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Yearly Archives: 2015
HEAVEN FIFTEEN
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, November 11, 2015 – There’s an epidemic of well-meaning but misdirected help these days. We born-agains are often the worst offenders, imposing our “help” on people who either haven’t asked for it, don’t really want it, or never actually receive it.
In so doing, we make things worse for them and for us.
If people haven’t asked for help, don’t try to give it to them. It won’t work. Yes, you may see that they have a need, but if they don’t see that same need in themselves, keep your mouth shut about it. Better to go to God and pray for them than to nag them.
The only one you should be nagging is God.
Another help misfire is when people are insincere in their request for help. You’ll know the difference between a sincere request and an insincere one, and the best response to an insincere request is a simple “Sorry, no”. It may sound harsh, but ‘helping’ people who don’t really want to be helped in the way they need to be helped does not lead to a positive outcome for anyone.
Sending a check to a charity is another misdirected help effort that does no-one any good (except maybe the administrators and marketers of the charity). If you know (as most of us do now) that up to 100% of charitable donations are redirected down the black hole of admin and advertising costs, then you’re a sucker to sign the check. Charities are banking on your being a sucker. Close that sucker bank down.
If you feel the need to help someone financially, find a relative or an acquaintance who could use a few dollars. Give them the money (don’t lend it to them, give it to them) and do it anonymously, if possible. Expect nothing in return, not even a “thank you”. That’s true charity.
During his ministry years, Jesus helped all those who came to him in sincerity. God also helps all those who come to him in sincerity. These are our models – Jesus and God – not the Joneses next door who are involved in a dozen charities and sign up to do volunteer work every weekend.
If people sincerely need your help, God will send them to you and make it obvious that he sent them to you. Always be ready and willing to help whoever God sends your way. If God sends them, God will help you help them. That’s the only genuine help that’s genuinely needed and genuinely does any good.
HEAVEN FOURTEEN
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, November 11, 2015 – It must have been a shock to Peter when Jesus called him Satan, especially since all Peter was trying to do was help Jesus. “Get thee behind me, Satan!” is a far cry from “Thanks, Peter. I knew I could count on you for back up”, which is likely what Peter expected Jesus to say in response to Peter’s offer to protect him.
I can imagine the awkward silence that followed Jesus’ outburst, and I can almost see Peter’s face, his eyes wide, staring at Jesus in hurt disbelief and confusion.
Peter was easily the most enthusiastic of all the disciples. That he wanted to please Jesus was beyond doubt, but during Jesus’ ministry years, Peter had a hard time figuring out what Jesus really wanted from him. Jesus nagged him about his lack of faith and about his tendency to “think as man thinks, not as God thinks”. But Peter always tried his hardest.
And that was his problem.
Peter approached kingdom life as if it were the world. But following Jesus and doing God’s will is not like living in the world. In the world, you decide how you want to proceed based on a combination of common sense, logic, desire, past experience, knee-jerk reaction, and other people’s expectations. In the kingdom, you have to wait for God’s go-ahead and proceed only if and when you get it. You also have to do what God wants you to do, not what your gut tells you to do, not what everyone else is doing, not what has always worked in the past, and not what religious tradition dictates you do.
Peter wanted to follow Jesus, but what he ended up doing instead was trying to get Jesus to follow him. It didn’t work.
It must also have been a shock for Peter when Jesus stared straight at him following his betrayal in the courtyard. That’s a wordless “I told you so” that I hope never to experience.
But amazingly, immediately after his resurrection, Jesus singles out Peter for a special mission: He wants him to feed his sheep and lambs. No, Jesus hasn’t left Peter his petting zoo to look after; he’s assigned Peter more or less the same position Jesus had during his earthly ministry.
Say what? Peter is to take the reigns from Jesus? How can that be?
Peter must have experienced yet another shock when he realized that Jesus had entrusted him with the leadership of the new church. Maybe the other disciples were shocked, too. Peter always seemed to get it wrong, and he had even denied knowing Jesus – how could Jesus overlook Peter’s numerous mistakes and make Peter the new leader?
God reads hearts. Peter clearly had a heart for Jesus and a heart for discipleship. What he was missing was the sense that he wasn’t up for the job. Peter’s enthusiasm was tinged with a headstrongness that was morphing into pride. The pride had to go, and pride can only go through repentance and a sense of one’s full dependence on God.
