A Pure Heart

Notes from today at church, visiting Calvary:

Pastor Lawrence said: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.” Matthew 3:2

And when you do all heaven will break loose.

I can have my nice stuff as long as it never has me.

Turn off the noise and get alone with God.

You mean I have to put something into this relationship to be a disciplined follower of Jesus? Haha!

Baptised, membership, etc. But am I growing?

Don’t be a lone wolf. Stick it out together.

I should want a change that is so drastic on the inside that I can’t keep it secret on the outside.

Getting away from sin is like Jesus shouting to me “The house is on fire and I am desperately trying to take you to a place of safety. Change your ways!"

Repentance is a U-turn.

******

Music: A Pure Heart/Rusty Nelson
Prayer: “change my life, 100%”

Devotions Without Distractions

Devotions. When is the best time to do them?

I much prefer late evening for anything requiring brain power. If there’s something to create for LIFE 100.3, the late evening seems to welcome ideas and strategy. Except devotions!

Devotions at night? Even though my brain is ready, I often put it off “until just a little later”. Later, seldom happens. The PVR has something recorded I can’t wait to see and it seems to haunt me until I watch it. Or there’s preparing for the next day schedule - work, life. At night I over-analyse scripture; it confuses me; I try to make sense of it by cross-referencing or asking a friend by email and end up giving up.

Morning devotions are working better for me. I’m in a positive, receptive frame of mind but while reading or praying I often daydream about the project of the day at work. Getting derailed with other thinking is very common so I have a blank piece of paper with me and when I get a non-devo idea, I scribble it down and refocus on devos. I seem to be clear thinking and most receptive to understanding God’s will, reading the Bible and spending time thinking about the word if I do it before work. Like now.

“God help me to focus on You. Please teach my mind to shut out the junk of the day.”

Thinking About: Steve’s new son, Aiden
Reading: Matthew 13 (the mustard seed)
Listening To: The Fold “Christmas”
Praying: Great hunger for the Word, employee with vertigo

Coke and Christmas

Christmas music is everywhere. Do you remember the Coke commercial on TV in the 70's called “I’d Like To Buy The World A Coke”??

It started as a commercial, then it was recorded by the New Seekers and became a radio hit.

(Mmmm. My throat is burning for a Coke right now! Ahhh...)

Coke. Christmas. Peace and love. Hippies. And, a hit song. Love those 70's!

John Lennon - 1980

December 8, 1980. Today is the day John Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman. For music fans, this is one of those “I remember where I was” moments.

I was on the air at CKLC in Kingston. It was the late evening shift. I had to break the news to my listeners. It was 11:20pm. The news came across the wire that John Lennon had been shot. I starred at it thinking “Wow - what do I do? This is big. What if it’s a journalistic mistake?”

John Lennon signs an autograph for his killer Mark David Chapman, hours before the murder on 8 December 1980. Photograph: Paul Garesh/UPI, Popperfoto

I hesitated and the next song played while I pondered how and what to say. Then, the wire followed up with the official death announcement.

Before I could crack open the microphone, the studio Batphone lit up. It was Terry Williams my boss. The national wire service was scrolling the news across the bottom of the TV screen and Terry got the news as he watched the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

“What do I do?”

“Just read the wire copy. And whatever you do - don’t play “Starting Over”!

"Starting Over" was Lennon’s new release on our playlist. I guess Terry thought it would be in bad taste.

My shift ended at 1am. Between 11:30pm and 1am I announced Lennon’s death only twice. That’s it. Twice! It scared me to talk about it on the air in case I didn't sound sincere, or real, or however I was supposed to sound.

A couple of days later there was a candlelight vigil in many cities, showing unity of mourning. Kingston held the vigil at Confederation Park by the waterfront. It was cold and it was packed. Janice and I were there.

Lennon’s death was the first rock star death of my generation. I was too young to remember the passing of Jimi, Janis and Jim, although since then I become a fan of each and have visited Jimi's gravesite in Seattle and Jim's in Paris. It makes them real to me. I guess I think that's as close as I will ever be to them.

