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!