When Jesus appeared out of nowhere while the disciples were fishing, Peter didn’t even want to approach Jesus, he felt so unworthy. This is similar to the man who went to the temple to repent of his sins. He wouldn’t even lift up his head, he felt so bad about what he’d done. And what did Jesus say about this man? That he was the one who was forgiven his sins, not the man who proudly stood up and recited his laundry list of good deeds.
God reads hearts. Peter was ready to be everything he needed to be, but only after he let go of everything he wanted to be. As long as Peter thought as man thinks, he was going to go contrary to God’s will. God’s ways are not our ways. You can only think as God thinks when you stop trying to control the narrative and give yourself completely over to God.
HEAVEN THIRTEEN
BEDFORD, Nova Scotia, November 10, 2015 – Just before Jesus started his ministry, he thought he wasn’t ready to start. He’d been preparing for years, and had made one aborted attempt when he was 12, but he didn’t know he was ready when he actually was. His mother had to get his motor running, so to speak, by asking him to lend a hand at the wedding at Cana. God asked her to do that, and she did. Mary Mary was quite uncontrary when it came to doing God’s will.
Jesus didn’t know his time had come, and yet in God’s eyes Jesus was ready. God does that; it’s a little trick of his, like a test. The work we need to do in his name has to be done by him. Scripture says that. God works through people. All good things come from God. But in order for God to work through you, you can’t be relying on your own strength or your own understanding. What comes through you needs to come from God.
People who proudly assert that they’re ready are, in fact, not. Jesus thought he was ready to start working for God when he was 12 years old. Certainly, he already was spiritual light-years ahead of the Jewish elders in understanding of scripture, but he wasn’t ready to preach and teach. He had some living to do, some maturing that can only come with time. So his mother and father hauled him back to Nazareth.
But a few decades later, at Cana, when he thought he wasn’t ready, he actually was. He was as ready as he would ever be. He had prepared; he had learned; he had matured. And (and this is the kicker) he wasn’t confident in himself anymore. He hung back. He thought he needed to learn and mature more.
This hesitation and humility is precisely what God is looking for. Jesus not only needed to learn and mature, he needed to lose his confidence in his own abilities and rely solely on God.
It is, after all, God’s work that needs to be done, not ours.
This form of humility is not self-denigration but places all trust and confidence in God rather than in oneself. This has to be learned and then tested over time.
Jesus passed his final test at Cana, and off he went.
He was ready because he didn’t think he was ready.
Are you?
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
Then saith he unto his disciples, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
Matthew 9:35-38
HEAVEN TWELVE
BEDFORD, Nova Scotia, November 9, 2015 – As in every other type of job, working in God’s kingdom on Earth requires preparation. Very few people are ready to preach the Word immediately after rebirth. Most need intensive trial-and-error training, followed by a lengthy apprenticeship period. If the apprenticeship works out, God will hire you to work on a probationary basis. If you make it through the probationary period, then you’ll be hired full-time.
In contrast to the world’s system, the higher up the employment ladder you go in God’s kingdom, the fewer financial rewards you’ll reap. In fact, with each promotion, the less money you’ll earn. Nabbing a coveted full-time position means you’ll be earning a whopping nothing in terms of worldly wealth because you won’t need to earn anything. One way or another, God will provide for all your needs.
Look at Jesus during his ministry years, or Paul during his final travels. These are our examples of what full-time work in God’s kingdom on Earth looks like. Neither man had any income to speak of, yet their housing, food, transportation, clothing and miscellaneous needs were completely taken care of. They were also ferociously, even supernaturally, energetic. They didn’t just grudgingly put in their 40 hours a week and then kick back for a weekend of R&R with their buddies – no, they were always working. There’s no such thing as “overtime” when you accept a position in God’s kingdom on Earth. You work every day, from the time you get up in the morning until the time you close your eyes at night, and you keep on working until you either fall down dead or are killed. There is no retirement in God’s kingdom on Earth. The phrase “retired minister” is an abomination to God.
At any point, of course, your training or employment can be terminated, if you show yourself unworthy to the task. Being born-again isn’t a guaranteed ticket to Heaven, but it is a prerequisite to getting into Heaven. And being born-again necessarily means that you’re either working in God’s earthly kingdom or preparing to work in it.
All of you reading this blog should either be training, or apprenticing, or in your probationary period, or working full-time. If you don’t identify with one of those phases, you’re not born-again.
