My Mom: Woman of Faith

I sighed numbly, my mind exhausted after hours of detailed sorting through books, “I think if I see even one more book on prayer I may go over the brink.” My brother-in- law, Ronnie, and I, had been given the job of sorting through my mother-in-law’s vast assortment of theological and devotional books.

Kay, whom I love as much as my real mom, has recently moved out of her home where she lived for almost sixty years. The kids including the sons-in-law now have the daunting task of sifting through all the possessions that Kay has accumulated over her 87 years.

Kay has been a reader all her life. She didn’t buy books to line up on shelves to impress people. Most of her books were about becoming a more informed, and committed Christian. She read deeply, widely, frequently and meditatively. Almost every single volume had at least one bookmark, sometimes two or three. Many of the pages had copious markings, and occasionally entire paragraphs were underlined. None of us will ever forget that she constantly aspired to know God better and to follow him more closely.

If she came across a book that she thought would help her to that goal she would buy it in a flash. As a young mother with three little girls in tow she would browse for her treasures, hours at a time, in musty second hand book stores. In our age reading is almost a lost art, but Mom’s love for it inspired her children to become readers as well, and some of them writers. And beyond her example, she leaves a trove of countless worthy books that helped her in her walk and will be of great help to us who inherit them.

Besides books there were personal journals and diaries recounting her own aspirations and pursuit after God, ink spilled for her sake, yes, but for us as well. Beyond that there were the cassette tapes of praise music, wall hangings, and the plaques that got collected over the years. For Kay, God was as real and as present to her as was her very breath.

As long as I can remember she was a woman of prayer who prayed not just for her own needs, but for her kids, grandkids and her neighbours. We felt like we could just call her up anytime when one of our kids was in trouble, and then we could rest easier. We knew the old amazon of prayer was on her knees. Makes you think she actually read a lot of those books on prayer, doesn’t it?

Kay is a woman who is constantly praising God. I have seen her only intermittently over the years as I live far away. Yet when we are together she always shares about what God is doing in her life. Her legacy consists not only in the old praise cassettes, but in the constant praise that is a hallmark of her daily life.

As I was going through Mom’s enormous library I over and over again mused on the words of, Find us Faithful, a well known song by Steve Green.

After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift through all we've left behind
May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful

I salute you my mother. Kay Roberts. My footprints come behind yours--I have found you faithful.

Published in The Guelph Mercury, July 16, 2011

Ten Major Shifts For Impacting our Communities

I've had the privilege of hearing David Macfarlane. He's worth listening to. He is primarily an evangelist and a mentor to the churches to help them fulfill their calling. Funny, that's how I see myself too...

Ten Paradigm Shifts Toward Community Impact
based on a message by Eric Swanson - used with full permission
By David Arrol Macfarlane

As I speak at conferences and in churches across Canada I see a quiet movement of the Spirit of God that is causing believers to re-examine how they “do church.” Churches are throwing out the old measures of success. It’s no longer merely about size, seeker sensitivity, spiritual gifts, church health, nor the number of small groups. It’s about people being genuinely transformed by Christ - making a significant and sustainable difference in the lives of those around us—in our communities and in our cities.
My Dad often said to me: “David, you cannot continue to do the same old things and expect different results.” To maximize our impact on our Canadian communities--urban, suburban or rural, we need changes in at least ten of our paradigms of how we currently view church.

1) From building walls to building bridges. “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13,14). The first paradigm shift pertains to where we, as the church, see ourselves in relation to our communities. Will we remain outside of the community inviting people in or will we go to our communities, seeking to be a transforming agent?
More: http://www.davidamacfarlane.com/published-articles.html

Should Christians Burn the Quran?

Five reasons why Christians should not burn the Quran

Royal Hamel, Faith

Friday,April 8, 2011 Guelph Mercury

On March 20, two Christian extremist pastors, Terry Jones and Wayne Sapp, burned a copy of the Quran in a Florida church. As news of the burning circulated around the world, it provoked an especially violent reaction in Afghanistan, where up to 22 people have been killed in various protests.

If you were to ask me why the two pastors felt compelled to destroy the Quran in this way, I would have to say, “I don’t know.” But if you were to ask, “Should they have burned the Quran?” I would have to say, “Absolutely not!”

I’m not interested in why the deed was done, nor can I deal with its horrendous consequences in this short article, but I consider it of great importance to reassure Muslims, and secular people as well, that the burning of the Quran was in fact an unbiblical, and yes, even an unchristian act of provocation. I do not hide from anyone that I seek to be a committed follower of Jesus, and on many issues my tendency would be to side with Christians when a dispute erupts with the Muslim community.

