 32nd St. Saskatoon, SK

Walking as a Christian Separated Man

2005-10-29T00:08:00.000-06:00

Walking as a Christian Separated Man.

It is more complicated and harder than I had ever imagined.

I got an email from the person I am still married to.

I hesitate to call her my wife as she has joined herself to another man.

I am presently "married" to a woman but hesitate to say I am in a marriage since a marriage seems to imply that both parties in said marriage are still together.

I unhappily am not.

My party of the first part has chosen to take the last name of her lover as her own and she is presently in an adulterous relationship with him. She has been with this person for the last 7 months.

Which leaves me (to quote my counselor) in a very unfortunate situation.

Turns out she cannot apply for legal aid for at least a year as she has just moved out to Calgary with her lover a couple months or so ago. So divorce is not an option for her. At least not for a year.

She wants me to file for divorce. Yippee! I will get right on that! NOT.

As a Christian I cannot file for a divorce in good conscience. I neither want to be the instigator of the divorce, nor wish to pay for it as it was not my idea for her to run away with another man.

Two camps of thought from friends of mine:

The Biblical law states in the very words of Jesus that I can divorce said wife for adultery. I could do that and this would be all over. I could not live with myself for doing that, but I could divorce her for adultery.

That would be living by the law.

Mercy and Grace (and the Holy Spirit) tell me to leave the door open for said wife to repent and come back. If she does not come back and divorces me, then I have done all I can to stay married. The old college try as it were.

That is living in the path of love and forgiveness. Or is it?

Herein lies the problem. I am not really sure I want her back.

I am not sure if I could forgive her.

If God said so, yes, I guess I would have to be obedient and believe that He has the best for me and would enable me with the forgiveness I would need towards her.

But in my heart It seems so impossible to trust someone who has thrown away 15 years of marriage for an adulterous relationship.

My "wife" may be legally still married to me, but in her heart she has married herself to another. She just has not done this in the sight of a congregation or the legal system.

If my "wife" repented and returned. in the back of my mind I would always be wondering when, not if, she would do this to me again.

So here I live in limbo land. Neither able to go on with my life in a new romatic relationship, nor end the old one.

Would not be so bad but alas, I do not do alone well.

I miss being in the arms of a woman, and the prospect of living like this for the next year (minimum) fills me with despair and agony.

Some people can rejoice in singleness, the freedom and the liberty to do any and all the things they want without being accountable, to do what they please without consulting anyone, to go anywhere without question.

And all these things are good and well.

For them.

However, after sharing your life with someone, you experience what that intimacy felt like and you long to have that back.

As God said about Adam, It is not good for man to be alone.

Being alone with no one for company but an invisible God, a furball of a cat, and a hyperactive dog is a lonely existance at best.

My arms ache to hold someone but I cannot for fear of becoming an legal adulterer myself.

I wonder if Adam and Eve had this problem, or their immediate descendents?

I mean, there was no Justice of the Peace to legally marry them, no state sanctioned legal pastors.

How did they marry / divorce back then? The Priests and Elders married and sanctioned divorce.

I am wondering if marriage and divorce is the soley the domain of the heart, not the legal system.

I believe that Marriages, like baptism are an outward expression, in and to one's Christian community of an inner change to love one person to the exclusion of all others. A very oath before God to carry that out, and the onus of the community the couple is in to see that oath fulfilled by any help possible.

Anyone else uncomfortable with the thought that you have to go get a marriage "licence" to get married? Did anyone get permission from God to (a.) Allow the state to make money off of HIS institution? (b.) license something HE ordained? (c.) Pervert something that HE called holy?

We have just seen the legal institution of marriage now be redefined as marriage hetersexual and homosexual. It will not be long before intergenerational marriages are allowed as are already before the system. What is next? Japan is marrying animals, is beastiality the next rung on the ladder? How about brothers and sisters? Where is it going to end?

If we go to the beginning, to Adam and Eve, I think Marriages and Divorces are church and heart things, not court and legal things. The court and legal things were an afterthought.

I am reminded of the Scottish in the middle ages having secret non-legal marriages in the woods so that the english lords could not know that they were wed and not take their wives to bed to breed the "Scottish out of the Scots." These marriages were totally spiritual and non legal. the Scots revolted against Legal marriage on the basis that it was no longer Godly and led to the rape of their new wives and ultimately the destruction of their marriages.

I wonder if we are getting to the same place in our legal system.

Today the legal system classes common law marriage and legal marriage as the two ways to have a legal relationship in this country.

But has anyone noticed how similar the two classes and the rights they provide are looking?

So what is the difference? Society and the church says one group is married, the other is not.

But what does God say?

With Adam and Eve and their immediate descendents, I cannot see people waiting for their divorce to clear the justice system before they started another marriage, as there was no justice system back then.

A group of elders / priests sanctioned a marriage or divorce in a community based on God's law.

Read the story of Ruth and Boaz. Read how marriage and divorces were dealt with in Leviticus.

If pastors and elders can marry, why cannot they divorce? Has anyone other than me wondered about this?

Proof of a broken relationship, that one person or the other has forsaken the marriage covenant should be all that is needed for a divorce.

Division of assets should be a civil matter.

We wonder at the ability of the old testament Jews who all they had to do is say I divorce you three times and were divorced, legally and spiritually.

But today, it seems that you are still married legally and still bound to be, even if under God that covenant has been broken, until it is legally dealt with. This leaves you not quite married, and not quite divorced.

We have a multitude of people in our society that are married divorcees feeling like the walking dead. Not quite free, but still in bondage.

Who have no closure. The direct result of legal marriage.

The only people who have closure are the people who have lost their spouses to death.

At least they can go on in life.

Which makes me really think.

With legal marriage becoming more twisted and perverse as far as the law, homosexual marriages, marriage contracts with get out of jail free cards written into them...

What is more close to the real marriage God intends?

Is it a legal thing? Or a heart thing? A lot of churches would say both. I disagree.

I am reminded of the Anabaptists.

Until the Anabaptists, you were not legally baptized until you were baptized by the state as an infant.

Didn't matter if you were baptized by a pastor and in your heart you confessed Jesus as Lord and then were baptized as per the Bible.

You had to be legally baptized by the state before you could be officially baptized "by God" emphasis mine.

And in the end all the state was looking to do is keep a census through baptism so that they could keep track of their tax base. The state did not care if baptism was of God or not, as long as the tax roll was continuing to be accounted for.

So people namely pastors, deacons, elders, baptized people in secret with non legal baptisms. Under God.

I wonder if we have reached the same place in legal marriage.

Why do we have legal marriages?

So we can legally apply for benefits? So we can be legally represented as a couple?

So what makes that different than what the homosexuals want? Do we honestly believe they want the stamp of God on their relationships? No. Most of them hate God. They just want to be recognized as a couple in society, under the law, so that they can get the same benefits heterosexuals do. It is all about rights, greed and self-centeredness, not God centeredness.

I am beginning to believe that Canadian legal marriage has nothing to do with God, and what he wants.

We see in our Bibles obey the law of the land, except when to do so contradicts the word of the Lord. Does homosexual legal marriage not contradict the word of the Lord?

What is the "institution" of marriage?

Is it leaving mother and father and cleaving to one another as the Bible states?

Or is it some twisted legal thing?

I would love to hear a sermon from the pulpit on legal marriage and the defense thereof.

Every sermon I have heard on marriage uses the definitions and biblical references of the Bible. I have yet to hear in my humble 15 years of Christianity a sermon on legal marriage. Why?

Just something to think about.

How does this affect me?

It seems to avoid living under the law regarding my attitude towards my married other, I am living under the law regarding my own life and happiness.

On one hand I feel so very ready for another relationship, but on the other hand so not.

When I spend time with the opposite sex, and especially those I find myself attracted to, I feel the agony of my loneliness subside in their presence, but the fear of drawing too close slams into me like a wall and in fumbly awkwardness I short circuit conversations with people I could see myself having a meaningful relationship with.

As an introvert I have just beaten myself further into my shell. Again.

I actually have to fight myself to get out into public to talk to people so I don't become some derange miser type hermit with 78 cats who smells bad and yells at people all the time as the voices only talk to HIM!

Ok., ok, not quite that bad. But you get the picture.

Then there is the whole issue of what if my divorce did go through.

This is going to sound bad but...a divorce would feel like I won the lottery to get on with my life.

Then there are all the new Christan rules...

Before I got saved, I could just find someone interesting at the local pub, get drunk with them, yadda, yadda, and hopefully end up in a long term relationship.

Now there are threats like AIDS so now that type of dating is like playing Russian Roulette. Not even an option.

Now I must find someone who is a Christian, and who hopefully does not have AIDS or some other death disease.

The Bible says that the person I find must be a Christian so that I am not unequally yoked with an unbeliever.

Not quite sure what egg yolkes have to do with any thing but I digress...

So that means that the Christian dating rules are different. And I have no idea what the new rules are.

See, I thought I would be with my wife forever.

Not so said life. Or at least at this point of my life.

So as a Christian it is no sex before marriage, try to figure out if someone is interesting enough to spend the rest of your life with and get to know people enough to take the plunge and express your feelings to them, further vulnerablizing yourself.