Jesus said that you cannot serve God and mammon. During your training, apprenticeship and probationary years, God will allow most of you to continue working in the world, but only enough to keep body and soul together. Your focus, during those years, should not be on increasing your income or on upgrading your skills to get a “better job” with “better benefits”; your focus should be on doing God’s work in preparation for full-time employment in the kingdom. Your goal is not to earn more money but to earn less, until you’re finally released from the need to earn money altogether.
What a blessed day that is, when God calls you to work full-time!
His spirit is with you powerfully from that point onwards, and you have the same focus and drive that Jesus and Paul had. Every incremental increase in God’s spirit (which comes with every incremental increase in your faith) brings you greater insight into God’s ways as well as enhanced pleasure in everyday life. The higher up the employment scale you advance, the closer you grow to God and Jesus, the more they entrust in you, and the more likely you are to get to Heaven.
The job does get tougher, however, and the physical comfort level decreases with each advancement. If you’re looking just to slide by as a lowly bench warmer in God’s earthly kingdom – forget it. There’s no such position available.
No genuine born-again wants to be bench warmer. That’s one way you can tell the real born-agains from the fake ones – the genuine ones can’t wait to get out there and start spreading the Word, whereas the fake ones either don’t want to do it or will only do it after attending theology school. These latter types see preaching as a career opportunity, and they’re in it mainly for the income security.
No genuine born-again preaches for a paycheck. No genuine born-again expects payment for sharing God’s Word.
Jesus filed professional preachers and Word-sellers under “hypocrites”.
Don’t get on that file.
Working for God can be exhausting and demanding and take everything you have to give, but even your worst day working for the kingdom will be infinitely better than your best day working for the world..
HEAVEN ELEVEN
BEDFORD, Nova Scotia, November 6, 2015 – One thing you can bet your bottom dollar on when you start seriously following Jesus is that you’ll be broke.
Flat broke.
No savings to speak of. Not even enough for an ice-cream on a hot day.
That’s because God’s weaning you off your wants and getting you used to having only enough for your needs. Burning off the excess. Refining the gold. Getting you to focus on what matters. Having money to buy things you don’t really need takes your focus off doing God’s work.
You prayed to have only your daily bread, so don’t be surprised if it doesn’t come with a steak and fries.
Or an ice-cream.
Most of us, however, don’t go gently into that economic good night. I speak from experience when I say it’s a shock to the system when God takes the money away, even if you think you’ve prepared yourself for it psychologically.
It’s at times like these that you have to remind yourself, over and over again (in between crying fits), that Jesus had no money, either. People would donate to him, but otherwise he was a freeloader during his ministry years. He never begged, but he graciously accepted what was offered him by way of meals and transportation and housing. Nothing wrong with that, if it’s what God wants for you. Even as a freeloader, Jesus always had enough for his needs and then some.
“Blessed are those who look after the needs of God’s freeloaders.” I’m sure that’s in the Bible somewhere, though perhaps worded slightly differently. Remember what Jesus said about how God rewards those who give even a cup of cold water to one of his children? That would be us, God’s children. His dear little thirsty freeloaders. His dear little thirsty and hungry freeloaders.
God bless us, and God bless those who look after us!
Huge blessings come the way of those who look after God’s children, especially when they’re in their seriously-following-Jesus freeloading years. But that’s always the way – those who help get more than those who are helped. It’s a wonderful law. Unfortunately, it’s been perverted by some “wolves” to insinuate that God will reward people MATERIALLY for helping others, but that’s not God’s way.
The best rewards are always spiritual.
What keeps me going as I stare into my empty wallet (and try not to cry) is thinking about Heaven. I can have all my wants here now, on Earth, if I choose to, or I can wait and get them in Heaven, where they’ll be infinitely better and last forever.
Most people, sadly, have chosen to get their wants now. It’s tempting, that’s for sure, but it’s best to do what Jesus did, and he waited to get his wants in Heaven. So did Paul, and so did all the prophets.
In this, as in everything else, we should choose as Jesus did. As long as we’re doing God’s work, we’ll have enough for our needs while we’re here on Earth. And then, if and when we get to Heaven – PARTY TIME!
As my grandmother used to say: “The good Lord provides.”
And that’s something else you can bet your bottom dollar on.
HEAVEN TEN
BEDFORD, Nova Scotia, November 5, 2015 – I am rabidly areligious. I hate all religions equally, and I hate them with a passion.
