all done for now

I finished my semester on friday, and had an amazing weekend of events that I enjoyed thoroughly. Here they are in order
1) hung out on the front porch of a seedy neighborhood with a Scottish guy. We talked a long time about life and God. He was similar to the background my father comes from, giving intellectual assent and respect to God, but not pursuing any sort of relationship
2)hung out with my friends Lydia and Nathan
3)saturday morning prayer meeting in the same seedy neighborhood that I hung out in with the Scottish guy
4)spent all afternoon in Kensignton market, buying ingredients for a homemade pizza. It was a "P"-pizza, all the ingredients started with "P." Lydia helped to make it
5)Went to the "P" party, hence the "P"-Pizza.
6)church (we're on Sunday now), where we were given little shakers for the singing part. that was cool
7)lunch at my friend Kuirnan's house. Kuirnan has 6 fun and well-behaved children.
8)hung out with Steve Adam
9)watched my friend play slide guitar at a blues bar

lists never really cut it, but this was very likely the best weekend of my life. All around goodness. Good bonding, social fun, with just enough time for isolated walks.

It was a good weekend, and I thank God for it. I believe all good things come from Him, the only good being. The theological term to apply here is "common grace," we all get good gifts, the most basic being life itself. Other good things (like great weekends) flow from the hand of God for the purpose of letting us see a bit of Him - the Giver.

poolosophy

I am about to commence on a twenty-something page essay on Logical Positivism. A theory that is an attempt to create a coherent, secular worldview. It would mean that statements unverifiable in nature, such as "God exists" would be rendered meaningless. Meaningful sentences are those that have material value, like "every tree I've seen is made of wood," or "Andrew is studying." We can verify whether those are true or false. You can look at all the trees I've seen and find that it's true, they are made of wood. You can also find me and say, no, it's false, Andrew is not studying. Moral questions, like "Hitler was evil," are toughies, but someone smart might be able to afford meaning to those. If not, we'll just go with relativism and the "moral majority."

This theory failed, no philosopher would say a coherent secular worldview came out it. Now that's really interesting, because you can hear the effects of the theory everywhere. Our culture
is so focused on the 5 senses being the only means of truth-finding, "Well if God came down and spoke to me, then I'd believe." But yet when this theory of naturalism is brought to it's logical conclusions (in positivism) we get a fallen philosophy.

Anyhow, I'm hoping that my essay will bring out just why positivism failed, and why no one can make it work, and even why it NEEDS to work for a secular worldview to be plausible.

and if you ask me why I believe in God... well last tuesday i needed both soap AND a number list for my church. and the big guy upstairs hooked me up with both in less than an hour through unusual circumstances. that's not why i believe, but i did think it was cool.

alright, i'm done

part two

I said something along these lines to the males. Actually, this version is gonna be better, cause I can't remember myself verbatim, and I'm gonna make myself sound more concise and on the ball than I really was.

Men, our four years at university is not just a good time and getting a degree. It's an opportunity to become men. We are not yet men. Manhood today is characterized by indesciveness, and passivity. We need to get into a biblical concept of manhood. There's two things I want to say on this, in 2 Samuel 10 (i actually messed up here cause i had two passages to choose from, and i marked the one i wasn't going to use, and forgot the one i wanted to use... so this blog is getting the improved version) two of King David's commanders, Joab and Abishai, have to face an oncoming gigantic army ofSyrians and Ammonites. It was so big that it approached them by front and rear, surrounding the Israelites. Joab put to use some strategy (hooray!) and divided his army into a smaller better unit to fight the Syrians, and the larger half to fight the Ammonites. Then this is what Joab said to his second-in-command, Abishai,
2Sa 10:11 And he said, "If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. 12 Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him."

That last part hits is the most exciting, "Let us be courageous for our people... and may the LORD do what seems good to him." These men were not characterized by waiting around for God to send a sign from heaven. They knew they had a job to do - protect Israel - and took a risk in their military strategy to accomplish it, recognizing that God could choose to not bless them. Men need to recognize they have a job to lead in as well, the Great Commission, and take risks accordingly without sitting around on their butts.

The second point is this: guys, women are great. We need to love and serve and lead them. Ephesians 5 tells husbands to love their wives and Christ loved the church, giving himself up for her, that he might sancifiy her. We need to follow his example and take the initiative to treat women with respect and serve their needs. It's a sacrificial leadership, like Christ exemplified, that should characterize our relationships with women.


At university we can learn how to lead and obedience. We have role models to follow, and opportunities to grow in leadership. You need to be involved in the Great Commission on university at the least for your own character development.

Do these two things, taking risks for the Kingdom and loving women, and you'll probly die a happy man.

farewell thoughts part 1

April 4th Toronto Campus4Christ had their year-end banquet. It was a nice size in attendence, probly over a hundred.. i'm not very good at estimating numbers. i used to tell people our church could hold 12 000... it's morel like 1 200.

Anyhow, Lydia and I gave farewell speeches. I spoke about the need to have a faith grounded in the gospel. Campus4Christ is a fast-moving, action-loving organization. That's something we don't get to experience in the church, it's a priviledge. It's also a burden. Failure is inevitable and pretty constant when you have a million responsibilities, many of them beyond your natural capacity. There's a need to tackle everything in the power of the Holy Spirit. But there's a need often glance over in the rush to meet challenges. The need to find our worth and self-esteem first and only in the cross. This year more than any in my university experience I've experienced the esteem-eroding effects of failure. Failure to love, lead, disciple, witness, perform well in class. On the outside my "performance" may be looking good, but I know my heart and those unseen and wasted opportunities. But the glory of this year and of God has been to see all the more clearly the unconditional love of God. I've been forced to find more of my worth in Christ, in the grace in which I stand. The "grace in which [many of us] stand" is a platform outside of the judgements of the law, and inside the unconditional acceptance and love of God. This is an attitude that gives glory to God. It's also an attitude that can breed actual love for others, and kill the self-condemnation that can destroy our faith. So I did as best I could to articulate the need for Christians to "preach the gospel to themselves," as John Piper says.

The I said something to men, but I'll write about it later, it's pretty heavy too, and the gospel is way better.