Baby Got Book

A cool bro in my fresh posse, M.C. weewillyd sent me this awesome music video.  So crank your woofers, click play and rock the hizzy with this Southpaw slam that be all up in your grill!

[gv data="http://www.youtube.com/v/EobF2TM9Fig"][/gv]

Teaching the teacher

I had the pleasure of teaching a portion of our spiritual maturity classes at my fellowship tonight.  While I wasn’t at the top of my game, I enjoyed it as always, especially tonight for two reasons.  Firstly, my dear brother in Christ, Pastor Daniel Cormier has accepted God’s call to serve as senior pastor of Newcastle United Baptist Church in New Brunswick.  I am happy that he’s been called to a senior pastor role, and praise his obedience in answering God’s call, yet I will miss him terribly and mourn his departure.  To NUBC, I assure you, you will be profoundly blessed by Daniel’s ministry among you, and I pray that your love for him will even exceed our own.  So you can see why I would treasure the opportunity to teach with Daniel this evening, since there will likely be few opportunities to do so again.  Please keep Daniel, Gina, Caleb, Bethany, Rachel and Anna in prayer as they prepare for this move.

Secondly, it was my first opportunity to be in a teaching situation with Pastor Bob.  Admittedly, I found it intimidating to be teaching with him since he is a gifted leader and speaker who has obviously spent time working on his public speaking and refining his skills in that regard.  It was a pleasure to teach with him, and hopefully after seeing me in action, he can offer some assistance in my own development as an occasional speaker.  God continues to provide great leaders for His church, and our pastoral team, including Jon Dixon and Paul Fowler, continue to be a blessing to many.

Yay! I got an A- on my psych test, which is considerably better than my last test. I’m thankful the Lord encouraged me to wake up a little earlier yesterday morning and do some extra studying for that baby. Ooh, and as a bonus, Laura “TaunTaun Boots” Cann slipped me a copy of the sequal to Drum On Yo Back. Once again, Jean of mArc has outdone himself, so go watch My Girl: Drum On Yo Back II, but make sure you’ve seen Drum On Yo Back first.

I’m also in the process of composing a letter to my “mentors in ministry,” those individuals who have has such a profound effect on my pursuit of a theological education and answering the call of (potentially) full time ministry. I just want to do a little roll-call right now, and especially give thanks to the following individuals who have mentored me, and provided models of ministry, and demonstrated what it means to become more like Christ. In alphabetical order (not by importance, or height, or anything)…

Terry Atkinson
Chris Austin
Laurence Coldwell
Daniel Cormier
Bill Davenport
John DeLong
Jon Dixon
Craig Evans
Melanie Feltmate
Paul Fowler
Todd & Carrie Jones
Tyler & Bonnie Jones
Allison Kirkbride
Bob Knowles
*shakes fist at sky* LEVIES!
Lee McDonald
Oliver Ohsburg
Archie Schofield
Kim Thompson
James White

Praise God for these folks. There are lots of other people who have changed my life, and affected my Christian walk, but these folks have been my most direct mentors, and have discipled me either very directly, or indirectly by example.

pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name

My wise wife may be lacking in the realm of book-knowledge, but is definitely not lacking in wisdom. She reminded me of what my former pastor, Rev Terry Atkinson, shared with me about when he initually moved towards full-time minisry. He told us that suddenly, things popped out of the wordwork here and they – not forcing him to stop, but distracting him from what needed to be done. The Enemy wants to attack even more fiercely when you submit, and follow God’s leading.

Maybe that’s what all this is about. I met with Dora Crosby at ADC yesterday to talk about what courses I wanted to take. Perhaps the Accuser is trying to distract me. It doesn’t really matter. I pray for brokenness.

And to the Enemy: The Lord cast you out of my house. God will not permit you to have me, nor my family. I see you now – I didn’t always, but I see you now. God has defeated you from the foundations of the earth, and may He rebuke you for accusing His own before Him.

EDIT: The area “to the enemy” has been edited based on a good, solid scriptural rebuke.

perkin’ with da pastor

Pastor Daniel Cormier has been inviting me to get together with him to chew the theological fat for over a year now, and I’ve deftly avoided actually getting together with him for just as long. Don’t get me wrong, I love Daniel. No, no, you don’t understand… I really love Daniel. No, not that kind of love! Daniel has been an amazing blessing to me in letting me know I’m not insane. That is to say, he’s a pastor in the Atlantic Baptist Convention who also happens to believe in the doctrines of Grace. That’s not just a rarity – it’s almost unheard of! When you couple that with the fact that he’s a pastor with the largest evangelical congregation in the Annapolis Valley, you’ve almost got a priceless artifact on the shelves at Sobey’s - a Ming vase wedged in between the Cheez Whiz and Ragu pasta sauce.

