Today is a big day in the town of Olds. The much anticipated Wal-Mart opens its doors. To commemorate this event, may I present the following Jib-Jab video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
I grew up as the son of a small business owner in a small town. Not much of a fan of ye ol’ Big Box Marts.
PS. That song is going to be in your head for weeks.
Recently I came across an old email I had sent several years ago to a Christian college in Ontario. We had been invited to go to a youth event in Southern Ontario to set up a display, so we decided to take a couple students with us. The goal of the event was to share the Gospel with the youth in the town through a special drama presentation being performed by students and staff of that Bible college. We were pretty excited when we got there as there were over 300 teens in attendance and this looked like a great opportunity.
Unfortunately, the presentation of the Gospel in the drama was so muddled and messed up that anyone who was not already a believer must have been really confused. What was more disappointing was that the drama was written by the school’s president! This raised some serious concerns about the school.
On the way home I asked the students what they thought of it. I figured this would be a good opportunity for discussion. They also had noted the confused message that was presented in the drama and were upset over the lost opportunity to share the simple Gospel truth. I was so angry with the whole event that the next day I decided to send an email to the person at the school in charge of evangelism.
From me:
“I have a question.. What do you think is necessary for salvation?”
Response from the person in charge of evangelism at the school:
Interesting question to find in my email.
I think someone needs to be very human? and somewhat broken and humble because these are the things that God finds so attractive and the… one needs to pray and give up, that is, verbally in prayer, surrender to Jesus Christ, knowing that He died for all of our sins and that by surrendering our control of our life into His hands, we become changed, new and we become fully integrated into the family of God, that is, we become His children. This is what he wants, for us, to surrender to Him and be His children. This is salvation… This is what I believe and what my Bible tells me and I believe this with all my heart.
Huh? I can’t quite follow what he is trying to say.. What I had hoped for was something like how the Apostle Paul answered the same question in Acts 16:
Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved“
What a contrast… Believe on the Lord (God) Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Promised Deliverer) and you will be saved, vs. the strange, vague response about submission and humility. That has to be one of the most confusing attempts to explain the simple truths of the Gospel.
Needless to say.. I’m not real impressed with that Bible school. When the answer to the most important question in the world is so messed up and confused, I can’t imagine what the rest of their teachings would be like.
“Isn’t the rainbow beautiful!” The storm had just passed and Jim and Rick were outside under the brightest and most colourful rainbow ever.
“It sure is, Jim. Just look at that blue! It’s so… blue,” said Rick.
“Yeah.. and then the greens and reds.. Wow. The rainbow is just so big and bright and beautiful.. I want to touch it.”
“Sure, it is a nice blue.”
“Eh? Yeah, there is some blue, but there is so much more! Just look at it.. The rainbow is.. majestic,” Jim said in awe.
After some thought Rick said, “Hmm.. it’s ok. It is just blue to me.”
Taking his eyes off the rainbow, Jim is surprised to see that Rick is facing the opposite direction from the rainbow. “Rick, are you even looking at the same thing I am?”
When Rick turns towards his voice Jim is surprised to see that he is wearing a blindfold.
“Yeah, the blue rainbow.”
“Rick, take the blindfold off and stop fooling around. This is so amazing.. you gotta see it!”
“Oh, I see it. It’s blue. That is my favorite colour.”
“No no no… It.. it has blue, but there is so much more to the rainbow! Just look at it..” Jim says as his voice trails off when he returns his gaze to the rainbow.
“Mmm.. blue…”
“Seriously Rick.. are you just making this up? It is so much more beautiful than just blue.”
“But I like blue!” Rick said.
“What?! It doesn’t matter what your favorite colour is.. The rainbow has many colours. It’s amazing!”
“Jim, I know you have your ideas about what a rainbow looks like, but trust me, it’s blue.”
“How can you say that! It is right here for you to plainly see if you would just take the blindfold off.”
“Ok, Jim, I can tell you are getting upset. I’m happy with my blue rainbow. We are just going to have to agree to disagree about this rainbow.”
“Argh!” said Jim in exasperation.
_______
Sometimes I feel like Jim when talking to people about God.
God has revealed himself to us so clearly in His Word, the Bible. Yet so many people have their own made up god that has their favourite characteristics, with all their hopes for now and eternity based on nothing more substantial their own vague opinion.
If they would only take off the blindfold and see the full spectrum of God..
The two Hawaiian pizza lovers (HPL for short) will dutifully take a few slices of their Hawaiian pizza. Meanwhile, the other three good pizza lovers (GPL) look in dismay over their slice at this little pizza that has to be divided by the three of them.
Then it happens.. the HPLs decide that they also want to partake of the good pizza too (it is good after all) and take a slice or two each. The GPLs are distraught and hungry over this grave injustice. The end result of this sad situation: two full Hawaiian pizza lovers, three other hungry people, and four slices of unwanted leftover Hawaiian pizza.
_______________________
This is exactly the situation where a Pizza Eaters Code of Conduct is needed. What I propose is this:
Should you be in a group and want a lesser pizza (be it Hawaiian, vegetarian, or really anything not loaded with cheese and meat) you must then consume only that lesser pizza. Once the others have sat back and loosened their belts you may then abandon your lesser pizza and proceed to eat a slice of the greater pizza (Meat Lovers, Canadian, etc.).
Your comments are welcome. Oh, and Stephen Harper, if you have dropped by again, please talk to your guys about bringing this into law.
From the headlines:
There are ominous signs that the earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production – with serious political implications for just about every nation on earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only ten years from now…
The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard pressed to keep up with it….
Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects. … The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality.
Wow.. sounds bad.
