Time Out

Hi folks.

Sorry we have have fallen behind our planned schedule, but I had to take a few days out for a heart attack. After a lightning ride (lights and sirens) from Lethbridge to Calgary, angioplasty and a slower ride back to Lethbridge, I am home again. 

I am recovering well, especially now I'm home again. Will be catching up in the next day or so. See us then.

Check out our daughters website for more details, Still Enjoying the Journey at this link. 

Bryan

Where did They Go?

“As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?” Ezekiel 34:17–18.

Although earlier verses in this chapter indict the shepherds of Israel, in these verses, the Lord is concerned with the actions of the sheep! Some of the sheep and cattle of Israel were hogging all the good pasture for themselves and souring it for others.

This raises the question whether those of us long in the faith are not mature Christians, but just fat cats. We’ve had a lifetime of spiritual food and feel secure in our status before God. Yet we are often intolerant of others coming to faith who contravene the carefully manicured traditions we have built around the Gospel.

John Bowen, of Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto, in his book published this year, Growing Up Christian, finds hypocrisy among Christians the first reason given for leaving the church. This includes personal self-righteousness, refusal to face the difficult questions, and a lack of concern for social issues.

However, John found that many gave up on the church, not their faith. Although they were dissatisfied with pat answers, or that some major questions were considered illegitimate, many continue in areas of ministry the church frequently neglects.

Truth may not always be obvious, but censorship will not aid the quest for it. Are we sufficiently unsure of our faith to need simplistic answers to guard it? If so, have we been instrumental in “muddying the waters,” so deterring others from pursuing their faith through the difficult question?

Staying Together

“Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." Mark 10:9

It seems to me that the Bible is long on instructions for living, but short on the reasons for those instructions. The response, “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it!” is insufficient for the inquisitive, and rejected by those without faith in the Bible. For most of us, the sure-fire way to find out why Scriptural injunctions are critical is to flout them; cause and effect are good teachers.

In today’s quote, Jesus emphasizes the necessary permanence of marriage. For His reasoning, we have only to look at the chaotic state of marriage in Western civilization and the trauma of children and adults from broken homes, to realize the necessity of stable marriages. Numerous studies consistently show that in general, those from broken homes compete poorly with children of established heterosexual marriages, are less likely to do as well in the market place, or establish stable marriages of their own.

That is not the end of it. Every action has cultural consequences, and fractured marriages threaten a free society. Government steps to “assist” by enacting laws to govern break-up, support single parents, provide daycare and counsel or fostering for wounded children, is both invasive and expensive. Anyone going through divorce will experience the heavy hand of government dictating what he or she can and cannot do.

Yet marriage break-up is a symptom of a greater underlying malaise. Integrity in our current culture is being true to oneself rather than to others. In fact, the argument runs, I cannot be true to others until I am true to myself. I should leave the marriage if I am not content or happy in it; it’s more authentic than living a lie; besides, a fractious marriage is no good for the kids!

This attitude, like the US constitution, is based on a false premise: the pursuit of happiness. In fact, happiness is a by-product: Goodness and mercy will follow me (Psalm 23:6, emphasis mine), suggesting it is the Shepherd’s path that inherits this blessing. In marriage, satisfaction follows service; sacrifice is necessary to ensure both stability and joy in the relationship. That pattern is set in the ultimate sacrifice that God endured to guarantee our relationship with Him.

The loss of Christian faith in our culture has resulted in a deficit of sacrificial care in our relationships, and the prevailing cult of self-obsession will continue to erode marriage and make resolution of failing marriages more difficult. While this attitude, and the ease of divorce that fosters it, persists, marriage break-up will continue. It takes two to make a marriage, but only one to break it up. It is the giving of sacrificial love—a practical rather than emotional gift—that is the active ingredient in joyful union.

Hope in Extremity?

 
Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23.

The scale of earth’s tragedies is difficult to comprehend. It is only the snapshots on television that expose the individual suffering in the Pakistan floods, the Haitian earthquake, and other recurring catastrophes. They provide a glimpse of the devastation that millions of earth’s inhabitants endure.

So many lose everything of meaning, home, land, and often members of their loved ones killed in the disaster. Left with no means of sustenance, many more face death from starvation, exposure, and sickness, unless aid comes quickly. The initial calamity is only the beginning of a mounting struggle for survival.

While natural disasters are tragedy enough, it is unconscionable that millions more are forced into grim poverty and death due to rebellion and terror. Places like Dafur and Congo are household names due to the infamy of political or military perpetrators, or greed of the powerful.

In Jeremiah’s time, Judah and Jerusalem were in a similar predicament. The Babylonians had overrun and devastated the land, burnt the city and exiled the leadership of the land. Peasants were left to forage for food. Lamentations is Jeremiah’s record of the degradation and misery that remained.

Young and old were fainting and dying in the streets from hunger, bodies left unburied, and mothers ate their babies to stay alive. There was no aid from neighbouring countries. Few knew about it, and those who knew didn’t care, or even rejoiced in Judah’s suffering.

