Dennis Camplin
Monday, April 28, 2003
Today we are packing our household and will be leaving Calgary -- ending a wonderful 14 month interim ministry at CFMC. Yesterday, in spite of the snowstorm, the people gather around for a healthy farewell sendoff. The friends that we have made here will always be a part of our lives and we are enriched because of our time here.
I hope you keep checking this blog though for the next few days blogs will be pretty scarce. However, I do have some thoughts that will soon form into blogs! ¶ 7:06 AM 0 comments
I hope you keep checking this blog though for the next few days blogs will be pretty scarce. However, I do have some thoughts that will soon form into blogs! ¶ 7:06 AM 0 comments
Monday, April 21, 2003
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
On Holy Saturday I am speaking to the Filipino Christian Fellowship of Calgary. I'm planning to launch from the text in Philippians 3:10 -- "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death."
In my talk I will focus mostly on the phrase -- the power of his resurrection.
In my reflections, however, I am thinking a lot about the phrase -- and the sharing of his sufferings. I don't know much about what this means, either theologically or experientially. Theologically, I hold that Jesus, in his death and resurrection, completed everything that was necessary so that the free gift of mercy is available to all who believe. And in my experience, I have been spared all kinds of suffering that is common to many people. While I am thankful for that, I am also aware that through the experiences of suffering one can draw close to Christ and many people who have had to go through the deep pain of suffering actually "know" Christ better than I do.
I do not ask for pain but if and when it comes I pray that God will use it to help me understand a little more fully what it means to share in his suffering.
¶ 9:46 AM 0 comments
In my talk I will focus mostly on the phrase -- the power of his resurrection.
In my reflections, however, I am thinking a lot about the phrase -- and the sharing of his sufferings. I don't know much about what this means, either theologically or experientially. Theologically, I hold that Jesus, in his death and resurrection, completed everything that was necessary so that the free gift of mercy is available to all who believe. And in my experience, I have been spared all kinds of suffering that is common to many people. While I am thankful for that, I am also aware that through the experiences of suffering one can draw close to Christ and many people who have had to go through the deep pain of suffering actually "know" Christ better than I do.
I do not ask for pain but if and when it comes I pray that God will use it to help me understand a little more fully what it means to share in his suffering.
¶ 9:46 AM 0 comments
Monday, April 14, 2003
The night was thick and hazy
When the "Piccadilly Daisy"
Carried down the crew and captain in the sea;
It's a lot like this in Calgary today! ¶ 12:45 PM 0 comments
When the "Piccadilly Daisy"
Carried down the crew and captain in the sea;
It's a lot like this in Calgary today! ¶ 12:45 PM 0 comments
Holy Week
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who was executed by the Nazis, wrote of the Cost of Discipleship and warned of "cheap grace" that did not take seriously either the gravity of sin or the radical call to servanthood: "When Jesus bids a man come, he bids him come and die."
It is this dimension that is well served by Holy Week observances, as they call us to move behind the joyful celebrations of Palm Sunday and Easter, and focus on the suffering, humiliation, and death that is part of Holy Week. It is important to place the hope of the Resurrection, the promise of newness and life, against the background of death and endings. It is only in walking through the shadows and darkness of Holy Week and Good Friday, only in realizing the horror and magnitude of sin and its consequences in the world incarnated in the dying Jesus on the cross, only in contemplating the ending and despair that the disciples felt on Holy Saturday, that we can truly understand the light and hope of Sunday morning!
¶ 10:48 AM 0 comments
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who was executed by the Nazis, wrote of the Cost of Discipleship and warned of "cheap grace" that did not take seriously either the gravity of sin or the radical call to servanthood: "When Jesus bids a man come, he bids him come and die."
It is this dimension that is well served by Holy Week observances, as they call us to move behind the joyful celebrations of Palm Sunday and Easter, and focus on the suffering, humiliation, and death that is part of Holy Week. It is important to place the hope of the Resurrection, the promise of newness and life, against the background of death and endings. It is only in walking through the shadows and darkness of Holy Week and Good Friday, only in realizing the horror and magnitude of sin and its consequences in the world incarnated in the dying Jesus on the cross, only in contemplating the ending and despair that the disciples felt on Holy Saturday, that we can truly understand the light and hope of Sunday morning!
¶ 10:48 AM 0 comments
Friday, April 11, 2003
. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
¶ 2:49 PM 0 comments
Thursday, April 03, 2003
This is the kind of storm I like -- but now I am bored with nothing happening around the church. Every one except me has the good sense to stay home.
¶ 11:19 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, April 01, 2003
We are once again in the process of dealing with inter-provincial red tape in relation to our transitioning from Alberta to Saskatchewan. This is the third time my car has to be inspected in order to be "safe" in the province that issues its plates -- in as many years. Funny thing, this is the first time that the front tinted windows are a problem. Apparently the legistlation has not changed in either Saskatchewan or Alberta during this time.
We never did change our Saskatchewan health plan during the 14 months that we have been in Alberta. Saskatchewan does cover for one year and we asked for an extension -- which I assume has happened thought they never did confirm the request. As you might expect, we did not have to use it at all until after the 12 month period.
I how have a permanant address in Saskatchewan -- Box 25, Cymric, SK. S0G 0Z0. That is about as simple as one could get. For the first time in my life -- I can remember my postal code without looking it up.
¶ 10:50 AM 0 comments
We never did change our Saskatchewan health plan during the 14 months that we have been in Alberta. Saskatchewan does cover for one year and we asked for an extension -- which I assume has happened thought they never did confirm the request. As you might expect, we did not have to use it at all until after the 12 month period.
I how have a permanant address in Saskatchewan -- Box 25, Cymric, SK. S0G 0Z0. That is about as simple as one could get. For the first time in my life -- I can remember my postal code without looking it up.
¶ 10:50 AM 0 comments
