No Chicken Soup for the Soul

Today it seems that most sermons begin with a cute story or maybe a joke.  The reason is that the speaker feels that he must get the attention of his audience.  But it is more than that, too many sermons just make us feel good.  They are nothing more than Chicken soup for the soul.   Therefore it would be wrong to talk about sin and repentance.  How does repentance make us feel good?  What we need is someone to tell us that we are okay.
That was not John the Baptist.  His cute little chicken soup for the soul was to call his hearers a brood of snakes.  He didn't say that he was glad they came to hear him but he challenged them on why they came.  Why are you seeking repentance and forgiveness?  Maybe we need a few more sermons like John's.
The following sermon is worth listening to.  It takes about 50 minutes but it is worth it.

Here comes the Queen.

A number of years ago Queen Elizabeth II visited the city we were living in at that time.  She was given the royal tour and one event on that tour was a visit to the Amethyst Mine.  This mine was near the lake where my in-laws had a cottage.  In preparation for her visit to the mine the road was upgraded.  It was no longer a gravel road but new surface was put down so the road was a smooth road.
Isaiah says in Isaiah 40:3 - 5, A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord;

make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Luke quotes this prophecy and shows that it is fulfilled in John the Baptist.  What is the highway?  It is repentance.  When the Queen was coming they prepared the roads, we are told to mend our hearts.  We must repent to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

They had to come to go!

It is every parents fear and it seems to happen to all parents that at one time or another they cannot find their child.  It happened to us, it happened to me as a child and it happened to my wife.  When she got lost in a store she did what we tell our children all the time not to do and that is leave the store.  She went out of the store to her parents car and eventually they came out not knowing where else to look and there she was.  Her explanation, "I knew you had to come to go!"
When my in laws lived next door to us we left our son at church.  We thought that he had gone home with his grandparents but when we got home he wasn't with them.  We called the church and the pastor was still there.  Our son figured that he could stay there until the next men's breakfast.  However, this was Christmas eve.
Jesus also got left behind.  His parents thought that he was with his friends and it wasn't until they took stock that night that they realized that he wasn't with them, he had been left behind.  When they found him he was in the temple talking with the elders.  Some think that he was teaching them but I think he was listening and asking questions.  He had a desire to learn.  Yes he was God but he had laid aside his divinity and became a child.  As a child he learned like other children learn.  He learned by asking questions and listening to those older than he.

Aurora Borealis

One of the spectacular sights in the winter night skies in the north is the northern lights or aurora borealis.  When we lived in the north we would occasionally see the wonder of theses lights as they danced across the sky.  Sometimes they were filled with colour.  We would stop what we were doing just to watch the wonder of the moment.

As spectacular as the northern lights may they are nothing compared to what the shepherds experienced on that first Christmas night.  That night the angels showed up.  Now we often see pictures of one or two angels but I imagine that the sky was full of angels.  This was the greatest event in the history of this planet and I know that none of the angels would miss it.  If the northern lights are an spectacular sight can you imagine the sky filled with angels.  What a moment.  What a scene.

Why was Jesus born into the world?

I think if you were to ask a dozen people you may get a dozen different answers.  He came to save us, to give us eternal life, to set the captives free, etc.  However, what did Jesus say?  When Jesus was on trial before Pilate He told Pilate, "In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth."  John 18:37
Pilate asked the question, What is truth?  Little did he know that the One who said He was the truth was standing before him that night.  Truth is never relative.  Truth by definition must be absolute.  Jesus said that He was the truth.
What is truth?  That which reveals the character of God.  Who revealed God to us?  Jesus.
So we can be a people of hope.  Our hope is in the one who was born into a manager in Bethlehem.  The Christmas Carole says it well, "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight."

Something to sing about.

When people have no hope then they do not sing.  I am reminded of the Psalmist who said, "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?" Psalm 137
However the people in the days of the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus were people who sang.  Mary sang the magnificat where she magnifies the Lord in her song.  Zachariah sang the benedictus where he sings of the Lord's visitation and finally in Luke 2 Simeon sings nunc dimittis and he sings because he has seen the Lord's glory.
Why do we sing?  We sing because we have hope.  We see a world in trouble but we see a God who is in control.  We know that God will someday step into history and everything will be made right.  Mary, Zachariah and Simeon all sang because they saw that God was moving in their day.  Do we have something to sing about?

Be

Just a little word "be" but when we look at Mary's encounter with the angel Gabriel we can learn a great deal from that little word.
It is said of Mary in Luke 1:27 that she was pledged to be married.  She may have been only thirteen years old but her life was already planned out for her.  She was to be married to Joseph the carpenter.

The angel then tells Mary in Luke 1:31 that she will be with child.  Not only does the angel say that she will be pregnant but that the child will be a boy and he will be named Jesus.  He goes on to tell about the greatness of this child.
Mary has a question in v34.  How will this be?  This was not a question of doubt but a legitimate question.  She was a virgin.
Then in v38 we see the faith of Mary when she said, "May it be to me as you said."
One of the amazing things about Mary was that she was unwilling to put her reputation above her obedience to the revelation that God gave her.  She was willing to suffer the shame and stigma of being pregnant but unmarried for the glory of God.
Can we say with Mary, "may it be to me as you said."?

I want to but I cannot.

