May God have mercy on us, everyone!

The year is almost out.  And while some may be eagerly anticipating 2011, I would challenge you to ask, ‘Am I done yet?’   We want to move forward into a new and better future.  Amen to that.  But are we READY to move forward?  And how do we tell if we’re ready?

Certainly the new year will NOT bring lasting wonderful things to us if we are not right with God.  So I think the end of the year is a time not so much for celebration as for somber reflection – am I walking rightly with Him?  Have I grown spiritually this past year at all?  Am I ready to move forward with God into all He has for me?  Did I meet and know and grow with God this year?  Henry Blackaby said, “If you are still missing out on His presence and power, you have not yet met God’s requirements (of you).  Your repentance is not complete.  When you experience God you will never be the same.  If you are still the same, whatever you have done, you have not encountered God.  At a time like this, you need to go to God and ask Him what you still need to do in repentance.” (brackets mine).

I think we would do well to read those last two sentences again.  And then to ask ourselves, are we walking with God’s power?  Is my life full of the experience of God? Do I see Him working through me in real power?   And if not – perhaps we are not ready to move forward.  Perhaps we need to take a long and somber look at the last year (and indeed, the threads of our lives) to see if there is unconfessed sin there.  I think we need to take a long look at our families, and see if there is sin in our families that is not confessed.  You say – ‘but that’s not my responsibility’.  Isn’t it?  Don’t you hold some responsibility for your own family?  For your kids?  And as those who truly know God, shouldn’t we take some spiritual authority over those in our families who don’t know Him?  Can’t we - shouldn’t we also confess the sins of our fathers (those who came before us)?

We who know Christ so often plead and pray for revival and for spiritual awakening.  And I’ve been wondering why couldn’t it happen here – right here in my family and right here in my church, right here in my community.  Surely God desires more than we do to revive and strengthen us.  Yet studying it, I see that revivals and spiritual awakenings happen in some places and at some times and not whenever they are called for.  Given how few times they are called for (which is undoubtedly very few times indeed), it is doubly sad that they don’t seem to be as effective as they ought to be even when they do happen.

Then two things occurred to me.  Firstly, that Scripturally, revivals and awakenings can only take place if there is true repentance.  That much is obvious (and leads to the above comments), but perhaps less obvious is that that repentance has to be exemplified by the leaders, and include repentance of sins committed by previous leaders (their ‘fathers’).  Witness Neh 1:6, Dan 9:8,16, etc.  Now you may ask why people have to confess the sins of their fathers.  And to be sure, the Lord holds each one for the guilt of their own self.  That said, the reality of generational sin is evident in alcoholism, drug addition and all manner of things.  So, when a person truly repents, they often have to repent of the sins of their fathers, for these are also their sins, and even if not literally, they are recognized tendencies.  If this is so (and we know it to be so), and if we understand that each Christian has a spiritual ‘father’, do we not recognize that we also have to repent of the sins of our spiritual fathers?   And aren’t our spiritual fathers in our churches those who have come before us in our churches?

You may say, “Yes, but they left – remember?”.  Sure they did.  And now we ought to repent for their leaving.  I dare to say that we need to repent for them, and for their sins, as well as for those in our families who aren’t following Christ wholeheartedly.  And for our community which is so obviously enthralled with the idols of money, entertainment and comfort. 

Perhaps if we did so, and if God be merciful to us, we would experience real revival.  A real spiritual awakening – seeing families reconciled, relationships restored and people saved.  We would see our churches strengthened in both numbers and in solidarity, we would see what seemed impossible suddenly within grasp.  We would know the power and the presence of God.

And THEN we would be ready to face the new year.  May God have mercy on us all, everyone! 

Winning the Monk Debate

Mr. Hitchens apparently swayed a significant number of people to believing that the world would be better off without religion, winning the Monk debate with Tony Blair.

While Mr. Hitchens has his points, he failed to mention the one reason I actually would agree with him.

In any debate, there are a number of levels on which the argument and discussions occur.  There’s the surface discussion.  To be honest I’m not very interested in the surface discussion, because I don’t think a debate between intellectuals will actually change anyone’s viewpoint in a lasting way (enough to say ‘he won’, sure, but not enough to climb out of a foxhole during a firefight).  Then there’s the motives behind each individual involved.  I can’t comment on those because such are hidden behind their words – to pick at them you have to be willing to engage in a discussion that is little more than gossip.  Then there’s the hard truth - now that’s interesting.

To get to the truth you only have to understand that God is transcendent – far above man.  The whole point of the Scripture, as Ken Boa once pointed out, is that God is God, and everyone and everything else is not. 

That is right order, not religion.  Both Mr. Hitchens and Mr. Blair speak about the realities of the way people practice their belief systems.  Is it really so hard to realize that people are never, by themselves, going to practice a relationship with transcendent God in a manner that is pure? 

