Viewing entries in
good news
I missed the whole phenomenon of Duck Dynasty. I was out of the country when it made it’s splash on A&E. I’m not a huge fan of reality television and so I likely would have missed it anyway. And at this point, I’m not about to try and catch up. But I was touched by Kay Robertson’s honesty in recounting the struggles of her early marriage and how Jesus rescued her in the video by “I am Second”. There were three lessons that stood out to me.
I spent the day on Monday with our missionary to urban First Nations people. It was an incredible day of learning for me as I heard not only his personal story but his insights into how our society has failed the First Nations people, what can be done, and how people are finding help from abuse, addiction and prejudice. When he spoke on Sunday, a number of people expressed an interest in hearing more about his background and road to recovery. I wanted to try my best to share his story for those who didn’t get a chance to hear it.
I was 20 years old when I first raised the objection against Christianity: “If Jesus is the only way, what about all the people who have never heard?” I was pretty proud of my logic. And I think I half-believed that I was the first one to come up with the argument. “Had I single-handedly proven the inconsistency of a religion that spanned thousands of years and had duped hundreds of millions of followers?” It felt like it at the time, but I eventually came to think otherwise. I now believe I had a number of things wrong. Let me explain.
One of Satan’s most successful strategies through the years has been to focus his energies not so much on making Christians deny the faith, but in convincing them that their faith is largely irrelevant. He loves for people to compartmentalize their faith so that Jesus is still Lord, while limiting His ‘area of expertise’ to some narrow fields of religion and morality. Whenever I have seen people come alive in their faith, it’s as they’ve seen how Jesus impacts all of their life: from family to finances to career and entertainment. When Alfonso began to live for God and see his skills as an auto mechanic as a gift from God, it revolutionized how he approached life.
In the last decade, public opinion on issues related to the LGBT+ community has shifted so rapidly that many Christians are still trying to catch up. It’s never helpful trying to understand an issue from a distance but the reality is that many of us have never sat down and had thoughtful conversations with people who have a first-hand understanding of same sex attraction and transgender temptations and are also fully committed to the Scriptures as the Word of God. That’s why I found Christopher Yuan’s workshop on “Christianity and Homosexuality” so helpful. Let me share some of what I learned.
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.
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.
The conviction that he was made in the image of God convinced him that he possessed an inherent dignity when others didn’t treat him with respect. And his belief that even his oppressors were made in the image of God, moved him to reject violent and vengeful tactics that others in his movement favoured as a response to their enemies.
Our campus worker with Power to Change invited me to their year-end conference P2C+. I was busy with sermon preparation and other ministry with the short week, and so could only spare half a day on New Year’s Eve, but it was well worth the time. I’m not sure what I expected. There were probably 800 students gathered and it would have been easy to entertain them with light talks on hot topics. What I got instead was a hard-hitting morning on the theme of suffering.
December is a month when I’m focused on Christmas and the birth of Jesus. But last week I was invited to a seminar on the life of Muhammad. It was a reminder to me of the religious and cultural diversity of our city – and it impacts how we witness about Jesus. In the past with a Christian cultural majority, it was easy for Christians to ignore the beliefs of other people and simply share the Good News. Today, a subtler approach is needed. Let me explain how I responded to the Muslim invitation.
