I really enjoyed Jaqueline's sermon this week on the story of Bartimaeus. This particular story was one my daughter read about 40 times a day when she was 3, so it was neat to re-visit it again (and this time in the adult bible!).

What stood out to me the most was the discussion of Jesus words to Bartimaeus: "What do you want me to do for you"?

Like Jacqueline pointed out, it seemed like a "no-brainer" to the outsider, but it struck me hard when she said how Jesus wanted to hear him articulate what his real need was - not more money, or less judgement...vision.

In discussing it with my husband, he had a different take on Jesus words - He wondered if Jesus sees our spiritual selves as more important, and what may seem like a pressing need to us is not where his focus is - on our spiritual wellness. In other words, our spiritual blindness of is of greater consequence than our physical blindness.

It resonated with me how often I fail to tell God what I want him to do for me. I assume he knows! But in the same way Bartimaeus needed to articulate his own needs to Jesus, I need to do the same for God the Father.

What did you learn from Jacqueline's telling of the story of Bartimaeus?

Hi everyone,
This weekend message was about childlike faith. Jason, challenged us to think about what childlike behavior looks like for each of us. I have to admit that I think I'm lacking in this. I think I need to rediscover what this might look like for me.

The older I get, the more concerns I have, the more anxiety that builds up, the more I lose touch with Jesus' words...faith like that of a child.

So, have you caught a glimpse of childlike faith lately and what has that looked like?

Most people in our society want to be leaders - even if it's just leaders of their own lives. We don't like to submit to following someone else. Following someone else takes confidence and trust in that person. It also means making an effort to pay attention and do whatever is necessary to stay with them.

The title slide for this weekend spoke as loudly to me as the words of the sermon. The slide was a picture of a grass covered aisle between two rows of trees that stretched into the distance. In the foreground, a flock of sheep had stopped to graze, all bunched up together. In the distance, a bright light shone. Scripture refers to Jesus as the Good Shepherd. He leads His sheep each day, taking them where they will find food, rest, and satisfaction. Scripture also refers to Jesus as the Light of the World. So in my mind, the light in the distance represented Jesus the Shepherd. The sheep however, though they were basically following Jesus, had paused to do their own thing. And once the lead sheep stops to graze so do all the others. I've never seen a sheep at the back of the herd start jumping and pushing his way to the front while yelling, "Hey, hey Shepherd, wait for me." Sheep are followers - til they see something they desire more. Isn't that just like people?

We accept Christ and follow along. But we get sidetracked by our own desires and plans. And if we happen to be a leader of any kind, we end up sidetracking those following us - whether it's a church, a small group or even our children or friends. What a responsibility!

But if we are focussed on the Shepherd diligently, making every effort to follow Him consistently, then we don't have to worry about they ones behind us. By following us, they are following Him too.

Jacqueline, in her message, spoke of Jesus words, "Follow me." She pointed out that initially these words are a gentle and non-threatening invitation to come follow Him into true Life. But once we accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour, these words become a command - still gentle and non-threatening - but a command than is expected to be followed.

Here's some questions to consider. How is your 'following'? What distracts you from coninuing to follow? And what can make us better followers?

I've been in contact with several people from our church this week, and it seems we're all struggling with the events that have revealed themselves the last few days.

There are inevitable feelings of grief and sadness, loss of trust, betrayal and intense heartache.

But over and over, as waves of disbelief or sadness or anger invade me, I've been comforted by this chorus we sing:

All who are thirsty, All who are weak
Come to the fountain, dip your heart in the stream of life
Let the pain and the sorrow be washed away
In the waves of his mercy, as deep cries out to deep

Come Lord Jesus, Come.
Come Lord Jesus, Come.

God is God - he hasn't changed in these days. Our perceptions may have. But God hasn't, and I'm so soothed by that. I'm trying to make sure that I don't mix up disillusionment with people, with disillusionment with God.

Come Lord Jesus, Come.

