Holy Spirit Has no Grandchildren

I say a couple of weeks ago at Mayor’s prayer Breakfast listening to Serge LeClerc’s testimony. He is the Elected Member of the Legislative Assembly, serving as the Secretary for Corrections in Saskatchewan. Formerly known as a Canada Most Wanted he is a product of rape born in an abandoned building to a teenage girl, moving from a poverty-stricken inner-city youth to a young offender, a runaway street kid, a gang leader and a drug king-pin who served a total of 21 years in some of Canada's toughest prisons while battling a twenty-year drug addiction. He found Christ in jail. Christ changed His life. His book “Untwisted” gives powerful testimony to the personal experience of transforming power of Christ.

Serge spoke about the “stupid middle class families” who pursue their careers, and dish out cash to their kids as a substitute for their time away. Their kids in turn go and buy pleasures the wicked one provides to destroy them. Then the parents cry for the problems in society.

Recently we completed “Celebrating Life in Recovery” evangelistic meetings. One night we watched a testimony from Clifford Harris who for twenty years “danced with death” – unable to snap the chains of drug addiction that imprisoned him. Twenty years of servitude to the inner demons that drove him from his home, his family, and himself. Until he found Christ’s love himself. Cliff was raised third generation Adventist, his cousins are church leaders all over USA. But he himself never discovered Christ personally, until after the mess.

As we are focusing on Family life, on reaching out to youth and children we must understand that our experience has only exemplary value to others. Unless each person, young and old, personally, individually discovers the merit of relationship with Christ they cannot benefit redemption. I am talking about Risen Christ, not just a historical figure of 2000 years old narratives. I am talking about Christ Who is Alive in the World today through the Holy Spirit, not a doctrinal definition of Who He was and What He did.

In redemption the Holy Spirit has no grandchildren. Everyone has to be born again directly, not second hand by a virtue of parents, or relatives, or friends. Have you had your experience with Christ? Are you in relationship with Christ? Do you speak to your children about their discovery of Christ? Do you challenge your friends about their walk in relationship with Saviour?

The frustration many teenagers experience with the Church is precisely in the fact that their expectation of meeting Christ was not fulfilled. And they are not interested in substitutes of religious rituals and legalistic promises. Church! I appeal to you, Fathers, Mothers, Mature Christians, help everyone to meet Lord Jesus now!

Thoughts on right Worship

In a recent edition of the Adventist World Angel Manuel Rodríguez, director of the Biblical Research Institute of the General Conference was asked a question about the sequence of worship. Here’s my edited version of his answers that would give a good direction and reminder to how and why we worship.

Through the performance of specific rites worshipers express their love and gratitude to their Creator and Redeemer. I cannot provide a specific sequence of religious acts to be performed during worship, but I can list some of the main elements and their meaning. Whatever takes place during the worship hour should be biblically grounded.

1. We Worship God: When we gather to worship we must bring with us the clear conviction that we have come to worship God. Anything that distracts us from that should be set aside as unworthy. In fact, whenever God is displaced and humans take “center stage,” or comparisons made - the result is idolatry. When the Israelites were tempted to follow idols the Lord asked, “To whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?” (Isa. 46:5)

2. We Pray: Prayer is one of the most sublime acts of private and collective worship, through which we come into contact with our Lord. The physical postures we assume as we pray are meaningful, and we should think about them when we worship. When kneeling we surrender our lives to God. We voluntarily go down to the dust from which we were created. Sometimes we pray standing up. This was the posture of those who approached the king seeking an audience. We are collectively standing before our King in a private audience. At other times we pray sitting down. This is the posture of a student or a child who sits in order to be guided or instructed by the Lord, to be enabled to serve Him. Through prayer we express to God our gratitude for blessings received and request strength to overcome new challenges and temptations.

3. We Sing: Our singing addresses God, not the congregation. The congregation appropriates the message of the song and offers it to God as if it were its own. The hymn are not about “me” or “us,” but about the One we worship. Through it we express our feelings, needs, love, and praises to God for His bountiful blessings. Congregational singing is a ritual act through which the unity of the church is expressed collectively as members lift their voices to praise the Lord in one spirit, one faith, and one purpose. It binds us together by expressing common religious feeling and faith that shape our identity and allow us to join the singing of the heavenly family.

4. We Give: The expression of our gratitude to God reaches a particular climax during the collection of tithe and offerings. The offertory reaffirms our covenant relationship with the Lord. Through our tithe and offerings we acknowledge that He blessed us during the week, that He is our Lord, and that all we have is His. Our offerings indicate that our love for Him flows freely from a grateful heart.

5. We Proclaim the Word: It is from the center of the platform that the Word is proclaimed every Sabbath. Worship is centered in the self-revelation of God through the Scripture. It is a rational act because the divine speaking is intelligible. We come to learn from the Word, to be encouraged by it, to be instructed for Christian service, to be disciplined, and to rejoice in the good news of salvation through Christ. The purpose of the sermon is not to create confusion or address theological controversies, but to allow the congregation to hear the message from the Lord through the Scriptures.

