If Jesus Christ be God and died for me...

I would exhort you dearly beloved, who walk in the fear of the LORD, to stand firm. Do not allow your hearts to drift from the truth of the gospel. In Mark 8, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say I am?" His disciples gave him a variety of answers. He then asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter knew the answer, Matthew records his answer as, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16). "And Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven."

If you talk with people today about Jesus you will get a variety of ideas about him. Most commonly people will correctly acknowledge that Jesus is a good person who embodies love better than any other. Beyond that however you may get a variety of ideas. And people will draw differing conclusions from the same ideas. But Jesus told us that he would give us the Holy Spirit who would guide us into all the truth (John 16). We do not have to be content with the ideas of people, even sincere, knowledgable people. We can search the scriptures to know the heart of God for ourselves! Following the last supper when Jesus prayed to the Father he said that the Father had given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom the Father had given him (John 17). Then he defined eternal life: "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." If eternal life is knowing Jesus, then surely one of the most valuable things we can do with our time is to search the Word of God to understand the heart of Jesus, by the help of the Holy Spirit, who will take what belongs to Jesus and declare it to us (John16).

I want to share what I think must be one of the most life giving truths from the Word of God: "Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 10). This may sound like a very harsh thing to say, but I am so thankful to God for his love for me to reveal this truth to me. It is true that this is difficult, but as the Spirit of God gives us grace to embrace this truth and live it out then we will find life! This calls for dying to ourselves daily, continually surrendering our desires to the will of God and laying down our lives by putting God first and others before us. The cost of not doing this is too great, and the reward is to see the name of Jesus lifted high and to hear him say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant".

"If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him." - C.T. Studd

Give Me Peace

For this last New Years celebration I was in Kansas City at the International House of Prayer. Each year they have a conference, called One Thing, to bring in the new year. There are many wonderful and cool things about the One Thing conference. There were over 30,000 people in the same building, gathered because they love Jesus. There were wonderful times of praise and worship, great teaching, a very expansive book store with all kinds of resources. My favourite thing about going down to IHOPKC however is spending time in their prayer room. They have singers, musicians and intercessors in their prayer room 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The thing I love about the prayer room is the tranquil presence of God. Even though it can be crowded and noisy (and I am NOT drawn to crowds and noise) I think it must be one of the most peaceful places I have ever been. It is almost hard to believe, even hough I have been there and experienced it, but when I walk into the prayer room I feel as though I am walking through an invisible barrier into the presence of God. I don't know if everybody feels that way in there, but that is what it feels like to me.

I grew up in Mitchell, MB, a small town outside of Steinbach. I happen to like peace and calm. Living in Winnipeg, where it sometimes seems as though you can hear sirens every half-hour, does not always make sense to me. I sometimes wonder why God brought me, of all people, to Winnipeg. I don't like all the noise and busyness of being in a city. I want peace and calm. Not only that, the lives and relationships of many of the people I rub shoulders with day to day are filled with strife. Peace and calm are foreign ideas. A significant factor in all of the strife is often addiction. Many people live their lives with chemicals flowing through their blood most of the time. It is impossible to ever have contentment and peace when your body or mind is screaming for more, more, more and now, at any cost.

I think God brought me to Winnipeg's North End exactly because of the stark contrast between the desire of my heart and the context all around me. If your food is bland, add salt. If your porridge is too thick, add milk. If life is grey, add some colour. If I don't like the strife, I may as well cry out for peace, and seek to live out the beatitudes and be a maker of peace. I believe that the Prince of Peace, the creator who rested on Day 7, is able to give us rest. He will bring peace. Amen.