Friday March 27, 2009
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 1 John 3:17.
Of course, there are so many ways in which we can provide for others in need. As I write this, an email arrived from someone confirming their plan to pray for me that the surgery would go well, without complications and recovery would be quick. She is one of many who have promised to pray. But I also think of my surgeon and the supporting medical staff that have made it their life’s work to help those in need. I’m sure that many do it simply out of human compassion, and not necessarily in Christ’s name. But then there are Christians who rarely fill a need for another. I wonder how God responds to this.
We thank God for all those that have provided help when we needed it; my surgery is no exception, we covet your prayers and support. It is with an intense sense of gratitude that we realize God is our final helper and the blessings of life all come from him—but frequently through others who have placed themselves at his disposal. What we do for people is significant. However, it is noteworthy that the text refers to material possessions. Perhaps what we do with our money and possessions is the ultimate test of our commitment to God and his work. As Jesus said: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Wednesday March 25, 2009
'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' Matt 25:23.
An interesting concept: increased responsibility a source of happiness. Doesn’t fit well with this individual who is still seeking for that comfortable rut! But it does highlight the truth that for most people accomplishment is a source of happiness, while having nothing to do is not. For Ann and myself, boredom is not an issue. I recall Charles Swindoll commenting that he remarked to his wife once as they fell into bed at 11.00 p.m.: “to think that some people are bored . . .”
All this to say that we have always had something to do; sometimes from a sense of obligation, more often working towards a goal we have set for ourselves. But always with a sense that the work is meaningful because it is accomplishing something for eternity. Right now, our first book is ready for printing, and Ann is in the last stages of finishing her Political Science degree; papers to finish within a month, my surgery this Monday and Ann’s foot surgery about a week later. We keep going!
Ah yes: that surgery. It was easy to put it on the back burner for the last three months, but as it comes closer pictures of it flit across my mind a dozen times a day. And the nagging questions: What level of pain will I have to cope with? How long will the after effects last? Will I be able to take care of some upcoming obligations? Add to that the necessity to buy new sleeping attire to replace the rags I usually sleep in. So much to think about!
Surgery is this coming Monday and I’ll probably be in hospital for three days. We are buoyed up by so many of you that have committed to pray for me: that surgery will go well, and recovery will be quick with no complications. Thank you. We will keep you updated, just watch this space . . .
'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' Matt 25:23.
An interesting concept: increased responsibility a source of happiness. Doesn’t fit well with this individual who is still seeking for that comfortable rut! But it does highlight the truth that for most people accomplishment is a source of happiness, while having nothing to do is not. For Ann and myself, boredom is not an issue. I recall Charles Swindoll commenting that he remarked to his wife once as they fell into bed at 11.00 p.m.: “to think that some people are bored . . .”
All this to say that we have always had something to do; sometimes from a sense of obligation, more often working towards a goal we have set for ourselves. But always with a sense that the work is meaningful because it is accomplishing something for eternity. Right now, our first book is ready for printing, and Ann is in the last stages of finishing her Political Science degree; papers to finish within a month, my surgery this Monday and Ann’s foot surgery about a week later. We keep going!
Ah yes: that surgery. It was easy to put it on the back burner for the last three months, but as it comes closer pictures of it flit across my mind a dozen times a day. And the nagging questions: What level of pain will I have to cope with? How long will the after effects last? Will I be able to take care of some upcoming obligations? Add to that the necessity to buy new sleeping attire to replace the rags I usually sleep in. So much to think about!
Surgery is this coming Monday and I’ll probably be in hospital for three days. We are buoyed up by so many of you that have committed to pray for me: that surgery will go well, and recovery will be quick with no complications. Thank you. We will keep you updated, just watch this space . . .
Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday March 23, 2009
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15-16.
There is an incredible comfort in these words. There is a world of difference between the relationship of an employer and employee, and enjoyment in the company of friends. The first is mostly a mercenary relationship, the latter a voluntary sharing of ourselves. The expectation of the business relationship is generally clear; salary paid for work done. Anything beyond that is simply generosity from either side.
Furthermore, our text declares that an employer does not ordinarily share all his company information freely with his employees, but good friend have few secrets from each other. If we have to be guarded about what we share with someone, then what we experience is not real friendship. Generally, the closer the relationship, the freer we feel to disclose ourselves to them. The depth of the friendship Jesus offers us is measured by his disclosure to us of all that the Father has taught him.
Of course, this raises the question of how all the information Jesus has can be passed to us. But the text is clear: it is not all that he knows, but all that the Father has given him for us. That information is complete, as complete as the work he has done for us on Calvary. This reminds me that “he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:32-33).
