Monthly Archives: June 2012

Canada Day

Posted on June 29, 2012 | 2 Comments

This is Canada’s Coat of Arms. The Latin at the bottom says “A mari usque ad mare” meaning “from sea to sea” and is taken from Psalm 72:8 – “May He have dominion from sea to sea…”. I post it here because Sunday is Canada Day and it is always a good thing to remind ourselves that our official motto comes from the Scriptures. A little out of context, but out of the Bible nevertheless. Our national anthem is a hymn and there is a great verse of worship from it at the end of this article.

What a weekend coming up. The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform with its New Abortion Caravan, which was in Toronto on Thursday, will role into the nation’s capital on July 2, which is a holiday due to Canada Day being a Sunday this year. This Sunday is also the culmination of “Gay Pride” week with the largest Gay Pride Parade in the world happening in Toronto on Sunday. And July 1 is Canada Day. So there. Pro lifers will be urging people to not destroy the most innocent of lives. The homosexual community will be celebrating itself. The country will be celebrating its birthday.

Believers will be at worship celebrating the rescue of a vast host of guilty, hell deserving rebels from eternal death because of the life, death, resurrection, ascension and intercession of the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ. The pro-life caravan might get a little news coverage. The Gay Pride parade will be the top story in the news as it is every year. And a worshipping community of millions who faithfully gather this Canada Day as they do every Sunday, will garner exactly the same amount of recognition as they usually do – none. And that is fine, thank you very much. While we worship and the rest of the country neither knows nor cares what happens inside our buildings, the great sovereign God of all things sees and hears and because of His Son, accepts the praises of his people. What goes on in those buildings where God is truly worshipped through faith in Jesus, is more significant, more life altering, more important, than all the other celebrations combined. While some do the good work of seeking to preserve life and others celebrate a lifestyle that God says is wrong, the church will worship God and leave their places of worship to infiltrate a culture with the greatest news there can possibly be. We will leave our buildings having been with God in a way that has fed our souls. We leave having been with one another as a united people in Christ. And we leave them prepared to live a week for His glory.

I pray that in the worship services across the country, that hatred for lost sinners will not be promoted and that sin will not be either. I pray that we will not see our services as a time to huddle together and mourn the loss of Christendom and wish for the good old days. I pray that we will have our hearts and minds turned upward to the God who in grace has saved us and now calls us to lovingly reach out to others who have not found Him (or rather, been found by Him) yet. I pray that we will worship with a firm commitment that God is in charge and that righteousness cannot lose and that we are soldiers for a victorious King. I pray that this Canada Day we will worship with gratitude that we can worship together, publicly, without fear, with open Bibles. I pray that He will be so precious to us that if the day should come when those freedoms are taken away, we will still worship, with joy and gratitude and hope and still leave our places of worship committed to giving the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus. And I pray that as we do worship in freedom this Canada Day that we will remember those in chains as if we were chained with them (Hebrews 13:5) committed to praying for them and assisting them in whatever ways we are able.

The text for the message in our church this Sunday will be Luke 20:19-26:

The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. [20] So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. [21] So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. [22] Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” [23] But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, [24] “Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” [25] He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” [26] And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent.

We are going to begin our service with the fourth verse of O Canada. Heritage Canada has a history of our national anthem here. Here is the fourth verse:

Ruler supreme, who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our dominion within thy loving care;
Help us to find, O God, in thee
A lasting, rich reward,
As waiting for the Better Day,
We ever stand on guard.

God keep our land glorious and free!

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Have a great weekend of true worship to the God who is deserving of much more than we can possibly give. Have a great Canada Day and a relaxing long weekend. And if Canada is not the country of your residence, well, drop in for a visit some time. You might even stay.

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Come and Die

Posted on June 28, 2012 | Leave a comment

Matthew 16: [24] Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. [25] For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. [26] For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? [27] For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. [28] Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Have you ever had a job where you were asked to do things that you just didn’t think were part of the job description? You signed up to be an executive assistant and the boss asks you to empty the recycling bin. You gripe about it but then you are shown that little bit of fine print in the contract that says that among your duties are those requests from the supervisor that contribute to the well being of the office. When I was mining in the Yukon I was told that if I couldn’t pound a ten inch spike into a post in four hits with the back of an axe I wasn’t fit for the job. That wasn’t in the job description anywhere but I soon learned that complaining about it wasn’t going to do me a bit of good.

