The Bridge Kelowna

When All is Gone

2011-08-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

by Mark Gordon

When all is Gone… Redefine ALL!

Well I thought I should write a blog on our weekend adventure… if you have not heard our Condo was completely destroyed by fire… ‘all’ is gone, we escaped with PJ’s, keys and one laptop… odd what you grab as you run out the door. At about 10:30 Sandi and I were sitting watching TV and I noticed in the reflection on the TV screen, flames behind me, I turned around to see flames swirling out of my neighbor’s apartment and into ours… I yelled to Sandi to get up and out (although she just had to have a look), the flames were coming fast and we left our door and began banging on others doors, and pulled the fire alarm with another guy, btw I called 911 but it was busy… So we went throughout the building starting with our floor and banged on doors and sent stunned people to exits. We came across an elderly couple still in their apartment who needed a lot of help in getting out but they were safe. In fact ‘all’ people got out. We are very grateful for that! As the night went on the fire built in strength and more and more trucks and firefighters came. It was surreal to say the least. We stood and watch ‘all’ our stuff go up in flames!

Eventually we were sent to the Salvation Army where ESS, Red Cross and Salvation Army teams were amazing. In fact let me stop here and just say THANK YOU to all the 1^st responders they did a great job!! Everyone involved was amazing including my neighbors who were shocked but stayed calm. Our family were on scene within minutes and our church family activated help and prayer right away! Friends from many years sent messages of love and support, even friends of friends and of my kids were sending love and some even showed up at the Salvation Army to see if they could do anything!! AMAZING!!!

You see that is the point of this BLOG/Note we did not lose ‘all’ WE GAINED ‘ALL’ ! We gained love and support, and a whole community coming together to help us! In our society today our ‘ALL’ is focused on the wrong things! Our possessions are not our ‘all’ our relationship are, our community is, God’s love manifesting through people in tragedy is the true ‘ALL’ we each possess!!! We have our lives and that is awesome but we don’t fear death because of the love we have in God! What is better than our lives being spared in this circumstance is the ‘life’ that was shared through your kindness and love!! So thank you for changing my definition of ‘ALL’!!! We have gained far more then we have lost today!!!

Sandi, Jenna and I, along with our other kids Justen & Kristin and Jelene and Zach THANK YOU for your love and support and especially thank GOD for His peace and Love!!!

Now it’s time for a NEW BEGINNING What an adventure!!!

Small Straws in a Soft Wind

2010-09-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

by Marsha Burns

"I am bringing you into alignment on every level. It is My will to position you properly so that My purposes can be accomplished and My kingdom established. You may not think that you, as an individual, have much to do with destiny. But, everything you think, say, or do is vitally important to the spiritual condition of your sphere of influence. Be diligent to demonstrate the kingdom."

"You have been repositioned as you have had to let go of many things that once meant everything too you. This has been for the purpose of establishing you in greater spiritual reality with renewed strength and vitality. You have stepped into a time of being reconnected to your spiritual roots yet with refreshing revelation."

"The days ahead will be filled with My glory in the practical and commonplace things of life as you maintain awareness and see My manifest presence in unexpected ways. Walk in the Spirit and be available."

"Events that left you reeling and trying to find stability and balance will now truly become a thing of the past as you begin to realize how insignificant it all was as compared with eternity and destiny. The power of My healing and restoration will become evident as you are able to release those who caused you pain. Forgiveness is essential to redemption."

"I have established an altar in the heavenlies, in the realm of the Spirit, where you can bring all that concerns you, things you can do nothing about, and things you have absolutely no control over. Leave them with Me and release your fear and anxiety. Nothing is impossible with Me. Come into that place of peace and rest, trusting Me in all things."

"You feel like you've been cut off, but this cutting off has only been from those things that needed to be put aside at this time. You are like a tree that has been cut off and banded so that your spiritual roots could go deeper and you could become stronger. Let your roots go deeper in the Word, in revelation, and relationship to Me. The day of release will come in due season."

"There are times when you feel totally disconnected and alone. This is because the enemy of your soul has lied to you and tried to isolate and weaken you. But, that is not My design or plan for you. Now is the time to reconnect spiritually, first to Me, and then to those who are Mine. Take the time and make the effort to re-establish yourself in divine connections and kingdom purpose."

"Allow Me to take you forward inch by inch, step by step, without fear or worry. I am with you and will open doors that no man can shut and to shut doors that no man can open. Trust Me with your future. I have already proven to you over and over again that I alone am your place of security, says the Lord."

Walking in Favor

2010-08-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

by Mark Gordon

Why does today’s Society always choose the path of least resistance?

I don’t know if it is mid-life crisis or not but I have been struggling to see where to take the next step in leadership. At times it feels like success is a pipe dream and I wonder if I really have the tenacity to move to the next level. Yet the word tells me that I can expect great things, to prosper, to walk in a favor where the supernatural is the norm. The bible talks over and over about the favor of God and that as His followers we can walk in His Favor. However it is difficult to see in the post-modern North American Christian. We are weak and distracted. I am not talking about a name it and claim it, blab it and grab it kind of flakey thing I am referring to the very heart of God to bless His people and what our response should be. 1 Corinthians 3:21 says that “all things are yours…” It is time for me and you to believe this! The problem is we think that favor means easy and that if we meet resistance or trouble that we are not in favor… so we tend to walk the path of least resistance - which leads nowhere by the way!

Let God make you a success according to His plans (Jer 29:11) Believe the impossible to be possible for you today! The only limitation God has, the only lack in His kingdom is our lack of understanding His heart and laws. We have no problem believing the law of gravity because we experience it every day. Well, God has laws that we are to experience every day like the Law of LOVE and Favor! The riches of Heaven are at our disposal all the time, every day we live and breathe, and it is just a matter of walking in them.

Do not compare yourself to others or a world standard but know that all things are at your disposal, everything God created is for Him and US! This includes your talents. You have talents you may not even know you have. God gave them to you and the one thing that could frustrate His heart most is when we fail to develop the talents. Part of my revelation about the season I am in is that God will remove what we don’t use and I am seeing it happen all around me. Look at Matthew 25: 28-30. It is the story of the talents and it says that the one who tried to ‘not lose’ the talents given to him had them taken away and given to the one who doubled his by investing. The Lord was angry with the man for hiding his talent in fear and failure. We must take chances, be willing to make a mistake. Dare to do something for the Lord. Do not stand idly by praying and asking God to do things that YOU must do in faith. We all move forward through faith, 2 Corinthians 5:7 “we walk by faith”. God gives to the person that uses their talent and He gives in abundance. When we are faithful with little He increases, it is part of His nature. The same principle applies to His favor, when we exercise it… favor grows. Matthew 25 clearly says God takes from the man who will not use what he has been given and gives it to those who do. It is not favoritism it is principle.

A good friend of mine always says ‘give to the greedy not the needy’. Now I know you are wondering where I am going with that but there is a principle there. I have discovered you can’t help those who don’t want it. A person who just wants to have everything handed to them is a bad investment because the investment stops with them. I am not talking about times of genuine need. Sandi and I have been homeless before and are grateful for the help that was given. I am talking about knowing we have God’s favor brings a responsibility to walk it out and to give it out. When we do God multiplies but when we don’t He divides… ouch

God expects us to take what is in our hand and develop it. Many people expect God to move for them but faith says God has moved; now it is my turn. God has done everything we need - it is us who is called to move on it by faith. Moses in Ex 14:15 told God “you get the show on the road” God said back “why are you crying to me? Lift your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it…” Moses did and it did. Often we cry out to God to move when He is waiting for us to move the mountain…He gave us His favor and His faith, now it is our turn…YOUR turn! Speak to your mountain and cast it aside God can do anything through you and you can do ALL things through HIM. Your faith has to release before God will move! Numbers 20:8 God tells Moses “speak to the rock and it will gush water” he didn’t and missed the promise land…

I am sure most of who will read this love God, so walk in His favor. Many of us however do not realize that God wants to bless us; so we go around in our negative world of fears, doubts, failures, hoping maybe someday we will make it! WE have blocked our faith…Go forward from this moment on declaring “I love the Lord, God is blessing me, He honors me. I am strong, I am successful, God is with me, I am His honored child!! Worship the Lord with this attitude.

Live excited, Live expecting! I have found what I expect becomes what I believe, negative or positive. Each of us chooses one or the other, no sitting on the fence on this one. Today I encourage you and myself to start choosing God’s favor, approach every circumstance in life through that lens, you will see a change!

Covenant is the Key to Unlock the Doors of Cities and Nations

2010-07-07T16:28:00.001-07:00

by Sean Feucht

I am completely riveted and still buzzing from the psychotic and pulsating whirlwind of glory and family that took place at a recent event I was a part of! I feel totally exhausted in just about every measure, but can hardly sleep or rest from this experience. I am dreaming with God of how the foundation of this coming greatest global "harvest of youth and young adults" will look like. I feel like we may have stumbled into a core element of it, but want to press in for the fullness!

Mothers and Fathers with Sons and Daughters

What started for me as a simple album release party for the latest live project "Your Presence Is Enough" (which will soon be available on the Elijah List) turned into a full-on two-city Blaze and Presence Extravaganza with some of my closest and dearest friends across the world! We began in a random town and ended in a random town—from Youngstown, Ohio, to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I have come to love the somewhat hidden and "off the beaten path" cities that God has been sending us to lately. They may seem random to many, but have captured the heart of our Master as the small town of Bethany did in the Bible. And He keeps coming back again and again to visit them!
It was a beautiful collision of fathers and mothers ministering alongside sons and daughters. Giants in the faith like Heidi Baker, Georgian Banov, Charles Stock and Leonard Jones mingled with young pups like Rick Pino, Kristene Mueller and myself. It was twenty-somethings worshipping and crying out for MORE before God alongside fifty and sixty-somethings. It was communal, family-focused and intrinsically beautiful! Every night we came together, and without fail God showed up with unbelievable presence, power, healings, salvations, deliverance and the overwhelming atmosphere of Heaven. This dynamic was upheld and orchestrated within the confluence of the pure authenticity and the deep covenant relationship we all shared together.
Not one person was working to perform, compete, strive to gain attention or bring validation to their personal ministry or calling, but rather preferring one another and propelling each other forward. Humility and servanthood were supreme, and I believe the Lord was really happy to come hang with us. The peace, rest, grace and power of God simply hijacked all our plans and led us into deep waters of His love.
An incredible prophetic fulfillment to the end-time prophecy in the book of Malachi began taking place!
He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers...—Malachi 4:6

Authentic Community Restored

God is really doing it! Our hearts are turning toward each other in this day and we actually really like hanging out together outside conferences, meetings and church services. Authentic community and family are being restored.
Could there be a catalytic and synergistic swirl of deep covenant and authentic community stirring that will become the bedrock for this coming wave of God to land upon? Or put another way: Is it possible for this promised global move to be sustained merely through big conferences, flashy events and new charismatic rhetoric? Haven't we been trying this for some time? After my recent experience, it would be hard for my heart to truly come to grips with this.
But is God beginning to take residence among a humble people truly dwelling in the "Spirit of unity" who are committed to center life and family around the burning fire of His presence? Is there a fresh fragrance released when we approach ministry with each other from a "family" paradigm rather than a "business" paradigm? With business partners, you cut ties and move on when the relationship is not "profitable." With family, you are committed as mothers and fathers, sons and daughters for life! I believe this is the lifestyle, community and ministry exemplar that pulls down the commanded blessing from Heaven into our midst. This is the community, family and people who will host the next sustaining move that will not quickly burn out, but last for generations to come.
Psalm 133:1-3 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion; for there the LORD commanded the blessing—life forever.

Is This What It's Supposed to Look Like?

