Why All The Rules?

I left Acton for a very conservative Bible school in the fall of 1985.  It was there that for the young men who attended like myself, our hair couldn’t touch our collar or ears.  We wore ties and dress shirts each day to class.  We all woke up at 6am and by 6:25am needed to be in our room doing our devotions by 6:30am. A bell would ring at 6:55am and we would all head down to the dining hall for breakfast, but for another devotion.  We would have assigned seating with men on one side of the table and ladies on the other side, and a female server who would bring us more juice, milk, toast etc.  There was also mandatory study hall in the evenings and don’t even think about playing music on your  Sony Walkman with headphones as I found out because the demerit points would rack up.  If you had 10 points in a week, it meant you were ‘campused’ for the weekend.  This meant that you were to stay in your dorm room and only allowed for meals! 

The thought process I believe was that self-discipline and a Spirit-controlled life would happen through external modes of discipline and control.  However, here is the crazy thing that happened in me.  As I began to participate in that culture, it produced in me an incentive to rebel.  I got’ campused ‘ a lot! For others it produced a form of self-righteousness.

In my dorm, we had Tony, an older man, who, no word of a lie, created his spiritual top 50 list based on our behaviors around the school from time spent in prayer, devotion, ministry opportunities etc…  Tony’s approach wasn’t very well received and he became the target of many pranks.  As you can imagine it didn’t help our standing on his spiritual top 50.

Let’s look at Romans 7:8 where Paul was describing this very thing. He is struggling with this very issue with his desire to do things that are pleasing to God and yet doing the opposite.

For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting.

The ugliness of human nature is such that being told not to do something actually creates in you the desire to do it.

And on the flipside, we see from the life of Paul that the attempt to observe the law unfortunately produced in him a self-righteousness that was quite ugly as well. 

He made it clear in Philippians 3:4-9

 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

And as Sharon mentioned last week, he considered that all “crap” compared to knowing the freedom of being in Christ.

So, why do we gravitate towards creating rules for ourselves and others when it comes to knowing God?

Rules are safe, they create boundaries to know whether you are in or out.

Rules allow you to create a measuring stick to know how well you are doing. 

“We choose rules because they are a nicely packaged alternative to a relationship with God.” Duane McLean shared in my service on Sunday….so true!

What is the danger in removing rules?

People will become lazy in following Jesus, they may end up just living in sin longer.

Let’s MOVE from following RULES to a deep love relationship with our FATHER

 Sometimes when we live by the rules we qualify that as relationship and we love our spiritual habits more than the person who we are supposed to fall in love with.

The Scriptures were never an end in themselves.  They are intended to lead us to Jesus and greater intimacy with Him.

John 5:39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

I had a professor in Bible School who knew entire books of the Bible by memory and was a walking commentary; however what I remember most wasn’t his Bible knowledge.  I remember an embarrassing moment for a student in his class.  All of us as students had 6hrs of mandatory work to complete in the week to keep our room and board costs down.  Unfortunately for a student by the name of Jared,  his job was to milk the cows at 4am!  One day he fell asleep in class and the professor decided to shame and belittle him instead of really understanding his situation.

So, the point of knowing and reading Scripture, the point of prayer, the point of journaling, the point of any spiritual exercise is not to feel superior or boast, but it is to draw you into a closer walk and deeper intimacy and love for Jesus.

Here’s an example.  If you are disciplined to wake up at 6am to do your devotions, but you are yelling at your kids at supper time… maybe that’s not working for you.

Let’s talk real, practical, out of the box…

What are some simple examples or spiritual exercises that have helped nurture your relationship with God to a deeper level of faith and trust.

Let’s look again at what the Bible says about rules and the law.

Hebrews 10:15The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First He says: 16“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put My Laws in their hearts and inscribe them on Ttheir minds.” 17Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”…

This verse is a direct fulfillment of a prophecy that was given in the book of Jeremiah.  It was to be so much a very living and vital part of us.

Jeremiah 3133"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Let’s MOVE from an ACHIEVING SYSTEM to RECEIVING all He has for us in Christ

All of our life, from school to the workplace, there is evaluation and constant correction, approval and disapproval, promotion and demotion.  We live in an achieving system so it is so easy to stay there when it comes to defining our spiritual life by some of the more common objectives.

·         How much time to do you spend in prayer daily?

·         How much time do you spend reading Scripture?

·         How much time do you spend serving in the church?

·         How many people have you witnessed to this week?

