The symbol of Valentine’s Day is the red heart, symbolizing love, passion, and affection.  Recently I was sent by a good friend Rod Ellis his new book entitled ‘King of Hearts’. Rod comments in the book “Where is our heart?…It is my hope that we discover where our heart is by the true meaning of devotion and know a life filled with passion, power and purpose.”

Until something touches our heart, it has not reached the core of our being.  Until the heart is engaged, little will change.  As Nicky Gumbel of the Alpha Course puts it, our spouse will not be impressed, if after our being away, we merely shake their hand and say ‘I love you with my head’.  Valentine’s Day is about the heart.  Spirituality is about connecting the head with the heart, only eight inches away, yet what someone called the greatest distance in the universe.

When learning about the power of the Holy Spirit in the early 1970’s, I got it at a head level very quickly, but was more cautious at the heart level. It was not for another seven years in 1979 that I had a heart-felt encounter with the Holy Spirit.  I remember in 1975 going to the Sign of the Fish bookstore on Lonsdale, devouring their books on the Holy Spirit and asking for prayer from the store owners.  While touched at a deep level, I still had the brakes on.  So I left that bookstore inspired but still stuck.

My Rector Ernie Eldridge became involved in a Renewal Mission/Festival of Faith with the Rev David Watson from York, England.  I had no intention of going to it as I feared that they might be ‘swinging from the chandeliers’.  Because I respected Ernie, I decided to go once, but to sit in the back of the church where I would be safe.  To my surprise, David Watson was very sensible, down-to-earth, and even a little boring. This made me want to come back for the rest of the week. By Friday, I decided to give it another try, and went up for prayer. Not much seemed to happen, but on my way home, I was touched by the Holy Spirit on a deep heart level, and began praising in the Holy Spirit.  My hardened heart opened up. My head and heart connected at a profound level.

For the past almost 33 years, I have been on a daily journey with the Holy Spirit.  By having a daily time of prayer and bible reading, my intimacy is deepened. Only 10% of church goers have a daily quiet time in our busy, frantic culture.  Our Bishop Silas Ng has been writing two online blogs to help people deepen their intimacy with our Lord. http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com

The Good Book says that above all else, we are to guard our hearts, for everything flows from the heart. It also says that our hearts are deceitful.  We are amazingly gifted at conning ourselves and believing our own press. That is why King David prayed: ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.’  King David was known as a man after God’s heart.  I want to be like King David, to have an open heart and an open mind to the Father’s heart of love.

For twenty-five years, St. Simon’s NV has been offering annual Renewal Missions bringing in top Renewal speakers from across North America and around the world.  Renewal is about connecting our heart and head, about deepening intimacy with our maker and one another.  We would love to have you join us this Feb 24^th-26^th as Rev Dr Bob Grant from South Carolina leads us in a journey of heart-felt renewal through the Holy Spirit.

This Valentine’s Day, my prayer is that each of us may come out of hiding and share our heart with God and with those we care for.

Rev. Ed Hird, Rector

St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver

Anglican Mission in the Americas (Canada)

http://stsimonschurch.ca

-an article for the February 2012 Deep Cove Crier

-award-winning author of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’

http://www.battleforthesoulofcanada.blogspot.com

p.s. In order to obtain a copy of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’, please send a $18.50 cheque to ‘Ed Hird’, #1008-555 West 28th Street, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2J7. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD.  This can also be done by PAYPAL using the e-mail ed_hird@telus.net . Be sure to list your mailing address. The Battle for the Soul of Canada e-book can be obtained for $9.99 CDN/USD.

-Click to download a complimentary PDF copy of the Battle for the Soul study guide :  Seeking God’s Solution for a Spirit-Filled Canada

You can also download the complimentary Leader’s Guide PDF: Battle for the Soul Leaders Guide

Rev Ed Hird

Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver

Anglican Mission in the Americas (Canada)

http://stsimonschurch.ca

The location for the 25^th Renewal Mission is Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School, 420 Seymour River Place, in North Vancouver.  To preregister, just contact Elsbeth Turner at 604-929-4224 or et0972@gmail.com

Please pray today about whether God wants you to join us for the 25^th Annual Renewal Mission. See you there, God-willing.

