Dec 16
servantStories faith, Japan, missionary, praise
After 25 years of ministry as missionaries in Japan, my wife and are heading home. We have had 25 great years in Japan, and it has been a fulfilling ministry. 25 years is not as long as some missionaries stay on the field, but I was 39 when I arrived. It is HARD learning a difficult language like Japanese at middle age!
My wife and I had some ups and downs in the ministry here, but the downs were teaching experiences, as most people will say. Only for us, God took us in a way that our organization was headed before our organization headed in this direction. We learned beforehand how powerful the Holy Spirit is at teaching new believers, without the constant oversight of missionaries or pastors at the beginning. And lots of people (churches) did not like things that involved change from the ordinary, but we persevered with joy in our hearts.
Japan is listed in some circles as being basically “unresponsive” to the gospel – with approximately 1/2 of 1% as being believers. Evangelical missionaries and organizations have been in this country over 150 years.
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Jun 22
servantGod Thoughts faith, holiness, hope, obedience, righteousness
That is the real question isn’t it? What is a Christian? And am I (or you) one?
The term Christian is thrown about quite loosely and I think a lot of people call themselves a Christian because they believe in God. Or they (mostly) do nice things for people. Or they go to church for Christmas… and maybe Easter if they feel like it. Maybe they think they are Christian because they were baptized as a baby. Or maybe they asked Jesus into their heart as a child.
Do any of these things make you a Christian? In and of themselves, no. Being baptized doesn’t make you a Christian. Asking Jesus into your heart once, or twice, or a whole bunch of times even, doesn’t make you a Christian. These are stepping stones on the way to becoming a Christian, sure. But making you a Christian? No way.
Let’s put it this way. Do your friends and family and co-workers know that you are a Christian? If not, then you need to do some serious soul-searching and figure out why that is. I’m not saying you need to evangelize to them all (but if you are at all concerned about their eternal souls, which you should be, then you should be talking to them about the hope within you, right?), but you need to live a lifestyle that, without a doubt, reflects that you are a Christian. Does this mean you need to be perfect? Nope. I’m far from perfect. And I am pretty much scared spitless to evangelize to people — I am more than willing to talk about Jesus and my hope and faith and love for Christ if it is brought up, but to just out of the blue talk to someone about it? I have a real hard time with that, and it really takes some prayer and dependency on the Holy Spirit to move me beyond my natural tendency to clam up.
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Jun 20
servantGod Thoughts faith, obedience, trust, work
This is perhaps a more practical teaching, but one I feel needs to really be taught (this is also a bit of a followup to an earlier posting: What is faithfulness?). As Christians, we should be exceptional workers, in whatever occupation God has called us to. As Christians, we should be the most sought after employees, working hard and diligently for our “earthly masters”.
But, we’re also called to do the work of God, because while God has called each of us to a particular occupation at a certain point in time, He has also called each of us to ministry. No, he has not called all of us to be preachers or evangelists or full-time ministry workers, but we all have a ministry. The trick, then, is to balance. Do we forsake God’s work for the sake of a natural occupation, or do we forsake the natural occupation for the sake of God’s work?
I believe the answer is neither. God has called us to be good stewards — both of career and calling. We are to be faithful in our natural work, and faithful in our spiritual work. So the real answer is there needs to be balance (unless, of course, your career is also your calling, such as with full-time ministers).
I believe that, even as Paul preached and did miraculous things, yet still worked, we need to do the same. The key is balance, but before someone thinks this is a message about balancing TV and prayer, or balancing video games and reading the Word, I think when it comes to worldly pursuits of recreation (sports, games, TV, whatever), there is no call to be balanced. You can completely forsake those pursuits, or enjoy a game of golf, or go to a hockey game, etc. and still be unbalanced because you’re feeding on the Word, praying, and going to church — that is a healthy unbalancing. This isn’t supporting “balance” in terms of going to church on Sunday and staying home to watch the hockey game on TV instead of going to church Sunday night (i.e. “honey, we’ve been to church already so let’s stay home and watch the game… we need balance after all!”). Not at all. This is strictly talking about balance of calling (ministry) and career (occupation) because God wants us to work. We weren’t created to have recreation, we were created to work.
The first thing in the Bible that tells us about the nature of God is that He works — He created the heavens and the earth. As early as Genesis 1:3, God is working. God created man with a “dominion mandate” or a call to work:
“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”” (Gen 1:28, NKJV)
The first words out of God’s mouth to Adam and Eve were that they should work!