For instance, I abhor the blasphemy law in Pakistan which has too often been used by unscrupulous persons to persecute innocent Christians to the point of having them imprisoned for life, or even sentencing them to death.

That said, the burning of the Quran was an act performed outside the bounds of ordinary Christian love and decency and cannot be defended by any committed follower of Christ. In a press release issued this month, the World Evangelical Alliance roundly condemned the actions of these extremist pastors in Florida stating: “The WEA believes no book of any faith community should ever be burned or desecrated in any way … this action does not represent the true Christian faith or the world’s two billion Christians.”

Here are my top five reasons why Christians should consider this desecration of the Muslim holy book as an unbiblical act of attack and provocation:

First: Even if Christians in some parts of the world (Pakistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia to name a few) are unjustly persecuted by Muslims this gives no justification for Christians to retaliate. Jesus in his famous sermon on the mount calls his followers to love their enemies, and to pray for those who unjustly persecute them.

Second: Christians are called in the New Testament to always let their speech be filled with grace. This burning, by extremist pastors, of the Muslim holy book was a form of speech. And nobody in their right mind can accept that it was a gracious kind of ‘speech.’

Third: Christians are called by Jesus to: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” We would not appreciate it if Muslims, or any others, were to burn copies of our scriptures. How then can we tolerate it when extremists among ourselves play the hypocrite, denying Jesus and his commands, even while they claim to be his followers?

Fourth: Jesus has called Christ followers to go into all the world taking the message of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and the good news that sins can be forgiven. This is a message of love, peace and reconciliation with God—it is not a message that deliberately seeks to affront, blaspheme, or provoke.

Fifth: The second great commandment given by Jesus states: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” It shows no love to our Muslim neighbours to desecrate, deface, or in this case to burn an object that Muslims regard as holy and sacred. Christians to be sure have a different belief system regarding what is holy and what is profane, but the Christian disobeys Jesus when we act in a manner that is callous and disrespectful of the religious feelings of our fellow human beings.

Instead of burning the Quran, it would be far better if ungodly Christian extremism were to simply fizzle out and die quietly. Far better for all if the smoke in our neighbourhoods were to come from barbecues in the backyard—Muslims and Christians sharing a meal together.

contact author, watchman2003@sympatico.ca

http://www.guelphmercury.com/living/article/514324--five-reasons-why-christians-should-not-burn-the-quran

Loving Christopher Hitchens

A recent story highlighted in the UK's Daily Telegraph should inspire us all. Renowned atheist and secular apologist, Christopher Hitchens, who is gravely ill with stage 4 esophageal cancer is finding help at the hands of an evangelical scientist. Dr. Francis Collins contended against Hitchens in a number of debates over the existence of God. Against the odds the two over time have become friends and Collins is now treating Hitchens with revolutionary genetic therapy to try and save him from the almost certain death he faces from the cancer. See the posted story below.

Here is a wonderful example of a Christian going out of his way to love an "enemy" by seeking to save his life. But even more amazing I think is the fact that the two ever became friends in the first place. Could it be that when we are obedient to God in actually loving our enemies that God will work it out that some of those very same people will become our friends? It would seem so. How cool and wonderful is that?

Christopher Hitchens is a guinea pig for a cancer treatment that involves mapping his genetic make-up Photo: PA

By Richard Alleyne, and Mick Brown 6:30AM GMT 26 Mar 2011

202 Comments

The author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything said that he is a "guinea pig" for a new personalised medicine partly developed by Dr Francis Collins, a geneticist with very strong religious views.

The two had often met in the past as adversaries in the debate about whether God exists.

Against the odds they had become friends.

Now Hitchens is one of the few people in the world who has had his entire genetic make up mapped and is receiving a new treatment that targets his own damaged DNA.

"I’m an experiment," Hitchens said.

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"These are early stages, but in theory it should attack the primary site of the tumour.

"If that does happen, it won’t just be good news for me, it will be very exciting in the general treatment of cancer."

Dr Collins is a former director of the National Human Genome Research Project and is now the director of America’s National Institutes of Health.

He is the author of a bestselling book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.

"It is a rather wonderful relationship,’ said Hitchens.

"I won’t say he doesn’t pray for me, because I think he probably does; but he doesn’t discuss it with me.

"He agrees that his medical experience does not include anything that could be described as a miracle cure – he’s never come across anything."