There was a commanded blessing that flowed over every word, prayer, chord and melody as we gathered. The unity in the spirit was astounding and created an atmosphere that was charged with expectation and supernatural ease! Like the "oil running down Aaron's beard" or the "dew of Hermon," this substance saturated the walls and the hearts of everyone in attendance. Involved with this kind of ministry, you leave feeling refreshed and inspired instead of feeling burned out and weary.
Surprisingly enough, this honest "family friendly" atmosphere sustained a rare accessibility in such large meetings for everyone present to tap into the flow and breakthrough of what God was imparting. As people began to encounter Jesus and His glory each night, the typical "minister-audience" walls that become such a hindrance to the corporate encounter came crashing down! We all were entering in together!
So, I am beginning to ask a few questions now. Maybe this is what the New Testament Church really should look like in our day? Please hear my heart as I am in no way implying that we suddenly and instantaneously found the answer to cure all the problems and issues of the Western Church. But I am beginning to wonder if it is all supposed to look less like a well-oiled machine and more like organic family. Less like cookie-cutter, predictable business and more like a celebration of spontaneous flow-fostering creativity. Maybe more like hands-on mentoring and less like individual performance. After all, isn't the new wine in the cluster? I strongly believe God is stirring this unity-move deep in the hearts of fathers and mothers and sons and daughters in our day. Church is really beginning to be fun, family and unpredictable again!

Covenant is the Key

Last year, my good friend Rick Pino and I received the same word from the Lord around a similar time. We were praying into a strategy of catalyzing entire regions, cities and nations to encounter widespread breakthrough and not only specific churches or ministries. Every major revival in history that has brought significant and sustained restoration infected every church, ministry or denomination in the region and was not limited to a single church or ministry move.
This is our strategy with every Burn 24/7 furnace we plant and why we are passionate about them becoming "citywide" gatherings of worshippers representing every congregation, ethnicity and ministry. If we can operate in grace and preference through this messy collision, we gain a unity that demolishes longstanding curses and bestows a blessing on the city. Our desire is to see the "water level" of the entire city, region and nation raised up!
The Lord spoke a clear word to us that: "Covenant is the key to unlock the doors of cities and nations."
We began to realize how shallow our own current relationships were and how much our hearts truly ached for authentic covenant that could literally bring an unlocking of cities and nations!
This should be a covenant that moves beyond simply organizing events together and "partnering ministries" from time to time and moves into genuine care for each other's families. This should be a covenant where we throw down our cloaks (ministries) and blow trumpets (prophesy) over the dreams and destinies of each other's hearts like the actions of Jehu's best friends (2 Kings 9:13). This would be a covenant in direct response to the last prayer of Jesus in John 17:11 "that they may be one as we are One." For Jesus knew the enemy would move to divide and separate the Body as an "army divided against itself cannot stand." This should be a covenant where our greatest power and strength comes in the place of corporate agreement where one puts a thousand to flight but two puts ten thousand (Deuteronomy 32:30).
Although the answer to creating and sustaining covenant does not lay within the pages of the latest Christian self-help book, but I believe God is commissioning us on a journey to discover "what covenant is" again.
Are we ready for the ride?

Live This Life

2010-06-30T14:57:00.000-07:00

by Shandel Standring

It seems I've heard so many songs prompting us to live each day as our last, to live this life like it's the only one you've got, to go for what you want when you want it, and I think they're right - but what they want you to go after is wrong.

I could live this life like its the only one I've got in two ways: going after all the world has to offer, money, fame, possessions, OR live like I had one chance to change something for good, one chance to have influence, one chance to really live with no guilt, and no regrets either.

One life. Will I be someone who does things to please man, or God? Will I forget who I am and what I am called to to? Will I hurt those who hurt me? Or will I live a life worthy of praise?

I believe that I was created to be an answer. Not the answer to every problem (too much stress) but an answer. I believe that I am here to love, and so I shall, even when it hurts, to the best of my ability. I believe that a life filled with honesty and truth has it's own reward, and that a good name is of more value than gold.

So here I am. Living. Standing for truth. And struggling. Hate is easy, love takes courage. Content with who I am, always growing, ever learning. I have fallen short. I have been unkind, unmerciful, ungracious...but never unloved.

What profit is it to gain a whole world, yet lose your soul? Lose yourself?

Saw a sign out front a church last week "live like you were dying". No thank you very much. I'm gonna live like I'm gonna be around for a long, long time. Make the most of each day and opportunity yes, without guilt to be felt in the future.

Live this life like you were....alive.

The Crucible of Family

2010-06-04T11:42:00.001-07:00

by Ben Gumienny

This week I had the opportunity to sit in on some job interviews that were happening for summer positions at the church. As each of the different candidates told us about themselves, it was interesting to observe the way their life experiences shaped them into who they are today. Obviously you can only get to know people a little in a short interview but certain patterns were consistently recognizable across the board. One the of the most evident of these patterns was that of the effect their family had on them. As each of them spoke about their parents or their siblings, you could see direct co-relations to their personalities and the life choices that they had made that showed all throughout their resumes. For better or worse (or both) their family had played a significant part in shaping who they were in the present.

As the saying goes, “You can’t choose your family”. In a society that is over-saturated with choice, this stands out as something that the product developers have not yet been able to change. Like it or not, we are born or placed into a family and they represent the crucible of relationship that we will be developed within. Family is where God intended us to first learn love, forgiveness and many other essentials to the human experience. The relationships within our family and how we respond to them will affect the way we approach life, God and every other relationship we have throughout our entire lives. And there is no quick-fix to family frustrations and struggles. Even if we walk away from the relationships, it doesn’t erase the mother/father/sister/brother connections we have. In fact, it just leaves large pockets of unfinished business that continue to affect us throughout the years.

In the same way that God places us in natural families, I believe He also wants to place us into spiritual families. He has chosen for us to live and be shaped within a spiritual community of people who are journeying towards Him together. He intends for us to learn many of these same lessons at a different level within spiritual family – loving others, forgiving, bearing one another’s burdens and sharing the joys and sorrows of the journey together. Unfortunately sometimes we short circuit His plan for spiritual family when we bail out when trouble arises. Look at the parallels here to marriage: It is also a covenant that one sticks through in difficult times and even when the heart pounding excitement of new romance wears off. In the same way, God desires for us to stay in the crucible of spiritual family until He releases us – even it isn’t always easy or exciting – because this plays a large part in forming the character He wants us to have as He makes us like Christ.

This is about more than just continuing to attend a certain church or put tithe into the offering plate. It is possible to be there but not really be there – much like an absentee parent who still lives in the home but who’s heart has obviously checked out. God wants us to come and make an effort to open our hearts daily to Him and others within the spiritual family, being available to grow and to help in others’ growth. Because in spiritual and natural family it can’t all be about us and what we get from it – that just leads to empty shallow lives that are centered around fulfilling our needs. The greatest joy and sorrow and ADVENTURE comes from fully embracing the spiritual (and natural) family that you have been given and entering into their lives; open to loving and serving the purpose that God has for you within the special place He has prepared for you in their hearts. For: “God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.” Ps. 68:6 (NLT)

The Value of Discipline

2010-05-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

by Mark Gordon

I have been in a bit of a transition lately which has led me into some self-discovery. There is a real desire in my heart to take my leadership skill to another level. For most of my life “discipline” was a FOUR LETTER WORD. I avoided it because it had negative experiences attached to it. I have discovered that my view of discipline was simply wrong as I always saw it as punitive rather than liberating. I know you may be thinking, “Liberating, are you kidding me?!?”

On this quest, I have been trying to figure out what my limitations were and why did it seem that I had a certain measure of success but never quite accomplished what I saw in my heart or dreams. I mused over laziness, lack of focus, lack of knowledge, lack of commitment and so on. I thought maybe more training, more hours, more money or more knowledge would get me to where I wanted to go. However none of the ‘Lacks’ or the ‘Mores’ really answered the question in my heart until the thought came to me “I simply need to be disciplined” YIKES!!

I started thinking about all what all that meant. It would mean accountability, it would mean cracking the whip, trying harder & harder but still failing. As I went through the thought in my heart I finally realized that my concept of discipline came from the wrong place. I saw it as a list of do’s and don’ts. What I have discovered is that it is more about YES & No. Yes to what brings life to me and no to what does not. In my experience, discipline has always come from an external source based on others' expectations. For example, a teacher or parent punishing me because I did not do something the way I was expected to. Everyone seemed to have an opinion on how I was to learn. I always struggled with remembering what I studied so I did poorly on tests, and then my report card would say “if Mark only applied himself he would do better.” Well I thought I had applied myself and I just didn’t understand it so I gave up trying to study (I now realize that my learning style is by ‘doing’). It is always “me” trying to measure up to “them.” Unfortunately many times it would just make me feel stupid so I eventually gave up and quit school. The problem is that it became a pattern for me that and I eventually broke. I would have a creative idea - begin to act on it and then someone would try and change the way I did it. “You should do it this way” they would say…I would fail and quit.

As a result I would run from anything structured or organized and that demanded me to do it someone else’s way! Anytime I thought of discipline I would cringe. The bottom line is that my leadership skills have hit a ceiling and the ceiling is a discipline problem. So how can I have a disciplined life and still be free - I am discovering the value of discipline is freedom!

The key for me was not to be disciplined by someone else’s abilities, personality, and skill set but MINE!! I have begun to be disciplined in what I need to do according to my goals and destiny. Let me give you three easy principals/steps I found worked for me:

FIND YOUR RHYTHM. I was always told the early bird gets the worm so if I was disciplined at getting up early I would be more successful. So I would decide, "Ok Mark you are going to get up early every morning this week and be more efficient." Only one problem: after the first day when I could not open my eyes and my brain wouldn’t function, the new found plan fell into the ever growing failure basket in my thinking. I was so demotivated that I would give up on ideas or projects and my goals were not met. Find out what works for you, look at when you are at your best. When you have the most energy and creativity. I am a nighthawk and I have discovered that my mind is alert and my creativity is just waking up about 9 to 11pm. (it is 9:15pm right now as I write this) I had to find ‘my’ time to do ‘my’ best work then the discipline was a lot easier. I still needed the discipline to complete my tasks as there are many distractions everyday however the discipline would produce a benefit if I did.

FIND YOUR STRENGTHS – discover your strengths and match discipline to them. An example in my life is my gifting vs. time spent on a task. I looked at what I am good at, which is “Inspiring, Facilitating, Connecting” I then looked at my tasks and appointments within a week and how many hours I spent on what I am strong at…it was shocking! No wonder I had no discipline - 80 percent of my time was spent on things that had nothing to do with my destiny or gifts. In short discipline was making me do more of the stuff I hated and it’s no wonder I threw discipline out the window. The reality was I spent time in the name of discipline to work on my weaknesses rather than spending that energy and time on my strengths and making them stronger. Discipline is easier when you see results. Focus on what is strong not what is wrong!

FIND YOUR PASSION – Discipline was a lot easier when I loved doing something. I discovered I am passionate about inspiring people and realized that I could do that anywhere, anytime and it changed the way I saw the job I was doing at the time. It brought joy to the tasks I did not necessarily like because I knew that the outcome would be inspiration for those around me. When you are passionate about something the value of discipline is that you get to do it more often and get better at doing it. Knowing what you’re passionate about actually produces discipline in your life. Now I realize in life we all have things we ‘have to’ do that we don’t like but the value of discipline is that if you get them done you are free to do what you ‘love’ to do. Your passion brings perspective to everything else you do.

