Is God Disturbing You?

Posted: May 20, 2012 | Author: commissional | Filed under: Bible, Mission, Sermons | 1 Comment »

NOTE: You can listen to this sermon at the Sermons link of Calvary Baptist Church!

Today, I want to pick up where I left off last Sunday and ask you, is God disturbing you? Is He disturbing us as a church? It may appear that your life is unsettled and maybe looking at it from the outside your life seems more than disturbing. People might be questioning your spirituality or even your sanity. Today I want to let you know that God is calling and when He calls it always disturbs us. GOD’S CALL = DISTURBANCE! The Bible is rife with disturbing calls from God. Abraham packed up everything and left his family and friends to go to the land that God would show him (Gen. 12:1). I’m sure his family thought he was crazy and tried to coax Abe to stick close to home. Joseph was disturbed by God when he was sold into slavery and brought to Egypt(Gen. 37:26-28). Being in chains not only once but twice in Egypt, the second time after being falsely accused of sexual assault, must have placed some doubts in Joseph’s mind. Fast-forward, Gideon was disturbed when he was hiding out on a threshing floor and the Angel of the Lord came unexpectedly and said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior…Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” (Judges 6:11, 14) David was tending sheep when God disturbed him to be anointed king over Israel (1 Samuel 16:12-13). Peter and Andrew were fishing when Jesus disturbed them and called them to be fishers of men (Luke 5:1-11). Paul and Barnabas were serving the Lord at Antioch and the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them.” (Acts 13:3) When following God, it is normal to be disturbed. In fact, G. Campbell Morgan goes so far to say that only “God-forsaken men are not disturbed.”[1] Why? Because those who follow God are pilgrims or sojourners according to 1 Peter 2:11! As Steven Curtis Chapman wrote, “We are not home yet!” Following Christ means that we are on mission and this mission will take us to places and people that we could never have dreamed of. To not be disturbed might indicate you are not on God’s mission.

This was the case of the Israelites up on Mount Horeb. After wandering for nearly forty years in the desert, seemingly spinning their wheels when in fact God was working out all the kinks in their character, they found themselves in a place of contentment. They had been up on the mountain for 13 months enjoying freedom from oppression from their enemies and better yet, sweet fellowship with God. Can you imagine being on mountain worshipping God for 13 months? That is better than MBC (Muskoka Bible Centre – http://www.muskokabiblecentre.com/) for the whole summer. Let’s read what God says that disturbs the Israelites in Deuteronomy 1:6-8! “You have stayed long enough…break camp and advance…See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers.” From this passage and then the follow-up one at the end of the Book of Deuteronomy in chapter 32 we are going to be able to answer three questions you may have about life’s disturbances: 1) What are we to do during the disturbing times? 2) Why do we go through disturbing times? And 3) How do the disturbing times change us and the world?

What are we to do during the disturbing times? We must remember that God is in control and always does what is best! The fact that He created you which is an evidence of His control and ownership! (Deut. 32:6) Ownership has its privileges. But often owners don’t act in the best interests of their constituents. Most of you understand that truth as you are Maple Leaf fans! In contrast, God is an owner that not only does what is best for Him but this results in what is best for us. In Deuteronomy 32:4 Moses declares, “A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He!” God never, ever, ever does wrong! He is morally upright and perfectly just! We often fail at doing the right thing. Not God! This is why He doesn’t consult with us as to what He will do with us. God is in control and always does what is best even if we can’t see it at the time! We know this because at the Cross, God did what was best for Him. He gained for Himself more people who would follow and worship Him, thus receiving more glory. God benefited most at the Cross but isn’t that also to our benefit as well? This is why when you are being disturbed you must remember that God is control and always does what is best! Think about the Cross when you are first disturbed by God!

This leads us to our second question: Why do we go through disturbing times? I think this can be answered by turning the question on its head. What if the most dangerous times in our lives are when we are in our spiritual lazy-boys and enjoying the blessings of God? We are living off the fat of previous feasts on God’s Word and not taking action. I love God’s Word because it encourages me during those discouraging times but one of the images of God’s Word is that it is a sword (Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12). Swords are meant to be wielded to defend but more often to conquer an enemy. Now, we are not to fight over God’s Word but with it. We fight Satan’s lies with God’s Word. However, when we are comfortable we rarely taken action and worse, we start to rely on ourselves and not God! Ironically, not fighting will kill you. Lethargy kills! God doesn’t want us to have a spiritual stroke or heart attack. He wants us to lower our spiritual cholesterol by taking action with His Word. This is not just spiritual busyness but strategic Gospel-centered action! This is why God tells His people in Deuteronomy 1:6-8, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighbouring peoples of the Arabah…Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore he would give to your fathers.” The message still rings true today, but not to fulfill some Manifest Destiny or to conquer innocent people like what was done during the Medieval Crusades. Instead my friends, for far too long we have been on the mountain top enjoying God’s blessings. Maybe we are living of the spiritual harvest of our forefathers who plowed the ground, sowed and we have reaped the harvest. Churches still exist but unless we break camp and go to our neighbouring peoples and fight with the Word of God not to slay them but to rescue them with the Word of God – His Promise that He would build His Church (Matthew 16:18) – we will die a slow death up on the mount of God’s blessings. God is disturbing us! As one of my pastor friends said to me this week, “The Holy Spirit is often the Comforter who makes us uncomfortable!”[2] It is time to circle the promises of God’s blessings, pray extraordinary prayers, trust God for big things like we read about in Scripture and obey His Word. It is time to go! Go, like Jesus did when he left Heavenly Mt. Zion and came to rescue His neighbouring peoples in this world. Go with Jesus. Go and gain ground for God’s Kingdom! The Lord is with you!

So, why do we go through disturbing times? To see God’s great promises fulfilled through our obedience! God is disturbing you so that you will see He is in control of your life and will work for what is best if you will obey His promises! WHAT PROMISE OF GOD DO YOU NEED TO START OBEYING?

Your obedience to God’s promise helps to answer our third question: how do the disturbing times change us and the world? Simply, God disturbances are always meant to advance His people to change the world! (Deut. 1:7-8; 32:11) The image I want to have your minds soar with is found in Deuteronomy 32:11, “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wing to catch them and carries them on its pinions.” Maybe you have seen one of those nature shows about eagles? If not, listen to Eugene Merrill’s comments on this picture, “When the time comes for the eaglet to fly, its mother will stir up the nest, that is, she will agitate her offspring and thus prepare it for the next phase of its development. But she will do so protectingly and not prematurely. At the same time she is encouraging it to fly, she is hovering over it with comfort and assurance.”[3] To the eaglet, it will always feel premature! Maybe you feel you are not ready to be disturbed? You might be asking: Why would God disturb our sweet companionship with Him up here on our version of Mt. Horeb? Why would we have to leave the beauty of His majesty that we get to see up close and personal at times? Because to see God in His full majesty is to see Him soaring above and join him from His perspective! What is God doing when He stirs up the nest? “Developing the powers of your own life, enabling you to discover the things in you which are of Himself, bearing you on His pinions in the moment of your uttermost weakness, until presently He teaches you to use the wings He has given you. A disturbing element, but a progressive element!”[4] God wants you to experience what you were made for and to gain a trust and greater view of what He is doing in this world. If you do, you will see the problems from His perspective and soar on His promises! God is disturbing you! He is disturbing us! And when He does, problems that seemed insurmountable from being on the ground now look puny from God’s perspective. Those problems will now be able to be attacked from an aerial view and you will see the hardest things in life conquerable because the Lord has given you the bigger picture. Your attitude changes with your altitude! One of the best pictures of how this is seen practically is through the story of Ian and Larissa. Let’s watch their video now!