As Ann and I enter the last week before my surgery and Ann’s foot surgery the week following mine, we are glad to have the support of local friends and family for any need during that time. But of greater comfort is the knowledge that our greatest friend, God himself, goes with us.
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15-16.
There is an incredible comfort in these words. There is a world of difference between the relationship of an employer and employee, and enjoyment in the company of friends. The first is mostly a mercenary relationship, the latter a voluntary sharing of ourselves. The expectation of the business relationship is generally clear; salary paid for work done. Anything beyond that is simply generosity from either side.
Furthermore, our text declares that an employer does not ordinarily share all his company information freely with his employees, but good friend have few secrets from each other. If we have to be guarded about what we share with someone, then what we experience is not real friendship. Generally, the closer the relationship, the freer we feel to disclose ourselves to them. The depth of the friendship Jesus offers us is measured by his disclosure to us of all that the Father has taught him.
Of course, this raises the question of how all the information Jesus has can be passed to us. But the text is clear: it is not all that he knows, but all that the Father has given him for us. That information is complete, as complete as the work he has done for us on Calvary. This reminds me that “he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:32-33).
As Ann and I enter the last week before my surgery and Ann’s foot surgery the week following mine, we are glad to have the support of local friends and family for any need during that time. But of greater comfort is the knowledge that our greatest friend, God himself, goes with us.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Friday March 20, 2009
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. Psalm 84:5.
An apt text for this time in my life, although the pilgrimage I am about to take is not the one suggested on today's text. My current pilgrimage is certainly one that raises apprehensions. The healthy body I currently have (relatively speaking!) is going to be cut up and I’ll be convalescencing for . . . ? Only yesterday an article on Canada.com suggested that the PSA test for prostate cancer was not sufficiently reliable and many men are now impotent and incontinent because of it. At Least one person I know suffers this three years after prostate surgery—but at least he is cancer free.
Of course, it’s not the PSA test itself that causes these infirmities; it is the surgery to remove the prostate that follows a positive test for cancer. In my case the PSA test was also positive, but in addition a rectal exam found a lump and a biopsy confirmed cancer. However good I feel, this invader has to be removed but the future beyond that is not certain. The urologist claims I will eventually retain all functions, but projections and reality do not always coincide so I am prepared for a more unsatisfactory outcome. So this really is a pilgrimage.
However, my future as a whole is a lot more certain than many entering surgery for a variety of other problems, and I have little to complain about. But I can identify to some degree with the anxiety that surgery provokes in less certain cases. All the more reason to continue on the ultimate pilgrimage with God, where, as our text declares, we find our strength.
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. Psalm 84:5.
An apt text for this time in my life, although the pilgrimage I am about to take is not the one suggested on today's text. My current pilgrimage is certainly one that raises apprehensions. The healthy body I currently have (relatively speaking!) is going to be cut up and I’ll be convalescencing for . . . ? Only yesterday an article on Canada.com suggested that the PSA test for prostate cancer was not sufficiently reliable and many men are now impotent and incontinent because of it. At Least one person I know suffers this three years after prostate surgery—but at least he is cancer free.
Of course, it’s not the PSA test itself that causes these infirmities; it is the surgery to remove the prostate that follows a positive test for cancer. In my case the PSA test was also positive, but in addition a rectal exam found a lump and a biopsy confirmed cancer. However good I feel, this invader has to be removed but the future beyond that is not certain. The urologist claims I will eventually retain all functions, but projections and reality do not always coincide so I am prepared for a more unsatisfactory outcome. So this really is a pilgrimage.
However, my future as a whole is a lot more certain than many entering surgery for a variety of other problems, and I have little to complain about. But I can identify to some degree with the anxiety that surgery provokes in less certain cases. All the more reason to continue on the ultimate pilgrimage with God, where, as our text declares, we find our strength.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Tuesday March 17, 2009
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Ps 139:14.
If my prostate surgery has been on the back burner for a couple of months or so, yesterday’s pre-op placed it squarely front and centre: an ECG, several phials of my blood secreted away, and a battery of questions about my health from illnesses and allergies to prescribed medication—all “no”s I’m glad to say. A new innovation for me is the armband I’ve been given and told not to remove until surgery—almost on pain of death. It contains a bar code which when scanned will, I assume, post all my statistics on a monitor for all to see. Shades of “666”?