Colossians 2:6

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

We continue on in Christ the same way that we received Christ and that has nothing to do with us.  It has everything to do with Him.  It is all about being  IN HIM, abiding IN HIM,  resting In Him, HIS words abiding in us.   It is His enabling strength,  it is His teaching, it is out of HIS overflow.

We have nothing to give apart from what He has done in us.

There will be fruit in your life, but is it coming from overflow or rules?

Here is a way to know.

When it is from overflow, it really is easy, it’s natural, it’s a way of life.  It isn’t forced, it wells up inside you.

Let’s MOVE from SELF reliance on our own to LISTENING to the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 2:8-10

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  (before ordained in the KJV)

This is incredible strong language.  The word ordained is the same here to the words used to describe our justification and regeneration in Romans 8.  It is all about the foreknowledge of God!

I like to say that God sets us up for divine appointments. 

He puts us in certain situations around specific people for the purpose of sharing His love.

When I want to share with you the most beautiful and amazing story of a friend of ours who seeks to do all things by listening to the Spirit and by the power of the Spirit.

I remember one afternoon being in Costco with Sharon when we got this message from Maggie B. who leads the Father’s Heart Healing Rooms ministry.  She told us she felt led by the HS to ask us to invite Roger C., the owner of the Manor to her “Healing and Prophetic” service.  I didn’t really think she was hearing right.  It really did seem absurd to me in the moment and so I had a choice.  Do I act or “sluff it off” so to speak.

However, I believe that Maggie was hearing from the Holy Spirit, I took a risk to follow through.

Roger has not even stepped into a ‘regular’ church service.  However, I was obedient and simply texted him.  He replied, “Yes, I’ll come…what is the dress code”  Of course I said it was casual, but here is a small example of God’s goodness.

Maggie wrapped a Canadian flag around her to share about her burden for the nation.  When Roger showed up,  he had a Canadian flag on his belt buckle   It was then that I knew this wasn’t a fluke, Roger was meant to be here.

At one point during the 3 hour service, he leans over and asks, “Is there going to be an intermission?”

lol

Can you identify a time when you recognized that God had prepared you in advance for a connection or meeting with someone? 

The TAKEAWAY

Here’s YOUR TEST, this week move

from rules to relationship!

from achieving to receiving!

from self reliance to listening!

Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you in one of these areas.  Remember He is our teacher.

God, Sex and the Song of Songs!

How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!
    How much more pleasing is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your perfume
    more than any spice!
¹¹ Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride;
    milk and honey are under your tongue.

Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon;
    your mouth is lovely.
Your temples behind your veil
    are like the halves of a pomegranate.

Your graceful legs are like jewels,
    the work of an artist’s hands.
² Your navel is a rounded goblet
    that never lacks blended wine.
Your waist is a mound of wheat
    encircled by lilies.
³ Your breasts are like two fawns,
    like twin fawns of a gazelle.

God created sex and it is most completely understood and expressed within the context of marriage.  Marriage creates the security, the boundaries and most importantly, sexual fulfillment is the bond that is completely fulfilled within that God given covenant.  A Christian marriage has three people in the bedroom and as John Piper has said, “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him”. 

Sexual purity is pleasing to Him.

Sexual intimacy is meant to be shameless!

We only have to go back to Genesis to see the way that God designed us – Genesis 2:24,25 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.  25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

I know that many of the people we encounter in our post Christian culture think the Bible is hopelessly naïve on the subject of sex.  However, the message was given in a time when women were treated as possessions, where there was all forms of illicit sex taking place, where there was sexual slavery.

 The challenge for our generation is that we live where the opportunity to see the lowest forms of sexuality are one click away. Our children are being confronted with these issues earlier and earlier in life.

As followers of Jesus, we need to talk about sex and I just have to give a shout out to our pastors Jim and Carrie Gordon who present it in the most positive light at http://www.theintimatecouple.com/

We read in Hebrews 13: 4,5

Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;  never will I forsake you.

There’s the challenge…be content with what you have.  In a throw-away culture unfortunately marriages and relationships are quickly given up on much like an appliance that needs to be replaced. 

Proverbs 5:18 Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. 19 She is a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love.

Song of Songs as seen in the following video breaks down the outline of the book into the three major themes of courtship, the wedding and the marriage and does an excellent job of giving the overall theme.

Check it out.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEEXqGg5RME&t=17s

More than anything God wants us to fully experience His intimate love and desire for us as His children.