That is all I know at this point.

Did I mention I was an introvert?

Guess that is why people say that God puts those type of relationships together.

Right now it seems like it would take a miracle for me to be in another intimate relationship with a woman.

I guess what Miracle Max said from the Princess Bride is true.

"Don't rush me, sonny. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles. You got money?"

Seems God has me in the waiting room of life wanting me to figure something out.

To quote another character from the Princess Bride Inigo Montoya, "I hate wait"

So here I am going to a Marriage Tuneup seminar at my church under the unction of my pastor, and accountability friends, and God.

I don't wanna go! (Sounds like a 6 year old eh?)

But for some twisted reason unbeknownst to me, the Holy Spirit put this on my heart to attend.

And if I want peace I must, in obedience go.

So I am going.

Pray for me.

I still got a LOT to learn.

Blessings. -Moose

Pakistan/India Relief Benefit Concert

2005-10-22T07:59:00.000-06:00

This is from my friend Hollis, the lead singer from Tangosierra. Their tunes are playing on Rock 102 right now. Please consider this. If you cannot make it, that's cool, but please let your other friends and aquaintances know. This is going for a good solid cause. There are a lot of people are in dire straits right now along the Pakistan-India border, and World Vision is a good solid way to help. As an added incentive the Canadian government is also kicking in a dollar for every dollar that Worldvision raises for this relief effort.

More news should be posted soon on the tangosierra website: http://www.tangosierra.ca/

Thanks for your time, Steve "Moose" Funkner

----- Original Message -----
From: Hollis Brown
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2005 1:17 AM
Subject: Urgent newsflash: The Roadhammers and Tango Sierra to do a benefit concert.

People,

This is happening fast, and so I don't have time to sort out who I'm mailing this to, but it looks like The Roadhammers are going to pop into Saskatoon this coming Tuesday, October 25th, for a benefit concert at the Longbranch Salloon and Tango Sierra will be adding their show too as an opener. It's all but confirmed, and it looks like a for sure thing, and it's happening fast, so spread the word that all the proceeds will go to the earthquake relief effort to get those people some tents before the snow flies. I've got a bad cold, and I woke up this morning thankful that I'm not sleeping in a ditch with a wet blanket and the flu and my house broken down. So, yes, please spread the word and if any of you are connected with the Red Cross or World Vision, help me get them involved asap. I'll be up tonight emailing them to get their people into it. The gov't. matches everything donated thru the 26th, so whatever you give will be doubled. Here's something I got from World Vision.

We can do it, Hollis.

Dear Mr. Brown:

The earthquake along the Pakistan-India border has taken a massive toll—estimates state more than 40,000 people dead and millions homeless.

World Vision is there, working around the clock to save the lives of children and their families. Already, our staff is distributing 3,000 tents, 1,000 quilts, 12,000 litres of water, and more to suffering victims.

To strengthen our relief efforts and to help rebuild lives, the Canadian government has committed to match every dollar donated by individuals, but only until October 26. That means your gift will double in value to rush things like clean water, food, shelter, medical supplies and more to help twice as many needy children and families.

Please give generously today—rush emergency supplies and help save lives.

Thank you for your swift action and continuing prayers.

Sincerely,

Dave Toycen
President, World Vision Canada

Click here to donate today. Your gift before October 26 will double in value to rush emergency supplies and help save children’s lives.

As Canada’s largest relief and development agency, World Vision’s passion is to help children and their communities transform their lives by fighting poverty and injustice. Since 1950, we have been providing hope for children in nearly 100 countries. We are motivated by God’s love for all people – regardless of race, religion, or gender.

Tired

2005-10-14T22:37:00.000-06:00

Tired.

Man am I wasted. Seems lately I have been in a spiritual/physical whirlwind.

I could pull a Rip Van Winkle for about 10 years 'cept I am no where near Sleep Hollow :)

Why is it that the more time saving devices we aquire to save more time, we proportionately lost more time as we aquire said devices?

I thought computers were supposed to give us more time for our lives, however, I am chained to one so much I should rent myself out as a glow light.

Seriously just hook me up to the power grid and I could probably contribute.

I am thinking that gamma rays off computer monitors cannot be healthy...Just a theory.

This sedinary lifestyle cannot be good. I can only think that when we were bonking beasts over the head and dragging them home to eat that mankind as a whole was probably in way better physical shape.

Like my buddy Chuck always says "Round IS a shape" (insert grin here)

A few years ago I would of never dreamed of being at a desk job. I was always doing heavy physical labour and I was in great shape.

Seems crazy but I remember having way more energy after work and not experiencing a mind numbing burnt out sensation when I got home at night.

I seem to have less energy now that I don't expend as much energy...wierd.

Seems to fly into the face of the laws of thermodynamics.

I have used LESS energy, therefore I should have more energy at the end of a day,
whereas physical labour should expend MORE energy so I should have less at the end of the day.

Guess that is not how the human body works.

Never professed to be a biologist or medical student, but something just don't seem right there.

Anywhoo...'nuff with the soapbox.

Gotta snooze. Big day tommorrow. Watching the Roughriders (Hopefully) Kick Edmonton's Butt, spending some time with 3 of the most awesome Christian brothers I know, and gonna end the night with home made barb-que burgers and American Sun Tea.

Hey - I know why I don't have any energy! Its those burgers! LOL...but they sure gonna taste goood!

Peace -Moose

Man Under Construction

2005-10-11T17:00:00.000-06:00

Man Under Construction...

Haven't posted for a while been going through a lot of things namely a Transformations course by a man named Greg Mitchell at church,

The Purple book discipleship program:

http://www.everynationstore.com/Detail.bok?no=3

and...Junior Youth is back on and I am a leader, am trying to keep up with my accountability dudes, and trying to live a life, and catch all the Roughrider games besides :) Man it has been a stretching time. But good. It is definitely building a "new and improved" faith into my life.

In other news...spent the long weekend with my family in the town of Carrot River Saskatchewan (where there is no river and there are no carrots) where recently (within the last few years) a crocodile was found:

www.town.carrotriver.sk.ca/teleorhinus.htm

Very interesting to find a crocodile in a place where it snows every year :) A great PALAEONTOLOGICAL (my big word for today) find...

Other interesting discoveries in Carrot River were home cooked meals (which I haven't had recently) Turkey Dinners, and all the fixin's Awesome! Beats the heck outta 2 dollar TV dinners (ok...that is not ALL I eat, Just MOSTLY what I eat LOL!)

All in all life has been good to me so far...considering the circumstances.

Well thats my update, yup, think that is all I wanted to say...except this:

Bilbo continued in a much less than enthusiastic voice, "I…" he started as he went into his pocket, and pulled out an object. What is concealed in his hand, the crowd doesn't know…

He put his hands behind his back and continued muttering to himself, "…I… have things to do… "

The crowd put on expressionless faces, even Frodo…

"…I've put this off for far too long," Bilbo mutters to himself even more as the crowd continued to be speechless at his behavior, waiting for him to say something…

…Finally he spoke, "…I regret to announce, this is the end…!

"…I'm going now, I bid you all a very fond farewell…"

The crowd was even more speechless at Bilbo's latest remark. He looked at his nephew, Frodo one last time, "…goodbye."

And then…

…Bilbo vanished. The crowd gasped at what they saw. Gandalf was more than shocked to see Bilbo vanish before his eyes…

http://www.samizdat.com/fanfics/john/rurouni_kenshin_and_%20the_%20lord_%20of_%20the%20rings_chapter3.html

From Rurouni Kenshin and the Lord of the Rings
Prologue: One ring to rule them all
A Fanfiction by: John the Visionary, Docwho4243@aol.com

http://www.samizdat.com/fanfics/john/rurouni_kenshin_and_%20the_%20lord_%20of_%20the%20rings_prologue.html

Bless Ya -Moose

Blogthings.com Fooper

2005-09-26T11:05:00.000-06:00

Your Japanese Name Is...

Yasuo Kimura

What's your Japanese Name?

Gettin' Outta the Boat

2005-09-23T12:20:00.000-06:00

Gettin' Outta the Boat

Well, I'm doing it...I am getting outta the boat.

Yup I am walking onto the water, heading to Jesus, and Stepping out in faith.

Sounds pretty strong and spiritually convincing right now eh?

Couldn't be further from the truth...

Knees are knockin', teeth are chattering, and I'm hyperventalating...

Ok...not quite that bad, but you get the point.

It is a big step to go from the known to the unknown.

Especially when it defies logic or in Peter's case good ol' fashioned physics.

But that is where God is.

He isn't in the boat, He is on the water.

"IF it is you Lord call me get out of the boat"

Geez what a silly question. Man talk about setting yourself up. Very predictable. You almost are on the sidelines shouting "Don't do it man!" You can see EXACTLY where this is going.

Like in horror movies, why is it that when the young starlet hears a noise she doesn't just stay in the safety of the house? Nope. Away she goes to check it out. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb. You just KNOW that is going to happen. You see it. Apparently she doesn't.

Peter didn't. So Jesus did.

Come on out. Man. Now Peter went and done it..had to put his faith where his mouth was.

And that is Exactly where Jesus wanted him.

