THE WONDER OF

GOD'S PRESENCE

# 1 The Quiet Time Series  (Part 1)
(The "Quiet Time" alone with God every day is probably the most profound thing you can do to grow to maturity in Christ.   Over the course of the first week of a New Year I want to offer you some inspiration and practical steps to help you develop a consistent and exciting daily QT experience). 

"The Most Important Thing You Will Do Today

Is Spend Time Alone With God."

These words hang over the computer desk in my study.   They remind me that in the business of life, when the pressures of life cry out for my time, I must, with all diligence seek the face of God.    It is there that I gain the strength to face the challenges of life and power for my ministry.   If I fail to maintain my "Quiet Time" I fail to maintain my life and I miss out on the unbelievable privilege of having intimate fellowship with God.   But even more than that, If I fail to maintain my Quiet Time, I rob God of the privilege of fellowship with me.

"If I fail to maintain my Quiet Time,
 I rob God of the privilege of fellowship with me."

 
Now before you dispute that statement as narcissistic or self absorbed, consider the fact that the very nature and purpose of God in redemption was that God might enjoy fellowship with us.    The God of the universe desires a close personal friendship with you.

"The God of the universe desires a close personal friendship with you."

The Wonder Of God’s Friendship
When you think about it, God deeply longs for your friendship.    When sin entered the world through Adam and Eve it brought separation from God.    Sin comes between us.    Adam and Eve hid themselves from God.    Even to this day, sin separates us from God.     But God in mercy kicked His plan of redemption into gear with the promise of a Saviour who would crush the head of the serpent and restore our fellowship with God.

In fact, Christ came into the world to woo lost rebellious humanity back to God.
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) 
He so longs to fellowship with us that He Himself took on human flesh to redeem us.

Often we are so aware of our own short comings and unworthiness that we can’t image that God would long to have intimacy with us but is true.     He loves us.    His love is the basis of this longing.    If we only knew, God desires our friendship and longs for us more than we long for Him.

If we only knew, God desires our friendship

and longs for us  more than we long for Him.
 

Christ coming into the world was and is God’s offer to renew the friendship that was lost in the garden.    Jesus Himself told us that the Father is seeking those to worship Him.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:23-24)
Think of it. This is amazing.    God is seeking men and women and boys and girls who will walk with Him and worship Him.    He actually longs for us.     He gave His own Son to bring us back to Him to enjoy this incredible intimacy with Him.    God longs for our worship and friendship.

Don’t Miss The Wonder
The wonder of God’s desire for our friendship is lost to many of us and can be lost to any one of us.     Many of us take God’s love for granted and the wonder and amazement that God wants our friendship is lost.

Many of us take God’s love for granted

and the wonder and amazement that God wants our friendship is lost.
 

We must never forget the wonder of reconciliation through which God gives us direct access into His presence.    Just think of it.    God longs for your fellowship and through Christ, at great cost, has made it possible for you to enter His presence and enjoy His fellowship.     It is absolutely amazing that the God of the universe desires and made possible your intimate fellowship with Him.

It is absolutely amazing that the God of the universe

desires and has made possible your intimate fellowship with Him.

(Check back each day during the first week of January for a complete series of Posts designed to inspire you and give you practical help in developing a daily Quiet Time which is without doubt the greatest thing  you can do to grow to maturity.     Next Post will focus on how to cultivate intimacy with God).

Christmas, Super Heroes, and the Great Cosmic Conflict

 

There is Evil but there is Good.   There is a constant fight between good and evil.   There is Judgement but there is Deliverance.    There is Despair but There Is Hope. 

This fight is classically portrayed in the classic comic book character SUPERMAN¹. Remember that Superman is "Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!".

In the classic fight between Good and Evil, Metropolis is a city tormented and harassed by evil villains and needs a good hero who will overcome the evil.

In the 1978 Superman Movie, Super Man does not show up in the movie until half way through the movie.     The writers spend a whole hour and a quarter setting the scene for the arrival of Superman.     You cannot appreciate the importance, power and liberation of Superman until you understand the hopelessness and despair that engulfs the city.


The writers set it up so that you feel that all the people of Metropolis are a half-breath away from drowning in a quagmire of deep woe and absolute hopeless despair as evil grips the city.     Once you know and feel the depth of despair that evil has brought to the city Superman shows up on the scene to overcome evil and save the city.