Perhaps after watching that video you are thinking I could never do that. You’re right. But you can with the love of your Heavenly Father! What if God the Father jostled you out of the nest to cause to you fly. Maybe you are even afraid of heights like me? One thing I learned recently about heights is through studying trapeze artists.[5] A trapeze artist cannot lunge for the next trapeze bar but must wait for it to come to him or her. We will fall from the heights if we lunge out too soon from the nest and this is why we must wait for the Father to do it. So how do we know when we are ready to leave the nest? Often God withholds things from us to entice us out just like the eagle parent who hovers over the nest enticing the young with food. Maybe God is withholding from you something so that you will finally leave what is comfortable and follow Him?

Now, others of you have been disturbed in even greater ways than Ian and Larissa and now you can encourage others that God will carry you. He knows what is best. He has promises that He will fulfill if we will trust and obey Him. It is then that we start see life from the proper altitude.

Seeing life from God’s perspective as you follow God when He disturbs you changes your decisions, your relationships, your marriages, your family, your neighbourhoods and this world! Let me end with how God has been personally disturbing my family. Over the last few years, the Lord has impressed upon my heart a desire for greater mission. However, I haven’t really wanted to leave the nest called Calvary. I love Calvary! It is comfortable yet still challenging. No one is pushing us out of the nest; not Pastor Rick and the other leaders but there is one kicking me out of the nest – the Lord God! God has shown me that He wants me to see a whole other vista and involve myself where the Gospel can be applied to a whole other community.

I remember the day I was walking to the church and wrestling with God over a number of opportunities that came my way. I was not seeking these opportunities but they came to me. I said God, “I am not going to ask You what You want me to do? Instead, I am going to ask, what do You want done?” I surrendered to Him as Master and me as slave. When I got to the church, there was an e-mail from Temple Baptist Church in Cambridge, Ontario saying that they had gone through the selection process and that they unanimously voted to proceed with me as their candidate for Senior Pastor. I could not ask such a question of God and then not obey, so I pursued it further. I know of this church because my father was the Interim Pastor there last year and spoke so highly of it. However, he did not advocate for me in this role but stayed out of the selection process completely. We had numerous meetings with Search Committee and then Deacons and Elders and every hurdle that was in our way was overcome with unanimity. On May 4-6, we candidated at the church. I wanted to make sure that at the front end, they would know what is causing my heart to soar with Christ and what is causing me to be disturbed. If you want to hear what God has been stirring in my heart over that last couple of years and what I proposed to Temple Baptist Church then you can find it at http://templebaptistchurch.ca/media/recording/proposal-my-heart.

Last Sunday, the congregation extended a call to us with a 99.4% vote to become their Lead Pastor. We accepted as an act of obedience to the Lord despite the fact that we believe that the best days ahead for Calvary will be without us. We don’t fully understand God’s ways as we have seen him bear more fruit in the last two years than in the previous eight. There is much work left to do if we will go to our neighbours and be Good News to them. In fact, Lori and I believe that God wants to send revival to the Durham Region and Calvary will be a major part of it if they soar with God.

There will be time for good-byes as we are planning on being here for most of the summer in part to help fill in while Pastor Ken is on Sabbatical and we are still working on the timelines. You will receive more news in the weeks to follow. I don’t see this as a promotion, only more responsibility. I am the Lord’s slave and one of His under-shepherds whether at Calvary or Temple both of which belong to the Chief Shepherd. However, I must thank you for the honour and privilege it has been to serve you and alongside you as one of your pastors. May you follow God’s disturbing calls and soar on new heights with Him!

[1] G. Campbell Morgan, The Westminster Pulpit “God-Governed Life” (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995), 352.

[2]Bruce McCallum, Personal Conversation on May 16, 2012.

[3] Eugene H. Merrill, The New American Commentary – Deuteronomy (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 414.

[4] Morgan, 348.

[5] Danaan Parry, “The Parable of the Trapeze – Turning the Fear of Transformation into the Transformation of Fear.”

GraceFULL Parenting

Posted: May 13, 2012 | Author: commissional | Filed under: Gospel, Motherhood, Sermons | Leave a comment »

NOTE: You can listen to this sermon at the sermons link of Calvary Baptist Church!

“The year that was easiest for me and yet the one I matured the most was the year I spent in the arms of another’s man wife.”[1] She is even here today! My mom! Now what were you thinking? I want to honour my mother today for the tremendous Christ-like character you have shown me my entire life. I also want to honour the mother of my children, my beautiful wife Lori. Thank you for taking up the mantle of the most difficult job in the world being my wife and the mother of our children. Mothers are amazing! None of us would be here without them!

Today I want to not only address mothers but everyone who has been a child too, which includes all of us. If you were looking for a parenting seminar, you will need to wait until Pastor Kelvin and Pastor Dwayne host another one. I don’t feel qualified to give much parenting advice other than what I find in Scripture. Instead, my message focuses on a woman who I believe had the most difficult assignment as any mother ever has had – raising the Son of God. You would think that raising the only truly perfect child would be easy but that was not the case. Imagine being responsible for and raising somebody who knew more than you (Luke 2:49-50). Sometimes our kids think they know more than us when they are young but in Mary’s case, her kid really did! Mary’s son from the beginning surpassed her in every way. Most times we know that eventually “our ceiling will be our kid’s floor”[2] but it was like this from the beginning for Mary, the mother of Jesus. I’m sure Mary and Joseph felt helpless at times and unsure of themselves. And this is why this message is for everyone who has ever felt helpless and unsure of themselves as a parent or otherwise.

If you have ever felt helpless and unsure, and I think parenting certainly causes you to feel that way much of the time, then let’s read Luke 1:26-38 to find what is foundational to parenting and to life. At first glance, it might not be apparent that there is any assistance in this passage as to what we should do when we feel helpless and unsure, but let’s unpack it further. Notice that Mary is probably in one of the most exciting times in her life. Her dream is about to be fulfilled of getting married. She probably played “wedding” with other little girls in Nazareth and now as a teenager that was becoming a reality. She was pledged to be married to Joseph and everybody knew it. Betrothal in that day meant that the couple was considered married except for the year waiting period to consummate the marriage so that the husband could build a house for his wife and that their purity was proved. Remember, there were no artificial methods of birth control at the time.

