Musings with PWC

  Luke 9:18 (NIV)  Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them,  “ Who do the crowds say I am? ”   Notice two things about this prayer time of our Lord Jesus.   First, Jesus was praying in private. He was alone, by himself.  The same term is used in  Mark 4:10 (NIV)  When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables.   Second, his disciples were with him   With him means: “to come together, to stand at one's side”. Same word is used in  Acts 22:11  My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.     So, Jesus is somehow alone yet his disciples were with him, standing at his side, or somewhere in proximity.  It is like Jesus is expressing something that crossed his mind in his praying.  He appears to kind of direct his thoughts to his disciples while he was in prayer ...

  Letter by Letter A LONG time ago, I took typing in grade 10.  We sat down at a desk with a manual typewriter, and adjusting the kerosene wick—joking about the kerosene—we began to type the letter “A” with your left pinkie finger and the letter “Y” with the index finger of your right hand (not joking about the manual typewriter). Boring!  But that is how it began.  Bit by bit, you added more letters with the correct finger and later, much later, you could fly across the typewriter, writing paragraphs and eventually entire letters or stories.  But you won’t forget where you started from—typing one letter!   God’s will and God’s way are like that.  It seems God gives you a letter—-not even a word, much less a sentence, and hardly a paragraph!  Occasionally, you will get the full picture, but more often than not, just a letter.  Just a sense.  Just a thought.  Just a verse.  What do you do with one letter?  Keep pract...

As we are joined “in Christ” through that union with Him, we are journeying back to God on a sacred journey. Indeed, the entire world is on a sacred journey that tells us a sacred story.   ONE day. The world itself will be reconciled back to innocence   2 Peter 3:10-13 (NIV) 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. The “Christ of the Cosmos” loved us so powerfully, He came down into the midst of all sin and deb...

I grew up in the era of the “front living room.” This was a more or less uninhabited space—except when company came over. I remember we had a maroon couch in there that, although old, looked new, simply because no one ever sat on it. That room was different from the “den.” The den went through a series of well-used couches, which, when we were finished with them, eventually ended up at the dump. It was the room with the TV, and it was thoroughly used by our family. The front room was nice to visit—but not used much. It was also a room where you had to be on your best behaviour: use proper intonation, mind your manners, and be very polite. After all, if you were in there, so were visitors. The den, on the other hand, was a place to sprawl out. To yell when the Leafs won the Cup (yes, it was 1967!). It was the place to snack and burp out loud—as long as Mom and Dad couldn’t hear. Why the story of the two couches? Because those two couches, those two rooms, represent a couple of (very use...

  John 5:25 (ESV) 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. The more you hear, the more alive you are.  Gradually, you will hear more and more, and you will become more and more alive.  So there is the paradox of Christian spirituality.  The longer you live physically, the more you die physically.  The longer you live spiritually, the more opportunities you have to become increasingly alive.  So that at the end of your physical death, you are more alive spiritually than you ever have been prior.  How?  By listening to the voice of the Son of God!   That spirituality will then burst forth into eternity.   This is why D.L Moody wrote the following:  “SOME day you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shal...

  When you read the book of  Job, you are reminded—again and again—that things are NOT what they appear to be.  There is often NOT a clear answer.  There is often an undefinable darkness, wonderment, and mystery. As spiritual progression and maturity occur, one must realize this.  Sometimes things are left unanswered.  Sometimes God seems to be silent, quiet, and even absent.  It is in those times that our faith is strengthened and honed to shine brightly for all eternity.  We say this glibly, but we need to say it faithfully: ‘Only eternity will reveal the true story.’  My all-time favourite poem: THE WEAVER My life is but a weaving Between my Lord and me. I cannot choose the  colours, He weaves so steadily. Oft times He weaveth sorry, And I, in foolish pride, Forgets He sees the upper, And I the underside.  Not till the loom is silent, And the shuttle ceases to fly. Will God roll back the curtain, And explain the reason why....