PLBC Graduation

Last evening we celebrated the Graduation of a bright group of students from Pacific Life Bible College. This has been a very rewarding year of teaching.

The new facilities seem to have added a very inspiring atmosphere for learning. I'm always thankful to have successfully completed another semester (I've been teaching for over 30 years) but at the same time I've thoroughly enjoyed both reviewing the Pentateuch and the Synoptic Gospels. This year I was even able to use Dancing with the King and Walking with the King as texts.

It was so thrilling for me to see the many Grads last evening who will be serving and leading churches in Europe, USA and across Canada. What a great and influencial investment we've made in the future of the church. I love what J.L. Kraft said "the best investments I have ever made which have continuous returns is the money I've given to the church!" Kraft has given over 25% of his income to the kingdom throughout his business career.

Love and blessings to all our Grads as you pursue God's best!

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor,

I was interested in Sunday’s Face to Face column about teaching the Bible in our schools, by O’Neill and Sims. I agreed with both writers.

Why would we not study the best-selling book in all of publishing history? Fully two billion Christian people in our multi-cultural world believe the Bible holds vital truths for living. Although it does not claim to be a history or science manual, the Bible is a sound, ethical, moral plumbline for all people.

In Canada, 67% of us report to believing the basic teachings of Christianity. Our Jewish friends use the same Old Testament as Christians do. If Muslims make up 2% of our population, Buddhists, Confucists and others are another 5%, why not at least give their sacred writings an appropriate overview in our schools?

Obviously, the amount of time given to various teachings should relate proportionately to the percentage of the students in each school who identify with a particular religion. I would love to have learned about the beliefs of my classmates when I was in school. Afterall, that’s what pluralism is.

Barry Buzza

Kings and Queens

Today, in church, I spoke on the subject material of chapters 10 and 11 of "Dancing with the King". There are many life-lessons that we can learn as we look at the successes and failures of the Kings of Israel and Judah in 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. Some kings reigned very well and some failed royally. What intrigues me is how one king did so poorly and his son, who followed, did excellently. It makes a fascinating study. From my reading, among the many life-lessons their lives teach, I talked about 3 of them today.

~Like king, like people. As the kings of Judah did, we all have a domain over which we rule in the spirit realm. It may be big or small. It includes how we handle our money, time, people within our influence, attitudes, words, gifts, and talents etc. The fruit that comes from our lives will ultimately be the evidence of how we have ruled in our personal domain.
~All kings were tested to prove what was inside them. We also will each be tested in three areas: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life. Our most vulnerable points will show up in our seasons of success.
~The Word of God will anchor us during the storms of life. Our knowledge, study and our obedience to the Word of God will determine our success during times of testing.

Next week I'll continue the series and look at 3 more life lessons. Meanwhile, did you know that you can listen to the Sunday sermons by clicking onto the audio portion of my web page, barrybuzza.com? The notes for each message can be found in our church web page northsidechurch.ca. Some listeners are downloading the messages weekly into their MP3 players. Happy listening!

Sitting with the King

Over this last couple of weeks, Ive set aside some time for writing my 3rd book in the Kingdom Trilogy. Now that book #2 "Walking with the King" (which you can purchase from our church office) is ready, I must start the 5 month process of publishing the next one. So far I've been able to write 13 of the 16 chapters of "Sitting with the King", and I am very hyped about finishing it.

After writing and typing it, the book has to be proof read and edited several times, then type-set, edited again, and finally printed. It will be for sale in late July. I always send several hundred as gifts to the Filippino pastors whom I see in November, so to arrive on time, the 2 new books will have to be shipped by mid-August. I get so many gracious and positive thank-you's from the pastors who receive them. I plan on doing 3 leadership conferences in Manila, IloIlo and Davao this fall.

Next week I'll finish my writing project. It's challenging for me to keep up with my goals. As fast as I knock off a book, I receive inspiration to write 3 more. I actually have about 5 on the go as I write this, but I'm not sure how my new responsibilities as President of the Foursquare Church in Canada will affect my writing and publishing. We'll see.