We are all asked to do things in our jobs that don’t quite fit with what we thought the job was going to be about. Somebody should have told us, warned us, pulled us aside when we were applying for the job and gave us a clue as to what this job was really going to include.

The Christian life contains no fine print. God does not invite us to come to His Son while secretly holding on to a bunch of nasty stuff that He doesn’t want us to know about yet. He doesn’t give us the specific details of what our experiences will be, but He does tell us that we must die. He tells us that it will be joy unspeakable and full of glory as well.

When Jesus calls followers He calls us to come and die. The invitation is to take up our crosses and follow Him. This invitation is for everyone. Jesus is not saying that those who will deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Him are super Christians. He is not saying “deny yourself and be a more committed believer”. He is not saying “deny yourself and be a cut above the average”. He is saying deny yourself and be a believer. He is saying “deny yourself and be on your way to heaven”. He is saying “deny yourself and be saved”. This is not a rare thing in the New Testament. See the parables of the treasure hidden in a field. (Mt. 13:44) and pearl of great price (Mt. 13:45-46) as just two examples.

There are far, far too many people claiming to be believers, Christians, saved … who are nothing of the sort. They are nothing of the sort because they simply are not willing to deny themselves and take up the implement of death and follow Christ. And they are convinced that even thought Jesus said these words they are not about them. This is about committed Christians, Spirit filled Christians, Christians who rise to the top, Christians in other countries where religious persecution is the order of the day… . No, this is about Christians. All Christians. It is for all who want to be saved from their sins.

So Jesus says – “Come follow me”. And we say “Where are you going?” And He says “Come and see. And don’t forget that” and He points to a cross upon which people die. And you say “I’ll follow you, but I’m not bringing that”. So Jesus responds “Well then, you can’t come.”… You are not allowed to be with me if you don’t pick that up and follow me”. This is Christianity. This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. There are no exceptions. There is no escape clause.

We invite people to come to Jesus and live. We invite them to come to Jesus and die.

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Power

Posted on June 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

We all desire power. In election years we are told to give people power (a rather heady concept that both we and the politicians fall for). The popular ending to the Lord’s Prayer, taken from the King James Version reminds us that God’s is the kingdom and the power and the glory. A few years ago I came up with a list of things that the New Testament says about power. They are all from the Epistles and as I look at the list today I see that I left out some important ones from the Gospel accounts. Notably, Jesus’ comment to Pilate that Pilate would have no power at all if it were not given to him from above (John 19:11). It would be wonderful to hear a politician recite that about him/her – self. Let’s not hold our breath on that one. In any case here is my incomplete list:

i. The Gospel is the power of God – Romans 1:17

ii. The Word is the power of God – Hebrews 4:12

iii. Holy living is the power of God at work – II Tim. 3:5

iv. The preaching of the Gospel is the power of God – I Cor. 1:18

v. Jesus is the power of God – I Cor. 1:24

vi. The gathered church is the power of God – I Cor. 5:4

vii. Our weakness is a demonstration of the power of God – II Cor. 4:7

viii. The resurrection of Jesus was a demonstration of the power of God – Romans 1:4

ix. Abounding in hope is a demonstration of the power of God – Romans 15:13

x. Signs and wonders – Romans 15:18-21

xi. The opposite of talk – I Corinthians 4:18-20

xii. Church discipline – I Cor. 5:4 (See Matthew 18:15-18)

xiii. Our resurrection – I Cor. 6:14

xiv. I Cor. 14:13 – the ability ot interpret tongues (by interpolation we would then say that spiritual gifts are a demonstration of the power of God.)

xv. Enduring hardship for God’s sake – II Cor. 4:7

xvi. II Cor. 6:7 – that by which God is commended in Paul’s life and ministry

xvii. The weapons of our warfare have divine power to destroy strongholds – II Cor. 10:4

xviii. That which we demonstrate through our infirmities – II Cor. 12:9

xix. The power we have is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead – Eph. 1:19 (Note here that Paul’s prayer request is for the Ephesians to know that power).