My motivation for a more disciplined life is now changed as I no longer see it as punitive but as freeing. The more I function in a lifestyle of discipline the more I am seeing freedom to reach my goal of excellence in leadership!! Start today - look at your schedule and find your rhythm, discover your strengths and focus on them, and then apply both to what you are passionate about and you will see discipline as an ally rather than a foe

Ultimate Destiny

2010-05-15T13:36:00.001-07:00

by Ben Gumienny

The concept of destiny has been coming up frequently as of late. I’ve been contrasting myself with the team that I work with at The Bridge. It seems like each member has such a strong sense of their dreams and purpose in life but for me sometimes it seems to be shrouded from my sight. I’ve been asking myself questions like: “What is my dream? What should I be aiming towards? Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? (who me-yes you-wasn’t me-then who?)”

A friend of mine told me this week that he’s been realizing how easy it is to get stuck in routine and lose the meaning of what we do. He’s tired of feeling like he is just working to get money but that his heart is not connected to it. He is taking his own advice to pursue his dreams even if it means a 10-15 year regimented process in his life. I admire his courage as well as his willingness to pay the price to pursue what he’s passionate about.

Last week a group of friends gathered to watch the first installment of a video series called “Destiny by Design”. One of the concepts that arose from the discussion was that destiny is a bit of a buzz word nowadays and that sometimes our focus on fulfilling our destiny can become another form of self centeredness. It’s easy to see life as an opportunity to find my own happiness through using my gifts and abilities to succeed. However, Jesus seems to indicate that success is found in laying down our gifts and abilities, even our lives, for others and for His glory.

So, as much as I can feel lost at times in knowing exactly what path to follow, some things are clear. I don’t need to know my specific destiny in order to lay my life down and serve those around me. In fact, I am beginning to think that as I seek to love and serve those around me my destiny will come more into focus. “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” (Luke 9:24) So, in simple ways everyday as I am open to others around me in my life and seek to love and bless them over myself, perhaps I will find a sense of destiny unfolding. In short – one destiny we all share is to serve and love.

Standing in a Hole

2010-05-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

In life there are times we find ourselves in a hole. You can call it depression or discouragement but it feels like a deep dark hole. I recently experienced one myself. I was thinking about these holes we find ourselves in from time to time and about how we get there. At times I have found myself standing in a hole that someone else dug and other times I am the one doing the digging. However either way I always have the choice to step out of or over the hole. So here are my thoughts!

Standing in a hole - is when we stand in a hole someone else digs...It could be someone who has hurt us by their actions or words. Maybe a friend betrayed you or a family member has severed relationship. I recently said that the way you can guarantee disappointment in relationships is to expect them to be perfect. Yet we do just that so we find ourselves in a hole dug by someone else. Another classic way to have someone dig a hole for you is to take on a third party offence or stick your nose into someone else’s problems... Whichever way you get there you are clearly standing in a hole and it is a tough place to be and a tough place to get out of.

Digging a hole - is when we dig our own hole through attitude or actions...from being angry to treating others badly, many times it comes from an insecurity or fear in our hearts. The battle of the mind rages on. It is so easy for us to talk ourselves into despair if we are not diligent in being positive and seeing from God’s perspective. The tough part is that sometimes we know we are digging but keep going because we feel like we blew it so somehow we deserve to be in the hole. So we keep digging and digging feeling sorry for ourselves. This is the hardest hole to dig out of.

Climbing out... The best way to climb out of a hole is to use a ladder...so picture a ladder with me for a moment. It is made up of two vertical sides and several horizontal rungs. The two sides are longer then the rungs and are foundational to the strength of the ladder. In our life the sides are like internal choices and the rungs like external actions. The sides of the ladder represent Faith and Trust. Faith and Trust come from within you, they are the choices you make based on the goodness and faithfulness of God so it is not emotional or affected by external circumstances. To climb out of a hole you need to have faith no matter how small, in Jesus, knowing that He only has His best in mind for you; that He has plans for you that are good. Trust can be difficult - especially when you cannot even trust yourself or when others have broken it. However, trusting God is very different because it is not based on your emotions or circumstances. It is totally based on His word and He has never broken His word, He has never failed you and in fact has already done everything needed for you to trust Him. When your faith and trust in God are strong you have a solid frame to lay the rungs on so you can begin to climb out of the hole.

There are many rungs you can put in, I suppose it would depend on how deep the hole is. Here are a few to get you started. Remember the rungs are external actions that come from the internal choice to walk in faith and trust in the Lord. Here are some rungs:

Forgiveness – is not accepting what was done but choosing to step out of it

Grace – is giving unmerited favour to someone who does not deserve it

Servanthood – is serving without expectation of reward

Generosity – is giving without measurement

As you can see each of these rungs are verbs. They are an action that you must actually choose to do. It is hard to stay in a hole dug by someone else when you forgive them and extend grace. It is hard to keep digging a hole when you are serving with generosity and love those who are stuck in their own. These choices are not easy and in the natural may be impossible but when surrounded by faith and trust they become strong and easier to do.

Of course the best way to get out of a hole is to not step in it in the first place...

Stepping over the hole is recognizing there is a problem in you or others and choosing to step over the hole - simply lay the ladder over top and walk across. This is living a lifestyle of faith and trust, living them out in Love and all the rungs mentioned here plus others. Sometimes the holes are covered up or disguised so we may not see them to step over, ie. a sudden death of family member. However, we can still step out of it with the ladder. Stepping over is not ignoring but recognizing it for what it is and choosing to step over anyway.

Mark Gordon has a strong gifting of encouragement combined with supernatural wisdom that makes him a great mentor and friend. Mark is in the midst of selling his home and all the "fun" that goes with it!

Life is Like a Popsicle, Man

2010-05-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

I think I am jealous of Forrest Gump. To be able to be so unaware is a feat in itself. However, to be sort of simple and unaware yet find yourself partaking in and even making history at so many different junctures throughout your life is remarkable. I think that deep down most people want to be a hero. Forrest just seemed to stumble upon heroism and success, yet his simplicity kept him from being corrupted by any of it. And his level of faith was amazing as well. Whatever his momma said, that was enough for him. He could easily filter his existence through her words of wisdom. Who can forget “Life is like a box of chocolates…”? I know I can’t. So, I came up with my own catch-phrase:

I think that life is like a Popsicle.

Before I met my wife, I was truly unaware of what it meant to savor food. I guess I must have been a bit like a ravenous wolf or something, but whenever I had a chocolate bar, I usually ate the whole thing; ditto with chips or deserts or ice cream Blizzards from Dairy Queen. Not so with my wife. She could turn even the smallest treat into a journey into a land of milk and honey. And I do mean a journey. I remember how surprised I was the first time she bought a chocolate bar, “hmm’ed” and “yum’ed” over one square and then put the rest away to save for another day. This was completely off my radar. I mean, it wasn’t even a family size bar or anything (which I have been known to knock off in one sitting anyway). It was just a normal-sized bar. I had never failed to finish a normal chocolate bar in more than 10 minutes. Yet she made it last for months. When we moved to Thailand, it got even worse. Now we were talking about tastes that were from Home and that she wouldn’t be able to have again for months on end. Suddenly we had bits of all sorts of things in our refrigerator.

However, some things don’t keep as well as others. She couldn’t finish a Dairy Queen blizzard to save her life and sometimes she would even save parts of Popsicles in our freezer. It actually became a bit of a point of contention between us. I figured that she forgot about many of these treats that she had saved for herself. My general rule was that if it had been in the fridge for more than 2 weeks it was fair game. Not so much. She would eventually remember the treat or (more likely) it was missing from her usual scenery. Then I was in trouble. I remember one time opening our freezer and finding all of these odds and ends of frozen deserts like an ice cream truck graveyard. I decided to liberate some of these treasures, only to find that they were no longer worth eating. The Popsicles had a bad case of freezer burn coupled with a minor snow build-up and the Blizzards had turn to some kind of chemical-and-sugar goo. It would seem that Popsicles are just not meant to be stored over long periods of time.

And thus begins my metaphor. Life is like a Popsicle, man. (I don’t know why I put the “man” in there – it just made it seem more contemplative, I guess – like you are getting advice from your hip older cousin who has traveled a lot or something.) A Popsicle is packed full of sweet flavor and is a wonderful treat on a hot summer day. It will cool you down and pick you up. I love to have Popsicles all the time (that should satisfy our sponsors – this post, by the way, is brought to you in part by Nestle™).

Popsicles are not, in my opinion, something that is meant to be kept and hoarded so that they can be experienced over a long time period. Popsicles are meant to be enjoyed in the moment. In fact, if you start to enjoy one and then get distracted by other things, it will melt and you will miss your chance. Trying to save part of one for later is like trying to rehash an old inside joke or horde manna – it is just not the same the second or third (or in my wife’s case fifth or sixth) time. Life is much the same. It is fleeting and transient. There are so many wonderful moments to be treasured and savored. Yet, when we cling to these times, it is like trying to keep them in the freezer for later. It’s never quite the same as when we experienced it the first time.

We can get stuck always living in the past or even in the future and miss out on the “now”. We won’t have this moment ever again. Sometimes I get into a mentality of living for the weekend. All through my work week I am looking forward to Friday night – when I can really begin to live. That means that I am spending almost three quarters of my life wishing I was in a different time and place. I can’t wait to get into that freezer and check out last weekend’s Popsicle. Like Pascal said, “We are never living, but always hoping to live.”

Sometimes it seems we are just too busy. We are like the 5 year old who sits mesmerized by his favorite cartoon while his Popsicle slowly runs down his sticky hands. We are caught up in things that are keeping us from realizing the happiness that is right within our grasp. We can’t focus on life’s simple joys because we are too busy running from one thing to another. By the time we make time for these little treasures, the moment is gone and we feel vaguely sticky and disappointed.

Or we take the more adult approach and drop it in the freezer for later. How many people in our lives feel that we have put them aside because we don’t have the time to enjoy them now? What are we communicating when there is always a more pressing need than being with those who are important in our lives? It’s true that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but a well-maintained wheel doesn’t get squeaky. When we finally do go back to the freezer and try to spend time with these people later, we wonder why they are so “frosty”. In some cases, like freezer burn they just can’t be restored again.

We never know how long we have to spend with the people who matter to us. I recently reconnected with a friend right as he was in the middle of his young wife’s battle with cancer. They are the same age as my wife and I. She passed away after a courageous fight with the disease before they could celebrate ten years of marriage. We all have only a season on Earth and only God knows the number of our days. As John Lennon put it, “Life is what happens as we are making other plans”.

Finally, Popsicles are meant to be enjoyed in hot seasons. The average person doesn’t look to enjoy a Popsicle in subzero weather. Popsicles are for summer in the same way that hot chocolate is for winter. I am a summer man through and through. In fact, one of the numerous reasons that I moved to Thailand was because I couldn’t stand the unpredictable snows of my hometown in Canada anymore. I spent a lot of winters wishing for the snow to melt and for spring to usher in a new summer. When I moved to Thailand in a place that ranges from warm to dripping, sweaty hot, I missed some of the pleasures of the other seasons. Each season has its own joys. Autumn has its bright-colored leaves and crisp air, winter its hushed landscapes muted by soft-falling snow, spring its newness and life-giving rains and summer its fruitfulness and long days of outdoor revelry. I’m sure for each season you could add your own personal enjoyments to the list.

Life can’t be all summer. Even in Thailand which is close to the equator, there are cool and rainy seasons. The color on the canvas of life is in the changing of the seasons. We have happy seasons and sad ones, mountaintop seasons and valley experiences, times of famine and of feasting. Sometimes everything flows easily and other times it seems as if every day we are just trying to keep our heads above the water. Yet, in every season there are joys to be found. Even in the most difficult times we can find gold being minted into our character. We can come out stronger and more capable than before. We always savor the Popsicles of summer, but we can look beyond the loneliness of winter to its own beauty and the hope of an eventual spring.

