Sunday, November 24, 2019

(Backup) Week 4/5 of November I suppose

November, uhh

Last weekend I went to New York City for Anime NYC, awesome experience but short lived because I basically went right back to work.

Church @ The Gathering

Week 5/6 with Bill Morrow

...


The Gathering's six-part Book of Job series led by the Rev. Dr. Bill Morrow (Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at Queen's School of Religion) continues this Sunday, Nov. 24.  
Part 5 in the series focuses on the question: "What is Yahweh's Perspective?" (Job 38:1-15). 
If you wish you can read Job 38–39; 40:6–41:34 ahead of time.  All are welcome.

...

Yahweh is

What is the point of job 38-41

How would a suffering person benefit from the Yahweh speeches?

1. Is the world truly anthropometric?
Are chaos and order irreconcilable opposites?
Does the crested order perfectly reflect the character of god?

Spot the differences

Is the same dirty is job chapter 2 and in job 38-41?
No Satan, jo return to discussion in heavenly court.
The 38-41 deconstruction does not help the overarching persona of the book as a whole.

This particular god in 1-2 is a god who cannot he trusted, even by the wholly righteous to not behave cruelly and arbitrarily.

Destroying his servants welfare to serve his own narcissistic interests.

We lose something through the divine presentation of Yahweh’s speeches

According to Yahweh:

Two perspectives

Job 1-2 consults wi tu members of his heavenly council
Has absolute power

Job 38-42

...

Suffering and the exodus
“After a long time the king of Egypt died, the Israelites groaned under their slavery and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to god. God heard their groaning and god remembered his covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites and god took notice of them.”
Exidus 2:23-25

God is known as shadday, and reveals himself to Moses as Yahweh

The behemoth and leviathan.
Bill thinks that the mythical monsters that the people of the time believed existed in the world.
The creatures symbolize a certain degree of chaos in the natural world. Whether or not they exist the idea is important. These are the zenith of the argument that is in ch 38, Yahweh is taking responsibility that there is random and chaos in the world.

The differences of the ch 1-2 job god and the 38-42 job god.

These writers are trying to find an idealistic and aspect of gods. What is god and what is his repationsuop to suffering. What is his relationship in this world.

Sugfrstinf that job discovers new aspects of god.

Gods omnipotence is potential, it is not always realized.
In the psalms it is understood that god is always able to interfere with the world. These psalms would not make any sense if the assertion of divine creative power was not realized. Thus gods omnipotence is potential, it is not always realized.

God is clearly indicated that he limited him self in 38-41.
This doesn’t mean god is unable to override them, thus exodus reference.
Corporation universe works out how it works out

Questions:

Cinderella Question:
The concept of jobs god changes

To what extent is what happens to us in life the will of God?


That’s all for now!



Sunday, November 3, 2019

(Backup) First Gathering in November

A solid month since I’ve been to the Gathering?

Lots of Sunday events, crazy.

Picked up Maria from Toronto two weeks ago, went to the Murder mystery with QBGC last week on Sunday, and before that I think I was spending a lot of time with Brittney, so that’s been my Sunday’s for October.

Now I’m focusing on fixing my car (ha ha), cleaning my future living space downstairs, and ... whatever else I’m doing.

Church @ The Gathering

Bill Morrow speaking

Part two in a six part series on Job

“Did the devil make him do it?” Job 2:1-10

Agenda

Plot and characters
Testing motif
Utility of faith
Question

Outline of job 1-2

Who is job?  Who is Satan?

’Job is blameless and upright one who fears god and turned away from evil’

Job is the only one who gets this good of a review. 
He’s basically an all star, religious icon

Then he loses everything, and he is currently losing his health

Who is the Satan?

Hebrew root word ‘to be an adversary’

The gospels are especially prominent in mentioning Satan.

John 17:14-15

Satan was coming in from the field for a board meeting with ceo  universe.

He is Yahweh’s chief spy. Head of the security and intelligence.

The following chapters contain the war of words

It is an imaginative way to show Gods thought process,

The nature of the test. The benefit of not just, mwhy do bad things happen to good peoples

What ya Job about
The nature of faith:

Game theory and the Bible

Do we believe in God because God is useful?

Does everything that exists have to have a utilitarian value?

Questions:

Satan definition?
Not gods adversary, but he has an adversarial role.
Sometimes is called diabolus, the attorney general (prosecutor)
There to prosecute, not to persecute.

There is no obvious benefit to this test, but what about the act of refining.

What about the testing of Jesus?
Different from the testing of job. A different job world, Satan Is gods enemy in the testing of Jesus, not so in Job.

The blamelessness of Jesus and the blamelessness of job are not to be equated.
Job was the foremost of the people of the east.

Moving job away from god through circumstantial change.
How much was the book of job made with circumstantial irony?

Jobs family getting removed early on. Replaced with ‘new’ ones later on. They are a background to the story.

...

Timeline for Satan’s transition between job and Jesus.

Next week:
Traditions answers to why suffering comes on to people.

questions:

If “Jesus is the answer,” what is the question?


That’s all for now!

Sunday, October 6, 2019

First Gathering in October

Sooooo,

Another break in between different posts.
Umm, last week was Tanendenega reserve. That was an excellent opportunity and I learned a lot. I didn’t really write it down, also I need to copy the pictures from Lisa...