That’s actually the point of the Old Testament.  That’s why the Scripture teaches us Christ came to us.  Because no matter how hard we as mere human beings try, we’re not going to understand God.  It is only by the Holy Spirit coming to reside in us that we have any grasp of Scripture itself – how much more so the application of Scripture to the character of God!

So really, the question being debated is - do unregenerate people dreaming up impure ways to practice a flawed understanding of God do more good than harm?  The answer is irrelevant, and the debate of the question is just evidence of ignorance, not a celebration of mankinds’ intellect.  You take the prize, Christopher.

The small matter of integrity

Today in the paper there is a story about Hydro One (a provincially owned company) giving donations to the provincial government of the day.  The minister in charge says there is nothing wrong with a taxpayer funded company donating to a political party.

It is interesting that in many ways, it is the small things that call people out as lacking integrity.  We often have little trouble trusting those we shouldn’t trust with important matters.  I think that is because we somehow believe that they intrinsically understand the gravitas of such things.  And I don’t think that trust is truly misplaced for most. 

Rather, it is the smallest things that people first lay down their integrity on.  I think the reasoning goes something like that which we are all familiar with in our diets and exercise plans.  “Oh, it’s just minor thing – I’ll make up for it later”.  The problem is that often we believe we’ll actually make it up (if such things can be ‘made up’ – for the time is forever lost).  The only real problem (we may reason to ourselves) is if anyone notices.

The problem is of course that someone does notice.  We notice right away, and if we (being human and evil) can notice such a thing, do we really think that God does not notice?  That the ‘great cloud of witnesses’ do not notice?  That angels and demons do not notice?  The scandal may come to light only when the reporter publishes the story, but the scandal was there for all to see from the very moment the decision was made to act on impulse.  And once enshrined in time (and therefore history), it will always be there to look back on, even if we are successful in ‘making it up’.

And so the trade is made.  Our integrity for a cookie (or the trust of an entire province for a few hundred dollars).  And then once that trade is made, the next trade is right behind it – for we are living beings, and moving things always gather momentum.  Now you are also limited – and on that page we are all the same.  The clock testifies that we all have a mere 24 hours a day.  The question then is - how much of that time and how much of our limited energy will go into stopping the momentum we’ve built up once we realize we’re headed in the wrong direction?  If the momentum we’ve already acquired is too much we won’t be able to ‘make up for it later’ – no matter how hard we try.

So pay attention to the small things.  It doesn’t need to be winter to see a snowball effect, and it takes no effort at all to roll things downhill.  

Where are we going?

Erwin McManus wrote, “Churches rarely call pastors who are different from them.  Most often pastors are an unusually compatible match to the congregations that are calling them.  Churches rarely ask themselves the question, "Who can change us?"  The commission given to the pastoral church committee rarely centers around a prophetic ministry but around a pastoral ministry."

By this Erwin is pointing out that while God calls the church to be a movement toward Him - inspiring both those within and without our walls to change (a ministry of pointing to what CAN be and creating culture), we often make it into a monument (or at best a monastery) - a stationary place where we put up virtual walls to protect what already is - to insulate ourselves from the culture around us.  But God did not promise us comfort or convenience, He promised us Himself.   And let’s face it, our God (a consuming fire according to Deut 4:24) can be pretty scary.  He calls us to die to ourselves, He calls us to deny ourselves, He calls us to humble ourselves and to GO.  None of those are comfortable.

Yet still we have a mindset that church should be comfortable.  I imagine most would desire a church that is comfortable and predictable and consistent and safe.  Of course, most proudly also proclaim that they desire a ‘first century church’.  They neglect to realize that the apostolic church was not comfortable (Paul said he labored and toiled and often went without sleep or food).  That it was not predictable (with arrests, imprisonments, confrontations).  That it changed continually (it didn’t originally allow Gentiles in, and really only in the last ¼ of it’s life had translations and services in English).  And it wasn’t particularly safe (as the book of Acts and Foxes book of martyrs testify). 

The church should be a place of comfort – for those who are suffering. 

The church should be predictable – in reaching the lost. 

The church should be consistent - in it’s proclamation of Christ.

The church should be safe – for those who are persecuted. 

For the rest of us, it should be a place of change.  Relentless change toward Christlikeness.  Toward holiness.  Toward being all we were designed, destined and blessed to be.

What about holiness?

It’s interesting that while many think the world is becoming increasingly ‘secular’ there are some that believe the world is going quite the opposite direction.  And I must admit that there is some evidence to believe they are right.  I don’t mean of course that the world is becoming more ‘Christian’, but that people are increasingly searching for something beyond this world – a greater reason for living.  What else explains the growing movement in Islam, the dramatic increase in all things physic and the popularity of books like ‘The God Delusion’?

