Shaping the Tides

Last week, I saw a full moon over Vancouver. I was there for a conference and was staying on the 15th floor which only added to the quality of the view. It reminded me of something I read this summer.


As you know the moon simply reflects the light of the sun. A full moon occurs when it is in proper alignment with the sun. What I didn’t know was that the moon being in full alignment with the sun has a significant effect of life here on earth. Apparently there are more babies that are conceived and delivered during a full moon than at any other time of the month. I also learned that the tidal pull of the moon is greatest during a full moon because of the combined gravitational force of both the sun and the moon.


The writer made an interesting connection between the moon’s ability to shape the tides based on it’s alignment with the sun and the role that we can have in the earth today as we align ourselves with the plans and purposes of God. The bible tells us that we are kings and priests. Kings and priests have the authority and ability to shape the culture around them by virtue of their position and calling.

While this might seem ‘heady’ and overwhelming, the reality is that our ability to sway the tides around us is directly connected to how closely we are aligned to our Father in heaven. Jesus underlined the importance of staying intimately connected to His heart, mind and presence on a daily basis when He said that said that apart from Him, we can do nothing. At the same time, He told us that when we were connected to Him, we were in a place where anything could happen.

The social tides that sweep over our culture can be shaped and tamed, but only as we humbly come into alignment with the heart and purposes of God for our lives and for the world around us and then simply let the gravity of his love, joy and presence reach the world we live in.

Pivotal Praying

Britain's William Wilberforce, at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, prayed pivotally to make a difference in the lives of slaves and slave owners. He prayed and worked for 20 long years and eventually made a difference that shaped the culture of the western world.


When we pray to make a difference in the world, we are recognizing that something is already wrong. Somewhere there's an injustice. Somewhere there's a person who needs help with an addiction. or an abusive relationship. Somewhere there's oppression, a wrong that has to be made right.


I remain captivated by what could happen as 10,000 people come together with one heart to touch heaven on behalf of a single MLA on an ongoing basis. I'm convinced that bringing our petitions for our leaders and nation is the most powerful option available to us as the people of God. Click here to get the latest copy of our monthly prayer calendar.

Thanks for praying with us! Together we can do it!

God's Fingerprints Found in Canadian History

I'm attending the National Foursquare Convention in Surrey, BC this week. Barry Buzza (their president) shared these thoughts in his message last night.

Canada has been raised up by God with Destiny in mind.
1. The Viking, Lief Ericsson came from Norway in 1003 and wintered in Newfoundland in 1004 A.D. Ericsson was the first known white man to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to Canada's native peoples. An Inuit carving, found on Baffin Island, depicts a Norseman bearing a Christian cross, giving silent testimony to this man's influence 1000 years ago.

John Cabot landed on Newfoundland shores in 1497, claiming the land for God and country.

In 1533 Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence River to Montreal. To commemorate the founding of Montreal, Cartier wrote in his diary ... "We all kneeled down in the company of the Indians and with our hands raised toward heaven yielded our thanks to God."

Samuel de Champlain wrote in his diary, "I thereupon concluded in my private judgement that I should be committing a great sin if I did not make my business to devise some means of bringing them to the knowledge of God."

Commanded by a vision, Marie Guyart - better known as Marie de L'Incarnation - arrived in 1639 in what would become Quebec City. By 1642, Marie, and Ursuline nun, had established the first school and built a convent in New France. In yet another dream, God took her to a vast country full of mountains, valleys, and heavy fogs. "It was Canada that I showed you", and, "you must go there to build a house for Jesus"... Marie interpreted the dream to mean that she must go to New France to evangelize the natives and to build a convent and a school.

In 1679 Count Frontenac, a devout Huguenot (French Protestant), and one of the Governors of Canada, declared to the First Assembly, "As for me, I shall esteem myself happy in consecrating all my efforts, and if need by, my life itself, to extending the Empire of Jesus Christ throughout all this land."

In 1784, David Thompson, the great map maker, began his work in Canada's West. What motivated this man to endure such hardship? A vision! He wanted to reach the Native people of the West with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He always carried his bible with him and read it out loud at every opportunity, to voyageurs and to Indians.

