A Different Side Of The Pandemic

I had the opportunity to see a different side of the pandemic this week. A side that I knew in theory existed but something I had not yet experienced.

On Thursday my wife had an appointment with her gynecologist for her weekly check up. She had four weeks left in her pregnancy so she was now being checked on bi-weekly. Due to the pandemic I was not permitted to attend the appointment with her so I ran a few errands and then sat in the parking lot preparing for my General Science class I was teaching the following day.

I didn’t notice my wife until she opened the door and silently slipped into her seat. I looked at her and asked how it went. Looking straight ahead she told me that we had to go to the hospital. Why, I asked. She calmly told me, after they took her blood pressure, they suddenly rushed her into the doctor ahead of the people who were there before her. The doctor took one look at her numbers and told her she was to go to the hospital immediately and they would take care of her there.

So we headed to the hospital.

When we presented ourselves at the birthing center we were brought into an observation area. They kept checking her blood pressure and then took blood and urine samples for testing. No one told us anything but we knew this wasn’t routine. All this time we were talking through masks and watching nurses, doctors and cleaning staff hurry about their duties in all their protective gear. It was strange to watch, like something out of a Sci-Fi movie.

They must have rushed the tests because it didn’t seem we were there very long before the results were back. A very gentle doctor came to talk to us. She informed us that the results indicated pre-eclampsia, a life-threatening condition for baby and mother if not attacked upon. She informed us that there was only one cure: delivery. They would have to induce my wife four weeks early.

We were not prepared for this physically or mentally. We suddenly realized that we were at the hospital birthing center, preparing to give birth, with no baby, mommy or daddy bags. We had the clothes on our backs. No music. No extra pillows. No snacks (for dad). And worst of all, no phone chargers.

At first the doctor said I could go home and pick up what was needed because they would start the induction in the morning. Then everything changed when the medication failed to lower Melodie’s blood pressure. I was told to stay put. Wait, what? It was the only moment that we had any apprehension. Were they going to end up doing a c-section? But thirty minutes later the doctor was back to explain they were going to transfer my wife to her room and start the induction now. The doctor turned to me, smiled, and said that I had time to go home and get what was necessary. Then she added, but don’t be long.

Armed with a long list of things I needed to get for baby and mom and where I would find them at home, I left the hospital. Round trip, not counting seek and find time, it was 34 minutes. Thankfully my eighteen year old daughter was waiting for me and gave me a hand putting things together and even packed a lunch for me. By the time I got back with everything (more or less), my wife was comfortably installed in her room and the procedure had started. 

Being people of faith and belonging to a large faith family, there were people all around the world praying for us. This was something incredibly comforting in knowing that friends in Greece, Belgium, France, the US, throughout Canada, in the Philippines and places we didn’t even know about were praying for us and little Samuel, who was being forced into this world before he was ready. We had a wonderful sense of peace in the Lord’s presence. All was well.

Over the next eighteen hours we had the privilege of meeting many incredible doctors and nurses. Their compassion and tenderness was amazing, but something happened that made me see people in this pandemic in a whole new way. The thing that changed everything, that made me sit up and take note happened at the most incredible moment of our time in the hospital.

Melodie was in active labour. Nurses seemed to be coming out of the woodwork. The doctor was in the catch position. Everyone in the room became the cheerleaders and my wife was immersed in the moment. It was loud. It was busy. And it was then, as the sweat was washing over my wife’s face and the pain was at its most intense, with her breathing deepened to the point I thought the medical mask would disappear into her breath, that one of these beautiful cheerleading women reached over and flicked my wife's mask off her face. She was free to suck in all the air she needed. In one simple motion, compassion trumped protocol. I was stunned by this act’s insane nature of beauty. It was second only to the arrival of our beautiful baby boy.

Pause and reflect for a moment. That mask on my wife’s face was not there for the benefit of my wife. It was there to protect everyone else in the room. The act of removing that mask was entirely for my wife’s benefit, to the endangerment of everyone else in that room. This significance was not lost on me.

There was something absolutely wondrous how the beautiful part of humanity overshadowed the masks, gowns and hand sanitizer. Not once did I hear these beautiful people raise doubt about the pandemic or the protocols in place because of it. There were no complaints or fussing or frowns. After a bit I stopped noticing what they were wearing because their hearts of service caused these things to evaporate in their soft tones of tender compassion. They were not focused on themselves or the inconvenience of working twelve hours in this equipment. Their focus was caring for these new mom’s and their beautiful new born babies. If they were tired of all this they never showed it beneath those beautiful voices and those healing hands.

So my take away : no matter the circumstances of the day, the best parts of humanity can outshine it when we are determined to focus on love.

PS. My wife gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, weighing only 5.5 lbs, just this side of being a preemie. Mother and baby are resting comfortably at home, healthy and well. We consider ourselves tremendously blessed and are eternally thankful for such a large praying family.

