PREACHERS WITH THE RIGHT STUFF RIGHT NOW

A NEW LEARNING
When economic times stumble and prosperity flows from the hole in the bucket and ordinary people are helpless in the midst of loss and concern, then the preachers of righteousness need to stand up to humbly speak for God that it’s not all about us or our money. This is about God and godliness and getting ready for heaven. Preachers should be agents of hope. So perhaps you can detect that I am utterly opposed to opportunistic preachers using the chaos of a downturned economy to pretend to be visionary prophets announcing something new. It is easy for compelling leaders to exploit hard times using fear and simplistic answers and empty promises. I am very supportive of preachers who do not ignore the times but speak about God’s omniscience and compassion and readiness to forgive and receive repentant people. It appears to me that scripture models for us that God’s representatives should be telling people not to let their hearts be troubled but rather put faith exclusively in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

For so long in the western world of nations we have become accustomed to a current reality of prosperity and exhilaration and progress and advancement. The focus for most of us, whether believer or unbeliever, has been upon pleasure and gratification. When that present reality develops an oppressive overcast sky and the wells dry up, the focus can easily become despair and discontent. Doesn’t it make biblical sense that God’s spokespeople should tell all who will listen that right now would be the time to improve our vision? Should we not be counseled to clearly look ahead and into the distance? The better place and the most secure future are not here but there. It seems that we only catch on when we experience some suffering and loss. Generations in the past understood as they set their hopes on things that are “above.” The glory that lies ahead should shape the way we live today.

HOW DOES CANADA RANK?

A NEW LEARNING
HOW DOES CANADA RANK?

Of course, with 9,984,670 km2, Canada is the second largest country in the world, covering 6.7% of Earth’s surface (Russia is the largest country at 17,098,242 km2). Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy tides sometimes 12 metres high are the highest in the world.

Of greater interest and importance may be some of these rankings.

Canada’s banking system has withstood the financial crisis while other countries banking systems like the U.S. are in such dire straits? In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada’s banking system the healthiest in the world. The U.S. was ranked 40th. Canada’s system has much stronger federal regulations and lower mandatory leverage ratios. Canada’s firms never engaged in subprime mortgage lending. For over a decade, Canada has posted budget surpluses; only in the last quarter did they enter into a recession. That’s very impressive.

According to The International Monetary Fund Canada had the ninth largest economy in the world at $1.432 trillion in 2007. Canada is immediately behind Spain and just ahead of Brazil.

Canadians can expect to live 80.34 years; the life expectancy for men is 76.98 years and for women it’s 83.86 years. This according to the 2008 CIA World Factbook which places us tenth.

In 2007, Canada had an average of 1.85 murders per 100,000 people. Canada is ranked 71st in this category with 43 countries having lower murder rates than us, among them are Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Greece, and Norway.

Lonely Planet recently named Canada one of the Top 10 Countries to visit in 2009.
Ranked by Country Brand Index, Canada has jumped from the world’s 12th most respected country brand to No. 2. Australia is first.

Canada is the friendliest country in the world; this is the finding of a survey conducted by the HSBC Bank. With 48 countries surveyed, Canadians were the most friendly towards newcomers, followed by Germans and Australians.

The 2009 Climate Change Performance Index places Canada next to last out of 57 industrialized nations and emerging economies in its efforts to reduce emissions in keeping with its Protocol targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In a survey of 130 countries by The Global Gender Gap Report 2008 Canadian women rank 31st in terms of equality.

At 214 doctors per 100,000 people Canada ranks 54th in the world in physician availability says the The Truth About Canada.

According to The Economist Intelligence Unit, Canada is the fourth best country in the world to do business in for the next five years.

The Global Peace Index (2008) is an attempt to rank countries by their peacefulness and Canada ranked eighth in the world in 2007.