Then why is the church suffering lower and lower attendance?  A book I’m reading by Erwin McManus says that people are rejecting Christ not because of a lack of spirituality, but BECAUSE of the church!  He says, “Once we were called Christians by an unbelieving world, and now we call ourselves Christians and the world calls us hypocrites. Is it possible that it wasn’t the nation that was becoming dangerously secular but the church?  We were neither relevant nor transcendent. We have become, in the worst of ways, religious.  We are the founders of the secular nation.”

The idea I read in his writing is that we are not relevant or transcendent, and therefore not drawing others to Christ because He is not visible in our lives.  We have turned church from an apostolic ethos into a shopping center for ourselves (with the ‘what’s in it for me’ attitude), and traded the opportunity to reach a broken world for Christ into an fortress for our own protection by becoming less and less vulnerable (an effort to look more godly on the outside without first becoming more holy on the inside).

When I reflect on that concept I realize that the core issue is the lack of true holiness in the lives of individual Christians.  But we don’t hear much about holiness anymore do we?*  We hear, and we want to hear, about more ‘practical’ things.  We hear and we want to hear more about heaven, about escape from this world.  But what we are missing is the all-important melding of those two concepts.  We are missing ‘practical holiness’. 

*I had the privilege of preaching about what holiness is the other day at Burlington Alliance Church.  You can download that message here;

< http://www.burlingtonalliance.com/index.cfm?i=4936&mid=18&showid=37708>. 

I’ll be speaking about practical holiness on Nov 21^st, but I’ll plan on posting at least a couple more blogs about it before then.

Fasting

Thinking about fasting in preparation for Steve's message this Sunday.  Ironically, this weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving) is probably the most unlikely weekend for anyone to consider fasting (well, at least until we all over-eat at the big meal).  Interestingly, it's also Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, the start of the 8th month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar - the only month without holidays OR fasts. 

Fasting in the OT (ṣûm, ṣôm) was largely an annual event with the Day of Atonement. (Lv. 16:29, 31; 23:27–32; Nu. 29:7).  After the exile, four more fasts were added to observe and remember Jewish disasters (Zec 8:19).  Also, people fasted either individually or corporately as expressions of grief, to better position supplication or to humble themselves.  It is interesting that in all of this the spirit of fasting was always the same – to provide a more focused and sincere approach to one’s relationship with God.  Yet in the midst of that some would distort it, and claim such sincerity while actually being out of fellowship with God.  The prophets (most notably Isaiah  - see chapter 58, and Zech – see chapter 7) lashed out against such internal insincerity as God alone could see the lack of integrity.

 In the NT, (nēsteuō, nēsteia, nēstis) the story holds – again it’s really only the Day of Atonement (Acts 27:9) that is mentioned.  However, we do see others who fast much more often (Luke 2:37, 18:12).  Jesus Himself fasted during His time in the wilderness and assumed that his hearers would fast (Matt 6:16-18, note the use of the word, “when” – Gr ‘hotan’, meaning ‘whenever’, ‘soon’ or ‘while’).  And again we see that some distorted it and claimed sincerity while inwardly being completely off-base.  For this Jesus Himself had words (again see Matthew 6). 

When I studied fasting, I found that for most Biblical Jews fasting did not mean giving up something for a period of weeks (as we do for Lent), but a short (typically less than 4 day) abstaining from food (and sometimes even from water also) – to heighten the awareness of God’s presence, to focus on His Word and His will, to partake in prolonged and conscious seeking of God’s favor.  And the spirit of fasting (if I can use such a term, though I do not mean an actual spirit, but rather the idealized concept) was that of bridging the gap between the unholy (us) and the holy (God).  I’ll write more about that sometime soon.

Now over the last 25+ years of walking with Christ, I’ve met many who do fast on a regular basis and more than a few who speak of multiple 40 day fasts.  These are not ‘Biblical’ in the sense of lacking all food, but usually involve ingesting broth or juice.  Still, the ‘spirit of fasting’ (as I’ve used the term) is intact.  Those who’ve participated in such speak of powerful answers to prayer, life-altering insights and spiritual breakthroughs.

I must say that I’m intrigued by the idea of a multi-day fast.  I’ve never done more than a single day, and even that was rife with personal ambition (moreso to prove my own fortitude than focus on God’s will).  Perhaps I will find spiritual breakthroughs long sought – yet even if I do not, I will be more than content if I just understand a bit more of who God is and what He desires.  

Thinking About Church - Why Bother?

Why bother with church?  It’s a foolish question to the spiritually mature.  We immediately spout off all the clichés we’ve learned years ago; 

         Church is an assembly of like-minded people.

Church is Christ’s body.

