tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-304588242024-02-08T10:33:03.964-06:00Rocks Are Dumb"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Luke 19:40Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-89668176956843866102012-12-29T10:54:00.001-06:002012-12-29T10:55:34.723-06:00Soap, Everest, and The GospelSeveral years ago I saw Rob Bell speak live. Although Rob Bell has since gone off some sort of deep end, at the time he said something that made sense to me. He gave everyone a bar of soap and started talking about how a carving is already inside, you just have to remove all the extra pieces. That is what God is doing with us. I appreciate the thought and I do believe that God is always working on my sanctification, slowly working my heart. <br />
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This illustration was however flipped around in my mind today. I imagine that if the Gospel were a pebble, then we have added stones of law and false teachings to it to the extent that Everest is now dwarfed in its presence.<br />
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It is now the unfortunate task of dedicated clergy to chip away at the mountain, reminding their flock weekly, daily, hourly, moment by moment of the one true gospel. I am fortunate enough to have such a pastor. He dedicates himself weekly to preaching the truth of the gospel, the only gospel, the one that saves.<br />
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I am currently writing a post about "Plan B" that I will be posting tomorrow.<br />
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Galatians 1:6-9<br />
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No Other Gospel<br />
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6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.<br />
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Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-39069256620382956442012-12-26T09:12:00.001-06:002012-12-26T09:12:07.493-06:00Yeah, I have a friend who....This is not a post about anything biblical or theological. It's just something that hit me yesterday.<br />
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I am in BC visiting with Krystl's family. So far it has been a great time. There were about 20 people at Krystl's grandparent's house for dinner so it was a full house. I hopped from person to person having all sorts of conversations. I was able to indulge in some museum talk with one of the uncles, discussing different aviation museums. He told me that his dad had a plane that was a postal plane in the Winnipeg area in the early days of aviation. Because of its significance to the area the Western Aviation Museum in Winnipeg was trying to convince them to donate it to them. They were quite irate when the plane was donated elsewhere. The conversation ended on one I'd my favorite topics, Howard Hughes' Hercules (The Spruce Goose). The rest of my conversations that night were as varied as you'd expect. Each person a wealth of experiences and stories. My favorite being those of Krystl's grandfather, who is always ready with stories of years ago, times in the war, and life afterward.<br />
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As I engaged in all these conversations something started to bother me. I started to notice a pattern I had never noticed before. People would tell me of their stories and experiences and I had the same answer over and over, "yeah, I have a friend who...". Over and over I'd tell second hand stories to fill on the gaps of all the things I've never done. It started to grind on me, over and over again. I started to feel like a man who published a great book by stealing chapters from great authors. Each chapter an obvious confession of his own inaction.<br />
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It's not my intention to whine, nor is this a build up to a grand New Years resolution. I think through things better when I write about them, and the topic is more settled in my mind when I've put it to paper (figuratively or literally). So, don't let the timing of this blog lead you to believe that I'm giving into the false gratification of a New Years resolution, the timing and conviction is only brought on by the concentrated volume of conversations I've had in the last two days.<br />
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I'm tired of being lake, collecting stories from all the rivers that I'm fortunate enough to have flowing into my life. As much as I love the stories, I don't want to just sit the rest of my life telling second hand adventures. I want to have my time flowing over rocks, rushing through narrow passages, tasting rain from different skies. I want to rush and explode into the white water rapids that people love to hear about.<br />
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Hopefully soon I will be able to stand on even ground in conversations with friends and family, trading stories first hand. <br />
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Tyson<br />
Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-26615650629337699782012-12-24T21:45:00.001-06:002013-01-12T18:42:07.738-06:00ChristmasIt's 7 am Christmas Eve and I am 38,000 feet over Alberta. We are on our way to BC to visit family and I am finding myself with the extra time I need to process everything that's been going on in the past weeks.<br />
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I will start with the obvious, and I will make by best effort to handle this topic with respect. What I'm talking about is the school shooting in Connecticut. A horrible event by any worldview. When the lives of innocent children are so ruthlessly taken It causes pause for anyone who hears of it, and in today's world of social media there are many ears that hear and hearts that weep. We start to ask questions about good and evil, God and mercy. Questions are quickly directed to church leaders and even individual Christians.<br />
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Allow me to take you toa week before the shooting. This is not to draw a parallel but to let you inside my head to better understand the conclusion of this post. <br />
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A week or so before the shooting a very good friend of mine was driving past a strip club in Winnipeg. On the sign outside the club was an advertisement for the upcoming customer appreciation days. My friend was livid. He texted me in anger asking what sort of city we live in when strip clubs can be so bold to advertise lewd acts and it's common place, but when our new police chief calls for prayer for our city there is public outrage. My friend is a good man, but in this situation where he found himself overwhelmed he called those customers names like "scum", frankly a lot of people would agree. <br />
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Later that day as I read his Facebook post on the same topic I found myself taken back. In my mind I could see my chest split wide open, and there in the core of who I am sat the same horrible desires as those customers walking into strip clubs. In fact, I could see all sorts of evil. See that's what I am, what we are. As I pondered this the next morning I was overwhelmed with grace. I sent my pastor this text needing to tell someone who would understand what was going on in my soul: "The more I ponder grace the smaller big questions become. Why is there so much strife, why must we suffer, the problem of pain, why cancer, why aids, why is there so much bad in the world when God claims to be good. What more can we ask for when our natural inclination is sin? There is no good in us, there is no good to come from this fallen world. The only good is given by the only man untouched by sin." (Excuse any crude grammar or spelling as it was a direct paste from the text).<br />
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These thoughts were sitting as a backdrop when I started processing the Connecticut shootings. Anger rose quickly as I started to read Christian commentary on Facebook, that basically at its base was a wagging finger with the message "perhaps if you lived like we told you to this wouldn't have happened". A condescending, morbid, disgusting "we told you so".<br />
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I grieve what social media has presented as the Christian response. If I were to preach on this topic my message would be simple. We live on a fallen world. We have since Adam and Eve ate the fruit. Each of us at our core is full of sin, each of us carries in us that seed of rebellion, and that hunger for sin I spoke of earlier. I see it in myself everyday. <br />
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Don't assume I am saying that in each of us is the temptation to commit such horrible atrocities, but in each of us lives a sinful heart, Christian or no. Sadly, and tragically, the effects of sin visit us randomly and senselessly through evil in the world. Christian, don't assume we can destroy these evils simply by instating more moral law.<br />
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This all ties together for me through Christmas. Our horrible sin and the evil we've seen in the world is why Christmas is so significant. This evil we see, the sin that lives in us has been there since the beginning. It came into the world through Adam. God wiped out man kind in the time of Noah because they had become so evil. <br />
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But finally at Christmas hope came to earth. God born as lowly man! This was such a joyous event that when the angel appeared to the shepherds to tell them of the birth of the Christ the sky erupted with an angelic choir singing. Shortly after Jesus was presented at the temple and a man named Simeon saw Jesus and said <br />
<br />
"Luke 2:29-32<br />
“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,<br />