Egerton Ryerson believed that his primary task was "to make men Christians - Christian in heart and life, in temper and work." He was the "Father of public education" in Canada, and wanted a common patriotic ground in the education system of comprehensiveness and avowed Christian principles.

Sir Leonard Tilley, (Father of Confederation, 1867), when reading verse 8 of Ps. 72, "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, "the thought occurred to him, what a splendid name to give Canada.

In a 1980 Parlaiment session, by the National Anthem Act added the prayer "God, keep our Land, glorious and free" to the verses written by R. Stanley Weir. The third verse of O Canada contained another prayer...

Ruler Supreme, Who hearest humble prayer,

hold our dominion in Thy loving care.

Help us to find, O God in Thee, a lasting rich reward,

as waiting for a better day, we ever stand on guard.

O Canada, glorious and free,

O Canada, We stand on guard for thee.

2. Our place among the nations is unique.

Canada is seen by the world as a place of freedom and peace; where al nations can live free from conflict; in civil order and harmony, and yet retain their own cultures and traditions.

3. Our destiny rests upon the obedience of the Church in Canada. We must understand our gifts, destiny and call, as a bridge to the nations of the world.

Devout Loiterer

My regular attendance at the Legislature is starting to attract the attention of the staff. At this point, I'm generally greeted with 'back again?' or 'You must be a glutton for punnishment'. I've even been getting a few lingering looks from the security staff who I'm sure have figured out that I'm not just a part of another tour group.

A few years ago, MacLean's magazine referred to the 'devout loiterers' on Parlaiment Hill who were actually staff members from the National House of Prayer who were there to pray for MP's.

At this point, I'm spending a lot of time doing the same thing. Apart from Question Period, most of the business at the Legislature, while very important, is a bit like watching paint dry. (It's a good thing I've learned to pray with my eyes open or I might be mistaken for some of the people who catch 40 winks in the public gallery from time to time.)

When I visited Fort St. John this past winter, someone shared something with me that I have spent a lot of time reflecting on over the past week. While he celebrated the open doors that we had experienced, his encouragement was to watch for the hidden doors that would open in the walls.

While I enjoy favor with many people, there are places where there are walls that stand in the way of building bridges to even more people. It's here that I am looking for God to make a way where there seems to be no way. Would you pray with me until we see it happen? Email me at tim@leadinginfluence.com and let me know you're praying with me.

Thanks!

Whoosh....

That would be the sound of time flying. The past two weeks have been a blur of travel, track meets, choir concerts, soccer games, mornings and afternoons at the Legislature, meetings and .... well, I'm actually too tired to remember at the moment.

Here are some highlights:
1. Zack is playing soccer on the school team. He's having a great time making new friends. His team is doing very well with 3 wins, 1 loss and 1 tie. The tie was nearly a win yesterday as they lost on the last play of the game. It was a beautiful goal in the top right hand corner. The ball actually hit the cross bar and bounced straight down and into the goal.

2. Tyler is on the cross country team at his school. Most races are about 1.2 to 1.4 kms. He's done remarkably well placing anywhere between 2nd and 6th. He placed 3rd in the city final on Monday at Beacon Hill Park. We celebrated with ice cream!

3. Brittany had her first choir concert last week. She did very well and the choir sounds great. I've heard something about a choir trip to Italy, France or somewhere expensive for next year. I hope she does it. It will be a great experience for her. She's enjoying her first job and continues to be affirmed by her employer.

4. Barb celebrated her birthday yesterday. She turned 26 .... again.... Her parents are visiting for the week and it's nice to have them here, especially for Barb's birthday.

5. My carpet is here and in the office. Pictures will follow as soon as I can have Brittany come and take some better ones. I am in Vancouver for a few days. I'm attending a conference for a few days and speaking at a lunch meeting on Thursday as well. I'm excited about the conference and will write about it tomorrow.

Till then...

Kind of Neat

Someone posted this on my facebook site. It's a link to a you tube video. If you don't have high speed, this may take a while. I'm planning another post later this week. I think my carpet is finally ready in which case I can show you pictures!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT7x3VnrqbA

Enjoy the video.

And so it begins...

The BC Legislature resumes today after a summer recess. Today will be an historic day as a First Nations Chief will address the House on the occasion of her band signing a land settlement agreement. I'm looking forward to hearing her. I'm also looking forward to reconnecting with MLA's and to being a source of hope, encouragement and blessing to them.