Continuing on from yesterday.  It was the greatest day of his life and he couldn't wait to tell others about it but he couldn't.  Because he doubted the message of the angel he was stricken deaf and dumb.  We are not told that he was deaf but later when the baby is born we see the people making signs to him.  He just couldn't hear.  Not only could he not tell them about the angel but he couldn't finish his task.  He was unable to bless the people.
For nine months he couldn't speak to his wife or hear her voice.  When the baby was born he didn't hear the first cry.  It was only after he confirmed what his wife Elizabeth said regarding his name that he was able to speak again.
Because Zechariah couldn't tell others about what he had seen and heard because of his unbelief we should be more willing to share the good news of the Gospel.  Luke tells us this story so that we will believe the message.

Holy Imagination

Zechariah's encounter with the angel Gabriel in the temple is a wonderful story to let your imagination run in many directions.  Luke gives us the information but can you imagine what went on in Zechariah's mind that day?
First, it was the greatest day of his life as a priest.  Many priests serve their whole life and never get to do what he was chosen to do that day.  He was already nearing the time for him to retire and he was chosen to offer the incense.
Second, he encounters an angel and not just any angel but Gabriel.  Notice that the first words out of the mouth of the angel were, "Don't be afraid."  As you read scripture you will see many times that the angel's greetings involved a reassurance of their safety.  Angels must be awesome especially Gabriel.
Third, the angel tells him that his prayer has been answered.  What prayer?  I don't think Zechariah went into the temple to pray for a son.  His prayer was for the nation.  He was there offering incense on behalf of the nation.  He probably was praying for the Messiah to come.  Imagine the shock when he heard that his prayer was answered.  Four hundred years had passed without a word from the Lord and now he is told that the Messiah is coming.  I can only imagine that he cannot wait to tell the others as he leaves the temple.  But that was not to be.
I will continue this tomorrow, LW.

Hide and Seek

When I was young we loved to play "hide and seek".  We would always find new places to hide but we were always found unless we made it "home free".
Luke states the theme of his Gospel in 19:10 where he says, " For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
In chapters 1 - 3 we have the coming of Jesus.  In 4 - 21 we see Him seeking and finally in 22 - 24 we see what He did for the lost.
Unlike in hide and seek we do not know we are lost and we certainly weren't expecting to be found.  However, we are lost and as we turn our eyes to Jesus we will see that we need a Saviour, One who came seeking us while we were still lost.

I don't think I know.

One time a teacher asked a student a question which the student didn't know the answer so the student turned the question back on the teacher.  The student said, "What do you think the answer is?"  The teacher responded with, "I don't think, I know."  The student then replied, "I don't think I know either."
The disciples asked Jesus to teach them about prayer.  This is the first time the disciples asked Jesus to teach them anything.  How fitting it was that they asked Him to teach them to pray.
I think if we were spending time with Jesus we would have asked Him to teach us many things about life but would we have asked Him to teach us to pray?
Luke has a great deal to say about prayer in His Gospel account.  Prayer is another of the themes that we find in Luke's Gospel account.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Forty seven years ago there was a movie called Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?  In the movie a white girl brings home her date and her parents are anxious to meet him until they find out that he is coloured.  Suddenly someone crossed the barrier.
In Luke's Gospel account we often see Jesus going to dinner.  He is not just with His friends like Mary, Martha and Lazarus but we see Him at dinner with the Pharisees, the ultra conservative religious people of His day, and with the publicans such as Levi and Zaccheus.  Luke shows us much of Jesus' teaching took place while He was at someone's house for dinner.  If it shocked the status quo when John Wade Prentice came to dinner can you imagine the shock when Jesus showed up at Zaccheus' house.

Here is a trailer for that movie:

Kids at our Gate

When we lived in the Philippines every day when we arrived home from school a number of kids would run down the street to meet us at our gate.  These kids were from the squatter area around us and they would appreciate a cold glass of clean water or some cookies or rice.  One of our fellow staff members told us that they came because we gave them something and if we ignored them they would stop coming.  I couldn't help but think of Jesus' words when He said that if we gave a cup of cold water in His name we were doing it as to Him.
These kids were the outsiders.  They lived in squatter huts and didn't always have enough food or proper clothing.  Many of them couldn't afford to go to school.  In Luke's gospel account we encounter children and poor and other outsiders that Jesus welcomed to come in while the rich, the religious elite were often outside.  The Gospel turns things upside down, the outsiders are welcomed in.

Sunflowers

I love a field of sunflowers.  I find it amazing to see all the heads facing the same way.  One of the joys of living where I do is all the different crops that are grown and every year someone grows sunflowers.
We live in an age where we have lost the sense of amazement.  There is a super moon or a meteor shower or a double rainbow and we don't bother taking the time to go outside and look for ourselves.  After all someone somewhere will post it on the internet and it will be better than what we can see from our backyard.
I am afraid that is how we sometimes read the Gospels.  We have become so accustomed to what we have heard that we no longer come to the Gospels with a sense of anticipation.  I can imagine that the first readers were amazed at Jesus.  The teaching, the answers to questions, the miracles, the parables all would have been something very, very new to the original readers.
And what about the people who Luke writes about?  Mary and Zacharias.  The disciples and the Pharisees.  These people were amazed.
As we study Luke's Gospel account together I want to be amazed again.  I want to see it through the eyes of the original readers.