according to your word;<br />
30 for my eyes have seen your salvation<br />
31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,<br />
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,<br />
and for glory to your people Israel.”<br />
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So far as I know there is nowhere else in scripture where an angelic messenger was accompanied by a choir. We celebrate Christmas because it represents that moment when God's promise of the seed of Abraham became flesh, the seed that was to be a blessing to the whole world. The baby grew to a man, the man died on the cross, rose again, conquering death and sin. And to our hopelessly sinful humanity he offers us his own righteousness so we might spend eternity with him. <br />
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Christmas was the long awaited exhale of a creation held in suspense over the story of fallen man.<br />
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We will always be sinful men, evil will continue to visit us randomly and horribly. But thank God he has not left us abandoned. Celebrate Christmas knowing our wait for the answer to our fall has come. Simeon sums up the joy of Christmas "for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles,<br />
and for glory to your people Israel.”<br />
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I will write again soon about the wagging finger of the church as I have much more to say about it.<br />
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God bless you, and if you actually read the whole post thank you and feel fee to comment.<br />
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Tyson<br />
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Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-2995862631921851082012-10-17T19:45:00.002-05:002012-10-17T19:46:04.744-05:00A Wrap up and a Preview <em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you
will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light"
- Matthew 11:28-30</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I touched on this yesterday. That when we give into the mechanics of religiosity (simply put: doing our best to appear good) we embark on climbing a religious ladder that never ends, it's to high to climb. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I was listening to Tullian Tchividjian, an amazing preacher, and he quoted someone as having said "unfortunately from most pulpits it's the christian being preached, not Christ." That is to say that what we must <em>do</em> is being preached instead of what Christ has <em>done</em>. We are preaching the rules of what Christians must do, and must not do. What rules we need to follow. But Christ's sacrifice and substitutionary atonement is not being preached. Christ died saying "it is finished" not "now finish it". He left nothing to be done</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. <em>"Then they said to him, 'What must we do, to be doing the works of God?' Jesus Answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.' "-John 6:28&</em>2</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. They came to Jesus looking for something to do to be doing... something. Jesus tells them it is for them to believe in him. Jesus taking our punishment, and freely offering his righteousness to us is an act of grace.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">When we realise that Christ has done it, that his sacrifice was all sufficient, it allows us to rely on his righteousness, and the weight of the law comes off our shoulders. In contrast when we start looking for salvation in our actions or accomplishments we suffer horrible slavery. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Over the next week or so I would like to do present a series I'm calling: Three Brands of Slavery. I hope you'll continue to read. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Tyson.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-23309758174805917282012-10-16T22:00:00.000-05:002012-10-16T22:00:16.232-05:00A Punch Line Full of Grace: Part 2<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why was Joel's quip about being able to sin with his eyes closed so significant? Because in the story of the pastor we see an image of a man who wishes to see the face of God by following the law. (See yesterday's post for context). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">When the pastor in Joel's story clenched his eyes shut and started repeating " I want to see God, I want to see God" as a way to avoid lust he was trying to force himself to the very tight mold that the law of the Bible has set. Unfortunately the Bible does not say "those that don't look at girls in bikinis will see God's face" it says "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God". This mans very reaction to do all he could to avoid looking at a beautiful woman already shows the state of his, and every man's heart. His, and my, and our, hearts are lustful! They are greedy, coveting, jealous, lustful, lost hearts that will never meet the standard of purity required to see the face of God. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I am positive that this pastor's reaction to the woman was one out of love for God and a desperation to know Him better. So it's not my intention to brow beat him at all. I only intend to point out where this sort of thinking has led, and can lead for Christians. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Joel's admission that he can sin just fine with his eyes shut comes from a heart that has encountered the true grace of God. </span> <span style="font-family: Arial;">Joel knows that the grace of God extends beyond all his sins (Romans 5:20-21), and that the righteousness that he relies on is not his own but that of Christ. Romans 8:3 and 4 "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh<strong>, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit</strong>" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Christ died so that the righteous</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">requirement might be met in us! My pastor, Dan Cormie, once said that Jesus did not come to "show" us a solution but to "be" the solution. He also commented once that we do not receive a blank slate when we are born again, but one filled in with the righteousness of Christ!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Anyone who has come to this understanding of grace can look truthfully at their own destitute sin and know that we are closer to be Judas then we are to being John. Paul talks in the book of Romans in Chapter 7 about how he desperately wants to do right, but he does what he knows he shouldn't, and fails to do what he should. Chapter seven climaxes with Paul exclaiming "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?". Paul knows the truth of who he is, but even after this self examination he is able to proclaim "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!". If you have the time when you leave this post read from the beginning of Romans 7 through Romans 8:11. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Joel's point was this: even if I can get it right on the outside, my heart and mind are still full of sin. That is why I didn't laugh immediately, because I was swept up by the extreme grace that Joel relied on even to admit his sinful nature as he preached!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Even if you could manage the mechanics of religiosity, it would serve only to fool yourself into believing that you are climbing a ladder of righteousness, but even in the attempt you have shown yourself to not know how far that ladder extends. You will climb forever, never satisfied, and never righteous enough. And in doing so you will lose the significance of one of Jesus' beautiful promises: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). Rest, rest for our souls, an easy yoke and a light burden. This is found through Grace and not law. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">More on this tomorrow. Thanks for reading. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Tyson</span>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-18121799094696730442012-10-15T21:25:00.001-05:002012-10-18T11:28:03.189-05:00A Punch Line Full of Grace<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I love my church, and my church loves to laugh. We are a congregation that laughs several times every sermon when our regular preachers are doing the preaching. This past Sunday though I found myself thinking when everyone else was laughing. I did come to and offer a chuckle, more to make sure that the preacher didn't misinterpret my lack of reaction as disapproval of his punch line. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">It was my good friend Joel who was preaching. Joel preaches the gospel of grace passionately, fervently, and with conviction. As Joel preaches a sermon he doesn't just wear his heart on his sleeve, he cracks his heart to allow the his true feelings for the text he is preaching to run up to his face, you can see in his eyes how close the scriptures and the truth of grace are to his heart. His hands jump and explode, his fingers twiddling as his mind translates all this passion his soul is bursting with into words, laughter, and tears. Sometimes I detect a hint of desperation for the importance of this message to reach the hearers, because he knows it is the message that brings true freedom and salvation. He is a great preacher and if you live in Winnipeg and are reading this, I strongly encourage you to take time to come down to Dakota Community Church on any Sunday, although Joel only preaches several times a year, our regular pastor (Dan) is a sight to see as well. Come expecting grace. