Of Great Concern

I saw an article today that told of the Ontario Minister of education telling the Catholic school board that they cannot teach pro-life, even though they are a religious based school and it is part of their faith.  Whether you like the catholics or not you have to see that this is a matter of great concern.  The idea that any religious group should be told by the government that they cannot teach their faith should concern us.  It would be different if this was a matter of a group that was teaching "hate" or "violence" but this is not related to teaching against the laws of our country.  

This is another evidence that these supposed laws like ones about "abortion" are actually now being used to restrict freedom and not to grant it.  So instead of such laws that are contrary to the Christian faith, allowing those who have a different belief to not be restricted in this area, instead now faith groups are going to be restricted unless they teach what the government says is ok.  This sounds really scary.  

Not only is this a poor precedent but this particular issue is of great importance.  The teaching of the sanctity of life and the precious gift of children is deeply rooted in the Bible.  Yet our society has decided that human life is not very important, it can be thrown away like trash.  Yet we have groups that seek to preserve and conserve the eggs of birds and their nests, we have scientists that look for signs of life in strange places and even on other planets, they would see the smallest microbe and proclaim life, yet a child that has not yet been born does not rate as life.  This is a sad state and a matter of great concern.

Our politicians went out on a limb to attempt to re-open this discussion and I applaud them.  Yet many groups claimed they did not respect women due to wanting to make sure life is properly defined.  But what about the unborn female?  Currently there is no protection for the unborn female in Canada.  A family with a background that puts greater value on male children can elect to have a female child aborted.  This is a horrible situation, that we would allow gender selection in our country is so very scary.

We need to be a people who really think these things through, the decisions of that past did not see the big picture and now we are in a situation that should give us Great Concern!

Please pray for our nation, that people would turn to God through Jesus Christ and see the error of our ways.

Preacherman

The Rest Principle

In the Bible, very early on in the book of Genesis we are called to take a day of rest.  God called it the 7th day a Sabbath and we as people are to rest.  So fast forward a few thousand years and you would meet Jesus, God in the flesh.  The Jewish people of the time had taken God's Sabbath and made it into something it was not meant to be, they had made it into an "idol".  Jesus when confronted about His actions on the Sabbath responded that mankind was not created for the Sabbath day, but rather the Sabbath day was created for mankind.  Jesus was not saying that the Sabbath was invalid but that it needs to kept in the right place and not placed above its purpose.

So fast forward another couple thousand years and today we have a variety of views.  Some believe we need to legalistically keep the Sabbath on Saturday, some on Sunday, and still others that we need not bother with any Sabbath.  I believe that Jesus completely fulfilled the law requirement for Christians and as such we are not bound to keep a specific Sabbath day.  However we are those who live under the Lordship of Jesus are called to follow Him and His Word.  So I have become convicted that we are to seek to live in the "principle" of Sabbath as Christians.  We are supposed to set aside a regular day of rest, to show that we do not rely on our own work, but on God.  It is also a lot healthier to take a regular day of rest.  

So is it Sunday?  Saturday?  Well I think the specific day is not so important.  There has been a lot of confusion over the day of corporate worship and the Sabbath.  In our day it is almost foolish to really believe Sunday is a day of rest for most Christians.  At least Pastors, Church workers and key volunteers, they all do not get a day of rest on Sunday.  And most of the rest of western Christianity does not really rest on Sunday either.  So I suggest that everyone pick a day of rest and a day of worship.  So I have corporate worship with my Church family on Sunday but my day of Sabbath is Monday.  What about you?  

Preacherman

A Prayer for today

Heavenly Father,
Thank you for your great patience with me
Thank you for the Grace that you extend to me through the work of Jesus
Thank you for providing forgiveness of my sins and victory over them through the power of the Holy Spirit
Thank you for the opportunities You are giving me to serve You today
Lord I ask that you will shape me and direct me so that I will be the man you created me to be
Please lord use me in the work of Your Kingdom
May my desires be Your desires
Help me to walk in humility as an example of your work in process here on earth
Give me the words and ability to accurately share the Truth of the Gospel to all who will hear them
Above all my prayer is that my life this day will bring honor and glory to You my God
I ask these Lord in the name of Jesus
Amen

Colossians 1:3-8 Prayer & Thanksgiving

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. - Col 1:3-8 (ESV)

Today my hope is that we would be reminded to pray with thanksgiving.  Not a mere thanking God for the things we have or the sustenance we have received, but being thankful for the Gospel.  The work of the Gospel, the power of the Gospel, the results of the Gospel, we should give thanks for what God is doing with His children.  Give thanks for your brothers and sister and How God has saved them, how He has helped them, how He has grown them and how He is using them.  