Other topical things, QAC Queens Anime Club is going well, my car is still broken, my bike is also still broken, I’m going to Brittney’s grandpas 80th birthday next week (😬😬), 
I had a busy week last week, lots of running to work, walking to work, etc.
Still haven’t fixed the car, I don’t know if I’ll be able to fix that in a reasonable amount of time. I might have to not have a vehicle for a little bit. Fixing the bike will solve these problems 

Watched some TV with the couple I hosted, That 79’s Show in Netflix.


Church @ The Gathering

Speaker: Meghan Louprecht
Personal Counselor & Social worker.

Reading from John

Shining light into darkness
Mental health and well-being resources at queens and beyond.

Continuum model of mental health.

The distinction between being mentally unwell, and having good mental health. And between hCinf no symptoms of mental illness vs a serious mental illness.

Statistics mental health in Canada

Fast facts from the 2019 Canadian national college health assesssment:

What is, and isn’t, helpful.

Not recognizing the seriousness, or letting people feel shut down when they come forward.

“How can I _____ when I feel this way?”
Coming from a place of fear

“In the beginning was the word...”
We, as Christians, need to step toward acknowledging people and their struggles.

Your mistakes do not define uou
You are not alone
It’s ok to not be ok
You matter

What’s going on?
What do you need?

Resources at Queens:
Online: SWS Site

“People are the experts of their own experience.”
Give them space and let them articulate themselves.

Giving them an audience for someone to listen.

Citing the Christian community as a place that connects you and gives you an additional protective factor.

Questions:

When have you felt or noticed “there’s a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in?”

When have you felt part of a community - what made that happen for you?

That’s all for now!

Sunday, September 15, 2019

First time at The Gathering Fall Semester

Soooooooo,

It’s been such a long time.
Yup.

Well. Basically my summer was spent seeing how I like dating in my mid 20’s. 
It’s going pretty well.

Obviously meeting new peopke has a lot of things involved.
Also actually spending a significant amount of time introducing myself, first impressions, trying to figure out how I should act. Yknow. All the things that I find stressful.




Church @ The Gathering
Eric Bateman speaking tonight

Take care! How to deal with stumbling blocks Matthew 18:1-9
I did the reading of Matthew

Readers of fantasy

Tolkien and George rr martin

How they portray those who are evil.
Tolkien created black and white
Rr Martins goal was to have a much more gray area.
Quote from the Russian writer.

People doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, the wrong thing for the right reasons

Tolkien has evil out there in the world, Martin has evil in our heart.

Tolkien’s evil is this vast unstoppable force. Hopelessness is felt when you think that evil will steamroll you. The only way for good to survive is for the world to fundamentally change.

Our hopes and dreams can feel like we’re slugging through evil, those stumbling blocks

Many of these are thugs that stem from ourselves. We’re our own enemy.

Evil out there, evil in here.

How do we navigate this evil, how do we thread the needle and achieve our goals.

...

Quote from _____ Katie’s message

Saving ourselves from the blind spots of our own hearts.

We neeed to care for one another, we all need care.

A care. Something that weighs us down, it makes us stumble and be weary.
Jesus says to take care. (Take heed, watch out, be diligent, be watchful, be careful!) strongly worded passage.
We are weighed down with responsibility.
Are we causing our brothers or ssidters to stumble?

Is there something that I’m hanging on to and not letting go.

Care is a responsibility. To love them, to feel deeply for them and to want them to thrive!

How can I love mu children well if I’m not being watchful, and being aware of their needs?
This vogilence can feel like a burden.
The anxious burden of care is the cost of living and of being loved.

As the church we accept this burden. And we are especially careful not to put obstacles in someone’s way.

First part of the Hippocratic oath.
Doing no harm.

We cannot even leafs the starting line if we are acting as stumbling blocks. 
Don’t contribute to the evil out there

Don’t add to the evil in here.

Do no harm.

Luckily it is not all vigilance and anxiety and a burden.
Once we learn this, we can enjoy the second type of care

We can actively provide the thing our brothers and asieters need. The mutual love that comes of acting in each other’s best interest.

Watching the children to make sure they aren’t playing in traffic vs playing with them, reading them a story.

For followers of Jesus there is an even greater hipe. We have the happy ending of our world to look forward to.
When Christ removes all stumbling blocks, in the world out there and in here!

Discussion questions:

1.a) What kinds of care does the church excel in?
B) What kinds of care does the church need to improve?
2. What kinds of things do we need to be more careful of, or watch out for better, so that we can enjoy more caring relationships with others?

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Last Gathering of the semester

So last week my car window got smashed and I lost my gym bag, aside from that a totally normal week.

I posted on social media about it, basically I’m just super salty about the loss, since it’s almost zero in a financial sense, it’s just the inconvenience of it all.

Church @ The Gathering
Palm and Passion Sunday

Announcements
...
The Syrian family that is new to Kingston, their cousin will say the lords prayer in Armenian

Noel Henry is the speaker for today.

The triumphal entry of Jesus and the condemnation of Jesus.

Lots of drama when Jesus enters Jerusalem with shouts of hosanna, but it all leads to the cross where he is condemned and persecuted.

The journey in between is what we’re talking about.

