A Convert facing Execution

In order to protect the identity of this Muslim who converted to Christianity his name will remain unidentified. This 31 year old Muslim man converted to Christianity was arrested on July 24, 2006. In his legal confidential file, he was charged with apostasy, but publicly he has falsely been accused of drug trafficking. He was told that if he did not turn away from Christianity and back to Islam he would remain in jail and possibly face execution. In September 2006, this man was temporarily freed. But when authorities found out that his 8 year old daughter was sharing the story of Christ with her friends they were forced to flee. The family is now in hiding.

The situation in Iran is severe. Please pray for this family as the persecution for their faith has become very real to them... perhaps even to the point of death. Please please please pass this message on to your friends and ask them to pray. (This information is taken from the "Secret Believers" website)

In comparison to knowing Christ...

...the things of this world are rubbish. I have been reading the blogs of people on the "Secret Believers" website (there is a link on the side column) and this quote was so powerful yet so sobering. "This is a world where everything is accessible-- McDonalds, Coke a' Cola, Oreo Cookies, cheescake and Hershey's candy. But this is also a world where the Gospel is hardly as popular and no one wants it even if there is a fun pack and a kiddie bag to go with it or a chance to win a free trip to Disney Land. Yet it is a world where hearts hunger for life in the valley of the shadow of death." -- Al Janssen (author of Secret Believers). In 1 Cor. 1: 17- 18 it says, "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Only by the power of the Holy Spirit working in the lives of people will any one man come to a relationship with the Living God. In comparison to knowing Christ the appeals of this world are rubbish. Everything the world has to offer is rubbish in comparison to knowing Christ. For it says in Philipians 3: 7-10, " But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ, More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death; in order that I may attain to resurrection from the dead." For those who are "hungering for life in the valley of the shadow of death" I pray that they would come to know the living God. The Gospel will no longer be "foolishness" but the "power of God." Then they will be able to proclaim Philipians 3:7-10 with confidence declaring the things of this world to be rubbish in comparison to knowing Christ.

Shifting focus...

... from the weeds to the wheat. On Sunday Pastor Terry spoke to the congregation regarding the parable of the weeds and the wheat which Jesus told in Matthew 13: 24- 29. Here is the parable, " The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as everyone slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat. When the crop began to grow and produce again, the weeds also grew. The farmer's servants came and told him, 'Sir the field where you planted the good seed is full of weeds!' 'An enemy has done it!' the farmer exclaimed. 'Shall we pull out the weeds?' they asked. He replied, "No you'll hurt the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds and burn them and to put the wheat in the barn." This parable is further explained in Matthew 13: 36- 43 if you want to check it out. Pastor Terry explained that if our focus is on the weeds which can be referred to as everything that causes sin and all who do evil, we will be distracted from focusing on Christ. In Hebrews 12: 1-2, it says, " Therefore since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us." If we are focused on Christ, his character and workmanship in our lives rather than the "sin that so easily entangles us" we will be able to run the race with endurance. Our focus will shift to Christ who has the power to forgive us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Then we will have endurance to run the race marked out before us.

Story of Jalapeno Peppers...

... that were not jalapeno peppers. This weekend Darren and I decided that it would be nice to prepare a nice meal for his family. After surveying our list of options we decided to make Quesadillas. At this time we also decided we were feeling like we wanted a bit of kick to our Quesadillas... so after our trip to Superstore we came back with our so called jalapeno peppers and the rest of ingredients. So because the peppers at Superstore were creatively labelled "assorted chilli peppers" we were unsure if they were really jalapenos. Darren volunteered to try the peppers prior to putting them in the Quesadillas. I cut him a piece approx. a sixth of the pepper with the seeds included. In 5 seconds or less he was running around the house doing jumping jacks and screaming "my throut is burning , my throut is burning..." Meanwhile, I had touched my eye and I was yelling, "my eye is burning, my eye is burning..." So both Darren and I concluded that this was no jalapeno. This was a bit too much "kick" for our liking... however it added a bit of excitement and laughter to our evening!!