Today, December 8th I can recall the event and my announcement of the murder with complete clarity. And to this day, whenever I hear the song “Imagine” - I cry.

Upside - The Movie

I watched a new movie release called “Upside”, produced through Outreach Films. It’s much like “To Save A Life” in that it’s a story of a high school athlete, (in this case lacrosse), and he gets hit on the head and his vision is flipped upside down. The kid finds faith in Christ later in the movie.

Randall Bentley plays the star who you may have seen in the TV series “Judging Amy”.

I watched the “extras” on the DVD - the main characters are all strong Christians in real life, which is an added bonus to me.

Mark Hall of Casting Crowns says - “Upside is an inspiring film about faith and love that challenges us all to follow the unique path God has for us."

The film is not yet released in Canada. Bandito had no idea what it was. Fortunately, I bought a copy in the U.S.

(FYI - the evangelical message doesn't come until after the first hour.)

Check out the trailer.

Me, Relient K, Rocketown and Nashvegas!

A short 48-hours in Nashvegas!

Went to see Relient K - one of my favourite Christian bands. Haven’t seen them in a few years and this show was the “acoustic Christmas show”, that wouldn’t be coming to Canada. It was great to hear “Must Dave Done Something Right” and “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been”. Awesome songs about becoming the people God wants us to be.

The Relient K set also included a series of Christmas songs, with the Relient K flavour that makes each song unique and original. “God Rest Ye Weary Gentleman” is not a Christmas song I enjoy, or understand, but Matt Thiessen is a pioneer at reinventing a tired old Christmas song. And he's Canadian, so that's a bonus!

While my visit was based around the Relient K show, it also included an indepth visit to Rocketown to meet with their staff and find out what makes Rocketown so special. This is their third location. It is one street away from location number 2, which they were forced to leave to make way for “city progress”.

The new location on 5th Avenue gave them a chance to re-invent the floorplan. The concert venue is 9,000 square feet, complete with band green rooms, lighting and staging that is all modular.

Another major part of their ministry is the indoor Skatepark - it is a skateboarders dream! There’s a skateboard merch shop, as well.

In the main doors is a cafe/lunch area. And beyond that are project rooms for breakdancing lessons, art lessons, Bible Studies, tutoring and more. In their “White Building” is a second smaller venue for shows and a bay for “Gears” where people come to work on cars. All of this - the entire Rocketown vision, is designed to build relationships with youth, regardless of their faith, family experiences, or extra curricular problems, and introduce them to the love of Christ. It is a ministry that some churches frown upon because it is not “nice, clean church” but rather reaching the unloved misfits that the church snubs. (I think that is the entire point.)

The Rocketown staff are loving, creative, hard-working and daring. I admire them all very much. I was blessed to have the one-on-one attention. I would love to lead a ministry like this in Central Ontario. I wonder if it is viable? If Ontario has a heart of the misfits outside the church and will welcome them in. More on that another time! Haha!

Leaving Nashville was once again, a sad experience. I love the city. I love the southern hospitality. I love the mirade of Christian concerts. I love AC Jazz 8033!

But, where God has me is the best place to be, right? Am I right? Somebody remind me.

Accountability Partners

I've heard alot of sermons about the value of having an accountability partner. It sounds great. Have you tried it? I have - four times. It failed every time.

As I understand it, the concept of an accountability partner is to help you lead a disciplined life for Christ by asking the partner three questions every time we meet. “How is your walk? Are you lying to me? How can I help you be more disciplined?”

I chose each of the four guys based on my assessment that each guy was further ahead of me in his spiritual journey and each could pour into me the stuff I had not found on my own.

We failed. One guy canceled on me more often than we met. (Boy did I feel unimportant.) The others faded into fellowship. All four stopped asking me the tough questions. Being a partner, I guess I have to share the blame.

Frankly, I think we’ve made our own lives so busy that we don’t have time to spend time pouring into someone else on a regular basis. Or, maybe we really don’t care about other people as much as we tell God in our prayers. (I know, I know - you hate it when I verbalize what you are too scared to say yourself. Sorry. No I’m not.)

I highly doubt I will try the accountability partner deal again. Four times is a bust.