Yours in Christ,

Ed Hird+

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By Rev Ed Hird 

When Chip  MacGregor encouraged me to set up my own blog in June 2009, I had no idea that 306,000 people would find their way to this blog.  Thank you for coming to visit.  My blog was officially started in August 2009, with 14,439 people visiting by the end of December 2009.  In the second year of 2010, 73,876 people came to visit the blog. As of the third year of 2011, as December is wrapping up, 217,622 people have paid a visit. 

Most of my 372 blog articles are reposted from articles that I originally wrote over the past 24 years for the Deep Cove Crier and the North Shore News.  My peak month so far has been November 2011 when 25,856 people came for a visit.  Many of these visitors appear to be students researching for school assignments.  God is so creative in the ways that he is reaching the emerging generation, who may have never been to church.   Please pray with me that God will continue to use this blog to reach young people who may know little or nothing about the good news of Jesus Christ. 

My hunch is that over half a million people cumulatively will have visited this blog by sometime in 2012.  May God touch these half a million people with abundant lasting life, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

My good friend, The Rev Dr Rod Ellis, has been actively involved in ministry for over 35 years.  We had the privilege of leading a Renewal Mission at his congregation a few years ago.

He is Rector of Church of Our Lord in Victoria, British Columbia where he has served for the past 14 years. Rod is married to Lynne and they have three adult children, a son-in-law and daughter-inlaw, and a grandchild.  His new book ‘King of Hearts’ was just published by Elation Press, Victoria, British Columbia

King of Hearts: David: Man of Devotion, Living with Passion, Power and Purpose of two

kings, one who was a shepherd boy who became

- a story of two kings of Israel, one the King of Israel, the other, King of Kings, born in a lowly manger as our Saviour and how their lives are inextricably linked. Drawing from the wisdom and experience of nearly four decades of ministry, this work examines the life of King David and his unique relationship with God. As a man, David has his failings, but he is most noted for his triumphs. Dr. Rod Ellis looks at how we can have a relationship with God like the enigmatic King David. Wholly human, yet larger-than-life, David is complex and competent, yet completely full of imperfections. This in-depth study of David takes the reader on a journey where Dr. Rod Ellis shares his own personal accounts of struggles and successes.

Uplifting and challenging oneself with thought-provoking questions at the end of each chapter, King of Hearts is a quest to unlock the love and greatness that God has gifted us with.

To order the book, please contact Rev Rod Ellis at rector@churchofourlord.org

Legacy Storytelling  (click to find out more)

Thanks for all your support in 2011 through visiting my blog. As of today, 300,000 of you have dropped in to read some of the 385 online articles.   Five days ago, almost 1200 people paid the blog a visit, the most in the past two+ years that the blog has existed.

I encourage you to tell your friends about this blog.

Blessings, Ed Hird+

http://edhird.wordpress.com

Everyone believes in change, as long as it involves someone else.  Each New Year in January, many of us make New Year’s Resolutions about how we are going to change.

During the recent Christmas season, we have often tended to overeat and underexercise. When January 1^st comes around, our gyms are temporarily flooded with new recruits, often lasting until Feb 1^st when our muscles begin to ache.  So many New Year’s Resolutions die on the altar of good intentions.  We mean to lose weight, to become healthy, to eat heart-smart.  But life seems to take over and swallow up our best efforts.

What would it look like to genuinely do a new thing in the New Year 2012?  What does lasting change really look like?  Much change in our culture is merely reactive and temporary.  When our society becomes anxious and regressive, we embrace quick fixes, either centralizing or decentralizing our businesses, our schools, our community societies, our political institutions.  Quick-fix changes usually make things worse, and rarely last.  Lasting change needs to be thoughtful, intentional, and prayerful.

