A couple of years ago you couldn’t have told me I would find myself sitting in a small wooden shack, thigh-to-thigh with 10 sweaty nude men who I had met the day before, in 100 degree heat (Celsius, mind you); each of us running bare-bum to the frozen lake and jumping into the hole we had cut. And I wouldn’t have believed you if you said I’d be loving every minute of it. But that’s exactly where I found myself last New Year’s Eve, getting cultured up in the Finnish sauna experience. Sauna was invented in Finland, and “sauna” is happens to be the only Finnish word imported into the English language. Most people have a sauna in their homes, and use it almost daily. Since moving to Finland in 2007, both my wife and I have been more nude than ever before in our lives, including our honeymoon (which featured heavily in nudity). This is more true for me than it is for me, she recalls bathing with her family and other periods of nudity as a girl, but I don’t personally have any recollection of being nude as a child, except for a few instances that I shall explain shortly. But I’m a bit European now. I wear mid-thigh speedos, and am completely comfortable being nude with members of the same sex. Going to the sauna is one of my favourite parts of the week, we do it at least weekly, those of you who’ve visited us will understand. I find being nude completely relaxing, freeing, and therapeutic.

Being naked, is somewhat of a different matter. Nudity only requires the removal of clothes, but nakedness requires the removal of much more: our personal shields, our walls of solitude, the barriers we put up to keep others at a safe distance. Surely all of who you who are married have been nude with your spouse, but how often are you genuinely naked with each other? How often do you deeply, humanly connect with the essence of who your spouse is? And beyond marriage, how often do we as people deeply, humanly connect with each other? As friends, couples, even family, how often do we let ourselves be truly vulnerable with each other? Last summer I read a book titled “Becoming a True Spiritual Community” by Larry Crabb, and it broke my heart for what our relationships could and should become (the book is focussed on the context of relationships, which make up the body of Christ). Imagine a time/place where our relationships are so honest, so raw and beautiful, so infused with Christ, that we literally pour living water into one another. Not by virtue of TRYING, but by living securely in Daddy’s love, abounding with the grace of his Son, and communing deeply with one another as friends. Just as the three members of The Trinity commune deeply with each other. What a vision.

Anyway, last summer God took us on through this revelation of relationship, as you can see in the pages of this blog. He’s lead us (my wife and son) out of all forms of organized religion and into a dynamic, breathing form of Christianity that we are constantly being challenged by, that my wife and I often disagree, pray, talk, and re-agree on, and are enjoying deeply. We have the gospel freedom to attend what others would call “church” and we do so periodically. We have a few extended families here (and other friends abroad) who are on the exact same page, and when we spend time together it is so life-giving that we dread the leaving. For those who fear that by leaving “the church” we are forsaking the fellowship of believes, that couldn’t be further from the truth! One thing that we are asking God for more of, is people who are like-minded with us in this regard. That is part of what I am writing about here.

In January our first child was born. Raising a child has the tendency to take you on a journey back through your own childhood… as any parent can attest to. Assumedly, your own upbringing was different to your spouses, so you run into all sorts of odd foibles and things that you never realized mattered to you. One topic that Maija and I were talking about recently was nudity in the family. I realised that I had no early experience of male or female nudity that I could recall, nothing in my family interactions or otherwise. Conversation with my Dad has confirmed that my parents were never naked with us, including not bathing with us (me and my 2 brothers). The only memories I have of experiencing nudity as a child, come from “playing doctor” with friends when we were 5-6 years old. Upon being found out and reprimanded, I was embarrassed and ashamed. I know my parents had no intention of shaming me, but having had no safe nudity in their own lives growing up, they had provided me with few sanctioned outlets for my childhood curiosity. I felt shame over my behaviour, which quickly carried over into shame over our bodies. When I went through puberty, I was naturally inquisitive, but still lacking any healthy experience with nudity of either gender, I turned to the internet to teach me about our bodies, where I quickly fell into an addiction to pornography (that lasted 10 years).