Welcome to the Worship Experience today

Happy Mother's Day

A teacher asked a boy this question: Suppose your mother baked a pie and there were seven of you--your parents and five children. What part of the pie would you get? A sixth, replied the boy. I’m afraid you don’t know your fractions, said the teacher, Remember, there are seven of you. Yes, teacher, said the boy, but you don’t know my mother. Mother would say she didn’t want any pie.

Last week while teaching Pathfinders on Family life I was warmed with how they talk about gentle love they expect and receive from mothers. Bible students are familiar with different Greek words for love – agape, phileo, eros. Yet, apostle Paul introduces another term “phileoteknos” – the special love mothers have to their children. (Titus 2:4-5) Biblically speaking, the primary role of mothers is to create love. The idea that flows out of this word is that of “preferring” our children, “caring” for them, “nurturing” them, “affectionately embracing” them, “meeting their needs,” “tenderly befriending” each one as unique from the hand of God.

Evangelism has always been our priority as a Church, our mission. Mother’s love is also evangelism – it gives children the good news about love that exceeds all understanding. Mothers’ love reveal God. God promises to comfort us as the mother comforts (Isaiah 66:13).

As we celebrate the 93^rd Mothers’ Day this weekend let your love show. A survey of 600 college students, who were asked to write down the most beautiful word in the English language, counted 422 of them wrote the word "mother". Do not forget to call your mother. If you know some mothers that are lonely – give them a call.

I think about mothers who grieve thinking they cannot provide what their children need. In our materialistic world expressions of love are often perceived through material things. Yet, the greatest gift mothers give is shaping our capacity to love. Love is a gift that grows when used. As you offer it – it also grows.

Ellen G. White, a mother of four boys wrote these words of advice: “I would impress upon mothers that women are accountable for the talents God has intrusted to them. They may engage in missionary work at home, in their families. Their influence is fully equal to that of the husband and father. The most elevated work for woman is the molding of the character of her children after the divine pattern. She should gain their affections; she should cherish love; for with these precious traits of character she can have a transforming influence upon the family circle. If she makes a success here, she has gained the victory. Society will feel her influence in the deportment and moral worth of her children. The church will bless her because she has educated and developed talent which will be of the highest value. She gives to the church, men and women who will not flinch from duty however taxing. If Christian mothers had always done their work with fidelity, there would not now be so many church trials on account of disorderly members. Mothers are forming the characters which compose the church of God. When I see a church in trial, its members self-willed, heady, high-minded, self-sufficient, not subject to the voice of the church, I am led to fear that their mothers were unfaithful in their early training. (letter, April 1, 1880)

It is our dream to see our church family more loving, more caring, more affectionate. Mothers, help us all by your loving kindness.

More on Passion for Loving Evangelism, passion for Church Growth

I thought of leaving last week’s blog for one more week, for all to consider the urgency and importance of Evangelism, but then I got to talk with some who attended the St.Thomas centennial celebration last Sabbath, and learned that our President Derrick Nichols preached an interesting sermon.

"The church exists to love." he said. "It must do more than simply understand the problems of people. It must meet their needs! People must know that they can run to our church with confidence."

It is yet another description of what Evangelism is all about – passion! Church may have everything together, doctrine, structure, works, ministries, just like that of Ephesus in Revelation 2. But the question is “Does it have the passion? Is the first love is there?” So, when you think about our local reality in London, how would you measure your passion for people around you? Does it break your heart to see your family members not walking with Jesus? Does it hurt you when you think about your friends walking to destruction? See, if we are in love with Jesus, then the passion of His heart is the passion of our heart too.

Living in uncertain times some may talk about need of administrative changes, improvement of efficiency, but what really matters is presence of Jesus who is ministering through his Body – Church – today, right now. Imagine the church with an atmosphere of heaven where depressed become cheerful, where oppressed have their spirits lifted, where sick get healing, where lonely find friendships, where needy get abundantly blessed. That is what people, and Jesus wants from Church today – the Kingdom reality.

Church growth is not about numeric success, or a satisfaction of an accomplishment. It is about our passion for people that are lost without Jesus. Evangelism is also a spiritual discipline. We are invited to discipline ourselves “for the purpose of godliness” (1^st Timothy 4:7). Disciplined life is not periodical, it is year around, it is your daily lifestyle.

Leadership of our church is thinking constantly “What am I doing to tell my surrounding that Jesus is coming soon?” Leaders are thinking “What is my team doing to tell London that Jesus is coming soon?” The way we live, interact with one another, sends messages stronger than words. And our communication should be single-minded: “we believe that Jesus is coming soon!”

All Christians are not expected to use the same methods of evangelism, but all Christians are expected to evangelize. The most frequent excuse not to place evangelism first is that we have to put our own house in order, we need to fix whatever dysfunctions there are, we have to improve ourselves. It is true that the more we are like Christ, the more we will tell of Christ and His message. Yet nothing brings intentional change faster than guests coming to the house. The guests coming in will contribute to the working and add functionality. In the process of hosting guests and integrating new into the family we sort our own relationships, and prioritize what’s really important.