Right Side of History

A catch phrase of the day seems to be "being on the right side of history".  Politicians tell you that if you don't support gay marriage you will find yourself on the wrong side of history.  It sounds right but it also sounds very arrogant.  The speakers obviously has decided what is the right side of history and if you don't side with that side you are wrong.
However, as Christian we can be on the right side of history.  Jesus came and with Him came the great reversal.  He sided with the poor, the weak, the vulnerable, not because they were weak or poor or vulnerable but because those people knew that their salvation was outside themselves and could only be found in the Lord Jesus.
So to be on the right side of history will not be following some political or sociological agenda but siding yourself with the Creator of the universe.  It is the only way to be on the right side of history.

Who is Jesus and What does He want from Me? Part 2

The answer is simple; nothing and everything.

Nothing in that we have nothing that is not His in the first place.  And everything because it is already His and not ours.

As Jesus calls us to follow Him there are four things we need to remember:

1.  We must listen to Him.

2.  He wants to turn from ourselves and be penitent.

3.  He wants us to tell others about Him.

4.  We must leave everything to follow Him.

Many see Jesus as a commodity that we can add onto our lives.  He cannot be added on, He must be our lives.  If we take the approach that He is a commodity then we will try and sell Jesus to the world.  We cannot do that.  We must show Jesus to the world and He will sell himself.

Miracles

Why did Jesus perform miracles?

First, Jesus did not perform miracles so that we would expect a miracle.  Miracles by nature are not common.  Some people would have us believe that we should expect miracles all the time.  Remember that the miracles were given to us so that we would desire heaven, a time and a place where things would be put right.  Miracles were not given so that we would have heaven on earth but that we would live in expectation of a day when all things were made right.

Second, and this is most important, Jesus performed miracles to confirm His identity as the Christ.  John calls these miracles "signs".  These signs are to show us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus did not come as a miracle worker, though He performed many miracles, but He came to proclaim the Gospel.  The miracles Jesus performed showed that the rule of God was breaking through and someday all things will be made right.

So let me ask this question:  Which takes more faith, to pray and a miracle occurs or to believe that there is coming a day when all things will be made right?  Both require faith.  Both require us to live by faith.  But if God does not heal or change that circumstance He is still God and there will be a day when we will understand.

Who is Jesus and what does He want from me?

I grew up in a conservative Christian home.  I was taken to church and Sunday school long before I could walk or talk.  I said my prayers every night and always prayed before a meal.  Of course I knew who Jesus is after all look at my heritage.
However, my knowledge of Jesus was of course flawed.  Growing up on a farm in rural Saskatchewan I didn't know any Jews or Asians or Africans or any other racial groups so of course Jesus had to be a white Anglo Saxon male.  Now that wasn't really a bad thing but it was flawed.
Sometimes when you listen to celebrities or professional athletes they have their own version of Jesus.  A baseball player may see Him as a player sliding into second base to break up a double play.  This is just their creation of who Jesus is.  I am sure that if Jesus was at the ball diamond the pro athletes would not recognize Him as He probably would be out with the kids trying to get a fly ball but here I go with my own version of "Who is Jesus?"
When Luke wrote his Gospel account of Jesus he did not have that problem.  His readers were being introduced to Jesus for the very first time.  They did not have a Sunday School version of Jesus and they had never seen His picture hanging in the church foyer.  In Luke 9:20 Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?"  Over the next ten chapters Jesus shows His disciples the answer to that question.
When we read Luke's account we should read it as his first century readers would have read it.  We are no longer surprised when Jesus identifies with the poor and the outcast but that was not what the people of his day expected.  Why did Jesus identify with these people and not the people of power?
...and what does He want from me?  As Luke unfolds the story we will see the answer to that as well.

Luke

It has been months since I last posted on this blog.  Two weeks from yesterday we will begin a new series in the Adult Bible Class.  This fall we will be looking at the Gospel according to Luke.
Why Luke?

It started about a year ago when a friend gave me a copy of Michael Card's book on Luke.  I read it through and put it on the shelf.  Awhile later I began to think about what I would teach in the fall and I realized that I have not spent any time in the Gospels.  I was drawn back to look again at the Gospels and decided that I wanted to spend time with Luke.
Since then another friend of mine to encourage me in my studies and teaching asked what books I wanted on the Gospel according to Luke.  I asked for the commentaries by Philip Ryken which he bought for me.  I started reading the first volume and realized what I had been missing by not spending time in the Gospels.
I hope you take time to journey with me through this amazing account of the life of our Lord.  I am excited to begin this series.

Reaching the lost or losing the reached.

Today the church seems to be losing the reached more than reaching the lost.  The truth is that there are those who have grown up in an evangelical home have wondered away from the faith.  Paul was concerned that the Gospel message remained clear and strong so he encouraged Timothy to continue in the Gospel.  The temptation is always to tone down the rhetoric and show Christ's love by our lives.  Though this is important we must always remember that there is good news because there is bad news.  We are not being judgmental when we talk about the judgment of God upon sinners.

1967

The 1960's were a troubled decade.  There was wars, protests, hippies, Jesus movement, man on the moon, and so much more.  I can of age in the 1960's.  I turned 16, graduated from high school, went to university, graduated university and began my teaching career.
In 1967 I was in university and a retired school teacher paid my way to go to the Urbana missionary conference in Urbana, Illinois.  For four days we listened to speakers who talked to us about missions.  I remember some of them but most I have forgotten.  One speaker I do remember was John Stott.  Every morning we would gather, all 12000 of us, in the auditorium and listen as Dr. Stott taught us from 2 Timothy.  We were taught to guard the Gospel.  I have never forgotten that teaching and finally this year I decided to go back and read those lectures again and pass it on to my class.