Imagine Mary on her way to pick out the flowers or wedding dress, and she is interrupted by God. God often interrupts us in the busy times! God brings somebody into our life to speak to us. Mary was specifically interrupted by God’s messenger, the angel Gabriel showed up and declared, “Greetings, you are who highly favoured! THE LORD IS WITH YOU!” (v. 28) Literally, Gabriel is telling Mary that she has been “greatly graced.”[3] It is in the perfect passive tense so we understand that Mary is a passive participant like we all are when receiving grace. Today, you might be focused on fulfilling a life-long dream and then God’s grace comes out of nowhere. God wants to give great grace to you. How? The Lord is with you! Our Roman Catholic friends often pray “Hail Mary, full of grace…” Where does grace come from? It is always external; it comes from something or better yet, someone outside of ourselves. Grace comes from the Lord. Grace is a person – Jesus! Grace for Mary and grace for us is always and only because the Lord is with us. That is what you really need today. There are three times that we find in this passage where is the Lord is with you and they cover every instance of your life. The first instance the Lord is with you is during the disturbing times! Often grace comes when we are working hard to fulfill our long-awaited dreams. God says drop everything because I have a different plan for you. It could be not getting that job you hoped for or a report from a doctor. It could be becoming a parent like Mary and Joseph so that career is on hold. Or maybe you are forced to move away like Mary and Joseph were. It is disturbing. We know this because Luke writes, “But she greatly troubled (disturbed) at this statement and kept pondering what kind of greeting this might be.” (v. 29) I touched on this already but put yourself in Mary’s sandals. She was young, full of energy, the future looked bright, and she was probably bursting with anticipation that finally the man of her dreams, a strong and tender man with a job, would come to sweep her off her feet. Then an angel came out of nowhere and gave her a different dream and vision for her life. The wedding was off! Now Mary was facing an initial unwanted pregnancy! In a second, she went from everybody in the town smiling at her to soon sneering at her. Even worse, she was now in jeopardy of not only being an outcast but being stoned to death for adultery (Leviticus 20:10). Joseph, Mary’s husband, decides to protect her and take her away from the trouble to Bethlehem. We don’t read of any wedding ceremony unlike the usual seven-day community affair that was custom in that day,[4] so most likely they eloped. As a side note, I personally think this is one of the reasons why the first miracle that Jesus performed was at a wedding when He turned water into wine. His mother was advocating for the couple, maybe in part because she knew embarrassment herself at a wedding or lack of a wedding (John 2:3). Jesus not only wanted to validate the importance of marriage but also was redeeming it in part for what His mother was feeling losing the dream of her own wedding for His sake. Jesus always redeems what is lost for His sake if we come to Him. This is important because today, maybe Jesus has disturbed your long-awaited dreams and you have had to sacrifice for His sake. If He hasn’t yet, He will disturb you! Maybe you are a parent who kids haven’t turned out exactly as you expected? Maybe you are a young parent and are having trouble keeping up? Maybe you have been faithful in your duties at work or school and now instead of honour, you feel like God is doing the opposite to you, putting you in a place of scorn or shame. Can I please remind you that during those disturbing times, especially if that time is right now, God is gracing you greatly? “Hail, favoured one! The Lord is with you!” If you are afraid and fear is casting its dark shadow on you, the angel’s words still ring true for you too, “Do not be afraid, for you have found favour with God.” (v. 30)

The second instance the Lord is with you is during the destiny-fulfilling times! The Lord is with you despite having few or no credentials. (v. 32-35) Many of us are very concerned about our own destiny. Young people wonder what they should do with their lives. Middle-aged people wonder “how far can I go in fulfilling my sense of purpose? …Or what would it take to pick up a whole new calling in life and do the thing I’ve always wanted to do?”[5] Or maybe some of you are asking, “When do I stop doing the things that have always defined me?” Or “What have I done that will outlive me?”[6] Parents can mask concern for their own destiny and legacy by seemingly being concerned about their own children’s future. This week I was confronted with this truth. My son Josiah was invited to try out for a select team. I wanted him to play so bad but the games were on Sunday nights during the church. We talked to Josiah about and he understood why we couldn’t put baseball first and he was okay with it more than me, probably because it was my dream for him to pitch for the Blue Jays and fulfill his destiny as getting a closing pitcher so we can finally win the American League East.

God knows how we can be so focused on our own kids so this is why the angel Gabriel tells Mary, “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:31-33) God wants to reassure her despite the fact that she had no credentials to recommend her as somebody considered great in society. Yes, her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather King David (40 generations back). The family inheritance had been exhausted long ago. Nevertheless, God greatly graced Mary because her son was great. She would give birth to the God-man and His kingdom would not end. What a promise to Mary whose credibility was jeopardized at the announcement that she would give birth. She kept herself pure and now she was paying for it. Young people maybe you feel the same way. You have tried to remain pure despite the constant bombardment of sexual images and the pressure to express yourself sexually. You wonder whether your sacrifice of remaining pure is worth it. Remember, God will use your purity to give you a legacy for the generations to come. You can tell your children, living pure was difficult but God will always bless it.

But don’t become proud! Maybe you have thought that God owes you a family who behaves well and who everybody looks up to? Mary fought this lie from the Evil One and stayed humble. She says in Luke 1:38, “Behold, I am the Lord’s bond-slave; may it be done to me according to Your word.” As a female slave she “was the lowest kind of female servant.”[7] Her humility is echoed later on in Luke 1:47-48, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.” God rewards this humility because He always gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). As Darrel Bock remarks, “The announcement of His birth shows the great lengths God goes to in order to identify with the most humble people of the world.”[8] Here is the key to remember about destinies – the Lord is the one who determines your child’s destiny. And like He did when He conceived Jesus in Mary, “The Holy Spirit will enable you to be and do more than you could do by yourself.”[9] When you and I give over our destinies and those of our offspring to Jesus, this is where grace meets us in our time of need.

Not only is the Lord with us during the disturbing times and destiny-fulfilling times but also during the difficult times despite our faithfulness. Notice what the angel says to Mary about her barren cousin Elisabeth, “For nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37) Sometimes we mistake “faithfulness” for “work-fullness” because we think we have to the work for God without trusting Him to the work in and through us. Maybe God puts us in the difficult times. This is more than being surprised or disturbed. You feel trapped. There is no possible exit except through Divine help. God loves you enough to do that to you. How do I know? Because He did it all to His Own Son! Think about it! The Lord God is with you because He disturbed heaven by sending His Son to come to earth. Furthermore, the Lord is with you as evidenced by how He fulfilled the destiny of His Son and in fact the universe through Jesus. In other words, God knows how attached our hearts are to our children because He feels the same way about His own children to the point that He sent His Son to secure our eternal destiny. And the Lord is with you during the difficult or impossible times. Those times feel impossible to us but are not too hard or difficult for God (Jer. 32:17). God proved that He could overcome the greatest difficulty of Man’s Rebellion at the Cross. Your embrace of Jesus’ death on the Cross is the most difficult thing you will ever do in life – even more difficult than parenting. Why? Because the Cross is about total self-surrender to God. And isn’t that the key to parenting, work, school, marriage, and all relationships? But it can only happen when you receive God’s grace like Mary did!

If there is anybody who would die for you it probably would be your mother! Many mothers risked their lives to have children. My mother almost died after having me and my wife could have died when having our first-born if not for medical intervention. Mary herself had her heart is pierced with grief over her Son (Luke 2:34-35)!

This is why mothers point us to Jesus. Though not all mothers die to bring new life, Jesus did for you and me. Will you receive his free gift of salvation today? It would be the best Mother’s Day gift you could give and receive. If you do, you will be greatly graced because the Lord is with YOU!

[1] Taken from Steve Jones e-mail, May 7, 2012.

[2] Quote from Dennis Wiedrick.

[3] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary – Vol. 1 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 172.

[4] “The Jewish betrothal was public and had vows that constituted virtual marriage and needed only that the bridegroom should come at the set time, take his bride, celebrate and live with her.” R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel (Columbus: The Wartburg Press, 1951), 60.

[5] Gordon MacDonald, The Resilient Life (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2004), 54-56.

[6] MacDonald, 57.

[7] Wiersbe, 173.

[8] Darrel Bock, The NIV Application Commentary on Luke (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 59.

[9] Tom Wright, Luke for Everyone (London: John Westminster Knox Press, 2004), 10.

Lessons Learned from My Mother

Posted: May 10, 2012 | Author: commissional | Filed under: By LORI, Gospel, Motherhood | 2 Comments »

TALK GIVEN AT CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH’S RETIREE’S FELLOWSHIP

Well, first of all I would just like to thank you for inviting me to come here and speak to you today. I realize that not all of you may know me, so I will tell you a little about myself and my family and then in light of Mother’s day I would really like to take this opportunity to honor my own mother and share with you the most important lessons I learned from her.

