Why do you blog?

Having devoted the last couple to posts giving “excuses” for why I haven’t been blogging it occurs to me that my faithful readers might be asking “Why do you bother?”

(Faithful readers???? OK, OK—stop laughing -- there must be at least 2 people I could consider to be faithful readers –and if there aren’t – don’t tell me --I’d rather live with my illusions)

Anyhow, I thought I might try to remind myself why I do this.

When I first started “Whitfield’s journey” (See Trip to Mississippi) on March 3 2006, it was to keep family and friends informed of our adventures as we traveled to Mississippi with the “BBB” to help with “hurricane relief” work. I continued the entries for that purpose during our follow-on trip through Texas until we arrived home at the end of April.

At that point I was going to quit but as noted in my May 1 entry – “Changing gears” I decided to keep it up. Here’s what I wrote then (with some minor editing to correct some typos)

“ I have had some support for continuing this [blog] – but it will now be for a different purpose. When I started the main purpose was to keep friends and family informed of our whereabouts and activities [while traveling].

While I will continue to record “what’s happening in our lives” –I have found this to be a useful thing for myself – putting my thinking in writing and maybe once in a while getting some push back or affirmation from someone else. If you are reading God bless you and thank you for staying with it.

One other thing – Charlie who is the “I” in this blog. My life partner and wife Linda makes up the “we”. I usually know when I can express something as “we” and when it should be ”I” but occasionally Linda may disagree so to be safe if it is something “weird” that “we” think – it is probably me you should blame for the “weirdness.”.

As I look back – I have had several of my family and friends tell me that they use the blog to keep track of us.

I have also had a several good (mostly email) conversations that started through the blog. I have made friends with several other bloggers that I have met. Mostly due to JD –who is the blogging king as far as I’m concerned.

One other reason is that the time I spend writing helps keep me focussed on what’s important and (despite the fact that it seems I spend too much time thinking (writing) about stuff this focus actually does translate into actions. And so I think writing does keep me on track of doing the things I need to be doing.

I have learned from others and I hope that in some small way sometimes what I’ve written has helped others. So I do it for me – selfishly – but with the hope that my selfishness will flow good to someone else.

Speaking of blogs and blogging

I was humbled (but flattered) to find myself quoted by Bobby Cohoon (http://littlesorrel.blogspot.com/) in his October 22nd post.

My friend JD had carpal tunnel surgery and “The Hand” has become his trademark for this week. John has also taken to posting music clips from http://www.youtube.com/ He devoted a big chunk of one of his recent posts to his favorite singer Chris Tomlin. You can find out more about Chris by clicking HERE.

JD also asks an interesting question about Church Architecture in his October 28th post and gives a partial response the following day. The question was

“If our “church buildings” reflected the heart and mission of Christ, what would they look like? (And we know that the term ‘church building’ is an oxymoron.)”

-- Coincidentally? I came across another blog (via Bobby Valentine) by Wade Tannehill that dealt with a similar idea in “A church without walls”

Bobby been posting (click HERE for his blog) a series of articles starting on September 22nd that deal with our views about the meaning of the Old Testament. He presents a view that it is a consistent story of a loving gracious God who looks to his people to build relationship and who expects his people to love other’s – God is the great Redeemer – who provides the great command – to Love and expects his people to form a great society (relationship) of compassion, respect and love.

I limited my “Berean list” to 33 entries this week and with one “minor” exception on Sunday I kept within my self-imposed guidelines of how long I should spend on it (Sunday I used up more than my quota of time for the whole week by spending several hours composing a too lengthy response to a single question) . AH well.. I do talk too much at times.

It was a busy week. I got caught up on all my course work, gave a midterm and marked those tests. I (more or less) kept up with the housework and feeding Alyssa and I. I got some work done raking leaves in between the rain showers and did a number of other small jobs. (I did this self-portrait by putting the camera on a box and setting the timer. It doesn't do justice to showing the amount of leaves we get in our yard).

Anyhow, now my list of things I’m committed to for next week is at least manageable.

Yesterday I met my friend Russ for a coffee at Tim Horton’s – he is a great guy with a heart for service. We talked about a number of things including how different people see God and how that influenced their lives. Russ will be leading singing on Sunday – first time – and he is a little nervous about that. Thursday p.m. and again this morning (today my Dad went with me) I visited with Mary Seabrook. She is 95 and confined to her bed – heavily medicated – due to a hip problem. They had done surgery a couple of weeks ago but it didn’t seem to work out and there’s nothing more tobe done other than managing the pain. Mary is a lifelong friend of my parents and her daughter is a longtime friend who attends Pinehill. We continue to pray for Mary and her family during this difficult time.

This afternoon, I had a web-cam conversation with Kevin, Will and then Linda & I talked for quite a while. We have talked on the phone but it was great to see her smile. Another 10 days and I’m off to Aurora (Chicago) to meet up with Linda and help her finish out her week there looking after Hunter & Camdyn.

Well that’s it for now.

Maybe I’ll get back to more frequent shorter posts – or maybe I won’t – there are no rules about this.

God Bless
Charlie

Foundations

A while back I said I would post my weekly Sunday school lesson as a means of sharing with you some of my thoughts on our relationship with God. I haven't done so for a while because I was away and then -- well look at the last 2 posts -- if you don't know my excuses for being delinquent with this.

In my September 28 posting titled “Heritage” (click HERE and scroll down a little bit ) I included the "Introduction" to a series of lessons I’m (currently) calling “Foundations of Faith".

In that class (held September 23) I asked “What questions would you want to ask someone to establish where they were in their relationship with God?” .

To-day I present the answers given by this group of long-time Christians --

1. Who is Jesus? And what do you think about him? (we digressed to remind ourselves that, based on what Jesus said & did in the gospels we must conclude he is either who he says he was (Lord) or he was out of touch with reality (a lunatic) or he was simply trying to deceive (a liar). No other logically consistent possibility exists)
2. Do you believe in God?
3. Do you believe in the Bible?
4. Have you read the Bible and when?
5. Do you believe in an afterlife? (Is this all there is - we die and that’s the end or ??
6. Do you believe in good & evil?
7. Is the Bible important to how you live?
8. Do you believe in prayer?
9. If the answer to 2, 3, 5, 6 or 8 is no – Why don’t you believe?
10. What do you think will be the consequences of the way you live and what you believe? (or are there any consequences?)
11. Do you understand the covenants? (some thought this was too advanced for an initial conversation)

Note: There is no "ordering" of which questions to ask 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on and I'm not sure that any such order exists? - Beliefs are a complex set of interelated thoughts -- not a "recipe" that has "steps 1 through n"

These are good questions -- and I think if we got through a session where we just listened to the answers and understood what was being said -- we would have a good idea of where we would want to start in terms of the “gaps” between their beliefs and yours (or maybe more precisely) what you understand the Bible to be saying about these things.

Next lesson, I will ask a different question --

“What are the things you would say to someone that covers -- as briefly as possible --what you believe is sufficient for you to have confidence that you have and maintain a “saving” relationship with God?


God Bless
Charlie

Why I haven’t been blogging – Part 2

Another week (and a bit) has flown by since my last posting.

While I gave up long ago keeping up with my prolific blogging Christian brother JD (click HERE) I have intended to do 2 or 3 entries a week. But lately if I’ve managed once a week I’ve been doing well. How come?

Last week I said the number 1 reason was my “addiction” to a discussion list that had siphoned me off and kept me from blogging. I certainly seem to have hit a chord with several other of my blogging friends since I had several empathetic responses and encouraging responses.

Interestingly, I heard on CBC radio this week that this is a real probem especially among children. So I did a search on this topic (using the INTERNET of course). There is a lot out there – my search with the words ‘INTERNET addiction’ had almost a half a million hits. One example is a New York Times article in December 2005.

There are sites dedicated to INTERNET addiction recovery – for example the Centre for Internet Addiction Recovery is devoted to this issue. I also found a test that you can take to check whether you are an addict. (Click HERE) if you want to take it.

While Linda might score me differently my results were well within the category of “normal usage”. It was a little reassuring to know that I wasn’t “clinically” addicted. However, I do think it is something I need to keep an eye on. With God’s help, I can keep from going over the edge on this.

If anyone has a serious concern about their level of INTERNET use I’d encourage them to do an honest assessment and if there is any possibility that this is “spinning out of control” seek help. God put us here to have an abundant life and I don’t think allowing anything other than Jesus to control our lives will give us that “richness”

So what kept me from blogging this week? (I’ll only do the top 5 this week)

Number 5. I swore off the INTERNET for the week to be sure I wasn’t addicted. Well, maybe that would be a good thing – but not true. I actually spent a lot of time working to catch up in my backlog of email (both personal and related to my teaching at Algoma U.) – and made a dent in it but there is still a lot to be done in that area.

My goal is to deal with all email as it arrives – either read and respond, delete as irrelevant or place in the “C-file” to be addressed whenever I have any spare time. I managed to do that with everything new that came in this week. I also made the rounds of several of my favorite bloggers and got caught up with the happening in their lives – JD & Dee in particular had several inspirational and challenging posts . I dropped by a few others using links from the Berean list and other blogs. I haven’t been to my friend Bobby Valentine’s blog for a while – maybe next week. I always enjoy reading his posts. He is very thoughtful and provides a lot of in depth challenging lessons based on his Bible study and research and they make me think and challenge me to grow.