As Maija and I spoke about how we hoped to raise our boy (and future children), we both felt that exposure to healthy nudity in a safe context was important. I’ve spoken with my Dad about my upbringing and his, and he confirmed that he and my mother were not comfortable enough with their own nudity to share it with us, even when we were very young. How convenient though that we live in Finland, where families routinely, and friends occasionally go to sauna together. Public co-ed sauna facilities for adults are not uncommon, though not as widespread as some might assume; these are more commonly found in spa and hotel complexes. Sauna is part of the bathing ritual here, and it is not sexual in the least; I didn’t fully grasp this until we moved here and made it a regular part of our lives. Mixed gender, non-sexual nudity is really a non-issue in most of Europe, but to my New Zealand and North American cultural sensibilities, being naked with members of the opposite sex has been a bit taboo. Beyond the cultural acceptance issue, I couldn’t get around the fact that for me at least, the female form was completely sexualized. Which shouldn’t really come as a surprise. Literally the only females I have seen nude, other than my wife, are from pornography, and if it wasn’t for the porn it would have been the entire culture of sexualized youth-worship that is inflicted upon us all, from the youngest age. From billboards and advertising, from music videos to fashion magazines, to television and film and everything else in between, Western society is saturated with the sexualization of our bodies.

But we’ve been fed lies.

We’re living in the most clothed period of time history has ever seen, but are we any more modest? Are we any more moral? Are family values any more protected? Are the orphan, the widow, and the aged any better off? We reject nudity and say it’s immodest, but clothe our infant daughters in infant bikinis to hide what? We require women to wear shape-accentuating, body enhancing clothing that leave strategic parts to the imagination. As if our imaginations were so modest. Our society rejects those body types that don’t fit the mold sold by Parasuco and others, ignoring the fact that barely any of our population posses these “ideal” bodies. We reject the aged and infirm; heaven forbid our parents get sick and we have to take care of them some day. We’re even suspicious of our doctors seeing us naked; heaven forbid our wives develop breast cancer and have to expose their breasts for medical testing. We’re repulsed by the thought of anyone older than 35 in the nude, regardless of the fact that the median age of the developed world is 39. How unhealthy is our image of aging? How unhealthy is our image of the human body, of our own bodies?

But let’s turn back the clock. The Prophets of the Old Testament were identified by their nudity, and we know about King David being “even more undignified than this.” Athletes in ancient Greece and Sparta competed in the nude. The disciple Peter fished in the nude, and Christ was crucified in the nude (it wasn’t until 500 AD that his loins were covered in artistic renditions). Up until the 700s all baptisms were performed fully nude with mixed attendance, and up until the 1800s the majority of all swimming done by anyone in the world would have been nude. Up until the 1960’s even, swimming at the YMCA was always nude. Have you ever wondered how the Jews of Abraham’s day were so easily identified by their circumcision?
We have developed, thanks in large part to the Puritans and then Queen Victoria’s exporting of Puritan values to the Western world, a complete aversion to nudity in any social context. Nudity has become fully equated with sexuality, and many grow up, myself included, not appreciating the difference. But this is complete bollocks! Tribes still exist today who live in complete nudity, due to their climate. If you take your kids to the zoo, how do you describe why we are the only creatures on the planet wearing artificial clothing? We’re born nude, we bath nude, and anyone who has kids knows that children have absolutely no inhibitions about running around in the buff. If you believe in evolution you’ll appreciate that clothes didn’t attach onto us (and haven’t attached onto anything else). If you believe in Creation you’ll know that God created Adam and Eve nude (and their relationship with God was truly naked, and face to face), up until the serpent led them down a path of shame. The fact remains that our skin is waterproof, it’s flexible and elastic, and it responds over time to harshness, developing callouses as needed to protect the body. It’s covered in nerves that detect temperature change, allowing the body to regulate it’s own temperature. Being clothed is an unnatural state for our bodies.

I would like to suggest that we reject the lie that all nudity is sexual, and embrace the principle of good nudity in any safe context. I am not advocating that we become nudists; I am advocating an attitude shift in our hearts and minds towards the human body.