So, I have my Forrest Gump-esque catch phrase. Life is like a Popsicle, man…” Now, I wonder if that will lead to meeting a few presidents, becoming a war hero, ping pong champion and multi-millionaire. Probably not, but then again I guess I can never fully know what path my life might take. In the end I guess the most important thing is to take time to “stop and lick the Popsicles” as it were and leave the freezer options in life to others.

Ben is blessed to work with an excellent team at The Bridge. He particularly values how God has called them all to walk closely together in this season. "Together we stand an will not fall".

A Bad Day's Work

2010-04-25T00:12:00.000-07:00

This article was written nearly three years ago in Thailand but still holds relevant insight:

Recently I had a very bad day. It was one of those days that started rotten from the moment I woke up after missing my prayer time and just seemed to keep on trucking down the Bad Day Expressway. I made some mild attempts to fight it – maybe even tried harder than I usually might have. I asked my wife to pray for me (a big thing for a strong man like myself), tried briefly for prayer on my own and even toyed with my E-Sword Bible software, giving up after about 28 seconds of trying to make sense of 1 John 2 in the King James.

At the end of the day, I found myself sitting on my bed in my room (which is also my couch) unable to shake the oppressive feeling that seemed to have latched on to me. Throughout the day I had found myself getting angry over things that didn’t usually bother me, worked up about things that don’t faze me and stressed about nothing. So, I sat there in my end-of-the-day time, trying to figure out what to do next.

For some reason, I found myself more aware than usual. I knew that if I watched a DVD or played on the computer I would just be trying to distract myself from whatever was happening inside me. My wife came and suggested we get out or do something fun like play cards but I knew that if I did that I would just be trying to comfort myself without really dealing with whatever was happening inside of me. It wasn’t complicated. When I thought about what I needed to do, I clearly knew that what was out of joint in me was that I needed time with my Heavenly Dad. If I just spent some minutes with Him, sitting on His lap and letting Him love me, I would be fixed up proper and be able to re-enter my world in a much different mood.

Yet, I felt resistance to this idea. I didn’t want this to be the answer – didn’t want it to be so simple. Judging from the surprised look on my wife’s face when I suggested I would take some time to pray through, it is not often that I do accept this answer either. Why am I so resistant to needing to spend time with God in order to be right with the world? I think I am worried about being too weak to do it myself. I think it is lame or hokey if I need some “prayer time” (this should be said with a southern twang) in order to be a happy fellow.

I imagine the look on my friend’s face after I emerge from my room now thoroughly “Christed” and peaceful and I answer his questioning look with a suave but casual, “Just needed some God time.” I don’t like that look – it says, “I like you enough to overlook this weird conversation.” Clearly my pride is in the way of living out the truth of my dependence on God. Deep down I want to do it myself and resist any “crutch” to lean on. Funny thing is that I’ve always been the kind of guy to say, “If Christianity is a crutch, then give me two!” (and of course I would get that same look again) It seems, however, that there is a gap between what I know to be true and the living out of that truth.

For the same reasons that I struggle to pray with my wife, receive advice about areas of strength and read directions before assembling furniture, I run from an intimate, daily walk with God. I don’t want to humble myself, be vulnerable to rejection or failure and admit my inability to do life on my own. When Paul says that in 2 Cor. 12 that God’s “strength is made perfect in our weakness”, he is also saying that we need to open our weakness to God so He can infuse it with His strength. Paul was talking about a thorn in the flesh, but God’s answer seems to shows that He is referring to a much wider scope of weakness. Maybe that thorn in the flesh was sent to reveal Paul’s weakness because his pride was getting in the way. I guess this is the same reason that God is using this bad day to be a mirror to me. God, help me to humble myself before You. Help me to recognize that admitting my need is aligning myself with You and choosing to be strong in You. That’s what it means to be a strong man. Amen.

Ben Gumienny is SO grateful to live in such a beautiful setting. He enjoys the people within his community and lately has enjoyed all the scents of spring.

Will I Ever Enjoy Church Again?

2010-04-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

Recently I have had more opportunities to talk with Christian leaders from different walks of life. Although they come from different perspectives it is interesting how certain themes stand out regardless. One of those themes is a growing dissatisfaction with church and, in particular, Sundays and services. One leader I talked with had just gone to a Good Friday service at a mainstream church. They shared how now that they have seen both sides of church (from the congregation and from the leadership side) they felt like they couldn’t go to a church without wondering what was really going on. Did the pastor have a bad week? Was the worship leader fighting with his wife? And permeating it all was this strange but persistent subculture of rituals that would not make sense outside of a religious context. They ended with the lament, “Will I ever enjoy church again?”

I must admit, that sentiment has crossed my mind at times. Throughout my life I’ve had a love/hate affair with Sunday morning church. I love the people and I love God but sometimes how we approach Him just doesn’t jive with my spirit. Recently I was at a well-known, popular conference. I felt like I was on Mars or in some news network’s expose of Christian weirdness. As the people jumped and swirled to Jewish tunes and high-octane praise songs I couldn’t help wondering what an unchurched person would feel coming into this scene. I’d like to think they’d find God but I wasn’t sure because I was really struggling to do that. I went because I was really hungry for more of God, but I felt stymied by all the hype. Is it possible to so long for revival and manifestations of power and exciting worship that we miss meeting with the Person of God? It’s an uncomfortable question for me – especially because I am aware that a part of the problem I had could be with my own judgments and wounds.

What I can’t deny is the growing concern I feel as I see many people giving up on the Church altogether and walking away from spiritual community. One thing I strongly believe is that God is not giving up on His church. He loves His Bride the Church dearly and will see her presented flawlessly to Him on that day. I love His Church too. I can’t walk away from those whom God loves so much.

Another leader I talked to recently acknowledged the difficulty of the current situation. They spoke of the transition that we are in at this time in history and how we are in the process of moving from old to new. They felt strongly that God has not yet released us fully into the new. The problem comes from the growing dissatisfaction with the old and the discomfort of the transition time. They had observed young leaders who had rushed into the new prematurely and had become hurt when it didn’t work out. Often these leaders would find that their “new” form would end up looking the same as what they had tried to leave behind. The call was to call to those who were struggling and tell them to not give up hope but to be patient to wait for God’s timing to release His Church into the new that He has for Her.

I agree. It is not always easy for me to get motivated to scrape myself out of bed on Sundays and get myself to church. Even when I am leading the service I find myself at times deeply dissatisfied with the outcomes. I long to see what’s next and to walk forward into new forms and new expressions, yet we only have limited release from God to do that in this season. To the extent that it is “good to the Holy Spirit and us” we will experiment and try new things. However, we are aware that there is much more newness that God has yet to release His Church into.

If you are feeling dissatisfied, discouraged or frustrated with the Church, I urge you not to give up hope. God loves His Church and those who want to be like Him will find His love in their heart to do the same. The transitions in life are uncomfortable and often are the times that people are tempted to give up. Many marriages fall apart when kids come, in mid-life crisis or menopause or when the kids leave and there’s “empty nest syndrome”. Yet those that persevere reap the fruit when the transitions pass and they find that loving through the hard times was worth it. So it is with His Church - those who make it across the Jordan will find themselves in land of Promise. That’s worth the wait.

Ben believes in creating bridges for people to connect to each other - one of them being the bridge from the old to new ways of being the Church during this transition time. Ben recently took up the hobby of tennis.

The Trouble with Freedom

2010-04-08T14:14:00.001-07:00

The trouble with freedom is that it puts the responsibility on the one who has the freedom to make the right choices, to use the freedom for good and not evil. To recognize the one who gave them the freedom and make the choices that honor the gift. God trusted us with freedom knowing that in our free will we could and would make the wrong decisions with that freedom.

CS Lewis wrote of his revelation concerning freedom in Mere Christianity;

“God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which is free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata – of creatures that work like machines – would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free.”

Of course God knew what would happen: If they used their freedom for right we also could for wrong. Apparently He thought it was worth the risk! His provision of Jesus was to atone for the wrong decisions and to give us a path back to the right ones…but it is your choice!

The trouble with freedom is that the risk is, we may use the freedom, in the wrong way. But unlike God many of us in the church don’t understand why the risk was worth it. The risk of misused freedom seams to outweigh the prize of true freedom. So the result is that we get scared and we let fear enter. This can lead us to use our freedom incorrectly by not extending grace to the person who used theirs wrong.

The trouble with freedom is that asks me to extend the freedom I have been given to those who I may not think deserve it!

The trouble with freedom is I will be responsible for how I used it… not how you choose to use it…

The Value of freedom is that no matter how much I have chosen the wrong uses with it; “IT” is still there for me to use the right way today. Jesus’ mercy is new every day so it does not matter how you have chosen to use freedom yesterday or a minute ago, it matters what you choose to do with it NOW! What is your choice? With great freedom comes GREAT LOVE!

Mark is really an apostle at heart - someone who hears from heaven, connects and fathers people. Mark is excited about the "deck time" that the coming summer brings.

True Wholeness Comes From Brokenness

2010-03-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

I think at times we may think that being ‘whole’ means that everything is always ok and together in our lives. If we are whole emotionally we are never upset or disappointed or sad. Spiritual wholeness means that our faith is always perfect and we always feel close to God. It must mean that we are always balanced and always doing the right thing. I believe that this is not the right measurement. Wholeness does not guarantee that there will be no pain or that we will always be level emotionally. The measurement of wholeness is not avoiding pain or being perfect but what we do with the pain in imperfection. It does not mean there is no brokenness but that it’s actually ok to have brokenness.

In fact wholeness is made up of a lot of broken little pieces in our life. The sign we are whole is if we can receive God’s love and forgiveness in the midst of it. The bible says that a broken and contrite heart will never be refused by God. That if we try and save our lives we will in fact lose them. Often we allow brokenness to bring fear and fear makes us try and control things including brokenness. But what you try and control will eventually control you! By receiving God’s love it throws the fear out and allows us to embrace the brokenness as an opportunity to grow. That is what leads to wholeness!!

So give yourself permission to feel the pain of disappointment to know the sting of brokenness it will make the sweetness of God’s love pouring over you all the more real. I often hear people say they want to feel God’s love and the reality of Him in their lives and yet at the same time avoid any conflict or are scared to ask the hard questions of God. To see the ‘real’ we must be ‘real’. Get honest with your faith - if you lack it ask for it…if you need healing press into God all the more…if you have broken pieces and feel shattered ask God to sweep them up and breathe new life into them.

I once had a vision of someone’s heart broken into a million pieces I saw Jesus bending over on hands and knees carefully gathering them together into His scarred hands…He held them up to His mouth and breathed on them and they came together and the heart began pumping again…you could see the pieces almost like they were glued together but the heart was pumping. As Jesus handed it back to this girl she could not receive it and knocked it out of Jesus hands and it shattered again. Without word He got back down on His hands and knees and began the collecting again being very careful with each piece…this happened over and over until she collapsed into His arms and received His gift. Jesus will never stop putting the pieces of your life back together…He will keep doing it until you receive it…still cracks, still scared but whole and pumping His love through out your life!!

Mark is a master mentor who believes in the apprenticeship model of discipleship. Mark is excited about selling his house and moving into the next stage of his life and ministry.

Vegas or Bust

2010-03-12T15:26:00.000-08:00

I once saw a bumper sticker that said ‘Vegas or Bust’ well I was just in Vegas and it was a bust for sure. I have to say that city is a very dark place in many ways we all know its called sin city but I had no idea how much so. It needs a move of God in the worst way. I sure felt for the church there as their task is huge. What broke my heart the most was the sense of false hope that was so strong there. Promises that can never truly be realized by the people that visit or who live there. As you walk down the strip you are met by people trying to hand you porn and I must say it was very annoying and we definitely were not happy with them and unfortunately showed it. Then it dawned on me that they were just trying to feed their family trying to make ends meet - to survive. It was probably the only way they could make some money. My heart goes out to them being forced into exploiting young girls the age of some of their own daughters. It must torment their souls to be out day after day being treated horrible and feeling horrible for what they were doing.

