Chosen by God: election

We live in a culture where we have so much choice in almost everything. We choose what to eat, a blessing so many people in the world don't have. We choose our school, our job (to a certain extent anyway), our church (lots of church hoppers and shoppers out there), our clothes (some make better choices than others my kids tell me), and how we spend our time among all our other choices. Is it any wonder then that a lot of believers want to believe that they have chosen to believe and accept God rather than believing that God chose us before we chose him, something the church calls 'election.'

It's about control; who is really in control of your life? In a culture as individualistic as ours, being our own boss, being in control over our own lives is important to many people. Few people like being a follower and accept that others can tell us what to do. When I talk to human resource managers or small business owners, they all say similar things, no one wants to start at the bottom anymore under other people, everyone believes they are smarter and better than everyone else and should be the one in charge, or at the very least, second in charge, but only for a short time.

But when it comes to our relationship with God, I'm glad it doesn't rely on my having chosen God first because otherwise there would be no relationship with God; I know my own heart and tendencies! I love how Paul puts it in Ephesians 1 "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." God chose us because he loves us and this love means that he not only chooses us to be his followers and people, but he chooses us to be his daughters and sons; members of his family. 

If you believe that you chose God first and that he chose you only because he knew you were going to choose him, you over-estimate yourself. You also take the grace out of salvation because now you are taking credit for choosing God rather than accepting the amazing grace and love God has for you even though you're still a sinner who consistently chooses to do your own thing instead of submitting yourself completely to God's will. 

There's amazing comfort in knowing God chose me even though I'm a mess-up because I know I'll stay chosen. If my relationship with God began with me, I could also un-choose him, something like many people do today with their churches and with God. I can admit my sins, confessing and repenting, but never having to fear that God will get fed-up with me. It allows me to sleep well at night knowing I'm completely in God's hands and nothing, especially myself, can knock me out of  them. Praise the Lord!

Coveting and Contentment

Coveting, an older churchy Bible word that means 'to really want something.' Coveting is not something bad in itself, you can covet good things and bad things, in good ways and bad ways. People have come up to me saying, "I covet your prayers," meaning they would really appreciate it if I prayed for them. Often though, coveting is used in a more negative way, in the way God uses it in the last commandment, "You shall not covet......" in wanting something that someone else has and you don't. But what's wrong with wanting something that someone else has? Isn't that the motivation behind working harder so you can get it for yourself? Isn't that the foundation of the Canadian (American) dream; always looking to achieve or get more: a bigger house, better job, cottage, whatever? Though I can see that if you covet your neighbour's wife or husband it's rather negative and I feel really bad for your spouse, you're not supposed to be trying to get yourself a new spouse when you already have one. But why would God tell us that a strong motivating emotion like coveting is wrong if it makes us work harder?
I believe the reason God takes such a strong stand against coveting is the tendency we have to make gods out of the things we really want. We aren't very good at keeping things in balance or perspective, and coveting feeds that part of our hearts that says, "more, more, me, me..." and forgets what God has already given and blessed us with. Coveting makes it really hard to be content and appreciate what you already have. It takes your eyes off of God and his desire for us and sets our eyes on ourselves instead. Contentment is the counter to coveting, and contentment is hard to learn, hard to embrace when all around you the mantra is to work harder to get more, to get more because you deserve it.
So how do you practice contentment, or do you think it's rather foolish and simply an excuse for lazy people to slack off? Personally, the more I work at keeping my focus on God and what I already have, the more I'm experiencing contentment and God's joy and happiness in the family, work and things I have, and the more I want to be a blessing to others. Try it, it's life changing!