xx. Our ministries are gifts of God’s grace by the working of God’s power – Eph. 3:7

xxi. The strength to comprehend the great love of God in Christ – Eph. 3:14-21

xxii. That which God uses to accomplish, in us, more than we can ask or think – now – Eph. 3:20f

xxiii. That which enables us to share the sufferings of Jesus and be like Jesus in His death – Phil. 3:10f

xxiv. That which enables us to walk worthy of our calling, and fulfill our good purposes – II Thess. 1:11

xxv. Fearlessness – II Tim. 1:7

xxvi. The ability to suffer for the Gospel – II Tim. 1:8

xxvii. The prayers of the righteous to heal – James 5:16

xxviii. That which God uses to keep us from falling away – I Peter 1:5

xxix. What God uses to enable us to live godly lives – II Peter 1:3

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He Rescues Me From My Greatest Foe

Posted on June 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

Psalm 18

What a glory this Psalm is! Consider verse 6:

In my distress I called upon the Lord;

to my God I cried for help.

From his temple he heard my voice,

and my cry to him reached his ears.

The Psalmist is in distress and he calls upon God to help him. We do not know exactly what the distress is although there are hints in verses 17, 39, 43. He has real people who really oppose him and his life is really physically threatened. But do we need to have the same type of calamity to have this Psalm relate to us? Paul tells us that the Christian warfare is not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12) and that our weapons are not physical (II Corinthians 10:4).

Allow this Psalm to be talking about the temptations that assault us on a daily basis for it certainly applies to such things.

Verse 6 reads “In my distress I called upon the Lord”. This could indeed be a spiritual stress brought on in a spiritual battle and which will be won with spiritual weaponry. The writer of this Psalm calls out to God for help in his distress. When tempted we should pray for help and power and victory.

After he prays the author says: “From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears”. In other words, God heard his prayer and came to answer him. We are tempted and we call out to God for help and He hears and comes to answer us. Now note very carefully what is said about God in verses 7-15 of this Psalm.

Then the earth reeled and rocked;

the foundations also of the mountains trembled

and quaked, because he was angry.

[8] Smoke went up from his nostrils,

and devouring fire from his mouth;

glowing coals flamed forth from him.

[9] He bowed the heavens and came down;

thick darkness was under his feet.

[10] He rode on a cherub and flew;

he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.

[11] He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,

thick clouds dark with water.

[12] Out of the brightness before him

hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.

[13] The Lord also thundered in the heavens,

and the Most High uttered his voice,

hailstones and coals of fire.

[14] And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;

he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.

[15] Then the channels of the sea were seen,

and the foundations of the world were laid bare

at your rebuke, O Lord,

at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

In answer to His beloved child’s prayer for help against his enemy God rocks the earth and shakes the mountains, because He is angry. He is angry that His greatly loved child has been attacked by a foe. He leaves heaven and comes to his defence (v.9). He comes swiftly (v. 10). He rains down hail and coals of fire (v. 12) He comes thunderously. God is enraged against His child’s foes.

We are tempted. The temptation causes us great distress and in our distress we call upon God to rescue us. And God, who hates sin and all that it has done and continues to do, rends the heavens and comes to the rescue of His child. He thunders against the sin that seeks to steal his child away. He rains down hail and coals of fire. God is furious.

Now go to verses 16-19

[16] He sent from on high, he took me;

he drew me out of many waters.

[17] He rescued me from my strong enemy

and from those who hated me,

for they were too mighty for me.

[18] They confronted me in the day of my calamity,

but the Lord was my support.

[19] He brought me out into a broad place;

he rescued me, because he delighted in me.

The reason God comes down is to rescue from the foe and that is what He does. He draws us up out of the water (V.16). He rescues us from the temptation because the temptation was too strong for us (V.17). He supports us even while the temptation rages (v.18). He does all this because He delights in us (v. 19).

Words cannot express what such truth does for the believer’s heart. What is your story with the temptations that come at you? Call out to God in your distress and turn to this text and see there that God is enraged against the things that invite you to forsake Him. He will lift you up. He will rescue you. He will support you. He will bring you out to a safe place. And He will do all that because dear child of God – He delights in you. He delights in you for the sake of the glory of His name. He delights in you for the glory of His Son. He delights in you because He loves you. Sin shall not be your master. You have a Master who uses His power for your protection.

1 Cor. 10:13 – No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 Cor. 3:16-17 – Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? [17] If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

What a great incentive to resist temptation. What a wonder that God views me as one for whom He will shake the mountains and rain down coals of fire to protect. This is our God.