Part of lasting change for me was the result of being ‘reared ended’ by a taxi twelve years ago.  I started going for various treatments to loosen up my neck and shoulders, but nothing seemed to really last.  The neck spasms and headaches had a nasty habit of sapping a lot of my energy needed for work and family.  Finally my chiropractor Dr. Paul Wiggins, while adjusting my aching back, said to me: ‘You need a personal trainer’.  My immediate reaction was to try to graciously change the subject.  Paul however is very persistent in a kindly way, and the next thing I knew, I was meeting with a personal trainer for six sessions, paid for by our auto insurance company.  The personal trainer helped me push through my ignorance, fear and procrastination.

Going to the gym two to three times a week for the past twelve years is part of my ‘walking the walk’ in personal fitness. I often felt like giving up.  I have been involved in many sports and exercise programs over the years.  Sooner or later I usually would push it too far and too fast, and injure myself.  Once injured and ‘humbled’, I often thought twice before ‘getting back in the ring’.  Thanks to those sessions with my personal trainer, I have finally learned how to pace myself.  As a result, I rarely injure myself since getting serious about going to the gym.  I have learnt that the secret to virtually all the gym equipment is going ‘one step at a time’.  Patience, while not my strongest characteristic, is definitely a virtue in the weight room!

There are so many wonderful gyms through the North Vancouver Recreation Commission.  Most often, my favorite time to work out is at 8am in the morning right after I drop my wife off at work.  Because the weight room is right next door to where she works, I don’t have to force myself to drive to the gym. I am already right there.  My wife is such a gift to me in keeping healthy. She really cares for me and loves me deeply. She is the one who originally encouraged me to start going to the gym, to eat healthy food, and to start taking vitamins. Thank God for health-conscious wives.    As a result of regularly going to the gym, I feel healthier and younger now than a decade ago, having lost thirty pounds in the process, going from 180 to 150 pounds.

The Good Book says “See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19).  Thanks to Dr Paul Wiggins, the personal trainer and my wife, God has done a new thing in my personal fitness.  How would you like God to do a new thing in your life in this New Year 2012?  My prayer for each of us reading this article is that each of us will have a breakthrough in 2012.  May God do a new thing this year in each of us physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Doing a New Thing (click to listen to Isaiah 43)

Reverend Ed Hird

Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver

Anglican Mission in the Americas (Canada)

http://stsimonschurch.ca

-an article for the January 2012 Deep Cove Crier

-award-winning author of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’

http://www.battleforthesoulofcanada.blogspot.com

p.s. In order to obtain a copy of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’, please send a $18.50 cheque to ‘Ed Hird’, #1008-555 West 28th Street, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2J7. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD.  This can also be done by PAYPAL using the e-mail ed_hird@telus.net . Be sure to list your mailing address. The Battle for the Soul of Canada e-book can be obtained for $9.99 CDN/USD.

-Click to download a complimentary PDF copy of the Battle for the Soul study guide :  Seeking God’s Solution for a Spirit-Filled Canada

You can also download the complimentary Leader’s Guide PDF: Battle for the Soul Leaders Guide

Thank you for your regular viewing of this blog over the past two+ years. Just click on the links to view any of the following top 10 articles.  I would welcome your feedback as to why these ten articles have been the most viewed of my 380+ online articles.

Wondering, Ed+

‘As The Sparks Fly Upwards’ a new book by Richard Stamp.

               Published by Sid Harta Publishers, Melbourne.

        Available [or may be ordered] through bookshops  and on line via amazon.com  Also as a Kindle Ebook.

The noted Australian novelist John Marsden says in his foreword to the book,

“Those who read As The Sparks Fly Upwards are placing themselves in the hands of a master Storyteller.”

Hugh Mackay- Social Researcher and author says:-

“In the rich tradition of Australian bush stories, Richard Stamp blends wry humour with pathos and laces it all with wise reflections on our human condition. There are plenty of barbs, plenty of laughs and more than a few tears lurking in these deceptively gentle tales.”

Richard Stamp is a retired Anglican priest and writer