Today’s text is remarkable because Jeremiah wrote it during this calamity. Despite all this devastation and apparent hopelessness, he was convinced of God’s ongoing compassion for his people. He had no visible evidence to support this claim; he could only find it in the unseen reality of God’s faithfulness.

I doubt those of us in the relatively secure west will face such extremity, but most of us will face personal difficulties that seem just as intractable. I have to ask myself, would I respond with such assurance of God’s care? A verse later, Jeremiah responds to the question: The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Faith the Basis of Hope

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. James 1:12.

Someone has said: “Life is hard, then you die.” For those without a life giving faith, that about sums it up. For many in the world who scratch out a living in abject poverty, and for those who are victims of earth’s convulsions, or men’s violence, life hardly makes sense—this is not the way life should be.

Yet we all face trials of life to a greater or lesser degree. The question is: “How are we going to react?” How we react to distress of any kind determines, not only the outcome for ourselves and those we love, but also whether any benefit accrues from it.

The idea of benefit from major distress appears laughable, yet James, a few verses earlier writes, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. But perseverance requires hope.

Without hope, there is no point in persevering under adversity. If there is no relief from the hardships of life, there really is no point in carrying on. The tragedy of so much marriage break-up is the lack of hope that the opposing positions of each partner can ever be resolved.

Yet, experience has shown that a strong marriage is built on such troubled times. Lack of hope will kill love, but hope can rekindle it. A ship’s captain doesn’t learn his craft on a calm sea, nor is marriage secured without conflict. In a real sense, perseverance can bring life to a dying marriage.

And our text reminds us that perseverance will bring us a crown of life. Now the idea of floating around heaven with a crown on my head is quite unappealing. Life itself is the crown. The renewal of a failing marriage, or recovery from personal adversity, is but a reflection of the life to come for those whose perseverance has established the validity of their faith.

What about Tomorrow?

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." James 4:13-15

I remember as a child, my parents always added “DV” when arranging for the next few days. “DV” is a contraction of the Latin Deo Volente meaning, “if God wills.” Even now, some will add “God willing” to any plans they are making, recognizing that our future is in God’s hands. If we are committed to follow His leading, expect that He may change our plans to coincide with His.  

Even if we ignore God’s call on our life and plan for our own security and prosperity, we cannot be sure the unexpected will not obstruct them. Above all, we never know when He might say, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' (Luke 12:20) The ultimate folly of life is not being prepared to meet Him to whom we all have to give an account.

Life is short and fragile. Many of us who have had a brush with death are very aware of it. But most in our coddled western culture act as if we are going to live forever. My guess is that this head-in-the-sand approach is a way of trying to forget the inevitable. None of us is immune to the hazards of daily life or the disasters that strike the earth.

That life is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes, is a frightening description of the brevity and frailty of life. Born in the cool of the night, a puff of wind will scatter a morning mist and the rising sun will dissolve it. Viewed from its latter years, life appears to have gone by in a flash, the years envisioned in youth now telescoped into memories.

Those of us permitted to live a long life have had many opportunities to prepare to meet our Creator. But long life of our choosing is not guaranteed. Accident or disease can redirect life to a less welcome route, or simply curtail it at any age. Either way, let’s make the journey with Him.

A Place of Refuge

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, Psalm 46:1-2.  

The new millennium has experienced some of the world’s worst disasters in a period of just ten years. The tsunami of 2004 and the recent Haitian earthquake are the most memorable, while the floods in Pakistan and China and the wildfires in Russia and British Columbia currently occurring, are the latest of examples of continuing disasters throughout the world.

The ongoing conflict in the Middle east, and the atrocious wars in Sudan and Congo pale beside nuclear weapons in the hands of unstable nations like North Korea and Iran, never mind the terrorists who would also like to get their hands on a nuclear device. For a different dread, yesterday, the news declared that bed bugs are creeping across Canada from the east, and an invading superbug has landed in Vancouver.Today it's in Alberta!

It is certainly a time for vigilance. So is the psalmist’s lack of fear folly or faith? For those without belief in God, or consider Him irrelevant, they have a right to fear, for there is no escape or comfort in disaster. But the psalmist reminds us that God is involved in our sorry state, especially in times of adversity.

But the question remains: When I am being swept away by the flood, and those dearest to me have been torn from my side, how then, is God an ever-present help? Is he going to stem the flood, place me on dry land and restore my family to me? Far from considering God near, I am likely to ask why an absent God allowed these things to happen. 

While we accept that misfortune of greater of lesser magnitude will befall both those of faith as well as those without it, there is a qualitative difference on the attitude to disaster by those with faith in God. 

For one thing, their perspective is broader than the momentary troubles on earth, however horrific and devastating an event may be. They fix their eyes, not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal, 2 Cor 4:18. There is an assurance that one day they will be in a final place of security, and be re-united with those lost loved ones who departed earlier.

But of immediate comfort, so many have felt that indefinable, yet conscious, presence of God in their extremity. It seems the psalmist had that experience, a sense of God’s overshadowing and His strength to cope; that ever present help that sustained him in his adversity. Will we trust God for that same hope in whatever difficult days may lie ahead?