I also “lurked” on the Berean list and made a few comments (39 for week) but mostly “one-liners” . I closed out my participation in a number of ongoing debates that just seemed to be going in circles. One of the principles I try to follow (but often fail in doing) is that in any discussion I seek to understand what the other person is saying before I begin “arguing” and trying to convince them I’m right & they are wrong. When I recognize that I’m just arguing and not listening – or if listening-- I see that we “understand each other” but just don’t agree – I will close off the discussion until such time as there is something new to be heard or said that hasn’t already been heard or said. At the end, however, I think my INTERNET “fixes” were in control and kept in balance – so yes I didn’t blog because I ran out of INTERNET time doing other things.

In the course of executing my email , list “lurking” and” blog browsing” I did come across several ”neat” things and some of those I shared with others.

One example was Chris Bliss juggling
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4776181634656145640&q=%22chris+bliss%22&hl=en

Another was a video for kids making the case for intelligent design in the universe
http://www.kids4truth.com/watchmaker/watch.html

I also listened to a couple of sermons by JD (click HERE) and Roger (click HERE)

I also got to download some pictures that my brother-in-law Art tookat the family gathering. I haven't gotten to mine yet. I'm including one of Dad with all his "kids" (I'm the good looking one of the guys - back row centre) and one of the group as we gathered to watch the Powerpoint Saturday evening. Dad has 70 direct descendents and 50 of them made an appearance at somepoint in the weekend.

Number 4. It’s Roger’s fault for leaving – Well not really but I just wanted to take a “pot shot” at him. I do have a number of service- ministry commitments.

I dedicated most of last Friday & Saturday to preparing a sermon and Sunday school lesson. I will get back to posting of those lessons - maybe this week.

I visited Mary Seabrook & Marion’s brother Dan in the hospital on Tuesday. Mary has now returned to the Davey Home. Wednesday was weekly Bible study and Thursday night I attended the kickoff of a film series organized by the Seelers called “Full Flame”.

Friday, I made a Red Cross runs to take a lady to the Y and then picked her up to take her home a couple of hours later (with side visits to Pharamacy and Credit union) There are a number of other people I need to be in touch with and visit if possible – but for a variety of reasons that has happened. – at least this neglect hasn’t been caused by too much blogging.

Number 3. I’m still alone – poor me!! I’ve had too many things to do around the house and I just haven’t had much to talk about on the blog. Well actually—Alyssa is here. We have had several good conversations about her school work and other things happening in her life. I haven’t done much extra household stuff other than the normal daily stuff that I would (or at least should) be doing even when Linda was here.

The highlight of my day has been Linda’s calls every evening. Sharing our days over the distance is a poor substitute for being together but it is significantly better than 40 plus years ago when we were separated for months due to school and the communication was by old fashioned letter. That time delay would be unbearable in today’s world. I’m counting the days until I leave to meet her at Chris’ in early November.

Tuesday was Chris’ birthday – and I forgot to call him until Wednesday – I had thought of it but without the “double” memory it didn’t happen.

The good news last night was that Kevin has gotten his proposal submitted and hopes to do the “defense” on October 31. If that is successful the purpose for Linda being there will have been fulfilled and for that we will thank God. It has been a difficult time for Kevin & Sarah – this big push on thesis work is putting a strain on their relationship. Hopefully, Linda being there can help them in that area as well.

Number 2. I had a whole bunch of yard work and other jobs to do. The leaves are falling, the motor home has to be cleaned out in preparation for storage. My friend Russ needs help with his brother’s place on St.Joseph island. All true – but it rained most of the week and I had a conflict on Thursday when Russ wanted me to go so I didn’t do anyof those things – so it hardly explains why I haven’t been blogging.

So the number 1 – UNO – TOP – PREMIER REASON that I haven’t been blogging is SCHOOL – What? School – Yes – I’m teaching one course and providing 2 reading courses at Algoma University and I had gotten seriously behind first with the family related items (trip to Beamsville for Partnership dinner honoring Art & Ruby) and then preps for family weekend on (Canadian) Thanksgiving to honor my Dad), further exacerbated by my week of “Bereanese” (see previous post)

So this week has been devoted to “catching up” on the class stuff. Marking assignments and preparing tests (for mid-terms next week and the week after).
So we’ll see what next week brings – My commitments are to the AUC classes, to “fall jobs” (yardwork, storing the BBB and helpingRuss) and “household routine”(I haven’t done the housecleaning yet but I did rememberto water the plants!!).

So maybe I’ll see you on the lists and blogs or maybe I won’t – It depends on how well I do in meeting those important commitments (and it goes without saying that service and ministry are always at the top – or at least I want them to be)

God Bless
Charlie

Why I haven’t been blogging?

I looked at the stats for my blog today and was amazed that there had been 40 visits –I know this time none of them were me going back to look at something or to get a reference for a new post so either 1 determined soul came back 40 times (which I doubt) or 40 people came one time (which I equally doubt) so it is likely somewhere in between.

In any case I thought I’d give you my top ten excus …. OOPS I mean reasons for not having been on the blogs this week.

10. Last weekend was the family reunion for the early celebration of my Dad’s 90th Birthday (but that only lasted until Sunday so that’s not really it)

9. Linda is away in Vancouver visiting Kevin & Sarah and helping watch Will while they work (True but anyone who knows even the slightest thing about us would expect that to mean more blogging not less)

8. Monday was my birthday so I decided to take the week off and just “veg out” doing only the bare minimum needed to get my teaching and household commitments. (Oh how I wish that was true!!)

7. I needed to get the “BBB” winterized and that took so much time I didn’t have anytime left for other things. It is true that I spent several hours Tuesday afternoon removing anything that might freeze and blowing out/putting antifreeze in the water lines – but thanks to my friend Russ Ward that really only took about 2 hours. I did spent another hour or so visiting with him and talking about some “church” questions that he had.

6. I had too many people to visit and talk to about things that needed to be addressed in my “elder” role at the church. Well I did spend an hour visiting Mary Seabrook in hospital. She had fallen with a broken hip last week and had surgery. At age 94, she is struggling in the recovery – and needs our prayers. But that’s hardly a reason for not having time on the blog.

5. Our preacher left and I have a whole bunch of things that I need to do because of that (Rog – if you see this – you will be happy to know that everything that goes wrong is still your fault). Well I do have a sermon and a class to prepare for but they are still waiting to be done so hardly can be used as an excuse for not doing something else.

4. Linda is away and I have had to take care of many household things that she normally does. Well –there’s several problems with this excuse – one there’s only me (and Alyssa) so there’s not that much to do. Two, Linda left lots of precooked meals so cooking isn’t an issue, three, I (at least sometimes) do the cleanup part anyhow, and four, it doesn’t take much time to stuff some bedding and towels into the machine and then go back later to move them to the dryer --Oh yeah –I’m supposed to fold them and put them away –maybe I’ll get to that later.

3. I got behind in my class stuff last week when working on PPT for Dad’s party and I have assignments to grade as well as class preps to do. Oh – but Tuesday class was suspended (Founder’s day) and I only had a small amount of prep for Thursday. And the assignments are still waiting …

2. I have some work to do to respond to a request to help develop a ”statistical process control” course for engineers that requires a fair bit of time. But wait – I didn’t do anything on it either.

So the number one top reason (and probably the only valid one) is that I got “addicted” to the Berean Spirit list. I had not been on it for almost a week and a half and I felt compelled to “catch up” – and not only that I kept putting in my “2 cents” on too many topics.

I know I can’t keep it up because there are too many other things that I need to be doing. Isn’t it interesting that the very things that help us be “successful” in life can also be our biggest enemies. In my case it is a combination of when I do something I want to dive in whole heartedly and participate to the max and (as I have mentioned before) my buffet style approach to just heaping it on because I always think I can handle more than is really possible.

This can be good or it can be bad – It really depends on which things I decide to leave on the plate (or discard) or whether I try to handle it all to the point it makes me “ill”.

May God give me the strength and wisdom to say No and keep my plate filled on to the point that I need for nourishment rather than this unhealthy striving to always do more – which often ends up with many things (important things left undone or done poorly)

My friend John Dobbs who is also on the list told me I should “pick my battles” -- and that is good advice. I will heed it … tomorrow!!!

To give you a hint of how badly I lost the battle here are some excerpts from some of my 38 entries to that list between October 10 and noon on October 13.

Friday 1:39 p.m. “I don't have a lot time to pursue this now so I'll try this "small" clarification/question”

Friday 12:16 a.m. “And I've got no spare time -- I guess I'll have to take a sabbatical from the list for a few days - Do you think it will survive without me? :) :)”

Thursday 10:31 p.m. “Well I'm back into this again.”

Thursday 11:22 a.m. “Aaaagh! I know I know I promised -- maybe this time I'll mean it and keep it.”

Thursday 11:14 a.m. “My OCD has me needing to go through the entire list after a week away” ..
Thursday 10:47 a.m “ Now back to my promise not to discuss this anymore unless I see something new that I haven't seen before”

Thursday 10:29 a.m. “I'm ranting -- but I can't help it”

Thursday 10:02 a.m “I'm sorry -I can't help myself -- I think I need some addiction counselling!!!”

Thursday 9:41 a.m “Enough said about … (at least for me)

Thursday 9:02 a.m. “p.p.s This is my absolute last word on this -- I promise (he said with his fingers crossed!!)