Gladys Aylward

Gladys Aylward always wanted to be a missionary but she was turned down by the China Inland Mission today known as Overseas Missionary Fellowship which is by the way the mission that my wife and I were with in the Philippines.  Gladys returned home dejected.  She was too short, her hair was too black and too straight.  However, when she finally arrived in China she encountered many short women with black straight hair.  Another case what she thought was a handicap opened many doors for her.  Watch the following short video on the life of Gladys Aylward.

Rolls Royce

A man bought a new Rolls Royce and was wondering why he didn't have any statistics on the vehicle.  He wrote to the company and asked about the horsepower of the engine.  The reply he received was a single word, "sufficient".
Today I find that many people do not find that Scripture is sufficient.  They are looking for an experience yet we know that the Bible is sufficient for life, salvation and godliness.  Part of the problem is that we are becoming Biblically illiterate even though we have more Bibles, Bible studies, Bible helps than ever before.  If we truly believed that Scripture was sufficient we wouldn't be running after experiences.

Henrietta Mears

Henrietta Mears had a weakness, poor eyesight.  She asked the Lord to heal her but she was not healed.  She said, "I believe my greatest spiritual asset throughout my entire life has been my failing sight, for it has kept me absolutely dependent upon God." That does not mean that the Lord's answer was negative but rather it was a positive as the following video shows.



There is a principle that we cannot ignore.  God's strength is made perfect in our weakness.

Authority

Paul's authority was challenged by some people in Corinth.  They said that if he had authority he would have had dreams and visions and revelations but he never talked about those things so therefore he didn't have any authority.  Paul on the other hand claimed that his authority was given to him as an apostle by the Lord Himself.  He didn't need any further revelations or visions.  His authority came from Christ and was shown through his weakness.
Sometimes people come to us and claim things for our lives.  They tell us that they have had a vision or a revelation and that the Lord has told them ...   So how do we respond?  Do we acknowledge their authority?  Do we ignore their authority?  What do we do?  I have often had people tell me that the Lord has told them... and that I should do ...  They make it sound nonspiritual if they are ignored but I must say that is what I usually do, I ignore them.  Paul choose to challenge his accusers.
I don't know how these people get their word from the Lord.  Do they have a dream, a vision, an audible voice?  Or is it something that comes from their own mind?
I said I usually ignore them but I should add that I do listen and ask God for direction and follow His leading that He often gives me through His Word.

Worthy is the Lamb

Heaven is for real

Thanks David Platt.  Christians today prefer experience to knowledge.  If Christians were seeking truth they would have discernment and would not fall for such books.

Extended Warranty

This past week I past my best before date.  I turned 70 on Friday.  I did have the unique birthdate of 4/4/44.  In Psalm 90 we are told to number our days and that "Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures;"  Psalm 90:10.
I remember my dad saying when he turned 70 that his warranty had expired.  One of the unique things about us is that we can always get an extended warranty from the Maker.  He offers it to us free of charge at any time of our lives.  We can obtain it from Him even if our best before date has past.  I am so glad that I purchased mine more than 60 years ago.

The Now of the Now but not Yet

We live in both the now and the not yet of the kingdom.  There are many blessings that we have in Christ.  However, the people of Corinth suffered from an over developed eschatology.  Many of the blessings that we look forward to they were claiming for the now.  They would have loved to have identified with the book, Your Best Life Now.  Just as it was in the church in Corinth so it is in our day.  We have people claiming the promises of the coming kingdom for us today.  Health and Wealth.  Name it a claim it.  Your best life now.  And the list goes on.  The truth is that we live in an in between time.  We have the promises of eternal life but we have not seen the face of God.  Perfect love and holiness and fellowship are not ours.  We still experience sin, pain, and death.  We as God's children are called to balance the realities of the now and not yet.

Theological Education in Guinea

While I was in Guinea I had the privilege of visiting a Bible College that was once run by my denomination.  However, over the past few years they have backed away from education in Guinea to concentrate on other ministries.  This has left a gap that others quickly jumped in to fill.  What I saw saddened my heart.
I saw a school that was desperately in need of supplies, books, and more but meanwhile there is building going on to house visiting professors.  Because this other group is funding the building they felt that they had the right to dictate what would be taught at the school.
What I saw was a need to support the nationals in the education of their own people.  We can and should watch what is being taught but we should not dictate the curriculum as if we know best.  We should help them develop curriculum that is needed for West Africa and help them guard against heresy.  I hate to compare countries but the programs that I saw when I visited Ecuador and Uganda made me think about the importance of educating the nationals to do the ministry.  The real strength comes when nationals train nationals.  The people of Ecuador are training church planters for all of South America.  The people of Uganda are training young men and women to be men and women of God.

Kings and Queens

This song by Audio Adrenalin could have been written about the children at the Kids in Crisis Centre in Conakry, Guinea.  Take a moment to listen and think about the children who are just throw aways.

Wagons

We sent three new wagons to Guinea in the container.  Wagons were just a dream but a friend of ours saw that wagons were on sale at a local store so he bought three for us.  When we arrived I had to assemble the wagons and as soon as a wagon was assembled it was full of children, sometimes three, sometimes four and sometimes even more.  They sat in the wagons waiting for someone to pull them.  It was much like most of their lives.  They wait for someone to love them.
The wagons were unpainted so we decided to paint them and reinforce the sides so the children were without wagons for a few days.  When I repaired one I took it to the play area and immediately there was fight to get into the wagons.