Then Peter saw the wind and the waves. And started to dog paddle. The mouth that had put its faith were its mouth was was now gargling sea water.

Jesus Save Me!

I think it was more like gurgle, gurgle gasp, JESUS, gurgle, gasp, gasp, SAVE ME!

IMMEDIATELY Jesus reached out his hand. Good thing, because I suspect Peter wasn't treading water very well.

Just a bunny trail here...Seems unusual but a lot full time commercial fishermen don't know how to swim. Weird huh.

I used to room with a couple Newfie guys years ago, and they confided in me that most of them do not go swimming and most don't know HOW to swim. It is just not done. Blew my mind.

Just like a lot of people from the Midwestern U.S. don't appear go to the lake...I asked a buddy of mine what lakes they go to in the states. He commented "Why would you "go" to the lake? What exactly would you "do" there?" Wild.

Imagine being that close to water your whole life and not thinking you might have to get into it someday.

Anyways...BIG bunny trail there.

Point is...walking on the water, me, Jesus, the whole enchilada.

Part of me is like AWESOME! Walking on the water. The cutting edge of faith, another daring adventure, Hooray!

Another part of me is going "Don't do this to me Jesus, I love my nicely warmed up seat in the boat. Hey I had a good place picked out there. I don't care that it is pitching in the wind like a tilt-a-whirl, It is safe here. Or is it?

Jesus is saying "who told you I wanted you to play it safe?"

So this weekend I am hopping onto the water, getting outta the boat, and secretly hoping it froze up since I looked at it last.

And heading to Jesus...

Wish me luck...better yet, pray for me. I just MIGHT need that.

Blessings,
Moose

In Other News...

2005-09-19T16:15:00.000-06:00

In Other News...

The Riders Won yesterday against the Eskimos! Man I thought for sure their goose (geese / gooses) were cooked...right down to the wire it was, like a David and Goliath faceoff...right down to the last punt.

See what happened here:

Roughriders v.s. Eskimos Game

After church in the morning, got to spend some time with a couple really cool Christian guys I know (was good hangin with ya Dale and Don)and cheer on the green and white...was a cool way to spend an afternoon, then spent the rest of the afternoon with a couple guys from my church (good hangin with ya Kevin and Tim)watching WWE on pay per view...all in all it was a good day. Nothing too spiritually challenging or such, ('cept the prayers that went up for the Riders to win :) Just hangin with Christian brothers at sporting events...very cool.

Some Hurricane Links

2005-09-19T10:06:00.000-06:00

Some Hurricane links:

http://bayoubabble.blogspot.com/2005/09/honeyim-home.html

http://www.nola.com

Links, Links, and More Links

2005-09-17T01:25:00.000-06:00

Links, Links, and More Links...

Well here I was starting to add links to my website, cool sites that revealed my interests in music, art, hobbies and beliefs...well...it kinda took on its own life...when I was going through all my bookmarks I realized how much junk I had in there and started cleaning that out, and one thing led to another and well...there is the result, strewn down the side of my blog like so so much exploded spagetti :) Oh well...

And to those leaving comments, I really must apologize, I had to add a word authentication thingy there as I was getting spammed, I myself hate the "try and figure out what the heck that word says and type it in things" but it was a necessary evil...guess thats the day and age we live in...protect yourself or get spammed back to the dark ages...

Well...thats it...no super spiritual blog tonite...just a bunch of links, good spiritually uplifting ones, some serious and some downright silly...but that is what I put together...have fun surfin'...

Blessings,
Moose

What Katrina Can Teach Us - Max Lucado

2005-09-15T13:20:00.000-06:00

What Katrina Can Teach Us

Max Lucado-Pastor Oak Hills Church San Antonio, Texas
Excerpted from a sermon preached on 9/11/2005 by Max Lucado.

Who would have thought we would ever hear this phrase spoken on a radio news report in America: "Today, about 25,000 refugees were moved from the Superdome in New Orleans to the Astrodome in Houston."

For days, we've watched the tragedy continue to unfold in Mississippi and Louisiana and, if you are like me, you've wrestled with feelings of shock and disbelief...feelings that, over the last five years, have become all too familiar. We were barely into the new millennium when we saw towers falling in New York City and planes crashing into the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania farmland. We saw bombs over Baghdad and witnessed the ancient land of Abraham become a war zone for his ancestors. You'd think we had seen enough, but then came the tsunamia roaring wave that sucked life and innocence out to sea.

And now the fruits of Katrina. A city sitting in twenty feet of water. Citizens hacking their way onto roofs and helicopters hovering over neighborhoods. Optimistic rescuers, opportunistic looters, grateful people, resentful people--we have seen it all.

And many have seen it up close. Katrina came to San Antonio in the form of 12,500 evacuees. Many of you are meeting them, feeding them, writing checks, and manning shifts. And you, as much as any, have reason to wonder... What is going on here? 9/11, Iraq, tsunami, Katrina. And I didn't mention nor intend to minimize Hurricanes Dennis and Ivan and Emily.

Jesus criticized the leaders of his day for focusing on the weather and ignoring the signals: "You find it easy enough to forecast the weather -- why can't you read the signs of the times?" Matthew 16:2-3 (MSG).

What are we to learn from all of this? Is God sending us a message? I think so. And, I think we'd be wise to pay attention. There are some ! spiritual law lessons that I think God would want us to learn through this tragedy. The first lesson we see is...

I. The Nature of Possessions: Temporary

As you've listened to evacuees and survivors, have you noticed their words? No one laments a lost plasma television or submerged SUV. No one runs through the streets yelling, "My cordless drill is missing" or "My golf clubs have washed away." If they mourn, it is for people lost. If they rejoice, it is for people found.

Could Jesus be reminding us that people matter more than possessions? In a land where we have more malls than high schools, more debt than credit, more clothes to wear than we can wear, could Christ be saying: "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15)?

We see an entire riverboat casino washed up three blocks and placed on top of a house in a neighborhood. You see demolished $40,000 cars that will never be driven again, hidden in debris. And in the background of our minds we hear the quiet echoes of Jesus saying, "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?" (Matthew 16:26).

Raging hurricanes and broken levees have a way of prying our fingers off the stuff we love. What was once most precious now means little; what we once ignored is now of eternal significance.

A friend and I attended a worship service at Antioch Baptist Church last Sunday night. Several African American Church leaders had organized an assembly to pray for the evacuees that have ended up in San Antonio. Many of them sat on the front rows...dressed in all the clothing they owned: t-shirts, jeans. Their faces were weary from the week. But when the music started and the worship began, they came to their feet and sang with tears in their eyes.

They were rich. Are you that rich? Were all your possession washed away, could you sit! all worship? Would you still worship? If not, you are holding to hinges too tightly: "Tell those rich in this world's wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage--to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they'll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life" (1 Timothy 6:17-19 MSG).

Through Katrina, Christ tells us: stuff doesn't matter; people do. Understand the nature of possessions. Be equally clear on:

II. The Nature of People: Sinners and Saints

We see the most incredible servants and stories of selflessness and sacrifice. We see people of the projects rescuing their neighbors, we see civil servants risking their lives for people they've never seen. My wife Denalyn and I toured a shelter supervised by one of our neighbors here in San Antonio. We met a family of some twenty cousins and siblings.

One six-year-old girl told Denalyn about the helicopter man who plucked her off a third story porch and lifted her to safety.

That child will never know who that man is. He'll never seek any applause. He saved her life... all in a day's work. We saw humanity at its best. And we saw humanity at its worst.

Looting. Fighting. We heard stories of rapes and robberies. Someone said, "The heavens declare the glory of God but the streets declare the sinfulness of man." The video footage in New Orleans has confirmed the truthfulness of that quote. Can you imagine not being able to sleep in the Superdome for fear that someone might try to rape your daughter if she went to the restroom in the middle of the night?

We are people of both dignity and depravity. The hurricane blew back more than roofs; it blew the mask off the nature of mankind. The main problem in the world is not Mother Nature, but human nature. Strip away the police barricades, blow down the fences, and the real self is revealed. We are barbaric to the core.
We were born with a me-first mentality. You don't have to teach your kids to argue. They don't have to be trained to demand their way. You don't have to show them how to stomp their feet and pout, it is their nature... indeed it is all of our nature to do so. "All of us have strayed like sheep. We have left God's paths to follow our own" (Isaiah 53:6).

God's chosen word for our fallen condition has three letters- s-I-n. Sin celebrates the letter in the middle. "I". Left to our own devices, we lead a godless, out of control life of doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it" (Ephesians 2:3 MSG).

You don't have to go to New Orleans to see the chaos. Because of sin, the husband ignores his wife, grown men seduce the young. The young proposition the old. When you do what you want and I do what I want, humanity and civility implodes.

And when the Katrinas of life blown in, our true nature is revealed and our deepest need is unveiled: a need deeper than food, more permanent than firm levees. We need, not a new system, but a new nature. We need to be changed from the inside out. Which takes us to the third message of Katrina:

III. The Nature of God's Grace: Inside Out

Much discussion revolves around the future of New Orleans. Will the city be restored? Repaired? How long will it take? Who will pay for it? One thing is for certain: someone has to clean her up.

