Micah 6:8

Merry Christmas

I put together this picture this evening because I was inspired when I saw an incredibly fat dog today. I honestly do not understand pets in light of how much poverty there is in the world. Dog spas make me want to scream. I've even seen dog dishes that purify their water continuously. Those would sure be appreciated by some people without clean water. I don't understand our culture's obsession with its animals. In my opinion, animals are tools. If they're not useful then they shouldn't get fed before people get fed. I'll make sure that I don't alarm anybody out there too much though and say that I do think that we need to treat animals humanely. I just think that people should always be fed before non-useful animals.

Why Buy Fair Trade?

The simple answer to this is that it is the right thing to do. Abuse, cheating, corruption and even slavery are a very common part of everyday production of goods around the world. Every time you spend money to support companies that are involved in exploitation you indicate, whether you like it or not, that you also support their unjust behaviour. Nobody has to support these evil practices. It may require sacrifice but that is what Jesus calls us to. Christians everywhere should be doing all that they can to pressure the companies that do these evil things to change. To continue supporting cruelty is to indicate that you don't care about the victims.

Consider a similar situation for a moment. Suppose that your neighbour had a slave and you personally are opposed to slavery. Do you think that it would be all right to pay your neighbour a few dollars to mow your lawn when you know that they are just going to make their slave do it? Would it be all right if you weren't home and didn't have to watch? If these situations aren't OK then why is OK to buy chocolate from companies that have been found guilty of using child slaves in the Ivory Coast or other similar situations. The only logical conclusion is that it is not.
Please consider the following few verses:

Look here, you rich people: Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags. Your gold and silver have become worthless. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. This treasure you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment. For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven's Armies.

You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. James 5:1-5

Those that grow our chocolate, sew our clothes and assemble our Christmas lights are the "field workers whom we have cheated". Let us repent and change our shopping practices today.

Praying to Jesus

The other night in our cell group we were sharing why we were grateful for the fact that Jesus had been born. After we all shared we were encouraged to thank Jesus for the things that we were grateful for. I found this exercise really encouraging because I'm not used to praying directly to Jesus. Quite a while ago I came to the conclusion somehow that I was only supposed to pray to the Father. This exercise inadvertently got me to thinking about that conclusion. After a quick google search and some other people's opinions I came to the conclusion that I can in fact appropriately pray directly to Jesus. John 14:14 says, "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it." This leads me to believe that it is reasonable to ask him things.

Anyways, I tried praying to Jesus some more yesterday and it was quite difficult for me. It felt much more humbling. This is pretty silly because in some ways Jesus should seem more approachable then the Father but for me it was more difficult. I think that this was because the Father is more illusive and I don't understand him as much. Jesus on the other hand I have huge respect for. I feel beyond nothing in comparison to him. To speak to him and ask him anything was difficult.

I think that I tend to see more of the powerful lion side of Jesus then I do of his meek and mild lamb side. I think as I learn to speak to him more I may feel more of his forgiveness and tenderness. I think that my experience praying to him also helped me think of him as actually still being real.

In conclusion, if you've never spoken to Jesus take a moment and get to know him.

Great Advances for the Church's Reputation.

A Kenyan evangelist who claimed to have created miraculous pregnancies through the power of prayer has been arrested in London by British police on child trafficing charges. (read article).

This is such a disgusting situation. I sure hope that the British churches very publically denounce this scoundrel. This just indicates to me how ridiculously evil so much of the church is. Imagine if a woman in your church who has been infertile for years become miraculously pregnant with a special "no gestation" pregnancy by the prayers of a Kenyan evangellist who is in town. Wouldn't you ask a few questions? Maybe that's how he was found out but why didn't this become a massive scandal after the first incident? Are people really so gullible that they could think that this could be legitamate? Are church people really so comfortable with evil that they wouldn't report something so obviously wrong? Apparently so, shame on them.

Prayer

I've really been thinking about my need to pray more. When I really examine my spiritual life I realize that it lacks a whole of the relationship end of things that I used to have. I'm not sure how I let it slip but I think that it may have happened by trying to focus more on obedience and less on intimacy with God (although not intentionally). It's pretty pathetic to admit but my prayers are mostly about 5 to 10 minutes per day and quite narcissistic as a result. I've been contemplating the following verse:

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:8

I think that it really is no wonder I don't feel very close with God. Why in the world would I feel close with God if I'm not spending anytime in fellowship with him. I don't think that he has any intention of making me feel this way until I put some work into it. Anyways, I'm going to try to run at it over the next few weeks and see where I end up. Wish me well.

