All posts filed under: z140

I saw a warrior charging on his horse

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“The Lord will go forth like a mighty man, He will rouse up His zealous indignation and vengeance like a warrior; He will cry, yes, He will shout aloud, He will do mightily against His enemies.” (Isaiah 42:13) I have been hesitant to share what I experienced during a time of intercession recently. Over the years my friend, Linda, and I have gone to the park surrounding our provincial legislature to pray and intercede for the things the Lord has impressed upon us. Prophetic acts have become a part of these times of intercession for our city, province and nation. We have planted seeds of faith, struck a sword in the ground, worshiped with flags and music and more. The beautiful park that surrounds the legislative buildings also includes a lake at its center.  The park also has monuments, fountains and beautiful flowers landscaping the area. We have prayed in this park many times over the years, when we have felt a call to pray into a season or events with scripture verses and declarations. …

The difference between guilt and shame

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As a mental health professional, I’m often asked the difference between guilt and shame. Guilt is “I did something wrong.” Shame is “I am what is wrong.” Guilt is “I violated a norm, a societal expectation, or a requirement set out by God.” Shame is “I am at my core without any worth.” Guilt originates from selfishness or self-centredness. Shame originates from trauma, from life experiences that overwhelm one’s emotional and mental capacity. Guilt requires forgiveness, restitution to those who have been harmed, and a decision of your will to change the guilty behaviour. Shame requires a reorientation of one’s brain to align itself with what is true. Guilt wears a person down. Shame destroys what it means to be a unique person who can enter into the joy of their relationship with a loving God. Guilt points a person to what needs to change in his/her life. Shame prevents a person from wanting to change because of a core belief that s/he doesn’t deserve wellness and normalcy. I deal daily with people who are …

Apparently, we are supposed to be different

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My wife and I had a good laugh at the pharmacy recently. We own a 14-year-old cock-a-poo called Sugar. Convenient for her, Sugar is mostly deaf in her old age, so when we yell at her to get out of the garbage, she is blissfully unaware and continues to chomp down. Her deafness gives her at least a few more seconds to continue whatever annoying thing she is doing. Don’t get me wrong, Sugar has been a great dog, but in the end she is still a dog and will do what dogs do. But recently she has been having some health problems, an unusually persistent cough. Though my wife disagrees, I think we spent more money at the vet than we should have, and Sugar was diagnosed with an inflammation in her throat. The dog doctor prescribed a bout of Prednisone, an anti-inflammatory, and as well medication to stop the coughing. The vet told my wife that we would need to pick up that second drug at a human pharmacy, as she emailed the …

The theology of diversity and inclusiveness?

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I was a bit stunned after reading a report on CBN that a psychic had been hired to minister at a church in Atlanta Georgia. The woman functions as a medium and claims to consult with the dead. On the surface, this would seem little different than a United Church in Canada hiring an atheist to pastor one of its churches in Toronto, Ontario. Except there is one big difference. The United Church is a Liberal denomination that no longer embraces the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Many congregations have become little more than social clubs. Though the denomination initially challenged her hiring, in the name of “diversity” it eventually relented and allowed the atheist to continue as pastor. However, if you read the theological beliefs of The Vision Church of Atlanta who hired this psychic, they look evangelical. They believe in the deity of Christ and that Jesus died and physically rose again from the dead for the sins of the world. They believe a person is justified by their faith in Christ and …

What’s Your Problem?

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From a Christian perspective the number one problem in the world is sin. But what does that mean? If this is true should the world be worried? How do I know if sin is in my life? It is at this point that most Christians give a pat answer as we explain all about Adam and Eve and the first sin and God’s grand design that culminates in Jesus’ victory at the cross and resurrection. But here’s the problem with that. It’s true. It is true but not heard because it is a hard message to receive. When I tell someone they are a sinner, but they believe they are essentially good and can point to all the good things they do, it does not compute for them. How unfair it would be, they reason, for God to have me born with original sin. Would a loving God actually have innocent babies born with sin? This doesn’t make sense. Much of what God does, does not make sense to us Christians so how much more …

Does God Do Parking Lots?