Thursday 8:34 a.m. “because I've devoted a lot of time in the past couple of days …reading what you good folk have been discussing on this list --I need to get off this list and move on (the other things in my life)”

Wednesday 9:33 p.m. “I'm a little late with this response -- I've been gradually tracking this thread back to where I last left it and I have been hesitant to comment before I got to the end but …”


To my family & friends - I hope to have "recovered" sufficiently to do a post about the "big party" last weekend sometime next week. Art has already sent me a bunch of pictures.

To Wilma_ I know I still owe you an answer about accessing the list.

To JD, Bobby, Dee and any of my other blogging friend who may have dropped by my biggest failure is not so much that I wasn’t putting anything on my blog but I also wasn’t coming by to “get nourished” by yours.

I think I need to find a chapter of BLA (bloggers and listers anonymous) and beat this thing before it starts to ruin my life. Well I don’t think I’m really that bad –after all I can quit this any time I want to … I just don’t want to yet – :0 :)

All kidding aside I think there is some truth to the possibility of becoming addicted to this form of communication and discussion and while I’m not there – and I don’t think I ever will get there – the “close encounters of the worst kind” have given me at least a sense of the battle faced by those who are addicted to much more damaging and hurtful things.

You’ll know I’ve really lost it when I start my blog with “Hello my name is Charlie and I’m a blogaholic” ….

God Bless
Charlie

Pictures, Pictures & more pictures

Well I’ve finished the big Powerpoint project. 170 slides ranging over a century from pictures of my Dad’s parents around 1900 to a picture of Elijah my Dad’s 3rd great-great grandchild born in August of this year.
Starting from Mom & Dad as the 1st generation, they had 8 kids (2nd generation) from which there have come 25 grandchildren, 34 great-grandchildren (with 1 more due in November) and 3 great-great (5th generation).

I managed to get at least one picture of each of the ”direct descendents” and most of the spouses or partners which is a total that is near 100 (without counting my niece Megan’s 3 step-children). I haven’t counted but many (most) of the slides have 2 or 3 pictures – some have 4 or 5) so I suspect there are well in excess of 300 different pictures. A lot from my sisters and brothers, a lot I scanned from my parents photo albums and quite a few from my own archives.

Sometimes I fell asleep ”swimming” in pictures. Near the end it was like looking for a needle in a haystack because I had gone though with a list of the names and I knew who I was missing – the challenge was to find someone who could get the required pictures to me. But a few panic emails to my niece Karen, my brother John and my sister Diamond took care of it. There are still a few pictures I would like -- my brother Elwood atmy parents store at age 15 wearing his "store" uniform (white coat & "boat shaped" hat) for one -- but I don't have time to go looking for it and it hasn't popped up.

I don’t even want to think about the hours that went into this but even at 6 minutes/slide it would be 17 hours – I know some took a lot longer than that between searching through albums, scanning pictures and then figuring out where to put them (and replacing poorer framed shots with better ones that came with another batch. I suspect I spent closer to 40 hours than 20 -- and that doesn't include the time my siblings spent collectingpictures and sending them to me

I worked on it almost non-stop while at my sister’s place last weekend. I joked that some people knit or do needlepoint while visiting – the Powerpoint was my version of “needlepoint”. It was helpful to be doing it when others were around. Ruby & Diamond (my younger sisters) were especially helpful in commenting on composition and I was able to tap into Art & Ruby’s large reservoir of family pictures to fill in some gaps and I kept Art busy scanning and emailing me pictures all weekend (kind of funny to have the 2 of us sitting less than 10 feet apart with our laptops(wireless) sending messages back & forth. I would like to say that in all of this I kept my balance and didn’t get overly focused but I have to confess that I missed some of the visiting that went on around me and it certainly placed some stress on my relationship with Linda because she has a million things on the go getting ready for the weekend and getting packed for her month as the “international” touring grandmother.

But its done- well maybe I’ll do a little fine tuning but only if there’s nothing else to do - yea right :) :)

The partnership dinner honoring Art & Ruby for their many years of service to the school was a great event. (Picture shows the members of both their families who were present including 2 of their sons, Art's Dad, his 2 sister's , Ruby's Dad, 2 sisters and 2 brothers along with spouses and Sarah - Trevor's finance).

There is a humorous story involving Art's sister Donna, herhusband Mike and their shoes -- which my Dad took by accident from the house prior tothe dinner but I don't have time to tell it right now.

Art has been president over the past 10 years. Ruby is a super organizer and was often in charge of the food prep and service setup for these types of large dinners. They have been “house parents” for a large number of young people who attended the school including many of their nieces, nephews and “grand”-nieces & nephews. We had a good opportunity to meet with and renew acquaintances with a number of Christians that we have met over the years.

One of the best things about the family “birthday” weekend is that Melissa & Alexander are here. Chris Tammye & the kids will be here later today. It will be a short visit but it is the greatest thing to have them close and to be able to share in their lives. We are headed back out to Camp Wakonda this morning so Melissa & Alexander can check it out as the location for the “wedding celebration ”next” year.

Melissa & Alexander arrived yesterday afternoon and have to leave tomorrow so he can get back for work on Sunday. They will miss most of the family thing but hopefully can be there for first hour to at least get to say hello and introduce her new husband to her aunts & uncles & cousins and their offspring. Poor Alexander. He comes from a small family – one you can count on your fingers (with maybe a couple of toes thrown in) and this is just the Whitfield side – Linda is the oldest of 10 and there are almost as many on that side as on my side. We spent a couple of hours last night going over pictures of Melissa growing up and Alexander was overwhelmed with the number of relatives that showed up in those pictures and the number has probably doubled in the last 10-15 years.

Yesterday was Alyssa’s birthday so Linda made her a cake. Her & her twin Michael were born 18 years ago. It has been a nice thing to get to know her better as she stays here while attending university during the week. It is neat to see Linda extend her “nuturin, mothering” talents to listen to Alyssa chat on about what’s happening in her life.

Anyhow – I have to run – I expect to have more time in October to get caught up on “blogging” and get back to the discussion list – I know it will be lonely around here without Linda but maybe having to look after all the household things that Linda does it will turn out that I have less time for this than I think. We’ll see.

God Bless
Charlie (& Linda -she may do the writing but she is very much a part of what is written)

Heritage (September 28)

Just a short post to let anyone who comes by know I’m still here.

The family Powerpoint and other things have kept me very busy this week. At the urging of Roseann Ekman I joined a Bible discussion list called the Berean Spirit and it is easy to spend a lot of time discussing those questions that I’m mulling over in my head.

We also had a second visit from the McMillans (Dave & Heather) on their way back west after having been in Mexico for 3 months. Dave made a presentation and gave a short Bible lesson at our Wednesday services. Some very challenging thoughts on how Jesus related to people from the healing at the pool in John 5. Always enjoy visiting with Dave – Our conversations are open, challenging and I pray leave me on a closer walk with God. (see my July 4 post for more info on the McMillans)

One of the things that I’ve become more aware of as I scanned pictures and worked on the Powerpoint was the extent to which my family heritage has shaped my thinking. – and that is good. However, there are some dangers if we fail to examine that heritage and make our own path towards a richer and better heritage for our own children & grandchildren. Maybe I’ll explore this topic at a later date.

I’m including my lesson from Sunday – and I’ll sign off – We are traveling this weekend to Beamsville to a dinner at the school to honor my brother-in-law Art and my sister Ruby for their years of work at the school. (click HERE for more about Art & Ruby)

The following weekend is the family “do” so my posts may be erratic over the next couple of weeks. Check by when you can to see if I’ve gotten back to it.

Sunday's lesson

Foundations of Faith - Overview

This lesson is an introduction to “Part 2”of “Back to the Basics”


Review – The basic concept of this series is that people often experience “plateaus” or “slumps” in various endeavors of life. I use sports to illustrate what I mean. Individuals and teams often hit plateaus or get into slumps. One approach to dealing with this is to “go back to the basics” and see what may be missing in those things that is an obstacle to “breaking through” and achieving “new heights”.

For the first part of the series (over the summer), we looked at the following

1. How we “understand” or” interpret” the Bible (a topic called “hermeneutics”)

We asked
-- “Why doesn’t everyone understand the Bible in the same way
-- Why are there so many different views about the “beliefs and practices” that define Christian “churches”.

2. What we understand the Bible to say about “What is the church?” and the “gaps” between this teaching and the actual way it is used today. We also discussed why it would help our growth to eliminate those “gaps” and provided some practical suggestions on how we could do that.

For the rest of the fall we will "shift gears" and look at what I would call “foundational elements” of being a Christian in today’s world.

You know someone who has had no interest in talking about Christianity. You have become friends and they have agreed to talk about “Why you are a Christian”? You want to start with a “diagnostic” (to find where they are in their thinking) – They have agreed to let you ask them 10 questions. What questions would you want to ask?

In this first lesson we listed the questions that the clas smembers threw out and then we reviewed those question by asking the following questions.

Will they understand this question— (Do we all understand this question in the same way?)
might you misunderstand the answer because you are “assuming” they believe things that they don’t believe. (if you ask about believing in Jesus and the answer is NO – is it because they don’t even believe in God or the Bible and they don’t know who Jesus is)
Does the answer really tell you anything about “what’s missing” that would cause them to want to study more – i.e. how can you use the answer to “open a door” that has been holding this person back. )

I’ll provide the list of questions I got in class next time – For now “What questions would you want to ask?”


God Bless Charlie

That’s the Breaks

Doesn’t seem like a lot a lot happening this week but at the same time I seemed to be too busy to prepare a post.