The Persistent Influence Of The World System

As Christians we have a real challenge to live the character of Christ in a world that is strangely attractive in the opposite of Christ. We often live the words of Jesus as if they are a law, an external thing trying to conform the internal but as such do not have a lasting effect. We continue to be drawn to the things from which we were saved. That is because the words of Jesus were never intended as a law to conform to but instead a sign of the fruit of a transformed heart.

One of the things we must be aware of is when self-centeredness tries to creep back into our transformed heart. The entire world system is based on it which makes it hard to avoid, yet Jesus' life demonstrates how the life in the Spirit is anything but self-centered. Because of apostle Paul we have words that Jesus spoke that are not recorded in the gospels:

In everything I have shown you that, by working hard, we must help the weak. In this way we remember the Lord Jesus’ words: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)

Don't think for a moment that everything Jesus said and did was recorded but the important bits, the bits the Spirit wanted us to hold on to, were. In this case, an important bit, a bit demonstrated by Jesus' life and death, was remembered by Paul for our benefit. But understand the context.

Paul was speaking to church leaders for the last time and he was reminding them of his selfless service. He did not take what was rightfully his but instead he earned his own keep not to be a drain on the church. This was his personal gift to the church and it prevented any problems for the "weak". Some consider the "weak" to be the poor but it is the "weak of spirit", the immature who would bring accusation against Paul and damage the ministry.

Paul laid down his life in many ways, through his hard work for the benefit of those maturing in their faith. That was Paul's great concern, that people would "grow up" in the Spirit, obtaining maturity and here he was explaining to the mature that their calling was to hard work and sacrifice for the benefit of the less mature believers, or the "weak". In other words, they were called as servants to the Body of Christ, as Jesus said they must be. If you know much about Paul's letters various things he has written are already coming to mind to verify what I am saying.

Living according to the world destroys this desire for Christ and selfless living in us and we end up "killing" each other over our impatience and unwillingness to sacrifice for others. Certainly I am free under grace but Paul pointed out that love dictates a willingness to set aside our freedom for the benefit of a fellow believer. Imagine that: people willing to give up freedom for the benefit of other people. Sounds a bit like Jesus to me, who set aside his divinity to take on our flesh.

Transformation is a much higher and demanding calling than conformity. Let us live like the new creation we have become, through the power of Jesus Christ in us, and let us serve one another in love.

Love Demands Our Best

How long do you think a marriage will last when a husband offers his wife only the leftovers of his day? He gives his energy to his work, his time to his friends, his emotions to his interests and then whatever is left he gives to his wife. To her he is always tired, has no real time for her and shows no interest in what interests her. No one is going to put up with that for long. If we are capable of understanding this about intimate relationships then we should be capable of grasping why Yahweh wants our best, not our leftovers.

We read all the time, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength," but we see the reality of it demonstrated in Abraham. Yahweh was entering into a significant covenant with this man. He had chosen him to start a nation who he would use to reveal himself to his creation, so Yahweh had to make sure that Abraham was the right man. How does Yahweh know? He tests our heart.

Abraham's son Isaac was the promised seed from which Yahweh would grow the promised nation. Everything rested on this lad. How Abraham must have loved this son of the covenant. So to test his heart, Yahweh demanded that Abraham sacrifice him. Knowing Yahweh as we do today, we know that such a thing is an abomination to Yahweh, but Abraham did not know what we know now. So he headed out to do as he was commanded. How heavy his heart must have been and how confused his thoughts.

He got as far as tying his son, placing him on the alter, and pulling the knife on him to end his life before Yahweh put an end to it. So, Abraham was serious about his relationship with Yahweh. His love manifested in his actions; actions of trust. He was willing to obey even to the point of sacrificing what was most precious to him, trusting Yahweh had purpose and reason in this thing. Yahweh said to him:

“Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Genesis 22:12)

We look at that in the context of today and we are shocked but that is because we have watered down the demands of Yahweh. We have tamed our version of the Creator of all things. We are wrong to do so. Look at Jesus' teachings and see the extreme of them. We play the love card with Jesus all the time, portraying him as peaceful, kind and loving. He is all that and more but the love he describes is not a tame love but an all demanding love. Nothing can come ahead of it. Nothing can be considered more precious. In simple terms, Jesus is everything or he is nothing. Yahweh is not willing to have our leftovers; he wants our best; he wants all of our time, all of our energy, all of our affections, all of our intellect.

Maybe we should all re-read our Bibles and highlight all the extreme parts. We may then discover why Paul, the apostle, wrote: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in this body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Being Cheap With Jesus

Imagine you were a student and you had a History oral report due. You have been told that you are permitted to use any visual and audio props you wish to include. The teacher says "Knock my socks off with what you can do". You brag to all your friends how fantastic your report is going to be. You build up great expectations for your teacher. To great fanfare it comes to your turn. You stand in front of the class and read from your miserably boring PowerPoint slides. You receive a lousy grade.