Guinea

My wife and I were part of a team from our church that went to Conakry, Guinea. West Africa.  The purpose of our trip was to work in an orphanage.  My wife sorted clothes, painted and cared for children.  In a country that is poor it is easy to see how the poor and marginalized are exploited by those that have money and power.
While we were there one of the local workers was working alongside one of our team who was mixing concrete to repair part of the play area.  He told the team member that they had never seen a white man working like he was, it was always the natives that worked while the white man supervised.  What kind of a testimony is that to the people of Guinea?
Much has been given to us so much is expected of us.  Why do we have a spirit of entitlement?
I am going to write a few more short blogs on our experiences in Guinea over the next few days.

Good Grief

We all remember good ol' Charlie Brown and him saying "good grief".  Paul refers to two types of grief which he calls godly grief and worldly grief.  You may say that godly grief is good grief.  So what is the difference between worldly grief and godly grief?  Paul says that godly grief leads to repentance while worldly grief only leads to shame.  The difference is the centre.  Worldly grief has self at the centre while godly grief has God at the centre.
Godly grief leads to repentance, true repentance.  Repentance is more than saying you are sorry or being sorry for your sin.  Repentance is a radical new way of thinking.  It has moved self from the centre and put God in His rightful place.  Repentance is not being sorry for our sins or saying that we won't do it anymore.  It is not cleaning up our act for Jesus but rather it is allowing God to do that for us.
A friend one time told me that the reason he was not a Christian "yet" was that he struggled with repentance.  He said that he thought Christians made repentance too easy.  Repentance he understood would cost him a great deal.  He eventually changed his way of thinking and today he is a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

Locked out and staying there

In his book, The Call, Oz Guinness gives us three pitfalls that we can fall into when we think about separation.

1.  Privatization.
 When we have a division between our public and private lives we will lack the freedom that is ours in Christ Jesus.
He says, The problem with Western Christians is not that they aren't where they should be but that they aren't what they should be where they are.
2.  Politicization.
 This is a reaction to privatization.  It is wrong to think that we can bring faith into all of life through politics.  When we think in terms of correcting society by political means then the Christian does not understand the tension that comes with living as a Christian in a fallen world.
3.  Pillarization.
This is when the Christian community builds its own network of institutions and organizations.  How then can we be salt and light?

 Paul says, "Come out from them and be separate says the Lord Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." 2 Corinthians 6:17.  So what does that mean?  We resist privatization of our faith by insisting on the totality of faith.  We resist politicization by demanding a tension with every human allegiance and association.  We also resist pillarization because we are constantly engaged in society to transform lives.

The girl with the dragon tattoo

Yesterday in class we were studying 2 Corinthians 6 and when we came to verse 17 we somehow got unto the topic of tattoos.  Someone in the class mentioned that in his discussion with one of his children the topic came up and he said that he had thought about how we should not set our standards by the world and there had to be ways that the Christian does appear and acts different from non-Christians.
Tattoos in Bible times and in pagan cultures often are related to pagan worship and in these cases one should not have a tattoo but what about something innocent such as a butterfly or even a Scripture reference?  Since we live under grace and not under law are we free to mark our bodies in any way we want?
After class one on the class members who as a very strict conservative upbringing said that he recently attended a wedding at a church of his upbringing and and a man came in with a tattoo on his arm.  One of the older women made the comment that if they allowed people with tattoos like that then she would not attend that church.  So I ask the question, where is the place for the girl with the dragon tattoo?

The Unexpected Hanging

As a Mathematics teacher I always was interested in paradoxes.  One of my favourites is the paradox of the unexpected hanging.  Here is the paradox.

The unexpected hanging paradox

A judge tells a condemned prisoner that he will be hanged at noon on one weekday in the following week, but that the execution will be a surprise to the prisoner. He will not know the day of the hanging until the executioner knocks on his cell door at noon that day. Having reflected on his sentence, the prisoner draws the conclusion that he will escape from the hanging. His reasoning is in several parts. He begins by concluding that the “surprise hanging” can’t be on a Friday, as if he hasn’t been hanged by Thursday, there is only one day left – and so it won’t be a surprise if he’s hanged on a Friday. Since the judge’s sentence stipulated that the hanging would be a surprise to him, he concludes it cannot occur on Friday. He then reasons that the surprise hanging cannot be on Thursday either, because Friday has already been eliminated and if he hasn’t been hanged by Wednesday night, the hanging must occur on Thursday, making a Thursday hanging not a surprise either. By similar reasoning he concludes that the hanging can also not occur on Wednesday, Tuesday or Monday. Joyfully he retires to his cell confident that the hanging will not occur at all. The next week, the executioner knocks on the prisoner’s door at noon on Wednesday — which, despite all the above, will still be an utter surprise to him. Everything the judge said has come true.

In 2 Corinthians 6:8 - 10 Paul lists the paradoxes of his ministry.  "Through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors;  known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed;  sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything".

One of the paradoxes that Paul states in this letter is the paradox of fear and love.  He says in 2 Corinthians 5 that he is motivated by the fear of God but he also says that the love of Christ is his motivator.

A. W. Tozer calls this "That Incredible Christian."

She's a good girl

When I was growing up if you said that someone was a good girl you generally meant that she was morally pure.  However, that has changed today.  When you say today that she is a good girl you generally refer to the fact that she eats right, exercises and generally takes good care of her body.  In the past the emphasis was upon character and purity while today it is different.
I used the example of a good girl but in general that refers to all humanity.  Our concept of goodness has changed but does that really mean we are good?  Just thinking.