Czech Republic vs Austria

Darren was able to get three free tickets to the Fifa World Cup Soccer game for last night's game in Edmonton through his boss at work. He had a casual conversation with the boss that went something like, "Do you know if there are any tickets left for the Fifa World Cup Soccer games?" And his reply was "I am getting company from out of town. I'll give you my three tickets." It was the Czech Republic playing Austria in the semifinals. Our seats were in the second pier close to the top. At first we were confused and didn't realize if the "red" team was the Czech Republic and the "white" team Austria or vice versa. So after discussing back and forth for a while, a girl in front of us heard our conversation and clarified that the "red" team was Austria and the "white" team was the Czech Republic. So after figuring out the teams it was easier to understand who was winning. Darren work until 4:45 or so and I work until 4:00 and the game started at 5:45... so we arrived at the game after the only two goals in the whole game were scored. Czech won 2:0. After the game we walked back to Darren's house. I bet it was probably a lot faster walking than driving. There was 28,000 fans at the game and a lot of people with cars. There has been so much fun summer stuff happening this past week, and the soccer game was just some of the fun!!

A Winter's Tale

By the title of my post "A Winter's Tale" your probably thinking why the post "A Winter's Tale" in the middle of summer... unless perhaps you a devoted Shakespeare fan. That's right Shakespeare. There was a crew of Darren, some Bible Study friends and I that went to see "A Winter's Tale" at the Ampitheatre at Hawrelak Park on Tuesday. It was an excellent play... excellent characters... and excellent company. For those of you who are new to Shakespeare "A Winter's Tale" is about the Hermione (already pregnant) who has an affair, this angers the Leontes and he has her arrested. The daughter is born, abandoned and adopted by a shepherd. Hermoine comes before a jury to prove her "guilty" or "not guilty" and an oracle is read. The Leontes rejects the oracle angering the gods and Hermoine and Maximillus are struck dead. The shepherd's daughter (Perdita) grows up and falls in love with the Polixene's son, Florizel. The King rejects his son's love for the shepherdess viewing it as inappropriate for the heir to the throne. At harvest festival hosted by the old shepherd, Polixenes intervenes into the impending marriage of his son and the shepherdess. Autoclycus, a thief and vagabond attends the harvest festival to pick pockets and sell trinkets. Florizel and Perdita are welcomed into the court of Leontes. Polixenes soon enters his court and the truth is revealed that Perdita is the long lost daughter of Leontes. Hermoine has stayed in hiding for 16 years until the safe return of her daughter. A life like statue of Hermoine was created and during its presentation it comes to life. And it appears that she falls in love with the King again. This is a short version of the play... if my version of the play intrigues you... then you will have to go see it for yourself!

Sunday Drive

Darren and I took a trip to visit Uncle Dick, Aunt Agnes, Jon, Kevin and Catherine on Sunday July 15. Our first stop was at Starbucks so that Darren could pick up his bold roast coffee before we headed out to Ponoka. We arrived in time for their church service. The praise and worship was amazing... Its just so awesome that we can sing praises to our King!!! Pastor Kirk shared about the boldness given by God so that we can go forth and proclaim the gospel to the nations. Specifically, he referred to the story in Acts 3 of Peter and John's response to the lame man begging at the gate called Beautiful. This man was panhandling hoping to receive a few coins but Peter and John responded, "I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene- walk!" They took advantage of this opportunity to share the gospel and proclaimed it with boldness. May we also share the gospel with boldness so that people will come to repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ alone.
After the church service we departed to Uncle Dick and Aunt Agnes' for lunch. A wonderful lunch of BBQ chicken, some fancy rice, broccolli salad and apple pie for dessert.
Shortly after lunch we packed up a picnic supper to take with us to Open Creek Dam Campground. Approximately 10 min after we arrived it began to rain with thunder and lightening. So we stood under a picnic chalet with the company of sparrows. A baby sparrow had attempted to fly earlier (before our visit) and fell from the nest. The mama sparrow was trying to encourage the baby to fly back up to the nest. This encouragement was mearly words of a sparrow and never turned into action. The rain clouds never did pass ... so we packed up our stuff once again and headed to Gull Lake hoping that maybe it would be sunny over there... well we were just out of luck! So this turned into a long Sunday drive with good company and good visits along the way! Once we arrived back at Uncle Dick and Aunt Agnes' we had supper and a wonderful visit.