Hi everyone,
Not sure if you were able to make it out this weekend or not...I know, it's still summer and we all want to take advantage of the short summer months. Anyways, Brad spoke on our new series for this month: Dumb Things Christians Do, and the topic for this last weekend was on judging. Struck a deep cord with me. I've been there, yep, I've judged. Not nice. Not good. And not in the least something any of us who claim to follow Christ are given permission to do.

After the service I was aware of judgment thoughts and comments I had and made throughout the day. Wow, it's tough not to judge.

Lately I've watched a few episodes of the new TV show Without Prejudice. Apparently we make judgment calls about 15 seconds after we've met someone. Unbelievable!

Just wondering...how are you doing with the "judging" message?

Sunday was our last time together on our summer adventure of learning to hear God's voice. Together we blessed God with worhsip. We blessed one another by sharing what God had been doing in our lives. We blessed individuals by listening to God and speaking encouragement to them. And then to end our adventure, two of my team sent each person off with a blessing. If you've been following our blog and would like to receive the blessing, too, then here it is. Put your own name in the blank and receive this blessing from God, through this written word...

___(your name)___, in the name of Jesus Christ, I bless the ears of your heart to confidently hear His voice speaking to you; I bless the eyes of your heart to see Him more and more clearly. May the Spirit of love and power that God has put within you, lead you to joyfully use what you see and hear to bless the people around you. Go, and change your world, for the glory of God.

The blessing comes with a hug! Have a great week!

July has been an amazing month of journeying into hearing, seeing, and meeting personally with Jesus. Each week God not only gave me material to teach, but gave me a personal experience of that weeks material. It wasn't always "fun" but it was always relationship-building with Him. And that really has been the point of the whole series - not to fill people's heads with facts, but to open them to the experience of hearing Jesus for themselves.


This week we looked at why we sometimes don't hear His voice. Although there are occassions when God chooses to be truly silent, most of the silences we experience are due to "blocks" that have arisen between us and Jesus. These blocks can be emotions, lies, sins, people, demons, or many other things. But the important point is that they can be overcome, and usually quite easily.

As my team was preparing for this past weekend, we decided it would be a good idea to practice dealing with blocks before we tried to lead others in this simple exercise. I was amazed to discover how vulnerable and hesitant we all felt. Yet the very fact that we felt that way spoke to the importance of following through on it.

So we each imagined Jesus standing across the room from us. Then we each privately asked Him, "If there are any obstacles or blocks between us that You would like to remove, please show them to me." Some of my team members were able to immediately draw close to Jesus with no blocks. But others of us became immediately aware of things in the way. For me, the barrier was fear - fear of failure, of not doing my task well enough, of letting God down. So question two was, "Where did this block come from?" As I asked Jesus this question, I was immediately reminded of a ministry situation in my life many years ago that had not turned out as planned. I left the situation afraid that I had let God down. And since then, I have often felt that same fear. When I now asked Jesus, "How can this block be removed?", He sent me to Psalm 33 which states clearly that He is faithful to His own. I needed to claim that truth thatJesus would be faithful to work in and through me. And I needed to change my 'song' from one of potential failure to one of assurance and hope.

Interestingly, earlier that same week, God had spoken to me during a devotional time about this very same thing. Although I wrote it down and shared it with friends, I obviously didn't let it sink into my own heart. Here's what God had spoken to me. Perhaps it will bless you too:

Just as a parent allows a child to "help" in order to enjoy that child's company while still getting the work done, and just as that parent appreciates the child's efforts even when those efforts are not as effective as the parent's own, so I am pleased to have you partner with Me. Your success is your obedience to my instructions, even if your efforts seem to produce less than My own could have or less than you hoped for. I love being with you. Do not fear that your efforts aren't good enough. I am pleased to work through your efforts on My behalf. The real purpose in working together is not the achievement, but the relationship with Me, and with one another. The degree to which you are growing in relationship with Me as you prepare to do ministry, is the degree of your success. Let that be your focus rather than the response of the people. I will take care of the people's hearts and their relationship with Me.

