Joy and Satisfaction

Merry Christmas!

In my last blog post I shared about the needs for more loving people in Inner-city Winnipeg. Right now I want to testify to the joy and satisfaction that comes from doing the will of God. When I go outside intentionally, with the purpose of being available to people God leads me to, I often have thoughts of fear and timidity. I don't want to go outside. It is a clear step of obedience most of the time because if I had my way I would stay inside where I am warm and comfortable.

However, when I come home from having been available to people who need help. I come home with a spring in my step and a smile on my face. I am filled with joy and satisfaction. I feel that I have meaning and significance. There is much work to do, and I am doing my part. It is a wonderful feeling, it helps me to sleep better at night and to feel better when I am in a discouraging situation. I know that I am in the will of God and it is a wonderful place to be.

I don't want to serve and love my neighbours because I have to. I want to do it because I get to. What is better than that? God's love is so precious, his presence so wonderful. I don't want to be anywhere else... Until the next time I am about to go out for the purpose of being available, and then I don't want to anymore! Thanks be to God for his steadfast love and mercy, he is so patient, so understanding. Hallelujah.

Have a Merry Christmas, enjoy the love of God, extend the love of God to those around you. Amen.

This Little Light of Mine

I broke up a robbery in progress last night. I was disturbed with how low key it was to all of them, both the guy getting robbed and the two who were robbing him. It was right in plain sight on the sidewalk on Main St.  After running over and shouting 'what's going on here?' I was ignored by the guy who was searching the victim's socks and the lady helping hold the guy down told me to mind my own business. The poor guy, with his nose bleeding, says to me, "They're robbing me!"

I have occasionally heard of Inner-City Winnipeg being referenced as some hideous, abominable place to be avoided at all costs. And what is so very sad is that I have usually heard this idea from Christians. On the other hand, John wrote, "But if anyone has the worlds goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?" (1 John 3:17). James also wrote, "If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?" "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9).

Can you imagine the transformation that would occur if God provided 1000 people, full of the Spirit and practicing love, and dropped them into Inner-City Winnipeg? People who would live in community and work at bringing the kingdom of God to their neighbours? People who would come not because they are in love with concrete and noise but because that's where God is, and where God has called them! (Check out Matthew 4:12-17). Let your light SHINE!

I would encourage you to get excited about what God is doing and seek his will for how you can be involved, for how you can be available. Whether that means volunteering somewhere, moving into the core area of Winnipeg, or inviting your neighbour over for supper. Whatever God has laid on your heart, go and do it.

Here is a simple explanation to discern the source of some voices you may here: Conviction is when God tells you to do something, and once you do it the conviction lifts and you are given peace and comfort and joy. Condemnation is when you feel bad for something and there is nothing to be done about it but mope around and feel bad. The Spirit of God convicts us, the devil condemns us. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Rom 8:1)

The Source of our Longings

Have you ever wondered where your longings come from? I mean the ones beyond simply hunger and thirst, the desire to go to the bathroom urgently or for a McDonalds Milkshake. I mean longings like the you feel when listening to Jazz music, or how you feel after certain movies. Those desires can be strong in the moment but they quickly fade. Yet they seem to whisper of something deeper. 

I believe that our deepest longings betray our desperate need for God, that we are broken. But they also reveal that our God is the ultimate source and fulfillment of our longings. One longing in my heart that I notice now and then is for the final restoration of all things. I believe my longing for such a thing is evidence that one day all things will be made new. I really believe that one day there will be a new heaven and a new earth. I believe that God will sit on His throne with all of humanity before Him and He will satisfy justice. And everything will be good and right once more. I believe this because it has been recorded but I also believe this because it is the desire of my heart. I believe God put that desire in each of our hearts. Just as hunger leads to eating, and thirst leads to drinking, hope too must be satisfied. Or else we die.

When I lived in Steinbach I did not have lots of hope. Everything seemed well in my circles. Now that I live in Winnipeg I have lots of hope, because there is so much for which to hope! When I pray for healing of my neighbourhood, or for a restoration of virtue, or for the light of the glory of the knowledge of God to invade all of our hearts, I am basically asking Jesus to come back and make all things new. I long for the Kingdom of God to come to my neighbourhood in such a way that nobody could argue about it. And when I meet people face to face, talk with them, and hear tiny snippets of their stories that longing for the Kingdom of God to come is magnified. And so my longing for Jesus to come back is also magnified. I am confident that our God who gives us longings, yearns to satisfy our longings. And so I am also confident that the greater our longings the greater will be our satisfaction once our longings are satisfied.

God, increase our hunger, increase our desperation. Come LORD Jesus.

Back in the North End

Hey there,  I live in the North End again. I moved into a house on Redwood Ave near the end of October. It was 2 years earlier (minus a week) that I moved out of the North End and in with my good friend Tim. At the time God had been helping me to understand that I needed to live with others, I was getting lonely and it wasn't healthy for me. I really wrestled with it because I knew God had led me to move into the North End. I knew I needed room mates and the the doors that opened up involved leaving the North End. I got some wise advice from 2 people I really respect. One of them told me that just because I was leaving the North End it didn't mean that I would never move back. So I left with peace and also with hope that I would come back some day. And now 2 years later that same wise counsellor is my landlord! It's come around full circle. Pretty cool how God works, eh?

I watched an online sermon a few months back about Nehemiah 3. Nehemiah 3:14 reads, "Malchijah the son of Rechab, ruler of the district of Beth-haccherem, repaired the Dung Gate. He rebuilt it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars." The entire Chapter is a list of different people and how they contributed to rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. The point is that not all of us are going to be history makers. Some of us may simply rebuild a 'dung gate'. But by doing our part, we are being faithful. I do not know exactly what my part is in Winnipeg's North End. But I want to be faithful. I also don't want to try and accomplish great things, or even small things, alone. I want to be one among many, serving one another and living out the kingdom of God in community.