making sure justice works

As I sit here writing this, my province is once again home to people banging pots trying to intimidate the government to bow to one group of citizens over the province as a whole. Now to be honest, it's not a clear cut issue as the government has placed itself in this position of having to go back on work contracts signed in the past. But the workers themselves hurt their own cause by storming into the council chambers of our city, trying to disrupt the work of the city councilors and intimidating them through a show of force.
This reminded me of the principle behind the "don't bear false witness" commandment. We too often make it too small by restricting it to telling our children not to lie, but the whole thought behind the command is that people need to be honest in order for justice to happen and for our civil society to be trusted by its citizens. We need to think bigger than that when we look at hos God is calling us to live with each other here. Intimidation tactics, whether in city hall, in parliament or in the church creates distrust among regular people; forcing  through laws or rules without proper negotiation or consultation is an abuse of power which also creates distrust in the leaders, whether in city hall, parliament or the church council. Neither respects the others, both create distrust and weaken the society they profess to care about and say they want to protect and grow.
In the 10 Commandments, God is giving his people a way of living together based on respect and honesty, especially in this commandment to not bear false witness. God has created us all in his image and he desires that his people live this out in their relationships with each other. In God's society, it's not about taking what we can get for ourselves and always fighting for every last dollar, it's about creating a society where people take care of each other and work towards creating health, trust and a sense of belonging for all those who live among the people of God. Take a look at the regulations God put into place about aliens and foreigners and you see grace and welcome.
How can you, how can we work together to create a church that models justice, trust and health together so that our society can get a glimpse of what God's kingdom is all about?

What's yours is yours, especially your name

I taught a class a while ago on the commandment about stealing. Now just to be clear, I was against stealing, after all, what is yours should be yours. But I was amazed as I did some research on this command that the early church wasn't all that concerned in this command about stuff, but instead they were more concerned about someone stealing another person's good name through gossip or slander. Now I had always associated gossip and slander with the not giving false testimony command, but I was wrong. When I was a young man, my father took me aside and told me, "I don't have much to give you as we are not wealthy, but I've worked hard to make sure that I could give you a name that is filled with honour. This is the best gift I can give you, hang onto it with pride and keep it valuable for your children." It's something I've taken to heart, not just for my children, but also because I call myself a Jesus follower and know that in the eyes of our world today, my name also reflects on him.
As I thought about this angle that stealing here is about a person's name and reputation, I was convinced that these previous thinkers are onto something, especially as I thought about an incident a number of years back where someone accused me of doing something wrong but never spoke to me, but simply told a number of people in our faith community. As a pastor, my reputation is important, not just for myself, but for the church and my family. Now after the elders did an investigation, it was found that the accusations were false and based in anger over something else, but needless to say, I was shook up, as well as my family and friends. As a fellow pastor mentioned, it's something we face, but it's never a pleasant experience and there are always people who want to believe the worst about others no matter what.
Gossip is not a harmless past time and it reflects on what is going on in the person's heart; that there is a spirit of bitterness or anger inside that comes out in the telling of stories that belittle or hurt others. It's made me appreciate Paul's words to encourage and build up others because that comes out of the love Jesus calls us to, and makes the church family a safe and beautiful place to belong to and a reflection of the kingdom Jesus is ushering in.
May your words be words that bless rather than hurt.  

Purity

As a pastor, I have been often asked why the church and Bible seems so preoccupied with sex, whether premarital or homosexuality. I normally tell the person asking me that they are the ones bringing it up, not me so they seem to be more preoccupied with it than I am. Yet they have hit on an important part of what it is to be a follower of Jesus; purity. Now purity is considered really important when it comes to things like drinking water or our food supply since no one wants to get sick. And no bride wants a gold ring that is not pure gold with a real diamond instead of imitation, at least my wife didn't; she wanted the real thing as a sign of my love and commitment to her.
Purity is about being as close to the absolute realness of what the object is as possible. So there are restrictions on how many impurities can be in our water supply, our food is monitored so that there is as few bug parts and other unwanted elements in it so we can eat without fear.
So when it comes to being a follower of Jesus, purity, or holiness is about being the person God has created you to be. It's not all about sex or sexual identity, it's about a whole bunch to things that make us who we are. Reading through Jesus' teaching, it's about cultivating grace, forgiveness, generosity, joy, self-control, kindness, a gentle tongue, compassion, and more. The goal is that when people see you, they see an image of who Jesus is; that image of God that got twisted when Adam and Eve sinned.
I believe that the focus on sex and sexuality as the defining aspect of purity comes because as a culture we worship our individuality and the seeking of pleasure above everything else. Our mission statement too often has become, "If it feels good, do it." The sad thing is that this is so self-focused and many don't realize the hurt and brokenness that such a mission statement creates. We live in a time when the ability to communicate and relate to others has never been higher and yet the common complaint I hear from all ages is, "I'm lonely." Over time, when a number of relationships have failed, or the relationship they're in fills up with stress and hurt, they come asking what is wrong and why.
This is when I get to talk with them about who they have made themselves into as a person and the results of it. Then I offer them the opportunity to become who they have been created to be. All it takes is to really accept Jesus as Lord, meaning that you place Him in the position of authority of your life and you shape your life on who He is calling you to be as His disciple. Almost without fail, you will discover joy, peace and hope, but you will also discover God's wisdom in how our relationships should be with each other. Purity in our thoughts and actions creates trust and strength leading to the ability to be more open and deep with others because the focus is on the other instead of the self. This is why God made a commandment against adultery, giving us the gift of marriage, a relationship where we are able to experience the beauty and depth of commitment where the focus is on the other and helping them to become the person God has created them to be. Purity, not only in sex, but in who you are becoming, is the command God gives you so that you can experience life as full and deep and blessed.