He also happens to be a positively inspired and passionate preacher, as well as a loving care-giver to his congregation. When I arrive bright and early at the church on Sunday mornings, my face cannot help but stretch into a smile when I see his old maroon Toyota van parked in the far corner of the lot. He’s like a cup of coffee, perking me up and getting me revved to teach. However, he also suffers from the unfortunate handicap of being a pastor. It’s not entirely his fault, mind you, but there it is.

I don’t like hanging out with pastors for two key reasons. Firstly, they feel the overwhelming need to be a pastor. They incessantly ask nosey questions like “How are you doing?” “How’s work?” “How’s your family?” Oh, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Pastors aren’t the only people who ask those questions. Jumpins, you don’t even have to be Christian to ask those sorts of questions!” You people are also the same people who believe that it’s okay to eat crunchy peanut-butter on toast. You fool! Don’t you see?! That’s too much crunchiness!!

Anyway, I guess it’s kind of like sitting down and having a coffee with a psychologist. I’d always have this nagging feeling that he’s psychoanalyzing me. That’s Ye Ol’ Self-Esteem Monster rearing his ugly head, of course. I would not at all attempt to actually justify the emotional reaction, but simply recognize that it exists. Ripping it out and laying it on the table often allows us the opportunity to roll it around in our hands for a while, looking at it from different angles, and potentially reshaping it before stuffing it back in the mix.

The second reason I don’t really enjoy hanging out with pastors is because I don’t want to be one. It’s been my greatest fear for the past few years that God might lead me down that road. He has graciously given me the opportunity to be a teacher to His people, but has also placed me a numerous ‘pastoral situations’ that scare the ever luvin’ out of me. That’s probably the biggest reason why I haven’t gone back to school yet – the simple fear of where that path may lead. I don’t want to be a pastor! <shakes fist at sky> Oh, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Who knows where the Lord will lead you, but if there’s one thing you should know, it’s that arguing with God about the road you don’t want to walk is futile. He will lead you as He will. Look at Jonah! Look at Paul!” Yeah, yeah… and you’re also the people who scoff at my attempts to find an English word that rhymes with “orange!”

But, regardless, I got together for coffee with my dear Daniel last night. Though it took some time to get going, we actually did have very good discussions about a number of things. As it turns out, my pastor and I have quite a bit in common. For one thing, we’re both human beings! Who knew?! There’s other, less important, commonalities as well but needless to say, the evening was thoroughly enjoyable, and I regret not doing it sooner. I look forward to future coffee consumption, and fellowship with this, my brother in Christ Jesus.

water woes

Blah, what a not-the-best weekend. There were up-sides, mind you. I enjoyed going out to brunch with Tieren, Katelynn & Shelby on Saturday morning, and Sunday worship is generally always a pleasure. My Sunday school class was PACKED, and I’m probably going to have to upgrade to yet another classroom, which is great, since I’ve already had to move once this year.

However, on the downside, I’m getting my wife’s cold, and we’re having water problems. Yesterday afternoon, I lost water-pressure. I shut down the water-pump to kind of poke around to see what was going on, and when I turned the pump back on, it just buzzed and died. Drat. A plumber’s coming to have a look-see today, but it definitely made for a icky day yesterday.

Update: Got the word from the plumber. Apperently there was a leak in the pipe which caused the pump to lose it’s prime, and it burned out. I knew the pump was under-powered for the task at hand. Anyway, he installed a new, more powerful water pump. One of the ways I tell whether a plumber, mechanic or whatnot did the job right is I check and see if he one of those people who slaps shiney new hardware on old, rusted parts and fittings. This fellow was a class act – replaced all the fittings and did a clean job. He wasn’t the cheapest in the world, but I’d rather have the job done right than done dirt-cheap.

how flattering

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. If that’s true, I guess AndyOnWeb.com must love me. Right down to the randomly rotating backgrounds, and photo gallery script! Not that I mind – the backgrounds are hilarious.

debating calvinism – five points, two views

In case you’ve been living in a cave, or just have better things to do than conscern yourself with theological debates, there’s a book coming out next month by Dave Hunt & James White entitled Debating Calvinism: Five Points, Two Views. Now, there’s been some nattering going on about this book already. Mr. Hunt wanted to get a different publisher. Dr. White doesn’t see the point of getting endorsements for a debate book. Anyway, I was shopping online this morning and I noticed something odd. Apperently, Amazon USA and Amazon Japan both believe a there’s a book coming out by Dave Hunt & James White.

Meanwhile, here in Canada, Amazon Canada (As well as Amazon UK, France, & Germany) there’s a new book coming out entitled Debating Calvinism authored by Dave Hunt and Dave alone. Dr. White is nowhere mentioned, other that his name being on the cover-image. I guess Dave must’ve been debating himself here in Canada. Stuff like that will get you put away up here!

Personally, I’m looking forward to the possible new book, Debating Spurgeon: One Quote, Two Meanings. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about there, read this)