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Until He Finds It

Posted on June 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

Luke 15:1-7 – Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. ²And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

³So he told them this parable: ⁴ “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? ⁵And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’⁷Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-ninerighteous persons who need no repentance.

At the beginning of the Parable of the lost sheep, Jesus says that the shepherd, when he has a sheep that is lost, will leave the safe ones in their safety and search for the lost one “until he finds it”. What a glorious truth this is. Our Good Shepherd does not stand on the porch calling our names and then give up when we do not answer. Not at all. He goes out looking for us. He is determined to find His lost sheep. He will not rest until all whom He has been searching for are found. And He will find them all. He leaves no rock unturned in His determination to find all that the Father gives Him.

At least part of the point of this parable is that God is not less determined to find lost souls than a good shepherd would be to find one lost sheep. If a human shepherd will search for a sheep, not giving up until he finds it, how much more will God not surrender in His work of rescuing His lost ones until He has found every last one of them? We are not more compassionate with our livestock than God is with His chosen ones.

The God who will search until He finds is the God who tells us to go into highways and hedges and compel people to come in. He will find all He seeks and He tells us to preach the Gospel. We should preach with the confidence that there are people in our field of vision whom God has his sights on and who will come because of our efforts because behind the scenes of our Gospel delivery is the all powerful God of all things working to lose not one of all that He has given His Son. What an incentive for us to give the gospel to all whom God puts in our path. Those who reject our overtures are not to deter us. God has us where we are to find His lost sheep. Let us not grow discouraged that we encounter so many who do not seem to be who He is looking for. He will find them and He will use us to accomplish it. Now go.

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Cheers

Posted on June 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

This piece has been travelling around the blogosphere for some time now. It packs a punch. It is slightly irreverent, but it is included here because of the truth not very well hidden beneath the humour . It’s honest. And perhaps it will help those of us who are not seniors yet to consider some of the issues in their lives. But if it doesn’t do that, then maybe it will just brighten your day a little bit. Lord knows that is a far more valuable gift to others than we give it credit for. And there is far too little of it being done. So, here is a little piece of humour and truth. I hope it helps and contributes to you being a helper.

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Cast Your Cares

Posted on June 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

There’s a good little article by my friend Darryl Dash over at DashHouse, regarding the care of God for His children.

Here is an excerpt:

Whatever your level of anxiety, God invites us to cast our anxiety on him. I don’t know anyone else offering this. He’s best equipped to handle the stuff that we can’t. As Charles Simeon said about our anxieties, “None are so small but they shall be regarded, none so great but they shall be alleviated.”

You can read the rest here

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Help the Poor

Posted on June 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

Matthew 19:16-26 – And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” [17] And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” [18] He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, [19] Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [20] The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” [21] Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” [22] When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

[23] And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. [24] Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” [25] When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” [26] But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The Prosperity Gospel says that God wants people rich and healthy and that if the right kind and right amount of faith is released in the proper manner then the money and health is guaranteed to follow. It is heresy. It is heresy because it is idolatry. It is the worship of money dressed up to look like the worship of God. It is a love for gifts more than the Giver. And even though many of us are not afraid to call it the heresy that it is, many of the same people who hate the prosperity Gospel hold to something similar, although I hesitate to call it heresy, maybe because it is so ubiquitous. It is reflected in the phrase “help the poor”. “Help the poor” is uttered from pulpits in one form or another and leads to all kinds of good projects designed to alleviate the suffering of impoverished people both in our neighbourhoods and around the world. They are not wrong. God blesses people materially for the purpose of sharing with those who have less (Ephesians 4:28). But the problem with “Help the poor” is that most of the time it can be said in the church with no fear that it applies to anyone in the building. The poor are out there – somewhere. They live where people in the church are not. They shop where people in the church would not. They end up on wards in the hospital where people in the church will not. And sadly, quite often they worship where the rest of us do not. The poor are “out there” – some place. We are concerned that they are so hard pressed. But they are not in our churches. We seem to have great pity for the poor on the other side of the planet but not much for those in the same Area Code. This is because we reason that the poor across the ocean are far worse off than our poor. It may also be because $20.00 in Africa will buy a lot more there than $20.00 here will.

