see the morning

Sitting listening to new songs on Tomlin's site. I love the name of his new album. For me, sunsets are nice - sunrises are breathtaking - supernova blinding fire washing the world awake. Hey, that's almost a lyric! Reminds me, I was working on a new song the other night. First song in ten years... I don't have the skill and discipline of a recording artist. My brother Andy is a musician's musician. Years ago, I gave up music to preach. Actually, one of my favorite preaching moments was the half hour I preached before Tomlin took the stage at Toronto Missionfest. Then Dar and I jumped around as Tomlin played and sang. Anyway, the lyric I wrote on a napkin the other night while jamming:

the stars are not falling;
they're not disappearing -
they're just taking their place
behind the rising Sun.

Back to the reason I sat down to write this post - Our housing situation is finally worked out. We have been at the wonderful Wegenast's for three weeks. On Sunday we get the keys to a gorgeous fully furnished executive rental for October. I'll post pics next week. The past few weeks we have been hunting like crazy for a place to buy or rent. We just wanted to land here, get our feet on the earth, get away from the tourist feeling, refugee status.

Well, on November 1st, the five of us move into a great house we once stayed in with friends. Two days ago, I called a number in the paper and talked to a stranger about a four bedroom rental place. When I got the address I went to check it out and low and behold it is just across the brook from the Wegenast's - like half a block from here. Yesterday, Dar and I walked through the place and marvelled how God would give us a place to live that we once stayed in and loved.

Our kids will go nuts... surrounded by the forest; tree houses; the stream trickling by; a fire pit. It is sooo perfect for us at this time. Oh ya, we even have pictures of Luke and Bree roasting marshmallows over that fire pit when we visited our friends who were living there last year. Thousands of potential homes to dwell in and God puts us in a house we know. It even has a nanny suite to rent out... so sweet!

And back then, when I stayed in that house I remember the morning Sun coming through the windows. I remember saying to Dar and our hosts, "I would love a place like this. You could really heal in a house like this." So I guess the lesson is to be careful where you deposit your heart because you might just reap the very land under your feet.

And while we are reaping the land we will gain more and more of it over time. Land to invest healing into. Land that will house others as they come from the four corners of the earth to be discovered, developed and deployed into the international gathering force of God's elect.

II Peter 1:19
We couldn't be more sure of what we saw and heard—God's glory, God's voice. The prophetic Word was confirmed to us. You'll do well to keep focusing on it. It's the one light you have in a dark time as you wait for daybreak and the rising of the Morning Star in your hearts. The main thing to keep in mind here is that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private opinion. And why? Because it's not something concocted in the human heart. Prophecy resulted when the Holy Spirit prompted men and women to speak God's Word.

Psalm 19:4-5
God makes a huge dome for the sun—a superdome! The morning sun's a new husband leaping from his honeymoon bed, The daybreaking sun an athlete racing to the tape.

Creation, Covenant, and Land

Well, this morning we have an application in for a fully furnished executive place for the month of October anyway. We need a place this week! Finding anything to rent in this town is like winning the lottery. If we can rent this really nice place for a couple of months it will buy us more time to get our footing here to find that house that God has his finger on for us. We are asking for the land and asking for more than we need so we can make our home on that land a base for family and kingdom work.

I've shaken hands on a job that is taking more shape. Nothing on paper yet, but I'll post thoughts on it here once it's a full-on go. This job - should it all work out - will hopefully become an incredible bridge toward all that God has been calling us into Canmore to be and do. The people I'll be working for are incredible saints. So much to share about them... later.

Finally got my shipment of books from Amazon. A new copy of Motmann's "The Crucified God". I lent mine out a year ago... all marked up and full of notes and stickies. Also got Waltke's incredible two volume commentary on Proverbs and N.T. Wright's "Paul". And lastly The Rutba House's "School(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism".

So I sit here and open "12 Marks of a New Monasticism" to page 137 and know right off that I am going to love this book:

"Mark 10: Care for the plot of God's Earth Given to Us Along with Support of Our Local Economies" by Norman Wirzba

I. The Consipiracy to Murder Creation

It came as a real shock to me the first time I read Wendell Berry's claim that "The certified Christian seems just as likely as anyone else to join the military-industrial conspiracy to murder Creation." Growing up in the farming communities of southern Alberta, in full view of the Canadian Rockies, my sense of creation was majestic, unspoiled wilderness. The beauty of these mountains, forests, lakes, clouds, and the diverse array of wildlife they contained, fairly sang out the chorus of the Psalmist: "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork" (19:1).