My point here is this… sometimes it is easy for us to judge someone for what we see them do in the natural without understanding what put them into the situation in the first place. I at one time in my life was homeless and on drugs and stole to feed my habit and stomach. It would be easy to judge me and I may have deserved it but the whole time I was in that period of my life I dreamed of helping others. Always even then I would share what I had with others. If the church in North America is going to touch our communities with God’s love we must change our view of it. We must seek to understand people and where they are at…not judge them for it! We must move with empathy putting ourselves in their shoes. Jesus did that for us He came and walked a mile in our shoes and then paid for it with His life!

Our faith must be love centered not rules centered. We, as followers of Jesus, must see what He sees rather then what the world sees. I have found that how one is viewed is how they are treated and eventually the person develops a belief system around that view about himself and others. This is especially true of kids: There was a time when a ministry partner was asked to come to a school to talk to a student. This student was considered the bully in the school everyone including the staff saw him in this light. He may have earned it but it did not represent his heart at all. As they talked my friend said to him, “I see in you a gift of compassion!” The kid laughed out loud and asked if he knew who he was. He assured him he did know and that he saw in him a gift…to make a long story short because I don’t have space here, he was eventually able to see it too and his bullying turned into leadership and he turned out to be a top student who helped other kids. He simply had someone help him change the window he looked through. We must at times look through a different window then the obvious one. Look into the heart of someone rather then the actions and then begin to say what we see!!

Let’s LOVE BIG, people! LOVE BIG!

Mark is enthusiastic about helping people learn to speak and live out strength-based principles. Mark is also enthusiastic about banana splits!

Making Peace with the Present

2010-03-06T14:39:00.000-08:00

The other day I heard that Americans receive an average of about 3000 commercial messages in a given week and that this tends to create a wish fulfillment dynamic in our culture. This means that we are always wishing for something that we don’t have thinking it will fulfill us. Another way I’ve heard it put is the “moving horizon”. In the same way that one can never reach the horizon no matter how fast we go, we can always be moving towards something future with an uneasy feeling of dissatisfaction in our lives. In fact, I think that the main message in most advertising has become one of the mottos of our culture: “My life would be better if only…”

Lately I’ve been in a bit of a funk myself (not the James Brown kind either – that would be an entirely different blog). At times I’ve felt crushed between the rocks of disappointed hopes and the waves of frustrated goals. When I started thinking about all of this it was because of a still, small voice inside me that said, “Can you learn to make peace with the present?” It felt like I was being offered a better possibility – an alternative to the tyranny of the unfulfilled, often unreachable “If-Onlys” in my life.

I realized that I had been futilely chasing the horizon for some time. Let me give you a couple examples of what I mean. Recently two goals that I had been moving towards for some time were achieved. They were two big “If-Onlys” in my life. One was that I wanted to be able to work on staff at the church in a pastoral role and the other was to find our own house to purchase and settle down in. Between those two things there was more than three years of working and hoping. It seemed like they would be key solutions to something indefinable in my heart. Well guess what? In the last 4 months, I reached both of those horizons and they weren’t the solutions I hoped for. Don’t get me wrong: Both have been a source of blessing to me and I’m grateful. However, they weren’t happy endings or finish lines but simply doors to walk through that led into new challenges and journeys. On top of that, I realized that other horizons that I am chasing, for one, becoming a father, continued to leech the joy from my life.

It began to dawn on me that reaching my goals would not fulfill me and that life is not a series of destinations to be reached but about walking with God in the midst of the journey. If I’m constantly focused on unfulfilled wishes, then I put entirely too much pressure on myself and others around me to be moving me towards my goals. This leads to anger (frustration) at those in my way, a lack of peace with the present and an inability to be grateful for “now”. On the other hand, God was promising me peace if I could put my hopes in His care and learn to find contentment in the present. This doesn’t mean denying that I have hopes and dreams that are yet to be fulfilled but knowing that they won’t be the final answers to my longings (I think those will have to wait until heaven). So, I’m trying to take God up on His offer and learning how to walk in the present with contentment.

Ben enjoys how often he gets to spend time connecting with people in his community - so much inspiration and joy comes through it. Ben is excited about spring weather and sunshine-filled days!

Pull the Wool Off of Our Eyes

2010-02-12T16:00:00.000-08:00

I like people watching. Sometimes I feel like I could sit in a crowded place for hours doing just that. I like to imagine what people’s stories might be and what their relationship is to each other. I don’t know about you, but I think I tend to compartmentalize people in categories. It’s probably a way of keeping everything manageable – having a handle on the world around you where everyone fits into their little box. It’s not necessarily a good thing and can develop into a habit of judging people based on their appearance. I can be “shut down” towards a person before I ever talk to them or know them.

God has been speaking to me this week about how we use our eyes. When we prejudge someone based on their appearance, it doesn’t leave any room for us to see them the way God does. In the same way, if our eyes are selfish possessors or consumers through lust or materialism (or envy), we tend to filter everything we see through our own need for pleasure. That leaves us with no ability to give because we are caught up in trying to get.

Men in particular are visually stimulated. Everyday we are bombarded with provocative images around us in media, in public places - sometimes almost everywhere we turn it seems - yet we must be very careful not to see the women around us as objects. This will prevent us from ever loving them the way that God does.

What about women who seem to be inviting that kind of attention? Proverbs 11:22 says “A beautiful woman who lacks discretion is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout.” Sounds like an insult doesn’t it? I don’t think that’s the point of the verse though – I think it’s more about the wasted beauty of the gold ring than the ugliness of a pig. A similar metaphor would be that of a beautiful nature scene: Picture snow-capped rugged mountains dressed in clothing of rich green pines and ending in a crystal clear lake. Then picture it being ruined by litter dumped everywhere and sewer waste marring the cleanliness of the lake. What a sad waste of beauty! I believe that is how God feels when He sees a beautiful woman who flaunts her body without respect for it. And when we allow ourselves to succumb to consuming with our eyes, then we are like the people who throw more litter into the nature scene pictured above. We are making it worse.

Besides that, there’s a fair chance that a girl who is flaunting her body is looking for validation and love which means that she might not know that God loves her and values her for who she is. She may even be acting out of hurts from her past where someone wounded her sense of value and dignity. I believe that the heart of God is to love and protect women and bring healing and compassion to the wounded. It’s difficult to represent that heart when we are selfish with our eyes.

I believe that God wants to transform us to see what He sees and to understand His heart for people. He is looking for vessels through which to pour His love to the world around us. One of the most important and immediate ways He can do that is through our eyes. No matter whether we are shy or busy or rarely find time to talk to the people we meet throughout our day, we still have many opportunities where eye contact is made. When our eyes show compassion and value, rather than judgment, lust or selfishness, people will notice Jesus in us staring back out at them.

Ben has been apprenticing at The Bridge for over 2 years. He is constantly learning how much he doesn't know! Ben is VERY excited to cheer on Canada at the 2010 Olympics.

The Power of Story

2010-01-29T17:04:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been realizing the prominent place of “story” in my life and the lives of the people around me. Sometimes it is easy to coast through life unaware, and in doing so, to miss out on the subtle plot lines and connections that God, the Master Storyteller, is weaving. There are lots of things that seem stressful or don’t make sense until we find their context in the greater story that is being written through our lives and the even greater stage of the community that we live and move within. When we can learn to see and trust His plot – that God is working all things for our good (Rom 8:28) – then we can develop more patience and endurance that we would otherwise have.

Another aspect of this that begins to take shape is the respect that we gain for others and their story. When we realize that each person has a unique story that their life is telling, we are not so quick to judge. We ask more questions and listen more in order to learn the background and the subtext of what we see on the surface of their lives. Sometimes I tend to be a worrier and take too much burden on myself for others’ well being and progress in their journey. Then one day I had the realization that as much as I care for people, how much more does God? And no matter how long I have been involved in their story I am only a blip – a minor character – compared to the Author of it. Even if they don’t know Him, God was forming them in their mother’s womb and has been working in their hearts all through their life. He wants to draw them to Himself – inviting them to participate in the greater story that He has designed with them in mind. It’s good to remember when we meet people that we are just entering a story that God has been writing in their lives for a long time. It humbles our posture as we seek to learn what God has been writing and seek to cooperate with the work He has already begun.

We also share a collective story with the community around us. In the Bible, God told the Israelites to remember and rehearse all the things that God had done for their people throughout history. This was a way for them to remember their shared story so as to honor and recognize God and their place in a larger family and community. These days many people have a strong desire to get caught up in a story that is greater than themselves. This is why reality TV shows and sports are so popular. There is a deep desire in the human heart to be caught up in a movement, to be a part of something transcendent or to feel connected to the greater whole of humanity. This is why God has chosen to write His story in the context of community. It is not as safe as watching a show on TV, but it is hugely more life-giving and ultimately satisfying. If you don’t have a community that you share life and story with, I encourage you to find one. I, for one, believe that spiritual community that runs on the power of the Holy Spirit produces the most amazing story that one can ever hope to be a part of.

This Sunday, Jan 31, we will celebrate our story as a community of faith at The Bridge. We have designated this Family Sunday (the last Sunday of each month) as a time to commemorate all that God has done in our lives over the past year. For many it’s been a hard year. But we can look back on our collective story and see that through it all, the Master Storyteller has been at work. And, even if we can’t always see it, we can trust that He is writing a grand adventure and a great masterpiece with an ending that will knock our socks off!

Ben is happy to find something to write about after a long absence of writing. He is currently hoping that his team, the Flames, can break a huge losing streak with a win over the lowly rival Oilers on Saturday.

Simplicity

2010-01-23T22:53:00.000-08:00

We live in a world that is increasingly complex and diverse with a seemingly endless flow of opinions, beliefs and theologies. So much so that the weight of them has begun to tear the very fabric of our society. The myriad of messages that are communicated everyday have filled our minds with a mixture that has brought confusion and despair. Today we see more depression, discouragement and despair then we have ever seen in modern history, yet all in a time when there is more technology and books and self help programs then every before. Self-improvement is a multi-billion dollar industry. They, whoever “they” may be, have put labels on every emotional issue known to man. There are more disorders than ever before, there is a pill for everything that may ail you and yet thousands die from suicide, crime and aids every year. The world says that it is ok to live out your sexuality as you see fit and then wonders why there is an aids epidemic. It seams that the media and entertainment industry in a feeble attempt to justify their existence has created these problems by producing mixed messages that send our society into confusion so that they can make new TV shows, write new books and create more magazines to solve the problems that they have helped to created.

Bono recently launched an awesome program called RED. Basically he is getting huge retail corporations to donate a portion of the profits from the “RED” brand. The purpose is to provide medicine to third world peoples that need help. Now I think what Bono is trying to accomplish is great but there rings an arrogance that the very companies that are participating have their products made in sweat shops in these same countries and don’t pay enough that the workers can afford medicine. Interesting that all the celebrities that are jumping on are the same ones that promote a permissive lifestyle that has contributed to the aids epidemic but are giving their names to this project to provide aids medicine. This is the paradox of mixed messages I am talking about. We have heard it said that life moves faster today but we have the same 24 hours that have been around since the clock was invented. We have the new technology to do more in the 24 hours but it seems at times that we are moving backwards.