I would like to suggest also, that we reject the lie that we cannot be honest with people, that we must always hide our feelings and intentions, that we will be judged and ridiculed when our true personalities are made known, that we are alone. I want to humanly connect, to be vulnerable, to bring life, and to give and receive healing through my relationships, and I believe this cannot happen without nakedness of soul and spirit.

As my children grow up, I want them to be free from the shame I grew up with. I want their curiosity to have a safe outlet. I want their dreams and desires to be made known. I want them to know spiritual life, I want them to believe in the God of their parents not because we have told them to, but because they have seen, and tasted, and heard.  I want my children to be comfortable in their own skin, and to value and respect the bodies and lives of others. I want my children to understand that their bodies change, and keep changing, and that these changes are good and not to be feared or demonized. I want my family to commune with one another, to bring life and healing and restoration to one another.

And I want to live righteously. I want to appreciate and respect the human form, as God’s finest creation. I want to live a life free from lust and temptation. I want to live a life that perpetuates the truth about our humanity, about out bodies and about our emotions, about our need for one another.

My wife and I wish to pursue nakedness of spirit in our relationships with others. We wish to be rich in our relationships, to be overwhelmed by the love and communion we share with our family and friends.

And we are coming to believe that by sharing nakedness of body in our relationships with others, we may find our friendships enriched, our children raised healthily and our families strengthened, our perspectives on the body and on aging kept wholesome, and the powers of negative self-image, the powers of lust and pornography, and the power of shame, all be greatly diminished.

Persistent Truths | nakedpastor.

Nakedpastor:

I think this sheds light on Jesus learning obedience (Hebrews 5:8). The story begins with him possessing a rather fundamentalist mindset, but ends with him perhaps surprised that faith can be found in other than the people of God as he understood it (”Woman, great is your faith!“). I love this story because it exhibits his humanity… a man forced to come to terms with truth foreign to what he is already certain of. He has to adjust, or amend, his theology because of the arguments of this woman.

A commenter:

Even at 12, Jesus knew He had to be about His Father’s business (Lk. 2.41ff). As He ‘continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him’ (Lk. 2.40), I believe that means He matured into His human understanding of His Christological and soteriological purposes that did not need further illumination from a Gentile. That’s why, in my earlier post, I wrote that I would be uncomfortable agreeing with our gracious host’s suggestion of the encounter leading to Jesus amending His theology. But I continue to be fascinated with the ‘Christ of faith and the Jesus of history’ (thanks to faithlessinfatima), which is how I understood the primary direction of Rev. Nakedpastor’s post to take. Certainly at face value, the encounter with the Syrophoenician woman implies a debate with Jesus that ended with Jesus ‘capitulating’ to her request. It is reminiscent of Abraham bargaining with God over the doom of Sodom (Ge. 18.22-33) and Moses speaking to the LORD in a way that God ‘changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.’ – Ex. 32.14 (NAS) My Reformed Theology friends really have difficulty with that one.

There are no shortcuts to maturity. Someone has an intense spiritual experience, insight, or revelation, and the impression is that this person suddenly will be more mature, responsible and exemplary. This is often not the case. How many men and women have we seen who set themselves up or are set up by others as spiritually advanced or insightful only to find, in due time, that they are just as human and fallible as the rest of us?

Take Ken Wilber’s article on “The Strange Case of Adi Da”, the Fiji guru who initially had Wilber’s support, only for it to be withdrawn later because of the intense controversy surrounding the “pathological” guru. In another article, Wilber writes:

“Over the years I have made numerous very strong and sometimes contradictory statements about Adi Da, mostly because he is a very strong and sometimes contradictory personality. . . . I called attention to the fact that, even though Da might be highly spiritually realized, he seemed to have several problematic, perhaps even pathological, aspects to his personality and the way he was running his community. . . . Contradictory? Perhaps, but only because Da is contradictory. Contradictory and problematic — deeply problematic.”