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Jun 13
servantStories conversion, drugs, Edmonton, event, faith, giving thanks, Holy Spirit, homeless, hope, obedience, poverty, relationship
“For He will deliver the needy when He cries,
The poor also, and him who has no helper.
He will spare the poor and needy,
And will save the souls of the needy.
He will redeem their life from oppression and violence;
And precious shall be their blood in His sight.” (Ps 72:12-14, NKJV)
The above was part of my Bible reading guide this morning and it spoke volumes due to what we had done yesterday. Yesterday, we had put on a BBQ in probably the roughest neighbourhood in our inner city, a free BBQ to feed the homeless, helpless, and the less fortunate. Why did we do this? Because we love God, and we know He loves these people and street people are of value as well (which the above verse definitely indicates!), and they deserve to be shown the same dignity and respect that we are all accustomed to.
This is the third year this event has been put on, and preparation for it began months ago. There were preparations in the natural, of course, soliciting donations for the event, but there were also preparations in the spiritual realm. Twice we had done prayer walks around the field, just praying that God would do what He does best: meet with people, transform people, that His Spirit would be there in a very real way. As organizers, we had prayed together and individually for this thing for weeks beforehand.
Yesterday morning I was up at six in the morning, preparing to be down at the site for eight in the morning to begin setup. That morning I was reading from the book of Acts, and the works of the early church inspired me for the day. What powerful things the early church had done! What beautiful adoration to God, to His Word, to His divine purpose! What a humbling thing to try and recreate by the work we were doing!
The BBQ was an absolute success. Despite little technical setbacks early on that, in the grand scheme of things, really amounted to nothing, we had an opportunity to feed at least 500-700 people. Local media was out, so we got a few seconds of exposure on the local TV stations (keep reading to see the clips) and there should be an article in the local newspaper regarding it as well. It was a hot day, up to 24C and many of us got sun burnt. We gave away so much, a thousand hot dogs and a thousand hamburgers, brand-new clothes that were donated, pillows, donuts, fruit, chips, pop, bottles of water. Thank you to the many companies that supported us and gave freely to the event, and thank you to the many volunteers that helped. God bless you all!
Now that the natural results have been described, I need to describe the spiritual. And this is what made this day so exciting, so powerful, and so exhausting. As I said, we were praying for weeks before the event and even driving down, the music in the car was off, and I was praying for the BBQ, for the volunteers, for the food, for the people that were coming to the event. And God moved in an absolutely powerful way! Thank You God that You listen to the heart-felt prayers of Your people who are striving to be obedient and do Your will! There is so much to describe, so it may be a bit disjointed — please bear with me.
First and foremost, there was such a sense of joy among the volunteers. There were no arguments, no one complained about having to do more than others, or do something they didn’t like. We were united in one purpose. There were smiles everywhere, people were so welcoming to those coming through the line to be fed, there was a genuine servanthood evident. There was such complete _peace_ in that place. You need to understand that these are people who are accustomed to a life of strife and fighting, that literally fight over scraps of food. Yet it was so peaceful in the field. There was no striving for places in line. They were patient, despite the heat, and they were grateful for the food. They were polite, thankful. To put this in perspective, I drove off-site around 2:30 in order to get some coffee. Not even a block away I saw two men yelling at each other and fighting. When we were loading the left over supplies into the church at 6:00 there were young men and women, right before the doors of the church (which is also right in the middle of downtown) fighting and swearing and arguing. But in that place, at that time, there was complete and utter peace. No fighting, no arguing, no dissension.
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Jun 11
servantGod Thoughts faith, obedience, relationship
I saw a post on Facebook the other day, and what it implied really bothered me. I hate picking on people, but this bothered me so badly that I’m going to quote it. I did respond to it, but I think I came across as to hard on the individual who posted it. I understand that they are disappointed, and I don’t necessarily know if they’re poking the finger at God, but the way it came across really made me think that this is what they were thinking, and it also really sums up what most people think as well.
… is sad to have just seen someone who was baptized a few years back, but today says, ‘It’s not working for me any more…’ I sometimes wonder why God doesn’t do a better job of keeping his people. But I also wonder, ‘What are all the dynamics that come into play in a decision like that?’
I think this is the wrong question to ask, honestly. I think the real question is: “why aren’t we doing a better job of keeping people?”. If God doesn’t change… if He’s the same today, as He was yesterday, and will be tomorrow, then it isn’t up to God to keep us, it’s up to us to keep ourselves and those around us. Blaming God because someone was baptized and then a few years later has strayed and says “it just wasn’t for me” is a cop-out, and playing the blame-game with someone Who doesn’t deserve that kind of criticism.