A new creation

In the forward to Dave Lomas's book, The Truest Thing About You Francis Chan writes a letter to Dave.  In the letter he says the following:

Once this internal change takes place, it's as if we can't stop ourselves from acting.  That's how the Christian life is supposed to work.  Something wells up inside us and then overflows.  We have to love God.  We have to serve God.  We have to love people ... not because we're suppose to, but because we can't help it!  We don't try to love the poor - we can't help but love the poor!  We want to.  It's flowing out of every fiber of our being.  We hate lust and pride and try to rid ourselves of them, not because we're suppose to be good, but because those things aren't who we are.  When we're filled with God, His commands aren't burdensome - we actually love them!  He makes us slaves of righteousness, and we love it!

Peace with God

I have often heard it said that someone made their peace with God.  Is this a true statement?  Does anyone make his peace with God?  As we study Paul's second letter to the Corinthian church we see that we do not make peace with God but that He makes peace with us.  We do not reconcile with God but we accept His reconciliation.  That reconciliation was made possible through the cross.  At the cross Christ became sin, not a sinner, but rather the sacrifice and payment for sin and by accepting the reconciliation made possible we become the righteousness of God.  It happens at the cross.  So let us stop telling people to make their peace with God and tell them that the peace has been made and we just need to accept that gift.

So you see this woman

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:16, "So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view."  However, I think that we do that very often.  A few months ago I wrote about questions.  I am going to include part of that entry here as it fits with what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians.

In Luke 7 we have the story about Jesus, a pharisee and a woman.  At one point Jesus turns to Simon the pharisee and asks him, "Do you see this woman?"
Simon might have responded, "Of course I see her.  She came into my house uninvited and invaded my party."
Jesus may have responded, "No Simon, do you really see this woman?"
Again Simon may have responded, "Yes I see her.  She is a woman of loose morals, the kind of woman I wouldn't have anything to do with."
Once again the question, "Simon do you see this woman?"
This woman was one for which Christ came to save.  She is not an intruder, she is not a statistic but a person.
The same question comes to us.  Do you see this man?  Do you see this woman?  Do you see this child?  We may say that we see a drunk, a drug user, a prostitute, a thief, a street person but do we really see that the person is someone who God loves.
Open our eyes Lord that we may see

Plus Ultra

Kent Hughes in his commentary of 2 Corinthians 5 introduces the chapter with these words:

When Spain had extended her conquests to the ends of the then-known world and controlled both sides of the Mediterranean at the Straits of Gibraltar (the fabled Pillars of Hercules), her coins proudly pictured the Pillars framing a scroll inscribed with the Latin words Ne Plus Ultra—“No More Beyond.” The Pillars gated the end of the earth. But “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and discovered the New World. The proud nation then admitted her ignorance and struck the negative Ne from her coinage, leaving the words Plus Ultra—“More Beyond.” The change from the myopic “No More Beyond” to the expansive “More Beyond” effected a revolution in world culture, global economy, and geopolitics. The change also serves as a handy example of what is needed in the spiritual geography of modern men and women, because so many live in the stifling delusion that there is no more beyond. Most, including many Christians, live as if “this is it”—as in the Looney Tunes finis, “That’s all, folks!” At the same time, Plus Ultra perfectly describes the Apostle Paul and the ultimate focus of the whole of Scripture and the intensive focus of this section of 2 Corinthians. 

Absent but present.

The great golf course in the sky.  I once heard an ardent golfer say those words in describing heaven.  Can you imagine such a low view of heaven?  Imagine that the greatest joy a person could have would be to play golf, or something else as trivial.  I can hear Paul choking on such a thought.  Paul did not have a trivial view of heaven.  To him it was absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  Heaven was not an extension of some human pleasure but rather the goal of the Christian, present with the Lord.  Christians have to get a renewed and proper view of heaven.

Songs of Heaven

I started to think about songs of heaven and wondered if there were any current ones.  Here is a partial list:

There will be a day by Jeremy Camp

I can only imagine by Mercy Me

Revelation song by Kari Jobe



Save a place for me by Matthew West

Where I belong by Building 429



Streets of God by Need to Breathe

However if there is one I would love to have sung at my funeral it would be an old hymn When we all get to Heaven.

What about Heaven?

At the end of 2 Corinthians 4 Paul says, " For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."  2 Corinthians 4:17, 18.
Heaven was very real to Paul but is it real to us today?  Affluence has brought us in this life what former generations could only anticipate in heaven.  The writer of Hebrews says, "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."  Hebrews 11:39, 40.  These saints were promised something better than they had received in this life.  We have an over-realized eschatology in which God's promises for the future are transported into the present.  It is easy for us to point fingers at the health and wealth preachers but in reality most of us have little anticipation of heaven because we life in a world of affluence and comfort.  The older, biblical images of heaven have lost their appeal.  
Paul referred to what was happening to him as a light and momentary trouble which helped him focus on the eternal glory.  Now it is not our desire to suffer persecution, troubles and pain but we need to ask the question, How can we build an anticipation of heaven in a world of affluence and comfort?