No one is suggesting otherwise. Everyone knows, someone has to go in a clean up the mess. That is what God offers to do with us. He comes into sin-flooded lives and washes away the old. Paul reflected on his conversion and he wrote: "He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). Our sins stand no chance against the fire hoses of God's grace.

But he does more than cleanse us; he rebuilds us. In the form of his Holy Spirit, God moves in and starts a complete renovation project. "God can do anything, far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us." (Ephesians 3:20 MSG).

And what we can only dream of doing with New Orleans, God has done with soul after soul, and he will do so with you, if you let him.

The most disturbing stories from the last week are of those who refused to be rescued. Those who spent their final hours trapped in attics and rooms regretting the choice they'd made. They could have been saved. They could have gotten out... but they chose to stay. Many paid a permanent price.

You don't have to pay that price. What rescuers did for people on the Gulf Coast, God will do for you. He has entered your world. He has dropped a rope into your sin-swamped life. He will rescue, you simply need to do what that little girl did, let him lift you out.

I mentioned my visit to Antioch Baptist Church last Sunday night. A local minister, Pastor L. A. Williams gave a message on this one verse: "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord..." (Gen. 6:8).

The minister helped us see all the things Noah could not find because of the flood. He could not find his neighborhood. He could not find his house. He could not find the comforts of home or the people down the street--there was much he could not find. But what he could find made all the difference. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah found grace in the eyes of God. If you have everything and no grace, you have nothing. If you have nothing but grace, you have everything.

Have you found grace? If not, I urge you to do what that little girl told us she did. When the rescuer appeared on her porch, she grabbed him, closed her eyes, and held on. That's all you need to do. And if you never have, and would like to, I urge you to reach for the hand of your rescuer, Jesus Christ.

Your Redeemer lives, too. This hurricane was his tool to get your attention. Trust in Him while you still can.

Max Lucado, © 2005

Surrender

2005-09-09T20:30:00.000-06:00

sur·ren·der v., -dered, -der·ing, -ders.

v.tr.
To relinquish possession or control of to another because of demand or compulsion.
To give up in favor of another.
To give up or give back (something that has been granted): surrender a contractual right.
To give up or abandon: surrender all hope.
To give over or resign (oneself) to something, as to an emotion: surrendered himself to grief.

Law.
To restore (an estate, for example), especially to give up (a lease) before expiration of the term.

v.intr.
To give oneself up, as to an enemy.

n.
The act or an instance of surrendering.

Law.
The delivery of a prisoner, fugitive from justice, or other principal in a suit into legal custody.
The act of surrendering or of being surrendered to bail.
Restoration of an estate.
[Middle English surrenderen, from Old French surrendre : sur-, sur- + rendre, to deliver; see render.]

SYNONYMS
surrender, submission, capitulation. These nouns denote the act of giving up one's person, one's possessions, or people under one's command to the authority, power, or control of another. Surrender is the most general: “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted” (Ulysses S. Grant).

Submission stresses the subordination of the side that has yielded: “Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission” (George Washington).

Capitulation implies surrender under specific prearranged conditions: Lack of food and ammunition forced the capitulation of the rebels.

Surrender
Written by Marc James

I'm giving you all my heart, and all that is within

I lay it all down for the sake of you my King

I'm giving you my dreams, I'm laying down my rights

I'm giving up my pride for the promise of new life

(chorus)

And I surr-ender all to you, all to you

And I surr-ender all to you, all to you

I'm singing you this song, I'm singing at the cross

And all the world holds dear, I count it all as loss

For the sake of knowing you the glory of your name

To know the lasting joy even sharing in your pain

© 2000 Vineyard Songs (UK/Eire)

Album: Surrender/Vineyard

God is Good

2005-08-29T17:50:00.000-06:00

God is Good.

Well...I have no choice, He backed me into a corner and I have to admit it.

God is Good.

Ok...granted it was not the hardest thing to admit to as I am a follower of Jesus... (ok...honestly it was...)

But lately I have been struggling with that...

Been wondering where God is at.

A marriage of 15 years down the tubes, a wrecked financial situation as a result, a house in need of repair with 20 years worth of mortgage to go, and a life alone...

(ok, not REALLY alone, God counts but read on...)

Yup, was really wondering where God was...

It looked like I was going through this all my my self, after all every day, I have to get out of bed, and make my life happen.

No one else is going to go to work for me, no one else is going to pay the bills, no one else is going to take responsibility.

Just me.

(oh yeah, and God)

With out Him I really would be in trouble.

Probably be staring at this screen through a whisky bottle or worse through a cloud of pot smoke...but I digress...

Oh, yeah, but God is Good...

Had a really bad day last week and came home all depressed about my situation when God tapped me on the shoulder and said hello.

A wise man once told me:

"It is not that you will fall down, because we all will fall down."

"It is the direction you are looking when you get up that counts."

I looked to Jesus and He was there.

He knew I needed to feel His presence and He showed up.

He did a miracle to boot...

Wow...humbled

In spite of my lack of faith, in spite of my unbelief, He showed up.

The King of Kings and Lord of Lords in MY livingroom.

...and in my heart.

God is never less, God is never more, God is enough.

He custom meets our needs in our exact situation precisely how we need to be met.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Exactly what we need.

Yes, God is Good.

I didn't die today...

2005-08-22T19:01:00.000-06:00

I didn't die today...

I should of though, it would of been a lot nicer.

I know emotions are part of being human, and that God implanted them in our makeup, but I really wish I was Captain Spock from Star Trek some days.

Some days I just wish I did not care. Then I would not hurt. But then I would be unable to love.

In the immortal words of the band Nazareth "Love Hurts"

When it is broken it is painful. Today I felt that pain.

It has been a rough day and I did not walk it out in faith.

Instead I have relied on the old tapes, the old protective walls and gear.

I gave into the "old man" and that old man is a hurting unit.

I really wish I would of died to self today and kept focused on God. It would of been a much prettier sight.

Or would of it been?

Honesty with God...hmmm

I could ACT like everything is AOK, that I have my life together 24-7...

The Bulletproof monk...

But then I become something I despise, fake.

My desire to be real and transparent, but most of all righteous and to live my life with integrity HAS to over ride my desire to act like I have it "together"

So I am going to be real. I am choosing to share my reality with God. I suspect He is bigger than my pain.

My favorite person in the Bible shared his intimate pain.

David did with us.

David did with God.

David got depressed, David got angry, and David lost hope.

But he knew who to go to to get help, to repent to, and to change his life around.

Honesty with one's own self is critical.

"Know Thyself" but more importantly Know God.

David said some really bad things, pretty discouraging things, very disturbing things

The same guy who depressed and down told God that he wanted to smash the babies of his enemies against the rocks in Psalm 137 (not David's finest hour by the way):

Psalms 137 1 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres. 3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" 4 How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! 6 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy! 7 Remember, O LORD, against the E'domites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, "Rase it, rase it! Down to its foundations!" 8 O daughter of Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall he be who requites you with what you have done to us! 9 Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!

...was the same guy who cried out to God in repentence in Psalm 51 with one of the most beautiful prayers in the Bible:

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

...was one of the most vivid worshippers of the old testament in Psalm 107:

O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures for ever!

I desire to be real with God. To tell Him not just the good but the bad as well.

God is bigger than our anger, our pain, and our sin.

That is why I run to Him.

I have no choice. He is the only one who can do anything about this mess of a life.

I didn't die today.

I let my emotions rule me instead of God.

I didn't die today.

But God understands and forgives me anyways.

In the midst of pain there is mercy.

Praise be to God.

Face to Face

2005-08-17T18:47:00.000-06:00

I am not much of a people person.

Don't get me wrong. I like people ok, once I get to know them, but I am not what one would call an extrovert. I am the guy usually hanging out by himself in the corner, the wallflower at the dance, the loner on the road.

If I was to compare myself to animals socially I am probably more of a lone wolf than an ant.

I don't know if it is just because the way I am built, or the way I have just turned out through my experience with life.

New people, or, rather people that I do not know anything about frankly freak me out.

Don't get me wrong here, I do like people fine enough once I get to know them, some I even grow to love.

I study people for a long time before I just go and meet them for the most part. Some people I can hit it off with right away and others I have to study them for a while until I recognize something I can relate to.

I like studying people. In some instances I can almost predict what some people are going to do next. It is an interesting hobby. Sometimes I wonder if people even know what they are broadcasting.

Let me explain.

I find it amusing to play the highway game. You see someone coming up behind you in the rear view mirror and they haven't put on their signal light to pass you, but you just know by the way that they are riding your bumper, the way they are driving agressively, that they have already broadcasted their next move. You just know they are about to pass because you have studied their behavior. You haven't seen a signal light but you have read them. You just know they are about to pass. I love reading people like that.

Mabey I just don't know how to interact with or read large crowds and that freaks me out. I don't know. I have never been afraid of any man. I have never backed down from a fight.

Am I anti-social? Socially imbalanced? I don't know.

When I get face to face with people I don't know one of two things happens:

a) I get a little weird (I get really jumpy in large crowds)

or

b) They get a little weird (ok mabey not ALL the time)

Jesus had the same problem. People generally fear what they don't understand.