For the past 16 years I have had the great privilege of ministering alongside my pastor husband and 10 of those years have been here at Calvary Baptist Church. Both of us grew up as pastors’ kids but I came from a tiny town in the mid-western state of Kansas, and he, although born in the Maritimes, spent most of his growing up years in Chatham, Ontario. Now how did our paths happen to cross? Well, God orchestrated that we would both leave our homes and travel to the big city of Chicago, the historic setting of the great evangelist D.L. Moody, where a bible training school was founded in his honor. It was there on the campus of the Moody Bible Institute that this cute, lanky Canadian boy caught my eye. It was not too much longer after that that I guess he noticed me too because he asked me to pursue a dating relationship with him with the purpose of seeing if God meant for us to be together. Well, as our relationship progressed, Jonathan felt the need to sit me down and explain that he felt the Lord was calling him, at some point, to go back to his home country of Canada to pastor there, and if that was not something I felt called to as well, then we should consider ending our relationship. Well, what was I supposed to say? I was in love! So, I believe I gushed, “I’ll go wherever you go! Your people will be my people and your God my God!” Or something like that! Anyway, we did end up marrying and eventually after 5 and a half years at our first church in Geneseo, IL, we did get the call to come to Canada as my husband had predicted. However, no one prepared me for how long the winters in Canada are! I should have considered it fair warning when we moved in on March the 20th and snow was flying! Oh, well the things we do for love! Now after 10 years here and 4 children, 3 of those being born in Canada, I can’t imagine living anywhere else! I love Canada and I love being a pastor’s wife and I love serving my God through sharing his love with others!

My Mom, Diane Henry

Now, I should probably, give you one of the primary reasons for why I am where I am today…my family. I mentioned that I grew up as a pastor’s kid, well I and my three younger sisters have all felt the call of God to pursue ministry, and we all owe that in large part to our parents. They modelled Christ to us in how they served others and reached out to the lost and the broken as they shepherded their small church in Medicine Lodge, KS. They were not perfect, as they would readily admit, but I watched them pray and labor and even suffer for God’s people and Jesus protected their faith in the good times and bad. I learned so much from them, especially my mom. And since Mother’s day is fast approaching I would like to share with you some of the lessons I learned from my mother.

Growing up through the years you don’t always appreciate the things your mother teaches you, we used to roll our eyes at her lectures on the importance of cleaning your room and getting your homework done on time. Oh my mom was known for belaboring a point. You know the need we all feel as mothers to say the same things over and over again in so many different ways until we feel that something has penetrated that little attitude that’s staring us in the face! Well, I’m sure we tried her patience, but some of those things got through, because I find myself lecturing my children on the same things, even though I declared quite vehemently as a teenager that I would never do that to my kids!

But you know, more than all the words, it was the way she lived out her faith in actions that taught me so much. One of my mom’s spiritual gifts is mercy and my mom showed me what mercy looked like in how she felt with others who were hurting, taking their grief on as her own. Her compassion often drove her to reach out to people in any way she could, a phone call, a meal dropped by, a visit in the hospital, most importantly agonizing with them in prayer. She reflected to me the mercy of our Savior Jesus in how she was moved with compassion for the plight of others who were hurting.

I also watched her teach others God’s word, for she spent much time in it. Etched in my memory is the picture of her seated on the couch with her big Bible open on her lap and a cup of tea on the table beside her every morning as I would get out of bed and come downstairs to meet the day. My Mom taught ladies’ Bible studies, helped lead small groups and would team teach with my Dad a Sunday school class for teenagers. I saw her memorize God’s word and then observed her as those same verses would come out in her conversations as she trained us girls and counselled other women. She prioritized the Word of God and taught it in how she lived and taught. As, a Bible study teacher myself, I thank her for that!

But there is one lesson that stands above all the others in my mind that my mother taught me, and that is the power of persistent, persevering prayer! You should know that as wonderful as my mom was to us girls, she did not get the luxury of the upbringing we had! She could not boast of growing up in a loving Christian home as I can! She and her younger brother were raised with an alcoholic abusive father. It was only through the compassion of a neighbor who invited them to her church that they both came to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. They then told their mother -my grandmother- about what Jesus had done for them and she gave her life to Christ also. But my grandfather would have none of it! So, they lived for several years under his constant ridicule and abuse. He loved to mock them for their faith. He would even prevent them from going to church by waiting until they were all in the car and then charging out and raising the hood and to yank out cables and hoses so they couldn’t go anywhere. One day in a drunken rage he picked up my mother’s bible and threw it across the room daring loudly for God to strike him dead if he even existed. My mom pleaded with him not to say that, but he just laughed derisively, at God’s merciful silence.

When my mom was old enough to leave home she went to Baptist Bible College, in Springfield, Missouri and met my dad, together they pursued God’s call of ministry on their lives. Over the years Jesus did an amazing work of healing in my mom from the pain inflicted by her father. So much so, that when my grandparents decided to move from California to our hometown in Kansas in order to be near their family in their later years in life, my mom welcomed them. It was during my late teens that I enjoyed renewing a relationship with my Grandma, but I never felt I could get close to my Grandpa- he just was not the easiest person to love! Shortly after I left home and was married, God in his providence took my grandmother home to be with him. We all expected Grandpa to fall apart without her and die soon after. But he outlived our expectations, and in that intervening time my mom earnestly prayed for his salvation as she had been for many years now. From the time I was very young I can remember my mom having conversations with my Grandpa pleading and arguing with him to trust in Jesus as his Savior with little results. He saw no need for God in his life and refused to even acknowledge his existence. But now that my Grandpa was weak and frail, his heart had softened, mainly because my mother followed her prayers up with grace in action. Grandpa was a lonely old man, but it was the daughter he once ridiculed that took care of him and brought him meals and made sure that my Dad picked him up and brought him to our house to share the holidays with us. She dropped by his house to visit him and always said, “I love you Daddy”, when she left. And finally he came to the place where he could receive that love enough to respond, “Love you too”.

But it was when Grandpa was dying of cancer and in a nursing home that Mom really began to agonize over the thought of her dad dying without knowing Christ. But she never stopped praying, even when we all tried to prepare her that he might not give his life to Christ. Having tried everything she could think of to
share the gospel with him, she stopped the visiting chaplain, a Baptist minister, one day and asked him if he could talk to her dad to see if he was ready to meet God. The chaplain agreed and then Mom did not see or hear from him again for a whole year.

Finally, it became apparent that Grandpa was near the end of his days with us. One day as Mom, was sitting with her dad, the Baptist chaplain walked in. As Mom was relaying her fears to him, he looked surprised. “Oh Diane, he said, “Didn’t you know your Dad gave his life to Christ months ago! He’s ready!” What my mom did not know was that this dear man had made good on his promise, and every Wednesday he visited with my Grandpa and talked and prayed with him. And as if to prove it he went right over to my grandfather, who had been sleeping, and greeted him by taking his hand, “Marvin, do you know if you died tonight that you would go to heaven?”

My Grandpa, strangely alert, looked him right in the eye and said,” Yes.” The pastor continued, “And have you received Jesus as your personal Savior?”

