The Northview Blog
Posts from July 2009
Love That Endures
His love endures forever.
His love endures forever.
His love endures forever.
His love endures forever.
Psalm 136 repeats this phrase 26 times like a continuous refrain in a song. Israel used it to remember who God is and perhaps to bolster their faith during hard times. Could this work for us?
Think about 3 different times in your life when you knew God was moving on your behalf, when he was demonstrating his love to you in tangible ways.
Write them down in the spaces provided and then read the whole section out loud.
His love endures forever.
His love endures forever.
His love endures forever.
What happened in your heart as you read it? Did thanksgiving bubble forth? Did you feel a renewed sense of confidence? Maybe ask your family to give you a few more examples and read those with the phrase following.
Now let’s take this a bit further. Write in the spaces provided 3 burdens or hard situations that you or those you love are currently facing. Then read it out loud.
His love endures forever.
His love endures forever.
His love endures forever.
Full Post >>Partiality
This week’s sermon on Partiality and Prejudice reminded me of a conversation I had with a group of young women. The question of prejudice came up and at first we doubted its presence in our circles. Hadn’t we come a long way from slavery and the KKK? BUT the more we pondered, the longer the list became. Think of these:
Western and Eastern Canada
Home owners and the homeless
Young and old
Caucasian and Native or East Indian or ______ (any other culture)
Male and female
Employers and employees
Those with children and those without children
Married and single
Kempt and unkempt
Educated and uneducated
White collar and red necks
Athletic and non-athletic
Musical and non-musical
Technically update and non-techy
Moneyed and poor
Those who holiday regularly and those who don’t
Those with the “right” friends and those with the “wrong” friends
How bosses treat clients and how bosses treat their employees
Posts from June 2009
All Flesh is Like Grass…
I was sitting in my office yesterday afternoon when I heard one of my co-workers loudly announce that Michael Jackson had died. I didn’t really believe her, so I looked online to find that he had not actually died, but was in a coma at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. CNN had a helicopter hovering over the hospital (presumably in case Michael Jackson awoke from his coma and came moonwalking out the front door) and they had another helicopter over his house. A crowd had gathered outside the gates of his rented home and was collectively distraught at the thought of Michael Jackson’s potential demise. Wolf Blitzer broke into that scene with the announcement that several news organizations were now reporting that the pop icon was dead. It was a truly sad moment.
Full Post >>Breathing Through Disappointments
Last week God put me in a place to hear a message I desperately needed. Thanks Helen for hearing from God FOR ME. I know some of you were at the same event as me and chances are you got something different just for you from Helen’s message. How like God to be so personal.
Helen talked about 3 things we need to guard against as we journey with God and those he places in our lives – disappointment, distraction, and delay. The first one is what I want to explore with you.
We will all be disappointed from time to time but we can’t live in that disappointment because as Helen told us, it will turn into selfishness. It becomes all about ME. OH MY, is that ever true. Think about a recent disappointment – I’m sure you won’t have go to far back in time. As you think about it, rehearse it even and ponder it from every angle, there comes a point when it turns into “poor me”. That is a dangerous place to stay.
Full Post >>Meaning of Life
As I was waiting in a parking lot for an appointment, a young man strolled by with head hanging, arms stiff at his side, and clothes that hadn’t seen water in many days. His only stop in the 300 meters in which I saw him, was at the pay phone checking for change. He hardly turned right or left but instead vacantly watched his feet move forward one step at a time. Hopelessness and meaninglessness walked with him.
And my heart broke… What would it be like to see no meaning in life? I’m sure some of you could tell me. In fact I have my own story of 15 years of despair which I never want to relive.
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