1 Corinthians 6  For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

I have talked with people who have decided to fast from sugar and the kind of withdrawl their bodies go through with headaches, but eventually they talk about the incredible energy and stamina that they feel and how they don’t feel as tired as they used to.  So, what happens to our spirit once we do this?  I believe it will come alive and have greater sensitivity to the Lord’s leading as well!

Sanctified – positionally it is being set apart for God and practically it is a progressive act of becoming more and more driven by our appetite for the Lord and His righteousness than our own selfish desires.  ‘they that hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled’

 I believe the greatest person who is able to control the body is not us but the Holy Spirit as we see later in the paragraph.

Immorality is like that. It always cheats someone else—usually someone you love very much. Just ask any wife whose husband left. Just ask any parent of a child who has had an affair. Just anyone who has been to a church where their pastor fell into sexual sin.

Perhaps the saddest thing about lust is that it never satisfies. Someone has said that lust is “the craving for salt by a man dying of thirst.” It promises everything and delivers nothing. No great release. No lasting satisfaction. Not even any swift punishment.

“The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.” Sometimes he punishes the body, sometimes the mind, sometimes our speech, our eyes, often our health, and almost always our memories. Lust produces that inward deadening that is both unexpected and inevitable.

Pornography is like cocaine…you can be addicted the first time.  Pornography is just like that, you can be addicted to it the first time you open the door to it.  That is why 1 Corinthians 6:18 tells us to flee …RUN

 The most likely judgment is that God will simply leave you alone to suffer the natural consequences of your sin.

It is often the fallout and consequences to families that unfortunately more are affected and punished by the decisions of a few.

Don’t take advantage of your brother in this way.  He is putting this challenge out in the context of a brother to brother relationship.  The decisions that are made don’t just affect those caught in sexual sin, they ripple out and affect families, children, churches.

 “Every man is our ‘brother’ and to be politically correct every woman is our sister and when we engage in sexual immorality we are hurting our brothers or sisters.”

Remember if you are tempted to watch that movie or look at that image, that is somebody’s daughter, that is someone’s sister and they are precious in God’s eyes.

I have personally been crushed by the devastating effects of immorality and have seen the consequences of sin in the loss of trust and respect and fractured relationships that are still affected many years later.  I have seen it in a previous church ministry where I served when a pastor and our worship leader had an affair.  I saw a vibrant and growing church become a place that would go through disillusionment and take a number of years to recover.  

It’s not worth it.

Finally I need to share that if this is an area of regret, failure, pain, remember that our God and Father heals, He redeems, He can restore the years that have been ripped away from us, He can heal our past, our memories and give us a new, fresh and living hope. There is forgiveness, there is always forgiveness when we confess and He is the Father always waiting with open arms for us to return home.

And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten  Joel 2:25

Be encouraged, God wants you to experience His incredible love for you and display it through you no matter what you have gone through.

I Got Fired...thank you LORD!

Today is thanksgiving, a time to remember, recognize and reflect on being thankful, having a heart filled with gratitude.  I know it’s easy to come up with some quick and meaningful expressions of why we are thankful… but what about when our health is failing, our family is broken or when we find ourselves out of work.

Four years ago, I was a lead pastor in Guelph of a church of about 300 people.  I had just returned from a missions trip to Lesotho, Africa on Thanksgiving Sunday where my faith and my love for Jesus was reignited!  

I had team members share about the trip and we shared the highlight video, but I never had a chance to preach what I learned during my trip…time ran out and I thought that I would preach it the following Sunday.  However, that never happened because the next day two members of my leadership team met with me to let me go.  It was a difficult moment, but the LORD prepared me for it.  It’s never easy to hear that you don’t measure up to expectations or fit with the needs of an organization.

James 1 

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Perseverance – it is an active endurance, likened to a person completing a marathon.

Often our prayer is LORD remove me from this situation…NOW; however often there are huge lessons to be learned through the process of perseverance.

In the parable of the sower, we also are given a picture of the importance of letting our faith draw from roots that go deep down.  It begins with a seed of faith that is planted in our heart; however these experiences can uproot us, scorch us or drive us down deeper into what we have to know and understand about God

I honestly believe that the hard and difficult times forge our faith and mold us and enable us to grow even more in our reliance on God or it can reveal the lack of roots.

Facebook is a great place to discover where people are at.

We had someone at the Manor Church and as soon as she went through a huge trial, she shared “I don’t believe in God, my faith is gone.”

