Hello to all those out there in Blogger land. It is Christmas eve and I am ready to getting ready to celebrate to rise of capitalism and the dawn of materialsm tomorrow, of yeh, and something to do with a kid that told us to love each other, who knows. I am at my in-laws and we are just chillin and not doing a whole lot of anything. Christmas is actually great for that because it is the only time of the year that I can sit areound and do absolutely nothing for a few day and not feel the slightst bit of guilt about it. Im not sure if that was what Jesus came to give us but that is what I am doing this year. Tomorrow I am going to eat enough food to feed half of Southern Africa and then I will regret ever thinking of such a thing tomorrow night. Its amazing how we get sucked in to so many things that we fundamentaly disagree with, but we end up doing it any way because it is easier to, than not to. My convictions will have to be postponed for another couple of days. How crap is that. That is why I really need God. Well after all that all I can say is Merry Christmas, some how let this actually be Christmas.

I went to the carrol service at the Highschool today. Fantastic. They did a play about the X-mas files and wee Leigh was the main dude in it and he is quite an upandcommer in the acting world. Trust me that kid is going places. It was a great play and an amazing message. Its so cool to see that there are teachers in that school who want the school to know about Jesus. That would have never happened in a highschool in Canada.

I think that I have totally messed up my template but we will see. Problems are unavoidable what a computer illiterate person like myself tries to delve in the realm of HTML. It's a bit of craic anyway.
Its almost Christmas and I can not wait. Im not really thatexcited about presents or the big day or anything, but rather just about having some time of to relax, hang out and conemplate life on the sofa. So if anyone is reading this and I will not see them before Christmas, which is less than a week away, than Merry Christmas, and don't forget about the kid who changed the world.

Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a mystery, Today is a gift. Thanks Emma

Well I tried this the other day and it didn't work so I will try it again,

I have recently watched Forest Gump for the nth time. What a fantastic movie. But as I watched it this time the truth of what the cover says really hit me. "The world will never be the same once you've seen it through the eyes of Forest Gump." How true is that statement. Forest Gump is not the perfect man, generic man that is, and I don't think that we should all drop our saturated thinking caps, in favour of a couple simple one liners that our momma told us, but we do need to try a new set of veiwing spectacles and readjust our focus.

To see the world through the eyes of Forest Gump is to blinker our mistrust, our synicism, our apaling selfishness and greed, and to see the world through the lenses of Love. This is a love that is real, not based on fleeting emotion, or lust, or selfservice, or pride, but rather, is always hoping, always serving, always giving and always looking out for others befor itself. It looks very like a love that I have read about somewhere else???

Watching Forest really challenged me as to how I look at the world and how I treat the people that are in my world. We complicate life so much with all that we hope to gain for our selves and all that we worry about losing to others. I know that we are human and we will never be perfect to each other, but can we, can I, not at least shoot for a higher standard so that we can get a little closer than we are now.

If you want a kick in this direction take another look at Forest Gump, and while your at it you might want to take another look at a few book that Jesus friends wrote about His life.

I spoke about christmas last night at beyond the edge and I attempted to convey the amazing story of the great rescue mission that Christmas was and continues to be. I used a movie clip from Forest Gump where he goes back into the jungle in Vietinam to save his buddies from certain death. Anyway I didn't say that to tell you what an amazing speaker I am, because I would be lying, or to tell you how creative I am, because that wouldn't be the truth either, but rather to bring your attention back to the amazing world of Forest Gump.

As the cover of the video says, "The world will never be the same again once youve seen it through the eyes of Forest Gump." and that is a very true statement. Watching that movie again to get a clip for my talk reopened my eyes to the amazing character that was Forest Gump. Talk about a role model for the selfless, sacrificial, honest, trustworthy, simple, loving, careing, genuine etc, etc...man. He does really reawaken you to the simplicity of what life was really supposed to be like. Even his childlike, trust and belief in God is powerful in its message.

So if you want a refreshing look at the world around you just get back to your local video store and rent the movie that should have changed the world, Forest Gump.

As you can see, if you have visited my site before, I have just changed my template to on remarkably similar to Charlie's. This is not because I worship him and want to be just like him, although he is a pretty good guy, but rather because I want to maybe get around to putting a blogrool on my site which I didn't know how to do on my old template. I hope you are all satisfied.

"The holiest moment of the church service is the moment when God's people - strengthened by preaching and sacrament - go out of the church door into the world to be the church. We don't go to church, we are the church,"

I read that yesterday while looking at some websites for quotes for The Edge. I don't think that the youth that come through our doors would get much out of that, but I sure did. I really wish that we could stop seeing God's work as "church" and "full time ministry" and start seeing that the earth and everything in it is God's and He works everywhere and anywhere.

I did a talk on alcohol this week at one of the local youth groups. I was trying to look at it from the perspective of someone who is trying to follow Christ. It is amazing how much the Bible says about certain topics if you are willing to take the time to look. It really made realize that we make so many judgements on things without really looking at the whole picture. If you go to church than I'm sure that you have been taught many things in your life and probably taken a lot of the stuff at face value. I think that there is definitely a place for that, but letting someone else think for us will only take us so far.
Many people fought and died to have the bible translated into common languages so that average joes like you and me can learn first hand what thruths the Creater has passed on to His people over the centuries, and yet sometimes we seem to try and turn back the clock on what all those people sacrificed for by only looking at God's word through other's eyes.
It is my prayer that God will inspire us all to look clocer at the amazing lives, teachings and stories that are available to us today because so many of God's people thought that it was a cause worthy of thier lives.