 

 

The Great Cosmic Conflict

But this fight between Good and Evil is not just the stuff of Hollywood movies. It is the very fabric of life in the real world.     In fact Christmas is confronts us with the Great Cosmic Conflict.    We may not recognize it but we are in the midst of this Great Cosmic Conflict that has eternal consequences and has us in a quagmire of deep woe and absolute despair as evil grips humanity and leaves us in despair and without hope in the world.     Like in the movie, we cannot fully appreciate the Super Hero of Christmas until we fully understand the state of despair that we are in.      We will not cry out for deliverance unless we know the full depth of our enslavement.

In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:3-5)

To fully grasp the conflict and the true dynamic of Christmas we have to go all the way back to the first book of the Bible, Genesis, where we find the creation story.
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31)
Everything God created was very good and in harmony with the creator until Satan, the Evil One steps unto the pages of human history.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1)
And now, the fight is on.     From the very early days of human existence, The Great Cosmic Conflict between good and evil has been unleashed on the world.    It actually started in Heaven when Lucifer a created angel of God rebelled against the reign of God Almighty and was flung out of heaven.
How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' (Isaiah 14:12-14)
The scars of his rebellion are seen down through the corridors of time.    The destruction, the inhumanity against humanity, the carnage, the selfishness, the sinfulness, the brokenness, are evident everywhere. Metropolis, the world, as if ruled by an invisible but very real Joker or Lex Luthor, seems irrecoverable, held in the grip of evil.

On the one hand there is our loving Heavenly Father who as our creator has provided us with all good things and desires our good.     On the other is Satan, the Evil One, who in his lust to usurp the authority of God cares not who he destroys in his quest to rule over God. So, this fight between Good and Evil is not just the stuff of Hollywood movies.     It is real life.    If you follow the story line of the Bible through its entirety you know that God has a Super Hero who will come to triumph over evil.     Who will come to deliver His people.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)
The promise of the incarnation of the Son of God to crush the serpent (evil) was made right there in the garden, but at times it seemed like the Hero would never show. Like in the Superman movie, the writer of the script, God, seems to take forever to introduce the hero.. Metropolis is left seemingly in the grip of evil and hopelessness. The story unfolds painfully slow and then, in the fullness of time, at just the right moment, the Hero arrives. You cannot fully appreciate the freedom He brings until you fully understand the bondage under which you live.

You cannot fully appreciate the freedom He brings

until you fully understand the bondage under which you live.

Enter The Hero Of Hope And Deliverance

Into a world in desperate need for deliverance steps our hero, the Incarnate Son of God, born of a virgin.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us). (Matthew 1:23)
Christmas reminds us that God Himself steps unto the page of human history to be our hero, to be our deliverer.    When all hope is gone, when it seems like all is lost and nothing else could release us from the grip of sin and Hell and Satan, our hero comes to be born in a manger, live a perfect life, die to purchase our salvation and raise again to deliver us.
It may seem strange but I think 1 Timothy 1:1-2 are the perfect Christmas verses to remind us that our hero has come to set us free. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope, 2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (1 Timothy 1:1-2)
　
GOD OUR SAVIOUR - "Deliverer"
Most often He is referred to as "Christ our Saviour" but here in the Pastoral Epistles Paul uses the phrase "God our Saviour".    He is the one who saves us from sin and judgement and the tyranny of the Evil one.    It is God who saves us, who sets us free, who gives us new life.
 
JESUS CHRIST OUR HOPE
In the midst of the Cosmic Conflict, it is Christ who is our source of our hope.    Who in fact, is our hope.     Hope means not a ‘hope so’, but a confident certainly held with firm conviction.     As we celebrate the birth of Christ, Christmas reminds us that in our troubled world, when all seems lost, our hope is fixed steadfast in Jesus Christ.
To hope in Christ, then, is to live a life characterized by confidence in the future as a result of trusting in Christ regardless of the circumstances under which you are now living.     Your hope is not in politicians, not in the good life, not in financial security.     In the midst of the Great Cosmic Conflict, your hope is in our Hero, Jesus Christ who comes from heaven to deliver you from the grips of evil and has promised you an eternity free the from conflict and harassment of evil.