Imagine your boss has given you a major project. You get paid a six figure salary to produce excellent work. You receive a great budget for the project because the boss does not want there to be any excuses. With each progress update you build a sense of anticipation for the boss. The buzz is happening throughout the company as everyone looks forward to the results of the project. Finally the due date has arrived. The boss and all employees gathering in the warehouse for the unveiling. After all that time, money and anticipation you present some tooth pick models and children stick figure drawings. You are fired.

Of course these are not things we would offer to people in authority over us. We would do our best to honour their authority. Offering less than our best reveals the condition of our heart and shows great disrespect for the authority. If we can understand this concerning temporary things, why can't we also understand it for the more important permanent spiritual things?

Malachi the prophet records some of Yahweh's complaints against his nation Israel. It was not so much their action as it was what their action revealed about the condition of their hearts. It seems that the attitude Yahweh saw was exactly as described above. The people would make a big show of honouring him with their sacrifices but what they offered was second best. They offered the animals that they could not sell. Whatever was left over is what they put on the altar. Yahweh reminded them, in a very simple but direct manner, who he is:

"For I am a great King", says the Lord of hosts, "And my name is to be feared among the nations." (Malachi 1:14)

The Message puts it in a way we might more readily appreciate:

"I'm a great King, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, honoured far and wide, and I'll not put up with it!"

The people of Israel had moved away from Yahweh and had lost their respectful reverence of who he is. Have you read Revelation recently? Do you know who Jesus is? Do you draw close to him to allow the Spirit to keep alive your reverence of the Name above all names? Do you realize who the Father is and what we owe him? For most people the answer is no. We have tried to make him so user friendly that we have reduced him to best friend and chum. Although there is an element of that familiarity to our relationship, he is so much more than that.

Many of us are just like the Israelites, keeping ourselves at a distance, offering our second best, our left-overs. Instead of offering our first fruits we offer what we think we can afford after everyone else has had a go at our harvest. We usually give to him whatever is left offer of our time, when we are already tired and just wanting to sleep, if we offer any time at all. As for service, it's whatever we can fit in when and if we can fit it in.

Look around at other people's devotion to their gods which are no gods at all. Look at the effort of the Muslims to a god who offers no hope or love. Look at people's dedication to their health or education. Look at the effort people put into their causes. You would think that the Christian who understood who Jesus is and what he has done for us and what he expects from us, would give all that they have to him.

Be hot or cold, said Jesus, just don't be lukewarm. If you are I will spit you out. And that is exactly what most of us have become, lukewarm. Very few are filled with the knowledge, wisdom, power and passion of someone who knows Jesus. We are more the religious type who read their Bible before going to sleep, dutifully say their cold prayers, stoically attend church, pay their tithes and are satisfied with their "sacrifice". It looks good but Father knows our hearts. There is a lot of spitting going on.

We need to re-capture the vision of who Jesus Christ is, after the resurrection. We need to hear those words, "For I am a great King, and my name is to be feared among the nations", and understand who it is we serve. We need to lay it all out on the altar, our very best. Don't harbour the altitude that you can offer something less than you would offer a person of authority on this earth. Our best belongs to Yahweh. Our lives belong to Yahweh. Our time, talents, possessions, relationships all belong to Yahweh. Our lives should reflect our reverence for our Lord. Nothing less will do.

Is It Sacrifice Or Privilege?

Too often we Christians can be accused of allowing our society to influence our perspective. It's hard not too considering how much of our mind and heart we lend to the world. With the music, the tv shows, the movies, books and other things that are produced by unspiritual minds, our spiritual senses are dulled and destroyed. Our sensitivity to the Spirit is lost and we become spiritual zombies; still walking but dead inside. We are getting to the point where there is little difference between those who go to church and those who don't, except for the church going thing.

Perhaps this is why attitudes toward sacrifice are either poor or religious in nature. The fact that we would even consider anything God asks of us as a sacrifice speaks to our spiritual condition. It should not be a sacrifice to be generous, kind, gentle, loving, but often it is for us. It becomes an extraordinary thing we do instead of a natural part of our day. So if we have trouble with the small sacrifices in our daily walk, what happens to us when we are called upon during extraordinary times? Do we rise to the occasion or disappear within our self-centered perspective?

Where are the heroes of the literature of old? Where is a Frodo Baggins, who rose above his lot in life, leaving behind his self-centered society to lay down his life for the benefit of everyone? Forget about literature, what about people like apostle Peter, Paul, John? Where are the Stephens; those who set aside their own interest for the benefit of the whole? What about Mary? Yes, what about the woman who was asked by God to give up everything she considered ordinary and important so that Jesus, the Son of God, could enter into our history and complete his mission.