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back to the story at hand. Joel was talking about law and grace. He used a story in his sermon about a pastor (who he left unamed out of respect) who was preaching about the beattitudes. This pastor was talking about Matthew 5:8 which says "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God". The pastor went on to say that on his block there is a woman who every few days washes her car in her driveway. He pointed out that she doesn't wear a whole lot, and she always tends to be washing the car when he is on his way to work. He talked about how this created temptation for him. So he would drive by her, not looking at her, because he wants to be pure in heart. He would repeat to himself "I want to see God, I want to see God" and avoid looking at her in his attempt to not give into lustful thoughts. He wants desperately to see God, and wishes to be pure of heart like it says in Matthew 5:8. Joel followed this story by saying "I must be a better sinner then him because I can lust even with my eyes shut!". The church went up in laughter, I didn't realize it immediately because I was processing the implications of what he had said, I snapped to and offered a chuckle. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I don't think it was inappropriate to laugh, and that is the reaction that Joel probably would have expected when he delivered the line. I know Joel very well, and that line was packed with so much more.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I should probably stop here, as this post is getting long. Consider this a cliff hanger and come back for the next post as I unpack the incredible significance of what Joel said in one simple line. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Tyson</span>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-30920343941479271722012-02-27T07:46:00.000-06:002012-02-27T07:46:49.328-06:00The World, The Darkness, and The Baptism of My Soul<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There I sat, drenched in the realization of grace. I sat, the whole world dark around me contemplating what was happening. This second that was lasting forever. God was taking His time to take every loose end of the way I thought of grace and was connecting each with the reality of what His grace is. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">It wasn't long before this revelation started rearranging my entire faith experience. I sat in darkness as I realized that I had taken grace and made it small. Suddenly the world started illuminating around me, and with it the truth of my thoughts. I had sentenced grace to be a companion to repentance, it was a tool I used to come back to God and that was it. As the darkness slowly retreated, and the drenching realization of God's grace started taking root in my heart, I could feel my misconceptions of grace beading, running down my soul, and dripping off of me one by one. It felt like a new baptism, my realization of His grace, the decent into a place where I experienced God like I hadn't in years, and an emergence back to this world as my old way of thinking dripped out of my soul, hopefully not to return.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I smiled, looking around at the other hotel guests eating their buffet breakfasts oblivious to the fact that God has just changed my soul. My brain couldn't keep up with how fast my soul was processing this wonderful revelation. I couldn't vocalize what grace was at that time, and out of sheer inability to do so could only manage this thought "What is this revelation of grace? My soul can't wrap around it! Like trying to drink the ocean through a straw, I'm breathless."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">In the days to come these thoughts unwound in my soul, my soul tickling my brain constantly with new tidbits. It's still happening today, I can feel my soul quicken inside me every time a new shade of grace shows up! I now intend on dedicating my following posts to these "tidbits" rattling in my soul. </span>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-39616577986939745282012-02-25T07:44:00.000-06:002012-02-25T07:44:30.175-06:00Raindrops<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have taken my time in putting up this post because I want it to be everything I felt, and everything I am feeling. I didn't know how to start it until I was listening to Tullian Tchividjian today. Tullian quoted John Piper as saying "books don't change people, sentences change people", that might not be the exact wording, but it is the exact idea. This can't be more true than in my discovery of faith changing grace. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I recently vacationed in Florida for 10 days. The first 3 nights I stayed at a hotel called The International Palms. I woke up in the morning before everyone else, so I would grab my book and head down to the restaurant and take advantage of the breakfast buffet. I would pick a table by the windows so I could enjoy the sun, the palm tree's, and be constantly reminded in my peripheral that there was a pool and hot tub waiting to be swam in. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I was reading John Piper's "Brothers, We Are Not Professionals". There were several concepts that were really hitting me. Most of what I was reading was hitting at a mind level, not much of it migrated to that place in my soul where I really embrace something. It wasn't necessarily the content of the book that brought around the revelation of grace, but one sentence that suddenly tied the loose ends of 16 years of faith and created what my wife called the "ah ha!" moment. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">There is no way I can put you in my mind in that moment as I read, and I doubt just reading what I read will have the same effect for you, but I would like to give you a larger snap shot of the paragraph then zone in on one sentence. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em>God takes great pains to motivate us by reminding us that He is now and always will be working for those who follow Him in the obedience of faith. He never stops and waits for us to work for Him "out of gratitude." He guards us from the mindset of a debtor by reminding us that all our Christian labor <strong>for</strong> Him is a gift <strong>from</strong> Him (Rom. 11:35-36; 15:18) and therefore cannot be conceived as payment of a debt. In fact the astonishing thing is that every good deed we do in dependence on Him to "pay Him back" does just the opposite; it puts us ever deeper in debt to His grace. </em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">My mind ground to a halt (not a hard task while vacationing in Florida). I fixated on one sentence "In fact the astonishing thing is that every good deed we do in dependence on Him to "pay him back" does just the opposite; it puts us ever deeper in debt to His grace."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">What!? I read it again, over and over, my mind slowly allowing my soul to process it. Wait, grace is for forgiveness, how can we go deeper by doing good? (This is what my first grace post "Breaking the Chain" was about). Grace is the safety net that we fall to when we fall off this tight rope of faith, it is divine tolerance, (2nd blog post "Divine Tolerance". See, there is a system to how I did this) it's God's constant just in case measure, just in case we need his forgiveness again. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Then it happened, my soul caught up with my mind. In that moment it felt as though the whole world faded away, and I descended with God into revelation. All that existed in that moment was God and I, His Holy Spirit gently teaching me. Suddenly an illustration dropped from the sky, my faith is not a tight rope, grace is not a safety net; no; faith is the world, and grace is gravity. Another illustration fell, then another. Slowly they fell like the the first raindrops of a storm. The drops picked up momentum until a storm erupted, and I was finally completely drenched in this revelation of Grace. Standing in Gods rain, for the first time, instead if watching it from the dry side of a window. </span>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-48344383518072406922012-02-18T12:07:00.002-06:002012-02-22T08:30:11.282-06:00Divine Tolerance<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After having a revelation</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, my mind sifts through how I viewed the topic of said revelation previously. In my last post I talked about the danger of chaining grace to forgiveness, and therein making grace a series of events, the epitome of those events being our salvation experience. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">While contemplating God's unending grace my mind was able to work out a way to understand unending grace. The way I might have explained it two weeks ago would be to tell you that God always loves us, and grace is the way that God allows us forgiveness every time we screw up. This is the way my mind, understand the emphasis, this is the way <u>my mind </u>understood it. Grace was God's tollerance for my stupidity! I came to Him and said " I have sinned again Lord!". In my mind He sighed and said "don't worry Tyson, I have Grace. You're forgiven... Again". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I used to work with a man who would drive me to my witts end every shift in the first few months we worked together. I tried to excercise grace as I understood it towards this man. He would tick me off and I would walk away with my mantra going " just have grace for him Tyson. Don't lose your temper, the shift is almost over". I would get home proud of myself at having not blown up at him. Grace in my mind was the ability to deal with hard people without losing my temper! Think about it, when you show someone grace what are you doing. Do you clench your jaw a little be, maybe say to yourself "just have grace, just have grace" until you are away from that person and you can relax until your next encounter. This is not grace. It is tolerance. We are practicing tolerance. Tolerance is passive, it doesn't do, it stops you from doing. Tolerance holds you back from striking out, giving that jerk what he deserves. Tolerance is you doing a favor for someone who might be insufferable in your mind. Tolerance lets you stand that person just long enough.