Linda was sick all week with a cold and that threw our “routine” out of kilter. I have a number of projects on the go and I’m finding it difficult to keeping them all on track. But so far I’ve been meeting my commitments.
It also rained a quite a bit this week. In any case I spent almost the whole week “glued to” the computer – which is bad for my posture, left me with an aching back and disturbed Linda because, as I’ve mentioned before, I get too focused on what I’m doing and our communications get strained.

The main project for the week was scanning pictures from our albums -- for 2 reasons -- both related to the upcoming family reunion on October 7-9 (Canadian Thanksgiving). The first part was helping Linda get the pictures she needed for scrapbook pages – our family gift to my Dad is a scrapbook of family memories. I’m also planning a Powerpoint presentation to show at the reunion Monday evening my sister Goldie came by with a couple of boxes of album sand went through them so I could scan a few pictures to use in the Powerpoint. Linda finished the scrapbooking part Friday and I have a lot of stuff – but haven’t gotten to actually putting it together. Need to do that next week.

I have the regular demands of delivering my courses at AUC. On Monday at the department meeting I volunteered to supervise a student for a ”reading” course in Math -- something I haven’t done much of for along time. I think it will be fun – but also will require me to brush up on the material. I have to make the adjustment to realize that these commitments will require about 15 hours a week between preparations, lectures and marking.

Tuesday evening was the quarterly information session to review the various ministry efforts at Pinehill. Lloyd & I had committed to making a report from the elders as part of this communication and coordination process. Monday and Tuesday I drafted reports to cover the main activities we were involved with. Friday morning Lloyd & I met to cover over the reports and to discuss various ministry issues. Yesterday I finalized the reports and updated my notes on the things that Lloyd & I are working on. I also had to prepare my lesson for this morning. My monthly bulletin article is due Monday.

Wednesday was Linda’s birthday (and also our daughter(-in-law) Sarah’s). Since Linda wasn’t feeling well I didn’t plan anything that day. Her niece Alyssa who is boarding here this fall went out and got her a Birthday cake. She had a number of calls from family & friends including a call from Hunter & Camdyn that evening to sing Happy Birthday to her. Friday night we did “dinner & a movie” to celebrate. Well – it was a take-out dinner- whitefish from Sandro’s and DVD movie but we enjoyed our ”date” and spending the evening relaxing together.

We watched the “Great While” with Robin Williams. – a bit of a “dark” comedy - nothing great but had a few laughs. Then we watched “The unfinished life” with Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez and Morgan Freeman - a family drama about rebuilding broken relationships – I suspect that one could find many lessons about the “unfinished” parts of many of our lives—threads of hurt and disappointment that are dragging us down – and how we can - through restoring (or strengthening) our relationship with God we can also resolve those ”unfinished” things in our human relationships. I say “could find” because I tend to just enjoy and absorb movies – rather than spend a lot of time analyzing & discussing “what they mean”. I do find that some scenes & events in a movie "stick with me" and come to mind later as an illustration of a spiritual principle.

There was an ADnet Board meeting on Wednesday p.m. which required a little bit of prep work. At least I didn’t end up with any new commitments as a result of the meeting. After the Board meeting, I needed to go to Staples to pick up some printer cartridges and paper. On the way thereI realized that the brake pedal wasn’t holding. I managed to get home driving slowly and using parking brake (regular brakes still worked on 2 wheels because front & back are separate systems) ”

Thursday we had it towed to Art Taylor and got that fixed. We were thankful it happened here at home – not while we were on the road. But at the same time it was an expense that piled on top of other recent unexpected expenses. Tough on the budget but I’m trying to accept that I need to be content “with food & clothing (and I add shelter) (Matt. 6:19-34, I Tim. 6:8) (see also John Mark Hicks recent post on “possessions” - click HERE)

Anyhow – that’s my week and that's the breaks (or brakes as the case may be)

God Bless
Charlie

p.s. Pray for our friends the Stones. Their daughter is teaching in Thailand and they are concerned because of the military takeover. Pray for her safety and the well being of those people—of course there are many other problem spots .There were 2 Canadian soldiers from an area about 150 miles east of here who were killed in Afghanistan this week.

200 Years of Wedded Bliss

So here’s a math question.

How many couples (all married the same number of years) does it take to have 200 years of marriage?

The answer: Well it isn’t 1 – I don’t know of anyone to-day who lives that long.

It likely isn’t 2 because I’m not aware of any couples that live that far past 100.

3 doesn’t work – unless we are going to count part years.

4 is OK – we can likely find 4couples who have celebrated Golden Anniversaries this year (I know at least 2)

But the real answer is 5 because that’s what we had at the Miller’s house last night.

I think this may be rare – although others may have similar stories. In the summer of 1966, 4 couples who were attending the North Livingstone Church of Christ were married.

Ted & Laura (Smith) Miller led off in June,

Les & Georgina (Weir) Smith were married in July,

Eric & Donelda (Weir) White were married in August

and then we -- Charlie & Linda (Goodmurphy) Whitfield --were married in September.










Laura, Les, Donelda and I were “3rd” generation “members” (our grandparents having been “founding members” of the congregation). As I recall Georgina started attending services at the church when her older sister married a member10 years earlier(1956). Ted, Eric and Linda were drawn into our church family by their interest in their respective partners.

So in 2006 those 4 couples -- from the same small congregation and all married within a 4 month period --- all celebrated their 40th anniversaries. Wait a minute – that’s only160 years of marriage! So for the rest of the story.

Ted was a school teacher. Early in his teaching career he became friends with 2other teachers who it turned out where married in the same year. So the Langdon’s and the Rowe’s also celebrated their 40th anniversaries this year. The alert mathematicians will now be saying – now you’ve gone over – this is 6 times 40 or 240 years.

Paul & Dawn Rowe

Guess its time to go back to Saturday night and start this story over – actually back to a couple of weeks ago just after we returned from our little anniversary trip (See my posts for September 3 & September 7). We had been discussing the fact that it was also the year of Ted & Laura’s 40th – because we had stood up for them and they for us. We were “kicking ourselves” because we had overlooked this fact in June – due to all the other things happening in our lives at that point. Anyhow, we received a very nice invitation to attend a dinner party at the Miller’s for a “Group of 40’s friends”.

So Saturday night the Smith’s, White’, Rowe’s and Whitfield’s gathered at the Miller home for dinner and a fun time talking about old times and what was going on in our lives. The Langdon’s had to send their regrets due to a conflict with a prior commitment – hence the 5 couples totalling 200 years of marriage.

Interestingly, 3 of the 4 “church” couples, are still attending the “North Livingstone”(now Thessalon) congregation. Linda & I are the “oddballs” although we have landed only 60 miles away. Ted & Laura were our closest friends in High school and we do see each other “off & on” – we also would see Les & Georgina and Eric & Donelda at various church events, weddings & funerals but it seems like we seldom had a chance to visit and share “life experiences” ”—we didn’t know the Rowes but they are a fascinating couple. Paul grew up on Manitoulin Island and knew some of the people I know there as a result of my mother’s roots in that community.

I said 200 years of wedded bliss—that is likely a misstatement—there were 200 years of marriage – but at least speaking for Linda I know it wasn’t all blissful because she had to put up with me and all of my foolish ways.

A few months ago Roger quoted some statistics on marriage breakdowns within our fellowship – and if I recall correctly) it was 1 in 3 -- So 4 of 4 lasting 40 years seems to beat the odds. It may in part have to do with the high regard for marriage that was modeled by our parents & grandparents. Maybe there was something in the water. I’m not sure but I do know for both Linda & I we went into it with the belief that the vows ”until death do us part” really meant something and it never occurred to us that there was any other option but to stick it out and work through the valleys – I thank God that we had so many ”mountaintop” times that we always had those to hold onto when things got tough. We pray that we have given that same sense of commitment, loyalty and determination to our children in their marriages.

Onanother note, we had a guest speaker at our services this morning. Norm Morrell from Ice Lake. He had a very interesting journey having come to start learning about the Bible and coming to know Jesus 2 years ago when he was 59 years old. He is ”on fire” to share his experience with others and it is good to see someone who is studying the word wanting to share those lessons. We can anticipate that as he continues to learn and grow his lessons will serve to "spur Christians on to love & good works". But for now hearing the things that convicted him of the need for a relationship with God through Jesus and hearingabout the process of being ”born again” serves as a good reminder ofwherewe havecomefrom and can help when we have opportunity to share that with others who are seeking Jesus.

We also had the pleasure of a visit by Bill & Alma Bunting at services this a.m. Alma is my cousin and we had visited them when we were in Texas in April. They had been in the area visiting with Alma’s immediate family. They have a 5th wheel trailer but their employer had insisted that they travel in his 36’motorhome. Linda & I enjoyed a quick tour of the “rig” before they left for Michigan.

This was sort of in the category of ”it never rains it pours” – we didn’t find out that Bill was going to be here until after we had made the arrangements for Norm to speak. Bill is an excellent speaker and we would have liked to have had him provide a lesson – but that wasn’t possible due to the prior arrangements.

The big news this evening was that our daughter Melissa has set the date for the “wedding” (blessing ceremony) – for September 15 2007 – just a tad over a year after their marriage last week. Working on plans and taking care of the details will likely keep Linda & her busy for much of the next 12 months.

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Recovering from the ride

I compared last week to a ”roller coaster” ride – as our emotions climbed into joy in anticipation of our daughter’s marriage and then plunged into sorrow at the SIDS death of our niece’s 4 month old daughter. We closed out that particular “ride” on Monday as we attended the funeral.

