Marriage Vitamin

Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed.

- Albert Einstein

 

Everybody enters marriage with expectations.  Gender roles, priorities, romance, goals and ideals, these are all shaped by the media, by our church, by our parents.  We have plans and ideas of how things should be, unfortunately plans rarely survive implementation.

 

It is normal to enter marriage with expectations and a degree of idealism.  Not all our expectations will be met however, and at this point we are faced with a choice.  How will we respond to unmet expectations?  With disappointment, with bitterness, with resignation?  How we deal with unmet expectations can help our marriage or harm it.

 

As we age human beings generally learn to deal with ambiguity and uncertainty and mystery.  We need to apply this to our marriages, realizing that not everything will be resolved right away.  Or at all.

 

It is important to love our mate with the same love God showers us with, it is unconditional and takes us as we are.  Accepting our mate ‘as is’ does not mean resigning one’s self to having ‘settled’.  Instead of focusing on our spouse’s flaws, we can focus on their strengths.  While this changes our attitude, it also helps build our spouse into the person they were created to be, as envision by God.  Or we can continue to try to mould them into someone they were not created to be, how we have envisioned them.

Our culture has done a poor job of preparing people for life-long, successful marriage. You are able to have a healthy, vibrant marriage.  It just probably wasn’t made in Hollywood. Marriage isn’t always easy, life isn’t always easy.  Proverbs 14.4 says:

 

Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.

 

What do oxen produce that would render a manger unclean?  Livestock are messy. It can be a lot of work cleaning up after an ox, yet people still do it.  Why? Because there is a strength there to produce fruitfulness.

 

When one has no spouse, life is certainly simpler.  Being married creates conflict due to the simple fact that two people are living in close proximity for extended periods of time.  There is friction.  There is mess.

 

Yet people continue to get married.  Why? Because there is a strength there to produce fruitfulness.

 

When two people come together in covenant there are advantages.  There is mess, but it is far outweighed by abundance.  We cannot deny the messiness of marriage, the friction, the unmet expectations, the conflicts.  Instead of focusing on the inevitable mess, we should focus on the abundance available to us that we would not otherwise have.

 

Is your husband an ox, or a provider?

 

Is your wife a cow, or a nurturer?

 

That is up to you.

The Power of a Handshake

When people come to a church for the first time they are there to find God.  If they are unchurched they may not know exactly what they are searching for, but they hope to meet God.  If they are Christians, looking for a new church home, they still hope to encounter God there.  For whatever reason,  when they sit in a pew for the first time, many church visitors hope to have an encounter with God.

People often decide to make a church home if they feel that God has met them there.  This often happens through the worship service, through the sermon, through God’s manifest presence or through the people that comprise that church.

As God’s Partners, His Bride, His Body, we as saints often serve as the face of God. We are His ambassadors.  This is especially true when people first open the doors of Streams in search of a church family.

There is a simple, but crucial way in which we can team up with God to minister to hurting people.  By creating an environment of hospitality and warmth in our church, we create a venue for people to feel welcome, safe and valued.  This environment allows new-comers  to safely drop their protective barriers.

It also creates opportunities for the Holy Spirit to use us as individuals to minister to people who have come searching for an encounter.

We can be the face of God.

Building this environment involves us striving to ensure each visitor has a meaningful interaction with at least one person who already considers Streams their home church.  To this end, the church family should seek out new people in an effort to make them feel valued.  Here, adapted from How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, are six easy ways to help people feel valued.

 

1. Be genuinely interested in people.

2. Smile.

3. Remember and use their name.

4. Listen more than you talk.

5. When you do talk, focus on their interests.

6. Make them feel important.

 

Streams church believes that people are important. Every man and woman is created in God’s image and His desire for them is so great that He sent His only Son to die on their behalf. This means everyone has value.  It is within your power to be the revelation of this truth for people.

 

by Joel Keys

April event brings leading anti-trafficking lawmaker and activists to Red Deer

By Andrew Kooman

I was first pulled into the world of addressing issues of injustice in 2004 when I attended a conference in Singapore.  At the time, I was seeking deeper revelation of the love of God in my own life.  What I expected was something palatable and soft, a warm feeling that would gin me up and help me on my merry way.