This applies to the Christian and church realm too. We see our youth go off to camp or missions or whatever and come back incredibly zealous and inspirational. We love this and encourage it, but we must not put the burden of expectation upon them that they are more mature, responsible or exemplary than they actually are. It is the same with tele-evangelists. It is also the same with the more visible and commendable members of our communities of faith. We must not allow their zeal, intelligence, influence, or vision to blind us to their frail humanity, their solidarity with the rest of the fallen human race. It is not fair to them to elevate them above the mundane work of personal development because of their extraordinary giftedness.

This does not mean we suppress the gifting of individuals. No matter how immature or mature anyone is, their contribution to the community and to the world is encouraged, nurtured, supported and valued. But not at the expense of their own personal growth, transformation and stability. It is possible, and indeed probable, that one can be “highly spiritually realized“, and yet have deep pathological issues that must be struggled with and healed, I think preferably in the context of a safe and healthy community.

And a book review:

I just finished studying Frank Viola’s and George Barna’s recent book, Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices. I want to start to say what I appreciate about the book and finish with what I think are some concerns.

Reading this book reminded me of the hours of ambitious dreaming and passionate debates that occurred during my bible college and seminary days with other visionary young radicals. It evoked the intensity with which I first went into the pastoral ministry, like a bull in a china shop, like Jesus with a woven whip into the den of thieves. In other words, I agree with almost everything they say. I have a problem with churches owning so much money, property and buildings; I question liturgy and orders of worship; I struggle with the one-man monologue sermon model; I have always wrestled with “full-time paid ministry” pastor positions; I disregard Sunday dress; I don’t like the control of worship music by a select and talented few; I don’t believe in tithing; I question the sacraments, formal Christian education, and our whole approach to the New Testament. In short, I too kick against the system. So, if you want to get an idea of what the authors insist are the pagan roots of most of our religious practices and compare them to the New Testament and early Church, get this book. With the plentiful footnotes and bibliography, it’ll give you enough to study.

But I have some concerns. Even before I got to the substance of the book, I read a line in the forward that concerned me. The following, they say, is their “proposal“…

I plan to get this book. It sounds interesting.

I had a few conversations with people about it later in the day, as some of the staff members had heard the pounding bass coming through the walls, and had come over to take a look. I think I struck a really great balance this time, regarding knowing when to speak and when to let God work through the music alone. I had prayed this morning that I would be sensitive to when Holy Spirit wanted me to speak and when not to speak, and I felt a strong sense of peace about it the whole time. It was great to have Ed take the mic this time as well.

I found it amusing, various people asked very detailed questions about how we did things and why we did them the way we did. I think some found it surprising to hear this is really only the second time we’ve both done this, and we’re still figuring out as we go along. I talked about the general idea though, which for Ed and I is the following:

- Foremost, worship is about the heart. That means words aren’t necessarily required to worship God. (This revelation seems to help people get into it). It also means Ed and I need to be worshiping first of all. The worship leader is the lead worshiper, as they say.

- Second, we do our best to pick music that is uplifting and euphoric. God friendly samples are a bonus, but not necessary. Next, we try and speak into the mic (including but not limited to scripture) in a manner and amount that serves to keep people’s minds and hearts focussed on God. The music gets people dancing, and with your heart and mind dwelling on God, your dance becomes a very natural expression of praise. Add to that the emotional response to the euphoric nature of the music, and people can have an intimate and personal experience of worship.

After having done a somewhat similar thing with the Toronto Groove Collective, and Nightwatch, I was challenged to never underestimate what God can do through music alone. As I said, I really felt peace about it today, and was actually off the mic more than last time.

I’m excited to see where this goes. A lot of people told me today they were really blown away, and that it was a totally fresh form of worship for TACF. Hearing that really hits me, as that same kind of mind-blowing worship is what got me into DJing in the first place.

So I’m stoked. Next up, Peter Lazar offered us the services of an opera singer. I’m not thinking too much of operatic trance, but if she’s got a good voice it’ll be interesting to see what comes of it.