No matter how dark your days. No matter how terrifying the conflict. No matter how hopeless your situation seems to be. Christmas tells us that our hero stepped unto the pages of human history to give us an enduring hope that will carry us into eternity.

 

1. According to Wikipedia Joseph Shuster was born in Toronto, Ontario, to a Jewish family. His father, Julius, an immigrant from Rotterdam, had a tailor shop in Toronto's garment district. His mother, Ida, had come from Kiev in Ukraine. His family, including his sister, Jean, lived on Bathurst, Oxford, and Borden Streets, and Shuster attended Ryerson and Lansdowne Public School in Toronto.. One cousin is comedian Frank Shuster of the Canadian comedy team Wayne and Shuste the great Canadian comedy team.. When he was about 9 years old Shuster moved to Cleveland Ohio where he met Jerry Siegel who would eventually become his partner in the creation of Superman.  

 

 

 

 

 

Why Every Christian

Should

Join Their Local Church

 

Every Christian ought to be a church member.     Not just an attender but a full fledged member of a local church for the same reasons my Bride and I do not just live together or hang out together.       We have Covenanted Together.     We have pledged our commitment to each other

It’s sad that in our day even believers often take a shallow view of the importance of the church and a very shallow view of what it means to be a Church Member.     The fact is that God has called us to be members together – to be in Covenant together as the Bride of Christ.

 

What does it mean to be a member?

To become a member of a church is to formally commit oneself to an identifiable, local body of believers who have joined together for specific, divinely ordained purposes. These purposes include receiving instruction from God’s Word (1 Tim. 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:2), serving and edifying one another through the proper use of spiritual gifts (Rom. 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-31; 1 Pet. 4:10-11), participating in the ordinances (Luke 22:19; Acts 2:38-42), and proclaiming the gospel to those who are lost (Matt. 28:18- 20). In addition, when one becomes a member of a church, they submit themselves to the care and the authority of the biblically qualified elders that God has placed in that assembly. ¹ (I am sorry but I do not know where this quote comes from so I cannot cite it).

Let me give you several reasons why you should join a local church, but first let's see if we can use just one verse of scripture that will help us see why we need to be a member of a local church.

Two Questions From Hebrews 13:17

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Hebrews 13:17)

 

Now, let’s ask ourselves two questions that this verse helps us answer.

1. What Leaders Are You To Obey?

The passage instructs believers to "obey your leaders."      If you’re not a member of a local church, what Leaders are you commanded to Obey?      Are we to obey just anyone with the title of "Elder", from any church? Are we to obey the TV Evangelist who call for us to send the $ 1,000 of ‘seed’ money so that God can bless us.      Are we to obey every wacko religious leader who says he is an apostle or prophet or whatever?      Are we to obey the crazy leaders of "Westboro Baptist Church", or other religious sects.     Who are we to obey.

Scripturally we are to obey those leaders who have been appointed in your local church. The local church is God’s plan for the world. The local church is God’s idea.

 

2. Who Will Leaders Give An Account For?
The passage also reminds us that these leaders will have to give an account of how they shepherded the people under their care. Who are they to give an account of. Scripture clearly tells Elders to care for the local flock, the assembly of God’s people. (1 Peter 5:1-5; Acts 20:29-30).

Will I as a Pastor, or our Elders be held accountable for all the Christians in Toronto? There are many churches in GTA with various and even false doctrine, will we be held accountable for them. Will we be accountable for those who come here on Sundays but make no commitment to be accountable. No, these kinds of instructions can only work when there is a recognizable local church membership.

No, these kinds of instructions can only work

when there is a recognizable local church membership.
 

6 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD BE A CHURCH MEMBER

 

 

1. It’s Biblical    
Believers in the New Testament were connected to a local church.     There is a whole lot of instructions in the New Testament that only make sense if there is a recognizable church membership that is making itself accountable to one another.

For example, in Acts 5:12-13, it says:
 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. (Acts 5:12-13)

Those outside the church had great respect for Christians but wouldn’t ‘join’.      The word literally means "to glue or cement" something together.      Its not referring to an informal, assumed relationship but rather one where you chose to "glue" yourself to others.      This makes sense only in the context of "membership".      In fact, much of the language in Acts only makes sense in context of Church Membership. (ie. "The Whole Church" (15:17) "The Elders" (20:17).