God had other plans.  The conference I attended focused closely on the shocking realities of injustice so many in the world face: violence, exploitation and unapologetic abuse. The ugly and terrible truths rattled me to the core, especially the reality of human trafficking.  What I saw made me want to look away.  But I couldn’t.

As I engaged God in prayer, more urgently now for revelation of his love, those prayers were answered, but in ways that defied my expectations.  I started to see what the suffering of Christ means. The horrific suffering I was learning about at the conference of vulnerable people around the world was the suffering of Christ.

The heavy millstone reserved for anyone so evil as to cause a child to sin was put upon his neck, and he was thrown into the sea of judgment, once for all. Every act of violence and evil ever done by all the perpetrators in the world was carved into his flesh? I wanted to look away from the violence done to God but couldn’t.

Seeing afresh that Christ took upon himself all the sin he so hated out of love for all was the revelation I needed.  It also demanded a response: to step forward,  to learn, to use the gifts I have to do what I can to help those who presently suffer.  It’s meant incredible adventure, opportunity, risk, and heartbreak ever since.

It is this love of Christ that ought to compel us to learn about the evils in our day and to address them.  It is this love that must urge us to rescue people from the darkness they need not experience in light of the finished work of God.

That’s why we at Raise Their Voice have planned an upcoming event on April 15 + 16 to highlight one of the greatest evils of our time: the reality of human trafficking locally, nationally, and abroad.

We’re often asked by passionate people, “What can I do?”  If your heart has been stirred or moved along the lines of addressing human trafficking our answer is, “Don’t miss this event!”   It’s a rare opportunity we hope many will seize, one that doesn’t require a trip across the world.

We’re amazed at the people who are coming to share in our city.  Their expertise and insight into human trafficking is significant.  People like MP Joy Smith, who recently passed a bill into law in Canada that increased the mandatory sentences for child traffickers.  The other event contributors work on the front lines of activism, prevention, and care for victims of trafficking.

Learning about injustice is overwhelming, life-changing, and sobering.  It also opens a door into a deeper experience of the love of God.

The good news is that it’s not all bad news.  We can turn horrible stories of suffering into beautiful stories of real redemption.  We just need to know, and upon knowing to care.  And upon caring, act.

We expect the event in April to inform, impact, equip, and transform those who attend.  And so it is with expectation that I personally invite you to attend Raise Their Voice: The Trafficked + Exploited in Red Deer.

Streams Christian Church is having a Justice Emphasis service Sunday April 17th at 10:30 AM.

 