“Yes, I have.” He replied. “So you’re ready to go home and see that sweet little wife of yours!” the chaplain declared. Well, my mom was totally shocked at this point and as she asked the pastor to clarify what she had just heard, the attending nurse jumped in, “Diane, I thought you knew! Your dad is not the same man he was went he first came in here, he’s changed!” But they all stopped talking when my grandfather who had his eyes closed again, suddenly stretched his arms up and gently said, “Carry me.” And then he said it again, “Carry me.” A holy hush came over the room, and everyone became still watching the scene before them. Finally it was the hospice chaplain who broke the silence, “There’s angels in the room right now,” he said, ”There’s angels in the room.”

My grandfather never woke up again after that and my mother stayed the night in his room by his side and in the early morning hours, he was carried into the arms of Jesus. God in his grace had answered my mother’s persistent prayers of faith when she could not see any evidence of an answer. And then he allowed her to know just hours before his death, without any doubt that she would see her father again someday in heaven.

This is what my mother taught me, to pray, and believe that God hears those prayers and never stop praying! What about you do you have someone you’ve been praying for years? Have you felt like giving up? Don’t stop! Ask God to give you the strength to persevere in prayer, in faith until you see God act! Because you don’t know what he is doing! Maybe you have prayed about a situation and received the opposite answer? What then? I’ve learned that prayer is more than just an ask and receive transaction, my mom demonstrated that it is a relationship too! Unbeknownst to her all those years spent in prayer communing with God resulted in Christ likeness being formed in her, and my grandfather experienced the love of Jesus in the form of my mom. When we connect with our Father in prayer, he changes us and through us the world!

Jesus himself taught his disciples to pray and not give up in the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8. If even an unjust judge will give in to the persistent pleas of a widow how much more will our Father not hear our cries and act! Jesus didn’t just teach this he models this kind of prayer, as the book of Hebrews says in chapter 7, verse 25, “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” Aren’t you glad that Jesus perseveres in prayer on your behalf? Be encouraged to continue in prayer for that wayward child or lost spouse or friend, God is acting even when you cannot see it!

You know I don’t know how you see yourselves or how you think the world views you, but when I look out at all of you, I see a mighty army of prayer warriors who could do a lot of damage to the kingdom of darkness and win huge battles yet to come for our King Jesus. Your generation knows what it means to persevere, to push on, and keep plugging away until you slowly see results. Our generation and those coming after us have been conditioned for quick easy results and Satan is counting on the fact that we will give up far too soon and stop praying, so he can then gain back whatever he lost! What would our God do if we committed to call out to him, to pray with a faith that is not of us until God himself hears from heaven and forgives us of our sin and heals our land!

The True Good Samaritan

Posted: May 6, 2012 | Author: commissional | Filed under: Bible, Gospel, Sermons | Leave a comment »

This sermon was preached at Temple Baptist Church, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada!

If you could ask Jesus one question, what would it be? Would you ask Him where was He during a difficult time? Would you ask Him a theological question such as to explain why He lets Satan continue to have power when He defeated Satan at the Cross? Or would you ask Jesus the simple question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” In Luke 10:25 we find an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus with that same question. The man is not so much inquisitive as an Inquisitor. He doesn’t want to know the answer in order to gain knowledge from Jesus but prove His knowledge above Jesus. The lawyer is trying to test Jesus not trust in Him. It begs the question: What are our motives when we come to Jesus?

In this famous passage of Luke 10:25-37, the story of the Good Samaritan, we find people’s true motives are exposed. Leighton Ford describes three philosophies that are discovered in the story[1]: 1) The Robbers who convey what’s yours is mine and I’ll take it! 2) The Priests who convey what’s mine is mine and I’ll keep it! 3) The Samaritan who conveys what’s mine is yours and I’ll share it! Which of these three philosophies are you following?

To discover which philosophy we are following, we need to ask which of the four questions in the story is most important: a) “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (v. 25) b) “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” (v. 26) c) “Who is my neighbour?” (v. 29) d) “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell into the robber’s hands?” (v. 36) Two of the questions come from the Inquisitor and the other two come from the lips of Jesus. The first question sounds great. Do you want to know how to get to heaven? But notice that the lawyer is asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. In other words, the lawyer is asking how do I become God’s heir? The lawyer would know the law and understood that to gain an inheritance one must either be a biological or adopted child. This is not something one does but something one is. So why would the lawyer ask this question? I believe he was attempting to undermine the Sonship of Jesus. Only a legitimate heir could speak on behalf of the family and so asking Jesus this question was paramount to inquiring whether Jesus had the audacity to speak for God regarding eternal inheritance. Notice Jesus answers with the Word of God by asking His own question. Jesus uses God’s Own Word to answer the Inquisitor, which is always a good strategy. (v 26) This is not only because “the lawyer can’t raise an objection”[2] but also because Jesus wants to point the man back to what a true child of God is – somebody who loves the Father with their whole being and somebody who loves people, those who the Father loves (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18). Jesus even commends the lawyer for getting an A on his own open book test – “You have answered correctly, do this and live.” (Luke 10:28) Children of God love their Father and those He loves, which is often the people who others despise and pass on by.

There are people like this lawyer who wanted to justify himself by asking the third question – “who is my neighbor?” (v. 29). ” In effect the law expert was saying to Jesus, ‘Come on, now. Be reasonable! You don’t mean we have to love everyone like this, do you? Who is my neighbor?’”[3] He wants to emphasize the doing part of inheriting eternal life. He wants to work for eternal life which is the common human m.o. And when people live by the law in order to get eternal life they have to know the limits to the love we’re required to show to others! We want to deserve eternal life. This is why the lawyer conveys the heart of both the robbers and priests in the story and also our hearts. The test is always how we treat others. When we act unrighteously, we try to grab all we can like the robbers and when we act self-righteously, we try to deserve what we have and try to keep it all like the priests. “The Temple officials thought it better to preserve their purity at the cost of their obedience to God’s law of love.”[4] And Jesus’ story is “intended to show him his fatal mistake regarding the law as a means of securing life.”[5] Instead, we think “it is much easier to maintain a religious system than it is to improve the neighbourhood.”[6] Improving the neighborhood is what Jesus is about. In order to do this, we must interrupt what we are doing and get dirty. The priests “feared being rendered unclean”[7] as Leviticus 21:1-3; Numbers 5:2; 14:2-13; Ez. 44:25-27). I find this very convicting because as a pastor the priests were the vocational ministers at that time – the pastors of our day. What is even more convicting is that the word “take care” used in verse 34 and 35 is the same word used in 1 Timothy 3:5 describing the qualification of an elder. Elders must “take care of the church of God” in the same way – sacrificing reputation and resources for the sake of those in need. Leaders in God’s church are to be like the Good Samaritan. The Samaritan who was despised, stopped what he was doing; risked the rules for the recovery of the man on life support and made the great personal sacrifice of reputation and resources to love the man; to love his neighbor and demonstrate his love for God. We know this as he gave the innkeeper “two denarii which was worth two weeks lodging.” [8] (Luke 10:35) So Jesus’ answer to the law expert is “clear and devastating because it demolishes any limitations put on our mercy.”[9] As one theologian says, “One cannot define one’s neighbour; one can only be a neighbour.”[10]