So, what’s our choice in the hard times? 

We can choose to remain thankful or choose to rant on our social media platform.

We can say, OK, this is a test of obedience.  I will choose to walk this out in faith instead of moving forward in fear.

I listened to a great message this week on this very attitude of joy.

Isaiah 54

Sing, barren woman,
    you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
    you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
    than of her who has a husband,”
says the Lord.

1. Choose to express  JOY.

The truth here is that I can choose to express joy even though I haven’t received the answer.  Understand that this passage is speaking to the nation of Israel and is certainly applicable to the church. 

The passage is taking the natural principle of childbirth and turning it into a spiritual reality.

We are being called to SCREAM, SHOUT and be so exuberant in our worship!  It is a SCREAM of anticipation.

Shout for JOY while you can’t have kids.  Take a moment right now and think about the thing that you have the least breakthrough in, the most barren area of your life.  It may mean someone in your family who hasn’t come to know Jesus yet, it could be a family member who is battling a disease and you could be out of work right now…and what’s on the horizon doesn’t look good.  It could be a number of things.  SHOUT with extreme celebration before the answer comes.   Now this isn’t common sense and from a human perspective seems maybe presumptuous or pretentious.  However it totally makes sense from God’s perspective.

Why does it make sense?  

It is an expression of faith.  It is a deliberate choice to believe the promise and better, the Promise Giver.  Emotional expression is necessary.  This is not just an intellectual ascent that we are climbing to.

Romans 14:17 The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy. As followers of Christ, we should experience a real sense of peace and joy.

Who believes the good news is actually good news??

When we came to know Jesus as our LORD, it wasn’t just so we could have a ticket to get out of hell.  It is to become married to the FATHER and as His bride to experience fruitfulness in our greatest area of barrenness.

Also recognize that worship expression can look real weird to those who are not part of it.  Just ask Michel, David’s wife, who saw David dancing in a linen garment before the LORD when the ark returned to Israel.  She despised him in her heart.  She has issues and he said I will be even more undignified than this!  2 Samuel 6:22

Don’t judge those who are worshipping God in your midst.  Give freedom for all kinds of expression.  It will look different for all of us.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Joy is always within reach for us.  He would not command it of us, if it wasn’t in the reach of our will to do so. 

2. Choose to accept the PROPHETIC

² “Enlarge the place of your tent,
    stretch your tent curtains wide,
    do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
    strengthen your stakes.

So, now, the desolate woman being described here is being called to express huge faith. The desolate woman is essentially being called to build the nursery even before she is pregnant.  It is that kind of faith that the LORD rewards.

The challenge being given here is if you are living in a one bedroom home, start building the addition, build the nursery.

“You need to create the room for God to fill it!” Bill Johnson

We can choose to recognize the power of the prophetic or write it off. 

So, in my exit interview, something really positive was said and I held on to it.  They expressed my ability to create things out of nothing and said that I had a pioneering spirit.

I came home and shared the good, the bad and the ugly, but when I shared those words about a pioneering spirit with Sharon, she said you’re not going to believe this but our friend Wendy had a picture while we were praying as a group before we left for Africa.

I had to leave early for another meeting so I didn’t hear the following… She shared how she saw us all in pioneer clothes and we were in a wagon.  We were heading out on a paved road that was full of turns but on each side of the road were large green trees.  She also shared with the group that the pastors from my church were waving goodbye at us!

Right away my heart was settled, I had peace and knew that God had a new adventure for us

We can make deliberate choices that show belief or not.

For me, a deliberate choice to choose joy was to take our family on a missions trip to Lesotho Africa for a month at the end of my severance package. 

The logical choice would be to find a job, but it was important to us that our children were not bitter about this situation and instead chose to see it as a great opportunity for us as a family.

We were also trusting God to show us where we would be pioneering.

3. LEARN TO WAIT and don’t give in to FEAR

Isaiah 54:13 All your children will be taught by the Lord,
    and great will be their peace.
 In righteousness you will be established:
Tyranny will be far from you;
    you will have nothing  to fear.

Sometimes we try to answer our own prayers.

In that moment following my dismissal at my previous church, I could have scrambled, quickly whipped up my resume, chase down churches looking for pastors.  I could have run to the District Office and told them to put in a good work for me…but I didn’t.

When we give in to fear, it is the gateway for the enemy who comes to steal, kill and destroy to gain a foothold in my heart and life.  It can be very crippling to our faith!

Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil…

Here’s the thing, we weren’t meant to set up camp in the valley, we were meant to walk through it!

Isaiah 40:31 KJV But they that wait (hope) upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Exodus 14:14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (at the moment Pharaoh changed his mind about letting the Israelites go)

It is easier said than done especially when you know the finances are running out and you have a family to look after.

Psalm 34:18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted  and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose.

Proverbs 3:5,6  Trust in the LORD with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.

The Takeaway

Take the most barren area of your life and hold it up to God.  As we pray, open your hands to God as an act of faith.

God, I pray that you would take this _________ area (name it) and help me find joy in the most unusual areas this week.

Dealing with the Negative Space!

I played the resident critic on Ecclesiastes Sunday!

Have you ever been around someone who is a ‘downer’ or the resident critic?? This type of person is always quick to crush hope, breed negativity and always revert to laws like Murphy’s…’if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong.’  Sometimes it isn’t a person, but a runaway thought in our mind and it festers a spirit of panic, fear and anxiety.  We actually have to take action when this type of spirit manifests in our lives or it can easily overwhelm and paralyze our progress.  I know it’s pretty easy to let the spirit of ‘murphy’ take hold in my own life.  I would easily say it becomes my “default” mode if I don’t actively challenge it by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As we continue to work through the Bible at Church at the Manor, we come to another poetic writing, the book of Ecclesiastes.  Simply, there are three main themes that the ‘critic’ throws at us as developed by the “Read Scripture” series.  They are the perspective of one “under the sun” or apart from the acknowledgement of God in one’s life and they are very “Murphy” like.  The good thing is that we won’t stop at pointing them out… there is a counter attack.

1.        The March of Time  -  The book is quick to point out that generations come and go, you will soon be forgotten and  everything that you really work hard for will not be enjoyed by you but others who you have to leave it too.

2.       We Are All Going To Die – That’s right, so what’s the point of doing good, make a difference when everyone experiences the same fate no matter whether they  are rich or poor, status or no status.  It’s all just really pointless.

3.       Life’s Random Nature -  There is no cause and effect relationship to life.  It all just “hevel”  in Hebrew  and that means everything is really without meaning.   It’s all just smoke, you think it is something and it turns to something else.  It’s confusing. There is a glitch in the system.  The race doesn’t always go to the swift.  You can’t control anything in life.

The Counter Attack 

Here are some great insights we focused at the Manor Church

In response to the ‘march of time’ Ephesians 5:16 challenges us to make the most of every opportunity that God places in front of us.  Recognize also that worry is pointless.  Read Matthew 6:30-33

When you are overwhelmed by the thought that we’re all gonna die, it is sobering but remember there is never a U-Haul that follows a hearse.  The good part is that it reminds us the most important things worth investing in are not things, but people and making a difference for eternity.  I can remember so clearly when I started attending Bible College and thinking to myself, why am I here?  I just started  reading the New Testament and when I got to Matthew 6:21 it all became clear.  “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”  I knew right in that moment that I wanted to invest my life in others.  Another really good point that was made is that in light of how fast time really flies, we can’t leave any room for resentment.  It is too much of a burden to carry.

In response to life’s random nature, recognize that the only thing that you can really control is your attitude.  The author steps in at the end of the book, overrides the critic to make sure that we realize that God will ultimately clear the ‘hevel’ and bring clarity to everything.  As one author stated, ‘life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react or respond to it.  Reacting is my knee-jerk reaction, it’s usually self-centered, pretty ugly and selfish.  Now responding takes grace and the Spirit of God in my life.  It’s a perspective that I have to absolutely rely on Him for and it takes time and patience to cultivate in my life.

In the end the author tells us to fear God and that it’s much easier to honor Him and follow Him when we are young and willing to listen than when we get old and think we know it all.  Ecclesiastes 12:1  ‘remember your Creator in the days of your youth’!

The simple takeaway of the book is to keep hope and remain humble.  I’m not in control but I remain steadfast in hope in the One who is!

Well we said our goodbyes to Addi who is off to YWAM Kona on Thursday bright and early.  She will be missed on Sundays at Church at the Manor as she has been part of the worship team from the very beginning!

