Tracy's Blog

Luke 2:8-20 What is the most amazing thing you have seen happen? How did it impact you? Did you tell others about it? Witnessing something significant, spectacular, or miraculous is always memorable and often life-changing. Today I want to focus this Advent reflection on the shepherds who were witnesses to Jesus' birth so long ago. Luke 2:8-20 tells us about the shepherds interaction with angels in which they hear the good news that "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). After the angels leave, they decide to go "to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." (Luke 2:15). And that is exactly what they do. They go find Mary and Joseph and the baby. They see Him with their own eyes. They are witnesses to the Advent of the Christ. What is their response? Verse 17-18: "When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, an...

Matthew 1:18-25 Awkward. That's what it was. Mary, his betrothed, was pregnant.... and he wasn't the father. What was Joseph suppose to do? "Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly." (Matt. 1:19) But Joseph doesn't go through with his plan. Instead he takes Mary home as his wife (Matt. 1:24) because the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and told him to. He also told him the good news that Mary's child is "from the Holy Spirit" and that Joseph is to name Him "Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:20-21). What an challenging position Joseph was in! He seemed to be a gentle sort of man since he was thinking about a quiet divorce instead of publically disgracing (or stoning???) Mary. But his desire to avoid public attention doesn't keep him from be willing to obey the messenger of God despite the difficult ci...

Luke 2:26-38 Advent is the season set aside to remember Christ's coming in the manger in Bethlehem so long ago. It is also a time to remember and prepare ourselves for His second Advent. In my personal Bible reading this week, there have been many passages talking about Christ coming again. "Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him...." (Rev. 1:7) is what I read today. These passages leave me wondering...how?...when?....what will it all mean? As the first Advent of Christ was proclaimed by the angel Gabriel to Mary, she experienced a range of emotions and questions. Maybe observing Mary's responses can help us in our wonderings. Luke 2:29 tells us, Mary was "greatly troubled" and "wondered what kind of greeting this might be" when the angel Gabriel visited her. The messenger hadn't yet shared the good news that the "Son of the Most High" who would be given the throne of David with an never ending kingdom (Luke 2:...

For the full story see Luke 1:5-25; 57-80 The Advent season is here and with it comes the anticipation of celebrating Jesus' birth. Often in the busyness of preparing, we feel that Christmas is coming too fast. My hope for you this year is that through Advent, you will experience (even briefly) time to contemplate the signficance of that first Christmas and that what you discover will permeate even the most hectic days. Where do we start? The silence of God. The Old Testament ends with a promise from the Lord to send "the prophet Elijah" before "that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes" (Malachi 4:5). It is over 400 years before John the Baptist would cry out, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" (Matthew 3:2). Although they had the promise of a Deliverer, the Scriptures weren't added to in that time period and so Israel had to wait in the silence of God. How hard it must have been! It is striking that Zechariah, the father of John the ...

Starting next week until Christmas, I will be blogging along Advent themes so I thought this would be a good week to update you on my "Sunday Afternoon Blues" (see September 22) as promised. First, I need to be honest and admit that I didn't get around to copying the prayer I wrote and taking it into the car with me. Instead, the drive home served as a prompt to pray through the transition from church. So, what happened? I'm grateful to report that I was less irritable and that by God's grace, I was more diligent to attend to my needs for food, a tidy house, alone time, time with others, and rest. The most surprising thing for me has been how frequently I cry on Sunday afternoons. For some reason, Sundays are my day to grieve. (I suspect that part of my anger/agitation has been desiring to grieve but not having the emotional space or time to do it and being frustrated about that.) What am I grieving? Different things: my own sinfulness, the personal losses and dis...

November on the prairies is a bleak month as the only colours are varying shades of beige to brown (hay bales in the fields, long grass in the ditch, and leafless trees all around). It's cold, often cloudy, and there isn't anything to catch your eye. The days get shorter, the wind turns colder, and we have to wait for snow and the Christmas season to lighten things up. When I was in university, I went through a difficult period of time and I later described it to friends as "feeling like it was November all the time". Because November in Ottawa isn't so monochromatic nor cold, my childhood thoughts about November resurfaced now that I'm back on the prairies. But I was surprised. I no longer viewed it as ugly nor as something to get over with. I appreciate the time of waiting and can see the beauty in the barren trees and empty gardens. I also know, without a doubt, that it won't last forever. Change will come. My perspective on November (and the time of li...