Greater Vancouver Fair Trade Network

I am announcing a new service that I have put together for all those are interested in shopping for fairly traded food in Greater Vancouver, Canada. If you are from this area then please check out my website and consider using this service.

Martin Luther King Jr on the Church

Here is another powerful quote by Martin Luther King Jr's "Letter from Birmingham Jail". I think that this is a very prophetic message that still applies to the church today. All too often the modern church is too busy naval gazing to see that they are complicit in some of the horrible injustice in our society. Sometimes by their lack of willingness to do anything and sometimes through direct injustice. Take heed.

In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? l am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great- grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.

There was a time when the church was very powerful in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators"' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide. and gladiatorial contests.

Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Par from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it vi lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.

Martin Luther King Jr on Extremism

Here is a good quote from Martin Luther King Jr's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" on the subject of extremism.

But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that an men are created equal ..." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we viii be. We be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremist for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime---the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jeans Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

Reality

I was cruising the web this morning looking for something completely unrelated when I stumbled upon this picture. I had read the newstory story about this girls beheading through the Voice of the Martyrs' prayer alert. It makes me so sad to see her picture. The reality of it all seemed so removed. I hate how I can read about event like this and not even feel sad. The picture is horrible. It makes me think about her poor family and how much they must be suffering. Sometimes the reality of what others suffer really strikes me. I hope that it strikes you too. You can read about what went on here. Please pray for her family.

Injustice in Canada

There have been some recent blows to freedom of speech in Canada that I would to draw all of your attention to. Recently UBC's Okanagan campus's student union passed a motion to ban all pro-life groups from having club status. Carleton University in Ontario will be attempting to pass a similar ban at their campus next week. This a substantial blow to freedom of speech because groups that do not have club status are denied the ability to organize events on campus, use campus facilities for their purposes and to pamphlet the campus. Because Canadian campuses are actually private property this also shuts down any peaceful demonstrations because with prior approval people can be charged with trespassing if they refuse to leave when confronted. Interestingly enough, the ban at Carleton University was drafted after a friend of mine did a debate against a pro-choice representative. His debate spawned criticism that even discussing these topics might upset people that had had abortions previously. I guess this means that public discourse on any contentious subjects is now politically incorrect. Good thing the gestapo is out there protecting the sensibilities of the masses of impressionable university students.

Universities need to be places where open discussion is not shut down. Societies can not move foreword if dissenting views are squashed. I really think that violations of our freedom of speech such as this one are only a small step away from a ban on any controversial Christian activity. Once we ban pro-life groups from speaking out on campuses what stops student unions from then banning any group that is pro-evangelism? If student unions are free to do this then what stops government authorities from putting similar bans on free speech into the public sector?

Here are some links to brief news stories that cover some more of the details:
UBC Okanagan Campus
Carleton Unversity

Please consider writing some letters to the following people to voice your disapproval. I have linked to some sample letters that you are free to use directly or just for ideas.
Letter to Carleton President
Letter to UBC Okanagan
Letter to UBC President

Carlton University Student Union Contacts:
President - Shawn Menard: pres@cusaonline.com
Executive Coordinator - James Pratt exc@cusaonline.com
VP Finance - Shelley Melanson vpf@cusaonline.com
VP Internal Affairs - Lyndon George vpi@cusaonline.com
VP External Affairs - Blake Brooks vpx@cusaonline.com
VP Student Issues - Isaac Cockburn vpsi@cusaonline.com
VP Student Services - Katy McIntyre vpss@cusaonline.com ***Originator of
the motion to force all clubs to be 'pro-choice' ***
Clubs & Societies clubs@cusaonline.com

Carleton University Administration:
Vice-President, Acting Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Dr. Feridun
Hamdullpur, provost@carleton.ca
Vice-President, Finance & Administration Duncan Watt c/o
b_wells@carleton.ca

Carleton University Board of Governors:
Board of Governors governors@carleton.ca

UBC Okanagan Administration:

Prof. Stephen J. Toope
President, University of British Columbia
6328 Memorial Road
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6T 1Z2
Phone: 604.822.8300
Fax: 604.822.5055
E-mail: presidents.office@ubc.ca

Marie Molloy
Human Rights & Equity Advisor
University of British Columbia, Okanagan
3333 University Way, SSC 119F
Kelowna, BC, Canada, V1V 1V7
Tel: 250.807.9291
Email: marie.molloy@ubc.ca