Mission Made Manifest

Sorry about missing last week (I know you were all sitting by your computer just waiting for the weekly update!) However, I was away for a week in Ohio for the final portion of an enrichment programme that I have been part of for the past 18 months. I was able to get back for church this past Sunday but, not having the preparation time I usually do, I didn't preach. Instead, we watched a video message from Gary Haugen, the founder and president of an organization called International Justice Mission (IJM). Gary used to work as a lawyer with the State Department in the USA. His work took him to places of terrible suffering and injustice in the world, places like South Africa and Rwanda. Through this experience, Gary heard God call him into fulltime work against the powers of injustice and oppression in the world. IJM is the result of this calling. Gary has an incredibly challenging message for all of us about the need to stand up for and stoop down with the poor and oppressed.

But his message is especially challenging to those of us who call ourselves Christians, i.e. followers of Jesus. You see, Jesus doesn't ask us simply to believe the right things in a cerebral, intellectual way. Jesus calls us to follow him, i.e. the one who stood up for and stooped down with the poor and oppressed in everything he did, in everything he was. The Bible is pretty clear on the fact that it's not enough simply to believe that Jesus did these things or that God desires these things. We are called to follow him. (For example, see John 13:17, James 1:22-25, 1 John 3:17.)

Well, this Sunday I will, once again, not be preaching. (I'm taking the weekend as holiday time so I can go stoop down with my friends on my baseball team and scoop up a few ground balls and maybe win our league championship!) Instead, you will be treated with a number of short messages from people who have, each in their own way, heard Jesus' call to stand up for and stoop down with a wide variety of people in need. There will be messages...

• about the fabulous charity, Sleeping Children Around the World (www.scaw.org);
• from a missionary couple who are working and living right here in the Nassagaweya area at the Liebenzell Mission (www.liebenzell.ca);
• about a group of mothers who gather each week to pray for the children, teachers and administration of our local schools;
• and about the outreach and helping ministries going on right around the corner among some of the workers at the Mohawk (i.e. the local racetrack).

Whatever your interest or theological perspective, I know you will be challenged by these real stories of real people trying to follow Jesus in big and small ways in his call to serve the needy of our world. Please join us if you can!

Community Breakfast

Our annual Community Breakfast is happening this Sunday (9:00-11:30am). This is a free breakfast open to everyone who wants to come (freewill donations to Canadian Foodgrains Bank towards relief in Malawi will be accepted if you choose to give). It's simply a time to relax with friends and community and enjoy a good meal together. There will be activities for the kids (including bouncy castles!) and a very short programme for the adults at 10:15 (approx. 15 minutes). Please join us if you can!

Following our theme of "Paul: Man With a Mission," the programme for the adults will incude a brief reflection on Paul's visit to Athens where he found countless little shrines to countless little gods (Acts 17). His message to the Athenians? You're getting pulled in 50 different directions, pursuing all of these little things you see as being good, but you're missing out on the one thing that is best, i.e. a relationship with the one true God of the universe. People were running around trying to appease the gods through their good works and religion, but Paul reminds them that the Creator of all things doesn't actually need anything made by human hands. Human hands were made to reach out to Him, the One we need more than anyone or anything else.

Seems to me that we have a lot in common with the ancient Athenians. We too are running around after many little things that seem to be good at the expense of the things that are best: families are spending less and less time together as school and kids activities take up more and more time; children are missing unstructured play time, one of the most vital things for overall healthy development; career and increased family earnings have become more and more important as we seek to indulge our desire for more; and the list goes on.

Fortunately, God is not an extra item that needs to be added to an already busy schedule. He wants to be at the centre of every aspect of our lives. Yes, the church has programmes and events that we can get involved with, and yes, there are things like Bible reading and prayer that can take up some of our time. But these are not things we do in order to check them off the "To do" list (or they shouldn't be). These are things that help us get in postion to grow in the knowledge and experience of the love and power of Jesus in all things.

In any case, I hope you can find some time to be with us on Sunday for breakfast. Hope to see you there!