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">This is not what God offers us! God does not patronize with divine tolerance, watching us sin over and over again. Being honest on how I used to think, my grace would have been described "Gods ability to tolerate our sin until we are finally brought to perfection after death". What a shallow view of God's grace. We sin so much that if we reduce God's grace to devine tolerance than we have to accept that, this side of heaven, there is no room for enjoyment, jubilation, or worship, either on our part or God's!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Examine your heart, if the ongoing grace of God is a safety net for you, if grace is tolerance, you are not understanding the grace of God. The only fruit that the thought of a tolerant God can bring from our faith is the rotten fruit of guilt. God does not tolerate you. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">There are two scriptures that stand to me from my salvation experiences. The first John3:16 "For God So loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever beliees in him shall not perish but have eternal life." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The second is Romans 5:8- But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">This is not tolerance. A tolerant God would give us a list of rules that would allow us to to placate him just enough until we die. Once we die, then, He will bring us on to perfection and we can finaly have a full, wonderful, loving relationship with Him, and He with us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Tullian Tchividian describes grace as God's love that pursues us even though we don't deserve it. A deep, insatiable love is what God has for us, and his grace is the means by which he pursues us haphazardly. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">My mind processed grace as tolerance. It brought about guilt, and inadequacy. I even found myself longing for the day when I could go to heaven and be free from earthly desire. It is so exhausting knowing my flesh will never stop wanting what it shouldn't want. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">God offers me that freedom now. Through his grace. His relentless, pursuing, loving grace. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">My mind reasoned tolerance, my soul craved freedom. When my soul finally realized what grace was I had a sweet taste of freedom. The freedom that comes through Grace alone. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">More to come. Please keep joining me for these posts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Much love, peace, and grace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Tyson</span>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-83369619446967219582012-02-15T15:26:00.000-06:002012-02-15T15:26:44.649-06:00Breaking The Chain<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I might be putting the cart before the horse here but for some reason this sticks out in my mind as a good place to start.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We've all heard this dual deifiniton: Mercy is when we don't get what we deserve, Grace is when we get what we don't deserve. We deserve hell, mercy is us not receiving that punishment. Grace is getting the forgiveness we can never earn. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are taught, rightfully, that grace is what allows us to repent, God gives us grace! Once we repent he extends his grace to forgive us. Is that all? No. When we fall, the grace of God is there for our forgiveness. I will not contend this because it is true. I have depended on this grace of God my whole christian live. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we need forgiveness, BOOM, grace! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, that leaves an interesting conversation open. What if we abuse grace? We tend to run to a particular scripture. Romans 5:20 - Romans 6:2</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><sup class="versenum" id="en-ESV-28052" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; vertical-align: text-top;">20</sup> Now <sup class="xref" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; vertical-align: text-top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28052AI" title="See cross-reference AI">AI</a>)"></sup>the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, <sup class="xref" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; vertical-align: text-top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28052AJ" title="See cross-reference AJ">AJ</a>)"></sup>grace abounded all the more, <sup class="versenum" id="en-ESV-28053" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; vertical-align: text-top;">21</sup> so that, <sup class="xref" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; vertical-align: text-top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28053AK" title="See cross-reference AK">AK</a>)"></sup>as sin reigned in death, <sup class="xref" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; vertical-align: text-top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28053AL" title="See cross-reference AL">AL</a>)"></sup>grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Romans 6</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><sup class="versenum" id="en-ESV-28054" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; vertical-align: text-top;">1</sup> What shall we say then? <sup class="xref" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; vertical-align: text-top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28054A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup>Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? <sup class="versenum" id="en-ESV-28055" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; vertical-align: text-top;">2</sup> By no means! How can <sup class="xref" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; vertical-align: text-top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28055B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup>we who died to sin still live in it?</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have often taken this scripture and explained that grace is not a pool we jump into when we feel like sinning, but instead it is the hand waiting to pull us out of the pool of sin. Once again there is no lie here. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another way that some look at this scripture is that our faith is a tight rope, and grace is an ever expanding safety net, we can't fall from our faith without being caught by a net of grace. Again, a beautiful thought of God's ever readiness to catch us is in our times of despair and bad decisions. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is the problem, grace and forgiveness have been synonomized ( a word I made up to suggest that they have become almost synonyms, the two words being chained together and grace being used exclusively in the context of forgiveness). </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is where the problem enters. Although God's grace is needed for our forgiveness, grace should not be chained to forgiveness. A lot of people think of grace in relation to forgiveness. It's a safety net for when we fall, it's a way to get back in right relationship with God. We need to break this chain. If we allow this synonamy (once again, a word I made up to suggest the words are not the same but stuck together) our view of grace may become very narrow. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Grace has a danger of becoming an event. If grace is related only to forgiveness, then the greatest happening of grace was at our salvation, we had a giant grace event. Now we fall and jump from grace event to grace event. We come to God when we have broken through the guilt of what we have done and ask him for grace... again. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Grace is necessary for forgiveness, however when we chain grace to forgiveness we miss out on the fullness it is supposed to be! </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think I should stop there. Blog posts are supposed to be short. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Describing grace is like trying to describe every raindrop in a storm. There isn't enough ink, there isn't enough paper, there aren't enough words. So, excuse me if I stumble through these posts, they are from the heart. I pray you keep coming back, this message has made my soul burn more than it has in years. Some of you might find it obvious, but for those of you who haven't stumbled across this yet, it is faith changing!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tyson</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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</span>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-84696786273071652062012-02-12T19:58:00.001-06:002012-02-13T06:36:05.448-06:00Journey<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First, thank you for coming to Rocks Are Dumb. Last week as I was vacationing in Florida I had a revelation of grace. If you follow me on twitter or facebook you would have read the status update: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>"I fear that my view of grace has been horribly narrow.It's not just a means to return to good, it is the life blood of our growth in God."