It was a difficult experience but it seemed that being surrounded by friends and family helped Jessica & Mickey at least begin the process of grieving and coming to accept that life goes on . Linda spoke at the funeral at Jessica’s request. She was reluctant to do it because she was afraid that she would break down and not be able to finish what she had prepared. However, she wanted to “be there” for Jessica so she went ahead. She said she prayed and she knew others were praying for her. From that she experienced a peace and calm and did very well. – (see Philippians 4:6-8)

She shared her experience with observing Jessica pouring out a mother’s love on her child, spoke as a grandmother to empathize with the pain of grandparents who loved this child so much and shared her conviction - from Matt.19:14 - that Magdalena was with Jesus now. It was a heart felt and comforting and I admired her for her strength and demonstration of her faith in God.

When we get off a roller coaster ride we often feel “conflicted”. On the one hand, the adrenalin is pumping and we may want to do it again, On the other hand we may feel a little “dizzy” and just want to take it easy. We also know there are other rides and other things to do. In this case,I wanted to “catch my breath” and move on to some other things that had piled up during the previous week.

I had 3 main goals—one was to get started on scanning pictures and preparing a Powerpoint for a family event honoring my Dad’s upcoming 90th birthday. The birthday is in January 2007 but the family is getting together over (Canadian) Thanksgiving (October 7-8). Various members of the family are supplying pictures but I wanted to go through ours and scan ones that showed him with our family.

The second goal was to get caught up and- even get ahead on my preparations for the classes I’m teaching at Algoma University this term.

The third goal was to get caught up on a backlog of email and do some ”blog browsing” to catch upon what some of my blogging friends were up to.

At the end of the week I felt a little discouraged because I had “chipped away” at all of these things but hadn’t really accomplished anything like what I wanted to—Some of this was due falling back into to my “buffet table ”approach” to setting goals (I take more than I can handle). Some of it was being distracted by other things – some of my own making (like playing computer game sand doing the puzzles in the newspaper -- and some of it was ”Murphy’s law”.

Thursday morning I discovered I couldn’t download my email. I spent an hour or so “rebooting” – reinitializing the network devices, checking routers, checking that I could get at it by webmail, looking at the ISP website to see if they had any “problem alerts”, confirming (erroneously) that the problem was just with my laptop. Finally, I called the ISP and discovered that they had made a change to the mail server” name that I hadn’t heard about.

Friday morning I started having problems with a “flaky” INTERNET connection. Again I went through all of my own re-booting- resetting procedures but nothing worked. So again I called the ISP who after having me re-check a bunch of things internally decided to check with the cable provider. Sure enough they had a problem soI just had to wait for them to fix it.

These 2 problems cost me 4 hours of troubleshooting and got me derailed from working on things I could have done without the INTERNET so all in all I’d say I “wasted” a whole day because of technology – ain’t it great stuff!!! On the other hand, on Tuesday I was able to set up my “All-in-one” printer, FAX, scanner with no problems (once I read the instructions) and spent several (nostalgic) hours going over old photo albums and scanning pictures for the “Powerpoint family album” so it’s great when it works.

I also got some email and “blogging” done. I posted my “Sunday lesson” on Wednesday. I was honored to have positive comments from John Dobbs and Bobby Valentine because I have been blessed by their insights in scripture and inspired by their dedication to “knowing and following Jesus”.

For any interested in pursuing the questions I touched on in my “lesson” I would recommend looking at Bobby’s recent blog entries and the associated comments. (to do so click on the following links)

Discussion of Kingdom Come - Bobby's book with John Mark Hicks

A vision of the church

Unity - Its' importance and our failures

I also exchanged some emails with my cousin Wilma discussing our thoughts about a John Fisher (Purpose Driven Life)devotional Growing through regret that dealt with the concept that character is developed by “having regrets” that come from being aware of our sins and shortcomings.

Finally (last but far from least) I corresponded with Roseanne Ekman about their visit here and she sent several pictures of their family and home in Minnesota. I also exchanged a few notes with John Dobbs who it turns out knows Roseanne— it actually was a bit of “fun” because he knew her primarily from participation on a discussion list and said to me that he hadn’t met her. When I forwarded that comment to Roseann she responded with a picture from Tulsa workshop “chastising” John about his lapse of memory.

In any case it was an example of how God works in ”mysterious ways” because (paraphrasing slightly John Dobbs comment ) we were “delighted to learn that our old acquaintances (the Ekmanns) were acquaintances of our new friend John Dobbs.

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Back to the Basics-Lesson 2

In my post of August 27 - Are-you-in-slump? I started sharing material from our Adult Bible class at Pinehill. This is will be of most interest to people fromwithin our "fellowship" or someone who is familiar with many of our "traditional" aproaches to teaching about becoming a part of "the body of Christ".

The theme of "back to the Basics" is taken from our experience in other areas of life where sometimes to make progress we have to first go back and deal with some thing we are missing in the basics. I found this carton that illustrates this need for some basic improvements (in this man's golf grip and swing)

The following was covered in classes September 3 & 10th. There is some overlap with the August 27 lesson but this is summary outlining "gaps" between "what we say we believe" and "what we practice" and giving "strategies" or approaches for closing those gaps.

Over past couple of weeks we have looked at our usage of the word “church” and “church of Christ” – how we understand it, how the world understands it and how it is used in the New Testament.

Our discussion has confirmed to me several things that I believe can “limit our growth”.

1. My first observation is that the word “church” as it is commonly used in the world and by many in the churches of Christ conveys something different than what most of us understand as the Biblical meaning

What do we say we believe? Most (if not all) of us here understand that the Biblical meaning of “church” is the “called out ones” (in other words it describes the status of our relationship with God. We also understand that that God does the adding (Acts 2:47) We believe that “being in the church” is of utmost importance.

What do we actually practice? We talk about”going to church” rather than “being the church”. We talk about the church as a building. We talk about “our church” or “the church” based on a the “label” (sign over the door) which we understand to convey a “standard” set of beliefs & practices There seems to be a “gap” between “what we say we believe” and “what we actually practice.

What is the consequence? This practice (however well intended) can limit our effectiveness in communicating that we want simply “to be a part of the church that Jesus died for” . It can also distract us from our main task of being “salt, leaven & light” to so that other people come to want the same thing. ?

How can we improve? (What can be done to “close the gap”?)

One way is to “go back to the basics” and change the way we talk about “church” -

a) talk about being Christians (no more – no less)

b) talk about being part of the family (of God)

c) talk about having confidence or assurance that God has added us to Christ’s body

d) talk about assembling with the church or about attending church services or going to do something with those in our church family. Talk about how we get together to honor and celebrate the relationship we have with God and with each other through Jesus

e) Above all, we need to avoid words and actions that make “attendance” equivalent to “relationship” and those that confuse “place” with” people”

2. My second observation is that we frequently use the term “Church of Christ” as a way to identify a specific set of beliefs & practices - This identifies us by "what we believe" not "who we are".

What do we say we believe? We describe ourselves as “non-denominational”. We say that we want to be ”Christians” only. We say that we want to use the teachings in the New Testament as the sole source of determining our beliefs and practices. (speaking where the Bible speaks and being silent where the Bible is silent)

What do we actually practice? We are very eager and ready to describe our understanding of what the New Testament pattern is for becoming a Christian and for worship. We have pamphlets, books and Bible study guides that describe these “core” beliefs backed up with lots of scripture “quotes” and explanations of why those scriptures mean what we say they mean. We have persuasive arguments to counter the views of others who see the topic in a different way.

What is the consequence? There are two possible consequences of our common practices

1. we become denominational in our thinking and practice. A denomination is a religious group that adheres to a specific set of beliefs and practices. When we talk about what the churches of Christ believe and reduce those things to a (relatively)small list of things that need to be believed and practiced to be accepted in our fellowship, this seems to make us a denomination.

2. In our passion and conviction that we need to be Christians as outlined in the New Testament writings, we start talking about “the church” or “the Lord’s church” – as if we are the “only ones” who understand what God intended about these things. We convey to others that we are the “only Christians” .

In general, I don’t think very many of us really believe we are the “onlyChristians” . (although I’m sure that some in our “fellowship” do). Certainly those who initiated the restoration movement called for people to be “Christians only” – (but so far as I know they never taught that this would made us the “only Christians”.).

Another consequence of the way we teach and talk about the “Church of Christ” is that (it seems to me) we are often “confused” and inconsistent at best and hypocritical at worst when we talk to and interact with others who say they are Christians.

How do you respond to someone that says “I’m a Christian”, I believe in Jesus”? Do you have reservations unless you find out they attend a “church of Christ”

On the other hand, I wonder about passages like (Rom.14:4, I John 4:2 and Phil 1:18) – are we dishonoring Jesus when we reject those who are proclaiming him as Lord?

At the end we can be “torn” – we are “reluctant” to be seen accepting other Christians whose beliefs and practices are different from ours but we are also “uncomfortable” with thinking that we alone have got it right.

I think many of us who “grew up” in a church of Christ or who left a “denomination” to become a part of a Church of Christ have a “discomfort” in this area. We understand so clearly and are strongly convicted about those things that webelieve the NT teaches about “becoming a Christian” and about the “New Testament pattern for the church” that we find it difficult to accept (extend recognition as a fellow Christian) to anyone who believes and practices differently than we do. (Ironically this passion for "doing things right" also ends up creating a "Heinz 57 varieties" of "churches of Christ" as we fuss over over almost anything imaginable.)