Isn’t this what Jesus did? Was there any limitation that he put on showing mercy to you? Wasn’t he moved with compassion when he saw you lying in the mess of your own sinful choices? Didn’t He become dirty and pick you up when you were on life support spiritually maybe even physically? Didn’t He risk reputation and resources for your sake? Didn’t Jesus do this for the poor, people from a different race, even the lawyer? And isn’t this why the last question is the most important that Jesus asks? “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbour to the man...?” Answer: “The one who showed mercy to him.” The key word is mercy. Sadly, the lawyer would have known this in his mind because the Lord already had said in Micah 6:8 what was required of him and to us: “To do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” The lawyer; the tester; the Inquisitor didn’t know it in his heart. He couldn’t even say that the just man was a Samaritan. (v. 37) The tester had the right answers like many of us do; but did he have the right ACTIONS? Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.” We are now full circle. The lawyer wanted to know what he must do to inherit eternal life and now Jesus tells him – act with mercy. Does this mean that we can earn our salvation through compassionate acts? No! But acts of mercy convey what has already happened in your life. When you have received mercy it usually translates into showing mercy to others. Remember Jesus’ words: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. (Matthew 5:7)

We don’t know if the lawyer, the rule-keeper, followed Jesus’ command to act with mercy but we can know if we will. However, we won’t unless we embrace the beauty of the lawyer’s original question “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Think about that question one more time: how does one receive an inheritance? Somebody has to die. And that is exactly what happened. Ironically, the lawyer was unknowingly testing the one person who could give him an eternal inheritance and Jesus passed the test by acting like the Good Samaritan. In fact, in John 8:48 Jesus is disparagingly called a Samaritan. Samaritans were considered heretics, illegitimate children of Abraham and had a strong interest in sorcery (Acts 8:9). Jesus was considered a heretic, illegitimate and demonized. He was rejected to the point of death. And yet, He was the True and Ultimate Samaritan because He died for the man and for you and for me. The man on the road could have been the lawyer or he could have been you and me. If we place ourselves in the story and understand this truth that we can’t do anything to inherit eternal life but there was the true Heir and Son who did it for us, this will motivate us beyond a personal salvation question to a true love for God and neighbor. No longer will we try to put limits on our mercy towards others because we enjoy God’s boundless mercy towards us. We will be like Jesus who loved His neighbour (John 1:14 from The Message – The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood). Imagine what would happen in our lives, our church and our neighborhood if we embraced God’s mercy and showed it to anyone we find one the road of life. Will you go and do likewise? Are you a neighbour like Jesus was and is to you?

[1] My father, Dr. Philip D. Stairs, passed on these three philosophies that he heard from Leighton Ford.

[2] R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel (Columbus: The Wartburg Press, 1951), 597.

[3] Tim Keller, The Gospel in Life (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 217.

[4] Tom Wright, Luke for Everyone (London: John Westminster Knox Press, 2004), 126.

[5] Lenski, 601.

[6] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary – Vol. 1 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 212.

[7] Darrel Bock, The NIV Application Commentary on Luke (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 300.

[8] Bock, 301.

[9] Keller, 217.

[10] Gerhard Kittel ed., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament – Vol. 6 (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999), 317.

What Do You Want The Last Snapshot of Your Life to Be?

Posted: April 17, 2012 | Author: commissional | Filed under: Bible | Leave a comment »

I was profoundly moved by this photo. It is a picture taken of Gisela ”Gussie” Hodowanski’s table the next day after she went home to be with Jesus. Gussie was a teacher of God’s Word because she was first a student of God’s Word. (Notice all the notes and Bible commentaries!) At age 75, she was still teaching a Grade 3 Sunday School class (which she had done the past 40 years at our church), a Woman’s Bible Study on Tuesday mornings of 25 ladies (which she prepared 7 hours for each week for the past 20 years) and a new believer’s group on Wednesday nights. Her passion for knowing God’s Word even led her to take classes from Moody Bible Institute, which is where Lori and I went to school and fell in love. Gussie and her husband Cornell also volunteered their time at the local Bible for Missions Thrift Store because they wanted God’s Word to get into the hands of people around the world. The question I can’t stop thinking about is WHAT WOULD BE THE FINAL SNAPSHOT OF MY LIFE? I can’t think of a better than Gussie’s final snapshot – Bible open and ready to learn and teach God’s Word!

Thank you Gussie for the impact you let God make through you. Thank you for teaching our women at the church and thank you for teaching my two oldest children in Sunday School. Now you have not only studied the Word of God but see the Word of God, Jesus Christ, firsthand! May we all finish the race of life with a sprint into His arms! Gussie’s life makes us take pause and ask WHAT WILL BE THE FINAL SNAPSHOT OF MY LIFE?

Set Your Face

Posted: April 16, 2012 | Author: commissional | Filed under: Bible, Courtship, Dating, Mission | Leave a comment »

Have you ever resolved in your heart to do something? Did you meet that goal, objective or desire? One of the things that I resolved to do when I was younger was to find a wife. At first, my goal was very broad and in those days of my youth, the main criteria for whether a girl was potential wife was that she was pretty and she liked me (emphasis was on the latter.) Then I found out that liking someone is not the same as loving someone for the rest of your life. So like all broad goals, I need to get more specific. Rejection can bring us to a better resolution if we don’t put our head down and sulk. Resolution occurs as we gain clarity and rejection gains clarity because it eliminates some of our other options. In my case, when I got specific as to the characteristics I was looking for in a wife, I gained clarity and therefore resolution. I wrote down when I was 19 years old a list of virtues in my ideal wife. Do you want to know the list?

Loves the Lord Jesus Christ
Caring
Loving
Smart
Gentle
Encourager
Pure
Hard-worker
Non-gossip
Doesn’t lie
Desires to know God better
Tough (emotionally)
A good cook
Preferably Baptist
Attractive (well-proportioned, slender, average height, brunette or blond)
Doesn’t swear
Modest (in dress and thought)
Neat (likes to keep things tidy)
Comes from a Christian Home
Sense of Humour
Positive Orientation
Out-going
Likes children
Likes sports and the outdoors
Supportive
nice
Secure in Christ
Meek

If you know my wife, in her I received all these characteristics and then some as a gift from the Lord. (NOTE to all those looking for a spouse: Seek the Lord – Proverbs 18:22; don’t expect in others what you are not willing to become yourself and don’t compromise those virtues.)

The Lord Jesus was also resolute in what He wanted. Luke 9:51 (NASB) declares, “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, He resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem.” “To set one’s face is to resolve.”[1] Notice that the goal was for Jesus to be taken up to heaven. Heaven and being reunited with His Father was the real goal so He resolved to go to Jerusalem. Jesus was heading toward the Old Jerusalem with His eyes on the New Jerusalem. What did Jerusalem represent? Suffering! Pain! Rejection! In fact, it wasn’t just Jerusalem where Jesus experienced rejection but along the way to Jerusalem. I can’t help think about the Rocky movies where Rocky went into a torturous training program and then got pummelled in the ring against Apollo Creed but eventually won. It is a picture of the greater victory Jesus had when He was considered a kid from no where who experienced rejection throughout his ministry. Jesus even sent His followers ahead of Him to make a path for Him (Luke 9:52; cf. 3:4). They encountered resistance and so a few of them were ready to fight the resisters with heavenly power. James and John, “the Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17) were ready to call down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans that rejected Jesus (Luke 9:54). This often happens when you are around people of power. You gain more confidence. James and John had just been with Jesus and Elijah up on the Mount of Transfiguration so maybe they were recalling how Elijah dealt with his enemies in 2 Kings 1. [2] The Sons of Thunder would have loved to whoop up on some Samaritans and finish the battle that Elijah started when he took on King Ahaziah who lived in Samaria. (2 Kings 1:2)

But Jesus rebuked His followers because He didn’t want to get involved with a group of people who were not His enemy. Some manuscripts add these words of Jesus, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” He had THE BATTLE to fight. Those who were opposed to Him could easily swayed to His side if He stayed focused. The real battle was in Jerusalem. And in the real battle, though bloodied and bruised, Jesus pulled out an unexpected victory at the Cross and through an empty grave. Jesus did not let detractors distract him from His purpose and neither should we!

