Top 3 Verses That Never Seem To Get Mentioned At Christmas December 15, 2009
Posted by noelwalker in Christmas, Devotional, God, Peace.Tags: Christianity, Christmas, Devotional, Jesus, Nativity
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One upside of Christmas time is the increased awareness of Jesus in Western culture but I often wonder if misplaced attention is better than no attention at all. Western culture today is more than willing to put a baby Jesus on the shelf with all the other truth claims and religions that are out there but today’s Western culture is very resistant to granting Jesus His ultimate authority. Part of the irony is that tolerance and plurality are of the highest value in our culture, only if you agree with what our culture tolerates. Our culture says, ‘You can believe anything you want as long as you believe the same as us.’ I can believe that Jesus is, “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14: 6) and that “salvation is found in no one else” (Acts 4: 10-12) as long as I don’t really think that is true.
The claims of the Bible are not actually exclusive at all! Anyone who trusts in Christ alone can be saved! The offer of salvation is open to all, but not open for redefinition. In this time of nativity scenes and plastic icons, here are three verses about Jesus that seem to get missed as we celebrate His birth:
1. Col 1: 19 “… in Him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…”
The thought that the fullness of the Creator that made the Grand Canyon was contained completely in the form of a homeless urchin, lying in a feed trough absolutely blows my mind. We often revel in the humble form of Jesus but the reciprocal statement is also true: How profound is it that this humble baby was, at the same time, in full form, lacking nothing, God Almighty in the flesh. Jesus was that humble but at the same time he was that Majestic! Col. 1: 19 reminds me of Jesus’ undiminished holiness.
Blown Away December 11, 2009
Posted by noelwalker in Devotional, Evidences, God, Life, apologetics.Tags: apologetics, creation, Evidences, God
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Sorry while I geek out here for a bit. NASA released a new picture Tuesday from the new camera installed in the Hubble Space Telescope last fall. It is a picture of a microscopic portion of the sky (1 / 50 of an degree square). This portion of the sky would easily fit behind the head of a pin held at an arms length.
This picture completely blows you away if you just give it a little thought. Virtually every speck in this picture is a galaxy. Click on it to get a high resolution image and see. An average size galaxy has 150-200 billion stars. How many is that? Consider the following:
There are approx. 5 000 Cheerios in a 575g box. How do I know this? Thank OCD and the Internet. Sobey’s in Beamsville has 38 boxes on the shelf tonight but imagine if every shelf on every aisle in the store had only Cheerios. Sobey’s in Beamsville would have just less than 50 000 boxes of Cheerios. (24 aisles x 5 shelves x approx. 12 boxes deep x approx. 32 boxes wide) So one Sobey’s has 250 million Cheerios. (5 000 Cheerios per box x 50 000 boxes = 250 000 000 Cheerios)
Repentance December 8, 2009
Posted by noelwalker in Dependence on God, Devotional, Forgiveness, Grace, Jesus, Jesus' Nature, Life, Mercy, Personal, Tiger Woods, religion.Tags: Adultery, Apology, Forgiveness, God, Jesus, Repentance, Tiger, Tiger Woods
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It’s ironic that last week I wrote about the power of honest confession at precisely the same time as a tragically poor example of confession was unfolding in Florida. Perhaps you heard about it. (if not pick a newspaper website and go read).
The story began a couple of weeks ago. First an article in the Enquirer claimed that Woods was having an affair, then 36 hours later he and his wife had some sort of fight that caused an early morning accident outside their home. Woods then says nothing, nothing, nothing. Then three hours after a waitress comes forward with a phone message recording, Woods issues a statement where he:
- admits he’s not perfect
- admits ‘transgressions’ against his family (read wife)
- lectures the media about his entitlement to privacy
- says “I will strive to be a better person and the husband and father that my family deserves.”
Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Things You’ll Never Hear a High School Teacher Say December 8, 2009
Posted by noelwalker in Christmas, Devotional, Funny, Random.Tags: Top 10 List, Teachers, Christmas, Christmas List
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At the GLCHS Christmas party last week one of the party games we played was coming up with a top ten list on a given topic. My table was given The Top Ten Things You’ll Never Hear a High School Teacher Say. Here’s what we came up with:
10. Your dog ate your homework? Is he O.K.?
9. (In the last 5 minutes of a staff meeting) Excuse me, there is one more think I would love to get everyone’s opinion on.
8. Of course yesterday’s test is marked.
7. Unless I’ve got 28 kids in my class I just don’t feel like I’m teaching.
The Return Home February 19, 2009
Posted by noelwalker in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
busy busy busy
Flickr February 19, 2009
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This is a test post from 
, a fancy photo sharing thing.
Moving on! July 31, 2008
Posted by noelwalker in Faith, God, Life, Personal, Random, Spiritual, religion.Tags: new blog, ephesians2eight.com, Ephesians 2 Eight, Tintern Church of Christ
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I have moved to my new blog home: http://ephesians2eight.com
Sharing a name with a cult has been fun but I thought I would instead go for something a little more straight forward. It has been a slice but I must go.
Come and see me!
What Game Are You Watching? January 21, 2008
Posted by noelwalker in Devotional, Life, Personal, Random, religion.add a comment
Matt Chandler at The Village referenced a funny story where at the Rose Bowl in ‘05 a USC cheerleader got confused and celebrated a touchback (her team being scored on in their endzone). There is some question however as to whether it is true.
In either event I thought it was appropriate analogy. Being so out of sync with your team that you are celebrating the complete opposite thing. Are you not in step with your church family? Is your church watching for what you think is the wrong outcome? The wrong benchmarks? Does it feel like they waiting for another team to score? Are they watching the same game you are? Is it even the same sport?