Sure be thankful to the Lord for all things, but lets remember the elements that Paul mentions here.  Give thanks for the ones whom the Lord is using to help you grow and mature in your faith.  We have so much to be thankful for, but lets not allow ourselves to fall into a distraction of thankfulness for every "thing" and neglect being thankful for every spiritual blessing we see and receive.

Let's continue every day in an attitude of thanksgiving ... AMEN!

Preacherman

Deep dark reminder

It is Saturday and yesterday was good Friday.  Here I sit and ponder the deep, dark sacrifice of Jesus.  Maybe such talk is new to you, but I would invite you to join me in this act of remembrance.

The sacrifice of Jesus, suffering and dying on the cross, all because of our sinfulness, is the only hope we have for reconciliation with God.   We are called to repent and publicly profess Jesus a Lord of our life.  Yet the cost of this great gift was great.  Jesus not only suffered and died but then He spent 3 days not just in a grave, but He descended into the place of the dead and experienced time fully apart from the Father. 

My lord suffered, died, was fully separated from His Father and then after three days He was raised back to life.  Not only did He fully pay the price for all my sin, but in his resurrection victory we can also find victory through Him. 

Today let us remember the great price that was paid and tomorrow let us celebrate His victory.

Preacherman

Celebration of life is Worship

A snowy day, a good latte and time in the hot tub = worship.  No really, as I sit here and write this I am thrilled that God allows me to suffer with chronic pain so that I want to sit in the hot tub for some relief, and as a wonderful spinn off I get to enjoy some coffee with snow falling on my face.  God is amazing!

Like most people I can find reasons that I feel are justification for complaining about life.  Yet my life, all of it, the good, the bad, the ugly, the painful ... all of my life should be in worship to Jesus.  I need to be reminded that because of Him I can live each day with joyous worship because I am forgiven by His blood. 

And so today I worship and make a concious choice to find joy and live a life of worship, no matter what my circumstance is.

Let us rejoice in the lord today ... amen

Preacherman

Power outage

Today the power seems to be out in a lot of our city.  Because of this there are a lot of issues - meetings cancelled, schools closed, businesses closed, medical appointments cancelled, traffic lights stop working, even coffee shops were affected.   Seems that when the power is cut off, disconnected or disrupted, things get crazy and problematic.  Maybe this is a reminder and an opportunity?

When we do not regularly keep our connection healthy with God.  When we stop praying, when we ignore our Bibles, when we decide to live in our own ways and not in and through the Holy Spirit, then life gets Spiritually disrupted and messed up.  But just like the electricity being out does not affect the gas being out, so our regular living is not affected by this Spiritual disconnect is it?  But maybe it is?   Sure the gas is on but my furnace fan will not operate without power so my house will get cold.  Similarly our Spiritual state of being will have an effect on other parts of our lives.

We are called to live as disciples of Jesus, fully following Him.  Part of this is our responsibility to stay connected with our Lord by the reading of His Word, staying in communion with the Father through prayer and living every day in and through the Holy Spirit.  For us to grow and be healthy disciples we need this connection.

So now I will go and use some of this time to read my Bible.

Take care everyone

Preacherman

The Lord my strength

Today I have been reading and meditating on some of the psalms.  A theme that has stuck out to me has been the Lord is my source of strength.  For example we have Psalm 71 where David is both calling on God for help and protection but also Praising God for His strength, care and provision.   So often we find ourselves "defending ourselves" when others are unjustly attempting to bring us down.  Yet I believe that David was in a place where he knew God was the only one who could set things straight.  I feel a sense of conviction today that I need to be more like that.  I need to rely on God to be my defender and while I await His defense (in His time) He is my source of strength.

Lord Jesus, please work in my heart so that I would seek you first to be my defender and protector.  I thank you for the promises you have given us in Christ that we are secure and safe during times of trouble.  I want to praise you for your faithfulness to be my strength and comfort through times of pain and difficulty.  In You oh Lord Jesus will I ever place my trust and confidence.  May Your Holy Spirit continue to mould and shape me to be who You have designed and called me to be.   All to Your glory I ask this in Jesus name Amen

Acts 2 the Spirit Shows Up!