The nurse remarked on how healthy I was. Thanks. But not for long. Shortly someone will be scouring out debris from my body like cleaning up a burnt saucepan, and stapling me up like a pair of old torn trousers. My dignity in tatters, I will have tubes going in to my arms and hanging out of the most personal parts, not to mention sponge baths and being helped around like an old crock. And that isn’t the end. Convalescence with some bodily functions sharply impaired for a few weeks, return visits to inspect the incision and have catheter and staples removed, and the concern for possible complications will follow surgery.
Perhaps the most amazing thing is that after so many people cutting up and generally messing about with my body, is that it will eventually heal itself. The psalmist was right: God has made our bodies a marvel of engineering with this ability to nurse itself back to health. Not only that, this same God is active today in our lives, in this case to oversee the whole performance. I am encouraged that almost every conversation and email ends with the promise to intercede for me. Thanks to so many of you who have supported us in this and other ways. God bless you all.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Ps 139:14.
If my prostate surgery has been on the back burner for a couple of months or so, yesterday’s pre-op placed it squarely front and centre: an ECG, several phials of my blood secreted away, and a battery of questions about my health from illnesses and allergies to prescribed medication—all “no”s I’m glad to say. A new innovation for me is the armband I’ve been given and told not to remove until surgery—almost on pain of death. It contains a bar code which when scanned will, I assume, post all my statistics on a monitor for all to see. Shades of “666”?
The nurse remarked on how healthy I was. Thanks. But not for long. Shortly someone will be scouring out debris from my body like cleaning up a burnt saucepan, and stapling me up like a pair of old torn trousers. My dignity in tatters, I will have tubes going in to my arms and hanging out of the most personal parts, not to mention sponge baths and being helped around like an old crock. And that isn’t the end. Convalescence with some bodily functions sharply impaired for a few weeks, return visits to inspect the incision and have catheter and staples removed, and the concern for possible complications will follow surgery.
Perhaps the most amazing thing is that after so many people cutting up and generally messing about with my body, is that it will eventually heal itself. The psalmist was right: God has made our bodies a marvel of engineering with this ability to nurse itself back to health. Not only that, this same God is active today in our lives, in this case to oversee the whole performance. I am encouraged that almost every conversation and email ends with the promise to intercede for me. Thanks to so many of you who have supported us in this and other ways. God bless you all.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Monday March 16, 2009
For by him [Jesus] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16-17.
The claims of this text are ultimate and necessary for faith. That the world as we know it was self-created by accident does not make common sense to the common man. That’s why nearly half of Americans continue to believe “Charles Darwin was wrong where it mattered most.” (National Geographic, Nov. 2004, p. 6.) Whatever the merits or demerits of evolution, this text maintains that Jesus, the incarnate Son of God was before all of it. And in the final analysis, if life is an accident, then life has no real meaning beyond daily mechanical animal survival.
The problems of life conceived by accident are many. Where did ethics come from? An innate knowledge of right and wrong is common only to humans; animals, beyond training, do not have it. Of greater mystery is why humans even conceptualize the idea of God; animals don’t. The search for God in some form is what most of history is about and the desire for spirituality of some sort is still alive and well in the new millennium—even in the “secular” west. Paul’s claims of the eternal nature of God, and his handiwork in creating and sustaining the universe, make the most sense to most people, even if they consider it irrelevant to life.
But what we believe has consequences. The knowledge of right and wrong and a God who in the ultimate sense created us implies accountability for the life he gave us and freedom to live as we please. That is what makes God and death so frightening. The idea that there is no existence beyond the grave is a hope concocted to allay our fears, for our fear is that there might be!
But there is a further consequence. If, as I believe, Paul’s claims are true, then there is relief for our fears when we put our faith in that same God as our only and final hope. The God who might condemn is also the one who has the power and right to forgive. And Paul’s claim that Jesus Christ is the one who holds ultimate power means that no-one can gainsay or interfere with his desire to reconcile us to himself through his death: the sacrifice of God himself for us.
This belief in turn has a consequence for the way we live. Christ’s power to create and sustain means that his power to sustain individuals like us is also ultimate. Once we accept his claims and place ourselves in God’s mercy, nothing in life can harm us. As I face surgery in two week’s time, I can rest secure in the knowledge that he has ultimate control over my life—whatever the outcome. That gives my life ultimate meaning. I am not simply subject to the whims of an accidental universe.
For by him [Jesus] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16-17.
The claims of this text are ultimate and necessary for faith. That the world as we know it was self-created by accident does not make common sense to the common man. That’s why nearly half of Americans continue to believe “Charles Darwin was wrong where it mattered most.” (National Geographic, Nov. 2004, p. 6.) Whatever the merits or demerits of evolution, this text maintains that Jesus, the incarnate Son of God was before all of it. And in the final analysis, if life is an accident, then life has no real meaning beyond daily mechanical animal survival.