The Wisdom of Jethro

Excuse me, pardon me… watch your toes. And there, just one step up on the right street corner and yes… I’m on my soap box de jour… Men and Church. Men are not redundant. Some months ago, as I drove home from work listening to the radio I was confronted with the news that my gender, the male gender was redundant and obsolete. Modern science had rendered men biologically unnecessary for the continuation of humanity.  Naturally, I got a little defensive. Obsolete, who me? Really? Then again, is my biology really the sum of me? No.
Men have a critical, undeniable, pivotal and maybe an unaccomplished role in the church and in families.
Mark Gungor recently blogged relaying some incredible stats regarding the roles that men play in spiritual matters.  He related that in families where the mother attends church regularly and the father does not attend at all only 2% of their children attended church regularly as adults. Flipping that scenario around, where fathers attended church and the mothers did not – 44% of the kids attended church regularly.  Kids with dads who go to church, even without moms, are 42% more likely to go to church themselves. And the stats only get more pointed. If a father is the first in a family to follow Christ “there is a 93% probability that everyone in the household will follow.”  If it’s the mother – 17%.
Its not just nice platitudes or hollow encouragement, as men we wield critical influence in our families, influence that we can not waste or ignore. We are not irrelevant or redundant in our families, especially when it comes to spiritual things. We are called, we are blessed, to be that leader in our families, in our community, and in our church that influences others for the Kingdom of Heaven. When our example as men is one of a deep, rich and vibrant relationship with Christ, those around us can’t help but be influenced for the Kingdom of God!
And we aren’t alone.
Self reliance, independence, stubbornness. Call it what you will, commonly as men we
have the drive to do it our way, on our own. Even Moses had it. After leading the people of Israel through so much, the plagues, the Red Sea, he was forced to stop and deal with their squabbling.
He was forced to act as judge and prophet dealing with the Israel’s fighting and bickering. From dawn till dusk Moses sat as judge settling their quarrels, which would have left him with little time to do much else, much less what God was really calling Moses to do, lead the people of Israel.  He needed to learn to delegate. He was the leader of the people, he had incredible resources at his disposal yet he lacked the insight to know what to do with it.  It took wisdom offered by his father-in-law to show Moses how to release his burden of being judge so that he could be the leader he was called to be. Immediately seeing the difficulty Moses’ father-in-law recommended to Moses that he do two things. Jethro told Moses to delegate, appoint leaders over the people to help him sort out their issues and to seek God to see if his advice was sound. Moses did just that. He sought God for confirmation that this wisdom was good and he did what his father-in-law suggested. He took the wisdom offered and put it into practice.
Labels are often thrown around to describe them but the generation of men in our communities today who are in the their 20’s and 30’s are different from those before them. They have access to information and knowledge the likes of which no group of people have ever had before. They have knowledge that surpasses all other before them. Yet there lies a problem. We lack the wisdom to know what to do with this knowledge.
Moses was a good judge and he settled those disputes, but it was the wisdom of his father-in-law that kept that Moses for being perpetually stuck as judge. Moses was more then a judge, he was the leader of all the people and he needed wisdom to make that a reality.
We are not so different, myself and my peers, we have incredible knowledge but we desperately need the wisdom of those older than us. Like Jethro gave to Moses we need those who encourage us in our success and dispense wisdom that we may be even more effective.
This is not a one-way exchange, and it requires humility from both young and old. Wise ones, help us see the value in ourselves by seeing and calling out that value. But let us show you what we know. Let our knowledge, our resources be of benefit to you, and as the younger we will listen because we know that wisdom imparted will lead to destinies fulfilled. Please do not let the wisdom you have received be kept a secret.
For us that are younger, we need to realize that our knowledge needs the benefit of wisdom; we will gain much by letting our pride of knowledge go and to hearing the wisdom that is offered. A man with a thousand tools but no idea how to use them is… well useless. Moses took Jethro’s advice and sought God concerning it and benefited from it. There is a key example there for us to follow.
We are called to be leaders, leaders in our homes, communities and our church. We have great wisdom to impart, knowledge to give and we can see the kingdom of God advance as we band together as brothers. We must band together as men, so that we can see the call and the destiny that each man holds and that this church has fulfilled to the maximum.

Looking for a place to start?
There is a Men’s Breakfast March 12th at 9.00 am.  Bring $5 and enjoy a hearty breakfast with some other men.

-Jordan Shiplett

Marriage Vitamin

There is no formulae for a perfect marriage, no magic pill to solve all your problems.  But there are things you can do to have a good, solid, joyful marriage.  So every month the Currents will offer one of these marriage vitamins to you.  Marriage vitamins are a small dose of positivity that can add up to a healthy
lifestyle.
Marital satisfaction and success is not based upon marrying the right person, but upon doing the right things.  A marriage can succeed between practically any two people if they are committed to making it work.
A common cultural perception of relationships is that we must find our soul mate.  Christians have appropriated this concept and spiritualized it (The idea originated with Greek mythology).  Some have the idea that God has created for them a soul mate, the one person best suited for them, a perfect match.  All they have to do is find this person.
There is a problem with this idea. It perpetuates the belief that relationships run on butterflies and passion.  Once the emotions change people start to wonder if perhaps the person they married wasn’t  “The One”.
The Bible does not teach us how to find the one, it teaches us how to live with the one we have chosen.
Any two people committed to each other and to making their relationship work can have a successful marriage.  Commitment is the pure grit and determination to make it work out.  It is agreeing that divorce is simply not an option.  It is the willingness to change one’s self.  Commitment is not resigning to endure a joyless marriage, it is the determination to build a joyful marriage. It is the positive choice to stay together,  to affirm and actively express love to each  other and to grow as individuals.
Cohabitation is a very common living arrangement now.  But a common-law relationship is not a covenant relationship. Therefore it is not a true marriage. Cohabitation requires a minimum of commitment.
The difference between cohabitation and covenant is this: Cohabitating couples ask themselves, “What can I get out of this?”  Whereas covenant couples ask themselves, “How can I contribute to this relationship?”
There are even legally married couples who have a cohabitation attitude. This is harmful when they are not getting what they feel they deserve or need from the relationship. Then the answer often becomes, find a new relationship. And so the search for the one, or for someone who will meet all their needs, resumes.
This cohabitation attitude is often connected to the idea of a soul mate.  Finding the one requires a trial run.  And when things get hard, and they will, the logical assumption is that it should be easy with your soul mate, therefore your partner must not be your soul mate.
Sometimes people protest because the idea of soul mates is considered more romantic.  But it is the covenant couple that is more romantic.  Every morning they awake, and choose to love that person. Even people who believe in soul mates will have to learn to deal with the days where the emotion is simply not there. A marriage will always encounter problems, but they can be conquered as a couple.
The beauty of marriage is that it is a picture of Jesus and his bride. One of God’s amazing characteristics is His faithfulness.  We are called to be God’s primary means of expressing love to our spouse.
In the future there will be monthly marriage vitamins to help you grow a strong marriage.  But it all starts with this, the commitment to making it work.