Hard copy books and digitized books

A NEW LEARNING
Of course, a guy my age has accumulated a library of hard and soft cover books for which I finally have no storage space. It was fine while I maintained an office outside of my home. Countless books were contained and I annually added to this resource. It was crucial when I began my work as a pastor in a small eastern Ontario town, to have a starter library. Access to tools of my trade was impossible if I didn’t have them myself. After almost fifty years and having retired from my work, the library space required for my acquired collection exceeds my present home. I surrendered boxes of books to various second hand shops the first month after I retired. My garage still holds boxes of books that I will never use. I have found it interesting that other pastors are reluctant to receive my books because they have already assembled a working library or they have become users of CD library resources which are staggeringly comprehensive, or they access what they require from online libraries. Within the next year or so we will sell our large home and move into more modest space and then my most radical library reduction will occur. More discards, more searches for grateful recipients, and a deep sense of loss. But a friend recently told me that he is going to teach at an international seminary which has limited library resources. He wondered whether I could give up some relevant books for their library. I said happily. I could give boxes of books but the cost of shipping makes this almost prohibitive.

Certainly in our western world, the change within the literary community is dramatic. Google began a digitizing project in 2005, digitizing books regardless of copyright in the USA, but displaying only portions. Seven million books have been scanned with the plan for twenty million. These will be available online and on new reading devices like the Sony e-book device. That resulted in a class-action lawsuit by the Authors Guild of America. Google is digitizing 500,000 volumes published before 1923 and no longer under copyright protection. Understandably, concerned Canadian publishers and authors are discussing together the legal ramifications of this massive book-digitization initiative.

Timex Sinclair ZX81: My First Computer

A NEW LEARNING

It was in the early 1980’s and computers were exorbitantly high priced for what you purchased specially by today’s standards. I was 39 years of age when I was introduced to a computer for the first time. I may have paid something like $60.00 for a Timex Sinclair ZX81 because this tiny appliance was priced for affordability and targeted to families. It was so small it could serve as a door stop.

The Timex Sinclair 1000 computer had 2K of program memory. The keyboard was printed on a large flat membrane, much like one might see on a microwave oven. It displayed B&W text and crude character based graphics on a TV set and it had no sound. It could be hooked to a cassette recorder or printer. A 16K expansion was available and I saved up enough money to buy one of these for $39 or so.

One could do some limited word processing, play chess and other elementary games. It was ridiculously slow but I had nothing with which to compare it so I waited while it did its thing. It wasn’t much but it was a mystery buster for me. From my experiments with this machine I soon moved to a more productive and utilitarian computer gifted to me by computer store owners for my use in the church office. I had joined the computer revolution.

One can still find these collector’s items. http://www.zebrasystems.com/zebrasystems/zx81/

HOW MANY WORDS HAVE I WRITTEN?

A NEW LEARNING
How many words have passed from my fingers and through my mouth? I pondered that today.

When I began as a full time pastor in 1969 it was in the town of Smiths Falls, Ontario. Calvary Bible Church was the name of the congregation to which I was called. Perhaps 75 people attended church services on Sunday. It was customary for churches of some reasonable size and particularly churches with an evangelical and or fundamentalist theology to hold both morning and evening Sunday church services. The paid pastor was expected to preach at both of these public services. Wednesday evening was customarily viewed as Prayer Meeting Night. A loyal core of 8-12 people attended this gathering at which the pastor was once again expected to deliver a prepared study before the group prayed. During the five years that I pastored in Smiths Falls I also wrote a column in a weekly local newspaper called 'the Record News' which reached well beyond our town. Personal computers had not yet appeared to become the office necessities they are now. I wrote every sermon and article in long hand or typed them using a typewriter. Each sermon might be six pages typewritten single-spaced resulting in a word total 5000 words. In one year I processed 480,000 words in 96 sermons, 100,000 words in 48 devotional studies and another 52,000 words in 52 newspaper articles. I followed this same preparatory practice in my second church in Peterborough, Ontario where beginning in 1974 I served for seven years. During those seven years I began a Master’s degree program in Toronto, seventy-five miles away and this program took me five years to complete, and approximately 45 term papers and 475,000 words. I began writing monthly magazine articles at this time so throw in another 24,000 words annually. On to Toronto in 1982, specifically Scarborough and a church at which I pastored for ten years with the same commitment to two Sunday sermons and a mid-week message. Here the advent of a personal computer, primitive as they were, modified some of the tedium of handwritten material. Then the big move to the West and ten years serving a church in Cloverdale, British Columbia. During this time, our leadership team made a decision to operate with only a morning service. My spoken output was not minimized since we were a large enough congregation to require two morning services and that meant preaching twice. This was also a season during which I enrolled and completed a six year part-time doctoral program which may have required 210,000 words plus a 400 page thesis of 140,000 words. I also wrote the manuscripts for three books, one of them a children’s novel which may yet be published and these may be estimated at 100,000 words. Following the pastoral career I served for six years as a church denominational president during which time I was responsible for many articles, reports, booklets and research documents which I have to ballpark at 8 million words.