Was this a sacrifice that God asked of Mary? Of course it was. Most of us know what was at risk for her. What if her fiancee rejected her? What about when society found out and people wanted to apply the law? What about the reputation of her family? It was a huge sacrifice to ask of someone so young, but to those who love and trust our God, we know this to be a privilege not a sacrifice. This is what we find in Mary who obviously loved the LORD God with all her being. Her's was not a song of complaint or regret but one of joy and thanksgiving:

Mary said,

        “With all my heart I glorify the Lord!

              In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior. 

           He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant. 

             Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored

                   because the mighty one has done great things for me.

         Holy is his name." (Luke 1:46-49)

We say that the Spirit Of Christmas is about giving instead of receiving, but the only sacrifice that is worth anything is what we "give unto the Lord". God has not told us to become humanistic in our attitude. He has told us to love as we have been loved; to forgive as we have been forgiven. Generosity in everything is a sure sign of someone who has given themselves fully to the Lord.

Jesus told us to not just love those who love us but to love those who hate us. The only way this is possible is when we understand that we love our God with our entire being and because of such we are loving him when we love everyone; we are giving to him when we give to others; we are serving and sacrificing to him when we serve and sacrifice for others. When we are doing these things because of God's love for us and ours for him, it is done with a genuine joy and attitude that shows we consider it a privilege.

Use this Christmas season as an opportunity to evaluate where to stand in your relationship with Jesus. What is your attitude? How self-absorbed are you? Who is shaping your perspective? Are you a Christian zombie? Or are you totally sold out to Jesus? Is it sacrifice or privilege?

The Cross Is For Our Benefit, Not God's

There are very few relationships where the giving is only one sided. Every person who is in your life gets something out of being part of you. None of them exist only to give to you; not your best friend, not your teachers, not even your parents. That is why Jesus is like no other person in your life.

No matter how you look at it, Jesus received nothing from giving himself for you. He came entirely for your benefit. Jesus came so that you can have full life through him:

I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief enters only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life—indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest. (John 10:9-10)

God doesn't need us. He is self contained within the God-head. He does not need the angels. He does not need creation. He does not need mankind. But he created us and made a covenant with us, and even though we broke relationship with him, he never gave up on us. He gave himself entirely so that we could have life to the fullest, as he always intended for us to have, simply because of his word to us.

We certainly didn't merit Jesus' death. We do not merit his love. No matter what we do we could never earn it; never. But he freely gave it at no cost to us and to no benefit for himself. He paid the full cost only for our benefit. No one else could ever show that kind of love for us.

And all we have to do is accept it.

Everything that needs to change in us will be changed by the power of the love we accept into our selves. We don't receive it after we have changed. We change after we accept it because that love transforms us, making us a new creation, and continues to transform us until we are just like Jesus. Again, all for our benefit.

Don't ever think that God did this because he needs something from us. Don't think that he needs our worship, our talents, our offerings. He needs nothing. He did this because of the purest form of love; a love that is God himself. For this we gladly give him our lives, because such love provokes absolute trust, service of gratitude and whole-hearted worship. So take time to come to as deep an understanding of this love as God is willing to reveal to you.

The Truth About Marriage

There are a lot of things we say and do that we justify when there is no justification for it. We can reason away anything so we can do what we want to do. We can get away with whatever we want to get away with as long as we forget that God knows every motivation of our heart. We can even make the Bible say what we want it to say. We need to stop it.

Yesterday I said that every act against God can be traced back to a selfish heart. Every act against our neighbour can be traced back to a selfish heart. How much easier then is it for us to justify acts of hatred in a family? Just look at what husbands and wives do to each other with the emotional games they play on each other, justifying it within their self-centered world and even believing that God is on their side. These are two people who have made a covenant with each other, with God as their witness, to love each other until death separates them. Love does not play games. Love is not selfish. We should understand that it is in a relationship of love, trust, mutual understanding that these two people become an incredible spiritual force.

God hates divorce.

Those are Jesus' words. He said that there were some circumstances that God would tolerate divorce but tolerate is a long cry from support or encourage. It is amazing the acrobats we go through to try to fit within the criteria in order to justify our selfishness. I should know, I write this as a divorced man.

In most cases there are no innocent parties in divorce. We all make choices and have to live with those choices. In the case of divorce, selfishness took over at some point. Hearts got set against each other because someone wanted something that put them above the needs of the other person. Maturity, good spiritual maturity, would cause both people to set aside their own needs for the needs of the other person. Not easy but it is the thing that would please and honour the God who they say they love more than any other.

The problem is, once selfishness gets in and we start justifying our emotions, it is difficult to turn back. It is true for any relationship. Once selfishness takes root we are in a lot of trouble. Our love for God should be enough to de-root anything before it takes hold, but in order to justify ourselves we have to distance ourselves from that love because no amount of self-justification could stand in the brilliance of that love.