The Secret

I watched a video the other day, called "The Secret." You've probably heard of it. It started out as a book that made the coveted "Oprah's Booklist" a few years back, ensuring that it would become a blockbuster. I didn't have time to tackle the book this week, but I did find time to watch the video version. Wow, it was something else. (By "something else," though, I don't mean I thought it was good and neither am I recommending it to you. It was "something else" entirely from the way of Jesus.)

Remember "An Inconvenient Truth"? You know, the environmental presentation-become-movie made by Al Gore? The catchphrase for that movie was something like, "The scariest movie you'll ever see." After watching the well-thought-out and scientifically based presentation of the potential environmental disaster waiting for us, I didn't think I would ever see a scarier movie. Until now. Wow, where do I start...

The basic premise of "The Secret" is that "thoughts become things." In other words, whatever thoughts you dwell on (positive or negative, conscious or unconscious) will become a reality in your life: "Whatever you think about, you bring about." The video was full of images of women looking longingly at gold necklaces, a kid at a new bike, a man at a sports car, and so on. At some point there would be a magical pulse shoot out from their minds, showing how they are thinking about, dwelling on, visualizing themselves with this thing that will apparently bring them fulfilment. At one point, the universe is likened to a huge catalogue of stuff we want, and we are told straight out to "place your order with the universe." The psalmist declared, "The heavens proclaim the glory of God" (Ps 19.1). But I guess he got that wrong, eh? Maybe it should be, "The heavens purvey the glory of gold, easily accessible for your personal pleasure from the catalogue of positive thinking."

I almost had to laugh aloud at the point where it was talking about the story of Alladin and the magical lamp. (You know, Alladin finds a lamp, frees a genie, and is given three -- or, according to some versions of the story, unlimited -- wishes, and he goes on to great fame and fortune.) Well, the universe, we're told, is like the genie, ready to say, "Your wish is my command." And then -- and this is the part that almost made me laugh (or was it cry?) -- the incredible leap is made from Alladin's genie to saying, "Every tradition has told us there's something bigger than us." And suddenly the creating God of all that was, is and will be, the God who showed Himself in Jesus' life of sacrificial love, and who called all people to follow Him, is made a Divine Genie, just waiting to fulfil your every selfish thought. Wow. (Sorry, I know I'm saying that a lot, but every now and then I'm just flabbergasted all over again.)

And of course, it doesn't just work with positive thoughts. If you dwell on negative thoughts, then this too will become your reality. Worried that you will be late for an important meeting? You'll be late. (That accident on the highway that held you up? Yep, you caused it by worrying about your meeting!) Dwelling on all that pesky debt that keeps piling up, all those notices of repossession you keep getting? It's all because you are attracting the debt through your negative thoughts. (I don't suppose "spending beyone your means" had anything to do with it, huh? Or an economy that tanked because literally millions of people were spending beyond their means? Hmmm.)

Okay, want me to find something positive to say? I'll try. I did like how they talked about the need to live from a place of gratitude. (Gratitude to Whom, however, was never mentioned.) And you know what? I don't actually have a problem with the idea, or even the "power", of positive thinking. But the power doesn't come from some mystical or pseudoscientific "law of attraction." It comes from the attitude realignment when we begin to live from a place of gratitude (i.e. to God) and, I would add, a place of trust (i.e. in Jesus).

This is what Jesus lived. He spoke about how everything he did came from the inner strength of knowing the living presence of God in every situation: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise" (John 5.19). And the same goes for Jesus' followers. To us, Jesus says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15.5).

"Apart from me, you can do nothing." Hmmm. Doesn't sound as nice as "think nice thoughts and get nice stuff." But this was Paul's "secret," and it can be yours too... for only $29.95 plus shipping and handling!! (Sorry -- couldn't resist!) Here's how Paul puts it in one of his letters (which, by the way, was a consistent best-seller for hundreds of years before "The Secret" ever came along): "I can do all things through him [Jesus] who strengthens me" (Philippians 4.13).

Wow. Now that's a secret I want to share. How about you?