So I want to encourage you, if you feel God is being silent with you, ask Him what He's wanting to bring to your attention, what block is holding you back in your discipleship. Then ask Him where that block came from and how to get rid of it. God has so much He wants to say to each of us, things that will encourage, comfort, direct, renew us. Let's not let a removable block stand in the way of such a beautiful relationship.

As always on this listening journey, I am eager to hear the stories of others as they pursue the voice of The Shepherd.

We've been continuing our study of Brad Jersak's book "Can You Hear Me". This week we talked about the various places that we "meet" God.

There are biblical meeting places including images, locations and events or stories. Regardless of which of these we engage with, our chief purpose should be to meet Jesus in them. By imagining the scene, the characters, the smells and sounds, we can enter into the scene. Then we can look for Jesus in it and draw near to him. We can even ask him questions. This isn't a new practice but a devotional structure used down through the centuries of church history.

Then there are personal meeting places, including physical locations where you like to meet with God in prayer and internal venues where you can cultivate meetings with God. I've been familiar with physical locations for many years. I like to meet with God out in nature - walking in the park, or driving out of the city to watch a sunrise, or sometimes even here at my computer. Others have a favourite desk or chair or room in their home where they like to meet God.

The internal venues include meeting God in your memories, in dreams and visions, and just simply in your own heart. Scripture clearly reveals that God's Spirit is in all believers. If He is there, we can meet with him there. I remember growing up praying to God-out-there-somewhere. At some point in the last serveral years, that changed. I don't know how or why, but I know that I began thinking inwardly when I prayed, looking for God who dwells within me. It made a huge difference in feeling close and intimate with God. My prayer life began to change.

But meeting God in memories is where my lastest experience has taken place. Scripture says, "Lo [look, see, behold], I am with you always" and "I will never leave you nor forsake you." That means in every moment of our lives, Jesus is there. For those memories that we are tempted to say, "Where was God when ___ happened?", we can actually invite Jesus to reveal Himself in the memory, to show us where He was and how He was with us. And He will do that! As we meet Jesus in that memory, He can begin to heal the hurt caused by that incidence. Positive memories can also be a meeting place with Jesus. Just as He is with us in horrendous situations, He is with us in the good and happy times too.

Since I had never experienced meeting Jesus in a memory, and since I was teaching this stuff, I asked God to bring to mind a memory in which He would like to meet me. What came to mind was my wedding ceremony - 21 years ago! So I began to remember and picture in my mind the scene where my husband and I were standing at the front of the church facing the pastor. I asked Jesus where He was in that scene. Immediately I sensed that He was standing behind and to the side of the pastor. He was "officiating" the wedding ceremony or presiding over it. In fact, when the pastor asked the question, "Who gives this woman to be married?", even though I heard my Dad's voice responding, I now realized that it was actually Jesus saying, "I do." The intent was totally clear. Jesus had chosen me to be the wife of this man and He had chosen this man to be my husband. He had prepared us for one another; He had brought us together; and now He was giving us to each other in marriage - a sacrament ordained by Him. When the pastor led us through our vows, it was really Jesus acting as priest. When the pastor pronounced us man and wife, it was really Jesus pronouncing it. And when the pastor introduced us as Mr. and Mrs., it was really Jesus joyfully announcing that we were joined as one by His plan and purpose and no one could separate what He had joined together.

This all happened in two minutes or less as I was walking across the bridge on my way to work. I can't tell you what a profound influence it has made on me. I will never view my marriage as anything less than sacred again. Meeting God in a memory can be powerful - whether it is a negative memory that needs healing, or a positive memory that He wants to make glorious.

I encourage you to try this simple exercise. Choose a memory or ask God to bring one to mind. Begin to review it in your mind and then ask Jesus where He was in that moment. I look forward to hearing your stories!