I have times with the group I work with where I am jumping up and down on the sidelines and look over and my team has put their pom-poms away. Other times I am startled when they roar with approval on what looks to me like a score for the other team.
Are we even watching the same game? I’m at one of those times where I am so out of whack with them that I can’t even see what they are seeing. I am lost and don’t know where to go or what to do.
Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Don’t cast me away from your presence and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore onto me the joy of my salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.
Psalm 51: 10 – 12
It takes humility to stop and realize how far out ahead (or behind) you are from the group you are supposed to be leading. Pride makes it difficult to return to God’s throne and ask forgiveness - to search and find those places where you have buried your bitterness and anger. For it is not my church that I need to be in sync with but God alone.
Then it takes time to find the Master’s rhythm again. It feels like you just had it but to be this far out of whack you must not have been listening to it for some time now. It’s like discovering that you have been following the wrong directions for more than an hour and you now have to turn around and go back to the beginning.
It takes patience to wait for the Master’s rhythm to come back, the familiar beat of the His heart. I want it to be right where I want it to be so I can get going but He won’t come and line up behind me.
It is me who must line up behind Him. It is His lead that I follow and His game that I play. But it still burns to stop and wait for Him. Every muscle in my body resists it. It looks for all the world like it isn’t working; none of it. It looks like all of it is a waste of time.
The biggest step of faith in this is the step back to square zero; we can’t even claim to be on square one.
Let’s Put the ‘Hallow’ back in Hallowe’en! October 24, 2007
Posted by noelwalker in Church of Christ, Devotional, Evangelism, Jesus, Life, Mercy, Ministry, Missions, Personal, Random, Spiritual, halloween, religion.1 comment so far
As holidays go Hallowe’en is one of the weirdest ones. There are lots of theories on where it came from but most centre on the anticipation of All Saints Day (New Year’s Day on the Gaelic Calendar) on November 1st. Families would disguise themselves to keep evil spirits from recognizing them during the last night of the year. In short, there is plenty of irreligious tradition and bad practice to make this one of my least favourite holidays as an adult. The candy thing is good but the whole macabre side of the holiday I can do without. In my neighbourhood we have someone who has decapitated heads on pikes and corpses lying in his front yard. Nice.
I know in the tradition of Churches of Christ we have struggled with the observance of Christmas but for me Hallowe’en takes the cake. If Christmas has diverged from it’s greater purpose, Hallowe’en never had one; if Christmas is a bit off the path, Halloween is ‘down the hill and over the fence’. Hallowe’en couldn’t find it’s way back on the path with a compass and a flashlight.
A great shift in my thinking came last year at this time while I was ranting about my distaste for Hallowe’en with my friend Jim. He dismissively responded, “Nonsense, my whole neighbourhood sends their kids to my door and I get to meet each one of them. I talk to my neighbours more on Halloween than any other day of the year.”
What a great purpose for Halloween! It is a great ‘Get to Know Your Neighbours’ Holdiay just waiting to be used. While I certainly understand those who do not observe the day, I think it is a waste of an opportunity to reach out to the families who live around us. Turning your lights off and parking in the garage does not present a friendly face in your neigbourhood.
No matter what evangelistic approach you choose to take, nothing happens without relationship. Matt Chandler pastor of The Village Church calls it, “paying relational rent”. I was convicted by Jim’s comment that I was not ‘paying the rent’ with my neighbours. I don’t invite them to church because I don’t know them.
Last year Julie used Hallowe’en to figure out a few names and visited with our kid’s parents. This year we are doing it big! Let’s put the ‘Hallow’ (or Holy) back in Hallowe’en this year and build relationships for Christ.
P.S. see this
Being the Church He is Waiting For October 3, 2007
Posted by noelwalker in Devotional, Grace, Jesus, Life, Personal, Random, Spiritual, religion.add a comment
I confess, I am a cheater. I am a peeker.
When I read a book I will frequently sneak a peek at the last page to see how it ends. Not right away of course, but as I get going I will sometimes flip the book open near the end and see if anything catches my eye. While reading the Harry Potter book this summer I got a little worried at times and glanced toward the back to see if he was still kicking. Well I won’t give away the end but I did see the word ‘Harry’ on p. 691 so I breathed a sigh of relief.
I heard a saying this week that I have heard before, “The church is just one generation away from extinction“. I know what is intended by this phrase but I think the meaning can get garbled in times like these. It is true that each generation must take the responsibility of passing on it’s faith to the next generation very seriously. This precious gift that is mine needs to become precious to my children as well.
I have however heard this phrase kicked around more recently as a descriptive proverb rather than a prescriptive one. ‘The church is one generation (read 25 years) away from extinction. If we don’t do something about this there won’t be any churches left!’
While we do live in a fallen world and living as Christ’s ambassadors to that world can be a trial sometimes, I think we can get an over inflated sense of our role in the redemptive process: “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works so that no one can boast.” Eph 2: 8-9
We carry this gift to the world. We did not make it; we didn’t even wrap it.
When I get concerned about where the church, the bride of Christ (see Eph. 5: 25 – 27) is going I have flipped to the end of another good book and checked to see how it turns out:
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” Rev. 19: 7
“Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Rev. 21:9b – 10
Paul also teaches in 1 Thess. 4: 13 – 18 how it will be for those who are believers when Jesus returns. Rest assured, the church will still be around when Jesus returns. This leads me to a sobering conclusion then: If indeed our church is going to disappear in the next 25 years one of two things is going to happen.: Jesus will return in the next 25 years (hurray!) or we are not His church.
Forms will come and go but the truth of Jesus Christ and the community of the redeemed will last forever. As circumstances require, let us continue to grow and adapt, and become his church; today, and forever.
