All our news and blog entries have been consolidated into one place. Please join us at Tumblr
Marriage Vitamin
A local wise man stood in his front yard and noticed the lawn across the street was much more vibrant and a healthier shade of green than his own lawn. He wondered why that lawn was so much better than his. Crossing the street, he inspected his neighbour’s lawn. Upon looking closer he realized that lawn was about the same as his. When he looked back across the street at his own grass it looked more vibrant than before.
The grass wasn’t actually greener on the other side of the street.
Some researchers have posited that affairs don’t happen primarily when marital satisfaction is low, but when opportunity is high. The truth is affairs do not just happen to ‘bad marriages’.
Determine that adultery is not an option, but be aware that it is a possibility and defend against it. (The same advice can be applied to our attitudes regarding divorce.)
One major defence is to build fences. Fences are boundaries a couple establishes to reduce opportunities for any degree of infidelity. These fences are simple boundaries erected to protect each spouse from temptation. Fences can be; Keeping the computer in a high traffic area of the house, limiting time alone with the opposite sex, sharing e-mail and Facebook passwords with our spouse, not developing close relationships with people of the opposite sex, keeping marital complaints within the marriage or with a trusted counsellor. The types of fences needed depend on the marriage as each couple’s needs and temptations are different.
Why do our sex drives develop years before we can safely act on them? God doesn’t tempt us to sin, but it is He who designed us. So why do humans develop a sex drive at puberty but cannot righteously express it outside of marriage, something that happens in adulthood?
We have a sex drive before we can use it because we need to learn to control our desires. Even after marriage, we need to be able to control whatever desires we have, be they physical or emotional. Our spouse will never be able to meet our every need the moment we feel it. Before marriage and after marriage, we must have fences that establish boundaries as a conscious strategy to remain pure. These boundaries are just as important after the wedding day as before, maybe more important. For those who have not developed these fences prior to marriage, or in their marriage, there is hope. It is never too late to start building some fences.
Keep your eyes on your own lawn, manage your thoughts and desires.
And remember, the grass isn’t greener on the other side.
Now go water your lawn.
The Shadow’s Substance
The following has been excerpted from Bewitched IV, preached on October 17th 2010 by Cal Keys.
You can download this and other sermons at streamschurch.com/sermons2.html
The Colossians had become religious. To them it was all about the regulations, the principles and rules. Jesus was nothing more than the regulator of the regulations, the principle of the principles, and the ruler of the rules. This is what Jesus is for many Christians today. This is the Jesus we must submit to, to keep our fire insurance policy intact.
Christianity is not about a way of life. It’s about Jesus, who is the way. It’s not about a catalogue of truths. It’s about Jesus, who is the truth. He is the way, the truth and life. Christianity is Christ. Nothing more, nothing less. Conversion to Christianity is not just a change in direction, it’s a change in connection. The Bible says we have been “called into the fellowship of God’s son”. Christianity is not about fixing the things that have gone wrong in our lives, it’s about God finding us in our brokenness, and giving us Jesus.
We are the Earth, and he is the sun. When our lives revolve around him, he gives us life, he gives light. Everything works. When our lives do not orbit around him, everything is out of kilter. Why? Because everything that exists was made to orbit him, to be occupied with him. Paul tells the Colossian Christians that the universe was created by Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. Heaven and earth are held together by Christ……
The Colossians were bewitched and standing in the shadows. Christians, we have to stop living in the shadows. The substance is here. The Substance is Jesus. He fulfilled the law that I could never fulfill, and now I am in him. He is my Sabbath rest, I rest in him.
The Old Testament is the shadow. We see it from the very beginning. On the first day God said “Let there be light”. Jesus is the light of the world.
On the second day God created the waters. Jesus said “if any man thirst let him come unto me”
On the third day, God caused the dry ground to arise. Jesus arose on the third day and made life possible. God created the plants. Jesus is the true vine and he is the bread of life.
On the fourth day God created the sun, the moon and the stars. Jesus is the son of righteousness that rises with you in his wings. He is the bright and morning star.