Let me explain...

Some people do not know how to take me and some people are initially a little afraid of me at first glance (I am 6'3, a biker and weigh in at 320lbs from what I understand there are adult bears smaller than me)

As one lady once commented to her family who came to visit "Don't be afraid of him. When we first met Moose we were really afraid of him but then we found out how nice of a guy he is"

I still have a laugh at that one.

I have been called a big teddy bear, a man of God and a gentle giant with a big heart.

I have a hard time seeing myself as any of that but apparently others don't.

I have fought many fights, have won some, lost some. I have left others on the same ground bleeding that myself have been left to bleed on.

I know what I am and what I am not. I try to be real and always try to see things from the other's perspective. Fake people annoy me. I am impressed by realness in real people who are not afraid to be transparent.

I don't know mabey that's because I seem to live my life guarded. I see that in me and it bugs me.

I do want to be transparent and real with all my heart.

Seems Realness and transparency require the courage of a cage fighter. That impresses me. (Not the cage fighter part, anyone can be a cage fighter see Napolean Dynamite the movie)

I have experienced the pain, love, passion, joy and disappointment of life on this earth. It takes me a while to trust, but if you have my trust, I will face the onslaught of Hell with you.

I do know that when I love, I love deeply, when I commit to a thing, I commit wholeheartedly, and when I worship God it is with my whole being. I have experienced that. I Know just by my experience that is what I do.

When I am faced with God I am in a whole different dimension.

I want to be face to face with God.

God is the epitome of Real and like David and Moses I want to see God face to face.

Isaiah Did:

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

John the Revelator Did:

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Moses was told that no man can look on the face of God and live.

I want to look on the face of God still. No I am not one of these crazy extreme sports guys who are jumping outta planes with wakeboards. (and they say riding a motorcycle is dangerous)

I do not care if it literally kills me or not. In fact I hope it does.

Yup you heard right. Ok. not physically, like right now.

But I want my flesh, the old nature to die.

The less of me, the more of Him there is.

To literally bathe in the holiness of God free from all pretense, sin, and failure. That is all worth it.

I believe that God is tired of playing games.

He says in Joel "And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and manifest day. And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

God is tired of His bride playing Church.

I had this song emailed to me today. I found the words to be of particular interest, even though the musical style I wasn't really into. It is called "Bride's Song" by the band Dead Artist Syndrome:

Bride's Song

Words & Music Brian Healy (C)1995

Jesus I love you
But I don't understand your wife
She wears such funny make up
And she always wants to fight
Every time I turn my back
She's waiting with a knife
In a world of black and gray
She argues shades of white

Chorus:
Jesus I love you
But I don't understand your wife
She wears such funny make up
And she always wants to fight

She loves capitol punishment
And nuclear arms
Then screams about the right to life
And the Grand Old Party's charm
She's always burning bridges
Even ones she's standing on
And when I try to tell her
She says with you I don't belong

Chorus

Always hear me complain
And you're listening once more
I know everything your bride's against
But I don't know what she's for
So don't mistake my anger for bitterness and strife
Cuz on bended knees
I'm begging you please
Jesus talk to your wife

Chorus

One more time
Jesus I love you
But I don't understand your wife
When she hears a funny song
It's letters she starts to write
I'll go to my mail box
And I'll end up in a fight
Just because another guy
Doesn't know how to take a joke

Chorus

Brian Healy - Vocals and other midi stuff
David Leonhardt - Guitars, keyboards, most of the midi stuff
Mike Roe - Guitars, BGV
Mark Harmon - Bass, BGV

God doesn't have any more time for our politically correct nicey nicey whitewashed tombs.

He is coming face to face with us.

God is creating a water shed and is winnowing his church.

His Bride will either stare at God and run away or stare at God in run to Him in worship.

Some will just stand there in disbelief.

But everyone will be affected.

Mankind will have no choice but to be real in the light of the One that created them.

To peer into the face of God. Our Father. Our daddy.

Better is One day in your courts Oh Lord than Thousands elsewhere.

Better Is One Day
Matt Redman

How lovely is Your dwelling place,
Oh Lord Almighty
My soul longs and even faints for You
For here my heart is satisfied,
within Your presence
I sing beneath the shadow of Your wings

Better is one day in Your courts
Better is one day in Your house
Better is one day in Your courts
Than thousands elsewhere

One thing I ask and I would seek,
to see Your beauty
To find You in the place Your glory dwells

My heart and flesh cry out,
For You the living God
Your spirit's water for my soul
I've tasted and I've seen,
Come once again to me
I will draw near to You
I will draw near to You

Will we draw near to God or run away?

I want to cast my crown onto the glassy sea in exchange for His Robe of Righteousness washed white as snow with the blood of our Saviour.

To feast with the author and finisher of our faith.

To look upon our Redeemer's face and say Thank You.

That is our reward.

That is what is real.

That IS Reality.

I have to go and get ready. I hope you are too.

My brothers below seem to be on the same wavelength. Check out their blogs here:

http://coffeewithgod.blogspot.com/
http://consumingflames.blogspot.com/

So Amazed

2005-08-16T18:12:00.000-06:00

I am blown away God.

I am amazed by Him. Not by what He has done, not by what He is going to do, but HIM.

I am amazed by a God whose love transcends all dimensions, time and space and yet FEELS.

When our mouths burst with praise, His heart rejoices.

When our hearts break with worship, His heart cries out to us.

A God who knows our every hurt, every happiness and our very being.

A God who calls us by name.

A God who answers by fire, and yet calls us in a still small voice.

What a God!

He designed a way to have fellowship with us and when we messed it up, it was HE not us who designed the solution to repair our relationship.

He sent His son.

Not one of our sons, HIS son.

So that we could have fellowship with Him.

Amazing.

He no longer calls us servants, but Friends, joint heirs with Christ.

And HE did all the work.

What did we do to deserve THAT?

Absolutely nothing.

He should of toasted us like so much marshmallow on an open fire.

But He didn't.

I can see what I would do in a situation like that. I would of zapped all those no good things I created. What heartache, what a disappointment. Good thing I am not God.

Mercy? No way. My creation rebels against me? I think not. That's it, Pack it in humanity, you are done. Fini, the End, Hosta La Vista Baby.

But not God.

While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. What kind of a God is that?

wow.

While we were cursing Christ on Golgotha, nailing God's boy, His pride and joy to a rough wooden cross, mocking Him, beating Him and tearing His body apart...

God whispers "this is how much I love you."

amazing.

A God who literally left EVERYTHING to come down here and die for us.

Voluntarily.

But that is the thing that most amazes me.

His love.

The embodiment of Love. The very nature, the very source, the very essence of love.

"I am that I am"

And He is.

Expectancy in life

2005-08-11T17:44:00.000-06:00

Expectancy...

Another name for hope, waiting with baited breath for some opportune moment, person, or thing we believe will appear.

I am expectant tonight. I am expecting the Saskatchewan Roughriders to give their heads a shake and actually WIN a game...MABEY I am shooting just a LITTLE high, but That is what I am expecting.

I am expecting to hang out with my bros CWG and Firestarter for some solid guy time in the Word with God and each other and fellowship as we hang out where ever that may be...

I expect God to always be there for me whenever I need Him.

"I will never leave you or forsake you" He says.

I expect Jesus is going to come back like He left.

Faith itself is evidence of things not seen, expected for even though not present.

I guess you could say Christians are supposed to be expectant people.

In the midst of trouble we sometimes expect the same results we had before we became Christians / became too logical / became too hurt / became broken people.

But..Thank God HE doesn't work that way.

"I will never leave you or forsake you" He whispers.

Thank You Jesus. I expect you to have the best for me and I have faith you will see me through.

I sure do hope the Riders win :)

Miracles and the Wonderous

2005-08-04T00:17:00.000-06:00

Miracles

What defines a miracle? Are miracles every day occurances or something that only happens to the spiritually elite? The Lucky? The seeking?

I am learning to find miracles in every day little things to the largest things in life.

I am blown away that Airbus A340 accident on August 3rd 2005 at Lester B. Pearson Toronto airport did not claim any lives. As AOL.CA reported:

Air France said 22 people were injured, while Toronto airport officials said 43 were hurt. The wreckage of the jetliner smoldered Wednesday near a busy highway in what a Paris newspaper called ''The miracle of the Air France Airbus.''

At Air France headquarters in Roissy, France, airline chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta praised the crew.

''I don't know if we should speak of a miracle ... but above all the professionalism of the crew,'' Spinetta said Wednesday.

Whatever Spinetta believes, yes this was a miracle on a grand scale. The chances of anyone escaping a fiery plane crash are usually slim to none.

What makes us believe that miracles don't happen?

Lack of faith that someone other than ourselves intervened on our behalf? Refusal to believe in the supernatural? Failure to acknowledge the miraculous?

What constitutes a miracle?

I submit that a miracle is anything that we as humans could not control, predict for, manipulate, or create. A miracle is something we know deep down inside could not of been swayed one way or the other by human intervention.

It is a brush with a purpose and design far above our mortalism.

It is a brush with God.

From the airbus A340 to the stars flung into the sky, to the miracle of conception, to the miracle of daily life, waking up every day still breathing, we are all touched by the miraculous every day.