Jesus death is on his mind, when he’s on the mount of olives “father take this cup from me”

Noah’s story about his father. And his heart attack etc

Sometimes our prayers are also met with silence

As we hear our crosses it is important to cling close to God.

Hebrews 
“Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, do not grow weary and... when you feel sorry for yourself, consider Jesus. Consider the difficulty of his life and death and resurrection...’

...

The Prince became a Pauper.

When we do this we share in the cross of Christ.

“God weeps, god cries, and god suffers with us #emmanual”

For we who die with him are raised with him.

Never let go of god, consider him for he has a hold of resurrection.

Discussion question:
How dies Christ participate in your journey?


No bible study unfortunately,

That’s all for now!

Sunday, April 7, 2019

First time at The Gathering

Announcements:

  • New layout of the Tables
  • Easter Sunday event, welcoming an Armenian family
  • Next week is the final Gathering event
  • Easter Friday?

Church @ The Gathering 

Third Sunday of lent

Johanna is talking! As the Guest Speaker!

Story about parents buying her? ticket to Europe?

Bible study call out!
Explanation about the inductive study method.

Start of passage: Jesus reveals his passion

Peter pulls Christ aside,
This reveals Christ’s ministry and Peters place in it.

Has there ever been a point in your life that was so shocking that you didn’t know how to respond?

This is the first time the disciples (in Matthew) have heard this idea.

Matthew Henry, (worked in England)

Matthew waited until the disciples learned about the resurrection to reveal _______

Jesus has built his ministry to this moment.

Only after peter realizes Jesus true identity as Christ
Peter realizes the messiah has a great role to play, contrary to their Jewish heritage.

Peter learning about death and resurrection.

“Only a couple people got resurrected...” I googled it

Peter did it privately, taking Jesus aside, recognizing Jesus superiority as the Christ.
It was not Peters place to rebuke him publicly.

Defining a Christian, doing something because it is the best for that person, not because we want it.

“There are times when find live seeks oout deflect us from the perils of the path of god...
...Real love obeys the commandments set before us...”

Jesus response demonstrates this, “get behind me Satan!”

Peter screws up a bunch, Satan here means adversary.

We see ourselves in Peter, seeing the times when god is not on our side, Jesus is revealed as messiah and then killed? Unfair right?

These are our stumbling blocks,
I’m not smart, ______ enough etc
These untruths.

We are stuck in the secular world,
Fitting in, doing the easy thing.

God is calling us to do something far harder.

We need someone who can stop us, look at us, and tell us we are wrong.

Recently, Johanna researched a poet

“I would always choose sorrow,
In sorrow, god is always with you.
The words of our friends is god speaking to us.
What we pray for is a physical hug and physical words of reassurance.
These are gods words spoken to us from those on earth”

Isaiah “I know the plans I have for you... ...plans for hope and for the future.”

All the bad things are opportunities for blessings.

“Whoever wants to be a disciple must deny themself.
...what good is it if someone gains the world but forfeits their soul.”

Christian’s are to deny themselves.
There will be suffering, there will be joy.

Accepting that God is uppermost in our lives

Just like Jesus we each carry a cross.
This is having something turn out differently that we wanted, and knowing that we can do nothing to change it.

The cross was a death sentence in biblical times.
For us this means that we walk in the valley of the shadow of death, knowing we can’t change anything.

For peter at the time it was unimaginable for the messiah.

Verse 27,

Quote “Jesus warmed hsi daicoles that he must go to Jerusalem and he must die.
That was the shame, but that was not the end.
It was the beginning of the unleashing of that power.”

Questions
What is/are the cross/es in our life?

What is it that society expects if he that differs from what God expects?


Bible study later!


That’s all for now!

Sunday, March 24, 2019

The Gathering

I basically just felt bad this week, rip

The Gathering

Frederick speaking Matthew and Amanda leading

Church @ The Gathering

Matthew: “something greather than the temple is here’s... for the son of man is the ward of the sabbath. Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath.
Basically the Pharisees trying to catch Jesus in his words.
Jesus healed the man.
“The oharisees went out and plotted how to...”

Speaking Amanda Fitzpatrick (Page)
Frederick Skyped in to do the reading.

“No rest on the Sabbath!”
Matthew 12:1-14

Reasons: introducing the inductive study
Structuring the sermon as an inductive study.

Observation, interpretation and application.

Sabbath, two things.
Disciples and Jesus getting framed
And the healing happening

The sabbath is for rest, ancient Jews experienced this but it was more in depth than that.

God recognizing our ability to work too hard.
God caring for his people.

Us hunbling ourselves
And us not claiming that everything is our own

Oharisees antagonists
Jesus and disciples protagonists

The means of applying the law to our daily life.

The disciples “harvesting” on the sabbath

The Pharisees trying to undermine Jesus authority

Again with the mans withered hand

Setting Jesus up to be accused

Pharisees are all about the letter of the law

Story about rules and childhood.
Asking us and discussing the rules we grew up with. Black and white rules.
How many people follow those rules as adults?
None of us.

At this point we’re adult enough to live good lives without the strict rules
We know the intention behind the rules and behave accordingly.

Jesus shows the Pharisees this by showing two examples of the rules being broken and it being okay.

David and his companions were hungry, 
“he entered the house of god and ate the bread of the presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to est, but only for the priests.”

“On the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless?”