On the fifth day he created the animals. Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.
On the sixth day God created man. Jesus is the son of man, the God man.
On the seventh day God rested. Jesus is the real Sabbath. He is our rest.
Genesis is not a debate of creation versus evolution. It’s a shadow of Christ. Adam is a shadow of the second Adam, Jesus. Eve is a shadow of Jesus’ bride, the church.
When Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice, it was a shadow. For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son. That is the substance.
To be set free from Egypt, Israel had to kill the Passover lamb and apply the blood. That was the shadow. Jesus is the substance, he is our Passover lamb. And more. He is our Red Sea. He is our promised land. He is the scapegoat of Leviticus. He is the wisdom of Proverbs. He is the fourth man in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
I could go on, but I want you to see, we no longer have to live in the shadow. We have the substance. It is Jesus. It’s about him. And it always has been. All Scripture speaks of him. The Father exalts him. The Spirit points to him. The angels worship him.
God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.
We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust…
-Colossians 1:13 — 23. The Message.
Christianity is Christ. It is relationship with this infinite, radiant, victorious, stunning, matchless, majestic, magnificent Christ.
Free2Walk
Human Trafficking is an injustice and an evil that Streams Church is passionate about fighting and defeating. The anger that has arisen in response to the reality of human trafficking and sex trafficking has led to the creation of Scarlet Cord which helps rescue and equip trafficked women and children in four different hotspots around the world through fund raising.
Locally the Magdalene House Society is raising funds to build a Magadalene House in Red Deer. Red Deer is a waypoint in the Central Alberta corridor and is strategically situated to host this valuble resource.
If you are interested in helping raise funds you can visit their website and donate, sign up for their Free2Walk fundraiser, or support someone else who has signed up. Free2Walk is a 10K walk held June 11th. It starts at 10.00 AM at 5579 47 Street. You can register here. If you sign up, leave you name and some contact info in a comment below. If you would like to sponsor someone from the church who is participating, please contact someone listed below.
The Revelation Cafe
by Joel Keys
Where is Jesus?
This is the question that has been posed every week in the Revelation Cafe, our weekly Bible study that wound down at the end of April. As we have read through the Old Testament in the Chronological Bible we have searched for Jesus Sightings, types and pictures of Jesus and foreshadowing of the New Covenant. Reading the Old Testament this way has allowed us to look forward, make new connections and to see the Old Testament in a new light.
The reading in May includes the narrative of Solomon building the first Temple for God. When the temple was completed, in preparation for its dedication and use, the Ark of the Covenant was brought and placed in the Most Holy Place. Then “…when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.” (1 Kings 8.10,11)
It says the glory of the LORD filled the temple, to the extent that the priests were incapacitated under the glory (figuratively ‘weight’) of God. After the Temple was dedicated, offerings were made. Then, as it was the designated time, Israel celebrated the Festival of Shelters. During this festival people would stay in shelters to recall the nation’s time in the wilderness. The festival of shelters was known as the most joyous of all festivals. Psalms were sung (Psalms 113 through 118.), food was eaten and fun was had. The festivals were a time to remember God’s goodness.
These festivals were also a rehearsal, a prophetic act, for the great things God was going to do in the future.
We can see three things foreshadowed in this narrative:
God’s glory will cover the Earth.
The glory of the LORD filled the temple. Habakkuk 2.14 says the earth will be filled with the experiential knowledge of the same glory. Looking forward to Jesus, when he died the veil that kept the Most Holy Place separate from the rest of the world and humanity was torn in two, from the top down. This has made possible the knowledge of the glory of the LORD to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
God’s people will be a temple and this temple will include all nations.
During the Festival of Shelters seventy bulls were sacrificed over a week to represent the nations of the Earth (The festival was also known as the Festival of Nations). Israel’s purpose had always been to be a blessing to the world.
During this festival they would sings Psalms 113 through 118, which included exhortations such as;
“Praise the LORD, all nations!
Extol him, all peoples!”