God says that life is a miracle. We were knit in our mother's womb by His hands, He knows every hair on our heads, we can hardly state that. He calls every star by name. Did you ever try to count the stars? Try. When you lose track of where you started, and you will, remember he calls each by name and keeps track of every single one. Even NASA cannot even boast of that one accomplishment.

Every day we will be impacted by the miraculous if we will peer through the eyes of wonder and faith.

Max Lucado is a favorite author of mine and he said something that really impacted me to this day (my paraphrase)

A miracle is about to happen. As you hit your alarm clock and stagger into your bathroom to meet the day a miracle is about to happen. As you stand and your eyes begin to focus on the unshaven unkempt visage before you a hallelujah chorus has just been intiated, angels are singing and rejoicing and God is pleased. His image stares back at you through the mirror and He says of you "This is my son with whom I am well pleased! This is my child, my pride and joy and I am so very happy with how I created you!"

A miracle has just happened. Did you see it? His fingerprint just was visible. His creation, His idea, His miracle.

Every breath is a miracle from God. Every day we have to impact our world is a gift from the hand of God. How are we going to use that? How do we respond to something that wonderful?

Luke 11:33-35 says, “Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live in wide-eyed wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room.”

Albert Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.”

If I were to ask if you’ve ever experienced a miracle I’m guessing that, depending on your definition, some of you would say “no.” I beg to differ.

By the time you finish reading this you will have inhaled and exhaled approximately 250 times. And most of you won’t give it a second thought, but I want you to stop and consider the journey of an oxygen atom.

The journey begins when air passes through your nose where unwanted dust and debris is filtered out.

For what it’s worth, the average person moves about 440 cubic feet of air per day. Air travels through the trachea and into the lungs. The surface area of your lungs is forty times greater than the surface area of your body—compressed within the tiny space between your ribs. The oxygen atoms then hitchhike with hemoglobin and travel throughout the entire human body via blood vessels. If those blood vessels were laid end to end they would be approximately 100,000 miles long. The blood vessels in your body could wrap around the equator four times! At the end of the journey, oxygen enters individual cells, bonds with the food we eat and releases energy. Biologists call it cellular respiration.

In his article “The Miracle of Breath,” James Robinson writes, “Webster's Dictionary defines a miracle as ‘an extraordinary, unusual wonder or marvel.’ Isn't a bloodstream 100,000 miles long, in a small body, an unusual wonder? Isn't the journey of an oxygen atom a true marvel? We don’t need supernatural events to experience a miracle. All we need is breath. The human breath is Sacred. Cherish your breathing: it is the miraculous gift of life.”

Acts 17 says that God “gives all men life and breath.” Job 34 says that if God were to withdraw his breath we would return to dust.

The bottom line is this: every breath we take is miracle. The average person takes approximately 23,000 breaths per day. That means you owe God about 23,000 thank yous every day!

We are surrounded by miracles, but we have a choice to make. We can live as if nothing is a miracle. Or we can live as if everything is.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”

Yes, God is a God of Miracles. Look for them through the eyes of your faith and you will find them.

Faith

2005-07-24T04:04:00.000-06:00

Faith.

I have been searching this out in my heart lately.

"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." "Come", Jesus said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:28-31)

I have to admit, I am more of a "wind and the waves" person than a powerful man of faith.

Peter said "Lord if it's you," seems in times of wind and waves I have a hard time seeing Jesus.

Peter did. If we are all honest we all do at some time.

Caught in the eye of the storm everything looks a little more scary.

But still Jesus says "Come", get out of that boat and get out on the water. I want your faith.

Notice that Peter asks to come out of the boat first. He knows he wants to be with Jesus, he knows that Jesus is his only hope in the storm. He wants to be where Jesus is. But when he sees the wind he sinks.

How often do we ask Jesus that we want to be closer to Him, that we want to experience more of God and the Holy Spirit in our lives and then when He calls us out of our boats of safety we cry out in fear and start to sink.

I do. I cry out to God to know Him more, to experience Him deeper, and then when He starts trimming off the dead branches of my faith, and starts to test me I cry out "why is this happening to me?"

Yup, I am sheep.

I may be intellectually smart. I have even been to Bible College, I know about God. But when it comes to faith I am dumb like a sheep. Seems it is like faith short term memory loss.

I have it. And so did the Israelites.

No sooner did they get released from captivity for some bonehead sin as a nation, then they would get back into the same mess and away they went back into captivity again. Only football has more turnarounds than Israel did.

They were sheep too. I am in good company.

Moses was a sheep. At the burning bush he argued with God that He had the wrong guy. I st-st-stutter Moses said. God said thats ok. Still going to use you.

David was a sheep. Killed a man, took his wife. Yikes. Big screw up. In the running for head sheep. But a man after God's own heart.

Noah was a sheep. Build an ark in the middle of a desert. Man he must of thought he was nuts some days. But he built it anyways and mankind was saved.

Elijah was a sheep. He had just seen God send fire from Heaven and he had just killed all of Jezebel's false prophets. And there he was hiding in a cave. But God used that man to turn a nation around.

Yup all sheep. But God used them.

They didnt have the Bible on tape, the Torah on their Palm Pilot, or even a Messiah that had shown up yet.

But they had faith.

When everything was flying around them, when they were in the midst of the wind and the waves, they knew exactly who to cry out to.

They knew who to go to fix the mess they were in.

Like Jesus, God must of shook his head and asked where their faith was. Silly Sheep.

We know who to go to, we know where God is, we know where He wants us to be. There is a Reason Jesus is called the Good Shepherd.

Why do we struggle with staying there? Why can't we stay focused on Jesus? What is it with the wind and the waves that distracts us from our faith?

Mabey that is the point. "In our weakness is His strength."

God is teaching us day by day, knocking out from underneath of us any and all things that we lean on instead of Him, leading, guiding and correcting us. Shepherding us.

Every time He knocks another crutch out from underneath us, we protest "Hey! I was using that!"

But He quietly and gently, and lovingly whispers in our ears "Yes, now lean on me"

What are my crutches? Do I lean on money? A job? My intellect? My friends? My church? My family?

Or do I lean on the one who flung the stars into place, who calls me by name, who knit me in my mother's womb, who knows every hair on my head and who holds me in the palm of His hand?

The same God who holds the keys to death and hades, who is forever without end, who never fails and who loved me enough to die for me is the same still small voice who called Peter that night to come onto the waves and who calls me to believe and not doubt, who when I do immediately reaches out with His nail scarred hands to catch me.

This is the same God who calls Himself Yahweh-Jireh(Our Provider), Jehovah Raffi(Our Healer), Yahweh-Rohi (Our Shepherd), Yahweh-Shalom(Our Peace), Yahweh-Shammah(God is There) and El-Roi "God who Sees me" or "God of Vision" (Gen. 16:13). The God sees needs of His people and responds.

Now that is a God I can have faith in.

I am not much of a writer

2005-07-20T10:07:00.000-06:00

I am not much of a writer.

In fact, I don't write much at all. I find it difficult to express myself in the physical written word.

I am still in fact, trying to figure out how to approach this whole blogging thing.

Do I use humourous euphemisms to present my life to the world? Should I be straight laced and serious only pausing to punctuate my verbage with antecedent colloquialisms? Am I to be real and transparent or peer under the cover of anonimity and toss out verbal grenades?

I really do want to be real in my heart of hearts, but fear of knowing oneself, or even more terrifying letting others know me permeates my writing.

Share my testimony? Yes. I can do that. Share my feelings? I am not as certain. That leaves me to be vulnerable. Vulnerability now that is a subject isn't it?

Vulnerability. Lowering our shields just enough to let others in. Giving others access to ourselves, our heart of hearts, letting ourselves exchange love and compassion in order to recieve love and compassion and any with that the ability to be hurt by those we open ourselves to.

Choices. Well we can become a hardened bunker and not let anything in. Sitting in our bunkers we can peer out at the world but not interact with it. A lonely pointless existance to say the least.
No passion, no love, no interaction with life. No interaction with God probably. No interaction with people most likely.

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." --From Macbeth (V, v, 19)

Choices. We can let ourselves be vulnerable and let others (and God) in. Trusting. owch. But isn't that how Love works? We trust others not to hurt us when we give them our most valuable possessions. Our heart. Our trust. Our faith.

Can we trust God. Well sure. Can we trust another person. Ah there's the rub.

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Matthew 22 37-39

Be Real. That is the challenge. Anyone can be plastic. Anyone can be pretentious and superficial. Most people are experts at this craft. "How are you doing today?" "Fine" Keep on walking. We seem amazed and even sometimes a little "put out" when someone ACTUALLY tells us how they are really doing. "Hey you can't do that" you are responding outside of my superficiality. I am just ASKING how you are doing. I don't REALLY want an answer you know.

I am guilty of this. I am also guilty of not telling people how I am really doing. I have a friend who asks me how I am doing every time we get together. He keeps hoping I will honestly say "Excellent" "Awesome" "If I were doing any better I would be twins" (ok mabey not the last one) but ANYTHING but "fine" "good" "hanging in there" though more realistic and honest answers than saying I am doing good when I am not really, they keep the shields up don't they?