Jesus tells us something greater than the temple was here, telling the phariseees that specifically.

...

Hosea 6:6

God telling his people that they want them to show mercy live compassion and forgiveness more than he wants his people to follow the letter of the law.

“There is more to the law.”

The laws are meant to care for gods people and to teach them how to live, don’t get bogged down with the words

Second story
Man with a withered hand in the synogogue

If a sheep was in a pit, would you not pull it out?
Common sense says of course,
Jesus says that it is lawful to do good on the sabbath

Jesus didn’t actually answer the question they asked, he bypassed that entirely and went to the root of the “issue” that the pharisees were worried about and totally beat then down

...

Live out the good things, be spiritually mature

What type of person are you?
Following the law with the letter? Or to hell with the law?
Usually one or the other.

What are some places in your life where you might want to be more center leaning?

Intention behind the law or following the wrong



That’s all for now!

Sunday, March 17, 2019

St Patties Day

So I made an offer on a house and it got accepted
Also this weekend me and Stewart put a bunch of his stuff in storage since he’s getting kicked out of B77.

Church @ The Gathering 

Andy Chisholm speaking

Story about Andy and Lisa both working at the TD bank
Rules and upon rules about how to go about working, guidelines and tasks. Making decisions was just plugging facts into formula and the answer comes out.
An incredible loans officer, turning down promotions because she felt god was calling her to be a loans officer
Teaching Andy about how to be a Christian and work in a bank. She would always go above and beyond, finding grace and live in an institution that can be cold.
The Matthew reading from 

Matthew 15:21-28
The disciples were looking for quiet, and they were being bothered by a caaananite woman who had no right to be bothering a prophet

Jesus delayed response in relation to the disciples antagonism to the woman.
They barely recognized her as a human being.

Jesus response is all the more incredible
...
Gods purpose for Jesus was for him to minister to gods chosen people first
Pointing to the day that god would redeem his people
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”
Doing as much work for as many people as possible in the least amount of time possible
...
Andy’s story about the most saving for your $$ (souls saved and $ saved)
...
In a single cry for mercy she has declared Jesus as lord and recognized Jesus as the saviour of Israel

Gentiles were often referred to as dogs by the Israelite people
She picked up on this, “even the dogs were able to eat the crumbs that fall from the masters table”
It would be wrong for Jesus to sacrifice his ministry to Israel, 
But
Jesus  allows the woman to convince him that this is not the case.

This woman displays a keen mind and remarkable humility 
...
Jesus responded to her intellect
...
Jesus knows our potential, and will stop at nothing to draw it out of us.
...
The good news of Jesus transcends all divisions.

Questions for discussion

Was gods mind changed in this encounter or was something else going on?

What other stories in scripture is gods kind changed by human interaction?

That’s all for now!

Sunday, March 10, 2019

Mid March @ TDWC & The Gathering

So life is going on,
Hung out with some people that my boy Tommy knew so that was a good time, it’d be nice to meet up with them again since we naturally have a lot in common because army.
So my house purchase is kinda at a standstill, the price range of houses that are in the area I want to live in are kinda out of my price range? But I also need to find out if I’m able to apply for this interest free Deposit, it’s worded like this:

“8.3.11 Interest on a short term loan
Core benefit
CF members are entitled to reimbursement of the interest on a short-term personal loan or a personal line of credit required solely to pay the minimum deposit on the purchase of a principal residence or a new house construction at the new place of duty.
The required minimum deposit amount must be in accordance with the written contract to purchase and shall not exceed the minimum amount required by the local market.
For new construction, when the building agreement describes a payment schedule or advance payments, the interest on those payments is not considered reimbursable.”

Anyways aside from that, I’ve been thinking about my upcoming move on or before April 27,
Basically the bottom line is I can probably store everything in the basement that my other stuff is in already.
I could ask one of my bosses to help me out if I need a room for a short term to sleep in basically.
I’ve already applied to CFHA, for a PMQ, I talked to the padre about my situation but I’m pretty sure I’m on the low priority list, so that’ll probably take a while to sort out.
Accommodations can get me a bed for $250 I’m pretty sure since I’m on P3 pay now.
Umm, so Jeri is almost through adopting Luna, which is super cool for her.
It’s obviously not the best situation from an objective standpoint, but I really hope that everything works out for Luna’s parents and their relationship. 
Honestly it’s kinda tough mentally for me to be physically removed from my friends and family, I only get to see them every so often, and when I do I usually have to focus on the most economically viable route for me, so Christmas flights and summer drives. I can’t believe I didn’t do that last year I really regret that, I should have thought ahead and found out more information about the entitlements that I get since my immediate next of kin is in Hythe.
Oh yeah I went out to the churches pancake night so that was a good time,
For my fitness goals I’ve got my forces test in April, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get platinum without a lot of cardio work. I want to talk to a psp person about it but I’ll have to make that happen.
There isn’t actually much going on in my life, but there actually is a lot going on in my life, yknow?
It’s weird, but I acknowledge that it’s my own frame of reference and having to move is a huge deal. It’s going to change my whole routine and that’s probably the biggest mental issue thing that bothers me.
I do have a huge amount of resources at work because of the freedom my work gives me, full hygiene facilities, washer/dryer, bbq and fridge, and nothing but time to cook some lunch and supper.