 

 

2. It Declares Your Identity With Christ And His People
In the Book of Acts, the believers are identifying themselves with each other.     They are stating before God and others that you belong to Christ and stand with His followers.

Many people seem to prefer a dating relationship with the church whereas it ought to be like a marriage.     Like Marriage, real fellowship is hard work.     In a marriage you don’t run off at the first sign of trouble.      Membership says "I’m committed to Christ and His People. Being a Church Member in a low-commitment culture is making a powerful counter-culture statement and highlights the importance of Christ and His Church.     It says, "I’m here to give, more than to get.

 

 

3. It Provides You A Community Of Edification
The whole purpose of church is community.     It is the place we learn to live out the "one another" lifestyle" of scripture.     It is the place where are challenged and where we grow. Sure, you can experience some of that as an adherent or casual attender, but the real growth is in the commitment we make to one another as ‘community’.
 

 

4. It Places You Under The Care Of Godly Shepherds
As we saw in Hebrews 13:17, membership puts us officially under the spiritual care of the Elders of our local church.     Yes, good and godly Elders will care for those who are not members simply because they care, but they have no authority in the lives of those who are not members.

The very existence of Church Government with its plurality of Elders and their responsibility to care for the flock presupposes a clearly defined group of church members.     It presupposes a defined flock of those who have submitted themselves under the authority of the God appointed Elders.

In addition, only membership really provides accountability.     It’s the place where we keep each other accountable in an informal way as we fellowship and challenge each other. It also provides accountability in a moral formal way as we submit ourselves to church discipline.     Formal membership is a form of submission to the Shepherd leadership God has provided His Church.     Those who do not become members of a local church take themselves out from under the umbrella of protection that is afforded church members.

I jokingly say (yet there is much truth in it), "You gotta join the church so we can throw you out."     Now don’t get lost in my humour.     The Bible gives clear instructions concerning church discipline.     None of which makes sense without formal membership.     In fact if you do not become a member of a church, you take yourself out from under this protection of accountability.     Discipline is not meant as a way of punishment but rather as a safeguard of accountability.

I like to talk in terms of the "Protective Umbrella Of The Church."     As you submit yourself to local church accountability you place yourself under its protection.     In fact I think this is what Paul is referring to when he tells the Corinthian Church that they had to deal with the sinful man who had his father’s wife.

You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,

so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord (1 Cor 5:5)

 

 

When we take ourselves out from under this Protective Umbrella of the local church we are much easier prey for the enemy.

5. It Unites You In A Global Mission
The Great Commission of Matthew 28 is the marching orders of the Church.     Yes you can and should be a witness for Christ in your school or at your work or wherever you may find yourself.     However, these are the marching orders of the Church and those we would bring to Christ are to become part of a local church.     By joining ourselves to a local church, we commit ourselves to the Great Commission of Christ.

 

 

6. It Gives Visible Demonstration To The Reality Of Christ

We are Christ’s Body in the world.     The world knows and sees Jesus through us.     As I pointed out in the previous post, we are the Visible Demonstration Of Christ In The World.

--------

 

Wendy and I didn’t decide to live together.      We didn’t just date.     We decided to make a commitment to each other. It has been good.     In the same way, when we look at the New Testament it becomes clear that God’s plan for us is to be part of a local covenant community of faith for our own protection and maturity as well as for the edification of others.

If we view church as some sort of ecclesiological buffet, then we severely limit the likelihood of our growing into maturity.     Growth into godliness can hurt.     For instance, as we interact with others in my our local body, our own slothfulness in zeal is exposed, as is our lack of patience, our prayerlessness, and our hesitancy to associate with the lowly.     Yet this interaction also gives us the opportunity to be lovingly confronted by brothers and sisters who are in the trenches with us, as well as a safe place to confess and repent.     But when church is just a place we attend without ever joining, like an ecclesiological buffet, we just might consider whether we’re always leaving whenever our heart begins to be exposed by the Spirit, and the real work of spiritual growth is beginning to happen.

What’s the bottom line?

 

Local church membership is

not a question of personal preference

but of biblical obedience.