How does this relate to blogging? Being real. Larry Norman says that his most heartfelt desire is that his "performances" playing music from his heart would be real. Not performed, but shared. Performance at its heart is plastic-y if there is indeed a word like that. The desire to be real. That is my heartcry. I am tired of "fake" people. I am tired of being "fake" I want realness. In realness is truth.

Mabey that is what this whole blogging thing is right? People in search of realness and truth reading about people sharing realness and truth. Seems there is such a shortage of this in the world that mabey blogging is an avenue for that. To see that our lives are mabey not as bad or better than others. To get inspiration and motivation from other people's experience.

My journey continues...

Perceptual Reality - Roy Williams

2005-07-20T09:58:00.000-06:00

Earth's population reached 1 billion persons in 1804, 2 billion in 1927, 3 billion in ‘59, 4 billion in ‘74 and 5 billion in late ‘86. And on October 12th, 1999, Earth's population surpassed 6 billion.The number of passengers on Spaceship Earth has doubled (from 3 billion – 1959, to 6 billion – 1999,) in 40 short years.

At the beginning of a philosophy class a professor stated "Each of you will sit in this room for 3 days and hear the same information presented in precisely the same way. But you'll leave here having had an entirely different experience from the persons on your left and your right. You will connect different dots, have different epiphanies, make different associations. Objective reality will be the same for each of you. But your perceptual realities will be yours alone."

There are 525,948.766 minutes in a year. This means that each minute, the 6 billion of us experience a collective 11,408 years of perceptual reality. And each day we live a collective 16,427,455 years. *Check math below...

Given that we lived nearly sixteen and a half million years yesterday, it seems like one of us would've figured out how to end poverty, crime and war, doesn't it? (Personally, I was really busy, so I was counting on you.)

Perceptual reality is yours alone.

Every door of opportunity begins as a window in your mind.

Look through that window of imagination and glimpse a world that could be, someday. Keep looking… Be patient… And watch it grow into a door of Opportunity through which you might pass into an entirely different future.

Opportunity never knocks. But it hangs thick in the air all around you. You breathe it unthinking, and dissipate it with your sighs.

Opportunity never knocks. It appears, flickering, like faulty neon at a nondescript fork in the road.Opportunity never knocks. It whispers, a tickle in your distracted mind.

So what are you going to do? Will you sleep, unaware of the miracles that need your assistance, or will you open your eyes, look through that window, and begin doing what only you can do?

Roy H. Williams

*6,000,000,000 (persons in the world) divided by 525,948.766 (minutes in a year) = 11,407.9553 years of perceptual reality experienced each minute, x 1,440 (minutes in a day) = 16,427,455.6 (years of perceptual reality in a day.)

To Hell and Back Again...A Spiritual Journey...

2005-06-20T16:26:00.000-06:00

My friends call me Moose.

I was born in a little town of Carrot River Saskatchewan. I was raised in a physically abusive alcoholic home, with my mom and my two brothers, and her boyfriend a Canadian Navy man. I started drinking at the age of ten. I learned how to swear like a trooper, take beatings and pain, and not show emotion, because real men are tough. I thought this was normal.

When I lived in Ridgedale, Saskatchewan, my first experience with church was in the Arborfield Anglican church where I attended where I was baptized and confirmed.

I attended my grandma's United Church in Carrot River when we moved back there and sang in the choir and was in the youth group but could never seem to see God as a relevant, life force impacting my life. He seemed to be a dead person and the whole of the church as dead as He was.

I saw God as a far off entity that I could never be holy enough to reach, and who seemed to take joy in the hellish life I was living. My mother soon left her abusive boyfriend and I began to rebel. Anything remotely related to God I came at abusively.

I became enthralled and learned all I could on the topic of Evolution. It made sense that we were animals because that is all I saw of human life. I left home as soon as I graduated from high school and moved up to Thompson Manitoba to meet and get to know my biological father. I worked at Inco and my drug life worsened. I met a lady and her daughter whom I raised as my own and had a somewhat normal life except for the drug use. I found that I became just like my mom's boyfriend, in violent outbursts and chronic alcoholism, and I started dealing narcotics.

I went through the local dry out center twice, was in AA and NA but to no avail. Every time I got to turning my life and my will over to God as I understood Him, I saw the father figure I grew up with, and I projected my ideas of him onto God.

Fearing me, my girlfriend left and things got worse.I lost everything I owned except for the things on my back and was on the street. I lived at friends places but always got kicked out of everywhere because of drugs or my alcoholism. I hitchhiked out to B.C. with a buddy of mine and slept in Laundromats, in ditches, under vehicles etc., stealing food to eat, I was really at the end of myself.

One night as I lay outside Chilliwack, by the river, it was a clear night, a full moon, stars were out, the light from the moon glistened over the mountaintops, as the glacier river trickled by, and as I lay there, hadn't eaten in days, I remember thinking, looking up at the beauty that surrounded me, the this just didn't happen, someone had to have created all this. The moon, the stars, the mountains, it was all too perfect to have been created by chaos. I remember saying to myself, man, there just has to be a God.

Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy.

I went to check an old bank account to see if I had any money, even a couple dollars to buy a donut or something and to my surprise someone had deposited 25,000 into my old bank account and then removed it leaving me 300 dollars. I knew I didn't have 25,000 and that I didn't have anything owing to me, so I took the money and bought some food, and some drugs to sell. I ended up back in Thompson Manitoba, and was about to sell my drugs when I got busted and arrested for possession. When I got out, I found that I had applied for welfare months before and it had been approved. Apparently I had an apartment that the City of Thompson had paid for while I was gone to B.C. So now I finally had an address.

I got back into dealing and found out that I had UI coming in from my work at INCO so I got back into the lifestyle I had before I was on the street drinking, drugs, but now with a new twist. My friend had introduced me to Satanism.

I was listening to Metallica, Slayer, and a plethora of other bands and became intrigued with the Satan, his power and living my life the way I wanted to at any cost. Jesus told us a new commandment He gives unto us: Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your mind, and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Satanism's first commandment was Do what Thou Wilt. If it felt good do it. If it hurt anyone so what. I would routinely call on demons to do my will and they always complied with a price. Satan delivered "miracles" fast and in any way I wanted faster than God to keep me in his hand. He furnished my apartment, got me women, and all the drugs and booze I could get my hands on in return for my soul.

I became involved with the local gang of bikers called the Mud Brothers although I did not become a member I started hanging around with them, partying with them, and doing drugs with them. I bought a my first Harley a '74 Sportster and picked up my love of riding again.

Satan is the father of lies and had me believing I would reign with him in Hell and we would control this world together. Boy was I wrong.

One night after a black mass, I came home and looked in my mirror. I still to this day do not know if God allowed me to see into Satan's realm, or if Satan got bold enough to show his true intentions. I have never feared any man. I have been able to fight my way out of any confrontation with people. I say this because fear was not a big thing in my life until that night.

Instead of seeing my bathroom in my mirror, towel racks behind me with towels, etc. I saw into Hell. I saw Satan laughing at me. Satan was more than just visible, he was beyond visible, his appearance was lost in the evil that surrounded him. Just as someone had written words in the sand in gasoline and lit them, the words YOU FOOL burned into my mind. I was left reeling. Why was Satan laughing at me? Where did that leave me. I was Afraid for the first time in my life, really afraid. I knew in the back of my mind at night when I was alone and in bed, that if there was a Hell, there had to be a Heaven, for Satan to exist, God must. I knew I was in trouble. I was running from Satan.

At this time I met a lady named Marianne. She was a backslidden Christian I fell head over heels in love with. She was so totally different than anyone I had ever met. Satan wanted me to use women, but this one I wanted to keep. We fell in love and one day I sat up in bed and decided that I was tired of drugs and alcohol. I still didn't have God.

My Grandfather wrote me a letter to see if I would come visit him in Saskatoon and included the funds to come see him. I went down to Saskatoon, and on the way back stopped in Carrot River to visit my family. I hadn't seen them in years, and the only time I talked to them was Christmas times when I would phone all drunk longing for home.Turned out that they had moved. I had to find out where they lived and when I found out where they lived I found out in short order they had all become Christians! I was the black sheep of the family and was the only one on the outside.

Marianne gave her life back to Jesus while we were out in Carrot River and she persuaded me that we should move to Carrot River to be close to the family. She had ulterior motives so we packed up an old 76 Mercury Marquis and trailered an old 70s van to Carrot River with all of our stuff. Looking back Satan really didn't want us to go. 3 hitch pins and 20 hours later we got to Carrot River on a trip that should of only taken us 10 or so.

Mom had gotten re-married to a wonderful guy who treats her like a queen and they graciously allowed us to live in a trailer on their property. Mom has a gift of discernment, is a real prayer warrior and would go through bouts of Satanic attack where she would wake up in the night with invisible hands trying to strangle her. She knew we had been into something. She asked if we would move into our own place as she tried to reach us.