I don’t want to change my routine,
 I should make more of an effort to go into the base gym, that’s the biggest routine I should create, bringing shoes, gym shorts, socks?, and shirts to work.
Figuring out what time of day works best with my work routine, knowing what I’ll need to do afterwards, whether it’s cooking or packing for the next work day.

Kind of an aside, Horizon: Zero Dawn makes me ask philosophical questions, and I’m not sure if it’s fun or super lame, but I think the difference is alcohol.
Like when I was watching Rick and Morty while having badly mixed 



I can’t remember if I’ve decided a good place to put in new names of people I’ve hung out with but let’s just try to start putting in in between my personal thoughts section (start of each post usually) and the church section.
Whoa Jordan you’re making each post have sections? Bold of you to assume anyone else reads this ahaha.

So this week I met new people,
CAF: Hutley, his brother Who’re #1, Candice Post, Jon _____(3 syllable but I’ve seen him around before), I met the grey water guy Darcy _____, and his brother with the big gauge hoops,
Church: I met Johanna’s PHD friends totally forgot their names though, Jordan ____(part of the big church leadership family), Greg, 


Late since reasons.

Also it was daylight savings time, so my body gets a reasonable excuse.

I showed up midannouncement
Announcements:
Volunteers needed for the Youth Ministery/Kids Church
Young Adults Retreat May 30-Jun 2
...

Church @ TDWC

Apostle Armstrong(also known as Pastor Francess) (I’ve seen him around but I’m still working on names)

Kids dismissed, and worship

Guest speaker Service w/ TJ (the only name I heard anyone call him)

He’s an amazingly charismatic speaker,

...

Living stones, not broken stones
The letter kills but the spirit brings eternal life
Idk which verse we were reading from here,

Matthew 21:44?
...
The dominion of darkness

Gaining a new citizenship and revoking the old one

If your testimony does not align with the Bible

“The kingdom will be taken from you... whoever falls on this stone will be broken”

Acts 12:
Story about his pregnant wife,

God is a good father, he is angry at the wicked everyday
The difference between a sinner and a wicked person,
The drug dealer vs the addict, the wicked person embraces the evil things and promotes it to the innocent ones.
...
Popular culture references, cnn is bad, etc
...
Our pastor is one who torments demons

Story about the Nigerian minister,
A man who could not be controlled, but he got prayed for and spoke to him “Come our” and that was it.
‘With a word he cast out demons’ the centurion knew about authority and said speak the word and my servant will be healed 
...
Baseically the Sermon: the twofold plan of salvation
To deliver his servants,
And to render his wrath toward every wicked adversary of his servants
...
God will show that we are not alone in this race
Those who desire to live a godly life will suffer enormous persecution,

Some people battle things that don’t even exist,
Without the Word they can create mental things that are ephemeral
...
Daniel, shadravk meeshack and abednjgo, 
Refusal to bow to the religious system of the world,
...
Altar call.


Church @ The Gathering
Pastor Lisa Chisholm-Smith

Story about Lisa reading Jesus restoring a young girl to life,
‘Daughter, your faith has made you well’
Matthew 9:18-26

The fine print of the laws of the woman’s dire situation, concerning bodily emissions.
They are very egalitarian

Women in biblical times menstruated much less frequently, they were pregnant or Breastfeeding during their fertile years.
She is sick, socially isolated, and destitute.
Her courage to reach out, and trust in Jesus ability to heal her is very important
It also relates to the girl who Jesus told to get up,
By restoring both to new life, the daughter literally, and the woman socially and emotionally, Jesus shows that he cares for all.
Mark has a difference in that Jesus gives priority to the poor, he stopped to find out who touched him.

The girls father understood that Jesus had power over death itself,

Exstasis: used in marks version

Jesus cloak had four tassels, which were memory aides to recall Gods attributes

Matthew says take heart daughter, for your faith has made you well,

Daughter is used in all 3 synoptic gospels

“...Women were first at the cradle and last at the cross...”
-Dorothy Sayers

Discussion Question:
What is your favourite Jesus healing story and why?

That’s all for now.

Sunday, March 3, 2019

Church back at The Gathering

It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve been here and I think it has been...
I probably won’t buy a house before I move out of 655 Princess, but who knows.

Church @ The Gathering
Transfiguration Sunday

Announcements
Events,

New songs

Sue Beare
-Military history as a chaplain

Be still: Christian spiritual practices

Intn’l groups with Canadian subsets

Every spiritual tradition in the world has an aspect of mysticism to it
She has a bunch of tables of examples
Traditions, explanations and crossover

Light is a big crossover thing

She has many whale related things in her life
The obstinate Jonah

The music bowl, smooth if you’re calm

The tale of Pooh and the tale of piglet

Start somewhere
Silence is necessary

Tactile learners

Mary as the healthy feminine archetype

Story of her ordination: Feast of the nativity of John the Baptist
The picture of Mary

Apostles bells
“An angel got his wings”

Beeswax smells great,

(As an aside, Sue is presenting this as super accessible, I hope that we get to see her lead us again, since it’s a really good opportunity to introduce someone to the Gathering)

...
Julian of norich
-she had a window to the world and a window to the altar
40 days is tied with lent, but it’s just long enough to get you through a month to start new habits 

