Sermon Slug

Comparing yourself to others...we all do it.

In church this Sunday, Pastor Shane talked about this and I want to share what hit me.

Comparing has it's good points.  Jesus said "Follow me".  So we can look to Him and compare ourselves to His life and what He said and did.

Jesus is perhaps not a great example of what I want to share from the impressions I got from the message.  Christians believe that He lived a perfect sinless life, so in essence to look to him as an example, we will always see room for improvement in our own lives.

But what about the people we see who are not doing as good as we are in some area?  When we make a comparison to them...in our minds we look pretty good!  Beware!  Here comes that old bully, PRIDE!

When we see ourselves doing well in contrast to someone else, we run the risk of stopping our progress, because we will only want to stay one step ahead of that person, to satisfy our ego!

What would happen if that person all of a sudden shot ahead of you?  You would be at a loss!  You would be left with feelings of failure and discouragement!  What do you do now?

Have a healthy outlook when it comes to comparison, and be grounded in the reality of your OWN journey and the progress you have made to get where you are!

Then plan your future and pick someone who has been where you want to be...and shoot for that!

You can do it!!

A Laughing Matter

I did it again!

I can't explain the feeling of doing stand-up comedy.

You're terrified, then you are overjoyed all in one night!  It's like riding a huge roller-coaster!

You can't wait to do it again!

Here is how it happened.

A few months ago, our youth leader mentioned during church announcements that he was trying to bring the cost of going to the Overflow Conference in May down so more kids could go.  I thought, hey, we could do a fundraising comedy night!  I had done one before in October and it was a success, and no one threw fruit at me, so this could work!

Everyone at church was on board with it so we set a date of April 11th.  LIFE 100.3 stepped up to help in a big way by supplying the tickets, posters, door prize and promotions!

I was one of the comedians along with Wil Twnstra, a veteran of the clean comedy scene.  We each did a set along with a musical number and we also did some improv games which were a ton of fun!

We had several door prizes...a book about wrestling, a roll-up-the-rim cup, an empty Toronto Maple Leafs Tim-Card, a bag of apple chocolate chips and our grand prize...two tickets to see Lecrae in Toronto!

Cynthia Rawding won the Lecrae tickets!

The night was a big success with $1675 raised!  More than what was expected!  About 100 people turned out and had a really good time!  

Wil and I make the draw for the door prizes.  We drew the names out of a monkey head!

Post show selfie!

Wil is a Dutchican.  Half Dutch half Mexican!

LIFE 100.3 provided some great promotion!

Why No Tie?

Church has changed and I am not sure how to handle it!

People used to dress up for church...

On Easter Sunday I debated on whether or not to wear a tie.  Nothing fancy, just a dress shirt and a blue tie.

I was to play drums, so I wanted to look good up on stage.  My wife helped me pick one out.

It's our first Easter at our new church and I was unsure of the "dress code", so to speak!

I went with the tie and wouldn't you know it...no one else on staff  had one on!

My pal Cory even said, his cross was the only thing he needed around his neck that morning!

I took off the tie and the service went on!  It was wonderful!

It's got me thinking...is it a good thing that we are not being super religious about how we go to church, or are we losing our reverence for God by not caring about formal attire?

Granted, even though there were no formal suits in the congregation, everyone looked good!

Do we need to bring back the suit and tie in church or just leave things as they are so new people don't feel the pressure to conform?