-Joel Keys

A Face of Flint

Be a man.
Every boy strives to be a man, and not every man is sure he has attained true manhood.
Elements within our culture will tell us  that all that is masculine is bad.
Some churches in North America seem to cater to women rather than being geared towards men.  Are men trapped between a religious system and a world system that don’t want them?
No, God views men very differently than that. Men aren’t something to be tamed.
There are many different pictures of manhood.  King David was a Philistine slaying, handsome, golden boy who played the harp.
C.S. Lewis was a pipe smoking, nature-walking, literature reading intellectual.
Jesus’ father, Joseph, was a carpenter with integrity that sought to protect his betrothed’s honour when he thought she had betrayed him.
Masculinity is expressed in many ways, through sports, intellectual pursuits, work, hunting or art.However they express their masculinity,  many men seek an answer to the question, “Do I measure up?”
When He made the first man, Adam, He literally told him to conquer the world (Gen. 1:28) and that fiery hunger to do so has burned inside us as men ever since.
God made us in His image and that includes many awesome traits.  Men are warriors, initiators, defenders, providers, assertive, fierce, and can be single minded in their pursuit of their passions.

These are all good things, traits that God has.

You are good enough. You were made to overcome.

Because the Sovereign LORD helps me,
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
and I know I will not be put to shame.
Isaiah 50:7
(NIV)

 

-Joel Keys

Hope for Life

The February 20th podcast is now available.

It was not a typical service.  It was our Hope for Life service.  There is an anointing upon the house of Streams Church, that when we pray for barren women to conceive, they do.  When we pray for at risk babies to be born whole, they are.

When a couple encounters trouble having a baby, it can be devastating.  In an effort to display God’s love for people we invited the community to come and receive prayer.  We are confident that this time next year we will have positive reports of babies that are born as a result of God’s loving intervention this day.

If you were unable to come to the service, or were not aware of it, we encourage you to listen to the  podcasts as Cal preaches a short message regarding God’s love for us and His desire for fruitfulness. We also encourage you to come to us for prayer, a special service is not needed, we would love to pray for you.

2011 Decree

We the covenant body of  Streams Christian Church, with gratitude, believe that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father.

 

We believe that God has plans for us, to prosper us, to give us hope and a future.

 

Therefore:

 

We decree that in the year 2011

 

We will walk in the confident expectation of good from God.

 

The eyes of our hearts will be increasingly enlightened in order that we may know and experience the hope to which He has called us, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, His incomparably great power to us who believe.

 

We decree that out of the extravagance of His grace which He has lavished upon us; we shall be ministers of this new covenant of grace. Since we have this hope, we shall be bold before God and man.

 

May the God of Hope fill us with Joy and Peace in believing.

Hope for Life

There is Hope for Life.  Over the years Streams Church has seen dozens of miracles in the area of fruitfulness.  Barren women have conceived. High-risk pregnancies have not resulted in wounded families but in whole and healthy children.  We have prayed for people and seen God answer dozens of times.  When we say there is hope for women to conceive, for children to be born strong and healthy, we only say it because we have seen it over and over and because we know we serve a good God who loves us. So we present to you two stories of hope….

Shawna’s Story:

God had a plan.

A plan to bless Shawna and her husband, Dean.  God planned to bless them with two daughters as an expression of His love for them.

But before the blessing came the cancer.  It was aggressive, yet with chemotherapy, Dean and God, Shawna was able to overcome.