Perhaps thirty million words have flowed from my fingers but I have probably underestimated because I have not included all of my journal writing through the years, or the 500 words per blog entry here. 30,000,000 words written and seventy percent of them preached. That is the equivalent of 60,000 pages or 150 John Grisham size novels. That’s a substantial output.

Canada Pension Plan – Huge Increase Announced

A NEW LEARNING
Canada Pension Plan – Huge Increase Announced

My worries are over.
The Federal Government yesterday, announced a whopping increase to Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Payment Rates. Prime Minister Harper made the announcement to a shocked House of Commons, citing it as one of the integral steps to the stimulus package. He stated that he believes that seniors with this fresh incentive money will boost the economy significantly. He described how with limited incomes, seniors have been compelled to locate inexpensive beverages and food at Tim Horton’s and MacDonald’s franchises for years. He wants to encourage seniors to enjoy the occasional Starbucks latte and Keg steak dinner.

Harper’s announcement estimates that twenty-eight million dollars has been designated to finance the substantial boost in CPP benefits. Here is the way it breaks down. At age 65 the maximum monthly benefit to Canadians has been $908.75. This has been raised to $1500 per month effective May 1 2009. Survivors benefit (under age 65) was $506.38 and is now $1000 per month. The entire CPP payment Plan can be found at http://www1.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/isp/pub/factsheets/rates.shtml

The Prime Minister has also announced the unusual option that seniors may choose to have their CPP as one annual lump sum rather than monthly payments. If a senior signs to accept this option within the next ten days, there is a signing bonus of $5000.00. Mr. Harper indicated that his desire is that seniors with these substantial amounts of money will be encouraged to spend. This will assist the recovery of our sagging economy. He also indicated that if anyone over 65 years of age purchases a new car between April 1 and June 1 2009 the Federal Government will provide an interest free loan of up to $20,000. Needless to say, with the ageing population, and the imminent possibility of another election, Mr. Harper is counting upon a huge support from the senior sector of the nation and pundits and journalists believe he will get the majority government for which he has been looking.

An April 7th Addendum: Readers who happen to look back to this entry after the April 1st date may not associate it with the April 1st joke it was intended to be. That's what it is. Here is a link to a government page with an actual January 1st 2009 increase in the CPP rate and opportunity to ask a commissioner any private question concerning your entitlement. http://news.gc.ca/web/article-eng.do?nid=426809

Advice Given to me for Feeling Sorry for Myself

A NEW LEARNING
After I wrote my recent piece called 'Feeling Sorry for Myself' March 24th, a good friend wrote to me with some advice. Here it is.

"Ron: I see you woke up recently and realized you're getting older. Since I'm about a year older than you I thought I might give you some advice on aging. Remember they used to call this period in our lives, "the golden years" Now it is referred to as the "metal years:" silver in your hair, gold in your teeth and lead in your pants. It's that time of life when you think sexy lingerie is tube-socks and a flannel nighty, when you're out of your depth in a parking lot puddle, when you're still chasing women but can't remember why. You join a health club and by the time you get your leotards on you're too tired to exercise. When your memory's not as sharp as it used to be and when your memory's not as sharp as it used to be. When you've still got it but nobody wants it. You get into swing dancing, not because you want to but because some parts of your body are just prone to swinging. It really gets scary when your body starts making the same sounds as the coffee maker. Don't let aging get you down buddy; it's too hard to get back up."

More than Gold

A NEW LEARNING
When athletes and countries come to British Columbia next spring 2010 it will be to compete for the purpose of securing ‘gold’ in a variety of winter sports. The Winter Olympics are coming here. A gold medal will gratify a recipient for a lifetime.

What could be of greater value than gold? Is there something that can reward the recipient well beyond the end of life? ‘More Than Gold’ has been employed to express Christian Witness at other major sporting venues. In fact, the history of the phrase dates back to the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games and since then it has been used at Commonwealth, Pan Am and Olympic Games. Global Events Group is a non profit organization that was mandated to coordinate the cooperative efforts of Christian communities at major sporting events around the world. MTG (More than Gold) communicates that the Christian community is present.