On Saturday September 30th, I will be riding with Ride For Refuge to raise funds for Church at the Manor.  Your support is greatly appreciated!!

http://bit.ly/2xuNsZR

When Life Doesn't Make Sense

The story of Job in the Bible has always been a challenging one to fully understand.  At Church at the Manor, we have moved into the poetic books and it was a great exercise to have a group of our people to act the story out together.  We then had a very lively discussion on one of the most common objections to why people choose not to believe and that is this question. “If God is a loving God, why does He allow human suffering and pain?  It was a great discussion question and I received some good feedback with answers like:

God doesn’t make us without free will and the ability to choose Him.

We live in a world that is completely affected by the devastation of our sin nature and we were born in sin and also with the effects of the ugliness of sin.

It is often in our suffering and pain that we experience the most profound depths of God’s presence.

The reality is that this book actually never does address the why of human suffering; however the one burning question that it forces you to answer is this.

As a believer, do you trust your Father God?  

Do you trust Him when it feels like He isn’t there and when you don’t sense His presence?  Do you trust Him when your prayers don’t get answered?  Do you trust Him when your life doesn’t make sense, when you can’t explain the situation?  Do you trust your Father God when there doesn’t appear to be any benefits from doing so?

This is the real burning question and the right answer is to say, yes, I trust You Father.  I think the best answer that I have for the life of Job is found in Psalm 23.  I rediscovered this beautiful Psalm after having been requested to share on it for a couple of funerals that I performed this past month. 

In Psalm 23 David shares of the very fact that the Lord Is My Shepherd.  He essentially is the one that I put my complete trust in.  Why?  He ultimately leads me to still waters, green pastures…yes but even though I walk through the valley of death, YOU ARE WITH ME…emphasis mine! J   David speaks of the LORD ( the personal, covenant keeping God) and His presence, protection and power.  He is a good Father and He is absolutely worth placing our complete trust in. 

In the N.T.  Jesus expanded on the theme of the Shepherd and shared how His sheep know His voice.  They listen and obey him.  I can’t emphasize enough about the importance of listening to His still small voice.  It is so important that we know that the LORD still speaks today and prayer is meant to be a conversation.  John 10:27 We need to get to the place where we are still, where we fix our eyes on Jesus and allow His words to penetrate our mind and heart.  It is then that our trust takes us to a greater place of rest, a place where my soul is quiet and He restores my soul.

As Jenny shared earlier in the month, often those green pastures that we might picture in Psalm 23 are not necessarily  those lush pastures that go on forever, they are just enough  for what we need today.  Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdzhbv2eGxk

Random Insights and Celebrations!

Singing Psalms!

On Sunday we took to the Psalms…80’s style.  For those who remember, how many of these Psalms can you sing?

Unto Thee O LORD

I Will Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving in my heart

Make A joyful Noise Unto The LORD

This is the Day

Jen reminded us that the Psalms aren’t all just “thank You LORD, you are amazing but reminded us of the laments as well, the very real, heartfelt honesty of the psalmists.

The Wedding!

On August 19^th, we hosted the wedding of Tiara and Bob at our new home and it was a beautiful celebration.  It was our first Manor Church peeps wedding too and our core team came together and did such an amazing job.  Steve, Carolyn, Bob, Jenny, Jen and Kristen, you all rock!  We were also so blessed by the generosity of Christine who gave us so many beautiful flowers, especially hydrangeas!  Can I just add that my wife Sharon can now add “florist” to her resume as she put together the incredible arrangements and did an amazing job on decorating!!

I Gave Up Coffee!

I decided to give up drinking coffee…. for the time being.  It was definitely our morning ritual to have a good coffee with breakfast but Sharon challenged me to drink a hot drink with apple cider vinegar and raw honey instead.  There are certainly a lot of health benefits! http://www.healthyandnaturalworld.com/health-benefits-of-apple-cider-vinegar-and-honey/

It also has been great to journey with Dan who is in the process of giving up smoking and talk about all the challenges of working through withdrawal.

Captain Canada!

I had the opportunity to revisit my former church in Milton and be Captain Canada for their High Power Soccer Camp.  It was an amazing day to see their camp ministry going strong and reaching many children with the love of Jesus.

Back Pack Giveaway #sameteam  

On Sunday August 20^th we partnered with Pastor Michael and team from Kingdom Life, RL and her team from Freedom House and the Healing Center to give away 200 "back to school" back packs filled with pencil crayons, notebooks, erasers, glue sticks and  BBQ at Willow and Dawson Rd!  We met people, discovered their story and for me it was so eye-opening to learn that in just one apartment complex, there were 20 families all from Nepal living there.

