Where is my Church? 305 Machray Ave Wpg. MB 7 pm Sunday evenings.

Monday 16 January 2012

Friends

Friends

Here I am into the second half of my century-old life on this planet. Can you imagine living over nine centuries like some of the men of the Old Testament times? Check out Noah in Genesis 9:29. He lived 950 years!

Can you imagine Noah and all that he witnessed in his life? Think all the friends that came and went? And one wife that whole time?! Well, at least she could help with the remembering part!

Already, I have seen so many friends come and go. Some have moved away. Some got jealous or angry and stomped away. And some just passed away. All of them I miss; even the angry ones.

Life is so full of twists, turns and surprises. Just when you think you know the road, it moves or changes. Well, at least it never lacks for change.

Joys and sorrows, good memories and already a lot of faded memories.

Some of those friends were only there as long as I served their purposes. Once we did not have mutual goals, the friendship faded away.

But one part of life is always the same. My faith in God only grows. My Bible has changed. I tend to wear out the book. But when I go through the pages, I am spending time with a consistent, never-changing friend. He speaks to me from its pages. God is always the same. His presence is never far. It is because I choose to stay in close contact. Reading His Word daily, praying often. Prayer is not that hard; it is listening more than talking. Brother Lawrence, a monk from centuries ago, inspired a book. It is called “Practice the Presence of God.” There in the title is all of it. Just practicing His presence in all we do. Being together.

Friendship is cultivated the same way. It is forged by time together and by trust. God is there always. It just takes my time to forge that relationship. It takes experience to learn to trust. He never waivers. I do. Friendship takes bumps and bruises too. But I would rather have a wound from a friend then a kiss from an enemy. My God never is my enemy. He always proves faithful in the end of it all.




 

Fenced in geese!

Christian Culture




In the 19th century, Soren Kierkegaard told a parable.  It goes something like this:


In the barnyard are fat geese.  They are enjoying food, safety, and security.  Then one day in the fall a flock of wild geese fly overhead.  The barnyard geese start to run through the yard – squawking and flapping their wings, but never going over the fence. They had gotten too comfortable inside the fence.


Perhaps our challenge as Christian men is to consider which flock we are in.  Are we imitators and squawkers or are we really going anywhere?


Be a risk-taker and go over the fence.  Think outside the box.


Modern Christian ghetto thinking is to get people saved.  As primarily an evangelist, I am all for that.  But saved from what?  Many people come to Christ for different reasons.  Save me from my poverty; save me from my addictions.  My aim is not to deny them that, but to help them realize it is salvation from sin they need.


Great, but now saved to what?  Many modern-day Christian leaders want you to get saved to Jesus and to heaven.  But my experience, both personal and as an observation, is that you need to get saved into modern Christian culture. Lets extract you from your place and put you in here with us.


To explain, when you get “saved” you are supposed to quit smoking, cut your hair, and stop riding motorcycles.  That was what I was told.  Here I am 30 years “saved” and I’ve only succeeded at half those requirements.  For a time I even crawled into the Christian ghetto but found a loss of touch with the culture of the lost that I was to get “saved”.  I began to think and feel I was so different from them that I couldn’t communicate with them.  We no longer had the same language.  I needed to get out of the ghetto and get back to understanding the culture I was to reach.


Typically, Christians live in their own culture, losing touch with the culture around them.


How do you define a culture?  It is defined by:

1)    Language

2)    Belief system and values (this may be religion)

3)    Music and art

4)    Dress

5)    Family structure


Recently, on a trip to Mexico City, I took a trip into “Crapo Market”.  It was vendor after vendor with items for sale aimed at the subculture of Goths, skinheads, and hippies.  There I was, in Hispanic Mexican culture, observing a subculture that was typical of any North American city subculture.  It was the same dress, art and music, post-modern belief system and values, and same language.  Though the language was Spanish, the terms and idioms used were peculiar to that Goth subculture.  And in it all I saw no one trying to reach them for Jesus.  My hosts were even sceptical about our visit there.  My short observation told me this was a subculture not being impacted for Jesus.


What is my point?  Christianity in its origins was a culture creating, impacting movement.  In its origin, it was guilty of  “turning the world upside down”. It impacted and changed the Romanian empire.  It literally saved Ireland (see the real story of St. Patrick), it reformed England (re: John Wesley). It was the moulding tool for the shaping of culture in the initial Canada and United States.  We are the salt and light of society.  This means we are the saving agents of society.  We are historically the culture shapers of society!


Back to story of the geese.  Isn’t it time we go over the fence, be risk-takers, think outside the box, escape the ghetto, and be the culture shapers we are supposed to be?