Spitiual Training – Thoughts for the Day

September 9, 2019

Look for the Gold in the Midst of Challenges!

There has been a lapse in my writing of my daily blog articles as I have had a challenging time with my health in recent days. I hand wrote a number of articles while in the hospital and as I still work on the process of healing I will share these articles as I begin again. Today’s article is from day one of my latest hospital stay.

Sunday was a very challenging day. The trip to the hospital took loner than expected due to road closures in Toronto. I was twelve hours in emergency before being transferred to a room for my ongoing stay. I had nothing to eat until about seven p.m. When my wife picked me up a submarine sandwich. It was very much appreciated.

The process of three attempts to insert a catheter were certainly not pleasant. The prayers and support of those who knew what was happening were very much appreciated.

Despite all the challenges there were moments of gold and I want to acknowledge them. When I was taken into emergency I was placed in a room at the end of a hall and was the furthest bed from the door. The halls were lined with patients on cots who spent most of the day in the halls. I was blessed to have a quiet room away from all the noise and bustle in the hall.

When I was being taken to my room about 11:30 p.m. I noticed the transfer person pushed the top floor button on the elevator. I joked I was being taken to the penthouse. Once in my room I was placed in the bed by the window and had a wonderful view of the night lights of the city from my penthouse perch. The daylight view was less enchanting, but still with much activity and interesting things to view.

Look for the positive even when facing challenging moment in your life. It does help. Also remember Jesus has promised to never leave or abandon us in those challenges.

August 30, 2019

Through the years until I was married, many weekends were spent at my aunt’s house which backed onto the Grand River near Brantford, Ontario. Since my aunt was a widow and her youngest son was close to my age we spent many hours along the bank of the river. My cousin was a close friend and my best man at our wedding. Where my aunt lived, the Grand River is both wide and fairly deep as water levels are controlled by a dam down river at Caledonia.

Recently I was travelling through a part of the county where I live and crossed over a bridge marked, “The Grand River”. Our county is the headwaters for five major rivers in the province of Ontario, including The Grand River. At the point where I crossed over this bridge I noticed the river was little more than a narrow ditch with water running down it.

In thinking about what I witnessed, I was reminded we are not to despise, or hate small beginnings, because we do not know what the final outcome might be. This applies to many areas in our life. The application of faithful persistence is incredibly important.

Small does not necessarily mean meaningless, or lack of value. Remember even a small light penetrates and dispels darkness. Also, it only takes a little spark to create a large fire.

Do not diminish the value of your worth and significance in this world. You will only be the best version of you when you have a proper balance of who you are before God and others. You make a far greater impact than you realize.

August 28, 2019

Your Honesty and Integrity Matters, Don’t Waste It!

You have heard it said, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. This principle has been applied to organizations and businesses as well.

From my perspective the concept of honesty and integrity are important elements in the strength of the chain when humans are involved.

Last week my wife picked up a skid load of boxes of books for her business. When the skid was unwrapped to be loaded into our van, the employee helping her discovered all the boxes in the centre of the skid had been damaged. It appears the skid had been dropped or damaged in shipping and the boxes restacked on a different skid and rewrapped so the damage was hidden. Our skid did not arrive on time because of an “exception” in Illinois. I think we know the cause of the exception.

The lack of integrity that would seek to hide whatever took place with our skid of stock is less than I would like to see with a shipping company. What people do not give thought to is declared in Luke 8:17, “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open” (NIV). Galatians 6:7 reminds us, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” (NIV). Your honesty and integrity matters, don’t waste it!

August 24, 2019

Universal Principles or Constant Change, Where’s the Balance for You?

In 1980 I sold all my CB equipment and bought my first computer, a VIC 20. A few years later I bought an Atari 128 computer, joined a local Atari club with some amazing programmers and used that computer for almost a decade. It was about 1993 when I first entered into the world of Microsoft.