But is this the lesson for today? Resolve! Don’t let anything distract you from your purpose here on earth! Not even people who are close to you. It is a good lesson but is resolve the key to life. Don’t we make resolutions all the time and most of them fail. How are your New Year’s Resolutions going for you? Stats show nearly 90% of them fail![3] Resolve only works when you let rejection bring clarity to your vision. You could call this higher resolution!

Jesus goes in Luke 9:57-62 to explain that there are many distractions to doing the work of the Kingdom. You may have no place to stay like Jesus. You feel alone and unwelcome. Your provisions are meagre. You may have family and their problems to look after. But Jesus then says, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (v. 62) Jesus didn’t look to the left or to the right and certainly not back! Jesus experienced the fulfillment of Isaiah 50:7, “Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.” Flint is a variety of quartz and is therefore a very hard rock.[4] Therefore, the picture of having your face like flint is communicating that nothing with penetrate my gaze on the goal; opposition will glance off.

So in conclusion, does resolve and determination get the goal and get the girl? Certainly, we need more resolve in our lives. We need focus. But we need to focus on the Ultimate Goal. Jesus saw the ultimate goal – union with His Father! He didn’t let others distract Him even though they were rejecting Him. In the end, after Jesus did make it Home to heaven, we find that one of Jesus’ followers Philip fulfilled Jesus’ words to be His witness in Samaria and was able to go back to the area and proclaim the Gospel and “Samaria…accepted the word of God.” (Acts 1:8; 8:14). Peter and John went to see God’s work first hand. Imagine John laying hands on the Samaritans who He originally meant to destroy by calling down fire for Heaven. Now John was asking for fire again from Heaven; fire from the Holy Spirit that would set ablaze the region with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (Acts 8:15-17) The Samaritans were saved because Jesus, the victor set His face towards Jerusalem. And you were saved because Jesus set His face to Jerusalem. Only through such resolution on the Cross will your life be changed and more importantly the world will be changed!

WHAT ARE YOU SETTING YOUR FACE TOWARDS?

[1] Darrel Bock, The NIV Application Commentary on Luke (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 283.

[2] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary – Vol. 1 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 209.

[3] “A 2007 study by Richard Wisemen from the University of Bristol involving 3,000 people showed that 88% of those who set New Year resolutions fail,^[8] despite the fact that 52% of the study’s participants were confident of success at the beginning.” Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year’s_resolution (accessed April 15, 2012)

[4] Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint (accessed April 10, 2012)

Romance Robbers and Refreshers

Posted: April 13, 2012 | Author: commissional | Filed under: Communication, Dating, Marriage | Leave a comment »

Romance Robbers

Busy hectic lifestyle (Your idols will enslave you to your schedule: money, security, approval, pleasure)
Working shifts that keep you away from each other
Letting children’s schedules rule the home
Technology – turn off the tech devices, the computer and TV and replace them with talking to each other!
Living under the expectations of the other spouse
Treating In-laws like Outlaws
Unhealthy friendships with others
You’ve stopped being best friends with your spouse
Having your eyes on other people besides your spouse – “Your standard of beauty is your spouse” Mark Driscoll

Romance Refreshers

Go to bed at the same time and don’t ever go to bed mad! (“Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath” Ephesians 4:26)
No TV in the bedroom – the devil will use anything he can to keep you from being intimate with each other (For those newly married: Try starting off the first 6 months of marriage without a TV)
Make the bedroom your romantic private oasis
Know each other’s love languages (Which does your spouse feel most loved by: words of encouragement, quality time, gift-giving, physical touch, or acts of service?[1]
Have a date night once a week
Schedule a weekend away at least once a year
Pray together daily
On one of your dates sit down and dream together (make a bucket list of the top 100 things you want to do together before we die)
Play together- find activities that you enjoy doing together
Have a budget so you can know where your money is going
Kiss for 10 seconds before leaving for the morning (Hint: brush teeth first)

THE GREATEST ROMANCE REFRESHER IS RECEIVING GOD’S GRACE THROUGH THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST WHICH WILL MOTIVATE YOU TO GIVE GRACE

[1] Taken from Gary Chapman, The Five Love Languages (Chicago: Northfield Publishing, 1992).

What Could Have Been…And Yet Will Be

Posted: April 4, 2012 | Author: commissional | Filed under: Bible, By LORI, Gospel | Leave a comment »

Tonight my husband spoke at our church’s 5Alive group, it’s a ministry that Calvary Baptist has for people with developmental disabilities. Every Easter he has the privilege of sharing with these dear people the message of Jesus coming to earth to die for their sins and raising to life to set them free. This ministry, led by Tim Brydson, has over 100 people and their support workers who show up every Wednesday evening for what has basically become their church family. They memorize Bible verses, share prayer requests, encourage one another and worship Jesus by singing their favorite songs about God.

As I watch them sing, I am always amazed and moved by their childlike exuberance. They clap and sway, raising their hands with abandon and delight as they sing to God with all their might! One older gentleman – who always makes us chuckle - pulls out his harmonica and plays his own harmony complete with unparalleled dance moves! We in the church at large could actually learn a lot from them. I often remember the words of Jesus when he drew a little child to himself and said “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3) Truly the kingdom of God belongs to such as these!

So, as I watch them I am filled with joy because their joy is so infectious. But as I look into their faces I also feel grief and a bit of sadness as I see just a shadow of what they could have been had something not gone terribly wrong. What might they have become if there had not been that accident that caused irreparable brain damage, or something that developed wrong when they were in their mother’s womb.

For those of you who have had a child with a physical or mental disability you understand what I am talking about. You, of course, still love and delight in that child, but a part of you grieves as you look into their innocent little face and see just a shadow of what could have been had something not gone wrong. From the moment you found out that they would live this life without the freedom of a mind and body that would be healthy and whole, you had to grieve for them and adjust your dreams for them, and always wonder what they could have been had they not been born into this broken messed up world that robbed something from them.

And it makes me wonder if that’s how God our Heavenly Father feels everyday as he looks over all the people he has made and sees just a dim shadow of what we could have been had something not gone terribly wrong! You see, this was not how he intended it to be! What went wrong? Sin -our sin- the minute man rebelled against God, all of his creation was plunged into this broken fallen state we find it in now. And something deep inside of us resists how things have come to be, we wonder if it could ever be different, we long for it to be better! But God doesn’t have to wonder he knows what could have been if we had not sinned against him and the amazing thing is that he still wants that for us! So he made a way. This is why he sent his Son, his only beloved Son, to die for our sin and in dying satisfy the righteous justice of God so that he could be free to show us his mercy. Romans 3:23-24 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God , and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

We who believe and trust in him alone for our salvation are given the right to be called children of God! (John 1:12) We may wonder now but someday we will know all that God meant for us to be. “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (italics mine) – 1 John 3:2 There is coming a day when we who are God’s children will not have to grieve over all that could have been, for Jesus himself will make it right. ”Behold” he will say to us, “I make all things new.” I look forward to that day when I will meet many of these dear people with their childlike faith in heaven, only on that day they will be everything God intended for them to be!

How to Become the Greatest

Posted: April 2, 2012 | Author: commissional | Filed under: Bible | Leave a comment »

Who is the greatest hockey player? Who is the greatest athlete? (The answer to both of these questions is Wayne Gretzky!) Who the greatest singer? Who is the greatest actor? Who is the greatest actress? Who is the greatest Canadian? Who is the greatest leader? Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of God? The Pope? Billy Graham? Rick Warren? Mark Driscoll? James MacDonald? Missionaries? Pastors?