For those who don’t know, the film is set in Minnesota in the 1970s, and is the story (based on true events) of women mine workers and their struggle against sexual harassment. It’s directed by Niki Caro, the New Zealand born director of Whale Rider (if you haven’t seen Whale Rider, rent it soon time). Also staring is the ever excellent Sean Bean (who once sued Rowan Atkinson for his Mr. Bean character).

I’d give this movie 4.5 / 5 stars. It’s truly a well made film, doesn’t pull it’s punches, and is an important message to get out. It was surprising to my naive self to hear that up until the mid 70s, no women were employed in any of the mines. Cause the 70s AINT that long ago.

My lovely wife and I were discussing rape, and payback, two themes that are prevalent near the end of the movie, and she asked what I would do if someone was assaulting her (not rape specifically). It’s certainly not a pleasant question to answer, as a husband and a man who knows (on the good days) right from wrong. I told her that if I encountered someone assaulting her, or was made aware of a person assaulting her on an ongoing bassist, then that person’s number was up. However, if I hunted down someone who had assaulted her, to exact revenge on said person, I believe that is wrong. I would be loth to continue the cycle of hate and sin that the enemy only wants me to continue, but I would also hate for my wife to feel that I am not/would not be protecting her.

Where do you think that line is drawn? No really… where?

On a vaguely similar note (which is actually what this post is about) my wife and I had a discussion about what it would have been like to see Jesus. Specifically, given the knowledge that this man was in the process of saving your sins and changing mankind’s relationship with God forever, what would it have been like to have seen him with your own two eyes? We came up with a few interesting thoughts.

Firstly, what if you could travel back in time with the knowledge you have now and see Jesus – see it all playing out. If Jesus saw you, what would he say? What would the Son of God say to someone travelling through time, possibly the only person who really understood what He was about to do? Would Jesus feel a sense of kinship in your shared knowledge, or would he rebuke you saying that there’s plenty you need to focus on in your time period so leave the time traveling out?

Given the possibility that no one else understood, I have to ask, did anyone alive at the time really understand Christ’s mission? The disciples didn’t seem to, for the most part. John the Baptist maybe? If John the Baptist did, then he was truly gifted with focus because he continued on his God appointed task, and didn’t follow after Jesus the whole time. I’m pretty sure if I knew what was about to go down I’d follow Jesus like UV rays follow the fair-skinned.

If someone alive at that point did understand, what a rush that would be. Imagine having been born, say 20 years before Jesus, growing up in a world where there didn’t seem to be any quick way to be forgiven, and God was a distant and possibly volatile Great-grandfather, rather than a Daddy. Imagine hearing about Jesus, understanding the Scriptures and seeing crystal clear what he was here for and what meant for the human race. What a trip that’d be!

“You can get a large audience together for a strip-tease act – that is, to watch a girl undress on stage. Now suppose you come to a country where you could fill a theatre by simply bringing a covered plate on to the stage and then slowely lifting the cover so as to let every one see, just before the lights went out, that it contained a mutton chop, or a bit of bacon, would you not think that in that country something had gone wrong with the appetite for food?”

…

“After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more imporant still…
…We learn, on one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection.”

…

“If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronising and spoiling sport, and back-biting, the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self, and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither.”

- C.S. Lewis “Mere Christianity”

I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go
—Jeremiah 45:5

“This is the firm and immovable secret of the Lord to those who trust Him— “I will give your life to you . . . .” What more does a man want than his life? It is the essential thing. “. . . your life . . . as a prize . . .” means that wherever you may go, even if it is into hell, you will come out with your life and nothing can harm it. So many of us are caught up in exhibiting things for others to see, not showing off property and possessions, but our blessings. All these things that we so proudly show have to go. But there is something greater that can never go— the life that “is hidden with Christ in God” ( Colossians 3:3 ).