I think the problem really comes down to emotion, rather than faith. Too many people “try” Christianity and then when it doesn’t do what they want, they give up on it. But I don’t understand this, because I don’t understand why they “get into it” in the first place then. Do we “get into” Christianity because we expect God to do something for us? I think this is usually it. We want God to heal us, prosper us, take care of us. We go to a meeting, are swept away in anointed worship, get on a “high” and then come to the altar and profess our love and need of a Saviour.
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Jun 01
servantGod Thoughts faith, holiness, obedience, righteousness
Awesome message tonight at the young adult service. Really fits in with the kind of stuff that has been brought up lately: obedience, righteousness, holiness. Now we can add faithfulness and as we understand it, it can bring profound changes to our lives.
The dictionary describes “faithful” as: loyal, constant, true, devoted, unswerving, staunch, steadfast, dedicated, committed, trusty, trustworthy (or “worthy of trust”), dependable, reliable. These are some powerful, yet intimidating, words. Keeping these words in mind, look at this scripture:
“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Tim 2:2, NKJV)
Paul is talking about men that are trustworthy, dedicated, and loyal — to such men is the Gospel given in order to teach others. This shows us that Jesus wants to trust us with things, and know that we are going to be faithful to them. Just like an employer wants an employee that is dedicated and loyal, so does Jesus want followers that are dedicated and loyal.
If you’re not faithful, you’re unfaithful. There is no middle ground. The antonyms for “faithful” from the dictionary are: traitorous, unreliable. This is the definition of being unfaithful.
Seeing what the words mean (beyond a “spiritual” definition of faith) really lets us know why most people desire to hang out with, know, and associate with faithful people — whatever they are faithful to. Faithful to their spouse, their job, their family, their church. No one wants to associate with people that abandon their spouse, come to work late and do a half-hearted job, leave their family to go drink at the bar, or jump around from church to church. People are drawn to faithful people. At the same time, people are repelled by unfaithful people.
Look what Jesus says about being faithful:
“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.” (Luke 16:10, NKJV)
This is a very real truth and there is spiritual principle here. I know this for fact when my wife and I started tithing years ago, despite the fact that we felt we couldn’t afford it. We wanted to be obedient to God’s Word, so we were faithful in the little that we had, and God gave us increase. We had proven that He could trust us with money, and He has been faithful to provide for both our needs and our wants. His Grace was sufficient, and while there are always times that are tight, usually it is due to us spending money on something silly, rather than the tithe being the burden.
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May 11
servantGod Thoughts faith, obedience, promises, trust, waiting
This is a bit of a follow up to the obedience story that was posted last. It has been a very interesting weekend and the Holy Spirit keeps opening my eyes. More on that later, because I think this topic is more pressing.
I was just listening to an interview with Andrew Strom and about how and why he left the so-called “prophetic movement” that has led to things like the Lakeland Revival and he made a statement that really spoke to me. He was talking about true revival, and how it would come, but how it was all about repentance and not “signs and wonders” which these big “revivals” are all about. He said that there was an unwillingness to wait, for these meetings, for real revival, and that people blindly pushed forward with things that did not seem Biblical because they wanted something and they wanted it now. Then he said something that really caught me: he said it was like Ishmael (Abraham’s first son). Ishmael was conceived because they (Abram and Sarai) were unwilling to wait. The story is in Genesis 16, so let me briefly recount the story.
In Genesis 15, God is giving Abraham (then Abram) an amazing promise. Genesis 15:2-3 is Abraham telling God that he has no heir that would come from his body, and Genesis 15:4 is God telling Abraham that he will have an heir from his own body, and:
“Then He brought him outside and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.” (Gen 15:5, NKJV)
Taking the story up in Genesis 16, Sarah (then Sarai) went to Abraham and told him that she had no children (obviously Abraham had just finished recounting God’s promise to him). And instead of waiting for God to do His thing for them, she gave to Hagar to Abraham, her maidservant, in the hopes that Hagar would give Abraham a child. Abraham agreed and Ishmael was the result. But this was not the child that God had promised to Abraham! Ishmael was not the child of promise! Isaac, born later to Sarah, was the child of promise, the heir that God had promised to Abraham.
Instead of waiting for God to provide what He Himself had promised, Abraham and Sarah took it upon themselves to fulfill God’s Word to them their way. Not God’s way.