What if the determining factor for who the greatest in the Kingdom of God was based on a whole different set of values? What are the values of the world (which is ruled by the Kingdom of Darkness)?

It would seem that the word’s values are centered on life being a competition. We compete for jobs, scholarships, promotions and awards. The values of the world are often discovered by giving people power and position. This is why is seems that “alpha males” and “alpha females” dominate and bully the weakest, which most often happens in group settings. You know how you can be around a strong personality and they are nice to you but then when they get into a group setting they have to try to show their strength. Sadly, when a person is given power and position, they often display one or all three of the following behaviours as evidenced in Luke 9:46-50 (check and see if you do any of these): The first behaviour when a person is given power and position is that they want more (power and position) (Luke 9:46) – How often have we seen when you give a person a title, badge or uniform that it goes to their head. Power and position are very dangerous and few can handle it. Think about how the disciples were placed unknowingly in the most powerful earthly positions they could ever have. They were called by Jesus to be His apostles. They were given “power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:1) Think about the powerful people in our society – doctors, government officials, lawyers and professors. The disciples fit all these roles into one. They could heal without a prescription. They had authority over demonic forces, which is far greater than ruling over humans. And they were able to explain what or who the Law pointed to – Jesus. And yet they wanted more! They forgot about what power and position they had. We do the same! How often we settle for power and positions over such temporary things in this life when Christ has given us greater authority now and in the life to come. The only way you will be able to handle the authority of Christ is if you hold it loosely like Jesus did and submit yourself to your Father who sent you. (Luke 9:48) IN WHICH KINGDOM DO YOU WANT TO BECOME THE GREATEST?

The second behaviour often displayed when a person receives power and position is that they compare themselves to others (Luke 9:46) – It is common when caught in our failures to look “out the window” at others instead of looking in the mirror. There is even a psychological term for this trait – blame-shifting. After reading Luke 9:28-45, which group of disciples do you think were the ones to claim ‘The Greatest” status – the ones who went up the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus or the ones who stayed behind to take care of the demonized little boy? I can see Peter, James and John reminding the rest of the disciples if they were greater they would have been selected to going up the mountain with Jesus. The close friends of Jesus might even have secretly become proud in their hearts that they saw the transfiguration of Jesus, even though they actually fell asleep on the job (Luke 9:32-36). (We know that James and John were prone to playing “dirty pool” by sending their mommy to ask Jesus to sit on the right and left of Jesus – Mark 10:35-37 & Matthew 20:20-28) It is very easy to become proud when you know a secret! On the other hand, the other nine disciples who did not go up the mountain were probably thinking they were great because they were down in the trenches doing all the hard work. Whenever the disciples were confronted with their failures, they immediately tried to prove themselves to each other. This is opposite of the Kingdom of God. We are called to have “the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Philippians 2:5-7) The only way you will be able to handle the authority of Christ is if you hold it loosely like Jesus did and submit yourself to your Father who sent you. (Luke 9:48) IN WHICH KINGDOM DO YOU WANT TO BECOME THE GREATEST?

The third behaviour displayed when people receive power and position is that they tend to exclude others (Luke: 9:49; sometimes very aggressively – see verse 54) – I’ve even observed in my kids how sometimes one will fail at a task but immediately point out how their sibling failed at another task as if to say, “I’m not so bad; look at the good I did do!” The disciples are no different when they try to switch the topic with Jesus by telling Jesus that they stopped a man using Jesus’ “name to cast out demons, because he was not one of us” – part of the disciples’ club.[1] Think about this! We can encourage evil to go unchecked by our exclusivity. We might be more concerned about our rules for our club than those who are actually breaking God’s rules. Jesus dispels this thinking by telling the disciples not to stop him because “whoever is not against you is for you.” We learn from Jesus in this statement that “believers who think that their group is the only group God recognizes and blesses are in for a shock when they get to heaven.”[2] In contrast we must include those others exclude, especially the people who the world considers the least. This was Jesus’ object lesson: “to welcome a child is to welcome Jesus.”[3] Jesus gently confronts the disciples by bringing a child to His side. This child could convey a number of messages. a) Reminder that the disciples could not heal the little demonized boy (Luke 9:40) but Jesus could heal the boy to display the greatness of God (Luke 9:43); or b) That childlike faith is required for salvation and service (Luke 18:15-17). I lean to the latter reason because Jesus would not be trying to show off but rather pointing out a true servant heart; caring for weakest members of society in that day, who had little or no rights – children. Yet we overlook the weak due to our focus on our selves. Selfishness wars against service and this is why “Jesus may be subtly suggesting that the disciples are acting childish, not childlike (1 Corinthians 13:4-5; 14:20).”[4]

Jesus is also trying to convey is that our rules and exclusivity may be hindering the work of God and causing us to choose the wrong enemy. We need to live out the Kingdom of God. The only way you will be able to handle the authority of Christ is if you hold it loosely like Jesus did and submit yourself to your Father who sent you. (Luke 9:48) IN WHICH KINGDOM DO YOU WANT TO BECOME THE GREATEST?

Wanting more power and position, comparing yourself to others and excluding others all results in not doing the work of the Kingdom of God! However, the most shocking thing is that this argument over greatness is placed right after Jesus talks about the Cross. In their efforts to prove themselves to Jesus and each other, the disciples were missing what Jesus was actually doing for them. In fact, there will be one more time when the disciples argue over greatness – during the last Supper. (22:22-30) Don’t miss this! Our ambition for greatness can cause us to miss the Cross of Jesus when we are standing right next to it.

IN WHICH KINGDOM DO YOU WANT TO BECOME THE GREATEST? If you want to become great in the Kingdom of God what do you need to do?

1) Want less power and position and instead more of Jesus

2) Compare yourself to Jesus only

3) Include others who are focused on Jesus

These actions will make us servants of Jesus! How might we change the culture around us if we truly lived like great people in the kingdom of God? There would be less fighting (James 4:1). Unlike a family of four with only one balloon, each one of us would want the other to succeed. We wouldn’t fight over who is the greatest because we would be focused on our Elder Brother Jesus!

How do you become the greatest in the Kingdom of God?

Would you bless those who get promoted in this life because you know that you will get promoted in the next?

Would you not spend your time and money on trying to be like the entertainment stars and other celebrities and powerful people our society worships and instead spend your time and money worshipping the Bright Morning Star of the Universe – Jesus Christ?

Would you focus on those considered least in our society or world that can’t pay you back? What if you invited these to your group? What if your career was focused on helping the poor and weak? Jesus says that caring for such people is caring for Him! (Matthew 25:31-46)

IN WHICH KINGDOM DO YOU WANT TO BECOME THE GREATEST?

[1] Is the disciple’s exclusion of another minister using Jesus’ name to cast out demons an example of parachurch ministry being validated by Jesus? No, since the Church had not been established yet until Pentecost, this is not an example of a parachurch ministry.

[2] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary – Vol. 1 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 209.

[3] Darrel Bock, The NIV Application Commentary on Luke (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 281.

[4] Wiersbe, 209.

The Passion of Jesus (Readings for Holy Week from Luke)

Posted: April 1, 2012 | Author: commissional | Filed under: Bible, Gospel, Jesus, Spiritual Formation, The Cross | Leave a comment »

It is Holy Week! I encourage you to read about the journey Jesus was on to fulfill His Mission from God! You can read the following verses from the Gospel of Luke and copy the below questions into your journal for reflection and meditation, then tell others what you discovered!