Are you prepared to let God take you into total oneness with Himself, paying no more attention to what you call the great things of life? Are you prepared to surrender totally and let go? The true test of abandonment or surrender is in refusing to say, “Well, what about this?” Beware of your own ideas and speculations. The moment you allow yourself to think, “What about this?” you show that you have not surrendered and that you do not really trust God. But once you do surrender, you will no longer think about what God is going to do. Abandonment means to refuse yourself the luxury of asking any questions. If you totally abandon yourself to God, He immediately says to you, “I will give your life to you as a prize . . . .” The reason people are tired of life is that God has not given them anything— they have not been given their life “as a prize.” The way to get out of that condition is to abandon yourself to God. And once you do get to the point of total surrender to Him, you will be the most surprised and delighted person on earth. God will have you absolutely, without any limitations, and He will have given you your life. If you are not there, it is either because of disobedience in your life or your refusal to be simple enough.”

- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

“…I think that’s because you can reason with your brain. You can logic it into believing something. But your heart believes whatever the heck it wants to believe. That’s why you have to repeat things outloud over and over again, to drill it in, like, “God loves me and he provides for me, God loves me and he provides for me, God loves me and he provides for me…”

- Jonathan Puddle, May 2005

“Things aren’t always what they seem, expecially when they seem like what they are. Here on Strangerhood Lane, the residents were finding out that it’s hard to find things outside your residence. That’s because sometimes the out of place, is in exactly the place it should be.”

- Nikki, The Strangerhood, Episode 6

Wednesday I had an absolutely crap-tastic day at work. Thursday was fine, but I developed a death-strength headache. Yesterday was sunny and beautiful. Today is sunny and beautiful. Somehow all my worries and frustrations have dematerialized.

I finished reading Hey Nostradamus. I highly recommend it. It’s a tale told by four people, revolving around how their lives are changed by a high school shooting. Some parts are beautiful, some are heart-wrenching. It’s an amazing look into the human condition, and how we can feel so lost and like God has forsaken us all. But as we look back over things, we eventually see how close God was to us the whole time, and how he aches to be more involved than we let him.

That’s a lesson I learned about 8 months ago. It was when my parents separation was in it’s early stages, and I was still trying to figure out what I even believed about my dad and his beliefs. I was angry with God for not fixing it. Thankfully, he stopped me and said, “Jonathan, who do you think you are? I care more about your dad than you ever can. I want what’s best for him more than you want anything it.”

*Slap* A much needed one.

God’s been very good to me in that regard, swiftly bringing illumination to my unGodly attitudes and expectencies.

Here’s one to make you ponder. Taken from Every Man’s Marriage, added to by me so that the context makes sense.

“In our role as spiritual leaders, when it comes to the bedroom we’ll find no other place in our marriage where it’s more important for us to think Christianly – for her sake. Yet there’s no place where we’re more willing to stretch Scripture for our sake.”
- Every Man’s Marriage, Arterburn and Stoeker.

Highly, highly recommended.

I’ve been reading some interesting posts on Customer Service. My job in the Mailroom primarily involves service to other departments, but on occasion I do jobs for people outside of TACF. I regularly meet with suppliers though, and I’ve been thinking a lot about Customer Service lately, based on how I am treated by people.

I have one photocopier supplier who goes over my head and tries to woo my boss, all the time telling me his propaganda which he has clearly memorized from a booklet.

Or the shipping supplier who asked me on his first visit if I had something against his company, because he couldn’t understand why I didn’t change from a company I have had no problems with, to his one.

However, another photocopier supplier is very welcome in my office. He’s friendly, asks how the job is going (knowing that it’s new to me), and doesn’t push his tracts on me. Then there’s the Service Rep from the shipping company I use now, who’s friendly, negotiates amazing prices, has the secretaries let me know if she’ll be away, so I know who to direct questions to in her absence. Et cetera.

Same industries, very different response. Funnily enough, I received more Christmas baskets from companies I have do little, or no business with (yet, in their opinion).

I want to treat customers like people. Like I want to be treated. I’m considering looking into part-time work at Futureshop, in the service department. It’s a nice mix of getting lost in computer systems, and sales.

