Today, in the car, I was listening to my new praise and worship CD, when a familiar song came on: "Come, Now Is The Time To Worship". I suddenly really listened to the lyrics:

Come, now is the time to worship!
Come, now is the time to give your heart!
Come, now is the time to worship!
Come, now is the time to give your heart!
Come ...

One day every tongue will confess You are God!
One day every knee will bow!
Still, the greates treasure remains for those
Who glady choose You now!

But that's not true ... is it?

His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, "Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!" And he said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found." - Luke 15:28-32

The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. "These men who were hired last worked only one hour," they said, "and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day." But he answered one of them, "Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?" - Matthew 20:9-

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. - Luke 15:7

Thinking I had discovered some glaring works-righteous error, I went to talk with my pastor about my "discovery". He knew what I was going to ask before I was done speaking and said that he had seen Brian Doerksen, the writer of the song, speak about these lyrics at Breakforth. Apparently, Brian Doerksen is constantly asked that question (and, my pastor said, is a bit bitter about it!).

For more about the actual meaning behind "Come, Now is the Time to Worship", see below:

Worship leader Brian Doerksen's signature song was birthed out of the darkest season of his life
By Lindsay Terry

Brian Doerksen was born into a Christian family in a very musical home, just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia. At first, he wasn't interested in living for God. But when he was 15, he says, "I heard the Lord saying, 'Give Me your whole life.' And I said yes."

Soon he developed "this incredible hunger to serve God through music." He became the full-time music minister at a Vineyard Church, in British Columbia, and discovered a gift for songwriting. His most famous composition to date came in the summer of 1997, during a time that he describes as "the darkest and lowest season of my life."

When Brian and a team of investors lost more than $1 million in a failed ministry project, Brian and his wife, Joyce, lost their house. And Brian fell into a deep depression. Hoping to regroup, Brian moved his family to England and became the worship pastor of South-west London Vineyard, but life dealt another blow when he and Joyce discovered that three of their six children had a condition called Fragile X Syndrome, a form of mental retardation.

"One morning, I went for a prayer walk, to pour out my heart to God," he says. "As I was walking, I heard as clear as a bell, 'Come, now is the time to worship … ' I thought, Wow! The call of worship is being sounded all of the time and in all kinds of ways. I was sweating, and walking, and singing that line over and over again, just sensing God's nearness." Back at home, he ran upstairs and sat down at the piano. "I took a pad and began to write everything I could think of concerning the call to worship. Suddenly, I realized that God's call to worship doesn't come only to those who have it 'all together.' It comes to all of us." That epiphany gave birth to "Come, Now Is the Time to Worship," a song that Brian says "became like wings to lift me up from those shadows that had almost engulfed me."

Within weeks of teaching the song to his congregation, he began hearing reports of other churches singing it. Purely by word of mouth, the song made its way to churches around the world. Brian recorded the song in 1998, and it has since become one of the most popular modern praise songs.

Now back at home in Canada, Brian says: "I believe God wants us to come and worship just the way we are, though when true worship happens we don't stay the way we are."

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine

I visited a website today called The Story of Stuff that talks about the materials economy and the effect our consumerism is having on the planet. The video is twenty minutes long, but well worth watching.

It was announced last week that Season 17 of Survivor will be held in Gabon, Africa. Thus far, the show has also been set in Kenya, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Marquesas, Palau, Vanuatu, Guatemala, Panama and Brazil.

Will we ever see Survivor: Arctic? Likely not: parkas don't have the same ratings appeal that bikinis do, although frostbite can be pretty entertaining. However, I think it would be a real challenge to endure even 40 days in northern Saskatchewan in mid-winter.

The best thing about this concept would be seeing the following senario play out at least once if not multiple times:



"Hey ... we're voting Robert out tonight."

"What the &@%$!!! I AM ROBERT!!!"

I am not a huge reality TV fan, but lately, the show I never miss is Farmer Wants a Wife on The CW. My mom heard about it from one of her friends. Basically, it is a country version of "The Bachelor".



Now gather round, and lend ya ear
I got the tale of a man I want ya to hear
His land and cattle and chickens abound
But this good ol' boy ain't got no lady around!

So enter ten gals who're running from the city
Coming to the country lookin' mighty pretty
The courtin' begins on this fair day
But only one will finally say,

They've come to try the country life
'Cause this farmer wants a wife!

Nothing says "country living" like rapping.