Hitchens, 61, originally from Portsmouth but now living in Washington DC, is an old Oxford University friend of the writer Martin Amis and has had a long journalistic career on both sides of the Atlantic.

In September 2005, he was named one of the "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" in the world by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines.

Since the publication of his book he has become a hero of so-called New Atheism movement.

His pre-eminence has been enhanced by his steadfast refusal to change his views even after he was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus last year.

The prognosis looked very grave until a few weeks after his diagnosis he was asked if he would like to be a guinea pig in the new science of genome sequencing as a possible cure for cancer.

Samples were taken from healthy tissue and from his tumour and on each of them six billion DNA matches were run, in order to catalogue any mutations found in the cancerous cells.

He was warned to have no expectations.

But in the New Year came the good news that there is a genetic mutation found in the tumour for which there already exists a drug.

Having been on varying types and doses of chemotherapy, he is now on a regime of one pill a day.

"At least it spares me some of the boredom of being a cancer patient because what I’m going through is very absorbing and positively inspiring," he said.

"But if it doesn’t work, I don’t know what they could try next."

He remains hopeful, although he has been told that of 1,000 men of his age and in his condition, half could expect to be dead within a year.

Hitchens said that he is constantly contacted by other atheists telling him he can beat the cancer and this in itself makes him feel "alarmed to be a repository of other people's hope".

People have even started asking him to officiate at their weddings.

"It started a couple of years ago," he said.

"It’s something I shall have to resist if I survive, and even if I don’t – this very slightly cultish stuff starts to happen.

"You get letters from people you can hardly remember meeting: “I shall never forget the kindness …

"Unbelievably trivial stuff, but they’ve made it into a thing in their minds."

Transformed or Merely Forgiven

Recently I published an article in the Guelph newspaper in which I argued that Christians must be careful to call for and expect life transformation, as Jesus did, as opposed to preaching a good news that only deals with the guilt of sin and never addresses the power of sin. A fellow pastor wrote me a detailed letter challenging me on some of my points. Below I have posted my response(edited to protect confidentiality) to him.

Dear Pastor,

Thank you for your courteous, gracious and rather thorough response. I will try and respond in kind, but you may be a nicer person than me. Not sure I can get to all the points you raise, but I will at least address the salient ones.

But, before I touch those I have to note that unless I missed it I did not detect your yea or nay to the fundamental point in the article...that the gospel involves more than forgiveness and grace, as important as they are, but it also calls for transformation. I consider the point to be of utmost importance for if the call to discipleship and transformation is ignored, or even just relegated to the back room, we will end up with antinomianism. Indeed it seems to me that parts of the church are already swimming in those dark waters. Interesting that you should mention Bonhoeffer for if he were alive to day I think that he would describe some parts of modern day Christianity as having fallen prey to cheap grace. He, as you know held up discipleship, and advocated going against the grain of popular culture in order to be obedient to Christ.

I personally think that relativism is one of the chief enemies of the gospel in our age. If it cannot be in some way answered all we have left with is a pitiful, "We have a belief too, we have a belief too...” which is a far cry from the apostolic preaching of certainty that there was but one Lord and one way of salvation.

As for Calvinism, I find myself standing with the great Charles Spurgeon who said (more or less), that Calvinism was nothing more than biblical Christianity.

We are in agreement that the gospel spreads by love. But, only by love? No, for surely we also must both agree that the presentation of truth was essential. A quick read of the Acts reveals that over and over again the proclamation of truth by the apostles was a major way that people came into the kingdom. Should we not always be careful to insist that it is Word and deed that has been committed to us?

The culture war is a big issue all on its own. I will limit myself to saying that every Christian generation is bound to in some way fight that war. For in a broad brush way of speaking the world constantly seeks to evade the truth of sin by redefining sin on its own terms or denying that it even exists. Yes, the church can sit passively by and speak of other things, but for my part I think she is unfaithful to her Lord and her calling when she goes AWOL. I further think that to not speak and proclaim the hard truths of scripture is a terribly unloving act toward our neighbor who by our silence is left to figure out on his/her own what God requires. By refusing to point out clearly God’s way to them we, who are called to be salt and light, essentially hide God’s light from them. Will all joyously receive our message? No, but some will. But some might insist that it would be better to mute our message so that it is more attractive to seekers and will therefore get a better response. For my part I am persuaded that it is a most dangerous strategy to attempt to be more loving than Jesus by muting truth, and accommodating sin. More comfortable for us to be sure, but dangerous in the long run.