Rosie the riveter
-sue was an airframe tech

Don’t push yourself when you’re trying for silence

Edward Hayes the author
A Roman Catholic monk,
Addresses and handouts

The finger labyrinth
Keeping you focused on something other than your thoughts

We need to engage all the parts of our bodies 

Contemplating the cross
-Pope francis commissioned a cross

Pima cheodrin
Buddhist author in New Brunswick?
How we meditate and draw ourselves away,
How we treat other people

Pigorean chant - Grunt
Boutin is the author
“Pig Latin”

The grumpy guide to life

Mindfulness
The catchword 
Mindful games activity cards
The app Calm just came out
Lottery of the hours

We did a 5 minute meditation
It was not unpleasant

Different things 
A mattress to keep your feet warmer h

Sue uses I rest
A guided meditation more than a silent meditation
Available as an mp3, a podcast

The handout we got was 
Canadian Christian meditation community
 A subset of the World community for Christian meditation
Www.wccm-Canada.ca

Lisa’s stuff she brought
Her favourite book is 
Soul Feast, all about the Christian tradition

Lactio devina, basically studying scripture.
A less interlctual approach, slowly reading out a short passage 3 times, and then afterward asking what word stood out for you
A more intuitive and contemplative way to engage with scripture.


That’s all for now!

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Church during Reading week

I don’t really have too much to say about this week.(jinxed it now ima write 4 paragraphs of text)
Umm, so it’s been 2 weeks since the last time I hosted board games at the apartment, so I’ve been pretty people deprived.
Well actually I’ve gone to both queens board games club Monday’s and the anime club two Friday’s ago so maybe it’s just I’ve felt less community in my immediate surroundings.
Anyways, this weekend I had a chance to check out the Kingston Feb Fest, Amanda suggested it and I keep on realizing how much there is to do in Kingston, it’s getting me really excited to buy a home and get more settled in Kingston.
Living in Canada basically all the low cost events and activities happen in the summer, and being outdoors living on the lake is goona be a really cool experience.
I don’t know how many people are going to leave over the summer what with there being 16000 students or something crazy, but I’m looking forward to the chance to fill my week and weekends with activities and get togethers outside of the communities I’m currently involved with.
I was thinking about a camping trip towards the end of the school year, kinda like I had back in Edmonton, this is just an initial thought though, so I’ll have to follow it up later on.
If I buy a house and there isn’t a nearby park where do I want to go? Should I check online for any slack line communities? That’d be a good idea.
Also sports, I used to ref basketball in Edmonton so I’d like to continue doing that here, it has been since the start of 2017, but I did spend a solid few months doing nothing but think about basketball so I kinda really want that community back in my life.
Also with how my current fitness schedule is I could just do basketball a few times a week as my ‘cardio’ and then just continue with weightlifting.
Also I am going to start the real 5-3-1 sometime around when I move out of 655 Princess St, so I need to determine how big a jump that’ll be for my workout schedule. I was looking at it and it shouldn’t be too hard but it’s just a matter of finding what works best at the base gym, since that’ll be my primary gym as soon as I move out, kinda inconvenient but I can make it work.
Oh yeah I also have family members haha,
So jeri and Sam(sister and bro-in-law) are adopting Josh’s (sams nephew) daughter. That’s super wild.
Jeri talked with me about it a few weeks ago but it’s still amazing that it’s happening for real. My whole family is awesome and it’s amazing how jeri can keep growing her family. They’ll have Theo, Flynn, Calvin, Winter and now Luna Arya (I’m bad at names I had to text jeri)
Joel did a bunch of renovations in his living room, and mom and dad are doing a bunch of different ministries in Alberta and with the Gideons, so that’s what’s going on with the family.
I haven’t watched anything on Netflix recently, I’ve been thinking about some shows I’ve watched and I should probably pick up something from 2018 that I missed.


Church @ TDWC
Like I said last week my first impressions were really positive, from what I can tell I don’t actually know who the head pastor is or even how the church is structured, but I’ve got a while to still figure out these things.
I don’t know how many churches I want to check out before I know which one I’m going to commit to but I’ll have to keep being mindful about that.

Worship

Pastor _____
Announcements
Apostle is working is Syracuse,
Bev, bus organization and req drivers
Birthdays, for all the kids, real wholesome
...
‘Let God be God.’
1 Thessalonians 3:12

Not a pipe dream, it’s God’s promise to you
No matter what the problem is, 
The answer is the anointing of God

Tithes and offerings
...
Pastor Bruce Mercer, one of the assistant pastors here
-he was in the Armed forces I think
-have we met before? I honestly don’t think so, but if I’m wrong I’d feel bad, so idk. The only person he could have been is the Padre who did my initial screening for the JSR posting back in March/April of last year.

Mountaintop experiences, and what follows
Afterward there is a mind, emotion, or will change
Covenant with Noah
Elijah’s experience
God is all about enlarging and winning souls, 

His story with Pastor Peter and becoming a Christian

2 Corinthians 3:18
Matthew 17
Jesus transfigured on the Mount

Peter wanted to stick around on the mountaintop

The mindset change as soon as you leave the parking lot, going back to life and your worries and your anxiety, and you’ve already forgotten about the mountaintop when you’re in the valley.

