God, who gets invited to dinner at your place?
How do we get on your guest list?

“Walk straight,
act right,
tell the truth.

“Don’t hurt your friend,
don’t blame your neighbor;
despise the despicable.

“Keep your word even when it costs you,
make an honest living,
never take a bribe.

“You’ll never get
blacklisted
if you live like this.” (Psalm 15, The Message)

I love this passage because it provides a pretty clear and simple explanation for how to please God.

Walk straight, act right, tell the truth. Don’t hurt, don’t blame, despise wrong-doing. Keep your word.

Although these things are easier to say than to do on a daily basis, if we keep them in our minds and on our hearts, and just take a moment to meditate on them now and then, they will become the foundation for how we go about our lives.

Take a moment to ask God for help with this. He is the only One who can provide you with strength and discipline to walk in holiness and love.

What we may experience as a difficult situation at the time may turn out to be a time when God used us the most. God says in our weakness He is strong. All through scripture, many of the godliest people had to endure extremely difficult situations. I think about Hosea, and how God told him to marry a prostitute, even though God knew that she wouldn’t be faithful. Is it possible that God can actually place us into situations that many would view as painful and even wrong, for the purpose of glorifying Himself or teaching someone else? In the case of Hosea and Gomer, God was providing a real life example of His relationship with Israel.

For me, it is very freeing to think of God as bigger than our pain, and when I’m experiencing pain, to know that I am never outside the will of God, even in the midst of torment. God may not remove that pain immediately, even when dealing with someone of great faith, in order to achieve His purpose, which may only be revealed to us when we see Him face to face. Until then, true faith is the ability to say in the midst of pain, “You are God, and I will trust You!” I believe that’s what Christ said when He prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” Being God, Christ new what God’s will was, and that He had to endure suffering to achieve God’s ultimate plan.

When Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus, God convicted him, and even made him blind so that he would completely depend on God’s guidance to lead him to Ananias, and be healed and anointed by the Holy Spirit. After Paul spent his energy persecuting the Christians, God took drastic measures to stop Paul and use him for His glory. I imagine traveling blind would have been an incredibly uncomfortable experience for Paul, not to mention being convicted of opposing God when all the while Paul thought He was doing the will of God. In that case, God could have made Paul’s conversion more comfortable, but He found it necessary to make Paul depend on Him. It appears as though God did not give Paul much of a choice in the matter.

Now, I realize all of what I am saying can simply be responded to with the argument that God just uses the bad things that happen to us, and doesn’t actually cause those bad things to happen. I guess one has to decide what they believe God is capable of. If the decision is that God is not capable of bringing death and destruction upon His creation, take a closer look at scripture, and you will find that God’s wrath is just as common as His mercy, and His ultimate and final act of wrath will be when He destroys His enemies once and for all. As Romans 9:20 says, who are we to question God?

Finally, I’d like to bring a bit of balance to this matter. It is our responsibility to pray for and take care of those in need. It is not our responsibility to determine whether or not a person is enduring pain as a part of God’s plan, or to try and determine what God’s plan is in that situation. God calls us to take care of those in need, pray for their well-being, and trust that God will take care of them.

Enemy-occupied territory – that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

If all Christians would take this idea seriously, and apply it to their lives, what a different world we would live in. Instead, we have a hard time resisting the urge to indulge in what the enemy has to offer while we are living here.

This idea has been more real to my wife and I recently, as we prepare to make a change that some consider crazy (we know some think this because they’ve told us). We are asked questions like, “how will you support your family?”, “what will you do once you’re done school?”, and other questions regarding our kids and our house which we are selling.

It seems as though we have this idea that we need to have everything in order before we respond to God’s calling. Here are a few things I think about when I have doubts:

• God does not NEED our money. He only asks that we be generous with what we have.
• God does not NEED our abilities, but wants us to be faithful with the gifts He’s given us.
• God does not depend on our plans to fulfill His own plan for our lives, He just asks that we listen and obey.
• We don’t need to know God’s whole plan to take the first step, we only need to trust Him.

Let us not get caught up in becoming too comfortable in enemy occupied territory. Remember, God has us here for a mission, which, in the details, can look different from person to person. But the call to all God’s people is to love and obey Him, love others and live a life that demonstrates the holiness given to us by God through Jesus Christ.

C.S. Lewis states, in his book, The Great Divorce, “There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.”

There was a time when I looked directly at God and made a promise to dedicate my life to His work. Over the last 13 years, I have had periods of my life where I turned my back to God, and the result was darkness. More recently, I have faced God and have experienced no less trouble, but more peace and hope than ever before.

To be good, I think, is to head in the direction that would make us into more holy people, more like the people God would have us be if it weren’t for our sinful nature. Salvation is a promise made by God, our only responsibility is to point our lives in the direction of the holiness offered freely to us.

By the will of God, we will be selling our house and moving out to Three Hills this summer and living there for at least 3 years while I complete a Bachelor of Ministry – Pastoral degree. We are very excited about this move, but have a lot of work to do before then.

We thank you for your prayers and ask that you continue to pray for the things mentioned in my previous post. Thanks so very much!

Over the next couple weeks, we will be making a decision to move to one of two communities, depending on which school I choose. Our first choice is Prairie Bible College in Three Hills, Alberta. This is our first choice for many reasons, most of which have to do with family life within the community. Our second choice is Providence, which is closer to home, but not as good for family life.

Please pray for us as we make this decision, and all of the steps that need to happen from now until August: application and acceptance, scholarships, bursaries and students loans, selling our house and arranging housing at the school campus, and our kids as they will have to adjust to a different living arrangement.

We appreciate your prayers and support!

Here’s a “promo” video created for the slate. I’m guessing the HP marketing team quickly put this together at Microsoft’s request.

1. No Windows!
   That’s right. The tablet would have to be running an entirely new OS. There would be no sign of this being a Windows device, rather a Microsoft (or hardware manufacturer) device.
2. New Web Browser.
   Along with Windows, IE would have to be thrown out. Use web standards this time, and call it anything but Internet Explorer. It needs to be a fully functioning browser.
3. Cheap.
   I’d be willing to pay no more than $800 for a tablet. If Apple comes out with one, I might be willing to pay more.
4. Not Brown.
   Please, Microsoft, don’t make another brown mobile device.
5. Wireless Connectivity.
   The device should have WiFi (obviously), Bluetooth and 3G.
6. It just needs to work!
   If Microsoft would just come out with something that works very well and is really easy to use, they will have a winner.
7. It needs to be as good as or better, plus cheaper, than Apple’s tablet.
   This can mean many things. But, essentially, every aspect of the device would need to match up or function better than Apple’s tablet. Even then, if it’s around the same price, I would rather buy Apple’s device simply because it will likely sync well with my MacBook Pro, iPhone and soon-to-be-purchased iMac.

There are many other things that could make me decide not to buy it, but if these 7 items are checked off, there is a good chance I might be interested.