You won't believe what just happened...

I am at work right now and we just got a visit from some Jehovah's Witnesses!

I sit right at the front of the office and you can't get into the office with out me seeing you. So they stopped and asked if they could leave some "reading material" for our break time. I politely declined, saying that I have examined and rejected their teachings as being unbiblical and they quickly left.

I wish I had had more time and an opportunity to speak the true gospel to them! If you have a minute, will you please pray that the Lord would direct these lost souls to people and places where they will hear the gospel in truth and purity? Thanks!

Lutheran Liturgy 101

Sometimes I hear people complain that the ancient liturgy is "dry and lifeless" and "no longer relevant". I personally love the liturgy and I think that complaints like these stem from a lack of knowledge about what the liturgy is and what the liturgy does.

If you are not used to worshipping with a liturgy, you might find your first experience with it to be strange and even confusing. Why does the Pastor wear robes? Why is he holding his hands up like that? Why is everybody standing up and sitting down? Believe it or not, in the liturgy every word, every gesture, even pauses, have significance and a purpose. If you understand the significance and purpose of the elements it can enhance your understanding of what is going on in the worship service. When you understand the biblical and historical roots of the liturgy, you realize that far from being "irrelevant" it is in fact a timeless reflection of the spiritual order between God and man.

I would like to take some time to tell you about the liturgy. There is no way I can tell you everything about it in one post - I will have to split it up over several. I hope that you find it interesting and edifying!

What is the liturgy?
In its broadest sense, the liturgy is a proscribed order of service. It provides the structure of the service - when the hymns are sung, when (and which) Scriptures are read, when the Pastor should speak and when the congregation should respond and so on. In some ways, traversing the liturgy is like being on a journey: we begin in a posture of supplication in the Service of Preparation, our faith is nurtured in the Service of the Word, and our worship culminates in bodily communion with our Lord in the Service of the Sacrament. The liturgy underscores our purpose in gathering ourselves together: teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer (Acts 2:42).

The historical roots of the liturgy
The liturgy is patterned after the services that God commanded to the Isrealites going all the way back to the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. These worship forms had a set pattern and were retained by the New Testament church.

The early church retained the Jewish understanding of the purpose of worship as well. For a Jewish person, there was but one purpose to Temple worship: to receive forgiveness through the sacrifices of the priests on behalf of the people. It was not about bringing his praise and worship to the Lord (although he could rightfully do so once forgiven) - it was about coming in supplication to the Lord and receiving his mercy. You will notice that liturgical churches place an emphasis on what God did (and continues to do) for us in worship rather than what we do for him.

The physical layout of the church
You'll notice that in our church there is a single aisle going up the center of the nave (the main body of the church, ie. the seating area) that meets with an aisle (called the transept) that transverses the front of the church creating a cross. Positioned at the center of the cross is the Baptismal font. This is no accident - it reflects the centrality of Baptism within Lutheran sacramental theology. The placement reminds me of this Scripture from Paul's letter to the Romans: "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

You'll also notice that there is a railing around the chancel (the front part of the church where most of the service is conducted) that separates it from the nave. In the middle of the railing there is a gap and the gap represents the curtain that was torn in the Temple, signifying that the barrier between us and God has been torn down. Anytime the Pastor or a celebrant enters the sanctuary, they do so through the gap, indicating that because of the Son we now have unfettered access to the Father.

That's all I can think of for now about the history etc. of the liturgy. Next up: The Service of Preparation!

Evangelism by prayer

I want to share this idea with you. I'm sure I am not the first person to think of this; in fact I'm not sure I even came up with the idea - I think it may be more accurate to say that the Spirit inspired me.

God has been making me bolder for Him - I have been doing my best to resist. Typically I shy away from evangelizing in a direct, proclamatory way. I've always assumed that people will be turned off by an in-your-face approach, so I've opted for more of a stealth approach. I am (and probably always will be) more comfortable "living the message" and making indirect references to my faith, saying things like "God bless you" and "I'll pray for you". And hey, there's nothing wrong with that approach. We are called to be salt and light, and it lends credibilty when our lives are consistent with the message that we profess.

God only knows why, but He has been putting people squarely in my path who are practically screaming to have the Gospel preached to them. Hurting people who need to hear the consolation that only the life-giving Gospel gives. People who need to hear the words, "Your sins are forgiven". In their time of desperate need, how can I withhold the Gospel from them? How can I justify staying in my comfort zone, consoling myself that I can be a "living Gospel" to them? So I've been trying to be more bold, you know? But leaving ones comfort zone can be hard.

One day not too long ago, I came face to face with one of those hurting people. And as I struggled to put the Gospel into words that I thought weren't too "preachy" or "pushy" (comfort zone, people) I was suddenly struck- I mean, thunderbolt of lightning, out of nowhere, where did that come from? - with an impulse to pray for this person. So I stopped midway in sentence and asked, "Could we pray together?" She gave her assent and so we clasped hands and I prayed.