 

1.    I am sorry but I do not know where this quote comes from so I cannot cite it.

 

 



The Bride Of Christ

I’ve been involved in a lot of weddings over the years.    I’ve seen a lot of beautiful brides.     But there was one wedding where the Bride was so unbelievably beautiful. When she stepped through the door at the back of the church my heart skipped several beats, the voice in my head said,  "Man, I wish I could marry that women."    Then she stated down the isle of the church.

It was December but I started to sweat - because she started to walk towards where I was standing.    It was December 27, 1975 and I was the Groom and this beautiful women was about to be my Bride.

We stood there at the front of the church and made a covenant together.  I looked at her and said:
"I, Rick, take you, Wendy, to be my lawful wedded wife, to love you and honour you as Christ loves and honours His church, to guide and direct our home according to God's Holy Word, having Christ as the true head of our home."

She looked in my eyes and said:
"I, Wendy, take you, Rick, to be my lawful wedded husband; for where you go, I will go; and where you live, I will live; your people shall be my people and your God my God:   Where you die, will I die, and there will I be buried:   The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part you and me".  

We took that Covenant seriously.    There have been times of sickness and health, times of better and times of worst, times of plenty and times of want.     But on that day almost 38 years ago we were bound together as one in Christ.    We are not the perfect couple, but over those years our love has grown stronger, with every laugh and tear, and sorrow and victory we have experienced together, we have become more committed to one another, and we have forsaken all others that we might keep only unto each other so long as we both shall live.    In this we have Covenanted together. In just a few short weeks, on December 27, we will have been married for thirty eight wonderful years.

There is a point of me telling you this romantic story.    You know that the church is the Bride of Christ.     He gave Himself on the Cross for Her. Christ loves His bride.   He Cherishes and nourishes His Bride and someday will present His Church, His Bride, in Heaven in all glory and splendour. 

I tell you this because in our day, the Church, the Bride of Christ, is often neglected and abused.


After 200 years of having a favoured place in Canada our culture increasingly seeks to discredit the church and move it to the margins.     In a culture that is increasingly and now perhaps almost completely secular, the church is devalued and its message considered unimportant.      Even we who say we are the church increasingly ignore it and say we are disillusioned with the Bride of Christ.     Some would even say the church, the Bride of Christ, is not important to their spiritual journey.

But,  just as my love for my beautiful bride has not diminished in these 38 years,  Christ’s love for His Bride The Church has not diminished.     He still passionately loves His church. He continues to cherish it and nurture it because He has a purpose for His church in the world that will ultimately culminated in Heaven.

The Church: The Visible "Kingdom of Heaven" on earth

The Bride is here on earth to be the Visible Kingdom of Heaven.     We The Church are citizens of Heaven to display the glory of God in the World.     In spite of how many ignore and even berate the Church,  it is vitally important to the purposes and plans of God for the world.

The Church Was Established By Christ Himself
 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matt 16:18)
    
No other Institution,  No other organization on earth was established by Christ Himself.    He is Building His Church because through it He is  going to push the forces of darkness and evil right back to the very gates of Hell itself.     The Church is God’s Plan for the World. There is nothing, no organization in the world that you can be involved in that is more important than the church.  

 
The Church Was Inaugurated At Pentecost Acts 2
The disciples were told to wait for the power of the Spirit to come.    And come He did,   like a mighty rushing wind that empowered Christ’s followers and ushered 3,000 souls into the Kingdom of God that were added to the church and the church was born.     Jesus was to ascend into Heaven but He leaves His church to accomplish the work of redemption, the very work for which He left heaven, for which He planned before the foundation of the world.

The Church was never meant to be a holy huddle, but a rescue station on the rocky shores of human ruin and Satanic attack.

The Church Is The Visible Manifestation Of Christ In The World
He has ascended into heaven but His Church is the Visible Manifestation Of Christ In The World.

Wow! Did you get that?     We The Church, are the Visible Manifestation of Christ in the World.     That’s not only Important.     That’s Vital and we better take it seriously.     We are here to be the Demonstration of Christ in the World.

