You Have Just Received 365 More Days!

Here we go with a New Year!

I love the fact that we can choose to steer our lives in a positive direction.

We have the freedom to plan our year the way we want to.

Do you want to travel, go ahead! Do you want to lose a few pound, feel free!

Freedom is a wonderful thing.

Let us never take our freedoms for granted.

There are places in the world where people cannot go ahead and plan their lives.

They are in situations that are beyond difficult.

Pray for those in places where freedom is severely restricted!

May God bless this new year and may His hand guide all YOUR affairs!

How to Do Christmas (From The Guys Who Did it First)

I have discovered the goal of Christmas! 

It's in Luke 2:20!

"The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told."

The aim of Christmas is to go home happy!

During the Christmas season, everyone wants you to do something.

Come to our pageant! Hurry in for the best sales!  Don't miss this event!  Buy now! 

This usually leaves us tired, frazzled and broke!  Or worse...in deep debt!

How is that a good thing?

From the story of the nativity in the bible, we see a very different celebration of the birth of Jesus.

The shepherds got word of the blessed event from a spectacular angelic host and went to see.

They observed the baby, and then the scripture goes on to say<sup>;

17</sup> When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

They started to tell everyone about what they had seen!  The Savior! 

The story wraps up with the shepherds heading back to their jobs, but now it was DIFFERENT!

They were glorifying and praising God for all they had seen!

THAT'S the goal of Christmas, to walk away happy and amazed at what God has done!

Do you limp out of the Christmas season, exhausted?

Try doing what the shepherds did...come, see, rejoice...and go home happy!

Life on the Edges.

We like life in neat little boxes.

We want a clear definition between right and wrong, good and evil, for and against.

That perfect world does not exist.

For example...

I have been watching a bit of football lately.  It's cool when the quarterback makes a pass and the receiver is wide open and it's a clear touchdown.  That's nice.  The officials have no problem calling that play.

But what happens a lot is that catches are made on the edges of the goal line and it's not always clear if it's a touchdown or not.  The officials have to go to the video review and have a discussion with a number of other people as to exactly what happened.

This was the case in September of 2012...

The Green Bay Packers lost to the Seattle Seahawks, 14–12, in controversial fashion.

On the final play of the game, Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson threw a Hail Mary pass into the end zone intended for wide receiver Golden Tate. Both Tate and Packers defender M. D. Jennings got their hands on the ball while both players were still in the air and attempting to gain possession.

The two officials near the play initially gave separate signals of touchdown and touchback, before ruling the players had simultaneous possession, resulting in a Seahawks game-winning touchdown. (Wikipedia summary)

The officials on the field disagree on what happened.

This is SO MUCH like life...

It would be so convenient to be able to make clear rulings on situations that fall into those "gray" areas.

Different perspectives, alternate views and contrasting life experience all come into play, and the final decision is anything but definitive.

In the news we hear of religious groups who say they have a lock on what's "right and wrong" and do not take kindly to anyone who opposes what they have to say.  There is no room for discussion, no laying out of the facts and circumstances and no compassion.

It's our way or the highway.

Not to say we should not hold some individual beliefs.  That's very important.  But if you feel at all threatened by hearing what someone else believes, then what you hold to may not very well grounded or you just may have a difficult time expressing it.

Like it or not, different opinions and controversial views are here to stay.

Here are some bible passages that go along with this topic:  Acts 15 - The Council at Jerusalem, Luke 2:41-52 - Jesus asking questions in the temple.

Myths and Mrs.

What a cool weekend.

My wife got me tickets for the Mythbusters, Behind the Myths show at the Sony Centre in Toronto on Saturday, so we made a weekend out of the event.

We did some Christmas shopping at Vaughn Mills and then caught the show.

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of the Mythbusters!

We relaxed at the hotel that night then off to IKEA to drool over all the great furniture!

Rosr dropped some big hints about wanting this island!

We capped off the weekend with another outstanding concert with Ken Whiteley and his amazingly talented friends at Hugh's Room on Dundas.

The music is always outstanding and the food is delicious!

Rose was moved to tears a few times during the evening by the singers, Sharon Riley, Michelle Willis, and Mati Haskell

Could this be an event that could fly in Barrie?

Celebrity: Now and Then

 

There has been something rolling around in my brain for a week and I can't yet put the pieces together, so maybe you can help me.  

Do we treat God like...a celebrity?

When we have an encounter with Him, is it something we brag about, like meeting, say, Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp?

Do we go on and on about our "conversation", when it was just a few quick words?

It can become all about US. 

Meeting face to face with a celeb can make most people a little giddy for sure, I have been there.

But we are talking about GOD!

We are told by Paul that we should "Pray without ceasing"!  A constant stream of communication.

Just something I am wondering about!

BONUS MATERIAL:

 

Here is an interesting article to ponder on the whole topic of Christian celebrities!

Speaking With Intention...Excellent Notion!

Confession time.

Occasionally I will watch Jane Austen movies with my wife.

She has her favorites and we own them on DVD.

When the mood strikes, they come out and we enjoy them together.

Here is what I love about them.

The way they talk!

The characters express themselves with such perfect clarity!  I want to be like that!

It seems that communication these days has become a bit muddled.

When I watch these movies, I am inspired to speak with directness and intention.

Some of the phrases and expressions get burned into my mind and I wish I could use them in everyday conversation!

Bring back Victorian speech!

Fare thee well and good morrow!

Stand Up for God!

Me and Tim Maassarany having our usual fun on the All New Breakfast Club!

In my opinion, I have the best job in the world.

It's also the strangest.

My business card says Todd Gale "Morning Show Personality".

My employment is me. 

My qualifications, aside from some technical know-how, are just being who I am.

What?

Let's examine this for a moment.

As a morning show co-host, I help start YOUR day with some great music, information and some fun thrown in!

As a naturally introverted geeky type, I have had my challenges doing this odd but wonderfully satisfying job!

So, since my skills basically revolve around connecting with a large audience on a daily basis, how do I constantly improve those skills?

The basics come to mind. 

Respect those who tune in, pray for them. 

Understand that every person has value, even if they don't believe they do.

Build them up and make them smile!

Ok, now, what about more growth?

Every day we open the mic and, it's just me and Tim Maassarany in the control room.

We don't SEE you all. So this led to the following chain of events...

I had it in my mind about a year ago that I would like to try my hand at Stand Up Comedy.

Why?  Good question, so glad you asked!

First off, I am a goof and love to be funny. 

But, the funny for me is usually spontaneous, in the moment, reactionary and only among a small group of two or three people.

Stand Up seemed to me the best way to learn how to relate to a larger audience of "real" people.

It's a chance to be in the moment, with actual PREPARED things to say, and to see the reactions of people in real time.

It's an opportunity to see what's really funny and what is just funny to me.

So, God set this whole thing up.  Who do I meet here in Barrie?  A comedian!

Someone said, "You should meet Wil Twynstra."  I said "What kind of name is that?"

Anyway, we got together and I related to him my desire to do stand up as an exercise in growth.

This got the ball rolling and before I knew what was going on, we DID IT!

My mom drove 3.5 hours to be in the audience!  She snapped this pic of me making some kind of point!

I actually went onstage and did it!  What a rush!

Stand Up For God 5 was a ton of fun and one of the most scary things I've ever done.

Family and friends were there to cheer me on and I think it went pretty well!

We raised a good chunk of money for Arise Christian Academy to boot!

I am still dissecting all that I learned from the experience, but one thing is for sure...

I want to do it again!

What a great night!