And the Holy Spirit poured forth! My mouth was filled and before I knew it I was boldly proclaiming the sweet Gospel that Jesus died for her sins so that she might live! All praise and glory to God - the Gospel has been proclaimed!

Since that day, I have had two more opportunities to bring the Word and both times I asked if we could pray. Nobody has said no, and it has opened up a door for me to be bold in a way I never would have before. For some reason, in prayer I am able to pour forth the Word clearly, boldly and unambiguously. I thank God for this.

Anyways, I thought I would share this because perhaps you may want to try this also.

Lessons from Sunday School

Our Sunday School lesson yesterday was Luke 1:26-56, the Annunciation to Mary. Since our lesson last week had been the fortelling of the birth of John the Baptizer, I had the kids spend some time comparing the similarities and the differences in the accounts. One of the things that I really wanted them to pick up on was that unlike Zechariah - who doubted God's message to him - Mary unreservedly believed.


These kids surprise me sometimes. Not only did they notice right away that Zechariah doubted while Mary believed, they noticed something that I failed to pick up on: Zechariah, who doubted, was a priest, a "professional" if you will and Mary, who believed, was just a young, ordinary girl.


I think I've told you before that I teach the grade 5 kids. I love this age, because they are old enough that they are really starting to get it. They have such great questions and we can easily become sidetracked from the lesson if I'm not careful. But sometimes the "sidetrack" will take us places that are really powerful and I have an opportunity to really connect with them and really bring home a Scriptural truth to them. Today's observation that Mary was a nobody who believed was one of those opportunities.


Here's the thing: God chose Mary. Nothing about the Biblical account in either Matthew or Luke indicates that Mary was in any way special. There was nothing extraordinary about her to commend her as a candidate for Mother-of-God, but God chose her nonetheless. Upon hearing the news that she will carry the Son of the Most High in her womb, she believes right away. I wonder - did she believe because she already had great faith, or did hearing the Word create the faith that allowed her to believe? In any case, she believes and even asks how this thing will be accomplished. Gabriel's answer to her is telling: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." In other words, you're not going to do anything little girl, God's going to take care of making it happen.

This is what we believe happens in baptism: the Holy Spirit comes upon the one baptized to create saving faith. God accomplishes his purposes through his divinely appointed means.

Ten Week Exercise Commitment

Sigh. This sounded so good back in December when it was still over a month away.

Actually, I've been trying since the beginning of January to up my daily exercise. I admit, I've been inconsistent. I think the problem is, I hate the treadmill. My husband has been using it; Alli has been using it. Me, not so much. I can manage about 5 minutes before I am bored to tears and I give up.

However, I'm going to try to remember the FlyLady's motto: "You can do anything for 15 minutes." My goal is 90 minutes of exercise a week - that translates into 30 minutes 3 times a week, or 15 minutes 6 times a week. But I think I might go back to using an exercise video instead, which I find much more fun than standing on that treadmill. Why did I ever buy that thing??

Oh, and my husband has lost 5 pounds!

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated

Ahem. Yeah, it's been a while, hasn't it? I had to check to see the last time I posted and it was back in December. Yikes, time flies when you're sick, doesn't it?

Actually, I've been back on my feet since New Years Day and we had a great New Years party that day. It is a tradition in my mom's family to have a New Years Day celebration and in recent years we've been having it at our place. We had a sit down dinner for 25! (Yes, I am bragging, *smile* because for a while I was afraid we'd have to either order pizza for our guests or just cancel the whole thing, but thankfully I recovered in time to be an unsick hostess.) I didn't have to do all that much anyways; my dad cooked a big, huge ham and brought it over and I made a bunch of casserole type side dishes ahead of time and all we had to do was heat 'em up in the oven. My Aunt Trudy was a HUGE help to me. This was her first time ever to my home - she lives in Australia and though she visits a couple of times a year she always stays with my folks or my Oma. It was a real pleasure to have an entire day with her and I enjoyed her visit immensely.


So. Does anyone besides me still have their Christmas decorations up? No? Just wondering...


Today I had to go to "Software Licensing Bootcamp" at Microsoft in Toronto. Oh man, I wish I had brought my camera! There was this one guy sitting across from me who looked just like Bill Gates! It was so funny. Actually, I know it's stereotypical, but there were a lot of geeky looking guys there. And about 95% of the participants were male - I was one of only a handful of women. Anyways, now I have to do some studying and write a Microsoft exam and then I will be "Microsoft Certified" as a licensing specialist. Are you impressed? (rolling eyes)


So did I tell you all that I am planning to meet a blog friend next weekend? You'll have to guess who it is - and it's not Debbie this time. I'm not sure if she wants it public or not. I'll let ya know.


Oh yeah. I totally missed my two year-blogging anniversary on Boxing Day (January 26th for you non-Brits/Colonials). Are you supposed to do something special for your 2 year anniversary? A meme or something?