It is a hard thing when we begin to allow emotions to take the lead because love goes beyond emotion; it is a decision,a commitment, a covenant. Solomon said this of marriage to his son:

You should be faithful
    to your wife,
    just as you take water
    from your own well.
16 And don’t be like a stream
    from which just any woman
    may take a drink.
17 Save yourself for your wife
    and don’t have sex
    with other women.
18 Be happy with the wife
you married
    when you were young.
19 She is beautiful and graceful,
    just like a deer;
    you should be attracted to her
    and stay deeply in love. (Proverbs 5:15-19)

It is the last part that stands out for me: "You should be attracted to her and stay deeply in love." That is a decision that has to be made every day. That is a commitment, to give your whole self to your wife. There is nothing here to say it is dependent on how she acts or if she loves you too. It is a one way charge. He is telling his son that he has the responsibility to stay attracted to his wife and to stay deeply in love with her over everything else. The only thing a husband should love more than his wife is God.

I will tell you right now, every day at least ten reasons will present themselves not to love your wife. There will be ten reasons that you will need to look at in the face and say, I love my wife in the way the Lord has loved me. It is my choice, the decision I make right now. Some days will be easy and other days will be hard but every day should end with the same result, being deeply in love with your wife. It does not depend on her; it depends on you. It doesn't matter how she acts, what she does or what she says, it is your responsibility to love her:

A husband must love his wife and not abuse her. (Colossians 3:19, CEV)

There is no justification to supersede this command. It is not a command of the law but of the heart of God. If we have accepted his sacrifice on our behalf, his faithfulness in the face of our unfaithfulness, his mercy and grace, his overwhelming love, then his expectation is that we will do the same for others; how much more our wives?

Sometimes we learn these lessons on the wrong end of things. In those cases, we allow his grace to carry us along as he picks us up, dusts us off, and we begin again. His grace is incredible but he will not put up with it being abused. He knows our hearts. He knows our schemes. He knows our motivations. It comes down to what Jesus said: If we love him we will do what he has commanded. Do we love him enough to see our selfishness put aside, to do the right thing and to allow love to be the command of the day?

If You Are A Christian ...

Are you a Christian? Are you a Christian in name only? Do you know Jesus or know of Jesus? There is a difference. Do you have any idea what you are proclaiming when you take on the name Christian? You aren't saying that Christianity is your religion, you are telling all of creation that you are a little Christ, a little Jesus; you are proclaiming that you are like Jesus.

Christianity is not something you are taught; it is something you are. Yes, you can be taught Bible passages and what they mean but the Bible is not a rule book to which we conform; it is an explanation of who we are. It shows us, reveals to us what we have become because of Jesus Christ; because of the cross; because of the empty grave; because of the Holy Spirit. The Father's love, when accepted, transforms us through the Son so that our pattern of thinking and behaviour changes. It is not our determination that changes us but God who changes us.

So when Jesus taught us to love our neighbour, it wasn't a rule but an explanation of what happens with the transformation of our heart. He showed us what it is to love your enemy when he was nailed to the cross. Jesus was not a victim. Don't rob him of his glory by thinking that he was powerless concerning what happened to him. Jesus went to the cross by choice, to save the enemy of God; us.

The Word tells us that it was while were were still sinners Jesus died for us. It was the only way that we could be freed from our sin nature. But as sinners we were the enemy of God. Sin separated us. Rebellion, self-determination, independence turned the creation into the enemy of the Creator. I can't stress this enough because it is incredible what God did for those who wanted nothing to do with him:

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. (Colossians 1:21)

People today believe there is good and evil in all of us but it doesn't matter. One act of rebellion is enough to separate us from God and turn us into his enemy. Imagine how many acts of rebellion we go through in a day, but those who have chosen life in Jesus are covered by God's grace. He has reached out to his enemy and made it possible for us to become family:

But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. (Colossians 1:22)

He has covered his enemy, transformed them into his children and has covered them by his grace so that now we are presented before him as holy, without blemish and free from accusation. That means right now, today, at this very moment, you are blameless and innocent, covered by the blood of Jesus. Your rebellious acts from yesterday are covered by his grace. It is so incredible and that is why the Word tells us not to abuse this grace because it can be abused. You, who were once the enemy of God have been reconciled to him, adopted as his child and covered by his grace.

So when we read the words "Love your enemy" we can understand they are not just words to Jesus. It cost him everything to love his enemy. When we take on the name Christian we are stating that God's love has transformed us so that we too love our enemy. Not a choice we make but the action we take compelled by the love of Jesus. Not self-determined but Holy Spirit shaped by the love of Jesus. Not a rule to follow but a pattern embraced because of the love of Jesus. "Love your enemy"; not a command or rule but the nature of Christ's character in us.