The word "church" comes from the Greek word "Ekklesia" and designates the visible "Kingdom of Heaven" on earth.     "Ek" means "from out of" and "Kaleo" means "to call" or "to call out from" and indicates a selected assembly of people.     Most of the time the word "church" is used in the New Testament, it speaks of a local body of believers. If fact of the 115 times it is used, 90 of those times it refers to the local assembly.

Christ is no longer physically present among us.     He has accomplished the work of redemption and now fulfills His priestly role in heaven interceding on our behalf as we in the power of His Holy Spirit manifest Him to the world.      We are the Visible Manifestation of Christ in the World.     If we do not take that seriously, we do not understand how precious the Bride is to the Groom.

Just as a husband and wife become one flesh, we are one in Christ to demonstrate Him to a lost and dying world.      We are the visible manifestation on Christ in the world.     Let us love the Bride of Christ.     Let us be the Bride of Christ.    And let us reflect Him well.

(The next blog post, later this week, will outline several reasons why

every follower of Christ should be an official member of a local church)

Thinking Christianly

About our Mayor

It should come as no surprise to us when people sin and behave badly.   We are all there.    It is part of human nature.   However to see one man's fight with his personal demons played out in the media day in and day out is difficult for us here in Toronto.   

 

Of course I'm talking about City of Toronto Mayor, Rob Ford who's association with the criminal elements of our city and his excessive use of alcohol and crack has now become an international story.    

Media outlets around the globe latched on to Mayor Rob Ford’s bombshell in which the civic leader admitted Tuesday (November 5) that he had used crack cocaine while in a drunken stupor.     CNN splashed the quote, "Yes, I have smoked crack" all over its website's homepage.     The BBC featured the admission as its top news story.   The Washington Post reminded Americans of its own 1990 scandal of crack smoking Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry.    Indeed international media such as Le Monde in France and O Globo in Brazil have picked up the story.    Not surprising the late night comics are having a field day.    One  reporting that Mayor Ford at least had an excuse for smoking crack,  "He was in a drunken stupor."

 

As a follower of Jesus,  I could never condone Mayor Ford's bad behaviour.    It is unbecoming a civic leader to behave so poorly and break our laws so flagrantly.    However, I must remember that he is a human being and my heart goes out to him as he wrestles with these personal demons, and I am reminded that "save by the grace of God, there go I."    And that raises the question:    How are Christians to respond to such failure by our elected officials?     Shouldn't our response be different than that of the world?     Shouldn't we react in a more Christianly manner?

 

My good friend,  Werner Peters is Pastor of the Toronto Chinese Gospel Church English Congregation, and a long time Toronto resident, addresses the issue of "Thinking Christianly About Our Mayor" as today's guest blogger.     His insights speak not only to the present situation in Toronto,  but to how we as followers of Jesus should respond to the failure of all public figures and certainly even those failures within our own circles.     We must not be pressed into the world's mold in our reactions but be dispensers of truth and grace. 

 

Thinking Christianly About Our Mayor

Rev. Werner Peters 

In the last few months, our city has been beleaguered by news about our Mayor that has given talk show hosts and journalists plenty of fodder.    Twitter is all a-flutter and one can't avoid the topic on FaceBook.     Every time we turn on the news, we see another depiction of a grown man who is either enraged, drunk out of his gourd or making sad excuses for his behaviour.

Christians have reacted in different ways.    Those with an over developed sense of compassion cannot abide any criticism of him. I saw one person responding to a Charles Adler column about our mayor in which he had misspelled a word.     She criticized him for the misspelling and suggested that he learn how to spell before criticizing others, as if a spelling mistake was morally equivalent to drunkenness, lying, morbid obesity and smoking crack.      Many of those Christians in my city who help make up Ford Nation are standing by their man because they are conservative and helped vote him into office and are trying hard to overlook everything else.     Talk about an elephant in the room!

Others are reacting almost in glee at the revelation of yet another embarrassing episode of this broken man and provide us with links to news articles, in case we have missed it.

What are we as Christians to make of this whole affair?     How do we respond in a Christ-like manner?

We are, and always have been, obligated to pray for Rob Ford.

To pray for a man in office does not mean we endorse his politics, so whether you are Conservative, Liberal or NDP, your first loyalty is to Christ, and Him we must obey who commanded us in His word to pray for those in leadership.      Pray that God would have mercy on this man and his family and would lead him to a place of profound repentance and conversion to Christ.     If ever we had a living example of a fallen man who is in need of transformation, this is it.