Looking forward, Jesus came to the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike, as prophesied in Zechariah 2.11, “And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people”. Jesus is that which Psalms 118.22 spoke of, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
Paul refers back to this in Ephesians chapter two, saying “You (Gentiles) are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,”
There will be a great harvest.
The Festival of Shelters was also a celebration of the harvest as it took place at harvest time in the autumn.
With the Kingdom here, with the veil torn, with the Gospel available to all the earth, there is a harvest that is ripe. Jesus spoke of a harvest when he sent out the seventy-two (Luke 10.1-3) to minister. Like a spiritual harvest results in joy (see the parables of Luke 15), joy was a prominent part of this festival.
These three things have been fulfilled in Christ Jesus. He made way for the Holy Spirit to come, for the glory of God to be manifest everywhere. He laid the foundations, was the very cornerstone, of a temple (Church) that is made up of living stones from all nations. There was a great harvest from Acts 2 onwards throughout history, and up unto present day.
Reading the Old Testament and looking forward to the New Covenant and to Jesus, we can see things getting better and better.
In life, standing on this side of the cross, there is no reason to believe things won’t continue to improve. The glory that fell upon the people of God gathered at Solomon’s Temple was merely a taste of what God has for the world now.
The knowledge of the glory of God will increase. The coming harvest will be greater than any previously known. God continues to build his Church (See Ephesians 4.11-13) and will continue to do so until it is perfected.
There is hope.
We are winning.
We are moving from glory to glory.
Marriage Vitamin: The Language of Love
Gary Chapman has a New York Times Bestseller, The 5 Love Languages, that is a good read for any couple. In it Chapman describes how everybody gives and receives love in one of five love languages. Often we may have a secondary language, but for the most part we have a native love language.
Couples rarely have the same love language. As often as you say ‘I love you’ in English, if your spouse speaks French, they will not understand.
The Five Love Language are; Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service and Physical Touch.
Each person has a Love Tank. Like a gas tank in a car it is best not to let it get to empty. When someone’s love tank is empty pain and resentment result. Being ‘in love’, that emotional, honeymooner state, can keep out tanks full for a while, but eventually our emotional high will fade and it takes more work for our spouse to keep our tanks filled.
This is why it is crucial to learn to express your love in the language your spouse understands. When we are able to do this it can vastly improve our marriage.
If your spouse speaks:
Words of Affirmation, compliment them, verbalize your appreciation, encourage them, use kind words and tone. When it comes to household tasks, request rather than demand. Use words to express your love, respect and admiration for your spouse and their tank will overflow.
Quality Time, give them your undivided attention. Quality time is not the same as parallel time, doing the same thing at the same time. (i.e. watching TV) Focus on them. Have quality conversations, where there is a free exchange of thoughts, feelings, ideas and desires. Often your spouse who speaks this language wants your sympathetic ear rather than your problem solving plan. Participate in quality activities your spouse enjoys.
Receiving Gifts, pay attention to what gifts in the past have excited them, what kind of objects they keep forever. A gift is a visual, tactile symbol of your love. It can be a memento, an object that recalls a treasured memory. It can be a gadget or book or movie that they really desired, giving it can make them feel known and special. Gifts can be found, made, bought, expensive, cheap, big or small.
Acts of Service, do the things your spouse wants done. Be proactive and preemptive, don’t wait to be asked. Don’t be a doormat, be a lover who anticipates their needs and takes joy in fulfilling them.
Physical Touch, hold their hand, kiss and hug them. Physical touch includes sex, but is about so much more. A simple hand on a knee during a movie, or hand on the shoulder as you pass each other. It can be as easy as sitting closer on the couch. It is incredible the strength you can impart in a crisis simply through a hug.
Learn to speak your spouse’s love language, and learn to interpret theirs and your love tanks can be full, leading to a healthier, more vibrant marriage. To learn what your love language is take the online assessment.
Growing Overcomers Takes a Little Craziness
by Sharolyn Sanchez
A few months ago I attended an Early Learning workshop called Building Resiliency. It was full of good information to help children build skills to overcome adversity. There was one section that particularly caught my attention. A study had been done to determine why some children do better than others in overcoming difficult circumstances in their young lives. The results challenged me.