There are two extreme responses to resolving this “conflict”

1. We compromise, “waterdown” or “sidestep” talking about our beliefs to avoid seeming “dogmatic” and “divisive”.

2. On the other hand, we can become very “rigid” and tell others bluntly that ”we are right (and by implication saved) and they are wrong” (and by implication lost).

Neither of these extremes is “sound doctrine” The first one fails the test of “whatever is not of faith is sin” (Roms14:23). The second fails the test of love (among other tests).

It seems to me that we so often, in our passion for truth, have missed the point of Jesus’ prayer (John 17:20-21)

“that they (those who believe in Jesus) may be one as Jesus and the Father are one so that the world may believe that (God) have sent (Jesus) .

Ephesians 4 reiterates the importance of

“keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace” – of proclaiming “one body, one Spirit, one hope one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God”.

Yet we focus more on the things that divide us (within and without), we argue and fail to

“to live a life worthy of the calling (we) have received.

We fail to be completely humble and gentle; patient, and bearing with one another in love.”

How can we improve?

One way is to “go back to the basics” and change the way we talk about the “church of Christ ” -

I suggest that we

a) talk about being a group of Christians who have come together as a family (or community) in response to our common faith in Jesus.

b) talk about how those beliefs provide us assurance of God’s grace and the transforming power of his Spirit.
c) talk about how –regardless of what we experience – good or bad – in our daily lives we are experiencing “life to the full” (John 10:10) as God grows his fruit within us (Gal 5:22-23 )

d) talk about how we are diligent in searching the scriptures to come to know Jesus better each day and how we would welcome any one to join with us we continue to do that.

e) talk about how we are on a ”journey of faith and discovery” -- a journey we have found leads to a (growing) belief in Jesus and desire to know him better and serve him better. A journey, which gives us an increasing assurance of his saving grace & spirit being at work in our lives.

f) talk about the fact that we have developed deep convictions about what the Bible teaches about how we become Christians, how we live as spirit directed servants, and how we worship to honor God, and while we respect those who have come to a different understanding from the Bible, we must – to preserve a clear conscience before God -- teach and practice those things until we come to a different understanding.

g) talk about the “name” church of Christ as a (Biblical –Rom. 16:16) label of convenience that we use to describe congregations that have similar beliefs and practices – congregations where we can expect to feel “at home” if we need to visit elsewhere or move to a new community.

Well -that's it for now--I pray that as we think on these things and "reason together" we can come more fully into that "walk in the light" that God has called us to.

God Bless
Charlie

A roller coaster week

It’s Sunday afternoon. I should just be posting my lesson from today’s Bible class and then taking a nap!! —however, it has been a “crazy” week and I need to do an up date on several things that have excited us and others that have saddened us. If God gives us tomorrow I will try to post the lesson then.

Where to start? I also gave the sermon this morning at Pinehill and it was on the subject “Begin at the beginning." One of the things I mentioned was the familiar quote from Lewis Carroll’s delightful children’s book “ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (1865)”. The quote occurs in the final chapter of Alice, when the Knave of Hearts is placed on trial – having been accused of stealing the Queen’s tarts .

“The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. 'Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?' he asked.
'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'”

So –beginning on Tuesday, we worked like the proverbial beavers and finished the garden project. (first picture shows it after removing the old stuff) It was very satisfying despite the sore backs and aching muscles. It was good that we wrapped it up because by Wednesday I was beginning to feel the pressure of needing to prepare a lesson for Sunday morning and I did get most of that done on Wednesday & Thursday. (2nd picture shows it finished after 15 wheelbarrows of soil mix and re-planting. )


Thursday we had the pleasure of receiving a call from Melissa saying that she & Alexander were now married and on their way to a short honeymoon. It was a joyful, with some tears welling up, and we were able to extend our congratulations to Alexander and her. She had called and talked to her mother Wednesday night—all bubbly and sharing fun she had had with the preparations—getting flowers and other last minute details. I told my Dad (who had ”eloped” with my mother and gotten married with only the preacher and a couple of witnesses present) that Melissa and Alexander had followed their example –except they had told their parents before hand that they were going to do it. We talked to her for a long time today and she gave us the "blow-by-blow" of the marriage ceremony and how she was feeling. It made it more real for me to hear her talking about it. She also sent some early pictures -- she says there are better ones on the way.

Thursday night we finalized plans for Linda to ”go on tour” for a month starting October 9. The impetus for this was a call from our daughter(-in-law) Sarah last weekend. Kevin had just been told by his thesis supervisor that he needed to have his dissertation proposal and application for internship completed by November 15. He has been caring for Will while Sarah work’s and he has had a part-time job doing psychometric evaluations. In order to meet the deadline, he needs to give up the job and reduce his time with Will – Sarah said “We need you now” and Grandma didn’t need a lot of urging so she will be there to help for3 weeks. She will then fly from Vancouver to Chicago to watch Hunter & Camdyn while there Mom & Dad go for a cruise to celebrate their 15th anniversary.

We had learned earlier in the week of the passing of Mabel Whitehead—she was in her 99th year and had lived a full life remaining alert and full of life until very recently. Mabel and her husband Elmer were an active part of the Pinehill family up until Elmer’s death in 1991. Shortly thereafter Mabel moved to live with her daughter in North Bay and had remained there until her death.(moving to a care facility for the past few years)
In addition to our fond memories of Mabel from our church relationship, Elmer was the brother of my brother-in-law Morris (who is married to my oldest sister Goldie). Because of these connections, we went to Thessalon Friday morning to attend a memorial service for Mabel.

Our sister-in-law Marilyn had done some leg work and arranged for my family and Linda’s family to get together in Bruce Mines for a dinner Friday evening to share a late celebration of our 40th anniversary. We were looking forward to that event –and our plan was to spend the afternoon visiting with Linda’s Mom and then go to the dinner. I had brought my computer with the intent of doing some final touches on my sermon and preparing a Powerpoint outline to be used with it.

However, circumstances overtook us and the dinner had to be cancelled and our other plans changed.

When we arrived at Linda’s Mom’s we discovered that Linda’s 4 month old grand-niece (her brother Joe’s granddaughter) Magdalana had died suddenly in her sleep that morning. This was a devastating blow to Jessica (the mother) and her family. The baby was her only child and Joe’s only grandchild. (I had made a brief reference to the baby’s birth in my May 3 post-Rebuilding bridges)

We spent the rest of the day with Linda’s Mom – a lot of the time Linda was fielding and making phone calls to other family members. Arliss & Theresa both came by - to share in the bewilderment and sorrow that such a thing had happened.

We had given Jessica & the baby a ride to Thessalon in early July when Linda went down to help celebrate Arliss’ birthday – a precious memory for Linda – The picture taken at the party shows Jessica (in the background) with her 2 sisters Angela and Rebecca holding the baby.

When these tragedies happen, we feel so unequipped to know how to help and how to comfort. We turn to God in prayer – offering up grief, pain, anger … we have no answers…We feel guilt because we instinctively- selfishly think “Thank God” it wasn’t my (grand)child. Even the confidence that this child is “safe in the arms of Jesus” doesn’t stop the sense of helplessness—of not knowing how to comfort -- how to soften the pain – and so we do the best we can to be there with them and help them through. The funeral is tomorrow –Linda has been asked to say something about Jessica & Magdalana – I am praying that her words will provide some comfort. She doesn’t like giving talks and this will be difficult for her—but it was Jessica’s request – so she will do her best—.

In the midst of this “roller coaster” week, we were preparing for a visit by Bob & Roseann Ekman. They were here in Sault Ste Marie almost 30 years ago when Bob was the “preaching” minister at Pinehill. They left here in 1981 and we hadn’t seen them for well over 20 years. We have kept contact off & on by email and we were delighted when they contacted us about coming here to visit. They arrived yesterday afternoon and we had a great visit before, during and after dinner.

Russ Ward came by for a while. He was one of a number of people who had been brought into the church as a result of their work here. Bob had come to preaching later in his life and Pinehill was his first assignment. While their work here was fruitful in many ways, there were also some ”rocky relationships” with others. This morning after services Bob came up and offered an apology and asked forgiveness for those past mistakes. He said it had been a growing conviction that he needed to do this and it was facilitated by their move to Minnesota which put them within easy driving range of the Sault. I trust that it completed a healing process for any that were offended during the time Bob was here. We pray God’s blessings on them as they work with the church in Minnesota.

So its been a “week to remember” –If you are reading this we solicit your prayers for the Goodmurphy family as they deal with this tragedy. May they seek and find the God that God can work through tragedy for those that love Him. And there is no ending to this saga but this is the end for now.

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Back to … school?

I thank those who commented on my “Charlie & Linda” post. JD (Hope Remains) ) commented and made reference to it on his site. Linda thought it was a bit much for me to make those comments publicly but it is what my heart was saying and I wanted the world (or least those of you who visit this site) to know how I felt and to give her the honor due to her. Several of my brothers and sisters sent congratulations by email. Lawrence (my youngest brother) and Lily sent a neat e-card showing 2 “dancing” matches with the sentiment that we were a perfect match (Click HERE for the “non-customized” version). Several of our church family gave us cards.

We enjoyed our overnight getaway in the “BBB”. – peace and solitude and time to reflect on 40 years of marriage. We both agree that it is unlikely that we will have another 40 years since that would put us both into triple digit ages – we’ll leave that up to God and just enjoy the time we are given.