Overcomers Prevailing On The Way To Victory

We prevailed at work today with the help of Icee!! How awesome is that when the neighbor of the place you are working at just happens to own an Icee truck and calls you over for free drinks!

Speaking of overcomers...it is an interesting  discovery to find out that the Greek word most often translated “overcomer” stems  from the word ‘nike’ that means to carry out the victory!  We see the word overcomer often used in Revelation as a message to the church to endure, to fight the good fight so to speak, to not give in to weakness and temptation.  Paul also referenced being an overcomer in Romans 8 and the power we have through the indwelling Holy Spirit to experience the victory personally!

At Church at the Manor, we have been pressing on through the themes of each book of the Bible and we just completed Nehemiah.  When I look at the life of Nehemiah and how he led the remnant from exile to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days, that deserves a nike swoosh for overcoming!!

Here are three things that I see from his life that are so worth emulating.

Overcomers start with a battle cry!  Nehemiah 1:1-11

It is a battle cry of desperation for change, a battle cry of confession.  For Nehemiah it included a time of weeping and fasting.  The situation that he faced was dire.  There was no concern for the welfare of the city, no focus on the bigger picture of rebuilding the nation, no awe of the LORD.

He readied himself and absolutely came out of this time knowing who his God was!

“O, LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keep his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands.” Nehemiah 1:5

I know there are defining moments in my life personally that I have come through and are a result of intense time of prayer and getting on my knees with the LORD.  I look back on my journal and recognize the powerful hand of God over the whole situation and how my resilience and awareness was solidified in those moments.  Often when we get into difficult times and situations, it is so easy to bail.  However, when we have gone through a time when our calling was clarified and crystallized,  we have the impetus to press on!

Overcomers aren’t sidelined by negativity.  Nehemiah 4:2-7

You don’t have to look far to find realists in your life.  These are the people who like to bring you “back to reality”  They often mean well, but it is not well for you.  They are quick to remind you of your past failures and mistakes.  The like to say things like ‘past performance determines future behavior’ and the like.  They are often condemning voices from others and those voices are also planted by the enemy in your own thought process. 

Here is what those voices shouted to Nehemiah and the children of Israel.

Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!” Nehemiah 4:3

As Neil Anderson says every time you are faced with temptation to give up or give in you are on the threshold of a decision.  There is that moment when the negative thought enters your mind, that you have a choice to either dwell on it or refuse it and throw it into the trash can so to speak.  Romans 12:2  “be transformed by the renewing of your mind!”  When the enemy tries to derail you, you are in the moment to overcome, to follow through, to persevere on your God-given focus, dream or plan.

 Overcomers know how to celebrate victories!

So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.  Nehemiah 6:15,16

There was a huge victory celebration following the improbable success of the Israelites under the leadership of Nehemiah.  Ezra read the law, they confessed their sins and a time of praise and blessing to God followed.

Where are the places that you are seeing growth in your life?  What are the changes that you are encountering?  Take time to celebrate, to give thanks to God and celebrate what He is doing NOW!!

Last week we had a FLASH hot dog BBQ in the Willow and Dawson area of Guelph inspired by Sharon.  We know that there is a lot of subsidized apartments as well as new immigrants that live here.  One of the things that I celebrated was how our Manor peeps were involved in giving and being part of the volunteer team doing the BBQ and handing out over 200 hot dogs, playing with children, making conversations and  face-painting.  The event was a success, but what struck me was the joy I saw on the faces of those who served!  It was also a great time to also join arms with other churches and ministries including Move In Ministry and Kingdom Life Church.  It was a fantastic evening of love, joy and serving!!

What have you had a rant about??

So Sharon wrote a post the other day about Value Village and it has gone #viral on Facebook.  She simply made the point that VV ‘s prices are often higher than retail stores.  Well apparently a lot of people agree as the post has over 25000 shares!

Dear Value Village...do you realize that you are not a retail store? And do you know what I can buy at Homesense for $12.99??

SHARE this if you agree that VV's prices are tooooo high. End of rant.

Value Village

What have you had a rant about? 

There was a man in the Bible who had a rant with God.  However, in his case, he had just gone viral with an amazing victory and display of God’s power at Mount Carmel proving the existence of God and that He is worthy of worship.

Ok, now enter the scene with me in 1 Kings 19.  We have Ahab, who was a wicked king in Israel and his wife Jezebel who was even more wicked and the story is being relayed to her about what Elijah has done.She is swearing by the same gods who failed miserably against the God of Elijah in the previous chapter and then we read... 

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. 