We must learn that civic leadership is about more than the money.

It is about exemplary character.     Perhaps because it has been a long time since we have seen exemplary character in the mayoral office that we have forgotten this salient point, but it becomes a stark point that is brought home to us powerfully when there is an abject failure of character in that office.      We cannot simply repeat the mantra that Ford has "stopped the gravy train" or that he is saving us tax dollars, as if money is our ultimate value.     Wealth retention is NOT the Christian's ultimate value.     Righteousness is.

How many drug addicts today have sunk even lower in their self-justified rationalizations because of the example of our mayor?     How many have even less respect for the law, after seeing the leader of our city treat our laws with such flagrant disregard?     What kind of impact does an example like this do to the countless number of adolescents whose values are not yet formed and who have no strong examples at home?      The potential for damage done to these young lives cannot be measured.      Character still matters.     If the mayor's office is just about reigning in expenses, we could have simply appointed an accountant to the office.      Why didn't we? because that office is about far more than saving the taxpayer dollars.

To call on him to step aside in order to get help is not an unchristian thing to do.

If as a pastor I were guilty of a gross moral failure, stepping aside if not completely stepping down while working on the essentials of restoration is the only right thing to do.     A desire to hang on to power and control is only further evidence of the dysfunction that leads to moral failure anyway.

Pity the man, but if you voted against him, let's stop the Schadenfreude (enjoying someone else's demise).

One day God will have the last word and He is the ultimate Judge who does everything right.     One of the most oft misappropriated verses in the Bible is that verse where the Lord tells us not to judge, lest we be judged with the same measuring stick that we ourselves have used.     This is NOT a prohibition against speaking out against public drunkenness or getting stoned on illegal substances.     In fact the children of our city need to hear this message loud and clear as they watch the videos and read the news - No - this behaviour is NOT okay.

Recognize with humility that we are all made of the same stuff.

We tend to demonize those who are caught in gross sin.     We do this to assure ourselves that we are very unlike them.     But this is a deception.     Quite the opposite is true.    We are all made out of clay. We all have the same capacity to sin and wickedness.

Move on

The news channels, talk show hosts and the comedy circuits will continue to show the same news clips and videos time and time again.     There is an episode in the Bible where the sons of Noah walked into their father's tent backwards with a blanket to cover their father's shame.     Whatever else was going on there, it was the right thing to do.     Let's not be party to the ongoing embarrassment and shame of another human being.    I am not saying that we ought to cover up sin, but we should not contribute to the shame of the man.    He has plenty of that by his own doing.     He doesn't need our help.    Let's look away.    and let's look up to where our real help and leadership comes from.

Pope To Atheists:
See You Upstairs

The headline leaped of the front page off the newspaper as I opened it early Thursday morning. "Pope To Atheist: See You Upstairs" it said over a picture of Pope Francis pointing to the sky.    The by-line said, "Pope Francis, ... has opened the door to salvation for atheist, saying God will forgive them if they obey their consciences."

There’s much about Roman Catholic theology with which I have problems and find to be less than biblical, but this I thought was unbelievable.    Not only was such a thought contrary to good conservative evangelical theology, it was contrary to official Roman Catholic theology.    Could it be that the Pope could be saying that you don’t even have to believe in God to go to heaven?

Immediately I thought, ‘what about all those crosses on the walls of all those Catholic churches, convents, hospitals, schools, and seminaries’.    Has the Pope just thrown away the cross.     I immediately thought I’d write a blog post called, "The Pope Declares The Cross Unimportant."     After all, it anyone can be saved just by obeying their consciences, why did Jesus die?      The cross would be totally unnecessary.

Sure enough, as I began reading, it certainly looked like the Pope had declared that atheist didn’t have to believe in God to go to heaven.     The article quoted the Pope as saying, "God will forgive them as long as they behave morally and live according to their consciences." and "God forgives those who obey their conscience".     I felt my temperature rise.     This isn’t even good Catholic theology.      How could he just throw away the Cross of Christ?      How could he just negate the Divine Sacrifice?      This was heresy.      What would be the point of preaching the gospel if everyone was going to make it even if they not only didn’t receive the sacrifice of Jesus, they didn’t even have to believe God existed.