I remembered how excited I was when I bought my first 500 mg hard drive. I thought I would never fill such a thing with all that memory. Today, the hard drive in my computer holds 2 terabytes and I have purchased compression software in order to increase its capacity to hold more data.

The new computer I will be picking up next week comes with a 500 g solid state hard drive. I wonder, will that be big enough to run the operating system and my programs. I will be adding a two terabyte hard drive for data storage.

Things in our world are constantly changing and we must be willing to adapt, at least in some areas of life. There are universal principles however that do not change, regardless of what humanity thinks or does. If we ignore these principles we do so to our own peril. It is wise to consider, if all change is better.

You would expect me to say, God’s Word, “The Holy Bible” is something that is unchanging in a continually changing world. There is a sense in which this is very true. However, our understanding of those universal unchanging principles must be connected to a process that may need to be changed.

Remember, “The Holy Bible” was not originally written in English, or for that matter most of the languages of our day. What we have are translations of the originals. That does not mean they should not be considered as the inspired Word of God. It means they are translations.

When you have a language like English, which is subject to change and differences of word meanings and understandings depending on the region of the world you are in, updates and changes to the translation may be necessary to stay relevant and true to the unchanging principles of what God’s Word is really saying.

It is important to make sure that the translation of God’s Word you use, in whatever language you speak, is relevant to the period of time and area of the world in which you live. To be accurate to the principles of the original is necessary, but so is being able to communicate these principles in ways people can understand. Universal Principles or Constant Change, Where’s the Balance for You?

August 23, 2019

What You Wear Reveals Your Intentions and Helps Create Your Reality!

I apologize for the fact there have been no daily blog articles this week. My trip to the hospital on Monday morning for the removal of my 12 to 14 inch stint did not go as expected. After its removal I was not able to urinate and we were not able to leave the hospital until I could go. I will not bother with details, but after a brief consult with the doctor before heading home, that day became a very dark and challenging day for me mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. My recovery from this procedure began to improve mid week when my daughter discovered a scalar/rife frequency specifically designed to clear and help the urethra (you are not allowed to use the word “heal” in such situations by most governments of the world).

I also began my two hour per day scalar/rife protocol this week. Since the doctor on Monday made it clear he would be pushing for radiation and other procedures at my next appointment in early October, I am looking to provide positive evidence to offset his approach to my situation.

I was well enough for a quick trip to the bank and post office in town yesterday. While I was out, I noticed a significant number of vehicles parked at the local Legion. During a weekday afternoon this almost always signifies a funeral “tea” is being hosted. I also witnessed a group of about ten people walking from the parking lot of a nearby plaza towards the Legion. The plaza parking lot is often used when the Legion lot is full.

Having watched funeral events in our community for the last 24 years, both as a pastor, leading the event and as a outside observer, with the exception of seniors, the clothing generally worn to funerals tends to be what I would describe as more casual. This was not true of the group of ten I saw yesterday. The men were all in dark suits and the women all wore dresses. This fact caught my immediate attention.

My mentor, Joel Bauer, teaches about the importance of our appearance and how we want to be perceived by others. What is the message we want to express, whether we are going to a funeral, to school, to church, or anywhere else?

We seem to live in a culture which has reacted against the idea, people “dress up” to be seen. This is self-centred selfish approach to life is not what God intended for us. God is looking for to align our lives with pure, selfless love (holiness). What as been lost, in the move to “casualness,” is the importance of understanding how we present ourselves is a reflection of what we believe about ourselves, in relation to God and others.

Does what we choose to wear fit the situation we are in? What do our clothes say about our intentions? It does not matter if your best does not measure up to someone else’s standards of best. If it is your best, then you know, God knows it and it will energetically make a difference in your life and how you feel about yourself. Don’t allow anyone to look down on your best and negatively impact you. Your intentions are the force that will move you forward. What you wear and how you look is far more important than most people realize, because it reveals your intentions and helps create your reality!