Within our wide community there is a strong and vibrant motivation among people and in churches to move from isolation to working together in ways that will surely result in a sharing of faith and good news with visitors from other lands that will change lives forever.

You can check out More Than Gold here.

Not only will there be hundreds of events and programs scheduled during the games but long-term strategies are being planned to follow this unified effort which may help to transform our own cities and others too.

Critics will always be critical but this Kingdom effort makes more sense than sitting on one’s duff.

That's Cindy Klassen with five golds and she will be letting people know about her relationship with Jesus Christ.

STEAK ON THE BARBY & HEATING UP THE GLOBE

A NEW LEARNING
Do you enjoy a savoury serving of prime rib or steak? Did it ever cross your mind that your impact on global warming might have something to do with how much meat you eat? Did you know that all of us who do enjoy meat are contributing to the global warming concerns? That’s what some scientists are saying. Ah, they're constantly out to spoil a person’s fun.

Two scientists named Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin examining the production of greenhouse gases, found that our consumption of red meat may be as bad for the planet as it is for our bodies. I didn’t even know that this was bad for my body and now I learn that I am offending the planet. They found that the amount of fossil-fuel energy required to produce and prepare a red meat product for purchase and for a meal was significantly higher than other diets. The vegetarian diet is the most energy efficient, followed by poultry. I can't think of a more futile vocation than theirs. Who is going to listen to them? But I could be wrong. There is an entire society of non meat eaters. Yes, that's right. They have had to form a society - an exclusive group of devotees.


I am not a vegetarian but I have read some disquieting reasons to consider this lifestyle change. We used to be a society that ate meat perhaps once per week and now meat eaters eat it every day. That means that “if meat consumption in the developed world was cut from the current level of about 90 kilograms a year to the recommended level of 53 kilograms a year, livestock related emissions would fall by 44 percent.” One scientist Mira Oberman, likens hamburgers to the Hummer of food in global warming. And my wife says that I am guilty of exaggerated communication.

Now let me introduce you to the term ‘vegan.’ Donald Watson, creator of the term vegan to denote "non-dairy vegetations", and founder of the Vegan Society in November 1, 1944, the first ever society for vegans. (that naturally follows). I think that's him in the photo and he looks healthy doesn't he? The word has since passed into common usage and is used in a variety of ways. See Veganism for more information. The date of the society's founding, November 1st, is now celebrated annually as World Vegan Day.

The Vegan mission is 'Promoting ways of living free from animal products for the benefit of people, animals and the environment.'

hmmm, barbeque sauce, pulled pork, ribs, succulent steak, glazed ham, farmer style sausage, southern fried chicken, mmmmmm

Out for a Stroll

A NEW LEARNING
Have you gone for your walk today? Did it take some effort? Was it just around the block?
These two men walked around their vehicle. It may have been an effortless walk for two former school teachers. This past Monday Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold took their second and last space walk of this shuttle mission. They walked outside the International Space Station which is approximately 220 miles (354 km) from earth. Nevertheless it was work. They repositioned an equipment storage cart, deployed an external cargo mounting mechanism, lubricated the space station's robotic arm and reconfigured cables that power the station's gyroscopes. Their walk lasted 6 ½ hours. Spaceship Discovery docked on March 17 with the International Space Station, bringing cargo which included solar panels. During this mission the astronauts have installed the station's fourth and final pair of solar panels to expand the satellite's power supply. The mission also delivered astronaut Koichi Wakata, who has officially joined the permanent crew on the orbiting space station as its first Japanese member. He is replacing US astronaut Sandra Magnus, who will join the Discovery crew for the flight back to Earth. This departure is just one day before the Russian Soyuz rocket launches a mission carrying two more crew members to join the current International Space Station crew. Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and US astronaut Michael Barratt will replace Lonchakov and current commander Mike Fincke. In addition Hungarian-born software engineer and co-founder of Microsoft, Charles Simonyi, who is making his second trip to the station, is classified as a "spaceflight participant," really a tourist. It is reported that Simonyi paid $35 million US to book his second ticket to space. He first visited the station in April 2007. On Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Discovery undocked from the Space Station and stayed in space until today, Saturday March 28th when the craft is scheduled to conclude its 13 day mission with a return to earth.
I have to go for another walk. I didn’t go far this morning because it was so cool.