</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I need to make a correction, it should say " It's not just a means to return to <em>God</em>". Either way it worked. That tweet came from a place of new discovery. I'll fill in more details later but for now I'll just say that I encountered grace as I had never encountered it before. I realized that my very definition of what I thought grace was was wrong. Well maybe not so much wrong, but as stated horribly, horribly narrow. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Rocks Are Dumb is going to be my playground as I explore exactly how deep this discovery goes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I earnestly pray and ask that you join me on this journey. I can tell you with all confidence that this revelation has been the deepest, and most burning moment of my faith in 10 years or more. My hope is that those who haven't come to this place will discover it with me, that your faith will be strengthened as I wade through questions and realities of God's nature that seem to be to big for my soul to absorb.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Shortly after my first tweet I added this : <em>"What is this revelation of grace? My soul can't wrap around it. Like trying to drink the ocean through a straw. I'm breathless"</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Join me, comment, interact, lets wrestle with questions together. Bring a straw and your thirst and we will work together at discovering the true depth of Gods grace!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Tyson</span>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-2050534146932827802012-01-07T00:31:00.001-06:002012-01-07T00:32:48.739-06:00A Life of ResolutionSo, it's been almost a week since you made those resolutions. Do you remember them all? Which ones have you broken? Which ones have you given up on? Did you really believe you'd do it when you thought that resolution up?<br />
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New Years is supposed to bring one year to an end and usher in a fresh start. The truth is though, that the fight you had with your wife at 11:58 pm on December 31st has carried over to 12:01 on January 1st. That lack of drive to get up early and work out before work didn't change when the last years digits did.<br />
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Now you might be one of the few who sticks to their resolutions, and it's not my intention here to be really negative. The impression I get from most people is that they try out their resolution, it gets old, and maybe it will get renewed 5 minutes before 2013 rolls in.<br />
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I don't make resolutions on New Years, I don't see the point. Most of us are more likely to get the items on our Christmas wish list then to check off all the items on our resolutions list (this becomes more true when your Christmas list consists of underwear and socks). That's not to say I never make resolutions, I make hundreds if not thousands every year, in fact I believe it to be an earmark of my faith. <br />
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Almost 16 years ago I chose to follow Christ. If you've made this same decision then you know that the process of salvation, of transformation, was admitting we are flawed and sinful. Then we ask God to forgive us, we put our trust in His son who died on the cross and took our sin with him. We believe that three days later Jesus rose and conquered death. We ask that Jesus would come live in us. From that day on we live a life of daily resolution. <br />
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<em><span style="color: cyan;">I will leave it there for today, I had complaints about my posts being too long. So hopefully this creates a cliff hanger scenario where you can't wait to rush to your computer tomorrow to read the next part. </span></em><br />
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<em><span style="color: cyan;">So, stay tuned for "A Life of Resolution Part 2: The Key to Lasting Resolutions!"</span></em>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-30915409516076916552011-08-14T09:35:00.000-05:002012-11-19T18:00:40.819-06:00Hemingway, Snowflakes, and Souls I can’t remember a time when I didn’t wonder about big things. How big is the universe? How can God be everywhere but not seen, how can a snowflake have no duplicate? These thoughts where I would imagine chasing the edge of the universe as it would expand and expand and expand, my head would hurt and I would distract myself with sleep.<br />
This wonder of snowflakes was rejuvenated recently as I read Donald Millers, “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”. Don (if I can be so casual) wrote about the man who coined the phrase “no two snowflakes are the same”. He pointed out that this man in his scientific reports, based on catching snow flakes and photographing them, used unscientific terms like beautiful. <br />
I started to wonder again, but this time through the lens of faith. When I was young I had no specific faith, now I believed in God, and the truth of the bible. Now the originality of snowflakes, tree’s, stars, sand and the endless non duplicated universe were the act of a God who created all things to be originals. God created a world that would bring wind, rain and snow, would grow grass, flowers and tree’s. Then he filled it with billions of forms of life all held on this common stage by gravity. For as long as the world keeps spinning, and in a way only He could do, nothing he created will ever be a duplicate, each has been created to be an original. There are no two snowflakes the same.<br />
I wondered about this stage, sitting in the top floor restaurant at the Inn of the Woods in Kenora. I looked over the town, the houses sitting on the crest of waves of stone and cement. The Lake still in the cold of winter, the only waves are snow drifts slowly moving along with the wind. A giant blank canvass, colorless, begging for beauty to be added to beauty. <br />
  The road hems the edge of the shore, train tracks sit higher than the road, as though to remind the road that they were there before. On the tracks a long arrangement of train cars. Their damp unenthusiastic greens, yellows, and browns, provide a muted splash of color against the grey of rock cuts and the white of the snow. <br />
None of this is purposely beautiful, it’s all inanimate, but people still paint it. Other people buy the paintings and hang them on walls, and other people admire it, and in the back of their mind make a promise to themselves that they will someday visit the small town, and stand in the painting. For those of us who believe in God we see no accidents. We sit in the top floors of hotels, look out over a winter clad town and tears come to our eyes as we think of the endlessness of snow flakes, colors, people and beauty. <br />
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I sat across from Mark in his church office admiring the abundance of books on his book shelf. He’s been pastoring this church for at least 10 years, and the books sit like a record of the themes he has preached through. Our conversation started light enough. I told him of my aspirations to write, and about my two favorite authors and how my style of writing is somewhere between the two. I explained I had read a couple Hemingway stories. They were beautifully written. Hemingway has a way of describing scenes so you can see them, smell them, walk through them in your mind. In one scene he describes what is happening from the standpoint of a lion hiding in tall grass. It was amazing, it inspired me to think harder about how I describe the world around me.But here is the problem, the story itself is unappealing, the hero is usually a drunk, every one is cheating on everyone , and the stories seem to end with people getting shot, even the lion got shot. Every story ended the same, the drunkard hero gets shot and that’s it. Beautiful settings, depressing repetitive stories.<br />
The conversation turned to life,I explained that I am excited for my coming wedding. He asked me how my divorce has affected this new relationship. Talking to Mark about the divorce is different then talking to other people about it , he was there trying to counsel me through it. He stood in the door the night I left, he told me I was making a mistake. And though I ended up leaving anyways he forever earned my respect for standing in my doorway that night. I told him that it is hard some days for Krystl and I. I told him some days the fear of divorce is crippling. Of course I challenge and fight those thoughts, but they still creep in. <br />
Mark dropped his head and shook it as he chuckled, he looked up at me with a smile and said very simply, and matter of factly “you’re not Hemingway you know, not all your stories have to end the same way". I joined him in his chuckle, I was surprised at the immense wisdom trapped in such a simple phrase, I am not Hemingway. <br />
Through the evening and into the next morning this simple sentence repeated in my head bordering on becoming a mantra. I am not Hemingway, but more importantly, I am not in a Hemingway story. <br />
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Suddenly that scene from Kenora hit me, the poetry of God’s creation, it’s endless non duplicating nature. Billions of souls floating like snowflakes through life. In my minds eye I can see misty steel blue souls leaping from chests, darting through and around other souls. Every interaction changes the hues of the souls, two meet and each changes, they don’t change to the same colours but each finds it’s own change from the experience. They twist and grow and shrink and explode with new colors as they fall like snow flakes, no two alike.<br />
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I am not a character in a Hemingway story, I am a soul, created more original than a billion snowflakes floating through these stories on a wind breathed by a creative God.<br />