Genuine Imitations

Be careful, the values, priorities and patterns of our society do not belong to us and must not be part of us. Just because it is accepted in society does not mean it is accepted by our Holy God. There is real danger here. It seems that originality and individualism are highly prized in our society, even though most people conform to the image of society. We however do not desire to be an original; we want to be imitators, but not of society:

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children. (Ephesians 5:1)

You know that attitude, when children are of the age of seeing mom and dad as their heroes. That is when their greatest aspiration is to be just like dad or just like mom. As followers of Jesus that attitude must remain our desire, to be imitators of God.

We are dearly loved children and our Father has given us an example to follow. He gave us Jesus as the first born, the one who opened the door for us, set the path, showed us how it is done. Along with that we have the Spirit who is transforming us into the likeness of Jesus. There is no other measuring rod for us. We do not compare ourselves to society, successful people, even heroes of the faith. There is only one example we follow and it is Jesus, our big brother, friend, Saviour, Lord and King. Let the world mock us and call us names but Jesus is our hero and our desire is to be just like him.

His is example is based on one foundation and we have a lifetime to search the height, breadth and depth of the matter, not just to understand it but to live it:

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1-2)

Love is the foundation of all of creation and of our lives. I don`t know how people miss this message in the Word of God. The example we follow, the power that transforms, the life we are to live is that of Jesus' love. Not our love because it is too pathetic in nature to be of any use; it has to be Jesus`love. This love is sacrificial and fragrant.

Quick, look at your life before you notice yourself looking. Quick glance! What do you see? Is it a life of sacrificial love or something ugly and pathetic? I am not saying you are pathetic but what we try to be becomes pathetic in nature because we try to live for God in our love and strength. If we could do it ourselves Jesus would not have had to die. We have to live his love. We have to be transformed by his love, made new, different eyes to see, different priorities to live. We must be permeated by that love which calls us into action and provokes us to serve God beyond our pain and circumstances.

Here is your test to see if you love Jesus: Do you do what he has told you to do? Do you obey?

Here is your test to see if you love people: Do you consider them more important than yourself?

A Christian life is not weak or pathetic, controlled by poverty or circumstances. A Christian life is not clouded by struggles and personal opinions. A Christian life is powerful in love, joy, peace and hope. A Christian life is filled with the powerful sacrificial love that changes every situation and life it touches. Powerful I say!

Be imitators of God: live a life of love. This should be the desire of our heart as we serve Jesus every second of our life, living for his glory by sacrificing our lives for others, investing into them the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Anything else makes us cheap imitations. I don't know about you but after living my life here, I don't want to have to explain to Jesus why I only had a cheap life, with a cheap faith and a cheap love. I want to be as rich in my love as Jesus is because I want to be lust like him.

I am not there yet, but it is my desire to be. So every day I surrender my will, my heart, my mind, my strength to Jesus so that he may live through me. And as he does, I am changed and made more like him. Anything less will not do. My friends, are you genuine imitations?

God Is Not The Christian God

I think sometimes we forget that God is not the Christian God or the Jewish God or the 'anything else' God; he is simply God. What I mean by this is that God does not love one group of people more than another. In this same thought, God doesn't hate anyone, despite some things you may have heard some people say. Christians forget this quite often and think we are something special to God, as if we have merited some kind of special favor from him. Even in a simple little verse in Psalm 82 we find the truth of the matter:

Rise up, O God, judge the earth,    for all the nations are your inheritance. (Psalm 82:8)

All the nations, all the people, the whole world belongs to God because he is the life-giver to it all. He is not governed by our human failings that he should love some and hate others. He is governed by his character and the scripture tells us plainly that God is love.

The struggle that we have is how to do we access this God? How do we get close to him to know him? He is holy and no wretched creature can come near him so what do we do? This is why Jesus came, not only to show us the way but to become the way. Jesus told us plainly:

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

This is the part that prevents Jesus from becoming a great prophet or a wise teacher. No one, no great thinker, no Muslim, nor anyone else can claim that Jesus was only a teacher or a prophet. We can only decide that he is who he said he is or he was a liar. However, all the prophets described him and what he would do, so Jesus' testimony was not the only testimony. Jesus came to bridge the gap, to make it possible for us to access God the Father, the one who loves us more than any other. It was the Father's plan since the beginning of time.

Christians do not have sole ownership of God. The only thing Christians have is the knowledge and faith to be able to come into his presence. God's desire is that the whole world would know him and desire to fellowship with him. His desire is that we would accept his love, and love him in return. Scriptures show that the door is open for anyone who decides to enter it:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

A long time ago, the race of man decided to go it alone, to turn our back on God. We entered into rebellion and were lost to him, but he was not satisfied to leave it at that. He desired for us to know him and to give us a way to get back to him. He pursued us into the darkness and provided a light to see our way back to him. He provides this for every nation, every religion, every human condition. It is for the male and female, child and adult, the moral and immoral, the rich and poor, the healthy and sick. He loves us that much.