In my mind, ‘freedom of religion’ just means freedom to bow down to whichever demon you fancy, because all religions are demon worship, every single one. It’s better to live where religion is outlawed than to live where all religions are welcome.
Take Christianity, for instance. It’s loosely based on Jesus’ life and teachings, but it’s polar opposite to what Jesus intended. When he warned us: “Many will come in my name”, he was referring to the multiplicity of denominations that would spring up like weeds after a hard rain. None of these denominations reflect the true teachings of Jesus, and yet all claim to be “Christian”. Like the other demon-worshiping cults they mimic (Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.), denominational Christianity is based on creeds and a rigid system of beliefs rather than raw live faith.
Jesus wanted us to experience faith raw and live, and he showed us how we can do that. Rather than institute a religious system that requires us to mouth “vain repetitions” (by reciting certain words over and over at certain times of the day) or perform deeds that were disconnected from our daily lives (like attending worship services), Jesus demonstrated how faith in God should not be something separate from what we do every day but instead should be life itself. He constantly referred to God as “the living God”, and invited us to live along with him. We don’t need to go into a building to worship God because our worship is the choices we make, every day, all day. We are our faith, we don’t just “practice” it.
If you follow Jesus as you should be following Jesus, your faith is indistinguishable from your life. In fact, if you follow Jesus as you should be following him, you could live in a Muslim country where Christianity is outlawed, and still openly live your faith 24/7. This is what is so astounding about what Jesus accomplished: he not only conquered death by paying our sin-debt on the cross, but he also conquered religion and the need for religious worship by turning everyday life into worship.
If you follow Jesus, you automatically are worshiping God.
If you follow Jesus, you live your faith real and raw by the choices you make, every day, all day.
Following Jesus is the highest calling a human being can aspire to; it’s also the most natural and the most rewarding. Jesus was a cool guy who lived a cool life. He was answerable to nothing and no-one but God, whose values he fully shared and fully espoused. He was areligious in the extreme.
So should you be.
HEAVEN NINE
BEDFORD, Nova Scotia, November 3, 2015 – One topic that makes many born-agains intensely uncomfortable is earthly possessions.
You know – your stuff. Your belongings. The ‘treasures’ you cherish and the things you use daily that you can’t imagine doing without, like your car, your furniture, your pots and pans, your dishes, your phone.
Your stuff.
Jesus had no stuff. Whatever he’d accumulated in Nazareth before leaving home to preach, he likely left behind in Nazareth. He had only the clothes on his back when John baptized him. As a preacher, he roamed from village to village, using what he found along the way but taking nothing with him.
Jesus is our model on how we are to live our lives. All born-agains accept this as God’s truth, but when it comes to earthly possessions, some get very touchy.
People can get really attached to their stuff.
The rich young ruler was attached to his stuff, too, and Jesus saw that it was preventing him from doing God’s will. That’s why he told him to get rid of it.
All of it.
Yikes.
Some of you reading this are probably feeling distinctly uncomfortable right about now. Maybe you’re thinking that getting rid of your stuff doesn’t apply to you because you can do God’s will well enough WITH all your stuff in tow, thank you very much.
That’s between you and God, but Jesus is our example, and he had no stuff. Before he left Nazareth, he likely had lots of stuff, but as soon as he started preaching, he let it all go. It would have slowed him down and redirected his energy and attention. Stuff can do that to you. Possessions can possess you even more than you possess them.
Better to live each day as if it were your last, because it could be. We came into this world empty-handed, and we’ll leave empty-handed. When we become born-again, we die to this world. What does that mean, to “die to this world”? When you die, you no longer have any stuff. Other people get what had been yours. If we are to live our born-again lives as if we died to the world, then our stuff has to go, just as the cursing, the fornicating, the lying, the stealing, the coveting, etc., also have to go.
When we become born-again, we leave the world spiritually and enter into a transition zone between Heaven and Earth. Our body is still in the world, but our spirit is not. What the world holds dear, we no longer value. That includes our and everyone else’s stuff.
I know this is hard for some of you to read. You might even point to clever arguments that show you can have your stuff and still do God’s will, have your cake and eat it, too. As long as your possessions don’t possess you, you can keep them, right?
Right?
Jesus is our example. He had no stuff.
“Sell what you have, give to the poor, and come follow me.”