Live a story today, it will be a true original, it’s the way God created it to be.<br />
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<span style="color: cyan;"><em>Note: I wrote this blurb a while ago and am posting it now because I think it carries a message. August 14 marks 3 months of marriage with the love of my life. On our wedding day the doors of the Church opened and Krystl walked through a veil of sunlight onto the long aisle that would bring her to my side. I couldn't take my eyes off of her, the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. We took our vows and since I have fallen more in love with her. I believe in the time leading up to the wedding the enemy whispered a lot of lies in my ear. I know that I will be writing about mine and Krystl's love until I cross over to Glory. She is the wife I dreamed of and the reason God put romance in my heart. Never let your past turn into fears about your future. Jer 29:11. </em><br />
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<em>God Bless You</em><br />
</span><em>Tyson</em>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-22300044063497964662011-06-16T13:42:00.004-05:002011-06-16T15:43:08.041-05:00Riot Without A CauseStanley Cup! Two words that have been exhausted in the last few weeks. Coveted by hockey teams and their fans. This year the beautifu city of Vancouver had a shot. 100,000 faithful fans crowded the streets to join together in the climax of the NHL season. <br />
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I get it, I really do. We all want to be part of something bigger. We want "our" team to be the best team and we want a big shiny trophy to show the rest of the world. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.<br />
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The poblem comes when we start to hang our ego on sports logos. I admit, I'm a horrible offender. I love the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and truly my ego is very involved. When I see the green Rider's jersey on MY game day I have horrible thoughts. I want to be the Riders (and yes by "beat" I mean sit on a couch and watch proffessional athletes defend my ego) into oblivion! I WANT TO WIN. <br />
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As game 7 took a nose dive and the score read 3-0 for Boston I felt my mind desend into frustration and dissapointment. I walked away at the begginning of the 3rd period. My friend Dan, who had also stopped watching, and I texted about how rediculous it is how we get so wrapped up in it. He made the point that we tend to hold our sporst logo higher than the flag of our saviour. Those weren't his exact words but it sums it up nicely.<br />
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Why do we do this? Do we have nothing better to do with our egos? Do we need a jersey to associate our identity with? I AM BOMBER FAN! Gatherings to watch games can be a wonderful thing. People cheer for their team, raz those in their presence who like the wrong colours, it's fun! It goes to far when our ego depends on the W. We are taught young that no one like's a sore loser. But it seems the loser's on the couch are more sore than the ones who play the game.<br />
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Speaking of sore losers, there were 100,000 people cathered on the streets of Vancouver last night. And here is the truth, there was a riot comming win or lose. The people who started the riot decided it would happen before the game even started, either consciously or not. I am truly disgusted at the violence that happened after the game. Cars rolled and set on fire, windows smashed, people acting like idiots. <br />
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This was a riot caused not because Vancouver lost, the riot still would have happened if they won. The riot started because the immense irresponsibility of a small group of people, spurned on by eager crowds taking pictures and videos. The bottom line is this riot had no reason. It was a riot without a cause and those responsible should be incredibly greatful that only 1 person was hospitalized in the whole ordeal.<br />
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How would you have responded had you been there? Try to be honest. Would you have taken pictures, Would you have walked away? Leave a comment. <br />
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TysonTysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-54222029617432891332011-04-26T21:22:00.001-05:002011-04-26T22:08:38.185-05:00Making Havoc of our Ambitions<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;">This is a post from Joel Cormie's blog. Joel is a brilliant thinker who has the talent of fusing deep intellectual thoughts with beauty. I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do.</span><br />
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We live to cast anchors into the relentless river of life hoping to attain a name for ourselves. In that effort we destroy ourselves, each other and our planet. God’s dominion mandate is not a domination mandate, yet that is how we treat it. Authoritarianism mingles with environmental degradation like a married couple. Like those in Babel, we attempt salvation through economic gains. From feudalism to Marxism human wickedness and greed will always prevail as long as we are sinners. We try to ignore our condition; we are like the man who stands in front of a mirror trying to ignore his own reflection. Ravi Zacharias commented on mans ignorance,<br />
“He is attempting to build civilizations when he doesn’t know what it means to be civilized, he is trying to be the philosopher when he does not know who the master philosophizer is, he’s portraying his artistic perceptions when he does not know the master artist, he moralizes on life but he does not know the moral law giver, and this same man tries to build his utopias and bring about his dreams and his optimism only to find time and time again they come crashing in disaster as once again he his making havoc of all of his ambitions.”<br />
Ravi is talking about you and I; we all do this, we try to bring God’s kingdom on earth without God and his truth. I don’t think it can be done. I think God’s kingdom will only come when He brings it. What do you think?<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;">Leave a comment! Read more of Joel's posts at joelcormie.blogspot.com and follow him on twitter @joelcormie </span>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-54836257014107966312011-04-22T15:12:00.000-05:002011-04-22T15:12:53.507-05:00Easter BreakTaking a break for easter. I recomend checking out the last few chapters of "The Divine Romance". And the songs "Thief" and "Love Song" by third day, and "Death in His Grave" by John Mark McMillan. <br />
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I have a lot stirring in my head, this weekend is so thick with love an rememberance, the most monumental event of man kind. Take time to think on it past the chocoalte eggs, explore your relationship with the one who overcame the grave.<br />
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TysonTysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-32447582525417090122011-04-20T07:15:00.002-05:002011-04-20T07:15:38.318-05:00Rebecca's Mission X (3)<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"><i>Today is Rebecca's final thoughts. If you are reading I certainly encourage you to leave a comment and interact with Rebecca.</i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The final thing I really learned is that I want to serve more. College life can be very self centered - but then again so can normal life. I have been taking a break from ministry this last semester because when I came to SBC I was tired. But during Mission X I realized how empty a life that is only about serving myself is. there is no joy in taking myself out for supper, or playing a game of solitaire on the computer by myself, I want to begin serving more. I believe God sent me to SBC, and gave me that semester of rest, but now it's time to get back into ministry. My desire is to serve others, because it is not about me. I want to show others the God that has revealed himself to me all of my life. I don't want it to be about me anymore, there is no joy in that.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I know people go on mission trips and vow to never forget what they learned, and saw. But many times they do. I don't want to forget what I learned. I don't want to forget Larrissa's name, or Janeece's, or where Pete lives. I want to remember. I want to tell others what God has taught me, and I want others to learn from it. I want to go back there, and make a difference. But maybe that was my time to make a difference in the inner city, and now it is my time to make a difference here. God is amazing, he never changes, so that we can.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"><i>There is no such thing as a call for the Christian that does no start, and end, with serving; </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><b>"</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”(Matt 20:28). He has set the example, thank you Rebecca for sharing this experience of taking up the call. Please leave comments, either to Rebecca, or about your serving experience.</span></i></span></span></div>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-72543930566654779232011-04-19T07:13:00.000-05:002011-04-19T07:13:05.874-05:00Rebecca's Mission X (2)<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"><i>Today we rejoin Rebecca as she dives a little deeper into her experience, and show's us vulnerable pieces of her heart.