Last Saturday night, Abigail was at a friend's house for a sleepover. The topic of church came up and her friend asked, "Do you have to pay to go to church?" Considering that this girl has no memory of ever being in a church and that she would pay to go to a concert, a sporting event, or an exercise class, it is a valid question. Abigail's response was a calm "No, it's free. Anyone can come." During the sermon the next day, the pastor told a story about a woman in Toronto who wanted to try going to church so she asked someone "Where do I get a ticket?" In her mind, one would need a ticket for church or at least an invitation like we get for weddings to ensure there was a place for her to sit. Hearing these stories helps me consider how strange church may seem to many people I interact with day to day and that those of us who go to church regularly cannot assume that our friends or family members know what it is like or what goes on there. It mo...

We have settled into our house in rural Manitoba and I'm amazed at it. I have sunshine streaming into the living room and a view of nature through every window in the house. There is a library for reading in, a woodstove to warm up beside, and a new washer and dryer. The balcony of the second floor looks down upon the living and dining rooms and has a railing that is the perfect height for a ballet barre. What else could I want? Maid service perhaps..... This home is a dream come true but it still isn't enough for me. My surroundings (as beautiful as they are) do not bring me contentment. I can still find things to be grumpy about (the dishes piled high) or scared of (what is living in those woods around our place?) I can still be proud, selfish, and angry. I can have everything I thought I wanted and still want more. Left to my old self, there is never that deep abiding sense of ultimate peace and well-being. There isn't contentment. It only comes from Christ. "I know...

Daily for the last two months, we've heard the honking of Canadian Geese overhead. Our home is definitely on a migratory flight path! One day in early September as I was watching the geese fly past, I noticed something interesting. A flock of geese were travelling by honking away as usual but off in the distance was a lone goose. What it looked like to me was that this goose was desparately trying to catch up with the flock. I couldn't help but interpret its honks as a call: "Wait for me! I'm coming! I don't want to be alone on this strenuous flight south!" This got me thinking about Christian community and how important it is for us to not be trying to make the challenging journey of living out our faith in Christ alone. Just as flying in the V formation enables each goose to expend less energy, so joining together with other Christians gives us strength and endurance for the journey of faith. We are not alone. We have others around us to bear our burdens. We...

I recently read the book You Can Trust the Bible: Our Foundation for Belief and Obedience by John R. W. Stott ( copyright 1982 Discovery House Publishers edition 1991) and I thought I would pass onto you a framework for Bible reading that could be helpful. Stott says: "... all the teaching of the Bible can be divided into these three catagories, requiring these three responses" (page 81) 1. revelations of God- the response is worship 2. promises of salvation - the response is trust 3. commandments - the response is obedience To apply this to the passage you are reading, ask yourself the following questions. What does this passage teach me about God: Father, Son, and Spirit? What promises does this passage state? What commands are given in this passage that I am to obey? Sample application for what you discover could be: Worship: I worship you Lord for.....(list the aspects of God that He has revealed to you from the text). Trust: I acknowledge Your Word promises that..(list ...

I hope you all had a meaningful Thanksgiving. We did as we enjoyed turkey and time with our family in Dauphin. It was there that my idea for this next blog came. At the church we attended on Sunday morning, the pastor spoke on a familiar passage: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19. That's not surprising for a Thanksgiving sermon. But what struck me as I was listening to the sermon was how MUCH we, as Christians, are to talk!!! Now talking too much has always been an issue for me. I remember back in elementary school that it was the only thing I got in trouble for. Although I was a good student, inevitably, every year, I would get moved from the spot I chose to sit (next to all my friends) to a spot that was entirely surrounded by boys. It was the teacher's hope that I would be quieted by having no one to talk to around me except boys. Whether it was that she thought they talked less and therefore would interact with me less or that I wouldn't talk with them because I didn't have m...

The Thanksgiving weekend is quickly approaching and with it comes turkey, stuffing, and often too much pumpkin pie. We can end up wondering "what was that all about?" and go back to work on Tuesday morning feeling full in our stomachs but empty in our hearts. I hope this won't be the case for you and I. Personally, I think it is amazing that we have a holiday set aside to give thanks. "Give thanks" is a command of God and here we have the government ensuring that we have time to do it! This year, I was thinking of celebrating Thanksgiving in a new way..... to give thanks for things I wasn't thankful for last year at this time but now I am. I see Thanksgiving as an opportunity to look at God's work in my life and to see how my perspective has changed. What am I going to give thanks for? The transformative potential of trials. I've know James 1:2-4 for years but I think I only came to want to obey it in the past year. "Consider it put joy, my brot...