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A few days ago, we went to Costco on a busy shopping day. That store can be busy and parking is often two blocks away on an industrial road, if the lot is full. Just when I was about to drive away, some people walked to their car and drove away. Right in front of me, they left the best parking lot on the site, the one closest to the door. I snagged that valuable real estate quickly, before any other vultures could slide in. That made my shopping trip so much better. Did God do that for me? Does God do parking lots? In that same week, we had a failed tea kettle. It was one of those glass sided appliances with glowing lights; and we use it every day. It started leaking water, so I looked for a new one. The best deals were on the Internet, and they were not good deals. If I paid a high price and waited about a week, I could eventually get a new appliance to boil …

Stepping out of the swamp of shame

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Guilt and shame are emotions we deal with all the time and it is wise for us to understand the difference between the two. Guilt can have a positive influence in our lives. When we feel guilty about what we are doing it motivates us to change. It encourages us to reconcile with those we have hurt or offended. There is also a redemptive quality as we seek God’s forgiveness. But shame is different. It does not want to change you; it wants to beat you down. It keeps bringing up your failures and weaknesses again and again. Its sole goal is to humiliate you. Shame tries to define who you are. Even after we have asked God to forgive us, shame keeps shaking our sin and failure in front of us. Unlike God, it doesn’t want you to forget your past, because it is screaming in our face how bad we are. Shame isolates us and keeps us hooked up with feelings of being unworthy or never good enough. We believe there has always …

The new Babylon?

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In 597 BC, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah and part of his strategy involved removing defeated peoples from their homeland and transporting them to other regions of the empire. It was thought if they were living in another area of the world there would be less incentive to rebel and try to reclaim their country. And for the most part that was probably true. Part of this process also involved bringing the best and brightest of the conquered nations into Babylon where they were trained in the ways of Babylon. These young leaders were undoubtedly expected to influence Jews now in captivity. Initially, these men including Daniel were allowed to practice their faith and eat the foods approved under the Mosaic law. However, things took a dramatic change when Nebuchadnezzar constructed a giant statue and required everyone to bow down and worship it, under the threat of a fiery death if they didn’t obey. When three of Daniel’s friends (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) refused to compromise their faith in Jehovah by bowing to another …

Poster child of human evolution gets debunked, again

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Evolutionists have often flung the human appendix in people’s faces harping it is a vestigial organ and evidence of human evolution. The theory goes that certain organs of the human body, that were necessary in the early stages of human evolution, became unnecessary as man evolved. But they still remained part of human anatomy and serve as little more than left overs of our evolutionary past. According to evolutionists, the appendix perfectly fits this description as they believed it no longer had a function in modern humans. However, their poster child has taken a beating in recent years as researchers discovered the appendix has an important role in the health of modern humans. In a major study involving over 62 million people, researchers at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio) and Cleveland Medical Center discovered that the appendix seems to play a critical role in stopping Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s affects a person’s central nervous system and over time, it increasingly impacts an individual’s motor functions resulting in increased shaking, walking difficulty and rigidness. The research …

It’s not strange: Daystar’s Jerusalem studio firebombed

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On Saturday morning, May 18, 2019, an arsonist firebombed Daystar’s studios located in Jerusalem destroying most of its facility. Founded in the US in 1993 by Marcus Lamb, Daystar is the second largest Christian TV network in the world with over 70 TV stations in the US. In 2004, it moved into satellite broadcasting and is reaching over a 100 countries. Daystar was in the final stage of a major renovation of its studio when it was attacked. Security cameras showed a person climbing to the top of the building around 2:30 in the morning, and a short time later, there was an explosion and a fire that destroyed much of the new studio, including its control room and equipment, and remaining facility. Daystar’s studio is located in Abu Tor, a mixed Jewish/Muslim section of Old Jerusalem. Police speculate there may be a religious motivation behind the attack since it happened during Ramadan, Islam’s holy month, and in addition to being Christian, the station is pro Israel. A second theory has also surfaced involving an …