</i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Before we left to come back to school, our dean of men asked us a few questions. One of the questions was, "what was your high point or the most difficult challenge for you?". As people began talking about their experiences I realized that none of the people had crazy experiences as their high points- well other than the crazy bus ride. The people had simple things like singing a song for a homeless woman, and walking a child home as experiences they would always remember. I didn't know if I had a high point. I was trying to think about all my experiences and what I had loved, or hated, or learned from. For some reason, I could not think of one. When Dalen (our dean of men) asked what we had learned, I thought about it for a while. I realize that I learned three main things during this trip.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I learned that a person is a person, no matter how small, how disabled, how rich , how poor, or how angry. God created everyone, and every person has a story to tell. the elderly woman in the wheelchair at Siloam had a story, my little girl Larrissa had a story. I think that if people shared their honest stories with each other, the world would be much more unified. If we take time to hear other people's stories and they take time to hear ours, our world would be more about others than ourselves.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Something else I learned was that God does not make mistakes. he made people like George, who will never walk, and he made people like Val, who is blind but plays the piano beautifully. He made my little Larrissa, and he made me. He made Mother Theresa. He doesn't make mistakes, every person is put on this earth for a purpose - God doesn't ever say, "oops! Guess I should have done that differently!"</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"><i>I think this is beautiful, I just want to point out the beauty of the conviction Rebecca feels for people being honest with their story, and how she's telling her own beautiful story to illustrate the point!</i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"><i>Tune in tomorrow to read the conclusion of Rebecca's Mission X!</i></span></div>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-29942701392283689882011-04-18T07:10:00.000-05:002011-04-18T07:10:31.440-05:00Rebecca's Mission X<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"><i>Back in January, Rebecca and I went with the same group on Mission X. It's beautiful that each of us was impacted differently. Enjoy part 1 of Rebecca's Mission X</i></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">As I look back on the five days I just spent in inner city Winnipeg, so many things come to my mind. I want to know how Larissa is doing, and if she's been haunted by the ghost in her house. I want to know that Pete is okay. I want to hug the kids and tuck them into bed! I want them to be safe. I feel the pain of people more easily, because I saw so much of it when I was in the North End. I just can't even explain how I feel about these people. It's like God broke my heart for the people of Winnipeg. I have been back for six days now, but there isn't a day that Larissa or someone I talked to at Siloam doesn't cross my mind. They are constantly on my mind and in my prayers. I can not imagine what they are going through. I go to bed in please, knowing that no one is going to rob my house, or beat me up, or rape me. What right do I have to have such a richly blessed life?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">When people ask me about Mission X, I think of ICYA, it was the part of my five days in Winnipeg that I will never forget. Yes we helped our in many other places , but these kids had a major impact on me and how I view my life now. I think the thing that impacted me the most was walking the kids home and having them terrified. I keep thinking of the girl that Trevor was carrying, Janeece, and how terrified she was. I watched a movie last night, about an inner city dance program, and the anger I saw in these teenagers in the movie was just like the kids I played with this past weekend. It made things like the news and movies, and just things that people say more real.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"><i>Read More about Rebecca's Mission X experience on Rocks Are Dumb tomorrow.</i></span></div>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-26363912059854213902011-04-16T11:51:00.000-05:002011-04-16T11:51:15.811-05:00Something Nice for Saturday, EnjoyMy Favorite Music Video.<br />
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<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/P8cAU475dQo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-28462570297045870152011-04-15T07:50:00.000-05:002011-04-15T07:50:50.325-05:00A Little Worship Goes A Long Way<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"><i>This is a piece of a journal entry from my time on mission X. Mission X is a week long inner city mission for 1st year students at Steinbach Bible College. We worked with the kids from Inner City Youth Alive, helped served the homeless at Siloam Mission and UGM, and grew closer as a student body. This was one of my favorite moments. Enjoy.</i></span><br />
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The first thing we saw when we got to Bethlehem Aboriginal Church was the basement, disappointment ensued, this is where we'd be sleeping. Shortly after we arrived we had a meeting in the sanctuary. I walked in and was awestruck at the giant room. The stain glass, wrap around balcony, and a giant pipe organ were appropriate accents to the grandeur of the room itself.I knew what needed to happen, we needed to sing and worship in this space. I made the announcement that I would be in the balcony with my guitar after snack and whoever wanted to join me was welcome.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After snack I rushed up to the sanctuary with some other students. We tried desperately to find a light switch but after a while I gave up and headed to the balcony. What unfolded next was nothing less than poetic. Abe and I started to play, then Beth, Samantha, and Makyla showed up. I was flabbergasted at the talent. Shortly after James Corder came in with his guitar under one arm and Brian on the other. Brian sat and started praying, and I could see James’ guitar glinting occasionally in the rare light of the room.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>As our session came to a climax I suddenly heard a violin, I looked over the balcony and there was Gerilyn. I was surrounded by so much amazing talent that I felt as though I had snuck in the back door on something amazing, and out of grace God allowed me to join in.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>There were only seven of us singing, and praying, but the giant sanctuary was thick with the sound of our praise. As our voices bounced off the walls and the words came floating back to our ears, I realized this is what Mission X is, a small group of us lifting up our voices in a giant city, making the north end thick with the sound of our praise.<br />
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</div><div style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;">A little praise goes a long way, find a way to worship God through serving someone today, you might be surprised at what God can do with it.</span></div><div style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Tyson</span></div><div style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"><br />
</span></div>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-66937301866536145232011-04-13T07:27:00.008-05:002011-04-16T15:33:55.748-05:00The Exchange of My SoulThis one's a bit longer, but I thought it would lose impact if I split it up. Enjoy!<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>Revelations 2:4 <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.</i></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj"><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-30723" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; vertical-align: text-top;">5</sup> Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.</span></span></i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>At pre marital counseling Krystl and I sat with Steve, the pastor that is to marry us, and spoke through several verses. Revelations 2:4-5 stuck with me."Do the things you did at first", it rings through my mind. Last September I read a book for a college course I was in, “The Divine Romance”. I read it in one sitting, I cried once or twice. Even though I do not agree with all the theology of the book, I could not escape the theme of God’s intense love for us, and what He did for us on the cross. I closed my report of “The Divine Romance” by saying that after reading the book I walked down the street with emotions stirring in my chest. They were not new emotions, but emotions and connections I had felt as a new believer, when the reality of God’s love first hit me. I didn’t even realize I didn’t feel those feelings any more, and the reminder invigorated my faith. We spoke of this verse in context of marriage, to remember that love in the beginning, to not lose sight of it.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>This Conversation laid dormant in my subconscious all day. At five o’clock I left the clean cut shiny glassed, square mold of architecture where I work and headed to Winnipeg’s exchange district to meet Krystl at a cake store to pick our wedding cake. I walked through the streets of downtown, the new Hydro Building tall, efficient, confident. The TD building towering strong, imposing on us, reminding us that we have bills to pay, bank accounts to attend to, check books to balance.<br />
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As I turned corners the Exchange District, affectionately called “The Exchange” by locals, started to come into view. A red brick building, rough looking with a giant label “Odeon Theatre”. The Malborough on my right, built in 1914 if I remember right. The buildings more and more become rough brick, elaborate moldings. Signs go from neon and back lit to simple and pasted to buildings, all telling you their purpose in a tongue in cheek way. <br />