She would find articles on "bikers" to show us to try and convince me that bikers could be Christians. I didn't think they could that I was too bad to be a Christian because I was a biker. She would show me pictures of Jerry Savelle with short hair in a Christian Reader magazine sitting on a Goldwing. Now, understand that a real biker sees Japanese bikes as Jap Scrap, only real bikers ride Harleys, then Triumphs, then BMWs. I do not see things that way now. That short hair...I remember saying that's not a biker, that's a nerd Christian on Jap Scrap. That's not a biker! We got in a big fight and I stormed outside.

Later, mom came outside and apologized for the fight, and explained she just did not want me to go to hell. She wanted her son in heaven with her. I remember telling her that I was walking down a street with shrines and buildings representing different religions and I know that the little church at the end of the street is there, and I promised her if I ever do go into that little church I was going to do it all or nothing. God told her that I would come to Jesus soon.

My brother meanwhile had been on the road touring with a band called Jack Jackson Ministries. He had been asking everyone along the way, wherever he went to pray for his brother named Steve. I was number one on his "hit list" and as he went he collected testimonies of different individuals he met along the way. He later went on to play with Double Portion in the same capacity. Kel found two tapes, one of Ed Brouwer, who was the president of I.C.B.A., and Doug Stadnyk, a brother in Saskatoon. I listened to both of them, both from outlaw biker groups, and found out that yes, bikers can become Christians. Doug Stadnyk's tape had a copy of his prison photo and I knew that he was the real deal. The excuse that a biker cannot be a Christian was settled. I still fought it though, until one day, my dad asked me to come over to listen to a Walter Martin tape.

Walter Martin was a real man of God who wrote Kingdom of the Cults which is required reading in most Bible Schools. This is a man of God who died on his knees in prayer, Spirit filled and Holy Ghost empowered.While I listened, Walter Martin talked about demon possessions. I had never believed that possessions were possible and if they were it was only in Hollywood or that a person who was trying to control a demon may have been to weak and MAYBE became possessed.

As I listened two things warred within me. I felt somehow that this man, his words were the truth. I felt it somehow. I also felt that if this was the truth, I was in serious trouble. I immediately asked my dad to go outside and talk to me.I was scared. I was running from Satan, but where to? I couldn't run to Krishna, he was there, I couldn't run to Buddha, he is there, Satanism was out of the question, and I had no other options. I asked dad what to do. He said How about Jesus?

HOW BOUT THAT JESUS, for the first time it made sense, if He really conquered Satan, He could protect me. I knelt down at the picnic table beside my stepfather because I thought the only way to meet God was on my knees. Out of sheer fear, and need for Jesus to be my shield and my protector, I asked Jesus to come into my life and make me new. I had finally accepted Jesus as my Savior.

When I finally opened my eyes I felt like I had been whacked over the head by a two by four, as I hung over the bench, the grass was greener, the sky was bluer, the sun was warmer on my face. My dad asked me if I wanted to renounce Satan's hold on my life and I said yes. He led me in a prayer of renunciation when I told Satan in the name of Jesus I renounce you he started choking me out. My dad started praying and commanding satan to let go of me and then the words spilled out. I felt something tear out of my body and leave. Satan lost a hold that day August 12th 1991.

Mom and Dad discipled us and stuck though all the hard questions, what we should and shouldn't be doing, and really helped us grow. I started going to an M.B. church in Carrot River. It was really hard to get used to people hugging you all the time, I always checked my back pocket in case I was getting my wallet pinched...It took a while to figure out all the christianese, and I found out that I should get married to Marianne if I was living with her.

We got married September 9, 1991 in my moms living room attended by dad, and a Justice of the Peace. About this time, I began to wonder if there were other bikers like me. I tried to get a hold of someone who knew about Doug Stadnyk and hook up with other bikers in Saskatoon. I found out about a group I.C.B.A. in Saskatoon International Christian Bikers Association. I hooked up with them and started riding with them doing ministry and reaching the seemingly unreachable.

We moved to Saskatoon, became members of I.C.B.A. I became filled with the Holy Spirit while I was at a Four Square Church just after we moved to Saskatoon during the beginnings of the Vineyard movement. I started work in Saskatoon and in 1993 had a bike wreck. I was mad at God asking Him why this happened. God showed me an through an analogy that I still hadn't dealt with the way I viewed my Harleys. I slept with my motorcycles in my bedroom, they spent the winters in my living rooms, my owners manual was called my Bible. I still saw Japanese motorcycles as Jap Scrap. God wanted nothing between Him and me. Whether God allowed the bike wreck to happen through Satan or not, I found out that God disciplines his children. I now see motorcycles just like other vehicles that God blesses us with, and Japanese bikes as brothers in the wind. Two wheels are always better than four though :)

Myself, and two other bikers started Open Arms Fellowship, which became known in Saskatoon as "The Biker Church" We had felt the sting of other conventional churches who couldn't relate to Bikers and street people in their churches so we decided to start a church where anyone could feel accepted and loved. We ran that for about 5 years. I presently go to a Spirit filled Mennonite Brethern church called Hope Fellowship Church in Saskatoon.

I was moping around one day and heard a sermon on how shepherds deal with lambs that don't stay with the flock. This is not a common trait but it does happen. The shepherd takes the lamb, or so I am told and snaps their front legs so they cannot walk away. He then nurses them back to health in his arms by the fire, and they will never leave his side again. In my bike wreck, I had only my left leg broken, I should of been dead. God reminded me that He let that happen to discipline me. He had removed the Harley from my life, and He had drawn me close to Himself.

In 1994 I was asking God what to do. My job wasn't going well and I felt spiritually out of sync. I remember worshipping Him on my couch in the Spirit with my guitar and all of a sudden I was in the heavenlies. God asked what was the desire of my heart. I told Him to follow Him and go to Bible College. When I came out of worship the phone rang I had been invited to go to Bible College, the phone rang again and a friend phoned to tell that if I was interested in Bible College he found a place for us. Talk about a miracle.I went to Bible college for two years, Marianne for three, and with the money from insurance from the bike wreck we bought a house, and I bought another Harley.

The Refiners Fire...

The motorcycle group I.C.B.A that was in Saskatoon eventually fell apart, my wife ended up with another man and my spiritual life was tested like it had never been before. After 15 years of marriage my wife decided to leave town with another man, leave me and all the debt and go on the run. This shook me to my very foundation, everything I believed about God, marriage, relationships, faith. My church at Hope Fellowship surrounded me with such love and prayer and the men of my church kept tabs on me to make sure I was ok. I have to admit, if I did not have my church family at that time, my real family too, I am not sure where I would of been. It seemed as if everything I held onto religious snapped off me everything I had put my trust in except Jesus snapped away until all I was left with was Jesus Christ and Him only. I explain it this way, there was this photo I once saw of a Harley Davidson ad as they moved back to Kevlar belts for their drive and were trying to convince people that belts were good again. They had this striking photo of a Heritage Softail I believe it was held up in the air by a single thread of Kevlar to a crane and something to the effect of something this tough you can have trust in... That was basically where I was, the only thing that hadnt snapped away was this thin thread of Jesus and instead of a motorcycle at the end, that was me.

I started drinking again after being sober since 1991 and got drunk a few times. This really scared me as I remembered the road I had been down earlier in my life. I decided that the bottle was not going to win and then started really throwing myself into church activities and the Jr. Youth group at my church. I immersed my self in the church and the more I did the stronger I got. A couple years later and after much healing I decided I wanted to see what was out there as far as a ladyfriend. The divorce had basically gone through, my ex had moved on with her life and I decided it was time to move on with mine.

I started putting my profile up on cupid.com to see what was out there. After a few strange encounters I decided that the online dating thing was not working out and was going to take my profile off. That same day a beautiful lady from North Battleford contacted me and we decided to meet. We have been dating since August 2006 and she is a beautiful lady with an even more beautiful heart and 3 boys. At the time of this writing we get married August 4th 2007 in a church wedding in a little Anglican church in the Western Development Museum. She goes to an Apostolic church in North Battleford and I will be moving out there after our marriage.

It seems that everything Satan meant for evil, God has restored. I lost my marriage, God gave me the lady of my dreams, I lost my house, I will be moving into hers, I totalled my car off before Christmas, I have another Toyota, I still have to find another job out there, but I know that is all in Gods hands as well. In the Apostolic church they need guess what? Junior youth workers lol... God is so good. A buddy of mine out there also runs a street outreach ministry and jail ministry and that is where my heart is. God loves bikers and street people and God had impressed upon my heart that we do not have much time to reach the lost. The fields are white unto harvest. Jesus commands us to go.

This is where I am at today... a testimony is never static but active and I am sure there will be more notes as my Christian life goes on. As for now I am still in my boots for Jesus, my heart is still for Biker/Street Person/ Youth Ministry and now I will have another partner to walk with Jesus and this though with. God is so good.

God is a God of restoration and second chances. That is what and who He is. God is the very essence of Love. He loved us enough to send His son to die for us and His son, Jesus loved us enough to forgive us from the cross. His blood removes sin if we will but accept His precious gift and recieve Him into our hearts. Jesus conquered death taking the very keys from Death and Hell and Rising up from the grave. Jesus is alive and His tomb is empty. What a mighty God I serve. If you want to find out more about Him click the links to the right especially Who Is Jesus Really. Thanks for taking the time to read this. God Bless you.

Moose