In Philippians 2:1, the Apostle Paul lists several things that believers in Christ have in Christ - encouragement from being united with Christ, comfort from his love, fellowship with the Holy Spirit, tenderness, compassion. The phrase "comfort from his love" caught my attention so I started to think about what is this love? this comfort? It's the love of God the Father who determined that it was good to create you. Love that wanted you in this world. Love that is gracious and compassionate toward you. Love that is demonstrated by the Father sending His Son (John 3:16). It is the love of the Son, Jesus Christ, who "while we were still sinners" laid down His life to die for us. Love of Jesus that empowered Him to serve when He is the One who is worthy of being served by all. It's the fruitful and productive love of the Holy Spirit that is powerful and creative. Love that transforms and renews. It is love that covers a multitude of sins; love that never fails;...

I have a confession to make. Sunday afternoon is one of my worst times in the week. I get grouchy and irritable. It usually starts once I get out of the car from church (although it may even start on the way home) and ends around 4 pm (that seems to be the time that I go for a walk). This has been going on fairly consistently for almost 20 years. So, one Sunday, with great patience and wisdom, Clint suggested that I write a prayer to move me through the transistion of leaving church to coming back home and then to blog it. I'm finally acting on that. Here is what I've come up with: O Lord, I want to stay in Your presence with Your people, simply being who I truly am. No pressure, no "to-do" lists. Loving and worshipping You, receiving Your love and grace. But I don't know how to do that when I get out of this car - back into the busy, complicated, messiness of my life. Please be with me as I go. Help me to continue to worship and love You on this Lord's Day. G...

Do you ever feel like there isn't enough time in your day to do all the things you want? I sure do. Part of my problem is that I think I need to spend a certain amount of time on certain activities: excercise: 30 minutes, time with God: 30 minutes, phone call to a friend: 30 minutes, reading: 30 minutes. You get the idea. When I add it all up, there just isn't enough time to do it all so I often don't do any of it. Recently I had an encouraging thought: do I have 5 minutes? Yes, I do. Isn't it worth spending some time (even only 5 minutes) on these activities if they are important to me? I think so. When it comes to time with God, what can happen in 5 minutes? Here are some of my experiences: Reading a passage of Scripture (for example: Psalm 62 takes only 30 seconds to read) and then answering the question: what does this passage teach me about God? From Psalm 62: My soul finds rest in Him; my salvation comes from Him; He is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress...

Earlier this spring I was at a fenced-in dog park with our dog, Pepsi, and our toddler, Timmy. Pepsi is a Retriever (part Golden and part Labrador) so he loves to play "Fetch". I was tossing a floppy rubber disc for him to fetch when I accidently sent it flying over one of the fences. After settling Timmy in a safe place, I grabbed onto the chain-link fence, hoisted myself over, picked up the disc, threw it back, and climbed back over. Two thoughts rushed into my mind: "Wow, that was easier than I thought it would be!" and "With my God I can scale a wall". As I pondered the first, I came up with some ideas that may be applicable to the psalmists' words. Why was it easy for me to climb over a 6 foot fence when in the past I've found it hard to do that sort of thing? The answer: Timmy, my two year old. For two years I've been holding and carrying around this boy who has gradually increased from 8 to 28 pounds. My strength has increased little by ...

Walking into Walmart the other day I found that the section at the front of the store is now devoted to school supplies. The sandtoys, waterguns, and frisbees have been replaced by pencils, binders, and glue sticks. With the approach of school, I started to think of the old 3 R's "Reading, wRiting, and 'Rithmatic" and realized that there are also 3 R's the can be applied in our Christian life as we deal with our sin. Repent : Admit that you have sinned, that is is against God, and that you don't want to keep living like that anymore. That's the confession part of repenting (1 John 1:9). There is one more step - changing your orientation. Imagine yourself facing the sin that you have been participating in. You stand up, turn around, and walk in the opposite direction - towards obedience, towards life! When Jesus called people to repent (Mark 1:15), it was a call to a new life in the kingdom of God through the gospel. Receive : Open yourself up to receiving ...