The interesting thing here is that Ishmael is the father of the Islamic nation whereas Isaac is the father of the Israelite nation. Thousands of years after their birth, Ishmael and Isaac still contest for the inheritance of Abraham! For a Christian, we know that the Muslim faith, Islam, is a counterfeit religion and is not of God. The counterfeit came first (this is the point that Andrew Strom was making regarding this “revival” movement).
So it got me thinking… if God promises us something, He is faithful to deliver. If we go out of our way to hurry God’s Hand, to fulfill a prophecy or vision by our means (despite good intentions!), and do not wait for the appointed time that God in His Sovereignty has dictated, we can go one of two ways: His favour is withdrawn and we fail (and then doubt that this was ever from God), or we produce something that is wrong and counterfeit, that will war with the latter thing that is of God.
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May 04
servantStories faith, hope, obedience, praise, prayer, spiritual warfare, trust
The last five months have been… interesting, exciting, wild, stretching, and growing. God has been moving in amazing ways and I believe it all turned around because we were obedient to Him and did what He asked of my wife and I. This is a bit of a long story, but to give some background, my wife and I had gone through presbytery four years ago and had an amazing and somewhat frightening/exciting Word spoken over us. For those that don’t know what presbytery is, it’s when you fast and pray and seek God and have prophets speak God’s Word over you. For some, it provides life direction, for some it gives insight into the future that God has planned for you, for some it’s just plain old encouragement. If you’ve never been to a prophetic meeting like this, it really is something to behold. The Holy Spirit moves in ways that can’t even be described. Re-reading the word spoken over us still brings tears to my eyes and chills down my spine.
Without getting into it overly much (because there is a lot), the main thrust of the word was that we were going to be deeply rooted in the House of God, and that we would be involved with people. We would have a heart of evangelism, and a hunger in our spirit to see God’s Will done in the earth. That we would go up against the enemy and not be afraid and, just as importantly, have a God-given power over the enemy. That our home would be open, that we would get involved in discipleship and mentoring and getting involved in people’s lives. That we would have a spirit of outreach.
These are beautiful things to hear, but for someone who doesn’t really like people, this wasn’t really what I wanted to hear. I’m not really a people person, and I’m also very cynical and critical of people; part of that has to do with my personality, and part of that is due to my job and its lack of social interactions. My passion for God was most definitely there, but my passion for people was… pretty lacking. My wife is the complete opposite. She loves people, but being told we would be coming up against dark kingdoms really concerned her. I’ve had a past that dealt with spiritual warfare, so I can’t say I was comfortable with it, but it wasn’t scary because I know how powerful God can be in those situations.
So for four years this prophetic word has been remembered and forgotten, ignored and cried out for… but all things are in His timing. And just before last Christmas, He brought us to a whole new level of faith, passion, worship… and looking back now, we can pin-point to exactly when He started unfolding His plan for us.
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Mar 28
servantGod Thoughts faith, fear, trust
The other morning I was reading in Joshua and the first chapter is full of promises, encouragements, and the importance of being involved with God’s Word:
“No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:5-9, NKJV)
These five versus are so full, we really need to break it down to fully understand what God was saying to Joshua, and is saying to us now. We know that He is saying this to us, today, because He is the same today, as He was yesterday, and will be tomorrow. God does not change (Mal 3:6a).
First, God is giving us a promise that no one will be able to stand before us, because He will be with us as He was with Moses (and God and Moses were tight; Moses was in God’s Presence all the time, he spoke with God face to face). There is a condition here, however. If God is going to stand with us, as He did with Moses, we have to be like Moses: obedient, willing — no, eager — to spend time in His Presence, seeking Him out, living solely for Him.
Second, He says that He will not leave or forsake us. How true this is! When we feel God’s displeasure or we feel alone, we need to look at ourselves and see who’s fault it is. Did God pull away from us, or did we pull away from Him? Did we allow the world — it’s lusts, temptations, cares, worries — to replace God? Every time I have felt overwhelmed in life it is because I had pulled away from God and decided to do my own thing. God didn’t leave me, I left Him.
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Feb 28
servantStories Canada, cancer, conversion, divorce, faith, praise, sickness
Before I became a Christian I had little faith in mankind and the future of this world. So much that I did not even want to bring kids into a world with such bleak prospects. I lived for weekends to relax and weekdays to make a living. I was in a rut, living without hope or real purpose. To put things in perspective, the early 1970′s were the years of “make love, not war”, hippies, drugs, parties. The world was going to hell in a hand-basket.
My conversion took place in 1974 while attending a Cal Hays crusade with a number of other people from our church. I became convinced by the Holy Spirit that Jesus could bring hope into my empty life. I went forward and received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.
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