So where does the church fit into all this? What message do we have that can stop the madness and why are we not speaking it out? I think personally we have fallen into the same trap and it has weakened our message. We have become irrelevant and disconnected to the truth we preach. We have more preachers, more ministries, more Christian media, more Christian education then ever before but it seems like we have more dysfunction, more division and more personal agendas as well. The fact is that Christendom is also a multi-billion dollar business and we continue to argue over who has the right doctrine, who has the best ministry, which preacher is the best and so on. There is more teaching on leadership in both the world and the church yet there is a leadership crisis in both places. In George Barna’s book “Revolution” he surmises after much research that the church has become so irrelevant that unless something dramatically changes there may not be a next generation. Thankfully God has always provided a radical remnant to lead the charge. So what is the answer? Is it a complex dissertation on the meaning of life or a world gathering of scholars to give us a clear path to a bright future? Maybe more books and seminars and conferences or we could add more church services to the week. Get everyone even busier then they are now, that will bring revival. No it is just the opposite! The solution is so simple that we call it cliché.

It is found in Matthew 11:28-30 “come to me, ALL who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. For I am gentle, and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and burden is light.”

We must return to our first love - to the place of peace and rest that God designed us for. We must return to a life of simplicity.

Love God! Love our neighbors! Love ourselves!

“Love God” is foundational because He is the one who created us, He knows us best He knows what we can handle and what we cannot. I think we have complicated faith in God to the point we have lost the simplicity of the love of God. He made us from an outflow of His love. So it is only His love that can give us life. It is His love that brings perspective and value to our lives. We have allowed the clutter of information and opinions to cloud the simple truth of God’s love. We have value because He created us to be an expression of His love and creativity. Think about the fact that each person that has ever lived or who will live has a unique DNA that no one else will have. We each have unique personalities and appearances. The thing that is so great about God is that with all the complexities and millions of unique little things in His creation, He was able to bring all that into a simple point of expression through Jesus Christ. All He is, His very nature and Life can be simplified by looking at the life and times of His Son Jesus. It doesn’t get any simpler then that. He loved us so much that He gave His only Begotten Son, so all we have to do is believe in Him and we will have eternal ABUNDANT life!

“Love our neighbor” Just as we are an outflow of God’s Love so we must see the flow of love continue outward. He did not create us to be containers but to be conduit. For us to have perpetual peace in life His Life must continue on through us. We are the portholes for heaven to touch earth. The world with all its messages and ideologies is really all summed up in one thing. They are looking for love and meaning. We know the one who can give them both and it is we who through allowing Him to flow through us to others will bring them the answer. If we are so busy and cluttered with information then what is flowing from us? We will add to the confusion and rather then being a place of rest and refuge for the world we join the rat race. We get caught up on the hamster wheel and it weakens our message because we look the same. The power of the love of God is that it gives rest. The more we fill ourselves with knowledge and busyness the less room there is for His Life. “Come all who are weary and I will give you rest”

“Love yourself” the world’s message is to be “lovers of self” but God’s love compels us to love who He loves - including ourselves. The type of loving self that the world is offering is the basis of all the confusion. The opposite of love is not hate - it is selfishness. If you look at every war or every tear in our society’s fabric it is rooted in selfishness. The very message the world is giving is self-gratification. And before we think it’s just out there, in the church we call it self-righteousness and whole theologies and organizations have been built on it. God’s Love calls us to love ourselves in such a way that it is rooted in humility and a giving heart. It is simply accepting who He made you to be. Accepting the gifts and abilities He has given you by using them to Love Him and others. It is our act of worship and worship always comes out of a place of intimacy and rest or it is not truly worship. By being grateful for the life he has given you, good or bad, knowing He will use it all for the good of those who love Him including YOU!

So the conclusion…lets get rid of the clutter and come back to the basics. Love God with ALL your heart and let that Love flow to others knowing that God’s purpose for you is to live in simplicity because His yoke is easy and His burden is light!

Mark is an author, counsellor and proud family man. He is currently working on a book about how discovering the value in your life changes the way you respond to the world.

Loving Money

2010-01-08T16:51:00.001-08:00

When I woke up this morning there was one phrase from a Christmas song repeating in my mind, “Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?” With all the abundance of this Christmas I feel almost weighed down with material wealth. Despite my good intentions to give from my abundance to those less fortunate, I realize that practically, I really do very little. Sure, I give my token $30 a month to good causes, but the large majority of what I receive is spent on me or things kept for my well being without much thought of how much I could sacrifice to help those who have far far less than I could imagine. This fact really bothers me. It’s not right. I fear I might have gotten caught up in the materialism of my culture and not kept a balanced perspective on how I should share with the rest of the world. What would it look like to share equally with the rest of the world?

As I walked along Mission Creek the other day pondering this, I wrestled with the fact that I really do want nice things. I really do desire money for dance classes. I really do desire to be able to afford a nicer house. And yet over the last two years as we have lived by faith (having a low salary and trusting God to bring in enough for our bills each month), I can’t complain for lack. God led us to a wonderful house that has been an abundant blessing. He has always, often miraculously, provided enough money for all our bills, including money for date nights at the movies, regular visits to coffee shops etc. Really we are very wealthy. As we have lived dependant on God we have been so happy. I remember a conversation with my husband that we would almost prefer to live by faith than to live dependent on a salary, because we didn’t have to fear or worry or ‘manage’ as much; we just lived and trusted that the money would be there and it always was. It was simple.

Even the small things we desired have been provided – from small things like needing fruit in the house and someone giving us a pile of extra fruit without knowing our need, to being thousands short and receiving cheques from unexpected and unknowing people, to personal things like desiring a nicer set of plates and bowls for our kitchen (as we have been living off our grandma’s old set for 7 years) - amazingly, without us mentioning anything, my mother-in-law bought a beautiful 8 piece set from a church sale, which ended up being the exact set I had secretly admired in the mall a few weeks earlier. God knows and He provides. “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart”.

Another Scripture came to mind, “You cannot serve both God and money”. It struck a deep chord in me. I realized that my mentality was twisted. I figured there were two choices: that I could live serving God and depend on Him to provide for me, or I could choose a lifestyle with a better paying job, manage my money myself and trust in my job to provide for my wants. How wrong! Even if I had a better paying job, my Provider is still the Lord. I must be so careful not to trust in money. Money comes and goes – it is not safe. Companies rise and fall. This is no place for security. God is my Provider. This means that even if I receive a pay check from a company, God is still providing that for me. My trust and hope cannot shift from him, so that if I lose my job I am not shaken or worried because nothing has changed – God is still providing for me in one way or another. He has just changed the means. Maybe it will be people bringing food over to the house, or someone lending us their car – one way or another I will be provided for and He will give me the desires of my heart.

I feel this is an important lesson for all of us. I feel God has started to challenge us as a nation regarding our security. I feel the lesson has begun but is not over. The world will continue to shift and shake and where we place our hope, our dependence and our security is very important. If we believe that a solid paycheck is the answer to security, we better work on changing our perspective or we may be quite shaken when it’s not there.

Perhaps simple living really is the answer for it all… when we depend on God we don’t have a tonne, but we have enough, and not just to scrape by, but to enjoy life too. When we give money away sacrificially to others, again we are forced to live simply. Be content with what we have - not believe the lies that my older TV or last year’s version of phone makes me any less than those that bought the newest versions. Knowing that my identity is not in what I own, and that I can be content and grateful with much less. Seeing that those around the world with less are brothers and sisters and deserve just as much as I have…

The Bible says, ‘The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”…it can cause me to trust money rather than God, it can cause me to selfishly hoard for myself rather than considering the desperate needs of others. Loving money leads to evil, but loving God leads to life. Food for thought.

Jennifer Gumienny is the Regional Director of Heroes - an experiential program that helps teens see their value and live positive lives. She loves the outdoors and can be found hiking no matter what season of the year it is.

ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES!!!

2009-12-26T12:38:00.000-08:00

People have been asking me what I see from the Lord in 2010, I will be giving a “state of the Kingdom” address at the church on Jan 3rd and it will be posted on our sermon.net site however I wanted to write some preamble for my blog/Facebook community.

The verse that has come to me over and over is:

2 Corinthians 9:7-13 (New American Standard Bible)
7Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; 9as it is written,
"HE SCATTERED ABROAD, HE GAVE TO THE POOR,
HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS ENDURES FOREVER."
10Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness;
11you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. 12For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. 13Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all,

Last year our thrust from the Lord was to build authentic community, to work past the differences and intentionally find the Love of God in our hearts and learn to express it to Him and each other. We intentionally built bridges to each other’s heart; we got honest about what has kept us apart. This was not an easy year for many but those who lived transparently had a great break-though. We wrestled as a community to find that tension between open heart living and learning to trust and be trustworthy; the tension between having the freedom to be you while living out that freedom responsibly within a community context.

2010 is a time of alignment;
“Each one must do as he has purposed in his heart” like never before we must allow God to reveal what is in our hearts and ask Him to reveal the desires of His heart. I am challenging you my friends and family to align your heart with God’s in 2010. Discover what He desires for you in this year of life and then surrender it to Him and do it willingly as an act of worship and love. For me and I believe the Bridge as a community I believe He wants us to SERVE our neighbors with extravagant faith and generosity this year. I have found the best way to build authentic community is to serve together!!! Serving brings out many things, it reveals heart…it challenges our motives…it develops integrity…it pleases God!!

At Christmas we joined with Son Valley Fellowship and delivered 25 hampers. It was a great evening and there was a sense of excitement and team work. We worked along side one another with anticipation of the joy this was going to bring to many families. As we prayed together for those families to receive the gifts with the love they were given real heart felt prayers of concern and love came out from our hearts. It was an awesome time in fact several people said I can’t wait for next year…NEXT YEAR!!!! I thought we DO NOT have to wait for a year to be a blessing, we do not have to wait for lights and trees and Santa to actually serve!! Let’s make it a life style in 2010!

Micah 6:8 says 8He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

Lets purpose in our heart to “do justice” that is serving our community; to “love kindness” that is serving each other; and “walk humbly with our God” that’s serving HIM!!

So my friends and family ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES here we go!!!

Mark is a motivational speaker with a difference - he connects right to the heart of the audience. This year Mark is hoping to see his faith community find a deeper connection to the "what" of their mission. Mark's favorite thing about the Christmas season is spending time with his family.

Authentic Relationships

2009-12-18T14:13:00.000-08:00

Relationships can be the most complicated painful part of your life. The paradox is they can also be the most rewarding and greatest blessing. My parents were married 60 years before my dad passed away and I don’t remember one fight. They were a great couple, my dad used to joke that they didn’t need a dishwasher because he was a built in one. The thing is that he always treated my mom like a queen honoring her at every opportunity. I was talking to a friend the other night and helping her navigate through a relational issue and I made the following statement which I believe came from the heart of God!

“The key in every relationship is that if you can’t be yourself in it, then you need to look inward and ask, ‘Why can’t I?’” I think if I can’t be myself with people I hang out with then there is something wrong, either in my heart or theirs (I can only change mine). In thinking about all this and asking those questions I realized how much of our lives we spend on trying to make people like us. Insecurity and the desire to be accepted make us do all kinds of crazy things that just aren’t who we are. If people don’t like me “for me” then are they really a friend? Then if they get to know the “fake me” do they love me or the person I pretend to be. Imagine with me for moment if we actually invested the same amount of time working on authentic relationships, strengthening them, investing in them and enjoying them. Battling through the tough times but sticking together. If you had to do an inventory of your relationships and had to separate the real from the fake how many friends would you have left. Personally I would rather have one or two real authentic relationships then a hundred shallow fake ones. I would rather be unpopular and loved by a few then popular at the cost the authenticity. Jesus said no greater love is this “that they would lay their lives down for a friend” then He did it. That is the kind of friend who accepts you for who you are and sticks with you through everything. Jesus lived for us long before He died for us. So how can you tell if someone is authentic?

1. They aren’t in a hurry - It takes time, don’t be in hurry, be at peace with who you are and you will attract people who know who they are and both will be patient in the process. My best friends are the longest relationships I have.

2. They are transparent - if they can’t be transparent about themselves then they won’t care what is going on in you. They know they have weaknesses and will be honest about them.