We have frequently taken a “nth” honeymoon trip on the Labor day weekend – we tend to like to be spontaneous and not make reservations or other firm plans. Sometimes that has worked well and other times – not so well. Almost 30 years ago – not long after we moved to the Sault - we decided to take a trip into Michigan . We (I) forgot that there is a Mackinaw bridge walk on Labor day – as a result all the motels for miles around were fully booked. After driving a couple of hundred miles and ending up in Grayling at midnight without a place to stay we pulled the plug and just drove home. That’s the stuff that builds memories and makes or breaks a relationship. In our case these little misadventures have given us lots to laugh about as we think about making another of these “spur of the moment” trips. At least with the “BBB” we always have a place to sleep if we can find a place to park it.

Anyhow – for many years we had to be back from those trips because school (in Ontario) starts the Tuesday after Labor day. This hasn’t been a concern for at least the past 5 years since Melissa graduated from University – although for the 4 years she was at Queen’s we often celebrated our anniversary on the road to/from Kingston or in Kingston helping her move and get settled in. (Of course if I was teaching we usually had to be back for that so it was only a couple of years that there was complete freedom to get back “whenever”)

This year we are back into the “school” thing because Linda’s niece Alyssa is boarding with us with she attend Algoma University. Having someone around every day will require some adjustments in our lives but we are happy to see and experience that youthful enthusiasm.

I’m also back to teaching and this week we came back to finish up the gardening project. Finally, I am back to thinking through how to help our church family "fill the gaps" that have been left by the Lansdell's departure.

There is a theme here.

How often do we have this need to “get back” into a routine of doing thedaily things that we want to do, into completing projects, into making changes that we want to make, into discovering and getting on with new projects.

This has me thinking of 3 things that God has called us to do.

First, as outlined in my recent post (Sunday August 27) is we are called to an ongoing “transformation”, ever increasing faith and spiritual growth- we are called to a journey – not a destination.

Second, I’m also reminded that God knew that we would sometimes “plateau” or even “go into a slump” and at times be ready to give up. This is shown by the number of times we are encourages to “keep the faith”, to persevere in the face of trials, and to “not grow weary” .

Third – God has called us to a “rest” – but a rest were we honor and connect more fully with him that we are able to do in the course of “having Him in our daily living”. Mike Cope has a post pointing to a book on this subject.

Life is a journey with hills and valleys, a journey, which as the Chinese proverb says requires us to keep taking the “first step” , it requires focus and direction. We also need to think & plan to be sure we are on the right track -- or t least not the "wrong one". While need to "keep on keeping on"life also requires some time to stop and “smell the roses” by communing with God. My prayer today is for the wisdom to seek balance in these things.

God Bless
Charlie

Charlie & Linda - September 3 1966

Sonnet XLIII
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee ? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life !--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Proverbs 5:18-19

May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
A loving doe, a graceful deer—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be captivated by her love.

Guess How much I love you?

"I love you right up to the moon and back."

(from the the story about Little and Big Nutbrown Hares' efforts to express their love for each other
by Sam McBratney)

On September 3 1966 I married the most beautiful woman in the world. –My love for her was more than can be expressed by the poetic phrasing of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, or the erotic truths of the Proverbs or the childlike grasping for words of the Nut Brown Hares.

Forty years later I have discovered that I didn’t then know what beauty really was—her beauty has grown with each year, each tear, each laugh, each child, each pain, each hug and each time she has forgiven me. (and that’s been a lot of times)

Forty years later I have discovered that I didn’t know then what love really was. My love for her has grown with each year, each tear, each laugh, each child, each pain, each hug and each time she has forgiven me.

Happy Anniversary Linda-I love you - in uncountable ways – yes even -“right up to the moon and back” and I remain “captivated by your love”

I will be yours until God calls us home
Charlie

p.s. I'll go back to my plan about posting a Bible thought on Sundays - next week. This week we are "running away" to celebrate.

Katrina-after a year & a bit

Over the past couple of weeks as August came to an end there has been a lot of media coverage discussing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and what had and hadn’t been done to help people put their lives back together.

Linda focused on the TV reports and I watched some of that –but a lot of my update on “Life after Katrina” came by following the blogs of John Dobbs –Out Here Hope Remains and Dee Andrews – The Wind Vane Chronicles.

John’s posts on August 29 , August 27 and August 25 give a good perspective on what it has been like on the Gulf Coast and some of the “lessons learned”- However the one that touched me the most was Looking up for Hope posted August 30 2006.

If you look at the slideshow of pictures you will see one with a Canadian flag—That was Linda’s handiwork -something we left as a piece of us to thank the people at Central for giving us this opportunity to serve. I want to share my comment to John regarding that posting “JD - Tell Jeff – Thanks for the ceiling tiles. It brought tears to our eyes as the memories flooded back as we watched the slide show I pray we can find away to return but for now it looks as if God is leading in another direction. Perhaps he will open a door that we haven't yet seen”

I also noted this from John’s post this Friday “Robbie Woods was helping out around the church yesterday and put together a filing cabinet I had bought for my office”. It so good to know that Robbie is still “walking with God”—We had the privilege of having him share with us his story about a ”wasted” life that led to a loss of every thing important to him, about the way he had encountered Jesus and had been brought to his knees. He was baptized around the time we were there and he was such an encouragement as you could almost see daily ”spurts” in the “transformation” that came from a “new life’ (Romans 12:2).

Robbie had a gift of making things from palm fronds.We have a rose and a cross that he made on display in the “BBB” as a reminder of him and all of the people we met in Pascagoula. John informed me in an email that they are hopeful that Robbie will soon be able to return to a ”regular ”job. We pray for this and his continued faithfulness to God.

Dee has also talked often about how Katrina had changed so many lives including hers. On August 25 she posted a blog describing what she was doing and feeling at that time in 2005. She had intended to continue the ”retrospective” for several days but by August 28 she had decided that it was better to look forward-to move on rather than reliving the pain of the past year.

She wrote in part “I do not want my life so tied to the past that I cannot see the present or the future. Many people do that, I think. In their need to remember, not forget, they embrace the loss so fiercely they become entangled in it. It ensnares them, robbing them of any further joy in life. I'm not discounting or dismissing loss and sorrow by any means. I have been - at times - consumed by loss and sorrow. We all have. As the young minister so eloquently and powerfully expressed it yesterday in both sermons, if we love, we can be - will be - tragically struck and burned with "rivets of grief," as can God. (He told me last night he'd borrowed it from a much older minister, but that's good I think. Beautiful imagery and he used it well.) But we scar up. We heal. We go on. We must not let the wounds fester so that we are immersed by them.”

My comment on that post was as follows

“Dee - I have tried to apply something I heard in "management training" that seemed very spiritual (although I never tried to see if I could support the thought from the Bible)

Anyhow --it seems to say something similar to what you have said here.

We should let our "vision" of the future shape our actions. Rather than - as we so often do --dragging the "past into the present" we should put the past into the past and draw the future back into the present.

Maybe better way to say it is "Live your dreams today" rather than (re)living the pain (and mistakes) of the past.

Thanks for the reminder that life is ahead - not behind -- and God is there showing the way.”

I share these thoughts for 2 reasons- one being that it has amazed me that 3 weeks of work –a mere drop in the ocean of what needed to be done - was enough to make a lasting impression on our lives-indeed we have been blessed more by giving than anything we could receive – and we have received so much more than we gave – we have friends, we have memories, we have an increased sense of God’s presence “in the storms of our lives” (see the “I” of the storm).

The second reason is hope that the faith and servant’s heart that is shown by these people might touch others and encourage more to go to ”receive the blessing of giving”

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

A quiet week (with exciting news)

Here is Thursday night and this is my first entry for this week. I’m telling myself that it is because I was too busy. However, it is also true that I didn’t really have much to write about. So to-day is just a brief note on my week.

I will start with the exciting news. In my posting about our visit with Melissa in Kingston I wrote “We had several long conversations with Melissa getting caught up on her life and talking about her plans for school and – hopefully—some time soon - a wedding. We had been kidding her the fact that Chris was married in the year of our 25th anniversary and Kevin in the year of our thirty-fifth -- so she had to either get married this year (our 40th) or wait for another 5 years – anyhow – time will tell but she may break the pattern."

What I couldn’t say then -- because Alexander hadn’t made it “official” by proposing -- was that she was quite certain she would be getting married soon. Saturday she called and said that, on Friday, he had “popped the question” and given her a ring. Sunday or Monday she called to confirm a ”good news/bad news” plan for their wedding that we had talked about but it hadn’t been completely settled.

The good news was that they are planning to be married on September 7. The bad news is that this will be very small civil ceremony. We wanted to be there as did others in her circle of family and friends but, since Alexander’s parents who are in Sweden can’t come now—they wanted to be fair to every one and limit the participation to a couple of their friends to ”standup” with them.

The GOOD news however,(which is like Melissa to do things differently) is that she still wants a wedding with the dress, attendants, family & friends – a full scale celebration of her marriage. That they are planning for next summer. So she will be married this year close to our 40th but she is also breaking the pattern of “multiples of 5” by delaying the “ceremony & party” until next year. I’m sure I’ll be posting more about this event as time goes forward.