Read Terry’s (Terry is Brian’s boss, Brian is on my blogroll) take on Customer Service in the Church. We’re having a conference right now at TACF, and I think we could learn a few things about Customer Service. Not in any of our sales areas, but as a church overall.

“If my neighbour is not a Believer, and he runs into financial trouble, then he will apply certain worldy solutions in order to get out of this trouble. He is an atheist, and so looks to man to solve his problems.

If I (being a Believer) run unto financial trouble, and I do the same thing as my neighbour, then I am committing Practical Atheism. As a Believer, my heart should be dwelling on the affairs of God, so in any trouble, I must turn to him first. He may direct me to the same principals that my neighbour is following, but there is a fundamental difference: My neighbour turned to man to give him an answer to his problems, and I turned to God to give me an answer to my problems.

But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” – Matthew 16:23

There is a direct correlation between Satan, and our mind being on the things of men. If we consult knowledge and men before we consult God, in any part of our life, then we are saying by our actions that God is not real to us, and thus committing Practical Atheism.”

- Bill Johnson, paraphrased by Jonathan Puddle.

I haven’t gotten around to sharing my New Year’s resolutions, but I just realised that now would be a perfect time, given that I managed to spend signifigant time on all three this weekend.

1. Grow in intimacy with God. I want to start spending quiet time with God regularly, not just when I think I need it. Let’s be honest, we all need, all of the time. So I have to try and figure out what works best for me, as I have spent probably a total of 6 hours soaking in God’s presence, in my life. It still doesn’t feel like everyone says it feels, but I’m sure I’ll get there.

2. Work toward my dream of becoming the best DJ in the world. I think as Christians we are called to do our very best in everything we do, and accordingly I am setting my goal as becoming Numero Uno in the EDM (Electronic Dance Music) scene. I have a lot of work ahead of me. I want to be spending a couple of hours every couple of days DJing. I also want to get a residency in a club this year, but that may have to wait till May, cause I can’t get into most clubs currently.

3. Become more and more a man fit for Maija to marry. This encompasses a huge range of things. Getting my license, becoming a good driver, working out and making my guns a formidable force, reading more and growing my intellect, seeking out more work experience and possibly getting a 2nd job, telling her and showing her my love for her more than anyone has ever shown her love before, ensuring that our dates are time well spent, and the list goes on.

This Friday night at youth was freaking amazing. God’s presence was so thick, and so awesome, I loved it. I was prophecied over by this cool cool guy named Shawn, who said loads of stuff that was completely spot on, but also expanded beyond what’s been said before. Anyway, God really met me and revealed some stuff to me. And loved on me. Strike goal 1.

Friday night I DJed before youth, and had a great time. I didn’t play long, as usual, but it was fun, and Andrew Gaz said it was annointed, which is what I’m wanting and praying for, so that was wicked. Then Saturday night I went up to MacTier (near Parry Sound), with Maija, Ben Poulsen and Raakel, and played for a youth group up there. I played for over 2 hours – something I haven’t done before, and my set was technically near perfect, something else I haven’t done before. It was my first time playing at a non-TACF event, and I had a blast. Strike goal 2.

Sunday night I finished the in-class portion of my driving school, passed with a 97%, and then spent the evening with Maija and my family. We went grocery shopping together (something I secretly enjoy) and then spent the evening chilling out, and then praying for our week. Strike goal 3.

I hope every weekend can be as satisfying as this one.

Peathe out.

I’ve been reading tonight about a church in Texas called Fellowship Church. It’s quite a cool place. Highlights:

- 5th largest church in the US.
- At least two of their staff have blogs written about work/church/technology/life.
- They offer free WiFi internet access in their cafe and bookstore.
- Robert Scoble – who’s name won’t mean much to many of you, but is an important figure in tech/blogging visited the church this year, on an invite from Brian (it’s his blog I’m reading.)

It’s cool to see a church that has a good grasp on technology, and is using it in a powerful and effective manner. Enough for a prominent Microsoft staff member (Scoble) to visit their facility.
Also see Brian’s article on “mega-church” issues.