Watching Sheep

Penn of Denn

I ran into a lady recently, who I haven't seen in church for almost a year. And she asked why I hadn't called to see if she was all right. And I really didn't have a good answer. I'm never sure if people will view that type of call, as an expression of concern or as an attempt to guilt them into returning to church. And to be brutally honest, when I make those calls, there are times that there is a little of both motives behind my call. But if I am trying to guilt you, it's because I care and think you should be in church.

In this lady's instance, I just hadn't made the call at all and in my mind, I went over my reasons (excuses) for not calling her: she was sporadic in her attendance, she is out of the country a lot, I was busy. But bottom line is that she was right, I should have called. That's what shepherds are supposed to do, check up on their sheep.

So, if you've been away from Cornerstone for awhile and I call or email you, it's because I care and I think you should be in church.

Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

    

What are they afraid of?

Penn of Denn

She was just 34 years old, when she became a martyr. It didn't happen in the books of Acts 2000 years ago, it happened this week. Gayle Williams had been working in Afghanistan for the past three years, with a humanitarian group focused on educating Afghan nationals with handicaps, when she was gunned down in the streets of Kabul. Her crime? A Taliban spokesman stated, "This woman came to Afghanistan to teach Christianity to the people of Afghanistan. Our (leaders) issued a decree to kill this woman." The aid organization that Williams worked for, "Serve Afghanistan", denied the proselyting charges and issued their own statement saying, "She was a person who always loved the Afghans and was dedicated to serving those who are disabled."

And so you have to wonder, what it is about the message of Christ that scares the Taliban so much, that they had to send two men on a motorcycle to gun down a defenceless woman, whose only crime was showing the love of Christ to a hurting people.

And then my politically incorrect side wonders, if the lack of Muslim humanitarian organizations, says as much about Islam as the gunmen do.

Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

    

Giving thanks in a iffy Market

Penn of Denn

It seems these days, people are either talking about the election or about the markets. Sometimes they talk about both, wondering how the elections will affect the markets or conversely, how the markets will affect the elections.

Now the closest I come to the markets, is that's where my RRSP contributions end up and seeing I'm on the freedom 85 plan, there's probably time for a market recovery.

But, I'm reminded by both the election rhetoric and the market tumble, about how lucky we are and how much we have to be thankful for this weekend.

The majority of people in the world, will never have the opportunity to vote in a free election and the market is where they go to buy a chicken and we take both of those things for granted.

I don't want to be a fear monger, nor do I want to trivialize what is happening to the stock market, but even if Canada was as bad off as we were during the great depression, we'd still have more to be thankful for than most of the world. So let's not forget that this long weekend is about giving thanks. Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

    

But Now I’m Found

I've always been pretty good at reacting, so in response to my aimless meandering through Toronto last month, I bought a GPS. Kind of geeky, but a cool toy for $99.00. And it's really neat. You can put in where you want to go and not only will it tell you the best way to get there and not always the way we had planned, it will give you an approximation of when you will arrive, baring any unforeseen circumstances.

So I thought; neat, it does the same thing the bible does for believers. We want to go to heaven and it tells us the best way to get there, not always the way we had planned, but the best way. And it even gives us an approximation of when we will arrive (check out Hebrews 9:27). The big difference is, I think there are times that my GPS deliberately leads me astray, but I am confident that God's word won't.

Not everybody needs a GPS, not even sure Denn does, but if you are a Christ follower, you need a Bible and you need to read it. Hope you will join us for the next eight weeks as we "Discover the Word" together.