I had my doubts, but curiousity got the better of me, and now I'm hooked: partially because I get a laugh out of the ten girls who are afraid of chickens and walk around in spike heels, and partially because no farmer - single or married - from my town ever looked like this guy!

I'm famous ... to a very select and few number of people!

I subscribe to RELEVANT magazine, and recently was asked to give my opinions for an upcoming article on seven social issues: war, consumerism, culture, faith, homosexuality, injustice and politics. I was e-mailed a list of questions and asked to reply with my answers, and I did so ... after telling them that I was having a hard time answering because the way they posed the questions seemed to have some underlying bias:

ex: "How should Christians respond to the sin of homosexuality?"

ex: "Republicans support war. Democrats support abortion. Who should a Christian vote for?"

Despite my criticism of them and their article, they still published two of my comments in the online bonus section: albeit, not on homosexuality or politics ...

Faith: What Is the Biggest Problem Facing the Church Today?

I think one of the biggest problems facing the Church today is a hesitation to talk openly about one's faith, especially outside the church community. It has nearly become taboo to be religious, and many people keep their faith hidden outside of their church peer group due to embarrassment or fear of offending others. Christians need to adopt a non-judgmental attitude about others' beliefs, but also not be afraid to admit their own.

Consumerism: How Do We Escape the Excesses of Culture?

Money itself is not "the root of all evil"; love of money is. It is not a sin to have possessions, but it is how you use your resources which matters most. Society today is extremely materialistic. This can not only can lead people to spend on themselves rather than give to the Church or direct some resources to those in need, but also cause us to consume at a greater rate, which negatively effects our stewardship of the environment. We are called to be stewards, not consumers. Money, work and possessions can easily become false idols if they become our primary focus.

To read the rest of the online commentary, click here.

I was talking with one of my clients about the book On Death and Dying, and she suddenly said she had heard all of this before ... on "Robot Chicken".



Take that, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross!

Thanks to Marjorie Ingerman,
who told me about this song by Lost and Found!!!



"The Lutherans Song" was commissioned for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America national youth gathering.

Stephen Colbert recently interviewed Stanford psychologist Philip Zimbardo about his new book, The Lucifer Effect. (My two biggest passions - psychology and theology - combined!) I have been trying to find a working video clip for this interview, so if you see one, send me the link. The best I could do was to copy the transcript below. This aired on "The Colbert Report" on February 11, 2008. My favorite part of this interview is Colbert's closing retort: if that shows up on a t-shirt, I am totally getting one (despite Natasha's very good point: "But ... where would you wear it?")!!!

Stephen: My guest tonight is a professor at Stanford University who wrote The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. But is he here, or is his evil twin? Please welcome Philip Zimbardo!

I’ve gotta say, with a name like “Dr. Zimbardo” and that goatee, you could be your evil twin!

Zimbardo: I actually brought you a present from Stanford: a Lucifer T-shirt.

Stephen: A Lucifer — Now, is this their mascot at Stanford?

Zimbardo: Ah, yeah. It could be. Now, Lucifer was God’s favorite angel –

Stephen: He was the Light Bearer.

Zimbardo: He disobeyed God and he became the Devil.

Stephen: He disobeyed God and became the Devil. So, therefore, I guess what you’re saying is that, to be good, you must obey authority.

Zimbardo: Ah, that’s what the authorities tell us.

Stephen: Yes. That’s what this authority tells you.
What is the “Lucifer Effect”?

Zimbardo: The “Lucifer Effect” is just that, the reason I titled it that is we’re interested in ordinary people that get caught up in new situations and slowly, over time, go down that slippery slope.

Stephen: Now, you have an interesting experiment here that you did at Stanford University; tell, tell the kids out there what happened to twenty-four students at Stanford.

Zimbardo: It’s a very simple experiment where you put good kids in a bad situation, kids we chose because they were normal and healthy, randomly flipped a coin: guards and prisoners. And in less than five days, we had to end the study. The ‘guards’ got into their role so extremely that they began to psychologically abuse their ‘prisoners’, all the way to sexual degradation of the kind we saw at Abu Ghraib.

Stephen: This could happen to anybody; is this just the United States, you’re saying, or anywhere in the world this could happen?

Zimbardo: There was one kid from Canada.

Stephen: [laughing] Oh, well. There’s — well, that blows the experiment! That is, there’s your bad apple; right there!

Zimbardo: [laughing] No, it could happen to anybody. It could happen anywhere, to almost anybody. There’s a small group of people who resist the pressure to conform, to comply.

