Barrie's thoughts - not the church's as a whole.

You ever have random thoughts?  I just had one. 

I was reading my email this morning, and the song , "Everybody's Working For The Weekend",  by Loverboy popped into my head.  The message of the song is simply that of the title: life is hard and often boring, but boy, just wait till the weekend. 

How often do our friends ask - "What are you doing this weekend?  Have you made any plans?" 

For many, life does not 'begin' until after work on Friday (unless of course you work Saturday and Sunday and have Monday-Tuesday off, but that would be a different song title then).  We plod through (sometimes agonize through) the week just so we can soak in those precious 48 hours. 

Then I thought about John 10:10 ("I have come so that you might have life, and have it to the full" ~ Jesus). 

I don't know how many more weeks I have till God call's me to the big week-end in the sky, but I pray my Monday-Friday's that are left. will be productive and God-honoring. 

So, what...

The article below is by one of my former Bible Professors (Ron Carlson) who lives and preaches in Texas at the Duncanville Church of Christ.  He advocated linking it to your blog if you found it helpful - I did, so I did!  Enjoy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    Sitting at lunch last Sunday with a bright and energetic couple on the brink of marriage, we engaged in a conversation that ranged from the hapless Rangers to surviving the honeymoon.

Excited, yet a touch anxious, they had concluded together in their pre-marital discussions that church needed to be an important part of their new life together.

“Good thinking,” I told them.

I complimented their arithmetical sense.  Mathematically, a couple’s chance of maintaining a successful marriage is greatly enhanced if they do it God’s way and get involved with a community of faithful and obedient disciples.

(I want to note here that a survey several years ago concluded the divorce rate among evangelicals to be similar to those without Christian allegiance.  There are several explanations for this surprising revelation.  My take on the tragedy...

It's been a long winter (by Kelowna's standards at least), and I am longing for the sunshine.  It seems the winter has gone on forever, and I can't remember ever seeing snow in the hills around the city this late in the year.  I was thinking today that it's a pretty accurate reflection of life.  Sometimes the "winter" of life lasts a lot longer than we want.  I was thinking about how God uses winter to prepare the supply of water for the coming spring and summer, and that maybe I need a perspective 'check'. 

My life verse is Job 42:5 ("I have heard of You by the hearing of my ear, but now my eye sees You.")  At the end of Job's trials - at the end of crying out for his 'day in court' to prove his innocence, God comes to Job, and not only does He not answer Job's questions, He asks 70 of His own.  Too often, I find myself complaining about the 'spiritual weather' of my life, when what I really need is God's...

We have a goal that we’re heading towards.  And it is helpful once in a while to stick our heads out of the whirlwind of life and catch another glimpse of the end of the race.  We are headed to see Jesus.

Won't that be a glorious day?  After...

I did it!  I never thought I would - but I did.  In fact, I almost prided myself in having never done it.  Which seems wierd if you think about it, but last night, after having played "by ear" for almost 33 years, I took my very first guitar lesson!  Upon reflection, I think I was a lot like a Pharisee .  After all I had accomplished so much on my own.  I could 'boast' about my ability brought about by my own doing.  It was kinda powerful, heady stuff. 

But last night something happened.  My pride in all I had accomplished over 33 years was put into perspective.  Jerry (my "teacher") asked some very simple questions I am sure he asks most 9 year olds starting guitar lessons.  Yet, there I sat - humbled by the fact I didn't know most all of what he was asking.  You see, I can play well - and I have a good nsense of rhythm, - the problem is, I don't know the theory behind playing at all.  Last night I learned there is more to my ignorance...

It is hard to believe the amount of junk we accumulate!  I have a friend who asked me what they should do with 5 acres they owned (they just sold it) on Kelowna's Westside.  I told him build a self-storage rental center.  It seems you can hardly find a unit to rent in this city and it is just getting worse.  And the prices!  Wow, self-storage seems to be a licence to just print money.  Aside from the business opportunity, I find the swelling demand for storage to be a sad commentary on our society as a whole.

In Luke 12:16-21 Jesus talks about a hording lifestyle:  16And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'

 18"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I'll say...

Well we are finally back home after being gone since July 15th! 

We were gone 23 days camping - living in a tent trailer.  As was the case last year when we stayed in just a tent, we came back smelling like a campfire (I pity the people who had to travel with us on the ferry coming back from Vancouver Island).

It was a great time but as the saying goes: There's no place like home!  That point was made clear just a few hours ago as my daughter was making breakfast.  She kept saying: "It's like a dream to be back home where we have flush toilets, hot water, and food in a fridge." 

I thought about what she said, and it came to me that we all find ourselves in similar surreal moments.  We live in this world, but we were created for a heavenly home we cannot imagine.  Far beyond the comparison between camping and the comforts of home, so heaven surpasses our physical existence.  We can enjoy the pleasures of this life (just as...

Ok, I want to be clear right off and say I love this place God has given us to live in.  What an amazing and beautiful place is our earth.  So do not misunderstand me when I say, that in spite of how great it is, and no matter what people may say, it still is no Paradise.

You may wonder what prompted this line of thinking, so let me tell you.  I was sitting at a Tim Horton's (which may be as close to Paradise as we will get here - No!  Not the coffee, I never drink THAT swill, I am talking about the steeped tea), and I am listening to the people around me.  What struck me this beautiful July was the moaning about how HOT it was.  And as I was overhearing all this complaining, I noticed that one of the people grumbling about the weather, was the same person I had heard back in December (same Timmy's) groaning about how COLD it was!

Funny eh?  Whether it is a hot steeped tea in December, or a...