Questions can make hermits out of us, driving us into hiding. Yet the cave has no answers. Christ distributes courage through community; he dissipates doubts through fellowship. He never deposits all knowledge in one person but distributes pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to many. When you interlock your understanding with mine, and we share our discoveries, when we mix, mingle, confess and pray, Christ speaks.
Convictional leaders need to differentiate between convictions and preferences, and they often have trouble doing so. They need humility to avoid excess but are often given to pride. They need to listen as much as they talk but are often strong in the latter but weak in the former.
There are a lot of exciting things happening right now in the life of our church! Did you catch the announcement on Sunday about the launch of our Life Groups? We have eight groups meeting in various places and locations this month and I’d love to have you be a part of one.
Great marriages take work. And with the challenges to marriage and faithfulness in our society today, that work is probably more needed than ever.
This winter in the Learning Centre we did a series on outreach and evangelism based on a strategy developed by Dave Ferguson. We talked about the SPAM that fills up our in-boxes despite the fact that almost no one ever responds to it. Spammers keep sending out their junk e-mail because it costs so little and might reach a few. It’s possible to approach evangelism like a junk e-mail spammer: caring very little for the collateral damage as long as we get the message out.
On March 6, Jerry Bridges passed away from heart failure. His writings have made a deep impact on my life. I first read his oldest and most famous book, The Pursuit of Holiness, as a new believer in university. It was a book that awakened me to the full force of what the Bible taught about sin and seeking holiness.
I have made Biblical fellowship something of a theme over the last several months. I’m convinced that we need one another to grow. But it’s something that I need to model also. And so I’m trying to get to know other pastors and churches. This morning I attended a clergy breakfast in preparation for the upcoming Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast. I was eager for the opportunity to get to know other pastors in the area and learn about the churches that make up our city.
This week someone from the congregation wrote the following: "Diving deeper into the sermon, I think what you said really stuck with me. I feel like in a nutshell that's my Christian life. You know I try to do what I'm supposed to do. Read my Bible, pray, go to church, help the poor, all the physical aspects. But as you said there is still something missing, a refresh. Sadly, I can't even say I have a desire or a thirst. I just do it because I love God and know everything he says and orders us to do is out of his love and perfection. Its like brushing my teeth, I don't have a desire to do it. But I know that it's Good for me, and my dentist has the best interest for my teeth." I wonder whether many of you identify with these words. I did. Let me share with you some of what I wrote in case it’s a help to you when you find yourself going through the motions in your relationship with God.
For the final week of Black History Month, I wanted to introduce to you a man who was saved out of Islam and is now, among many other things, helping the church to share the Good News of the Gospel with Muslims. Thabiti Anyabwile grew up in North Carolina in the middle of the Bible belt but his family only attended church on special occasions. He never felt any strong desire for spiritual things until he was arrested in high school and had a wake-up call. He figured that church might be the place to go to get some sense knocked into you when you got in trouble, but when he went, he never ended up hearing the Good News.
Most people, myself included, see the world and small changes that might be made to better it. And we look on the surface at the issues that are nearest at hand. A true visionary, though, is someone who sees foundational problems and is able to envision and pursue profound solutions, regardless of their scale or the challenges they pose. Nigeria’s Byang Kato was a true Christian visionary.