Today as I take some time to enjoy some of Acts chapter 2, I am reminded of something very important, sure it is obvious but often mis-taught and mis-understood.  The Holy spirit shows up in Acts 2.  That right a "baptist" talking about the Holy Spirit in Acts 2.  The Spirit shows up and grants the Apostles great abilities and gifts to proclaim the Gospel.  Often at this point there is a great discussion about things like tongues and other miraculous gifts.  Yet these things are the wrong focus, tongues of fire and the variety of languages heard are descriptive in nature about what was happening.  But the real theme of importance here is this, when the Holy Spirit shows up the Gospel is preached.  Stick with me here, this is really important.

When we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (become a Christian) it is not really for our benefit.  This is often the focus of a lot of poor teaching, that the Holy Spirit and the gifts are for us and to benefit us and our lives.  But when you read Acts, you will see that the Holy Spirit and the Gifts God gives are for His purposes and His glory.  The gifts and power of the Spirit are always used to put forth the message of the Gospel.  This is what we would call "normative", so our expectation should be that the work of the Holy Spirit is to be about us sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ more effectively.

So the challenge for us today is to be a repentant people firstly.  Maybe like me in the past you have had times where you sought certain gifts or works of the Holy Spirit because it would help you or make you "feel" better etc...  This is really not appropriate for us as Christians.  Sure we are to pray and ask God for the desires of our hearts and to lay our burdens down asking the Lord to help us with them.  But rarely have I heard of the Christian that seeks out the working of the Spirit with a purely Gospel driven focus.  Yet I believe this should be our focus when it comes to the Spirit.

The Spirit indwells us to be our comforter, we need to be thankful today that Jesus sent us this great gift of comfort.  The Spirit empowers us to do the work of the Kingdom of God which is to go and make disciples.  So today as we pray, we need to ask that by the power of the Holy Spirit we would be more effective with this mission.  We need to ask that God would use us and empower us for the work of the Gospel, this is the primary focus of the gifts that the Spirit brings.  You see the Spirit came to Glorify the Father and the Son, the primary way that happens is by the Church being empowered to effectively share the gospel and for people to humbly repent of their sin and accept the generous Grace of God though the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Today my desire is to have the Spirit work in me to keep my  focus on the greater purpose of my faith.  Thank you Lord Jesus for your patience with me and Heavenly Father for the forgiveness You grant to me for all the times I am dis-obedient.  I know that the Holy Spirit is in me, help me today to get out of the way so that the Spirit would work in me, through me and beyond me.  All to the Glory of God - Amen.

Preacherman

Our Witness

As I sit here in the dark of the morning, I am pondering the following passage from Acts chapter 1, it is verses 6 through 11 from the ESV version of the Bible.

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes,11 and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

The Apostles were still struggling with what Jesus mission was about.  They were still concerned about a restoration of the physical Israel, and not understanding that the risen Jesus was about to bring into existence something far greater, the Church, His Body, His Family, His "spiritual" people.  So Jesus reminds them that the Holy Spirit will come and then they will bear witness to Him and the Gospel that Jesus was all about.  


I wonder if sometimes I am like those Apostles, I fail to see and understand the Mission that Jesus has given us and instead look for Jesus to repair the earthly situations that are messed up.  Sure He can fix these things, and sometimes does, yet really our calling as Christians or "Christ Followers" is about our "witness".  We have a Gospel oriented spiritual mission that we have been given.  I ask myself if I am being responsible with this Mission?
Repentantly I sit and recognize that often I am busy with many other things and neglect the witness about the Gospel of Jesus.  I seem to get busy doing "good" things, and yet can miss the opportunities to witness.   


Oh Lord Jesus, forgive me for my lack of witness about you and help me to be the witness that you have called, enabled and made me to be.  Lord that I would be a living example of your work as well as one who shares verbally the message of the Gospel.  Lord that you would be honored with my life, I offer what I have to you Lord, take and use it all for the Glory of You and the growth of your Kingdom.


In Your service Jesus, Amen.


Preacherman

Today's passage to ponder as you worship is one of challenge about who we are to be with one another as well as who Jesus is for us.

Matthew chapter 20:20-28 (ESV)
"Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something.  And he said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom." Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?" They said to him, "We are able. "He said to them, "You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.  "And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.""

As you consider this passage that we often correctly apply to leadership, also look to apply it to your other relationships.  Pray and ask God to reveal to you how you can better serve your spouse, your parents, your children, your friends, etc...  We are called to serve not the seek power.

May we be a repentant people for our selfish desire for control and lack of service.

Amen

Preacherman