Then I go and open "Paul" to page 24 and read Wright's comments on Psalms 19 and 74 about creation and covenant:

First, the covenant is there to solve the problems within creation. God called Abraham to solve the problem of evil, the problem of Adam, the problem of the world... Israel's calling is to hold fast by the covenant. Through Israel, God will address and solve the problems of the world, bringing justice and salvation to the ends of the earth - though quite how this will happen remains, even in Isaiah, more than a little mysterious.

But, second, creation is invoked to solve the problems within the covenant. When Israel is in trouble, and the covenant promises themselves seem to have come crashing to the ground, the people cry to the covenant God precisely as the creator....

In both cases, we should note carefully, it is assumed that something has gone badly wrong. Something is deeply amiss with creation, and within that with humankind itself, something to which the covenant with Israel is the answer. Something is deeply amiss with the covenant, whether Israel's sins on the one hand or Gentile oppression on the other, or perhaps both - and to this the answer is a reinvoking of creation, or rather of God as creator.

And all this about creation, covenant and land reminds me of a passage of scripture that Dar openned up to the other night while we were praying in faith for God to release us the land here in Canmore. It was the sixth day of my fast and after some prayer Dar opened right up to Ruth 4 - one of the most profound passages in all of scripture about familial relationships, land, property, estates, marriage, adoption, bloodlines, witnesses and legal transactions.

What really struck me about Ruth 4 was the kinsman-redeemer's response to Boaz:

Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man's widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property."

At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, "Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it."

So I sit here in Canmore wondering who might have relationships and property for us to redeem :)

As I finish this post, Jason Upton is singing about creation, a better way and intimacy.

Snow and Warmth

There is a foot of snow on the ground here. It snowed huge for nearly 20 hours yesterday. Huge heavy flakes straight down all day. I was out shaking the poplars clear this morning. It's still summer and all these beautiful trees still have all their leaves. Not made to handle all the heavy snow.

I'm sitting here looking out the window at a grove of 30 foot trees that were bent to the ground before the shaking. Now they are free and standing tall... and a yellow finch is fluttering into their branches as I write. A bruised reed He will not break, especially when the birds of the air dwell in their branches... Now there is a nicely mixed metaphor - shaken but not stirred :)

Above the trees the clouds are breaking around Ha Ling and East Rundle. Clear blue sky. The peaks standing tall fresh white. Snow dripping off the firs. The water level of the brook is rising. God has painted all this into nature. The doe and her fawn scampering sheepishly through the new fallen snow. The majestic span of the birds wings reaching out and touching the air which I can only breathe. Horizon of peaks. Rippling communion of heaven and earth. Thin space where eternal echoes are heard.

It's warm enough now. A mist is forming in the tree tops. The earth is breathing and giving up her dead. Their bodies will rise and shout for joy. Warmth, warmth, for more warmth - it's not the night that kills, but the frost.

For here's what God told me:

"I'm not going to say anything,
but simply look on from where I live,
Quiet as warmth that comes from the sun,
silent as dew during harvest."

And then, just before harvest, after the blossom
has turned into a maturing grape,
He'll step in and prune back the new shoots,
ruthlessly hack off all the growing branches.
He'll leave them piled on the ground
for birds and animals to feed on—
Fodder for the summering birds,
fodder for the wintering animals.

Isaiah 18:4-6

Grandparents and Home

My mom's dad's funeral was earlier today. I met him a couple of times. Bob Giles was born in 1923, joined the Canadian Navy at 18 and served on the Prince Robert.

The Church needs more spiritual parents and grandparents, people who adopt - no matter what the personal cost - others who deserve inviting up and down into all that the Church has, up into love and down into compassion (gut level love).

The world has too many orphans. There is too much abandonment. Too much aborting of life before it takes root. Too much rejection. The Church needs to live in the opposite spirit and start birthing, adopting, and embracing people.

Isaiah 26:18

We are still in Canmore, Alberta waiting on God for open doors for a home and guidance on work. We are breathing faith and asking Him for the land.