Death Zone on Mount Everest,
Without the proper tools, it’s basically an area that you weren’t designed to live in, 
You can experience the glory of god but don’t forget what needs to be done outside(off the mountaintop)

3 ways to die on Everest and how that relates to our lives

Lack of judgement, wanting something so bad that they take it at any cost
The process of acclimatization, and every height has less and less oxygen

 Traumatic deaths, falling or avalanches or extreme weather. Things that happen to you that cause trauma
Arrested development, held back because of a traumatic experience they’ve had
Being stuck in the moment
A British climber who had submitted, and he sat down and froze

Haip and hais , becoming exhausted, usually on the descent
Struggling, symptoms are fever, laziness
In our lives we aren’t prepared what to do after we complete the summit.

The Sherpas are the heavy lifters, just like the Holy Spirit

The last thing we have to do is to yield
“Hear Him” yield to Jesus,

Story about the first blind person Eric, to summit Everest, he fastened a bell to the pack of the climber in front of him.
Not by sight but by faith.


That’s all for now

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Church @ Third Day Worship Centre

This week has been less busy than the past few, but still pretty good.
Work stuff is work stuff so that’s been a change to the routine, not a bad one but it just means I need to be more vigilant to make sure all my after work stuff gets tracked.

I’ve kinda been getting discouraged with the house purchase agenda, but maybe it’s my expectations there...
Basically I want a house close to downtown Kingston,
The reasoning there is:
I already live near there so it’s familiar,
Queens, plus Summer Kingston Events, & my ulterior motive of getting out more (basically if it’s a short walk I can’t talk myself out of it, esp if I want to try a new beer or some mixed drink, etc)
And my current commute has already taken every route around, through, and over  Downtown Kingston, so the familiarity to timings already exists.
Also I want a detached house for some reason...I should talk to my brother about his experiences there

Are there many cons to this list?
Well it comes with a premium price tag...
Parking and garage access will probably be minimal,(need to buy a Kingston parking pass during the winter probably)


Church @ TDWC

Sean invited me,
First impressions, really outspoken, almost more evangelical? (can’t think of the ‘Christianese’ word right now) than Chanpion City Church, (obviously they aren’t really comparable but basically I’m saying that it’s a good first impression), classically welcoming, and I’m sitting at the back because I like to write these things down for my mental health.

It’s a family church, looks like a huge amount of families and young adults so that’s a really good opportunity to volunteer and get involved.

Names:
Pastor Edith video psalm 119:10-19 ladies bible study
, Pastor Robert,l

Service w/ Pastor 

Announcements,
‘Mercy the missing key’
Passover, 
Rally for parental rights in Toronto?
E-Transfer tithes, donate@tdwc.ca, memo line

Len of Osirius? A prophetic voice, she’s from Australia
‘Provision is coming by divine alignment’

2 Corinthians 9:6 passion translation
Stingy sower poor harvest, 
Let giving flow from your heart
...
Govt providing illicit things, so look to the church to provide the wholesome things
God provides seed for the sower,

Pastor  talking about replying with love, answering questions and intelligently responding, not hammering them over the head with your bible
I really relate with his perspective and attitude when it comes to answering questions like, ‘is homosexuallity wrong?’ Because even though he does have a firm stance on that it wasn’t in the way that I was familiar with growing up,

Tithes & offering
Kids church 

Encounters with God that are scary
Because of his magnitude, examples from Isaiah, etc
After Isaiah 6, he doesn’t prophecy the same way after
God got sick of him looking at the wrong guy, he revealed himself to Isaiah
When Isaiah was looking at Uriah
When angels show up you’re on the floor shaking like a leaf
The angel took a coal and touched Isaiah’s lips
The message that we carry is not popular, because the cross is about a bloody mess, his blood our mess
Churches are not to appease the seeker
Successful = spiritual
Saved =\ spiritual
They get angry, always hurt, and become critical and judgemental of others, but want to go to heaven
If we don’t forgive we aren’t Christians
Forgive, love, don’t judge, = no option if it comes from the Holy Ghost

Song and intermission
Worship & prophecy

Isaiah 40:12, 50, 22
Who has measured heaven with a span, in the hollow of his hand
Dust is you, this house is always filthy,
Calculated the amount of the earth in a measure
The nations are a drop in a bucket
And are counted as the dust on the scales
Young grasshopper, wax on, wax off
Heavens like a tent to dwell in

Story about a writer in the front row of an orchestra
Described it as glorious, felt both exhausted and exhilarated afterwords
The name was God the most formidable name our word has ever spoken, trying with music to explain what God is, rendition of trying to capture god in music
A great effort and a dismal failure
Infinite cannot be made finite
...
God has no rival
Romans says that you and I were made for glory

Taking kids to Disney world and stopping short at a billboard advertising Disney world.
Don’t stop at what is advertised, don’t be distracted 
...
Left early




I totally forgot that I had multiple churches today, so it’s kinda an abormally long post, eh, idk who would still read this anyways so I’m not too concerned

Church @ The Gathering

Sermon by Doug Caldwell,
He serves as a criminal defence lawyer in Kingston

New Wine, Old Wine Skins
Matthew 9:14-17

Like 5:31-39
Story about Jesus ‘should the eddding guests fast while the bridegroom is still with them’ ‘new wine in new wine skins’
Luke’s ending “and no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good”
...
This parable is much more allegorical than other parables
...
Questions about how concerned he is with the New and the Old
The new and old are just not compatible

Jesus’ audience is the Pharisees,
They want the old wine, they don’t want the new wine.