But why are the poor not in our churches? Sometimes, I suppose, it is because the church does not exist where the poor people do. Sometimes this is just the natural way that things are. We evangelize our communities and they have no poor in them. The poor cannot afford to live where we do. It could be that we do not want to plant churches where the poor live. As the Baptist denomination president said to me when I was planting a church in a community full of government housing “It’s good that you are working here but they will never give much money to your church”. What was he telling me? Sometimes we have no poor in our churches because the church moves away to a place that the poor cannot get to without getting up very early to take public transport that the current regular attenders have never needed to use. I attended a conference last year at a well known mega church. It struck me that while the building is close to a major city it is far enough away that no one could ever walk there. Who can attend there? No one, I would guess, who doesn’t have a good set of wheels. Why do we move so far outside our cities? Sometimes because the places in the city where the church is located start to become poor and the church, made up of people who no longer live in the community, moves to accommodate them. When the church was built it was a hub of up and coming industry. The people who attended the church lived a walking distance from the church. But as time and economics changed and prosperity moved away, so did the people of the church. It just made better sense for the church to follow where the people were leading them. As inner cities deteriorated, so did the places of worship and people left.

Sometimes there are no poor people in our churches because they just can’t reach “those people”. This seems a little odd to me because Jesus said that it is the rich who are harder to reach. Not for most of North American evangelicalism apparently. Why?

Historically, the old fundamentalist/modernist wars contribute to the absence of the poor among us. When theological liberals grabbed a hold of helping the less fortunate at the expense of the Gospel, or as a substitute Gospel itself, evangelicals rightly emphasized the Gospel of Jesus Christ come into the world to save sinners from their sin and all its consequences. What, after all, does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Part of the legacy of that war was a separation of social ministries from the Gospel. And a church that does not do much to help the neighbourhood needy because it is felt to be too theologically liberal is not going to attract many poor people. I wonder sometimes if we don’t hold to an evangelical prosperity Gospel. We would never say that coming to Jesus will make a person wealthy and healthy, but we believe deep down that the reason poor people are poor is because of laziness (sometimes it is), lack of drive (sometimes it is) or other things that could be rectified with some good old fashioned drive. (And sometimes it might be the solution). Bring up the subject of helping the poor and the topic will almost inevitably turn to stories about people who lied to get help or who drove up to ask for help in a fancy car or some such thing. As if poor people will be immune to lying and cheating like the rest of the world. The poor, it seems, aren’t allowed to sin like the rest of us. I was taught in seminary that when people get saved they will cease to be poor. They will cease to be poor because they will cease to want things for nothing. They will become entrepreneurial, energetic, industrious. We know that the Gospel won’t make you rich and healthy. But we also “know” that if the poor found Jesus they would become more industrious and therefore more prosperous and therefore the church will not contain many of them. We believe that poverty is due to the particular sins of poor people. Poor people are not stupid. They detect such attitudes from us and do us the favour of not hanging around. James didn’t believe that the faith made people more industrious, or at least he believed that even after their salvation they remained poor. The Macedonian churches of Paul’s day were extremely poor (II Corinthians 8:2).

James 2:5 – Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?

It is a type of prosperity Gospel to believe that coming to Jesus will get you out of poverty.

I know many poor people. Some of them lie to me, steal from me, from my church. They feel like they have to tell long complicated stories in order to get something from me. Some of them sleep in until noon. Some of them are very rude. I lectured a poor man in our church last Sunday because he lied to me. He always lies to me. His psychiatrist says he cannot tell the truth. He got mad at me when I lectured him about his rudeness. I hope I wasn’t rude in my lecture. He’ll be back and when he comes I may apologize to him if I conclude that I was rude to him. I know many non-poor people. Some of them lie to me. Some of them steal from me. Some of them are lazy, but that’s OK because they have a lot of money and laziness is only a sin when you are receiving tax payer money. Well, we all receive tax payer money. It just doesn’t get doled out from a welfare office.

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Sometimes the sins that people commit, or the sins that others commit, make them very poor. Sometimes the sins they commit, or the sins that others commit, make them very rich. Sometimes the poverty they live in was inherited from their parents, just like the wealth of the more well to do was. They both need the Gospel. Jesus said that it is harder for the rich to get into heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The major theological point to make from that statement is that salvation is impossible except for God. But Jesus was talking to people who thought that the rich would get in easier than others. “Who then can be saved?” is their response to Jesus’ unbelievable comment.