HEAVEN EIGHT
BEDFORD, Nova Scotia, October 30, 2015 – I’m a born-again Christian. I love God with all my heart. I follow Jesus’ example on how to live my life. To the best of my ability, I make the choices that he made.
And I give treats to children on Halloween.
(Oh, the horror!…)
Some of you reading this are likely shaking your head. Don’t I know the pagan roots of Halloween? Don’t I know it’s an ancient Celtic festival based on demon-summoning and child sacrifice?
Yes, I’m aware of the roots of the festival. But I’m also aware of how it plays out in real life:
Little kids get dressed up and go door-to-door looking for free treats.
Now imagine Jesus turning off his porch light at his house in Capernaum. When I was a kid going trick-or-treating, a turned-off porch light meant that that house wasn’t “shelling out”, so we didn’t waste our time going there. We also noted which houses did and didn’t shell out, and how generous they were or weren’t.
So did our parents.
Jesus wouldn’t have turned off his porch light. He would have thrown open his door wide to each and every child who came begging, and he would have had a special and kind word for each.
Because these are children we’re talking about.
Remember how the disciples asked Jesus to tell the kids to scram when he was preaching, and Jesus instead told the disciples where they could get off?
Jesus loved having kids around. If they wanted to be there, they were welcome.
Children love treats. They also love dressing up in costumes and being allowed to run around the streets after dark. When you combine free treats with dressing up and going outdoors after bedtime – well, you get one honkin’ big happy occasion in the mind of a child, almost as good as Christmas and birthdays.
There’s a time and a place for preaching God’s word, but doing it on Halloween through a turned-out porch light is the wrong time and the wrong place.
The kids want a treat. Give them a treat. Give them lots, give them freely, and give them with a big warm smile.
God gives us treats, even when he knows it’s not the best thing for us.
He gives them to us for no other reason than that we want them and he loves indulging us.
Born-again or not born-again, atheist, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic, whatever – Halloween is not the time to preach.
It’s the time to give kids treats, so give ’em treats.
HEAVEN SEVEN
BEDFORD, Nova Scotia, October 28, 2015 – As born-agains, the spiritual tools we value the most, use the most, and need the most have no place in Heaven.
Imagine that!
The Ten Commandments are obsolete.
The directives God gave us through Jesus don’t apply.
We don’t have to pray.
And there aren’t even any Bibles (King James or otherwise).
Imagine that!
Faith, hope and charity have value only in this life.
We don’t need faith in Heaven because, as Paul told us, we’ll see and know God fully as he is.
We won’t need hope, either, because we’ll have everything we want and there won’t be any adversities to overcome.
And we won’t need charity, the self-less love that’s expressed by obedience to God’s will. There won’t be any need for charity in Heaven because we’ll all have the mind of God, so we’ll all be doing God’s will automatically.
As for praying, we won’t need to do that any more because we won’t have to talk to God and Jesus in faith, trusting they hear us; we’ll be able to talk to them face-to-face.
So you see, there’s no ‘faith, hope and charity’ or praying in Heaven because there’s no need for them.
And there’s no free will, either (to which I say: THANK GOD FOR THAT!).
I’m glad God gave me free will, but I’ll be even gladder to kiss that double-edged mother good-bye.
It’s caused me a lot of problems.
Bye-bye, free will!
Bye-bye, Bible!
Bye-bye, faith hope and charity!
Bye-bye, loving your enemies!
Bye-bye to everything but God’s will and God’s goodness, because that’s all we’ll need when we arrive in Heaven. God will provide us with everything else, just like he provides for us on Earth.
And the last thing we’ll say good-bye to is good-bye itself, because there are never any partings in Heaven. Everything and everyone are there to stay.
HEAVEN SIX
BEDFORD, Nova Scotia, October 27, 2015 – If you had any idea how much God loves you and how much he does for you every second of every day, you’d never get off the floor, you’d be crying so much, face down, in total gratitude.
But God doesn’t want you on your face crying. He wants you looking up and laughing and running around and playing and listening to him and hugging him and sitting on his lap. He wants you to pay attention to your big brother, Jesus, and to follow his example in everything you do. And he likes it when you think of him every so often, not as an obligation, but just to say “hi”. In fact, he loves it when you drop by in prayer for no other reason than to say “Hi, Dad”. That means everything to him, just like it does to earthly parents. He doesn’t want anything from you. He just wants you to make the right choices for your own benefit, not for his.
He just wants you to come home.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 