Jars of Clay

This coming Sunday we will be studying 2 Corinthians 4.  That chapter contains the famous jars of clay illustration.  A few years ago I got a clay vase and I put it on my dresser to remind me of the truth of this passage.  In the jar I have a number of items that you can see in the picture.  Let me explain some of the items.
You will see 2 nickels and 5 pennies.  If you could read the dates on these coins you would know that the nickels represent myself and my wife while the five pennies represent my five children.
You will also see a fish symbol that represents my commitment to Jesus Christ and you will also see six pins that are from my many days of attending Sunday School.  My home and the Sunday School were very important parts of my life growing up and it was there I learned much of God's Word and developed a love for His Word.
The watch is the one my wife gave me when we got married.  The larger metal is from Mathematics contests which also represent my career as a mathematics instructor.  The two swimming badges I earned as a 40 year old who had never learned to swim.  They remind me that we are never too old to learn.
Those are treasures but the greatest treasure we have in our jars of clay is the presence of the living God who came to live in us when we accepted Him as our Saviour and Lord.
Yes, we have treasures in these jars of clay.

Alone yet not alone

This song by Joni Eareckson Tada speaks about how God uses our weaknesses and she is a testimony of this fact.  Enjoy,

The Nature of Christian Ministry

Today, "rather than viewing the pastor as a mediator of the Spirit in conjunction with the proclamation of the Word, the minister becomes a 'professional' whose job it is to manage the corporate life of the congregation and oversee the creation of meaningful worship 'events'."  Scott Hafeman

He goes on to say, "a pastor's heart is a broken heart."

There are a few things that have concerned me regarding how we view Christian ministry especially in the church.  We call the sanctuary the auditorium as if it is a place where we will be entertained rather than meet the living God.  We call the platform a stage as if we should watch the performers rather than be led by our leaders.  We call the pastor a CEO as if he was in charge of a business rather than a family of God.  We call his study an office which reinforces the idea of a CEO rather than a pastor.

Scott Hafeman goes on to say, "Those who minister the gospel are not technicians trained to provide services (not even worship services).  They are mediators of the Spirit, who preach Christ in accordance with the Scriptures and embody his character in their own faithful endurance and love for others."

All the Grace You Need

Thanks to a friend who sent this to me. All the Grace You Need

James MacDonald - Senior Pastor - Harvest Bible Chapel

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. —2 Corinthians 12:9 When we study Scripture, there are times when a nuance provided by the meaning learned from the Bible’s original languages can rock us to the core. The Greek word order of 2 Corinthians 12:9 provides us with meaning we don’t want to miss: “Sufficient for you is the grace of me.” That is an incredible promise! Essentially the Lord told the apostle Paul, I am the grace. I’m all the grace you need. God does not dispense strength and encouragement like a pharmacist fills a prescription. God never says, Here, take two of these and call Me in the morning. He is the grace. He is the strength. His presence is the power. All we need comes through intimacy with Him. No matter what we face, Jesus is the complete answer. “Sufficient for you is the grace of me.” He doesn’t give what we need and then go somewhere else. He comes to stay. “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20). Notice that the Lord explains how I’m all the grace you need actually works in our lives: “For my power is made perfect in weakness.” “Perfect” means fulfilled, accomplished, completed, finished. It’s the same term Jesus spoke as His final word on the cross, tetelestai, which means, “It is finished” (John 19:30). God brings His sufficient and powerful grace to the relationship; all we bring is weakness. All of this is grace because we can’t do anything to deserve what He does for us. And He makes sure the results are perfect and complete. God wants His grace to be completed in your weakness. You never really experience the grace unless you see the need for it—and even that realization comes by grace. The power of Jesus' grace is not fully seen until weakness is fully acknowledged. The moment you are overwhelmed with your absolute helplessness is the moment you are ready to hear Jesus say, I’m all the grace you need. Think about the place where you regularly meet with God. Is it a chair in your bedroom? At the kitchen table? Or as one father of five small children confessed, is it in the garage in the backseat of your car? In light of today’s verse ask yourself, How many times have I gotten up from that place and left God’s sufficient grace there? The Lord was there with you—holding out to you the grace for the trial you were going to face that day, as your mind was drifting off to your own plan. How many days did you run out to a busy day and leave Him there with His sufficient grace? If you want to live by God’s sufficient grace, you’re not going to catch it falling from the sky as you hurry to your next appointment. You must go to the fountain and drink deeply. He is the One who quenches your thirst. When you read His Word and are thinking about it, His grace is flowing into you. He is also the One who wants to go with you every step of the way. And when a trial threatens to overwhelm you, remember His promise: “Sufficient for you is the grace of me.” The Lord is a faithful friend, sustaining you. He is all the grace you need.

Forgiveness and the church

This coming Sunday I was planing on going into the second half of 2 Corinthians 2 but as I studied this chapter I knew we have to look at the first part regarding discipline, forgiveness and the church.  This incident from the life of Corey Ten Boom says it well.

Self-esteem

This coming Sunday we will be looking at a surprising secret.  What is that surprising secret?  Well it certainly isn't self-esteem.  David Wells writing about our culture says that we have a bloated sense of human capacity.
As I have said before I taught Mathematics in high school, college and university.  Amazingly many of our students have an exalted view of their ability to do mathematics but in reality they do poorly.  In contrast the Japanese students have a very low opinion of their ability to do mathematics but are much better than North American students.
Thirty years of the self-esteem movement has told young people that they were perfect in every way but we have an entire generation with no sense of inadequacy.
In 1980 in a study of over 300 UK newspapers there was not one single reference to self-esteem.  By 1986 this number had risen to three.  In 1990 there was over 103 and a decade later in 2000 there was a staggering 3328 references.  How many do you think there would be in 2014?
So what is the surprising secret?  I will tell you this much, it is not self-esteem.

