March: for the Environment

Since I gave up social media for Lent, I figured I'd blog about a few things coming up this month before Lent is over!

First off, The Audubon Society of Portland has confirmed following an investigation that the NE Portland crow deaths were intentional poison. They are offering a reward for this horrendous offense, if anyone has any information. More HERE

And secondly, Earth Hour 2018 is coming up fast! This year it's Saturday, March 24th at 8:30pm, mark your calendars!! Earth hour is the time when all over the world, everyone participating shuts off all electricity they can in support of Earth Conservation. Every year the number of people, cities, businesses, and governments participating increases! Here are a few photos from last year.

Toronto Business District

A church in Shimla

Columbia River Gorge Clean-Up Campaign

There's a huge crowdfund campaign supported by non-profits and state legislation going on right now to raise money to help clean up the Columbia River Gorge after last summer's devastating fires.

Visit: Oregon's Kitchen Table to learn more! The campaign ends March 15th, so spread the word and donate!

Serenity Prayer - Because We All Need This Right Now

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
If I surrender to His Will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with Him
Forever and ever in the next.

Amen.

(Prayer attributed to Reinhold Neibuhr, 1892-1971)

Stand Up For Our Coasts Before It's Too Late!

To keep things short and to the point, the ENTIRE coastline of the US was opened up to the possibility of oil drilling today by the Trump administration. If you love our beautiful beaches, scenic coastal highways, local seafood, and all the fun recreation our coasts provide, then take action now before it's too late!!

Oceana Action: CLICK HERE

Earthjustice Action: CLICK HERE

Sierra Club Action: CLICK HERE

WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Action: CLICK HERE

Friends of the Earth Action: CLICK HERE

Climate Truth Action: CLICK HERE

And yes I am signing EVERY one of these as I find them! The first four are more major organizations though, so if you don't want to sign them all, focus on the first four.

You can also CONTACT your state governor directly since it's been stated that the administration is open to input.

More to come as this issue continues to unfold and spark outrage! Please pray for our state and national leaders on this!

Kicking Off 2018!

A new year has started, and I'm determined to write more blog posts this go-around! But today I don't really have a good topic... So here are my current favorite things, two days in...

• Favorite Song - Mary Did You Know by Jordan Smith / Rise by Katy Perry
• Favorite Book - Eagerly awaiting King's War by Jill Williamson, but in the long meantime... What should I read?
• Favorite Food - Christmas Cookies I made yesterday 😋
• Favorite TV Show - Mork & Mindy 
• Favorite Game - Celtic Heroes 

Happy New Year Everyone! What are you current favorite things?

Christmas = Joy, From A Pastor's Perspective

From "The Boy Who Is Lord" YouVersion Christmas Devotional by Mark Driscoll:

"Jesus’ visit to the temple represented a new epoch in human history. When Jesus and the temple come together, we see the fulfillment of the Old Covenant and the inauguration of the New Covenant taking place. Let me explain to you some of the theological significance of the temple, and that moment when Jesus arrived.

• The temple was the connecting place between heaven and earth.

The temple, particularly the Holy of Holies in the center of the temple, was the connection place between heaven and earth. God is in heaven as Creator, we are on earth as created, and God’s very presence dwelt in the temple, in the Holy of Holies, making it the most sacred place on earth.

• The temple was where God’s people would come to meet with him.

If you wanted to meet with God during the temple era, you had to visit the temple. God didn’t need a house; he created the heavens and the earth. But he did establish a place where people could come and meet with him. And people came from long distances to visit Jerusalem and set eyes on the place containing God’s very presence.

• The temple was the place where sin was atoned for.

All of the ritual purifications and sacrifices done in and around the temple were performed to symbolize the remission of sin. At the temple, before a holy and righteous God, people would acknowledge their guilt and sin.

One day every year, on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), the high priest was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies to make a sacrifice on behalf of the people. On that day, two goats would be brought, a substitute goat and a scapegoat. The priest would pray over the substitute goat, confess the sins of the people, and then slaughter the animal to atone for their sins. The priest would then pray over the scapegoat, confess the sins of the people, and then send it away to represent how God not only forgives sin but removes it completely.

• The temple was the center of life and faith and worship.

God’s people were surrounded by enemies on every side who frequently threatened and attacked. The temple was a place where God’s people could unite and care for each other.