The study found that the only factor that seemed of any consistency was that “overcomers” had someone or people in their lives that were crazy about them. I determined right then and there that I would be crazy about every child in my life. But the thought struck me, “What if a whole church was crazy about the children in their church?”
We know God is crazy about us but how do our children know that God is crazy about them? They can only know by the love that we show them. Help Streams Kids overcome any struggles they face in their lives; be crazy about them.
The Death of Religion
by Cal Keys
Jesus had declared war on religion, and he did not hold back. Listen to his words in Matthew from the Message, “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something.”
What was Jesus’ problem with religion? Religion is a reliance on rules and rituals as our conduit to God. The problem is, instead of being a conduit, it ends up being a barrier that keeps people from God.
I often wonder if religion is the enemy of God. It’s almost like religion is what happens when the Spirit has left the building.
-BonoChristianity is not a religion. Christianity is the proclamation of the end of religion, not of a new religion, or even of the best of all religions. …If the cross is the sign of anything, it’s the sign that God has gone out of the religion business and solved all of the world’s problems without requiring a single human being to do a single religious thing. What the cross is actually a sign of is the fact that religion can’t do a thing about the world’s problems that it never did work and it never will…
-Robert Capon
Remember Israel at Mount Sinai? Moses went up the mountain and encountered God. This is what God wants. Face to face relationship like he had in the garden of Eden. All of Israel could have had this. But they were afraid and they said “Just give us a spokesman, just tell us what to do, from a distance.” So God gave them the laws and sacrifices and priests. They were to be he conduits but at they same time they were barriers.
In time rules and traditions were added. They thought if they added walls around the laws then nobody would come close to breaking tem. And the walls grew wider and wider. By Jesus day there were so many walls nobody could come close to God. Jesus came to tear down the walls, to tear the veil. He said it’s face to face time again. He said, come unto me all of you who are weary and weighed down and I will give you rest. He said, if anyone is thirsty, let him come directly to me. He said to the prodigal, come home. There are no walls to climb, no barriers to jump. I am the way. I am the truth. I am life.
Excerpted from the sermon Bewitched: Scandalous Sept. 26th 2010, available for download @ streamschurch.com
Advancing the Kingdom in Red Deer
Following are three opportunities to invest in our community. We encourage you to get involved.
The Central Alberta Women’s Emergency Shelter will be raising funds with a huge garage sale at the Royal LePage offices on May 14th. There will be hotdogs, hamburgers, face painting, balloon animals and, of ourse, great deals on gently used items. If you would like to donate anything for the sale you can drop it off at the Royal LePage offices.
The Central Alberta Pregnancy Care Centre is kicking off their Baby Bottle Campaign. Streams will have bottle available for pick-up on Mother’s Day. Grab a bottle or two, fill them with change and return them by Father’s Day.
The Magdalene House Society is hosting Free2Walk, a walk-a-thon aimed at raising funds to build a safe house in Red Deer for trafficked persons. To sign up go to their website. If you have signed up, feelf ree to share your name in the comments along with any contact information you feel comfortable sharing online so people can support you.
Slaying The Giant
Human Trafficking is an issue close to the heart of Streams Church. If you are unfamiliar with the issue check out our organization, Scarlet Cord.
This weekend Raise Their Voice put on an amazing conference The Trafficked + Exploited. With speakers such as MP Joy Smith, representatives from IJM, frontline workers and human trafficking victims it was a heart rending weekend. Beyond the righteous anger that was stirred, beyond equipping, beyond educating, the weekend birthed hope within people.
One day the giant will be slain. One day this enemy of God will be made a footstool beneath Jesus’ feet.
Streams held a special Palm Sunday Harp & Bowl that focused on Justice in the evening, where we prayed into victory, eagerly anticipating the day those prayers are fully poured out. (See Revelation 5.8)
The morning service had a special guest speaker from IJM. If you missed it you can download the recording of the service from our weekly podcast, or get it here.
