Author Archives: Troy

Ministry Update :: September 3, 2013

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Earlier this year I got to meet Brad and hear his incredible testimony. He is a family man who works as a veterinarian in Gillette, Wyoming. We travelled to his town to record his testimony about how he grew up going to church and doing “religion,” but being in constant fear of death and thinking he may have lost his salvation. His life was a huge list of things to do, not a life of rest and peace with God. Later on… well, you should hear him say it in his own words.

 

We really enjoyed getting to know Brad and his family and hearing how God has worked in his life. We spent a few days in town recording the interview and capturing “B-roll” footage, and then made the long drive back to Alberta. Ken, who has been working as an intern with me, got the enviable job of editing it all together and did a fantastic job. Brad is a very likeable guy and he has such an engaging story. I hope you enjoy it.

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Ken working the boom mic while I manage the cameras “on set” – a hotel room converted to our temporary studio.

We appreciate your prayers for our ministry,

Troy & Naomi

PS. Today was the first day of school for the girls. Ethan starts kindergarten next week and all are very excited!

A Nation Rejects God

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I have usually considered the passage in Romans 1 dealing with the slide further into sin being one of personal sin. Recently I listened to a message that opened my eyes to a larger application, that of the progression of a whole nation (or even all of Western society) into rejecting God and embracing sin. The pastor roughly laid out a timeline, showing this slide down to the lowest common denominator of morality. I found this timeline concept instructive.

 

Romans 1
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Man abandons God and the rise of secularism.
This has been happening for a long time, but accelerated in the early 1900’s up to the ’50’s and ’60’s with the rise of secularism, and the growing idea of man’s ability to solve everything with science.We ceased giving thanks, became futile in our thinking, and our hearts are dark and foolish. 
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 1960’s sexual revolution.
When God abandons a society it become pornographic, it becomes obsessed with sex.”We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.”

— Aldous Huxley, “Confessions of a Professed Atheist” discussing why he rejected God and any system of morality.
25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. “A man who ceases to believe in God does not believe in nothing; he believes in anything.”
– G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
The worship of earth – environmentalism as a religion and the growth of paganism.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 1970’s – todayWhen a society rejects God, and God then abandons a society, there is a sexual revolution, then a homosexual revolution.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Rejection of God’s word leads to this apt description of our modern world.”Murder” – how many millions and millions of babies slaughtered in state approved abortion clinics in the last 50 years?
32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. The rise of “tolerance” and “political correctness” where you must not only tolerate (in the truest sense meaning to accept it’s existence) but approve and even promote every area of sin .

And that pretty much sums up this world we are in.

 

How long, Lord, must I call for help
and You do not listen
or cry out to You about violence
and You do not save?

Why do You force me to look at injustice?
Why do You tolerate wrongdoing?

Oppression and violence are right in front of me.
Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates.

This is why the law is ineffective
and justice never emerges.
For the wicked restrict the righteous;
therefore, justice comes out perverted.

Habakkuk 1:2-4

Yard Sale Entrepreneur

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On Saturday Naomi had a small yard sale. Ellie came up with the idea of selling some juice at the yard sale to earn some money of her own. She made her own “cash box”, decorated her sign, mixed up some juice and got her cups ready. She initially set her price at $1 per cup, but I told her that it was too high.

She even set the payment terms for the transaction as cash only. I guess credit cards were not acceptable.

 

Later on she remembered that she had a toy cash register, so she went in for that.

Ellie was very surprised that some people just dropped coins in while shopping! All told, she made $12 for her efforts. Good job Ellie!

 

Ministry Update :: May 16, 2013

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Each year GoodSeed has a number of opportunities to meet the public and share with others about our books and videos that clearly and simply explain the most important message to man: God’s love and His plan of salvation. Because we are a small organization, we can’t do as many of these events as we would like to, but one that we are able to attend is a large home school convention in a nearby city.

As a home schooling parent, Naomi wanted to be involved in this event with GoodSeed, as she understands some of the challenges and needs of this community, and how GoodSeed’s evangelism resources can help parents. Here is her report:

Recently, I was able to represent GoodSeed at a provincial homeschool convention. While GoodSeed does not specifically cater to home educators, we have found that our evangelism tools are meeting a real need within that community. Many folks we spoke to expressed a real concern for their children:
How could they give their children a solid foundation in God’s Word?
How could they help their children understand God’s gift of salvation as their own, and not just their parents’ belief?

Some expressed concern over the worrying trend of churched children leaving the faith once they leave home. We were able to direct them to GoodSeed resources that would lay a strong framework of understanding on which kids could build everything else in life.

I found it quite thrilling to meet so many folks who deeply desired to obey God’s command of teaching their children about God and to be able to hand them easy-to-use tools to help them along in that goal.

 

Troy & Naomi

Ministry Update :: May 2, 2013

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Last week I was with two other staff members in Gillette, Wyoming to video the testimony of a gentleman who had been religious all his life, but had never understood the Gospel of God’s grace. It is a fantastic story, and we hope to have it edited and ready to share with you in a few weeks. The trip was a good time of fellowship with some new friends, and Ken and I had a good time driving the 2700+ km (1700 miles) through Alberta, Montana, and Wyoming.

I did occasionally make Ken pull the car over for an irresistible shot, and I have started to put a few of my photos from the trip online at www.facebook.com/troyjphoto or on my flickr account.

Right now I am seated at the back of one of our evangelism seminars, this time in Olds, Alberta. We have 20 individuals from across this region of Canada who have travelled to our small town to learn more about the Gospel and how to share it with others. Please pray for this seminar over the next three days as we are going through ‘The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus’.

Troy & Naomi
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