This is a similar argument to our culture here,
Jesus is asking of his audience

Old wine
Jewish culture and ways of doing things and traditions
Old covenant
Law

New wine

Galatians was a response to this parable by St Paul

Why are we tempted to put new wine into old, new patches on old garments, mixing the old and the new? 


I’m probably going to have to leave early so I’ll have to remember to text Sean as I get more involved here
(But I’ll definitely pace myself because I can’t make myself overwhelmed with work and home and. Church things, especially since I’m trying to buy a house  and that has definitely put more stress on me)

That’s all for now!

Sunday, February 3, 2019

Superbowl Sunday

Last week felt super busy at work, so I guess it’s been a minimally productive
I was also going to write more last week but didnt...

Church @ The Gathering
Speaker Allison Froese
Queens anesthesiologist

Matthew

Following a very busy day for Jesus
Centurions daughter healed,
Healed ______
Healed the demon possessed
And escaped across the lake

“Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.”
We never hear about that person again

“Let the dead bury the dead”
An understandable attitude was held by the man, he was caught between two loyalties
And we never hear about him again.

Jesus is coming across as insensitive, maybe a little hit hearteless, and very counter cultural.

Story about a woman who felt called by God to go overseas,
Her mother hinted that she did not want that outcome
The daughter did not go overseas

Everyone has their own agenda

Jesus was blunt because he knows how often our agendas soak up our energy 

Jesus wanted the energy to be directed properly.

Story from her life about being needed but unavailable

Taking a hard look at Jesus insistence about being counter cultural
Not fitting in, being odd

What intention does God have with your life?

That’s all for now!

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Two weeks of church

It’s actually been two weeks since the last church so I’ve got a bunch of stuff to write about.

Two weeks ago 


Basically it’s been two weeks of learning about what house hunting entails, what things to look in a house when I’m walking through it for the first time

Also this week on Wednesday was the biggest story I’ll ever get to tell,
Highlights:
Dude puked on my couch,
Guy had the cops called on him
Everyone got home safe

Also some minor drama but that’s nothing to write home about


Church at The Gathering

Speaker, Christian ________
He’s associated with Queens, CBC interviewed him for Canadian Defense spending, etc

Topic on the 12 Disciples 

The 12 apostles in Australia,
In attrition, just like ours
Hammered by the tides and rough seas in their winter (North America’s summer)

The apostles weren’t just picked up off the street and dropping everything
There would have been a pre established relationships, they would have seen Him around, known him, etc
Jesus let them heal disease and drive out evil spirits

What authority did Jesus give you?

If you were sick you were an outcast, thought to be contagious, thought that you must have sinned, etc
Part of Jesus authority here was to be with people who society would have shunned,

Judas is an outcast, he is an Edomite, the others were from the house of Judah
He doesn’t fit in his worldview and understanding

Important to come with a skill set,

There more probably more women who ended up following Jesus, also men, but for historical reasons we don’t read about them

This eclectic team reflect the idea that we can’t be good servants without seeing the strength of others and their weaknesses as well.
We can’t do these things alone

WWJD, well we probably couldn’t guess

The instructions, go to the lost sheep of Israel
Proof of concept approach, 11 would have affinity there and would be able to mount a ministry with less friction than the other places mentioned
Learn to walk before you run.
You don’t need to go very far, go back to your own people

...

Take no gold or copper, take no extra sandals
Means to trust the Lord to provide

...

Protecting and understanding your own ecosystem,

...
Jesus gives Judas authority, knowing that he will fail, but Jesus knows that he has a different experience and he brought 

What authority has God given you?
What opportunities do you have in life where you’re able to walk away and leave something behind? Or where you are holding on to things where you should have left it behind?


Sunday, January 13, 2019

First Sunday since I got back

Christmas is all over, I did get a chance to see all of my immediate friends and family so that was good.

I’m working on buying a house here in Kingston, realtors, mortgages and BGRS are all going to be taking up most of my down time I think.

Finances are on my mind a lot more since the bank literally dictates where I’ll be able to live now, so it’s all about making the banks give me as much money as possible.
My down payment is not going to be as high as 10% I don’t think, but I am for sure above 5% so that’s good for the future plans.

Church @ The Gathering

Refugee theme

Speaker - Mimi Merrill
Refugee Settlement coordinator of the diocese of Ontario refugee support DOORS

Jesus the refugee Matthew 2:13-23

...
Walking in the cold, refugees still do that in this day and age

V. 16 65.6 million displaced peoples throughout the world, only a fraction can arrive in a safe area

V.23 still a fear of the people in power, 

Mimi’s job working with refugees
Topic of government sponsored refugees
Make friends with them,
The things that are naturally understood for Canadians 

Myth questions
Do refugees take our resources? Only govt sponsored ones and only for the first year
Do refugees bring diseases? No, tests
Are refugees uneducated? Not the adults typically,
Is Trudeau too easy on refugees? There is a lot of paperwork to get into Canada

To be considered a refugee they need to leave their country, or else it is an internally displaced person.
Refugees finding people from their culture or language

Our meal is an international one.

That’s all for tonight!