Challenges to our world view

One thing that you find in 2 Corinthians is that our world view is challenged.  I believe that we see three ways that it is challenged.

First, it challenges our view of God.  God's character is not in flux nor is it in process.  God's character is always the same.  God is not a celestial grandfather nor is He an escape mechanism when we get in trouble.

It also challenges our view on the purpose of history.  History reveals the majestic character of God.  We may look at history as the history of man, what he has discovered, what he has learned but that is really not what history shows us.  History shows us God acting as He always acts with mankind.

Second, it challenges our view of suffering.  It is not that we glorify suffering or pray that suffering will come but we know that we will all suffer.  It is like a page in God's textbook of living by faith.  We can view suffering differently because we know that God is always in control.

Third, it challenges our view of ministry.  It is not our ministry but it is God's.  David Bosch said, "It is not the church of God that has a mission in the world; it is the God of mission who has a Church in the world."  This is a theme that Paul will develop through this letter.

The Cycle of Comfort

Kent Hughes in his commentary on 2 Corinthians tells this story.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of a handful of German theologians to stand up to the Nazification of the German church. He was prominent in writing the famous Barmen Declaration, which rejected the infamous Aryan clauses imposed by Nazi ideology. Bonhoeffer’s courage thrust him into the leadership of the Confessing Church along with other stalwarts like Martin Niemöller. Bonhoeffer went so far as to found an underground seminary in Finkenwald, Bavaria, which was closed by Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler. This led to Bonhoeffer’s joining the resistance movement and his being imprisoned by the Gestapo in April 1943. Bonhoeffer’s Letters from Prison became a best seller after the war.
Among the letters is a beautiful poem written to his fiancée Maria von Wedemeyer entitled “New Year 1945.” Stanza 3 is famous:

Should it be ours to drain the cup of grieving
Even to the dregs of pain,
At thy command, we will not falter,
Thankfully receiving all that is given
By thy loving hand.¹

Poignant words that became more so when, three months later, just as the war was ending, Bonhoeffer was hung in Flossenbürg prison.
Fast-forward to some eighteen years later, across the Atlantic in America, when another bride-to-be was grieving the death of her fiancé and found much comfort in Bonhoeffer’s poem. Her fiancé, who died from injuries in a sledding accident, was the son of author Joseph Bayly and his wife Mary Lou. When she mailed Bonhoeffer’s poem to them, Joe and Mary Lou also found comfort in “New Year 1945.”

Twelve years after this (thirty years after Bonhoeffer’s death), Joe Bayly received a letter from a pastor-friend in Massachusetts relating that he had visited a terminally ill woman in a Boston hospital for some period of time and had given her Joe’s book of poems, Heaven, as comfort for her soul. The pastor said that the dying woman had stayed awake late the previous night to read it and told him of the comfort and help she had received from it. A few hours later she died. The woman, the pastor revealed, was Maria von Wedemeyer-Weller, Bonhoeffer’s fiancée three decades earlier!

God’s comfort circulates among his children — and sometimes it comes full circle, as it did from Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Maria von Wedemeyer in her grief to Joseph Bayly, Jr.’s grieving fiancée to Joe and Mary Lou Bayly in their grief and then back to Bonhoeffer’s one-time fiancée as comfort in her dying hours. Our text alludes to this astonishing cyclical nature of comfort — its mutuality — its overflowing nature.

Just a teacher

I was a high school teacher.  When people heard that they would ask me what I taught.  I usually gave them the short answer which was "Mathematics".  However this was only partly true.  I taught students, young men and women, mathematics.  I taught people and as a high school mathematics teacher my desire was to teach them not just how to do mathematics but to love mathematics.

As we begin a new year and a new series in our Bible class I don't just want to teach the Bible, I want to teach people the Bible.  I want people not just to know the Bible but to love the Bible and love the God of the Bible.  If all I have done is teach Bible then I have failed.  I know that Isaiah said that the Word of God as it goes out will accomplish its purpose so it is important that I teach the Bible but more so to teach people to love the Word of God.

Comfort

Paul begins the second letter to Corinth by talking about comfort.  He is not talking about being comfortable but knowing the comfort of God because we know that He is in control of all things.   Many of us are not comforters because we have become to comfortable with out "stuff".  Paul tells us that our comfort does not come from our "stuff" but from the God that comforts us in all our troubles.
About 8 years ago I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer.  Following my operation and recovery I was amazed at the number of men who needed to be comforted.  They were frightened when they heard that they had cancer but I was able to come along side and say that I had been there and this is what God did for me.  Could I have been a comforter if I never had the cancer?  I am sure that I could have but there was something about the fact that I had cancer that made it easier for people to accept my comfort.

A New Series

A week from this Sunday I will begin a new series in our Adult Bible Class.  We will take time to look at one of Paul's most personal letters, 2 Corinthians. Today we hear a great deal about how to be successful in the Christian life.  We hear people say that you need to be strong, claim what is yours in Christ, go for it.  However, Paul says something quite different.  He says that if we are to be successful we need to be a broken people, we need to know that we are inadequate to live the Christian life in our own strength.  He tells us that if we are to be successful we must know that it is not our strength but Christ's.
Some people may wonder how a letter written almost two thousand years ago has any relevance to our culture today.  Let me suggest three things from the Corinthian culture which could also be true of our culture.
First, their culture was dominated by a science driven technology.
Second, there was extreme Biblical illiteracy.
Third, it was a culture of "self".
Over the next few weeks we will be expanding on these ideas.