3. They listen well – Authentic people genuinely care about what you have to say. They practice active listening to ensure they understand your heart more then the information you share or what you can do for them.

4. They stay in the storm – when troubles do come through misunderstandings they seek to make things right, they can say sorry and take responsibility for their part. If it is always your fault it’s not real.

5. They love God more then you – if they demand your love above God’s it is a problem. Authentic people will not be insecure about you loving other people or God. They don’t demand all your attention they give you space to grow other relationships in addition to theirs. In fact they encourage it because they know it will enrich both your lives.

Hope this helps you look at your relationships and invest most of your time with the authentic ones…God first, Family…Friends!

Mark has worked hard to see these type of relationships become the cultural norm at The Bridge. It is definitely a place of family and authenticity. Mark is gearing up for Christmas and looking forward to time with family.

RISE UP! - If not you then…WHO?

2009-12-05T15:55:00.000-08:00

Tonight Sandi and I watched 20/20 a news magazine show on ABC. They were doing a special on kids living in poverty in America. Well it totally broke our hearts - the children interviewed were amazing and I was so proud of the way they carried themselves and articulated their heart. There were a couple of things that jumped out that I want to share. First of all was a young 5 year old heading off to kindergarten for his first day. He was so excited because he knew at 5, that if he got an education, he could get a good job and get his mom a house. You see they were homeless and had gone through several close opportunities to get a place to stay just to have the rug pulled out under their feet at the last moment. His only request from God was to have their own home to start kindergarten. Well that didn’t happen but there he was on his way to school thanking God that he could go. No home, no breakfast but grateful just the same.

The teacher was working on counting to three with him and one of the exercises was to answer a question that would be simple for anyone, even a five year old, to answer but it stumped him. I was holding my breath for him thinking why doesn’t he answer he had been counting to three all day long and was so proud of his achievement. What was the question that stumped him? How many meals a day do we eat? The answer of course is three…you see he could count to three but in his short five years he had never had three meals in one day, he simply did not know the answer because it was foreign to him. I thought come on are you telling me that no one can get this kid three meals in one day in five years. This leads me to the second thing that stood out the lady reporter had a spot after a commercial where she said some of you may be asking why ABC didn’t help this and other families they were interviewing. Her lame answer was because they wanted to present it the way they have to live and work it out on their own.

I thought to myself, “WHO IS GOING TO RISE UP!” Immediately God said to me If not you… who! I thought of Samuel who said “Here I am Lord” I felt conviction in my heart and I know I am to rise up. No pointing fingers, no expecting government to help, no blaming the rich, or the poor. What am I GOING TO DO! I can’t help the 20 thousand kids in this New Jersey town that are in third world conditions but can I help ONE in Kelowna. Last week we heard that many kids in Kelowna go to school hungry! This is unacceptable this is my city, these are my kids, this is my problem and it is my responsibility to be the solution. Can you imagine a city that all thought that way? What could we do to change a life? It takes so little effort to make a huge difference. The bible says don’t pray for the hungry and then send them away hungry. Its time we ALL rise up and put an end to poverty…not just financial poverty but spiritual and emotional poverty as well. How about you? We all have a choice of which direction we will point a finger…to someone else…or at yourself.

Mark has always had a heart to see the church be at the center of fulfilling the social needs of the community. As such, The Bridge does many programs that make a difference in the community. We all wish Mark a happy holiday as he leaves this week for a long-awaited time away with his wife.

Work is Worship

2009-11-18T23:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was racing through the bedlam of an Indian market with my friend Punit and a few of his cousins. In the midst of the crazy tumult of traffic, Punit pointed out a delivery truck that had pink writing in Hindi on its bumper. He explained that all such trucks carried this inscription meaning "Work is Worship". It was a way of thinking that these workers had adopted because they worked long hours for very little pay. So they chose to see something sacred in their daily grind - an attempt to rise above their circumstances by offering their work as worship.

As Christians, worship is something that we often seem to relegate to a two hour weekly timeslot at a church building. We can have trouble connecting our everyday tasks and jobs to something as sacred as worship to God. Intellectually I can understand the concept that worship is a lifestyle and encompasses all that I do in my life. But putting it into practice isn't as easy. Because we live in a very compartmentalized society it can be difficult to avoid artificial divisions between secular and sacred actviity. If the sacred does somehow break in to my daily routine it is still limited to moments when I see or feel God moving in my day. But this is not a limit that God places on worship.

In Psalm 96:11-12 it says, "Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad. Let the sea resound and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant and everything in them. Let all the trees of the forest sing for joy." Now, understandably this is poetry and something of a metaphor, but I also think that there is a truth here. All of creation is called to worship its Maker. Yet how do fields and forests worship God? I believe they worship by being a field, by being a tree.- by being what they were created to be.

However, fields and trees do not choose who they worship but we must. As someone recently put it to me, "We are not so much born to worship as we are born worshipping. We are always worshipping but we have to choose whom to worship." From birth we are faced with the continual choice: Will we worship self, sin or any other false gods? Or will we surrender our lives to our Creator, thus fulfilling what we were created for and making our lives an act of worship to God? When we live in this surrender, resting in who God has created us to be, worship flows effortlessly from our being. Then all the areas of our life become worship - from church to work to our home life - everything. And we can take the workers' motto even a step further saying, "Work is worship. Life is worship! To God be all of my worship."

Ben Gumienny is always looking for ways to improve the mediums and methods of communication so that more people can be reached. Currently he is on a trip in India attending two weddings along with his wife.

Add more “C” to Community

2009-11-10T21:26:00.000-08:00

1. Contact – put your-self in a position to contact people…chamber, service clubs etc. Involvement in community automatically puts you in a position to make contacts.

2. Connection – You want to make a connection it is impossible to get to know everyone so mingle until you make a connection with someone. There are different levels of connection…interest based, heart based, people based, industry based.

3. Collaboration – Once a connection is established find common points that would mutually benefit both parties. The sharing of resources, ideas and problem solving etc can also be powerful ways to benefit each other.

4. Care – People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Authenticity is important to a lasting relationship. To many people are in it for themselves and break relationship when they are not getting what they want from it.

5. Challenge – The opportunity for skill development. Steel sharpens steel so we grow when someone has the freedom to challenge us. This can go beyond professional into personal lives as the relationship grows.

6. Coaching – Create accountability for achieving goals. Be the solution you want to see. Challenge without help is judgment.

Mark is a "coach" himself - helping coach people in their lives with grass roots wisdom and uncanny depth in his counsel. He will be cheering his Lions on in the CFL playoffs starting this weekend.

Less is More

2009-11-06T10:30:00.000-08:00

1 Timothy 6:6 says “Godliness is actually of great gain WHEN accompanied by contentment”

Contentment it seems has left our society and do I dare say the church…we tend to spend more time looking at what we don’t have rather then being grateful for what we do have. The message the world gives is you need “more” to be happy but “more” never ends; it is a bottomless pit of striving and hope deferred. Even in the good things we desire to do we can move into discontentment. I love to dream and have so much vision that it is overwhelming at times. I must confess I spend too much energy and time dreaming of what could be “if only” we had money. I sometimes think “What if I actually spent that time actually working on the vision or praying into it and waiting on the Lord to release it.”

The fact is that God gives us everything we need to live out HIS plans for our lives. Everything is from HIM for HIM. So tonight I began looking at what HE has done in our lives and ministry and thanking HIM and I was blown away with how much HE has done with very little. I pondered what if someone had handed us a money order for a million dollars - would we have even stopped to say thank you? Would we have built a shrine to our great leadership? Or worse, would we have missed the Lord of the work for the sake of the work of the Lord?!? Less Is More in so many ways - less wishing - more believing…less complaining - more thanking…less taking - more giving…less me - more GOD…you get the idea! In verse 7 it goes on to say we came into the world with nothing and we can take nothing out of it either.

So here is my confession…I am content with whatever JESUS has for me! Less or More it is all yours JESUS!

Mark Gordon excels at encouraging and releasing others into greater freedom and destiny in their lives. Mark is a homebody who can be found sitting on his deck relaxing throughout Kelowna's great summers.

Seeing and Sending

2009-10-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Recently I was reading in John 9 about the man who was born blind. I feel a kinship with him. Sometimes I feel like I am trying to apprehend my environment but am fundamentally incapable of really seeing and understanding what is going on. I am blind but don’t know because I am surrounded by blind people. None of us know what we are missing and just assume that life is difficult to navigate. It is not as though there is some skill we could add to make it easier for ourselves we just fumble along and wonder if there is more. We have coping mechanisms to make sense of our lives and to try to make it along as best we can. However, we were born blind. We have never had the privilege of sight. We don’t know what color, shape or size the environment around us is. We don’t know what obstacles are in our way. We don’t even know what colors, shapes, sizes or obstacles actually are.

It is challenging to live in this situation. I think a life of blindness is probably more about survival than abundance. You are trying to develop a routine that meets your needs – all the while trying not to get hurt. The world moves rapidly around you while you attempt to make a life in it. You cannot know everything that is happening around you or even really imagine possibilities so you can better your life. You rely on the sight of others and hope they are doing right by you and that they know what they are talking about.

So, Jesus enters the situation of the man born blind. Earlier in chapter 9, He calls Himself “the light of the world” and the “light that leads to life”. Now He demonstrates it powerfully. He mixes His spit with dust to make mud and puts it on the blind man’s eyes. In doing this, Jesus takes something ordinary and mixes it with His DNA changing it into something miraculous. Walking through life, especially in our blind state, everything can blend together after awhile. When I lived in Thailand, I was amazed by the beautiful, lush environment. I loved the green (having grown up in Calgary), the palm trees, the abundant plant life and fresh fruit. At first. When I had lived there for two years, I found that I didn’t notice my surroundings as much. I had to work hard to see the beauty because it had become the backdrop to my everyday routine. I’m guessing that no one who had walked that road that day in Jesus’ time would have ever thought that the dust beneath their feet had anything special about it. I’m sure that no one was clamoring to rub the dust on their ailments. It was just ordinary dust. Ordinary, that is, until Jesus mixed it with a part of himself.

This is a good metaphor for our lives. Ordinary until mixed with the DNA of Jesus. When you add Jesus to the mix then it becomes miraculous. You have the possibility of really seeing –seeing in a way that you never have before. This is not just getting perspective or trying to be thankful. It is not the restoration of something that was lost. This is something new - a gift that we were all meant to have but were born without. It changes everything. Life moves from the humdrum natural into the supernatural. When we meet Jesus and allow Him to mix His essence with our surroundings the light of the world comes on in our life – the light that leads to life.

It’s interesting that there is still another step before the blind man can see. It makes sense that he must wash off the mud that is on his eyes. If I had mud on my eyes I would not be able to see either. But it is interesting where Jesus sends him to be washed. It is not clear whether it was the closest place to wash in, but Jesus sends the blind man to wash himself in the Pool of Siloam. Siloam means “sent”. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but I think there is a truth in that name. Jesus mixes Himself with our world and sends us to wash in the “Pool of Sent” - a place of commissioning. Washing usually is related to forgiveness (our sins washed white as snow) or the Word (washing in the water of the Word). After receiving the essence of Jesus and being washed we can really see! However, it is not just for our own enjoyment. We cannot divide the experience of the healing from its missional purpose. We are given the miracle of true sight so that we can be sent to others and tell them what we see and hopefully lead them to a place of seeing for themselves.

Ben Gumienny has a heart to see people apprenticed to Christ through developing methods of turning everyday life into encounters between God and man. He loves to watch movies and is looking forward to breaking out his Christmas favorites soon.

Distraction!