Oh, speaking of memes, Dapoppins tagged me for one. I have to list 5 Material Wishes and 5 Spiritual Wishes. Then I have to tag 5 others. I think I might skip the tag others part since I'm kinda late doing this, but here are my wishes:

Material Wishlist

1. World peace, of course.

2. An unlimited supply of chocolate, ice cream and pastries (the good stuff too - not the cheap no-name brand stuff, but Lindt chocolate and Ben and Jerry's ice cream and Krispy Kremes hot out of the oven!).

3. A turbo-metabolism so I don't gain weight from all the chocolate, ice cream and donuts.

4. My bed is getting a bit lumpy, so I'm gonna say a new mattress. Preferably one with a pillow-top. In a beachside condo. Somewhere tropical. You know, just the basics.

5. A hopped-up, pimped-out laptop with all the bells and whistles and Internet service right on the backbone.

Spiritual Wishlist

1. World peace, of course. (Ok, now I'm just being silly.)

2. A Bible, translated into every language known, in the hands of every person on earth.

3. The Holy Spirit, working faith in the hearts of each of those people.

4. That the Lord would come.

5. That I may worship at the throne of the Lamb, forever.

If you'd like to do this meme, please go ahead.

I'm off to bed now, because clearly I need some sleep!

Home for the holidays

Or I guess it would be more accurate to say quarantined for the holidays.

Yes, the flu has made it's appearance in our home. Alli came down with it on Saturday and each day thereafter another one of us has succumbed to it. This is the first day since Christmas that I have felt almost human again.

I also wanted to let you know that my Oma had her surgery. She is recovering well from the surgery itself, but it does not look like the procedure has helped her feet. She may not lose her feet (ie. have to have them removed) but she will almost certainly lose the use of them. Still, I am praying for the best possible outcome.

Hope you all had a good Christmas. I am going back to bed!

Silent night, holy night

Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:11

Everyone wearing a goofy hat say "cheese"!

My OTHER Adventure

I was going through the photos of our trip to Cocoa Beach and I realized two things: 1) I didn't take very many pictures; and 2) most of the pictures are of scenery and not of us! Consequently, I don't really have many pictures of our trip to share with you.

Here are a couple taken at Disney.

I won't give you the blow-by-blow. (46 hours of driving...boring.) I will just give you some of the highlights and some of my observations:

Pennsylvania is my least favourite state. In fairness, I've only ever seen it in winter, but what I've seen has been kind of dismal looking. I imagine it's nicer in the spring.

Maryland, in contrast, seems to be "tidier" somehow. It also seems to be more prosperous maybe?

Taco Bell in the U.S. uses REAL MEAT in their tacos. That was novel.

I don't know what it is about North Carolina, but that state smells soooo good! I'm positive it's some kind of foliage, but I'm not sure what.

Some new vocab I learned: the phrase "fixing to" means "planning on" or "preparing to" as in "Were you fixin' to eat that taco with the real meat in it?"

What do you people feed your chickens??? I could not get over the size of the chicken parts! They are double in size to what we see here.

Richmond, VA is very pretty at night! The downtown buildings are outlined in white lights so the city silouette is visible from a distance. Very pretty.

I also enjoyed all the twinkly lights at Disney. The trees are dressed in hundreds of white lights that twinkle on and off. And the castle is covered in (I'm guessing) millions of lights, giving it the appearance of being covered in icicles. Here is a picture - it's not too clear, unfortunately.

Also in Richmond, VA: the Powhite Parkway. Not sure how that is correctly pronounced!

We were blessed to have outstanding weather the whole time we were there. We did a lot of swimming in the pool/ocean and walking on the beach. This is the second time we have stayed in this particular condo. It could not be more convenient. It is on the ground floor and the sliding doors open out on the the pool and patio. The beach is just a few steps beyond. We are real "beach lovers" so this is truly a dream come true for us, to open up the door and walk right out onto the beach.

I have to say, I find the sheer amount of processed and packaged foods that are available at the grocery store to be mind boggling. We do not have nearly the selection up here. Plus, it always cracks me up that you can buy beer and wine at the grocery store (or drug store, gas station, etc.)! Oh, another thing that cracked me up - in the drug stores they sell the stop smoking aids right beside the cigarettes! Kind of ironic, don't you think? (In Canada you can't buy booze at the grocery store and it's illegal to sell smokes at the drugstore.)

As you are probably aware, the space shuttle launch did not go off and was postponed until January. We were not aware that there was a launch scheduled until 2 days before it was supposed to go off and we were so excited about the possibility of seeing it! You can see Cape Canaveral really well from the beach and we were planning on going over to the pier to take it in. The Cocoa Beach Pier, which is normally pretty quiet that time of year, was PACKED by about noon the day of the launch. There were people tailgating in the parking lot and others camped out on the beach. The "Tiki Bar" at the end of the pier was filled to capacity with people waiting to see the launch. There was a real festive atmosphere about the place. Our condo was just two down from the pier so it made for some fun people watching even if we didn't get to see the shuttle launch.

Well those are just some random memories/observations. The week went by so fast, I really should have taken the time to jot down things as I thought of them! But I have to say, this was my favourite vacation ever!