It doesn't matter what you have done and said in your living; it doesn't matter your religion or philosophy; it doesn't matter whether you believe or not, it will not stop him from loving you and desiring you to return to him. All you need is Jesus. All you need to do is respond to the love he has shown you through his son, Jesus Christ, who has become your access point to the one who loves you above all others. He will forgive you as you surrender all your rebellious ways to him. He will fill you with all good things, shower you in all the blessings of his love and he will give you solid ground to stand on again.

God is good, so very good, and he loves you more than you can comprehend. That is what we are truly celebrating on this Palm Sunday.

It Really Is A Joy To Be Alive And Free

Sometimes we get so involved in the living of our day that we forget to put it in the context of our life. Today may seem horrible and so we think we have a horrible life, but that is only how we feel for this moment. Last week we felt much different as the sun was shining, the birds were singing and everything was great for us. The same with 2 years ago and so on. We have had great days in the past and we will have great days in the future. This moment is just a brief thing that will pass because we have a great life. This is putting things in the context of our life.

We need to do this with God as well. Sometimes we get so caught up in our present-day struggle that we forget to put it in the context of his great plan. We have to remember that he created man to have a relationship with him. Man rebelled against him. God had a plan to bring man back into fellowship. He chose Abraham to be the beginning of a nation of priests through whom he would reveal his glory to the world. When this people had become a nation he gave them a law so that they would see how miserable we really are and gave them a system of sacrifices as a temporary way of administering his grace. But his plan was to raise up one priest who would become the one great sacrifice to cover man's sin so that God's grace would be available freely for those who wanted it. He sent Jesus to be that priest and revealed his great plan of redemption through him. Now today, anyone who believes is immediately covered by that one sacrifice and God adopts them as his children. It's a wonderful plan that should explain to us why the law was given and why it no longer applies to those who are covered by the grace of Jesus Christ:

Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. (Galatians 3:19)

Take note that it says "until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come". That seed is Jesus Christ. The Law was given because of man's sin. God needed a way to reveal sin to man so he would understand his condition. He gave them a temporary system of sacrifices to cover them as they realized their condition, because he knew that man could not live this law. When Jesus came, he fulfilled the law and replaced the system of sacrifices with his one sacrifice on the Cross. No sacrifice can save us but the one Jesus Christ did for us. Does that mean the law is now sinful? Not at all:

Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. (vv. 21-22)

If any law could have saved us it would have been this law but we are too imperfect for this law; sin is too powerful in us. The only thing that can break our marriage to sin is the most ultimate, powerful sacrifice of Jesus. The power of what was done on the cross cannot even be fully understood this side of eternity, but we can see the effects of it.

Those who turn to Jesus are changed forever. The power of sin over them is broken. For the first time in their lives they have the ability to breathe, move about, make decisions and to respond to God. That is the freedom we have been given back through Jesus Christ. He breaks all sin that keeps us in bondage; violence, drunkenness, drugs, sex, pornography, thievery, lying, selfishness, and the list goes on. All these things we were enslaved to and they have kept us from God. The law showed us how far we had fallen short of God's glory, that we are not worthy to look on his face. But Jesus changed all of that so that we are washed clean, freed from those chains and now have the ability to look on God's face any time we want. We are his people, redeemed from our filth and adopted as his children.

This is the context in which we need to live our lives. This is the context that tells us our days are no longer miserable but are opportunities of God's grace. Each day is destined to be a day of victory. Each day is a day of revealing more of God's grace and love. Each day is a day closer to eternity. Each day is the potential of declaring more of God's glory to the world. This is our life and it is wonderful to live it in Jesus.

Why I Am Certain That Christianity Is The Only Way

I hear it all the time, "What makes you think Christianity is the true religion?" Well, first of all, I don't believe that Christianity is a "true" religion, I believe that Yaweh is the one and only true God. I believe that God is, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. I believe that the Father loved man so much that he sent the Son to deal with the impossible chasm between us. I believe that after Jesus died and rose from the grave, the Spirit was sent to live in everyone who declared Jesus as Lord and Saviour. There is a huge difference in this from all other religions.

You see, in all other "systems" man has to do something to earn his redemption. There is always some scheme, some work, some thing that a person has to do, to work at, to merit what is being offered. The Father, the Son, the Spirit came after us. We were too stupid, too lost, too blind to even know that we needed rescue or to know that there was something better than this. Jesus came to open the eyes of the blind, to let us know that we had a choice, to let us know that we had a Father who loved us enough to come after us, to sacrifice himself for our benefit. Jesus came in obedience to the Father but also out of love for man.

We can't buy or earn our redemption even if it was in our power to do so. You can't buy a gift that is freely offered. We can try to put a mask on the offer so that we can put our own system on it so we can feel good about receiving it. We can act like being more kind, more loving, more generous will make us more worthy. We can act like praying more, reading God's Word more, singing more, giving move, serving more will make us more worthy. We can beat ourselves up, light lots of candles, confess a lot, pray in the right manner, dress in the right clothes, say the right words will make us more worthy. But all of it is man's way of trying to earn God's grace.