Knowing the pagan media is almost totally incapable of properly reporting theological issues I thought I’d poke around the internet a bit before I blogged about this latest heresy. Sure enough the secular news media was all over this suggesting that this new Pope was going to modernize (read liberalize) the church, and shift the direction of the church by doing away with the divisive theology of the Cross.

To get to the bottom of this issue, I decided to find the letter in which Pope Francis had said these things. 1      The report was based on a Pastoral letter response to a series of questions posed to him by atheist Italian publisher Eugenio Scalfari.     The response of the Pope is really quite good and warmly pastoral as he responds to a hostile atheist, and in which the Pope gives a rather clear testimony of his own personal relationship with God through Jesus.     Much of the discussion involves the idea of Christians having better dialogue with unbelievers. 

At the heart of his reply that sparked the newspaper reports, the Pope says,

As for the three questions you asked me in the article of August 7th. It would seem to me that in the first two, what you are most interested in is understanding the Church's attitude towards those who do not share faith in Jesus. First of all, you ask if the God of the Christians forgives those who do not believe and do not seek faith. Given that - and this is fundamental - God's mercy has no limits if he who asks for mercy does so in contrition and with a sincere heart, the issue for those who do not believe in God is in obeying their own conscience. In fact, listening and obeying it, means deciding about what is perceived to be good or to be evil. The goodness or the wickedness of our behavior depends on this decision.
The Pope’s warm heart is evident as he seeks to build a loving dialogue with a hostile atheist with the hope that this dialogue will allow further discussion with others who have similar questions.      And "No", the Pope did not suggest that non-believing atheist go to heaven.     In fact, he shares his personal story of faith and how scriptures and the church confirm and inform that faith.     Nowhere, as the National Post headline suggest, did the Pope say to atheist, "see you upstairs."     Nowhere does he suggest that atheist will be in heaven as long as they obey their own conscience.      No where does he say anything that would negate the Divine Sacrifice on the Cross.

Please understand that I am usually fairly hard on what I see as significant errors in Roman Catholic dogma and practice but in all fairness, Pope Francis did not say what the secular media made him out to be saying.       Perhaps the pagan media, that does not even understand basic theology,  can only see a church being relevant if and when it joins them in their unbelief. blind tolerance and lacking all sense of absolute truth.

In fact, Pope Francis says, "God’s mercy has no limits if he who asks for mercy does so in contrition and with a sincere heart."     Yes, he does go on to talk about atheist obeying their own conscience but nowhere does he suggest that gains them entrance to heaven. 2     His reference to conscience, if you read the letter carefully, is meant as a touch point of conversation and dialogue with atheist.      Nowhere do you find a reference to that being the way of salvation

It is true that God’s mercy has no limits.      No matter the depth of ones sin or unbelief, or even hostility to the gospel, the depth of God’s mercy is deeper still.     There is no place you have been, nothing you have every done, said, or thought that is outside the reach of God’s mercy.      This mercy was displayed most graciously to us when God provided the way of forgiveness through the death of His own Son on the Cross.     If it were possible to be part of God’s Kingdom by our own merits or still in unbelief, then the cross would be totally unnecessary.    The fact is, that the problem of the human race is our rebellion against God.     This rebellion leaves us separated and alienated from God.     An atheist, and all those who have not come to the cross where mercy and grace are found, continue in their rebellion and thus do not receive the grace and mercy of God offered at the cross.

The world and the media have a hard time understanding the centrality of the Cross.    In fact to them it is foolishness and the sooner the Pope, and the rest of the church does away with the cross, according to them, the sooner the Church enters the 21^st century.     In fact, it is the centrality of the message of the cross that is at the heart of Christian teaching that makes us so relevant in a fallen, broken world.
　

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.   (1 Corinthians 1:18)
But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.(1 Corinthians 1:23-24)
　
　
1 Read the Pope’s entire letter:
http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/09/full-text-of-popes-letter-to-atheist.html

2 My next blogpost will investigate a morning devotion delivered by Pope Francis to Vatican staff on August 22 in which he address this same issue of non-believers doing good as they obey their conscience. His point being that believers and non-believers can actually meet at the point we both seek to do good in the world