I preached at HPWC on Sunday, May 9 and wanted to let you all in on the essence of my sermon so here is a section of it. The text was John 14:23-29 Jesus' disclosure of Himself to others depends on the person's response to Him. verse 23 - 24 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him , and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching." God is eager to show Himself to anyone who loves and obeys Him. Jesus doesn't show Himself to those who don't love Him and won't obey His teaching. How can anyone come to know God or plainly see Him if they are unwilling to submit to Him, to love Him since part of the essence of "being God" is being the One who is loved and obeyed. Revelation of God cannot happen apart from a relationship with God. That's just the way it is. And you know, if you were to remember just one thing from this sermon, I hope that this woul...

I recently read a novel about a young man on a journey searching for a treasure - a buried stash of gold and jewels. How did that treasure get there? Someone hid it. Why? With the intent of coming back to dig it up at the right time. But as the stories go, due to circumstances beyond the person's control (shipwrecks, murder, that kind of thing), they don't get back to dig up the treasure and instead tell someone about it on their deathbed or make a map for someone else to go find it. And so we end up with the classic tale of a treasure hunt. I'm been thinking about the value of God's revelation to us - the Bible. It really is a treasure beyond compare. Through its message we hear the story of our redemption and are summond to believe the good news we recently celebrated at Easter: the Son of God has died for our sins and is now alive! Sin and Satan have been conquered, there is now freedom to love and to truly live! So what are we to do with this treasure? Simply put: h...

An old Easter worship chorus has been running through my mind today: "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" I think that the main point of Holy Week is to bring us imaginatively to the place and time of Christ's betrayal, suffering, death, and resurrection. The Church around the world sets apart this week to meditate on the narrative that has changed all of eternity. I hope that you are able to find some time to do that privately or with others. (By the way, if you have the opportunity to get to Highland Park Tues - Thurs evening between 6:30 - 8:30 pm, the "Journey with Jesus" prayer stations is worth experiencing.) The question still remains: "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" Not just imaginatively or reflectively, but really? Yes, my old self was there and as a result, my salvation and sanctification are possible. But that's not the only question in the song that needs to be answered: "Were you there when He rose up from ...

Stop, Look, and Listen. This morning Abigail went for her first bike ride of the year. She loves biking and is quite good at it so I was confident about letting her go down the street ahead of me. But I still reminded her to slow down and look before she crosses any intersections. Later on, I was praying about something I felt I didn't know how to do and I sensed the Lord saying to me, "Look to My Word, Listen to My people and My Spirit" as a way to learn. The old safety phrase came to my mind - Stop, Look, & Listen - and I wondered how it could apply to our spiritual lives, especially during this Lenten season. Here's what I've come up with. It's rather metaphorical but I hope you get the idea. And if you have another perspective on this idea, please share with us. As we are travelling through the journey of our life with God, it's important to take time to stop, look, and listen when we are about to step into any sort of potentially dangerous zone fo...

I know it has been a LONG time since I've blogged. Sorry about that. Selling our house and buying one in Manitoba has occupied alot of my attention in February but I praise God that we have done both. I wanted to write earlier in Lent and to use this George MacDonald quote as a springboard for discussion. "But I do not know how to awake and arise!" I will tell you. Get up, and do something the Master tells you; so make yourself his disciple at once. Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have this day done one thing because he said, Do it, or once asbstained because he said, Do not do it. It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in him, if you do not anything he tells you. If you can think of nothing he ever said as having had an atom of influence on your doing or not doing, you have too good ground to consider youself no disciple of his. But you can begin at once to be a disciple of the Living One - by obey...

How are you, Tracy?", I asked myself on the morning of January 1st as my family was sleeping away and I was journalling since I had to get up to go out with the dog. "I am very well for I am at peace with God", I answered. Peace with God. That's a phrase I've heard used over and over throughout my Christian walk. "Steps to Peace with God" is a tract that people use to share their faith (I seem to connect it to the Billy Graham Evangelist Association). And, yes, while the gospel can be explained in a few short pages, the astounding magnitude of it's significance is something that only eternity will grant us the capacity to fully comprehend. So, while I continue to remain on this side of eternity, I joyful welcome the progressive unfolding of the reality that I am at peace with God. What was I thinking about on New Year's morning? Specifically that peace with God matters more than peace with other people (although peace with others is possi...