2009-10-23T18:08:00.000-07:00

So it seems that a lot of people are distracted right now. Many people in my community are in a season of frustration and distraction. Many of them have hopes and dreams and a vision that God has given them for their lives but it seems when people discover their vision very quickly they get distracted. It like the enemy knows when to send distraction just at the right time. It seems to come when a vision starts in your heart and you act on it. It comes in many forms but for the purpose of this blog I would like to address three that I see.

Opportunity – It is amazing how quickly we humans will give up the “BEST” for what is good. Opportunities seem to come right in the middle of moving towards your vision. They may be good but a distraction never the less. I have noticed for example with youth that they will go to a retreat or camp and be powerfully touched by God and leave on fire ready to launch into a vision when all of a sudden a special “boy” or “girl” will come into their life or they get a job and can’t make it to youth events or church. Now I am not saying we shouldn’t work or have a boy/girlfriend (depending on age). I am simply saying we need to ask the Lord first. Seek ye first the kingdom! Then everything else is added. God has the master plan and knows what you need to fulfill it. I would encourage you not to rush into opportunities until the Lord gives you the green light. It is easy to settle for good when He has best in His heart for you!
Criticism – For as many ideas as you have you will also have critics. There will always be someone who doesn’t understand and has a negative opinion of what you feel called to do. Often the smallest comment from the wrong person can lead you to give up on your dream. The very nature of vision is indefinable in the beginning it starts with an idea or thought. It’s ok that you don’t have all the answers or can’t answer certain questions. Don’t give up - many times the very question I can’t answer pushes me to dig deeper and in helping me find the answer it actually helps move my vision forward. The thing is that vision is so much a part of your heart that it is fragile. What overcomes criticism is conviction. If you know in your heart the vision is from God then there is nothing that can shake you off your tracks. Seek God for a strong conviction for the vision He gave you. Every time you get knocked down dust off and get back up. After all, if the vision seems too outrageous it is more than likely from GOD!
Fear – Fear is the hardest one to overcome because it is internal. Opportunities and criticism are externals and we can often see them for the attack they are. However fear is internal - it is at the base of who you are. We all struggle with some form of fear. A wall of fear often leads way to a wall of defense. For example if you fear rejection your defense could be to be a “people pleaser”. In my case I struggle with a fear of failure at times in my life so my defense was to try and look successful. The problem was that I never gave an honest assessment of my vision. I would always dream about what it could be rather then making it what it should be. In the end it would fail thus confirming my original fear. This would cycle over and over. You can put your own story in there. I am grateful God has broken that fear in my life and has healed the defenses. The bottom line is that fear is usually based on unknowns and assumptions based on our experience. The externals above tend to confirm the internals that are in our heart. Interesting hey? For example you may pounce on an opportunity because criticism came your way in something else that confirmed a fear in your life. So the opportunity made you feel good about yourself but it was based on fear not vision or faith. We are a crazy bunch. Anyway God’s perfect LOVE casts out all fear. ALL fear. Not a little bit but ALL. So when you get scared run into the arms of Jesus and just rest there for a bit until the conviction of the vision rises up to overcome the fear.

So you can overcome distraction by setting your eyes on Jesus the Author of your faith! Live out His dreams!!

Mark Gordon is an avid supporter of dreamers and especially loves to see people released to pursue and achieve those dreams. He has worked for many years in helping people do just this. Mark enjoys kicking back and watching a good hockey or football game after a long day at work.

Word Up

2009-10-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

Words are powerful, they carry life or death within them, they can create or destroy, they can plant seeds of faith or uproot hope and toss it out in minutes. The power that words have is so profound that they have made kingdoms fall and nobodies famous by someone who simply decided to use the right words at the right time. Think about it for a moment, everything you see and know was created by words spoken. The toaster in your kitchen may have started as an idea but somewhere at sometime someone shared the idea and those words set in motion the invention of the toaster. The Bible says that God “spoke” the world into existence. He spoke what was in His heart and we were created, a loving God had you in mind and spoke of that love and you were formed in your mother’s womb.

I am always inspired and impressed by writers who can take you on a journey with words. It is said that “a picture can speak a thousand words” and it is true. But who thought of saying that? The words alone invoke a picture in your mind. They create a thought - so what came first the picture or the words? Recently I experienced the power of words in both the negative and positive. Now I know the negative were not necessarily meant to be, I am sure that the people thought they were just trying to help me be a better leader but the words chosen sunk deep into my heart. They shouldn’t have bothered me at all. They were innocent enough and normally they wouldn’t have but on that day somehow they had a sting to them.

We must realize that every word spoken from our mouths will land somewhere. Think of them as arrows launching from a bow. In the Bible it speaks of negative words being like fiery darts. Those references come from a roman army tactic where they would take little arrows or darts and dip the tips in a hot tar poison. The opposing army would be covered in armor and had better weapons. They would laugh at the little darts coming at them but they were designed to land between the armor in the little gaps and they only stung a little bit. They would pull them out and laugh and jeer at the roman army. What happened though is that the poison would slowly enter the blood stream and as time passed they would die a horrible death. The lesson is clear if I leave those negative words that seemed minor but had a little sting, to fester they will eventually kill me spiritually and emotionally. In Ephesians 5: 10-23 the Bible says to extinguish them with the shield of Faith. In other words I have to choose whose words I am going to believe. Am I going to believe God’s words that bring life and create success in my life or am I going to believe the words of satan who uses words to kill, rob and destroy.

I have to make a choice every time I am going to speak or hear “words” do I choose life or death? Dr. Dobson released a study that found it takes 7 positive words to negate one negative. Lets be a generation who speak life and love to each other, let’s understand that we don’t fight against each other, but an enemy that wants to destroy you. Let’s speak to our dreams and passions with a positive word, encouraging one another and spurring each other on to good works. It all starts with words, words from God’s heart to yours and then from yours to someone else’s. You are the mouth of God on earth…or are you?

Mark Gordon enjoys "translating" between people groups experiencing obstacles to communication. He knows how to adapt language to fit each different situation. Mark loves boating and dreams of someday owning a beautiful Cabin Cruiser.

Don't Stop Believin' (Part 2)

2009-10-07T22:06:00.000-07:00

Quite often, however, it is hard for us to hear God’s voice when our buttons are being pushed. We wonder why everything is going wrong and if we have a bull’s-eye on our chest. This is especially true when we have unfulfilled hopes and dreams. The longing to see our hopes fulfilled can create an ache in our hearts so large that makes it difficult to focus on anything else. Whether it is for a mate or your family, your future or (in my case) to have a baby, waiting can seem unbearable at times.

Why does God seem to be taking so long to answer our prayers and fulfill His promises to us? We become like God’s backseat drivers – totally focused on the destination and missing the journey. At each twist and turn we say, “Why are You going that way? Don’t you know the highway would be faster?” And we’re all edgy sitting there – wincing at His decisions and sure that if we were behind the wheel we would be doing it better. Yet all the while God has purposed that there are many things we need to learn through the journey. One turn different or one change in timing and we miss out on the experiences and lessons that God has designed for our lives in order to make us who He has called us to be.

He is not just concerned with our hopes and dreams for our lives, but also with His hopes and dreams for our lives. Romans 8:28 is a famous and oft-quoted verse in Christian circles: “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” The next verse tells us that He “has chosen His people to become like His Son.” (Rom 8:29) Placing these verses in context together, we can see that the “good” that God is working for in our lives is His best for us: to become like His Son. God’s dream for us is that we would become like Jesus.

In fact, I believe that He is calling us to entrust our hopes and dreams to Him. God wants to be the shepherd of our hopes. It seems like a scary thought in many ways; to take those things that we most hope for – are most wrapped up in – and give them out of our hands and over to God to take care of them. This means trusting that He will nurture and grow our hopes. And it also means that we choose to believe God when He says that He works all things for our good – even when the “working” is on our hopes to change them and shift them, redirecting them towards that which would truly bring us life.

God seems to be doing a lot of this in my life lately. There is deep heart surgery going on through life’s circumstances as God redirects my hopes and dreams into something better and higher. It is not easy – sometimes it feels as if disappointment will crush the life out of me and other times it feels as though the most sensitive places in my life are like raw nerves being touched and prodded. I take comfort in this promise: “A bruised reed will He not break, and a dimly burning wick will He not quench” (Is 42:3) No matter how far I am pushed through the process, God is compassionately making sure that it doesn’t go beyond what I can bear.

He is giving me new ways to look at the circumstances in my life. I guess you might call it “being transformed through the renewing of my mind” (Rom. 12:2). Instead of seeing God as someone who is “pulling the rug out” as soon as I trust, I have a new picture. It is of a baby learning to walk. He is holding a walker and feels secure, but his father moves the walker just out of reach. At first he might fall, but slowly his little leg muscles get strong enough to stand. Then, he begins a new venture – one little faltering step at a time. The walker keeps moving as the father helps his son to gain strength and skills that are fundamental to the rest of his life. He will falter and even fall again. But the son has a Father who will always walk with him step by little step into His hopes and dreams and on into the Son.

Ben Gumienny is blessed to be a part of a spiritual family at The Bridge in Kelowna. He is excited about watching the new NHL season and his team the Calgary Flames. Ben hopes that God will use this post to minister to your heart and draw you closer to Him.

Don't Stop Believin' (Part 1)

2009-09-25T16:10:00.000-07:00

Recently I was watching a movie called '500 Days of Summer' with my sister. We both felt quite stirred by different themes in the movie and spent some time talking about them later. This is the result of that conversation. The movie is about a man who is in love with a girl who is afraid to commit to him. Throughout the movie, he is continually reaching for the security of a clearly defined, conventional relationship but it seems to keep eluding him. It seems like a metaphor for my spiritual journey. As I have been walking by faith, the seasons change and periodically I think, “Now I’ll finally have security”. Yet just as I think I am going to walk into a time of clarity and stability it dissipates like a vapor before me.

At that point, it begins to resonate on my family of origin issues. Often when I was growing up, it would seem like things were taking an upward turn but as soon as I began to believe and let my guard down they would explode again. It felt like the rug was pulled out from under me. Then I would close off my heart and believe the message that “it is not ok to trust” or that “everything good will blow up in your face as soon as you believe in it”. What I didn’t realize at the time was that this was actually a belief about God and that it would affect my relationship with Him.

Fortunately, God does not leave well enough alone but chooses to confront wrong beliefs in us with the truth of His love. For that reason, He often “pushes our buttons”; allowing circumstances into our lives that bring up the hurts and issues that cause these wrong beliefs in the first place. This is so that they can be dealt with and we can be made whole.

God did much the same thing with the nation of Israel when they escaped from slavery in Egypt. The system that they were leaving was abusive and brutal – demanding that they complete back-breaking tasks under the threat of death or torture and then withholding from them the very materials they needed to complete them. Then finally, their cries for deliverance are answered by God in the person of Moses who leads them out of slavery. At this point, one would think that it was time for a bit of a honeymoon with God. They needed some time to heal and should be coddled so that they can get over their deep wounds at the hands of their evil oppressors.

But that is not what God does. He continually allows them to be in situations that test their faith and expose how their previous experiences have built up wrong beliefs about God in their hearts. First they’re trapped by an army, then are out of water, then have no food, etc. Each time, God shows up and miraculously delivers them once again. Yet each time something goes wrong they seem to drift right back into their unbelief. Why the cycle? Because God is continually confronting them at the place of their wrong beliefs, to a deeper and deeper level each time, showing them who He really is; showing them that He is not like their brutal taskmasters or the gods of the land they have escaped from. He speaks to their past experiences and hurts saying, “I’m not like that.”

Look for Part 2 coming soon...

Ben Gumienny helps build bridges at The Bridge Kelowna. He is passionate about connecting people to their purpose in life and to each other in community. Besides writing, he also loves hockey, reading and "The Office". Ben would like to credit Ray Stokes Jr. for how his wisdom influenced this post.