Four hundred years before Jesus’ birth, the prophet Malachi prophesied that the Messiah would come to the temple. When Mary holds Jesus tenderly in her arms, ascending the steps of the temple wearing white, she is fulfilling Malachi’s words. She is holding in her hands the fulfillment of the entire sacrificial system, the entire point of the Day of Atonement, the entire purpose of the nation of Israel, the consideration of the priests, and the existence of the temple itself.

The temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., just like Jesus said it would be (Matthew 26:61; Mark 14:58; John 2:19). The temple has been destroyed for almost 2,000 years. Why? We have no need of it any longer. It has served its purpose. For hundreds of years, the temple prepared people for the coming of Jesus. And then he came.

I have good news for you. We don’t need ritual baths anymore; Jesus cleanses our hearts through repentance and faith. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

We don’t need to go to the temple anymore. Where do we go to meet with God? Jesus. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). Where is sin atoned for? Jesus. Where is the center of our life and our faith and our worship and our community? Jesus. No temple is required.

We do not have to bring a sacrifice to God any longer. Jesus has atoned for our sins. John the Baptizer said it well: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Unlike the Day of Atonement, which took place year after year, Jesus’ sacrifice was once and for all. “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14).

There’s no longer any high priest, because we don’t need one. The high priest was the intercessor and the advocate for the people. He would go between the people and God. He would bring the people’s sin to God and he would mediate and intercede. And the priesthood came to an end with Jesus. Why? Because he’s our great high priest (Hebrews 4:15) who alone is our mediator between us and God.

If you have Jesus, you have everything that everyone in the Old Covenant longed for, hoped for, and prayed for!"

No Reason To Be Sad At Christmas Time

Last week, after a horrendous new tax proposal, the US president started "honoring his promises to lobbyists" in rolling out cutbacks on many of the environmental safeguards Obama had put in place. While some of them, like the Bears Ears Native American National Monument in Utah are being protested in court (thank you Earthjustice!), others like the banning of oil drilling in the arctic and pesticide bans were lessened or annihilated all together, without room for discussion (though technically the vote isn't for another week, but still). Most Americans don't want this - I don't want this! My own backyard, the Cascade–Siskiyou National Monument is being shrunk - so as you can imagine it pissed me off! One tweet I saw online brought me to tears: "Why can’t daddy stop Congress from hurting caribou/polar bears?" asked the son of the CEO of Northwest Wildlife Foundation... I can only imagine how Collin O'Mara, the CEO, was feeling when he heard his son say it... But me, I was upset. I don't have kids yet, and I want them to be able to experience the greenery and natural beauty of this world, yet I fear that hope is getting farther and farther away. Feeling helpless to be able to do anything about it all days later, I cried to my mom, and another friend later in the week. I hadn't written a blog post in a while, and so my friend suggested that I write one about this, just to put my feelings out there in the world.

Driving home from my friend's office that day, a Christmas song came on the radio that shifted my perspective a tad. I don't remember which song it was, but basically the message was 'because Christ intervened, we have hope.' For some reason the image of the angel chorus that appeared to the shepherds came into my head. And the word that stuck was JOY.

Because of Jesus Christ, all of our sins and fears and burdens are washed away when we accept him as our Lord and Savior. Because of Jesus Christ, we will "not perish, but have everlasting life." We know this. But imagine you and everyone you know haven't heard from God in centuries, and you don't know what he's going to do or when. Put yourself in the shoes of the faithful Jews, shepherds or the wise man. Their hope was in an unanswered question. Will they see God fulfill his promise in their life? Their kids' or grand-kids' lives? What happens if not? And then boom! A star appears, and the answer is there! So close you can literally walk up an touch Him! How would you feel?

All of us are in no way perfect just because Christ is already in our lives. We often wallow in our earthly woes and miseries, forgetting that He can solve not just the big problems, but the itty bitty ones too. Sometimes we even take Jesus for granted because we know he's always there. Or like me this last week, we get mad when change is just beyond our fingertips, and yet we cannot grasp it, and the consequences are ugly. But what if Jesus hadn't come at all yet, or ever?

Christmas is the time of year in which we celebrate Jesus' physical entry into our world. The angels rejoiced, the shepherds were amazed, the wise men were in awe! John the baptist even 'lept for joy' in his mothers womb. Jesus has already intervened, already fulfilled God's promise, and paradise is tangibly within our future! If you really think about it, what reason do we have not to be joyful? The above still makes me sad, and people destroying God's creation always will, but it's Christmas time. The fact that we get to celebrate Jesus' birthday at all is a miracle. Truly keep 'Christ' in your holiday celebrations, and there will be no reason to be sad at Christmas time.