It's been a busy few weeks and things will only become more hectic now that the House is in session, but I've been praying and waiting for this day for a long time. Many of you have shared in the praying and waiting and today our faith becomes sight. There many more steps on the way as we move forward towards fulfilling this call, but I'm learning to savour the moments as God gives them and move forward as He leads. (It's much easier than constantly running into walls...)

Barb and I are ministering at a banquet function tonight. I'm excited about sharing the story of how God brought us into a new role and field of ministry. It will also be good to share the evening with her. Please pray for us. I'll post an update in a few days.

Reconstruction

When I walk out the door of my office, I can see at least 4 construction cranes. It's pretty amazing when they are lifting heavy containers of concrete. There are times when the container is above the street as cars and people walk by. Yesterday, the crane directly behind the office was being dismantled as it was no longer needed at that site. In order to bring it down a larger mobile crane was brought in. The boom was so big that it was brought in on two separate flatbed trailers. The street was blocked off and because of the associated danger involved with moving the equipment, access was limited to those who lived or worked in the area. As the pieces came down, they were placed on the street and I expected that they would be gone in the morning.

I arrived at the office early this morning and to my surprise, the crane pieces were still on the street only about 100 yds from where they were yesterday. The large crane that took everything down yesterday was busy hoisting the old crane into place on the building directly behind the one it had worked at the day before.

As I walked to the car God spoke to me about the crane. He pointed out that at the end of the day yesterday, I had assumed the crane was done and gone, but in reality it had just been moved to a new location, perhaps to build an even bigger building. It's purpose was still valid and there was still work for it to do. He also pointed out that before you can go higher, there are times that you have to be taken down so that you can be moved into a new place, to fulfill a new purpose and continue to be a part of what He is doing.

This week marks 2 years since I resigned at Gateway City Church in Kamloops. It was the right thing to do and it was the right time to move towards what we are doing today. The last two years have been full of great lessons, recovery, healing and reconstruction. In just over 10 days, I will fully step into the new role and ministry that God has prepared for me to do in advance. These past two years have been precious as the Lord has reconstructed so many things in our lives to prepare us for this step.

We have learned about His faithfulness to us and how He always makes a way. We've learned that God is not cheap and nor should we be. He blesses open hands as much as he blesses open hearts. We've learned that little is much when God is in it and not to despise the day of small beginnings. We've learned about friendship, love and great neighbours that we've had to leave behind. We've also learned that there are new friendships that quickly become as precious as those we've known in the past and that in the end we have not lost friends so much as we are adding new ones.

Finally, we've learned that deconstructing is a part of constructing is into something new and wonderful. Deconstruction ensures that while we might have become set in our ways, thinking and practices, we are not abandoned to our 'rut'. God cares about us too much to place us on a shelf and leave us there until Jesus comes. He'd rather have us 'in the game' because it's better for us and because He's got a job for us that needs to be done.

An Everlasting Covenant

I'm reading (ever so slowly) through the life of David in my devotions. As I read through the closing chapters of 2 Samuel today, I saw something that really spoke to me. David was undoubtedly a man after God's heart, but he was prone to some fairly significant lapses in terms of godliness and judgement. He paid a tremendous personal price for those blunders as did the people he led. At the same time, David continued to seek the Lord from the depths of his soul, regardless of what he was experiencing.

The words of 2 Sam 23:5 leaped off the page this morning. "He has made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in all things and secure. For this is all my salvation and all my desire; Will He not make it increase?"

Our covenant with God is everlasting. It does not have a best before date on it and it is always redeemable if our hearts are turned towards Him. It is also ordered. The covenant is created by God. Every detail is cared for and addressed. Nothing that affects me will slip through the cracks of this amazing covenant. God sees to it that we are cared for and protected in every way. Suddenly, Ps. 46:2 "Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed and the mountains be carried into the sea..." is more meaningful than ever before. There is nothing to fear, because He has provided for it all.

Finally, the covenant is secure. Nothing can change, alter or affect what is established in the covenant. Heaven and earth may pass away and the mountains that I can see when I walk our dog may fall into the ocean they rise from, but NOTHING in the covenant can or will change.

On Christ the SOLID ROCK I stand....