         Church is opportunity to worship, serve and learn.

Yet in a nation of consumers, we’ve made a critical underlining assumption that no longer holds true.   And that is that people understand the VALUE of church.

We live in a consumerist society.  That much we all know and accept.  But who are these people?  Consumers are those who BUY.  They buy because they WANT, they want because they perceive VALUE.  Think of your job.  Our jobs in a consumer society are all about creating real or perceived value(s), so that our customers (the real bosses) will want our products/services and will BUY (a decision to purchase/acquire).  On this transaction the whole of western society is based.

The problem then facing us from an outreach/sustainability viewpoint is that people don’t perceive the value of church, so they aren’t buying it.

Now for the core, the value is obvious.  But for the rest – even the committed and especially the congregation and the crowd, the value is not easily perceived. 

Let me give you an example; We talk about prayer and we assume that the committed and those in the congregation understand the value of prayer – they just need to be spurred on, encouraged in it.  Yet I had an interesting conversation this week with a Christian I’ve known for some time on the value of prayer (and this is downstream of a very recent message on prayer, which they had heard).  They expressed to me frustration in consideration of that message.  God (in their opinion) is not answering their prayer(s), for certain key things expected had failed to happen – things only God could do, that need to be done.  Things they had prayed for, for a long time.  It’s not that they stopped praying in response, but that they were struggling with it – seeing answers to prayer in many other’s lives but not their own.

That crucial conversation (I should say opportunity, but that’s a different topic) caused me to realize that they weren’t perceiving the VALUE of prayer.  And if a committed saint can struggle with the value of prayer, how much more can a congregant or a member of the crowd struggle with the value of church! 

This is evident in time I spent today talking to people who have left our church but are not attending anywhere.  Without saying so bluntly, they answered the un-verbalized question, ‘why not?’;  Because they see it as ‘nice’, but only that – really for most of them it’s just an option, not a critically important and valuable part of their lives.

Now there are some critical facts that must be brought to mind;

1)   Hammering away about the importance of something is not offering value. 

2)   Value is perceived, not taught.  You can teach it, but it is not gained as knowledge – it is (suddenly in the midst of the teaching) perceived.  And…

3)   Value that is unobtainable is no value at all – it’s just head knowledge.

With these things in mind then, let us consider the value of church:

a)    Church is more than an assembly of like minded believers.  It is a FAMILY (Gal 6:10, 1 Peter 4:17).  Yet we don’t market it as such.  We market it as a place of worship, we market it as a place of service, we market it as a place where you’ll feel welcome.  But where is the value in all those things?  I can get those (speaking from a consumerist viewpoint) most anywhere. But if I treat family like that, I wind up the product of a system instead of a member of a family - I float from foster family to foster family, never really getting loved as I ought, because I never allow myself to create the deep relationship that I need.  The end result is the dysfunction (difficulty establishing meaningful relationships) and neediness that is evident in the shattered lives of those treated thus by our governments.  Why does the government do that?  Because a government can’t perceive value – value is only perceived by individuals, not by institutions.  We need to begin acting like a family, not like an institution.  This points to the need to do more ‘caring’ for those in our midst.  It shouldn’t be that months and months go by without a phone call to find out where you are - but to respond quickly we need some way of realizing who’s missing over reasonably short time periods.  What does that look like, how does that fit with privacy concerns and who owns that responsibility?

b)   Church is a place of BELONGING.  Just as a family is (or ought to be) a place of belonging.  A place where you have warmth, acceptance and love, but also a place where you have responsibility and service to do.  Yet we don’t treat those in our church as family.  We offer them warmth, acceptance and love and only HOPE they take up responsibility.  Now if your family adopted a foster brother or sister, and they refused to ‘chip in’ on chores and refused all responsibility, would you accept them as a family member?  Probably not.  And why not?  Because after a while (even a really long while) you would realize that this person doesn’t consider themselves a family member.  They’re waiting to be shipped off to the next foster family, and if not confronted they surely will be.  We need to have ‘fierce conversations’ with such people, so they will perceive the value we put on family (IF we put that value on the family of our church).  What does/should this look like?

c)    Church is real LIFE, for the church is the body of Christ.  As such, it must be doing the will of Christ (or else it’s not part of the body, but a cancer).  To that end, our value to Christ is directly proportional to our ability to communicate to the head (that is, Christ).  Prayer is the spiritual equivalent of the spinal column. Being part of God’s vibrant body is of tremendous value (that’s a healthy spinal column).  Being part of a sickly almost dead man (a damaged spinal column) is not.  Our value to fellow believers then is dependent on sustaining this open communication.   Let us understand then that to the degree we sustain open communication with Christ (read, PRAYER), to that same degree we will be the fragrance of life to those who are being saved.  (2Cor 2:15-16)