Jumping, Running & Biking

Durning our time with family in August Luke and Bree climbed and jumped out of Grandma's apple tree a hundred times. And they both got a ride on Rich's louder than thunder motorcross bike. In New Brunswick they jumped off a bridge into a creek. I thought it was incredible that my six year old son would jump the 15 feet... Then Bree the four year old went and did it. She won't let her brother get all the glory. No way!

According to Bree yesterday, today was "daughter and daddy time"... so after Luke got on the bus for the first day of grade 1 daughter and daddy headed to Banff for the day. Starbucks. Cool purple sunglasses. Lush smelly bath stuff for girls. Gondola up a mountain. Hike for an hour to an isolated peak - just the two of us. Bubblegum ice cream at Cows. Hike up to the Cascade waterfall and play with rocks and water for an hour before heading home. A good day!

Well, Yesterday morning I got lost running. I ran from the Waqenasts home uphill and out of town to The Nordic Centre (5.7 km) and then got turned around amidst the trails below the Nordic Centre all the way back down into town. All in all, around 15 km.

I have a mountain bike getting shipped here from Newfound- land. A Specialized Epic Comp Disc. Got a sweet deal from Mike at Canary Cycles.

I started dreaming about a Specialized bike when Mike toured me around St. John's on this Stump- jumper. I was like, "Dude, what a sweet bike! How much does one of these cost?" When he told me over 4 G's I nearly ate my teeth. I can't believe the steal deal I got on the Epic Comp... Mike I'm going to name a trail after you in Canmore. Already have a shop here to put it together once it arrives. Can't wait.

Below are a few pics Mike sent me today of our Newfoundland bike adventure. The last pic is of some grass and flowers just before Mike missed a huge jump and landed in them face down. I said, "Ouch, that must have hurt. You look ok. No blood on this side of you anyway." And Mike layed there silent... for like 20 seconds... I was just staring at him and he was just lying there... And this little voice muffled through the grass and flowers, "Can you get the bike off my leg."

We laughed for days over that one. I was just staring at the guy sprawled like a pretzel in his bike. Oops. Right. First Aid :) Mike, has your arm healed up? How 'bout that rim!? I love the pic of you facing East over the water.

Church and Chamber

Sitting here in the kitchen of Paul and Corey Wagenast's incredible "By the Brook" Bed and Breakfast here in Canmore, Alberta. They and their four kids have graciously opened their seven bedroom - eight bathroom home to our family as Dar and I spend the next few weeks figuring out where we are going to be living here. I am thankful for these soul friends on the journey.

When it comes to housing, we have been asking God for more than we need. Reason being is our faith tells us we are going to be hosting many young leaders from many nations in our home. It's got nothing to do with what we can afford personally as one family. It has everything to do with the interdependent people of God always willing to lay down their rights to owning anything and living in infinite resignation to the will of our Father in heaven, in service to His Son, at the prompting of His Spirit.

It's dangerous when any of us become "entitled" to things rather than recognizing that we have only been "entrusted" with them. Being entitled typically breeds elitism, hierarchy, and destructive codependency of the "have's" being mildly entertained by the "have-not's". Being entrusted typically breeds humility among a people who are everywhere at home while having nothing and yet possessing everything.

Entitlement is dangerous. People entitled to their position. People entitled to their opinion. People entitled to watching the world through a box while the world burns and floods around them. People entitled to their smoldering wicks and dry places.

There is a reason why the rod comforts. Imagine the rod of God's discipline coming down upon the peaked roof church and crushing the structure while everyone is within. Those who don't know what is going on scatter. They run from the sacred blow. Others reach up for that rod as it falls upon them. They feel the weight of it's discipline and yet they hold onto the rod as it is lifted out of the church.

Hold onto that rod as it rises up hard and fast - and you will be flung to the ends of the earth into the places where there is a witness of His glory needed. If you cannot take the rod then you will never wear a crown.

This is something that is happening to the whole Church. Not just you and your's. We are being prepared for a day of battle. As far as this generation goes it is the battle of battles. The enemy will not outflank us. We are in hiding. We will surface at just the right time in just the right place. We are following the orders of our King and marching secretly through the night and into twilight toward the rising Sun. He alone knows what awaits us there.

In the meantime, let's all take off our shoes, enter the chamber and wait for Him there.