It is probably true that the church worldwide is comprised mostly of unhealthy, poor, persecuted, believers. It doesn’t seem that such is the case in North America. Well, I have been rich and I have been poor. Rich is better. Poverty is no sure sign of the blessing of God. It is a providence, just like wealth is. I just wish when we say “help the poor” there were people in our churches who would be among those we intend to help. I remain unconvinced that their absence doesn’t have something to do with the cultures of North American churches.

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Do not wrong the sojourner

Posted on June 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

Exodus 22:21 – “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

God gives instruction to Israel as they camp out at Sinai receiving the Law from Moses. Twice in this text God tells them not to mistreat the “sojourner”. The traveller, the one just passing through, the immigrant, the alien, the refugee … . The reason they must treat such people with dignity, respect, kindness, is because they too had been sojourners. They were homeless and unwelcome except the the work they could provide for their masters. They have been captives in Egypt for over 400 years and God wants them to remember that they were there just as visitors.

The people of God need to be reminded that they were once sojourners, just like others. We can be very forgetful creatures. We must be. We can look down on sinners, having forgotten that we are saved by grace alone and by works not at all. We forget that there is no difference between us and the abortionist, the rapist, the gay activist, … except God’s grace. We forget that Jesus received the unpopular, the outcasts, women, children, adulterers, tax collectors, thieves, liars, doubters. The New Testament doesn’t list all those sins of course. It merely says that Jesus’ opponents were upset with him for associating with sinners.

Believers sometimes forget that we are the sinners that Jesus received. The Ephesian church was told by Jesus to remember the height from which they had fallen (Revelation 2:5). They had forgotten their first love. They were experts at seeking out sin and false doctrine in others and Jesus commended them for that. Yet Jesus was still going to shut them down for forgetting their first love.

Peter tells his recipients that whoever lacks the qualities of faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love, has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins (II Peter 1:9).

The Ephesian church was an enviable bunch. They could test for apostleship, and were intolerant of evil people. They persevered and had their doctrine in place. But they had forgotten – forgotten their first love, forgotten grace, forgotten the wonders of their salvation. They forgot that Christianity is more than Systematics. They forgot not to be satisfied with themselves. They forgot, or didn’t know, that they too were spewing out false doctrine. They forgot that they had been forgiven of past sins. When this happens it gets easy to see others as less than ourselves.

Like people who want immigration shut down whose ancestors were from everywhere except here, we look at these outsiders as less than worthy of being a part of us. We think the sins we were saved from were small compared to theirs. We think the grace that got to us won’t reach them. We think the purity of the church somehow means not soiling ourselves with sinners.

Twice in Exodus 22 and 23 God tells the Israelites not to oppress sojourners on the basis that they were sojourners themselves. (22:21, 23:9). It’s almost like this was going to be a major problem for them. Our natural response to outsiders is to shun. We don’t like interlopers into our comfort zones. It is a lot of work to allow those who are different into our little circles. And what God tells us is that we were once outside the circle too. Someone let us into it. We do not have the right to change the rules once we are allowed in. The circles is not big enough yet. There is room for so many more. What great sin is surrounding us and Jesus can save people from all sin. There is nothing more powerful than the finished work of the cross. If only we could remember.

Sinners are welcome. Not into a false sense of salvation. Not into believing that they are OK just the way they are. But welcome into our lives, into our social gatherings, into our hearts. Because that is how we were received by others when we were sojourners. It is how Jesus found us. It was what He knew He would find and it is what He came for. Now He says to us – go welcome sinners – for you were sinners in the land as well.

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Father Songs

Posted on June 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

Well, Sunday is Father’s Day and I just thought that it would be kind of neat to post some songs about fathers. (I might be wrong about that, but I get to choose what gets posted, neat or not.) They are not Christian songs. Simply songs that show that I am an old guy and that speak of some of the good and the bad that we find in fathers and that if we are fathers, our children may find in us.

The family is the first institution that God created and fathers are still meant to be heads of them. The standard for dads is Jesus Christ Himself so there is plenty of room for improvement in all of us. I think my favourite father text is I Thessalonians 2:11-12:

For you know how, like a father with his children, [12] we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

Our goal as dads is to work to get our children to walk in a manner worthy of God. We can all think of the ways that our fathers didn’t get that one right. And it is easy, and perhaps painful to think of how we didn’t too. But we are children of a great and loving Father who never makes mistakes and that includes the families we were a part of growing up and the ones we helped form as adults.

Harry Chapin’s scary classic.