Iron sharpens Iron

On April 14 we enjoyed the well anticipated Men's Dinner at our church. Dave Anderson has been giving leadership to our neglected Men over this past year. In addition to our Men's Prayer group and our many sports teams (We have hundreds of men and women who play hockey, baseball, soccer, pickleball, floorhockey and golf), Dave has been giving leadership to Friday Knights as well as our Tuesday Evening Group.

When he told Pastor Terry that he fully expected 200 men to show up for dinner, Terry cautioned him to not be too disappointed if not as many show up. After all, we've never had more than 70 guys at any men's gathering.

As the pictures show, we had over 22o men who came to dinner. Wow! I've never seen such amounts of testosterone in one place at a time. I was rather suprised, but very pleased when I walked in to the lobby of our nice church to see some powerful motorcycles lined up on display. On the other side of the room was a large table of mighty power tools. Guys were all over the place! It was great. Dave had organized a whole team of men to cook huge steaks, lots of vegetables, salad and freshly baked bread. There was as much as we wanted to eat.

Thank-you Lord for giving us so many good men who are willing and ready to lead others down the path of Life! I know that this is just the beginning. Dave and his team have a vision for reaching the men of our Tri-Cities area and then of Canada. Now Terry and I believe him when he tells us of his dreams!

Madeline and Victoria's visit

On Good Friday, our 2 granddaughters visited their Nana and Papa. We had a wonderful time. As per usual, the girls put on a play for us, using all their little people. They tell stories like I do--make it up as we go along! Then in the morning after breakfast, they decorated Easter cupcakes with Nana.

At lunch, while we were eating, I took advantage of our time together to teach them about the Easter lesson that I was going to present on Sunday. We were eating soup and crackers together, so I grabbed some Matzo bread to explain how it represented the body of Jesus. When I got to the part about the no yeast meaning Jesus was without sin, I showed them the difference between regular soda crackers with baking soda in them, and Matzo with no leaven.

Suddenly Madeline (the girls are both very dramatic) screamed and ran out of the room. I asked, "What's wrong, Honey?" and she responded "Victoria (who was munching on a cracker) is eating sin. I can't be in the room! I can't eat with her!"

After lunch we picked up the 4 boys and went to see the new kids' movie, "Meet the Robinsons". I'd recommend that movie to anyone. It was packed with worthwhile life lessons about how each of us is important, and that we should always be thinking forward, rather than living in the past.

Finally, after church, we all went to Jeremy's and Kristy's for our turkey and ham Easter Feast.
After dinner we lined all of our very cute kids up for some family photos, which of course I'll share with anyone who asks, or even those who don't ask!

I'm Back!

I'm sorry that I have not updated my blog in the past couple of weeks. My computer has been in the repair garage. Now I've got it back but I still have not figured out how to download and e-mail pictures with the new "simpler" program! I'll give you the news and will work on the matching pictures later.

We zipped by Easter, but enjoyed some terrific special events on the way. Sunday April 1 was no Fool's Day. Rather it was a memorable Palm Sunday. Our 3 Kids' Church choirs gave concerts that were not only full of good teaching, but were delivered in a fun 70's style of music. The grade 1-6 kids dressed in tie-dye t-shirts and bellbottoms and mop-top wigs, and sang songs about all they had learned over the previous 10 weeks to the tunes of 70's Pop songs. My favorite was "Paying your Tithes" to the tune of "Staying Alive" by the BeeGee's.

Palm Sunday was of course followed by Easter, when we were favored by the Holy Spirit inspired music of our Choir. Wow! Maureen and her happy minstrels, with full band, brought down the house at all 4 packed services. I taught in the remaining time about the lessons inherent in our Communion services. The matzo bread we use, for example, is packed with teaching about the life of Jesus.
~It is unleavened to illustrate that he lived a sinless life. Leaven or yeast is a picture of being puffed up and full of ourselves.
~During preparation, the bread is striped and dotted with a small wheel to keep it from puffing up, but the stripes and holes are a reminder that Jesus was pierced with nails and striped by the Roman lictor's whip.
~The matzo bread is also broken with jagged edges. That is to remind us of the jagged stones that mourners leave on the graves of those whom they love and are visiting. Many stones on the grave marker are a sign to the remaining family members that their deceased loved one is still remembered. When Jesus held the bread, he was saying "remember me".