Here's a Thought...

You know those times when we say "Pray for me..."?

It could be we are asking because we are sick , or afraid or needing patience.

What if, when we asked for prayer, we could also tell others exactly what we would like prayed?

Usually we just leave it up to them to figure it out.

That seems to me like it's pretty vague.

When we pull up to the drive-thru, we are pretty specific about what we want, why not with prayer?

I know that prayer is not ordering God around, but still there is something to be said for being specific.

We have a book called "Prayers That Avail Much".  It is filled with very specific prayers.

I find it very helpful to open it up and read them.  They are packed with scripture based stuff.

It feels weird to read a prepared prayer, but hey, remember, Jesus said "Pray in this manner...".

We could all use some help!

Here is an example...

Deliverance from Habits

Father, in the name of Jesus and according to Your Word, I believe in my heart and say with my mouth that Jesus is Lord of my life. Since all truth is in Jesus, I strip myself of my former nature [put off and discard my old, unrenewed self]. I desire to be free from the habit(s) of ___________, in the name of Jesus. Father, this/these habit(s) is/are not helpful (good for me, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). I no longer desire to be the slave of wrong habits and behaviors or be brought under their power.

Father, these self-destructive habits are symptoms of a flaw in my soul, my character, and I confess them as sin. I don’t want to habitually make the same mistakes over and over. Father, Your Word exposes the wrong thought patterns that are driving me to continue acting out in ways that are contrary to Your Word. I desire to be continually filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Thank You, Father, for translating me into the Kingdom of Your dear Son. Now I am Your garden under cultivation. In the name of Jesus, I throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, I purpose to let You, my gardener, landscape me with the Word, making a salvation-garden of my life.

I arm myself with the full armor of God, that armor of a heavily armed soldier which God has supplied for me—the helmet of salvation, loins girded with truth, feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. With God’s armor on, I am able to stand up against all the strategies and deceits and fiery darts of Satan, in the name of Jesus.

Clothed in Your armor, I discipline my body and subdue it. With every temptation, I choose the way of escape that You provide. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.

Thank You, Lord. I praise You that I am growing spiritually, and Your engrafted Word is saving my soul. I strip away the old nature with its habits, and I put on the new man created in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah! Amen.

    Romans 10:9,10    James 1:21 Message
    Ephesians 4:21,22    1 Corinthians 10:13
    1 Corinthians 6:12 AMP    1 John 4:4
    1 Corinthians 3:9 AMP


Pretty specific, right?

I think the whole issue was covered in that!

After reading it a few times, you sure do get some confidence that the prayer is effective!

Click the book to go to the web site for more.

Lord, teach us to pray!

2014 Year In Review and a Look Ahead

What a ride!

This year began with me doing the weekend news shifts at KICX 91.7 in Sudbury, attending news conferences,covering city council meetings and going to watch Sudbury Wolves games.  I was also doing side work as a satellite system installer in the Sturgeon Falls area.

I was a pretty happy camper!

The ONLY thing that would attract me away from the status-quo would be a call from LIFE 100.3 in Barrie saying there was an opening on their staff for a new personality.  I had done a job interview there previosly and had visited a few times and I was so impressed with them!  The sound of the station was right in my groove!  The organization of the ministry, the Street Team, the staff dynamic...all top shelf!  And of course the station manager, Scott Jackson and his wife, Janice were pretty cool folks to!

The call finally came from PD, Steve Jones on St. Patrick's Day!  I was so thrilled!  I had been offered a position on the MORNING SHOW!  This was a big deal!  Wow!  How would all this work out?  I have a kid in college, I have a house!

Without going into all the details, everything lined up perfectly so we could pack up and make the big move!  We rented our house to a wonderful pastor and his family, some wonderful friends in Barrie rented us a house about 5 minutes from LIFE and my daughter got set up to continue college!

We moved to Barrie in April and I hit the airwaves at LIFE 100.3, April 27th!

The emotions of that day were very mixed.  I was so pumped to be part of the team and at the same time I didn't want to mess it up!  I tried a little TOO hard at first and thankfully, we are regularly air checked and I settled down with some direction from, Steve Jones. 

The chemistry between me and Tim Maassarany was great right off the hop.  We seemed to complement each other and it was a really pleasurable start to the morning show.

Once the renovations were done at LIFE, Tim and I moved into a brand new Morning Show office!  It's a lot of fun to work there!  We arranged our desks so we face each other and also face any visitors that wander by!

One of my favorite parts of the morning show is the talk back shows.  We set up a topic for discussion and then open up the phone lines for listeners to call in and give us their thoughts.  It's a really great way to connect with everyone and the calls are always fun!

I have interviewed a host of interesting people.  I have been on location at some outstanding events, spoken at some wonderful churches, been to the Dove Awards, done stand up comedy and generally just had a blast!

It's been a year of so much personal and spiritual growth!

I am excited for 2015!  Anything can happen!

How about you?

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!