This and That

"If I can be an example of getting sober, Then I can be an example of starting over." - Macklemore The artist above who I have quoted is referring to his dependency to alcohol that he has battled against for a large portion of his life. Although my struggle has not been with alcohol, those of you who have followed this blog will know, my struggle with pornography. When I wrote "Death to Life" I had a strong feeling that my struggle with pornography was over. The Lord had freed me from that heavy burden and allowed me to move on. I received an overwhelming amount of support from friends and family and my ministry to men struggling through the same dependency grew dramatically. I received many blessings after posting "death to life" and I praise The Lord for that but today I must praise The Lord for the continued struggle that has com...

"The Bible is bananas!" Think about some of the stories that you read in the Bible. They really are bananas, as in, they blow your mind. My mind is blown pretty much every time I open the Holy Book. Today for instance, I read the story of the Transfiguration found in Luke chapter 9:28-36. This is the story of Jesus taking John, Peter and James up a mountain and proceeding to meet with Moses and Elijah. By the way, Moses and Elijah are long past dead, just an important note. It is also important to note that Jesus, Moses and Elijah are shining as bright as the sun in a moment of heavenly glorification! I'm putting myself in one of the disciples sandals and all i can think is "this is bananas!" If you don't know the story please find a Bible, google the Bible, do whatever you gotta do and read the account; it's bananas!  So, we've established that my mind was blown by this passage and after I recovered from the blow I thought to myself "what ...

I pray that those who read this would see a glimpse of the amazing love of Jesus Christ and nothing else. Yes, it is from the story of Jason Keegstra's life but this story would never have come to be without Jesus Christ at the centre. I've lived a very blessed life. I praise The Lord now because I am able to recognize his goodness that he has offered to me. I understand now that I am worthy of his gift of eternal life through Jesus death and resurrection and I can live in freedom because he has revealed that to me. What you don't yet know is that for years I lived a privileged life but it was often void of any thankfulness because I was robbing myself from living with Jesus. I was living a life of habitual sin that took me further and further away from God and deeper and deeper into death. Life was only ever about me, even though I lived out a life of service, it was done out of guilt and shame in hopes of saving myself from God's judgement against the way I was livi...

Those who know me at all know that I have a love for sneakers. They are my art. I read through various street wear websites and blogs on a weekly basis and today I came across an article about the CEO of Nike; Mark Parker. The article said something that got thinking about the way I approach ministry. It is something that I have always believed and this one sentence become very faith affirming for me today. Here is what the blog had to say about Nike... "Everything that Nike does from the top down is considered from a design perspective, not a sales, product, or marketing perspective." In the world of big business profit margins often dominate the conversations and intern dominate the end product. Not within Nike though. Nike has been committed to design and quality from the beginning and there is no doubt that they are the largest shoe company in the world. Not only in terms of sales, but more importantly, in terms of cultural influence. Nike hasn't allowed themselve...

Obedience. I never have been very fond of requirements which the word implies but I was convicted in my heart last week that I needed to take my obedience to Christ more seriously. I didn't really know what that looked like as I began this week but as I read and made a commitment to being more conscious of my thoughts I quickly became aware of the importance behind the obedience in the Christian life. In fact, obedience is foundational to the Christian life. I spent a lot of time in the book of Matthew this week looking at Christ's life and the life of his disciples and it occurred to me that the first call of the Disciples, Peter and Andrew in Chapter 3, show us that all Christ requires when he calls people to discipleship is simply obedience. Peter and Andrew didn't know much of anything about Jesus at the time when Jesus called them to "follow" him but Peter and Andrew followed anyway. Not only did they follow but "Immediately they left their nets and fo...

I'm going to be honest with you here. It's been two full years now that I have been leading campus ministry within Spartan Athletics at Trinity Western University and I still do not feel equipped to represent Christ in the manner which I believe Christ should be represented. I felt like that was a bad thing when I sat down to meet with God this evening and God had a very special message for me that I now know I need to keep close to my heart. I read through the end of 1 Corinthians and the first eight chapters of 2 Corinthians tonight and as I read God revealed to me the importance of understanding His Majesty. What is Majesty you ask? Webster's defines majesty as the sovereignty and power of God. What God wanted me to understand tonight is that He is unfathomable and I am His creation. I do not possess the ability to represent God unless He chooses to reveal pieces of who He is through me. Do you see the freedom in that understanding? My fear of not being able to represe...

Perfection is my end. Even to myself this can sound ludicrous and unrealistic. The reality of the human condition is that perfection should be unattainable. In fact, perfection has been deemed so unattainable by human standards that the word is thrown around to mean something along the lines of ‘just about perfect’, or as good as objectively possible. I have been okay with that definition of perfection for a long time simply because I believed that perfection was something that was unattainable. No one should strive for perfection because no one is perfect; whatever that means. And then, I read Philippians 1:6 - “And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” No matter how often Jesus needs to remind me of His perfection through His Spirit and His Word I truly do believe that Jesus embodies the Perfection of the living God; creator of the universe. Perfection does exist, in God, and perfection has been a part ...