The problems of life conceived by accident are many. Where did ethics come from? An innate knowledge of right and wrong is common only to humans; animals, beyond training, do not have it. Of greater mystery is why humans even conceptualize the idea of God; animals don’t. The search for God in some form is what most of history is about and the desire for spirituality of some sort is still alive and well in the new millennium—even in the “secular” west. Paul’s claims of the eternal nature of God, and his handiwork in creating and sustaining the universe, make the most sense to most people, even if they consider it irrelevant to life.
But what we believe has consequences. The knowledge of right and wrong and a God who in the ultimate sense created us implies accountability for the life he gave us and freedom to live as we please. That is what makes God and death so frightening. The idea that there is no existence beyond the grave is a hope concocted to allay our fears, for our fear is that there might be!
But there is a further consequence. If, as I believe, Paul’s claims are true, then there is relief for our fears when we put our faith in that same God as our only and final hope. The God who might condemn is also the one who has the power and right to forgive. And Paul’s claim that Jesus Christ is the one who holds ultimate power means that no-one can gainsay or interfere with his desire to reconcile us to himself through his death: the sacrifice of God himself for us.
This belief in turn has a consequence for the way we live. Christ’s power to create and sustain means that his power to sustain individuals like us is also ultimate. Once we accept his claims and place ourselves in God’s mercy, nothing in life can harm us. As I face surgery in two week’s time, I can rest secure in the knowledge that he has ultimate control over my life—whatever the outcome. That gives my life ultimate meaning. I am not simply subject to the whims of an accidental universe.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Friday March 13, 2009
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. Joel 3:14.
Home! At last! It’s been a week since my last blog, but that time has seen us fly from England to Montreal, spend some time with Alex our daughter and family there and fly back to Lethbridge, arriving Wednesday evening. As you can imagine, the last day has been spent unpacking, opening a ton of mail, renewing expired insurances and licences, trying to remember where everything is, or was when we left and generally reorienting ourselves to life as we remember it, gratefully assisted by two nights in our own bed!
We are both exhausted from a particularly busy time at the house in Worthing, rounds of visits with family and—in the space of the last few days—two time zone changes and clocks put forward an hour. We are taking a few days to do only what is absolutely necessary plus some enjoyable pottering before we plunge into the coming few weeks. My surgery for prostate removal is slated for March 30th and a pre-op on the 16th. Ann has to give permission today for some minor foot surgery which is scheduled for April 7th in Cardston. She also has papers for an independent university study due before the end of April. Life doesn’t change—still searching for that comfortable rut!
But we are thankful to God for the opportunities given us to serve and keep in touch with our family, in spite of the heavy schedule we have followed. We recognize our lives are mostly the result of decisions we have made and looking back we would not have done most things differently. Our text today reminds us that we will all be judged according to the decisions we have made, and the ungodly practices of the nations will one day be judged on the Day of the Lord—there will be a true and final justice for all. It is a sharp reminder that our decision for or against the claims of the righteous Judge of all the earth will have ultimate consequences for eternity.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. Joel 3:14.
Home! At last! It’s been a week since my last blog, but that time has seen us fly from England to Montreal, spend some time with Alex our daughter and family there and fly back to Lethbridge, arriving Wednesday evening. As you can imagine, the last day has been spent unpacking, opening a ton of mail, renewing expired insurances and licences, trying to remember where everything is, or was when we left and generally reorienting ourselves to life as we remember it, gratefully assisted by two nights in our own bed!
We are both exhausted from a particularly busy time at the house in Worthing, rounds of visits with family and—in the space of the last few days—two time zone changes and clocks put forward an hour. We are taking a few days to do only what is absolutely necessary plus some enjoyable pottering before we plunge into the coming few weeks. My surgery for prostate removal is slated for March 30th and a pre-op on the 16th. Ann has to give permission today for some minor foot surgery which is scheduled for April 7th in Cardston. She also has papers for an independent university study due before the end of April. Life doesn’t change—still searching for that comfortable rut!
But we are thankful to God for the opportunities given us to serve and keep in touch with our family, in spite of the heavy schedule we have followed. We recognize our lives are mostly the result of decisions we have made and looking back we would not have done most things differently. Our text today reminds us that we will all be judged according to the decisions we have made, and the ungodly practices of the nations will one day be judged on the Day of the Lord—there will be a true and final justice for all. It is a sharp reminder that our decision for or against the claims of the righteous Judge of all the earth will have ultimate consequences for eternity.
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