You raise the question of sex and won’t the world think that we’re prudish because we insist on God’s guidelines for it. The answer to that of course is to preach the full message of how good it is, as well as the importance of guarding its God-designed use. But, should we speak of it so much and so often? Good question. Doubtless we must be careful to cover the whole panoply of sins. That said, when one of the overwhelmingly prevailing sins of our culture is precisely sexual sin in its various forms how can we be silent over this particular form of idolatry anymore than Christians could be silent to the Nazi idolatry in the time of Bonhoeffer. Sadly, you and I know that in the main, Christians in that time were muted except for a few notable exceptions.

I must bring this note to a close. I apologize for making it so long a response, but you actually rung a whole lot of different bells. Do forgive me where I may have spoken harshly or accusingly, it is not my intention to offend. Thank you again for your willingness to dialogue.

Grace and peace,

Royal Hamel

Absolutely Amazing Video Clip on Shining Your Light

I must share this marvellous video clip with you'all. It's all about being light of the world, shining into the darkness, being willing to go into the darkness. I guarantee you will love it...it may even transform your life. It sure encouraged mine.

Grace and peace to all,

Royal

It's called: Who do you think you are-Salt and Light! Check it out. It's worth it.

http://video.christianpost.com/20110314/who-do-you-think-you-are-salt-and-light/

Losing Weight: Truly Difficult, but Possible

Losing weight is not for the faint of heart. It is for most people a huge, ongoing challenge. It is made even more difficult by those who falsely paint a picture of how easy it is. The following article blows that false picture away and brings us face to face with the reality of the struggle. Oddly enough the portrait of reality is encouraging and brings hope.

Keeping the Weight Off: An Interview with Ellen Granberg, PhD

Diabetes Health Staff
Feb 27, 2011

Ellen Granberg is an obesity sociologist who studies the processes that people go through when they lose weight and keep it off. As she says, "If the problem were that we don't know what people should eat to lose weight, that would be one thing, but we don't have that problem. There are a hundred weight loss plans out there that are perfectly good. We understand all about the physiology of weight loss maintenance and the metabolic impacts, but nothing about the social and emotional impacts. People who sustain weight loss over time move through a lot of different challenges."

Dr. Granberg lost 120 pounds 15 years ago. She says, "To this day, I weigh pretty much everything that goes into my mouth. It took me a while to make up my mind that it was worth it. Our cultural lore encourages the idea that losing weight is the most important thing you can do to bring about the life that you want. But people who successfully lose weight are motivated by rewards that are very specific and concrete--like lowering their blood pressure or being able to lower their insulin. It's all about coming down to earth and being motivated by something that could actually happen."

"It is a real learning process. You lose, you gain, you lose, you gain, you lose, and through that process, people who eventually do keep it off learn a little bit each time. Letting go of the idea that your life will be perfect if you lose weight is not easy. For the people who make it, that idea basically gets beaten out of them, until they are willing to trade ‘I'm going to be a movie star' for ‘I can walk up stairs more easily.'"

For people struggling to lose weight and keep it off, Dr. Granberg suggests "asking yourself if there are smaller, more manageable goals that losing weight could help you attain. Ask ‘Are there things going on in my life today that it would be really nice if they were easier? Maybe I could get in and out of the car easily, or could go up the stairs without difficulty.' Often we look at those kinds of goals and say ‘Well, that's just not enough to give up eating what I want.' It's important to keep in mind that people who do sustain weight loss over time take fulfillment from those small victories. In fact, those small victories are a big deal."

Dr. Granberg says, "You need to be motivated by immediate things, the near-term, pragmatic benefits that will sustain you in the end. The people who sustain weight loss talk about how happy it makes them that they can cross their legs." She adds, "People who are diabetic experience some important benefits right away. Many are able to reduce the amount of medication that they use. Don't focus on the distant future, long-term dangers of diabetes, but think about the immediate payoffs of losing weight. There are a lot of them."

Dr. Granberg also notes that if you feel disappointed at the results of your weight loss, remember that those feelings are normal and to be expected. In fact, they're just a predictable phase in the process. For people who have been heavy for years, it takes two or three years before they feel normal at their new weight. "It's really ‘slow and steady wins the race,'" says Dr. Granberg. "We are so conditioned to expect that it's going to be the hare and not the tortoise who wins the race. If it's not the hare, we immediately think that something's wrong, but weight loss is a tortoise thing."

"If you can just wait it out, hold on and not get frustrated, just live in the thinner body and hang on for a while, you will start to find things to appreciate about it, the small rewards."