Off to a great start!

Words from Rev. John Drisner

Farewell

Purdie Archives

To check out some of the Purdie archives click here http://www.horizon.edu/site/aboutus/archives/index.shtml

Grad 2009

Let's Move to the Next Level

To Be or Not To Be - Abortion

Religulous

Top 10 Religulous Questions:

This ‘mockumentary’ video by Bill Maher is often vile, irreverent and blasphemous. It is often ill-informed (Maher states that no one who ever wrote about Jesus had ever met him… Matthew and John anybody?) and clearly biased (he makes his yardage by getting often embarrassing answers from average Christians, while not showing any well-spoken knowledgeable Christian apologists).

However, this video is instructive. It is most frustrating that the ‘average’ Christians did such a poor job of defending their faith; this is why many see Christians as dogmatic, simple and ignorant. These poor answers play into Maher’s statement that “Faith means making a virtue of not thinking”, and this should challenge us to THINK!

As a follow-up to our Video BLOG on this topic, here are some major questions that were asked directly or by inference. These questions are not listed to say anything negative about Maher; they are tough, provocative and worthwhile questions. Can you answer them; at least with some semblance of support and logic?

Note: Click Here to download a file of all 33 questions.

1. What evidence is there for the existence of Christ (given that no one who wrote about him even met him)?


2. How can we believe in a talking snake, people living to 900 yrs of age and the virgin birth?


3. Why did Lot offer his daughters to be raped in order to protect the angels; and he was the good guy?


4. Are miracles not just mundane coincidences?


5. Did Jonah really live inside a big fish for 3 days (how)?


6. Are the Ten Commandments really the ten most important laws? Only two of them are real laws; don’t steal and don’t kill. Why not include torture, child abuse and rape?


7. Do you think that, if when you were a kid, they transposed the Bible stories with fairy tales, that you would know the difference as an adult?


8. God is super-powerful, he can do anything, why doesn’t he just obliterate the devil and therefore get rid of evil in the world? What is he waiting for?


9. Your God is jealous, that seems so un-godlike, I know people who have gotten over jealousy. (Can you justify his jealousy?)


10. Does it ever bother you that the story of Jesus was floating around the Mediterranean area for at least 1000 years before him? Implied question – is the story of Jesus not just a compilation of other stories?


1. Krishna (India >1000 years BC) was a carpenter, born of a virgin and baptized in a river.


2. Mithra (Persian god ~600 BC) was born on Dec. 25, performed miracles, resurrected on the third day and was known as the: lamb, way, truth, light, savior and messiah.


3. In 1280 BC, the Egyptian Book of the Dead describes a god, Horus, who was born to a virgin, baptized in a river by Anup the baptizer, who was later beheaded. He was tempted while alone in the desert, healed the sick, the blind and walked on water, raised Asar from the dead (translates into Lazarus), had 12 disciples. He was crucified first, after 3 days, two women announced that he had been resurrected.

These questions should give you pause for thought. This might stimulate some personal study or maybe even some sermon topics. Thanks Bill.

Converge addresses Self Injury in youth

They converged on us!

Hey! Did we have a great weekend at Converge 2009. Students from as far away as Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba converged on our college for a time of worship, ministry and fellowship. We packed out the Residence and the campus was full of excitement.

Our guest speaker, James Schwab (class of ’98) touched our hearts as he spoke about timely issues for teens today. He spoke on:

PAIN – He encouraged us to leave our pain with God.
This message hit a resonant chord for many of us. James opened up the whole can of worms relating to youth and self injury (SI). He talked about cutting and suicide, eating disorders and other harmful activities. If you want to hear this message you can download an audio podcast from http://www.horizon.edu/site/media/podcasts.shtml or watch the video on youtube.

I encourage you to also download podcasts of his other two messages:

LIFESTYLE– He asked “does our life point to God?”

FORGIVENESS – Yes, that’s a tough one! He shared the importance of forgiving our enemies.

Give the man his due!

Give the man his due! (Jan. 25, 2009)

This past week has seen the North American public filled with two emotions:

1) Ecstasy at the inauguration of Barak Obama as President of the United States.

2) Vilification of outgoing President George W. Bush.

It seems easy to condemn President Bush, to laugh at his mangling of the English language, and to bemoan his prosecution of the war in Iraq.

While we are jumping on the bandwagon to jeer and say good riddance to the outgoing leader, we should pause to think of things we will soon miss, as the new administration settles in.

The election was fought on the issue of “change”. We will have change indeed.

We need to remember how Bush was not afraid to invoke biblical principles and to state his own Christianity. He limited abortions and the destructive practice of Embryonic Stem Cell research; he correctly understood that most of the progress in this area is with non-controversial and non-destructive Adult Stem Cell research.

Finally, like it or not, he has helped keep our continent free from direct terrorist attach for the last seven years. It is easy to forget that terrorism was thrust on the Bush administration and this was destined to define his entire tenure in office.

Yes he made mistakes, but I am sure you will hear a lot less support for Christian principles from the oval office over the next 4 years. We should always be thankful when a Christian in leadership stand up for his beliefs.

What are we thinking?

We have just finished a great week at HCS featuring two module courses on Evangelism (by Dr. Gerry Michalski) and Missions (by Dr. Ken Birch). Both courses dealt with similar principles (sharing our beliefs with others), which are generally applied in different geographical areas (local vs international).

I sat in on some stimulating discussion in the Evangelism course. The topic at hand was how do we as Christians come across to others. It seems we are often judgmental, unloving, holier-than-thou, arrogant etc.? Should we be shocked by some of the negative responses we receive? Consider the following:

• Gandhi once said that he loved Christ, just not Christians.
• A guest speaker at our college once repeated several times “I like the church, I just hate church people”; and
• I have a book on my shelf by Dan Kimball entitled “They like Jesus but not the church”.

Can it be that we are being so separate from the world that we are irrelevant in it? How will we share the gospel if we alienate everyone. Indeed we need to engage our friends and acquaintances love, compassion and acceptance without annoying them or turning them off.

Instead of being judgmental and even persecutory, we need to be loving, understanding and accepting. Then maybe someone will listen to us!

What is your dream for 2009?

What is your dream for 2009? (Jan. 08, 2009)

In my last blog I described the joy that the shepherds and magi experienced over the birth of Jesus Christ. The nativity narrative of Matthew (chapters 1 and 2) describes the visitation of angels through 5 dreams over a period of a few years:

1 - Assurance. Joseph was assured that Mary was pregnant through the Holy Spirit, and would give birth to Jesus (which means “the Lord saves”).
2 - Warning. After the magi visited the baby Jesus, they were warned to avoid King Herod during their return home.
3 - Warning. Joseph was warned to move to Egypt in order to avoid Herod’s killing spree of all the baby boys in Bethlehem.
4 – Encouragement. Following the death of King Herod, Joseph was encouraged to return home to Israel.
5 - Warning and Encouragement. Finally, Joseph was warned to avoid Jerusalem (where Herod’s son had taken power) and he was encouraged to return to Galilee.

After experiencing many obstacles and escaping to Egypt, a final dream encouraged Joseph and his family to start anew in their home town of Nazareth. This set the stage for the growth, training and ministry of Jesus; and the development of a movement that would change the world forever.

Did you have obstacles in 2008? Do you have a dream for 2009? I’m sure you had some struggles and challenges last year. As you start a new year, let your “return from Egypt” and obedience to God set the stage for a new era of effectiveness and ministry in 2009.

If we listen to God’s warnings and encouragement, we will position ourselves to overcome obstacles and make a difference for God in this world. God bless in 2009!