Stephen: Are you saying that you should not conform, to be good?

Zimbardo: You shouldn’t conform mindlessly. And you shouldn’t obey authority — unjust authority.

Stephen: But how do you know what authority is just or not? I mean, you do what people tell you to do ...

Zimbardo: Wrong.

Stephen: ... who are in power, and then you have to trust that that was the right thing to do. What else is society based on?

Zimbardo: It’s based on being mindful and doing critical thinking. Because a lot of authority is unjust, a lot of orders are wrong orders –

Stephen: If they were unjust, they wouldn’t be authorities. I mean, like, I tell these people to do all kinds of crazy things. And they know, they know it’s the right thing to do because I told them to do it. Are you saying that they’re evil?

Zimbardo: Only in this situation. See, the whole point is, we underestimate the power of social situations. We think everything comes from within us, that we are born with good or bad genes, we have good or bad personality characteristics –

Stephen: Garden of Eden.

Zimbardo: Absolutely.

Stephen: That’s where, that’s where Good and Evil started.

Zimbardo: Why did the Devil make Adam and Eve eat the apple?

Stephen: Because he disobeyed the authority of God! He was non-conformist, doin’ his own thing, lettin’ it all hang out, did not want to serve the ultimate Authority like you say he shouldn’t, and he turned out to be the ultimate Evil! I’m sorry, the title of your book turns the argument on its head.

Zimbardo: Oh, no no no no no no!

Stephen: Oh, yes yes yes yes yes yes.

Zimbardo: No … Lucifer is God’s favorite angel, right?

Stephen: [faux disdainfully] Until he disobeys, go ahead.

Zimbardo: But why does he disobey? Because God says, I have created this perfect creature, Adam, and everybody has to obey him. And Lucifer says, wait a minute, he’s a mortal, mortals are corruptible. We’re angels; I refuse. And that’s disobedience to authority. So the reason Lucifer — as the Devil — seduced Adam, is to say, God, I’m right, and you’re wrong. This guy is corruptible; he’s not somebody we should respect. He is just an ordinary mortal.

Stephen: But in that case, Lucifer was right.

Zimbardo: Lucifer was right, and God was wrong.

Stephen: [laughing, backing away] Okay, okay!

Zimbardo: If God was into reconciliation, He would say, I made a mistake, okay? God created Hell. Paradoxically, it was *God* who created Hell as a place to put Lucifer and the fallen angels. And had He not created Hell, then evil would not exist, so you would not ...

Stephen: No, evil exists because of the disobedience of Satan. God gave Satan, the angels, and man, free will. Satan used his free will, and abused it by not obeying authority. Hell was created by Satan’s disobedience to God and his purposeful removal from God’s love. Which is what Hell is: removing yourself from God’s love. You send yourself to Hell, God does not send you there.

Zimbardo: Obviously, you learned well in Sunday School.

Stephen: I teach Sunday School, mother@%#&er!!!

[Still laughing] Dr. Zimbardo, thank you so much for joining us. The book is, The Lucifer Effect. We’ll be right back!

I recently was talking with a friend on the phone about her husband's latest antics. She told me that she woke up one day to find the milk jug sitting on the counter and sighed: her husband had obviously forgotten to put the milk back when he had a late night snack, causing it to spoil. As she angrily pointed out that he had wasted their milk, he was quick to defend himself by saying that the milk was not in the refrigerator because, when he had gone to get it, he had discovered it was already sour, and he planned to pour it out later.

Shortly afterwards, my friend thought that this might be an opportunity to do some baking of muffins with the sour milk, so she asked her husband where it was: after their earlier discussion, he had promptly poured it out. Once again, my friend was unimpressed with her spouse, until I pointed out the confusion he must be feeling:

"Way to go! This milk is ruined now ... what do you mean you threw it away?!? It was still good!"

No wonder men hate women ...

Better late than never, here is Pastor Bruce's 2007 Remembrance Day sermon. I was the reader on this Sunday when he preached the same sermon at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Saskatoon.

I hope that you find it as meaningful as I did.

My dad recently had a heart valve replacement and triple bypass. The day after his surgery, while he was still in Intensive Care, this song ("Damaged", by Danity Kane - which I had never heard before!) came on the radio as I was driving to the hospital:



CRUEL FATE, WHY DO YOU MOCK ME?!?!?!?

PS: My dad is doing great. In his case, "how ya' gonna fix it" was with a pig valve and a vein from his leg.