The crazy thing about grace is, it is never earned; it's given for free. Our Father looked on us with such love that his heart was breaking for us who were lost in the darkness that was causing us to suffer. He looked on us and longed for us to be back in fellowship with him. That love caused him to reach out to us with an incredible offer, something that no man-made religion or systems had to offer and the Word of God is clear about it; absolutely crystal clear:

“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.  (Galatians 2:15-16)

So how do I know that no other religion is true and that Christianity is the only way? Because no other religion or system known to man has Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the sacrificial lamb, the Way, the Truth, the Life, the author of our faith, the Alpha and Omega, the first born of many, the only way to the Father. You have to earn your way in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and every religion on the face of this planet. Do I dare mention Catholicism in this too; that system of man that has striped away the grace of God to leave a system of meriting God's favour?

No, there is nothing that any other religion can offer that can compare to what Jesus Christ offers us. It is not what we can do for God but instead what he has done for us. It is not about how we can serve him but how he has served us. His gift of redemption is a free gift and his love is all consuming. Nothing you can offer is good enough so he offered himself instead. There is nothing that you have that God needs but still, by his grace, he has poured out his incredible love on us. You don't deserve it but it is yours nonetheless if you are willing to accept it. And why wouldn't you? It's incredible. It's free. It's everything you ever needed and more. We cannot be redeemed by observing any laws or systems of laws but only by faith in Jesus Christ.

Sacrificing To Molech

Good morning my friends,

I think most of you would agree with me that the world is a crazy mixed up place. Most restraints that were placed on people by our society have been thrown off as our society loses sight of the holy things. There used to be a very clear distinction between right and wrong. Perhaps these distinctions were poorly applied and people suffered as a result but just because some people went overboard with it does not make it right today.

This morning’s reading contained a chapter on wrong sexual behaviour. It would have been difficult for my younger students and I will temper my comments on it because of them. One would think that common sense would dictate that this behaviour is wrong but there is no such thing as common sense. We do have a moral compass that God has built in us but often we do not know how to apply that compass to our behaviour. Our sin nature has knocked it out of whack. The law was given and then explained in detail so that the people could understand that compass.

Unfortunately everything that was listed this morning takes place every day in this world. Thirty-five hundred years ago we were told not to behave in this manner and yet today we find this behaviour to be far too common. Unfortunately as our society becomes more “tolerant” of these “life-style choices” we are going to find more of our children becoming curious and experimenting with them. Our public school system is very good at spreading the gospel of some of these groups, all in the name of tolerance and equality. Next the common thief will be pushing for his rights because his is a “life-style” choice. As far as I am concerned (and this is a personal opinion) sending our children to public education is the same as sacrificing them to Molech. There are some great Christian teachers in the system but there are too few to protect our children from the ideas and opinions that bombard our children every day. These teachers are more like evangelists, out to save as many of the perishing as possible.

A big problem in all of this is the attitude of many Christians. First there are the pastors who do not recognize the mounting dangers of the public education system and fail to uphold the Word that tells us to train up our children in the ways of the Lord. Second, there are the pastors and fellow Christians who have pet-sins that they pick on. We have countless sermons being preached out there against the evils of homosexuality but what about the sin in the church that is taking place right in from of the pastor? Is there any difference between the sin of homosexuality and the sin of sleeping with your neighbours wife?

It is one thing to be narrowed on the Word of God and it is another to put blinders on so we can’t see what is happening around us. Pastors, teachers, evangelists, Christian workers must all be willing to open their eyes fully that we may see all the things that are happening around us. We need to recognize what is happening in our public schools. Only a miracle will be able to turn that beast around and from what I read in the Word the end times are only suppose to get worse. We need to start facing the times we are in. We need to train up our children. Get them into an educational system we believe in and trust. Make decisions about what they are watching on TV. Monitor their internet use and guide them in good choices. Help them select friends who will not destroy them. Take an active part in their spiritual growth. We will take them to sports events and desire to see their physical, social and mental skills increase. Yet, when it comes to their spiritual growth we do not give it much thought.

Understand that parents sacrificed their children to Molech in the hopes of securing a better future for themselves. I hope we are not doing the same thing by choosing our desires over our children’s needs. I hope we do not send them to daycare and school with the attitude that they are being babysat while we continue with our life? I hope we do not choose public education over Christian because we want to save our money for something we want to buy for ourselves. I hope all of us who are Christian parents will remember that we will have to give an account for our decisions with our children.

I also hope that we will stop pointing fingers at the world. They are acting as their sin nature dictates. They are acting normal for their nature. However, we have been saved from this so there should be a difference in the Church. As we reach out to the world let us not lose sight of the correction that must continue within the Body of Christ. There is a difference between the Holy and the Common.