To keep the cancer from returning the doctors gave her medicine.  She was to take this medicine for 5 years.  While this medicine would greatly reduce the chance of Shawna getting cancer again, it would keep them from having children.

Yet a desire burned within them for the children that God Himself was eager to give them.

Hope was not lost, as God`s heart also burned to bring forth the blessing.

Shawna and Dean began to pray, wondering if perhaps she should stop taking her medicine.  They waited for the Holy Spirit to speak. They waited for a sense of peace regarding a course of action.

On a Sunday morning they had the pastor and his wife pray for them and their situation.

God did not answer their prayer for guidance.  He did not speak.  He did not answer the prayer of their lips, but the prayer of their hearts.

He opened her womb and within a month of being prayed for she was pregnant, while still on medication.

On December 5th the first blessing, Jenessa, was born.  Her name means “God has been gracious and shown favour.”

Nearly a year and a half later, on March 1st, the second blessing arrived.  They named her Kaylie, which means “Rejoice.”

These two blessings are reason to Rejoice over God’s Grace and Favour.

Raegan’s Story:

Before the foundations of the Earth were laid, God knew her.  He waited through thousands of years of human history until, finally, the proper moment came.  God intervened in the events of this world, as He does every day.  Each time is new to Him, each time He does something different, each time is exciting, something that has never happened before or will ever happen again is about to take place.  He breathes life into a collection of cells.  The time is, after all these aeons, finally right. Though she doesn’t know it yet, God has created Raegan.  And He decides that He has done a good job, and declares that she will be one of His favourites.

After a few weeks, Raegan’s brain starts to grow.  There is a flurry of activity and ferocious growth as cells specialize and reproduce.  Soon she is creating a quarter of a million neurons per minute.  This is all a part of the usual miracle that goes unnoticed.

Until something goes wrong.

This explosion of life requires certain chemicals.  The hormones that fuel this intense expansion of cells are made in the mother’s thyroid.  The thyroid cannot always keep up with the demand.

We’ve named it hypothyroidism, and Raegan’s mother has it.  The doctors say there are risks.  Raegan may be small and brittle.  Raegan may be misshapen.  Raegan’s mind may not work properly.

God says that she has a name, though no one yet knows it.  God says that He knows her and she is strong, she is beautiful and she is bright.  He says one day Raegan will dance.

The doctors give Raegan’s mother some medicine and warn her that it may cause goitres, or that Raegan may be stillborn.

God says there is no reason to fear.  As His people pray for Raegan and her parents, He listens and answers.  Throughout history He has led people with a drive to know, with a fiery compassion that spurs them on to help.  He has inspired the building of hospitals and centres of learning.

Sometimes though, He likes to do things Himself.

So when, four weeks before she was due, she was only four pounds, God set things right and she gained weight twice as fast as normal.

When she hadn’t turned yet and was breech, He set His people to pray, and then answered.  Excited for the day of her birth, He turned her.

He fuelled the formation of her nervous system, He watched over her in the womb.

Despite the fear, despite the worry and despite what anyone else thought or planned, God easily prevailed.

Raegan was born a beautiful, healthy baby August 23rd. Just as He wanted.

Now, Raegan can be seen dancing in the aisles at church on Sundays, twirling across the altar.  Just as He wanted.

-Joel Keys

Make Room for Blessing

In Jeremiah 29:11 God says He has plans to bless us, to give us the future we hope for. So what should we do when God declares there are good things coming our way, things we have hoped for? We start to prepare for it.

Isaiah 54.2 (ESV)

Enlarge the place of your tent,

and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;

do not hold back; lengthen your cords

and strengthen your stakes

Before the blessings and increase comes, He wants you to make room for it.

For example, if you are believing God for a child, buy books on parenting, prepare the baby’s room or pick out a name.

Let’s look at Isaiah 54.1-3a from the NLT:

“Sing, O childless woman,

you who have never given birth!

Break into loud and joyful song, O Jerusalem,

you who have never been in labour.

For the desolate woman now has more children

than the woman who lives with her husband,”

says the LORD.

“Enlarge your house; build an addition.

Spread out your home, and spare no expense!

For you will soon be bursting at the seams.”

Hope is the confident expectation of good from God. He wants you to get ready for favour, increase and blessings in your life.

-Cal Keys