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Here I am reminded that Winnipeg was young once. It bustled like the towns in opening scenes of old western movies. I walk into a Book Store Coffee Shop. It is rough, there is a smell to the place, maybe incense, or maybe some creative dish I’ve never heard of and will probably never try. It has it’s own produce section where I assume the living simple hippy demographic filling chairs at tables find organic fruit and veggies. I don’t buy coffee here. I don’t fit, I don’t have a big beard, dreads, stories about where I’ve been in the world.<br />
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I walk out in the street and into the next door. It’s a newer brand of coffee shop. Here clean cut people sit with their Mac Books and take care of business they want people to think is poetic, or pressing. The people behind the counter almost seem to be in costumes, one with a fedora and her shirt on backwards. Her lips are painted bright red purposely contrasting the masculine style clothes she’s wearing. I assume they don’t dress like this outside of their coffee shop. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>These two coffee shops separated by a wall of wood and cement might as well be in two different cities. I get a hot chocolate, I am disappointed with it. I figure the hot chocolate next store would have been tastier, and cheaper. Later Krystl and I would sit in a coffee shop a block away full business people and two big screen T.V.’s blaring the Prime Ministerial Debate. I feel the least comfortable here out of the three shops, socially and physically, the chairs are too straight.<br />
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I leave the new brand coffee shop, walking briskly with fake purpose. I walk down the archway back lanes and I imagine the excitement and anticipation of the times when the bricks were laid. I love the bricks, I imagine through a sepia lense, gruff men in vintage clothing laying the bricks one at a time by hand. Lining up every brick, making sure every gap is right one by one. Buttering mortar onto the previous bricks in preparation for the new, this process repeated until a building is standing in the place of yesterday’s construction sight. A slower messier way of building, but the pride and reward of the end result must have been euphoric and worthy of no less than the intricate cement gargoyles and moldings they are finished with.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>Here, like no other place in the City, every walk of life feels a draw. We all want a connection with this special place of beginnings. We all respect each other here enjoying a sense of connection through this common feeling that we all have a piece of this beginning, and on these streets and in these archway alleys we all belong, the evidence of the beginning making us brothers and sisters of one city.<br />
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My thoughts turn inwards, to the beginnings of my faith. I wonder about the city of my soul. These fifteen years I’ve been following Christ. These clean cut shiny glassed, square mold theologies I am building, tall, efficient, confident statements rehearsed and spit out. But that day I read the divine romance, I wandered the streets of my soul, I caught a glimpse of the exchange district, the beginning of my faith. I imagine walking around the streets of the exchange of my soul looking at faith and revelations that were built arduously brick by brick. At first sloppy with the mortar, but as I walk I can see between the bricks where I became more skilled with the tools given me. I notice some buildings condemned and choose not to remember why. Some are dilapidated and abandoned, I grieve these, I must come back to them, turn the lights on, and make them warm and beautiful again. Here I remember the bustling anticipation of this cityscape that God was raising. I need the new downtown, but I must never forget these streets where it all started, I must remember to visit them more and get excited again about how it started, where God has brought it to, and to remember he has a plan in mind for my future.<br />
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In the exchange of our souls, all followers, no matter what their doctrine or dogma, become brothers sharing an experience of new birth. Billions of souls, trillions of memories, one cross. Here we all stand on the same undeserved and unearned ground of grace.<br />
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I encourage and implore you to take time today, walk the streets of your early faith. Remember the love and excitement. Take time to breathe in the smells, feel the course bricks of the first verses you read from God’s word, listen for the songs that spoke to your soul, and conversations with close friends that pushed your faith deeper. Read quotes out of the sky that made you think, books that taught you more about this faith, poems that made your soul jump inside you. And, if you are brave enough, take someone with you and show them the sights, and share the excitement of that new love.<br />
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God Bless<br />
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TysonTysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-69799611167151401392011-04-12T10:57:00.000-05:002011-04-12T10:57:15.365-05:00God in the Call CenterI have recently started workin at a call center. I do in bound customer service for a specific product. One part of my job is called "saving the sell". When people call my obligation is to see if I can help resolve the problem.<br />
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Working in an environment like this is tricky though. There are no big issues of corruption, no obvious snares or pitfalls. Instead it's all tiny temptations. Although I don't make commission I do make sales. The temptation is always there to say "Oh yeah, I use the product and it worked 100% for me". My first day I found myself spouting these lines. I realized soon after that although my integrity wasn't completely destroyed, I had begun turning out these tiny screws that keep it intact. <br />
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I sat and thought about the depth of integrity, a verse came to mind "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Matt 12:30).<br />
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Integrety for the christian is worship. Integrity runs to our core, making small compromises is like loosening little screws, sooner or later the whole thing will fall apart.<br />
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I encourage you, whether you are a student, pastor, salesmen, there are no white lies. The first compromise is the hardest one to make.<br />
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Worship God with your everything, make no compromises, worship Him through your integrity.<br />
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TysonTysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-44364548921623312662011-04-08T12:46:00.000-05:002011-04-08T12:46:28.919-05:00An AppologyHey Readers,<br />
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Allow me to appologize for this horrible horrible gap of posts. Life has gotten busy but it's no excuse. I have a few entries to post from friends. The first of those will be posted on Sunday evening. Thank you for your patience, and please read on.<br />
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TysonTysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30458824.post-78786910609799113702011-01-11T22:52:00.002-06:002011-01-11T23:03:47.893-06:00Joyful Noise #3The Notes Not Played<br />
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I believe every act of worship, whether it be singing in a church band, or maybe it's paying bills on time, being polite to telemarketers, taking time for a friend, preaching or even being a rock star. All the noises of these worshipful actions spin and spiral and sway to the ears of God and make a beautiful symphony of worship.<br />
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</div><div>As I thought about this thought this morning I was hit with the realization that the notes not played in a symphony have significance. For every note played in a symphony there are scores of notes that you shouldn't play. If a wrong note is played it can taint the rest of the symphony. Sometimes our daily worship may be something we don't do. Being silent in gossip, not responding to a slight, or not honking at someone in traffic who's possibly been waiting 10 minutes to get into traffic.<br />
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We seldom think about the notes not played, they receive no praise, and our acts of silence will seldom be noticed. They will fall into the background of our day and no one will ever notice these silent acts of worship. As we practice these acts of silence we start to see a beautiful melody form as the great composer peels away every rotten unheard note exposing a beautiful symphony and we begin to realize that the notes not played are the setting upon wich the symphony shines.<br />
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Tyson<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;">I'm heading on a mission trip to the inner city of Winnipeg! Because I wanted to post James Ramelli's post in two segments instead of three there will be no entry on Thursday.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"> Be sure to tune in Friday to read a post from Dan Cormie, Pastor of Dakota Community Church. Dan has a deep faith and a quick wit, the combination of the two always makes for a great message.</span></div>Tysonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08644905817033257763noreply@blogger.com1