I don’t get it….You just saw God demonstrate Himself powerfully on the mountaintop,

He answered your prayers and now he is going to let one woman scare him to the point where he runs away from his next assignment

Elijah was running for his life.

V4 He wants to die and now the #rant

“I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

Elijah is afraid.

You can’t have a great faith, great God and great fear or can you?

You can wake up in the morning after a great day of serving God in some form or fashion, helping people out, serving others, blessing people, singing His praises and wake up feeling defeated.

We were never meant to leave God’s presence

So, how do you live through it…It’s not that the fear is gone, but they found a faith in God

I’m so grateful that the Bible shows me a man of great faith in 1 Kings 18… and then in 1 Kings 19, a man so low he is ready to die …he’s real, we can relate to him!

My question today is, “Are you running away from the direction that God is calling you?”

We easily can get caught up in what everyone else is thinking and forget about listening to the most important voice in our life, the voice of our Father God through His Holy Spirit.

Here are three keys right out of the TEXT to really living from the life of Elijah:

Get up and eat v6

Elijah runs far away, he wants God to take his life… and what does God do…He tells him to eat. This is just not a picture of physical food,  it is a picture of how God’s Word meets our spiritual needs

 John 6:35  Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

God cooked the food for Elijah, meal service was coming through; He has given you his promises, but you got to get up and eat it.  So start listening to His Word, listen to His voice and take it to heart!

Go out and stand v9-11

It is one thing that God speaks to you on the mountain when we are in a good place, but He also speaks to us in the cave, when we are going through darker times.  You feel more distant from God sort of like when your “wifi signal” is not as strong in the cave.  Here’s the truth, in isolation there can be more despondency.  But why do we do that.  We make a mistake, we crash spiritually or something devastating happens in our life and the first thing we do is go into hiding.  It happened in the beginning with Adam and Eve and it still happens now. I was just talking with someone whose husband left her and the first thing I asked is do you have a good support system of people around you and she replied by saying that she was too embarrassed to go to church.

Whatever you are going through, you are not the only one left.

You are not the only one left.  God says I’m with you when you pull the covers over your head, when you don’t want to face the day.

The enemy wants to keep you in the cave.  He wants you to keep replaying the film of how you went down and how you lost your perspective

He speaks into our depression, dysfunction, addiction.  Elijah is still running but the LORD keeps pursuing him.  There are lies that bounce around in the walls of your cave and God wants to get you out of the cave.  You may be stuck and He wants to get you unstuck.

When you get on the mountain, it’s a picture of worship, we hear God more clearly, in the presence of the LORD.

How do we stay calm?  We do it by listening to our Father’s voice through His Spirit

Look how God passes by!

The wind tears apart the mountains…He is not there.

A fire consumes, a flashback scene for Elijah… He is not there.

There are so many more dramatic ways that God could have shown Himself that He is in control but then…a gentle whisper…  Elijah, what are you doing here?

Why did he whisper to Elijah?  He whispers because He is close.The enemy can yell, the voices inside your head can yell, but God chooses to whisper in this moment. He doesn’t need to shout because He is right, He is in control, he holds you in the palm of His hand.

What about you?  What are you doing here, how long are you going to stay in that cave, how long are you going to refuse to forgive that person and hold them and yourself hostage?

How long are you going to stay awake at night trying to fight a battle He already has won for you?

Remember how I was with you, how I provided for you

Remember He knows everything about you...The hairs on your head are numbered. Luke 12:7

His Spirit is inside of you and I believe there are things He wants to tell you.

The 3rd Thing God tells Elijah -

Go back the way you came v15

It’s time to move on.

Elijah was told, “Go to the desert of Damascus….anoint  Nimshi…hand the torch over to Elisha, get back to the work I called you.”

How many more nights will you spend in the cave? Are you ready to get back to the place I called you to be?

REMEMBER…you didn’t get into a relationship with God by your own achievements, performance or effort….It was all by grace.

One of our friends at Church at the Manor, Greg, is literally moving on.  He was baptized on Sunday and it’s his heart’s desire to get a fresh start.  We prayed for the infilling of the Holy Spirit too.  He is actually moving out of the Manor after living there for 12 years.  He shares how everywhere that he has lived, he has seen a cross from his window… a reminder that God is always there, chasing him.  I have had many conversations with Greg and shared some real God moments as well as we broke bread , prayed, laughed and shared life together. 

EAT, STAND, GO…it’s a message for all of us!