So we are happy that she is getting married and that her and Alexander can go forward having made this commitment to each other. We are sad that we can’t be there--- and we look forward with anticipation to next year (although I’m not to keen about being involved in what I know will be some ”tense” times as Melissa and her mother are working through the details f the “million” things that have to be planned. (Update - I don't mean that I think they'll "fight" about it -- they get along well -- it is just that there will be so many decisions and that creates stress)

--- I pray this is a step on a life long journey together and that as they walk together in their love for each other they will seek God and walk with him as well.--

Other than that it has been a fairly quiet week.

Monday morning I got a call from my Dad asking if I wanted to go golfing and we set a timeof10 a.m. When I went to pick him up he had a puzzled look and said he was waiting for my nephew Ken— so I said “Did you know you called me?” –and he said “Oh – I thought I had called Ken”. – So off we went and had a good round of golf.

Monday afternoon I prepared a bulletin article for next Sunday that had to be to Karen by Tuesday. I also did some prep work for the courses I’m teaching this year at Algoma University and Linda had started work at tearing up and replanting one of her flower beds.

By Tuesday I was heavily involved in the ”reconstruction” -

Our house is built on a gravel hill and this bed at the edge of our patio had very little top soil-with gravel and rocks underneath. She had dug down about a foot and wanted it filled back in with a better base and more topsoil. Lots of shoveling and mixing Tuesday & Wednesday but it now has about 6 inches of fine gravel as a base, topped by 3 inches of the old top soil mixed with half composted leaves and then topped with a equal parts mix of topsoil, cow manure and peat moss. I try to look at these day-to-day experiences to find spiritual applications. In this case I was reminded that in our efforts to fulfill the mission that Jesus gave us (Matt. 28:19) we don’t have to worry about the ”back breaking” work of preparing the soil. We rather have the easier job of planting the seed—God does the rest.

Tuesday p.m. I got talking to Len Roetman –we had talked briefly the previous Friday and it was his birthday so I had wanted to arrange a golf game with him & my Dad. We had done a couple ofyears in a row a several years back but we hadn’t done it for a while. The reason we started this ”tradition” was that my Dad and Len’s son Len Jr. Both have their birthday’s on January 13 – and that’s not so good a time for golfing here in SSM so it was a Birthday celebration for the3 of them and I just tagged along.

In any case – we arranged to go Wednesday a.m. (Len Jr. is working so he couldn’t join us. We had a great time. I had a good visit with Len which we haven’t had a chance to do for a while (click HERE for more on our connection with the Roetman’s)

To-day I had a number of errands to run, paid some bills and made a trip for the Red Cross to take a lady to her Dr’s appointment. I also learned that one of the courses I was scheduled to teach had been cancelled due to insufficient registration. Fortunately, I had been focusing more effort on the other course although I had done course outlines and set up a course website. It is disappointing to put effort into preparations and have the course cancelled but it is what it is.

We also "closed out" the final chapter of "Roger at Pinehill". The movers had come in to pack so Linda & I met Roger, Sandra and Jessical for a "last breakfast" at Sandro's on Tuesday morning. Wednesday evening we had a full house for the final session of the "Mayberry series" with coffee & cake following -- lots of hugs and tears.

Oh I almost forgot the other big news for the week was the birth of David Stewart Seeler on Saturday -- 2 weeks ahead of schedule but a fine healthy baby boy. Mark & Sharon and older sister Amy are overjoyed.


Well such as it is that’s been my week so far

God Bless
Charlie

Are you in a slump?

I’m going to try something new. I want to use Sundays to post some material from a series of Bible lessons that I have been presenting in a Sunday morning adult class.

For context I offer the following for consideration.

My desire in life is to know God and have an ever deepening and richer relationship with him – in other words to be a Christian because “Jesus is the way the truth and the life – and he shows us the way to find God. (John 14:6)

I offer these thoughts about my continuing quest to know Jesus and receive the “full” (abundant) life (John 10:10) in the hopes that it encourage others share in the rewards (Hebrews 11:6) of living as a child of the King .

The “Back to the basics” series” is based on the following observations

1. Christians are expected to grow continually in spiritual qualities and works of service (cf. “2 Corinthians 3:18 ...being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, 2 Thessalonians 1:3 … your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing; 2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities* in increasing measure,
*).

2. However, our experience suggests that Christians will, at times, encounter “plateaus” or “slumps” in their spiritual development (Typical of all human endeavor)

3. To achieve a “breakthrough” when we are at a “plateau” “in a slump” a good approach is to go back and reexamine the basics and make any needed corrections or renewed focus in areas where we may have “drifted off track” (or not have gotten it right in the first place)

One of the more basic things that influences our growth as Christians is our view of “church”—Do we see it as a place we go or as something we are? It seems to me that we so often talk of “going to church” rather than emphasizing that God wants us to “be the church” wherever we are and what ever we are doing.

Webster’s English Dictionary gives the following definitions
Church
1: a building for public esp. Christian worship
2: the clergy or officialdom of a religious body
3: a body or organization of religious believers as
3a: the whole body of Christians
3b: DENOMINATION
3c: CONGREGATION
4: public divine worship

In researching this lesson, I came across this description of the origins of the word church and how it relates to Biblical usage. It is from a group called Theophile International (I haven’t read all of their material so I can’t comment on their overall teaching but based on my other research I fully support this description of God’s view of the church)

What does church mean?

Etymology of the word "church": Middle English "chirche", from Old English "cirice", ultimately from Late Greek "kyriakon", from Greek, neuter of "kyriakos": of the lord, from kyrios lord, master.

This is very interesting. According to the dictionary the English word "church", originated from a Greek word meaning "of the Lord".

The Greek word "ekklesia", which is translated church, is a combination of the Greek word kaleo (which means to call) and ek, a preposition meaning out or out of. Therefore, ekklesia is properly translated as "called out ones".

So, while the common contemporary understanding of the word "church" is focusing upon a gathering, the actual meaning of the word is on our status as followers of Jesus. Within the context of His teachings that we are to be "in the world", but not "of the world", and that we are to hate our life "in this world", the application of being "the called out ones" is appropriate. The common usage which empowers the system of “churchianity” is not an appropriate interpretation of "ekklesia". For, the focus is not on the group, nor on the gathering of the group, but upon our status as belonging to the Lord and being called out of worldliness and self life.

One change in my basic thinking is that I now believe it is a mistake when we engage in discussions about what “our” church believes. I say this because I think this leads quickly to one of 2 “extremes” both of which I believe distorts God’s intention.

The first extreme is that we concede (by engaging in the discussion) that it is legitimate for us as human beings to identify a relatively short list of “belief & practice’ (doctrine & liturgy ) that “identify” us as a distinct “church’. To engage in this type of “denominating” of churches seems to be divisive and sectarian in nature rather than seeking to “be one as Jesus & the Father are one”(John 17:21-22) or to be seeking the unity described in Ephesians 4 .

The second extreme is to make the claim that we are Christ’s church and then use our list of beliefs and practices to define what people have to “believe & practice” for us to consider them to be a part of the church.
This logically leads to the position that ”only we” understand what God intended – but the “infighting” within various groups shows that even those who claim to have a corner on truth can’t agree on everything—and who is to decide which things we have to be “right” about and which one’s don’t matter.

There is another reason I believe we should steer away from discussions about ”what church do you belong to?” or “Why you should be a part of this church?”. I think that it is “ socially acceptable” to talk about “church” because it allows us to seem ”inclusive” and ”non confrontational”. It is less acceptable to talk about having a relationship with God & Jesus and surrendering ourselves to their will. (I don't know if this is true of other but I know it is true in my experience)

Soif I don’t want to talk about “church” what do I say if asked about “my”church?”

It seems to me that the answer is found in the original restoration plea of Campbell and Stone that we should be “Christians only” I think the best answer about a specific group of people who see themselves as a ”church” family” is to say “We are a group of Christians who are connected by a common love for and faith in Jesus”

Of course this begs the question of what do we mean by a Christian (that's another "basic" andI'llget to it eventually) but at least this takes us into the correct discussion of “relationship” rather than “rules”

In summary, we need to believe that we are the “eklesia” and that being "called" is God's work and God's judgement. We don't decide (define) the church we simply are (or are not) part of it dependent on our relationship with Jesus.

To me this is one of the “basics” that we need to ‘relearn” – Allowing ourselves to get sucked into a discussion about “which church is best” or “Why this church?” isn’t relevant –we need to get away from ”phamplets” describing “beliefs and practices” that differentiate (separate) us from others and get on with seeking how we can experience the “ones” (unity) of Ephesians .

(Note: This is NOT to say that I believe those things emphasized in the pamphlet aren’t true or important – it is just that reducing these Godly things to "phamplets" undermines the claim to that we are “just Christians” because most people will see it as a “creed” that “divides” us from others rather than a plea for unity by seeking Jesus through the word.)

If we believe (and I do) that there is only “one church”, then we simply need to encourage people to be disciples (Christians) and leave the “church” to God as a necessary consequence. And we certainly have to get away from using the beliefs of the group that we assemble with as the “litmus” test of who is a Christian and who isn’t.

As a closing note - (and I may well have missed something here because I’m still struggling with “What is post-modernism and what does it mean to Christians?) I’m beginning to think that the “post modernists” may have done what 150 years of restoration has failed to do – they have put the “kiss of death” onto denominations – they may be different in their thinking and they may have less of a passion for “a single truth” but it is clear that -- when they are “turned on” to “church” -- it is because they have been attracted by people who have a relationship with Jesus. They are not interested in joining a “church”.

Hope there was something here that makes sense to someone other than myself

Next week – I will revisit another “basic” that may remove obstacles to our growth.

God Bless
Charlie