Micah 6:8

Mary

This may be somewhat offensive to some of my Catholic friends but I've never shyed away from speaking the truth before. I'm staying in a Catholic home right now and had a chance to skim through the Catechism of the Catholic chuch. I always knew that Catholics honoured Mary but I didn't realize how far they took that. Here is one point that really seemed contrary to scripture. Please compare it with the verses that follow it and judge for yourself.

"But while in the most Blessed Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle, the faithful still strive to conquer sin and increase in holiness. And so they turn their eyes to Mary": in her, the Church is already the "all-holy." Article 829 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:2

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. Eph 5:25-27

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Tim 2:5

All that we are for the King

I recently started reading Charles Spurgeon devotions that are sent to my each morning. They are fantastic devotions that spur me on to action; nothing like the fluffy crap that we typically call devotions. Here's my entire morning devotion from today. It's so good that I wanted to share all of it.

"In the evening withhold not thy hand."
--Ecclesiastes 11:6

In the evening of the day opportunities are plentiful: men return from their labour, and the zealous soul-winner finds time to tell abroad the love of Jesus. Have I no evening work for Jesus? If I have not, let me no longer withhold my hand from a service which requires abundant labour. Sinners are perishing for lack of knowledge; he who loiters may find his skirts crimson with the blood of souls. Jesus gave both His hands to the nails, how can I keep back one of mine from His blessed work? Night and day He toiled and prayed for me, how can I give a single hour to the pampering of my flesh with luxurious ease? Up, idle heart; stretch out thy hand to work, or uplift it to pray; heaven and hell are in earnest, let me be so, and this evening sow good seed for the Lord my God.

The evening of life has also its calls. Life is so short that a morning of manhood's vigour, and an evening of decay, make the whole of it. To some it seems long, but a four-pence is a great sum of money to a poor man. Life is so brief that no man can afford to lose a day. It has been well said that if a great king should bring us a great heap of gold, and bid us take as much as we could count in a day, we should make a long day of it; we should begin early in the morning, and in the evening we should not withhold our hand; but to win souls is far nobler work, how is it that we so soon withdraw from it? Some are spared to a long evening of green old age; if such be my case, let me use such talents as I still retain, and to the last hour serve my blessed and faithful Lord. By His grace I will die in harness, and lay down my charge only when I lay down my body. Age may instruct the young, cheer the faint, and encourage the desponding; if eventide has less of vigorous heat, it should have more of calm wisdom, therefore in the evening I will not withhold my hand.

I'm so challenged by this. The question "how can I give a single hour to the pampering of my flesh with luxurious ease" gets right to the point. I've been so lazy and reluctant to really get to the work of Christ and yet I deceive myself to think that I am wise. What am I doing with my time? In the house church on Sunday we were talking about the Rev 3:17 and 19

You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

One guy there was asking how do we buy gold refined in the fire. I've been thinking about that and I think that the answer is found in verse 17. I think that we ought to take our wealth and time and everything that we have and use it for God's kingdom. Then we are buy treasures in heaven.

The fact of the matter is that this is not a real choice. Freedom in Christ means that we have freedom from sin not the freedom to do as we wish with our time. Not doing everything that we can for Christ is sin. We are not our own. We have been bought at a price and we are slaves of Christ. If I bought a slave to further my kingdom and he chose to do whatever he wanted 3/4 of the time but was nice and moral during that time I would not be happy. As a slave I owe everything. Nothing is mine to seek my own enjoyment from. Thankfully though slaves of Christ are the most joyful people on earth. Nothing could be happier then serving the king.

To Confront or Not to Confront

My sister in law Katie is facing a dilemma that she's written about over on her blog. Basically she's faced with a situation where she believes strongly that a lot Christians around her are sinning but not aware of it. She wants to know if she should confront them on it. I've posted my opinion. What do you all think?

Middle Class Christianity

We visited a house church here this morning. We were talking about how middle class most of the western church is and how it's a hindrance to evangelism and godliness. Until I became a part of our current church community I never felt like I could bring some poorer people that I know to the church that I was a part of because there would have been too much of a cultural divide for them to cross.They would have been looked down on because they were poor, broken and irresponsible. How much more should the church be reaching out to these people? It has been something that has really bothered me with the communities that I was involved with before. Our current church is a salvation army cell church that is in the poorest area of town. All the leaders, and most of the other people, live in the neighbourhood. Nothing is pretentious or trendy it's just real community and love. People are loved and encouraged to surrender. They're invited to become Christians and Christians only, not middle class yuppies. I think that this is the way that church is supposed to be.

I think that middle class Christianity also holds back our own spiritual development. The gospel calls for radical surrender of everything. That includes all typical middle class luxuries. I think that typical Christianity brings people into the church and then soaks them in a very comfortable lifestyle. We're taught to be nice people but I think that it usually, sadly lacks the radical fanaticism that God calls us to. How much more can we give to God? If you can give more then do it.

Take warning. Jesus doesn't look to fondly on half hearted devotion. This is what he has to say about it.

So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Rev 3:16

God's Creation in Powell River

I've really been enjoying my time here in Powell River. I think that the best part has been in the respite from the city. The population density and the busyness of life in Vancouver really craps my spirit. I've been enjoying the nature so much. I took the kids blackberry picking a couple of days ago and it made me so happy. In some ways I think that God designed people, well at least me, to function best in a rural environments. I love being able to get away in the nature and just soak in God's marvelous creation. The city crowds out his creation and I find it easier to forget how awesome God's work really is.

We went for a walk yesterday on a trail in the woods right next to the ocean and we saw no more then 5 people the entire time. It was so wonderful to have an opportunity to absorb it all undistracted. This has been a great vacation.

Nature reminds me of hope. I think that city seems so polluted by worldliness and sin. All that you can see is the disgustingness of humanity. Rural areas remind me that God really still is in charge and unbridled. He's so wonderful.

Trust and Sacrifice

Joel and I are in Powell River right now. He's doing an elective here to get some experience in rural family medicine. We'll be here for the rest of September. I decided to come with him even though I'm bored that's a whole lot better then being lonely. I think that the kids have also adjusted to the transition better then they would have adjusted to being without Joel for a month.

Overall I'm happy to be here but it's been a bit challenging because we've been without Christian community. Consequently I think that my devotion has wained a bit. I think that this is probably because I'm not doing any sort of active ministry or active sacrifice. I don't have anything in my immediate environment that I need to trust God for because I'm not in a position where I am doing anything that I can't do on my own strength. Clearly I always need to trust him for salvation but I think that he demands radical trust and devotion. I think that one of the greatest temptations that Satan gives us to settle for a lifestyle that doesn't require daily trust in Jesus.

I know for myself that I'm scared to death of evangelizing strangers. I really want to change this but most of the time I just don't think about and I avoid it. This means that I don't learn to trust God. Other people fear giving up all their creature comforts so they avoid thinking about the fact that Jesus wants us to sacrifice everything. We really can do all things through Christ who strengthens us but we're usually not ready to trust.

Trust, sacrifice and kingdom building go hand in hand. Honestly, most people can learn to be nice decent people without too much help from God. No one though can become or live as a disciple, a true minister or soldier of God without his help. Things that I do without trust are in vain. When I really think about it's pretty sad how few things I do in trust. Honestly, it's probably only a few times per month that I take a leap of faith and do something that scares me only because God wants me to. I'd love to do this daily. May God have mercy on my soul.