Dealing with people you may love but don't like

I was talking with gentleman the other day when in frustration he said something to this effect, "I wish that I could just forget for a day that I follow Jesus." When I asked him why, he mentioned how there was a person in his life right now that he was so angry and frustrated with, didn't really trust, who he simply wanted to tell them off really good. I thought to myself, I wonder how many of us face the same thing, we're supposed to "love our neighbour as our self," but can't we just can't stand our neighbour. I've said in jest, kind of anyway, that I have times where I love my neighbour but don't like them. 

These are the people that we find it hard to speak well of, people that we think inside our own heads, "You fool," or worse. Then I come across those words of Jesus that challenge my thoughts, "I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to punishment, any one who says, 'You fool,' will be in danger of the fire of hell.' This is the same punishment for those who murder! 

It's hard to really love others at times and it's hard to control our negative thoughts about others, but I'm starting to understand where Jesus is coming from. In the long run, the way we think about others and the way we speak about others shapes how we will treat them. If I am constantly negative towards someone in my thoughts or words, I will never find it in my heart to love them, to wish the best for them, to respect and honour them. I have to take responsibility for my thoughts and my words, even though I can understand what that frustrated gentleman said the other day abut wishing he could forget for one day that he is a Jesus follower. Yet simply by allowing those thoughts and words inside us even for one day sows a seed that will find way too many opportunities to grow. 

It sounds so easy to summarize life into two rules; to love God with everything you have and are, and to love your neighbour as yourself, but when you really get serious about following Jesus, you quickly discover that these are the two most difficult rules to live by. It is only by the grace of God that we are able to even want to begin to live this way and experience the wonder of living out of love instead of anger, frustration or hate. 

relationship with my parents

If you've read the past few posts, you've probably figured out I've been reflecting on the 10 Commandments and how I've been focusing on them in my own life. I remember how they felt like a whole list of don't and didn't really pay too much attention to them when I was learning them in church and school, especially the honour your parents one. It's not that I was a bad kid, it's more that I kind of ignored my parents. If figured as long as I mostly followed the rules they set and made sure they didn't catch me in the ones I didn't follow, that I was alright.
This commandment took on a lot more meaning when I became an adult and a parent, not because I wanted my kids to obey me without any questions because of my great wisdom (well maybe), but because I felt a call into ministry in my 30s and this meant giving up a really good job and moving my family far away from my family. But what worried my parent more was the financial hit this was going to give my wife and I. Not having a university degree at the time meant that there was 8 years of school ahead of us and lots of student loans. My father strongly urged me to reconsider as it would mean a lot of lean years for my family and big debt afterwards. My dad had immigrated to Canada after WW 2 for a better life and he worked hard to make sure we had things he didn't as a child. He wanted the best for my family and thought I was throwing away a secure financial future.
That's when this commandment really bothered me, did honoring my dad mean not going into ministry? I sat with this question for quite a while because I really wanted to honour my dad's concern and love. Early one morning, while working at the bakery, it struck me that by sitting with this question was honouring my dad, even if I went against his advice, I gave it weight in my decision. It allowed me and my wife and kids to head off into the great unknown of 8 years of school and a call on my heart into ministry with a clear conscience.
I'm grateful for a father and mother who cared enough to challenge my plans and then support us when we went against their advice. The Lord provided for us over the next 8 years, many times in ways that brought tears to our eyes and I believe that I made my parents proud, even if I was a little bit stubborn.
Thanks mom and dad.