| Some More Thoughts |
| Page Two of the things that I think about. Sometimes, I just need to get on my soapbox and share what I think. |
| Education is our Buffalo Being a First Nations person this is a phrase that I have heard alot. Just about at any First nations education function one of the elders would tell us that "Education is our buffalo." When I was on council, the elders would consistently remind us of this. At our council meetings we knew that "education was our buffalo." We worked hard at the band level to promote education, because we knew our people needed education. Let me give you a few of my thoughts on the matter. The buffalo, as I understand it, was life to the First Nation's person before the coming of the European people.. The buffalo was the home, food, clothing, and tools of the First Nation's people. Groups within he band/tribe were set apart for the purpose of finding this animal. The buffalo represented just about everything to the people. We are told that the people used every part of the buffalo. This was how much they thought of the buffalo. Now the elders tell us that "education" is our "buffalo". What I hear being said is that education is to be our life. Education is to be our home, clothing, food, and tools. To not become educated is to be disrespectful to the elders. If the elders wanted their people to have education and this what they negotiated in treaties, then it seems to me that we should become educated. Part of being a First nations person is being respectful to elders. I am reminded of this constantly. So if I don't get educated then I am a poor "Indian" not worthy to be called a First Nations person, because I have been disrespectful to my elders. Therefore I need to take the opportunity to be educated, use it, and turn it into my buffalo. At least this what I understand when I hear the phrase "education is our buffalo". It is too bad that alot of our First Nation people have neglected to hear the elders on this. |
| Dreams I believe that God has chosen to speak to His people through dreams. I have heard alot of brothers and sisters talk about there dreams that they have received from the Lord. Of course not all dreams are from God, but that is another topic for another time. I have heard them tell me their dreams expecting an interpretation or some sort of understanding. If they are not satisfied with what I have to say (they usually aren't satisfied with my interpretation) then they will go to another person and so on. Some people change their whole lives because of a dream. I believe if God has chosen to speak to you through a dream then it is probably going to be something that you will be able to understand. It came out of your mind, it is based on your experiences. I mean if you are an english speaking person you generally don't get dreams in Chinese. God speaks to you in way that you will understand. Of course there are always exceptions. Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel, for example.But, even then the king understood kingdoms and empires. I think if a person has a dream that they think is from God, then they need to meditate on that dream and try to understand it for themselves first, before they go and ask other people. Others are needed to confirm what you may already know. I think that is the best way to handle dreams. (What I usually tell people is what I explained here or they hate their mother) |
| A Sure Sign that you shouldn't start a Cult In Saskatchewan we have severely cold winters so in our houses we have thermostats and furnaces to produce and control heat so we can survive. Now if you are the type of person that turns the thermostat way up thinking that is going to make it warmer faster in your house then you shouldn't start a cult. If your a person that turns it way down hoping that it will cool your house off faster then you shouldn't start a cult. You shouldn't start a cult because you are an extremist. Turning the thermostat way up does not make your home warm up faster. The thermostat controls the furnace and it sends a signal to the furnace as to when it should stop blowing warm air. The point the furnace will stop is the temperature that you have set on the thermostat. (Are you following this?) So if you set the thermostat to 72 degrees or 22 celsius then the furnace will quit blowing warm air when the house reaches this temperature. When the temp in the house falls below 22degress celsius the furnace will start blowing warm air again to warn up the house to that temperature again. Now if you set it to 32 celsius or 90 degrees then the furnace will not quit until the house temperature is 32 degrees and wicked hot. (Are you still with me?) The thing is the fan in the furnace only blows at one speed, let me say this again at one speed, so no matter what temperature you set the thermostat to, the furnace will heat up the house at one rate, putting the thermostat way up does not make the house warm up faster. If you put the thermostat way up thinking that this will heat up the house faster or way down thinking it will someone how miraculously cool off the house faster then you are an extremist and should not start a cult. Extremists who start cults always end up killing themselves and their follwers in some fiery blaze or some other crazy action. Incidently, people in cults don't think they are in cults. They are of the mindset that they are in the right faith and everbody else is somehow wrong. |
 |
| Is this thing great or what? I borrowed this picture from kingkongvsgodzilla.com. Can you believe that? A website dedicated to this movie. When I was growing up, our family moved around alot. When I was ten years old we moved to Saskatoon because my dad was going to school at the SIFC to become a teacher. In Saskatoon there was this one theatre that showed these old monster movies on Saturday afternoons. Me and my brothers, Nick and Richard would go to these movies whenever we could. This one became my alltime favourite, that's why it is number three on my list. When I look back at it going to these movies are some of the happiest times of my childhood. Of course some might think that this is worldly, or ungodly. That's fine, your entitled to your opinion. I just know that something that can bring that amount of joy to a ten-year-old's life can't be all that bad. When I look at myself now, 24 years later, I don't see as how this movie or the other movies I have watched really altered the course of my life. I just look back and remember how enjoyable this movie was to me. One night after a revival service my pastor and I got home and this movie was on. We sat up, watched it and we just laughed because of how phony this movie seemed to us. I'm not trying to justify it or encourage anyone to go to movies, that is entirely up to you. If watching movies is going to affect your relationship with Jesus Christ or quench the Spirit, then stay away from them. As for myself, I watch movies. I think there is something to be learned from the movie theatre. People will go on a regular basis to movies. They will pay $6-12 to be entertained for a couple of hours and even if the movie is bad they will keep going back to the theatre to check out the next one and the next one, and so on. It wish we could get that same kind of response to church. Wouldn't it be great if people just kept coming Sunday after Sunday. That would be like a fruit of faithfulness or something. Alas, a pastor can only dream. |