Jan 31, 2019 - Suggested Reading Jeremiah 1 for Jan 27th s message on Matthew 9:18-38 in our worship service at 10:45am

“Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them.”

Jeremiah 1:17 (NIV) 

The biggest obstacle to proclaiming the gospel, or sharing our faith as we like to say in Ontario in 2018, is fear. Fear grips us, we wonder what will they think of us, we imagine that they will be angry and that our relationship will be broken, and so we say nothing - nothing to our neighbours, nothing to our classmates, nothing to our loved ones - we say nothing!

It is amazing how similar the content of Matthew 10 is to Jeremiah 1. In both cases men chosen by God are commanded to speak and told not to be afraid. The encouragement that is given in both Jeremiah 1:8 and Matthew 10:29-30 is that God’s presence will be with them, that He will care for them Himself. If we think to ourselves that the apostles’ message was good news as compared to the bad news being given by Jeremiah, and conclude that the reaction by the people to the good news of salvation would be better than the reaction to the bad news of destruction, we would be wrong – for Jeremiah lived, whereas the apostles died. They were killed by the ones they were trying to bring salvation to. Don’t for a moment think that God’s hand was too short nor His arm too weak to preserve the apostles’ lives as He preserved Jeremiah’s, it was not weakness that allowed the apostles to be killed, rather it was the good, pleasing and perfect will of God, that the apostles would die as they boldly proclaimed the gospel.

Back to us- we aren’t facing death, nor are we facing imprisonment - our problem is wondering what people think of us - when we should be more concerned about what God thinks of us!

Forgive us Lord, give us courage to share the good news of Jesus to those around us.

Jan 30, 2019 - Suggested Reading Numbers 27 for Jan 27th s message on Matthew 9:18-38 in our worship service at 10:45am

“So the LORD said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit of leadership, and lay your hand on him."

Numbers 27:18 (NIV) 

As we consider the record in Matthew chapter 10 of our Lord giving authority to His twelve, some consideration of the record of Moses giving some of his authority to Joshua should be beneficial.

The LORD commanded Moses to commission Joshua by having him stand in front of the priest and the assembly of worshipers, then to lay his hand on Joshua and give him some of his authority. The transition of leadership is the issue here, as Moses prepares to die in Moab so that the Israelites can enter the Promised Land, and our God is concerned that His people know who it is God has provided for them to follow.

Moses had God-given authority as the prophet who led the people out of Egypt. He judged them, he punished them, he taught them, he brought them victory through prayer, he stood between them and Pharaoh, he split the Red Sea with his staff, he stood between them and God, and he led them all those years. Even as we read these words, we can see the parallels between the ministry of Moses for God’s people and the ministry of our Lord for us. My heart is filled with gratitude for my Lord who intercedes on my behalf, and who appointed the Twelve to lead us through their teaching. Jesus is preparing to leave earth and so He gives authority to these men so that we would know who to follow. Not only that, but he gave authority to these men so that they would be able to deliver the people around them from Satan’s power as they proclaimed the gospel,
drove out demons and healed. 

May we devote ourselves to the apostles teaching.

Jan 26, 2019 - Suggested Reading Colossians 3 for Jan 27th s message on Matthew 9:18-38 in our worship service at 10:45am

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

Colossians 3:12 (NIV) 

For a Christian acting Godlike is as simple as putting on clothes.

Off to the value village with the old outfit - for there will always be someone who wants to wear anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language. We are new people, born again, alive in Christ who is alive in us, and the old clothes don’t do the new us justice!

Put on the new clothes of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and love and let the peace of Christ rule on the inside. Whatever we do in these bodies, let us do it unto our Lord, in His Name, for His glory,
knowing that He will reward us with an inheritance that will never fade.

It is no coincidence that the first attribute a Christian should wear is the first attribute listed in God’s description of Himself on Mt Sinai - compassionate!

May we this day take action towards someone out of our heart of love for them, not waiting for them to somehow earn or deserve our help.

Jan 26, 2019 - Suggested Reading 2 Corinthians 1 for Jan 27ths message on 1 Corinthians 15:58 in our worship service at 9:00 am

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 (NIV) 

I wonder if this chapter is the most encouraging chapter in the bible? If you had to rate chapters in regards to the encouragement their Words bring to your soul, which chapter would you put at number 1? My heart warms as I read this chapter’s wonderful Words, describing God as the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. The short description of the depth of the cost of Paul’s missionary journey, must encourage the hearts of missionaries all over the world as they realize that

the great missionary Paul despaired even of life itself. My conscience pricks me and I ask my Lord for forgiveness as I read that Paul’s conduct with this local church was conducted with reliance solely on God’s grace and not with worldly wisdom. I find it so easy as leader in a local church to forget this and to begin to rely on worldly wisdom instead of God’s grace. This conviction sets me up for the wonderful encouragement that it is God’s grace that will make me stand firm in Christ until the very end. What a wonderful truth this is! Bask in this truth my brother and sister for as we bask in these Words, looking to Him and Him alone for our salvation, trusting in Him and Him alone to cause us to stand firm to the end - as we bask we will find our rest in Christ and Christ alone.

Jan 25, 2019 - Suggested Reading Psalm 77 for Jan 27th s message on Matthew 9:18-38 in our worship service at 10:45am

“Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?”

Psalm 77:9 (NIV) 

This psalmist is in a terrible spot.

The questions in verse 7 through 9 come from the depths of his despair,
as his prayers go unanswered. 

These questions are rhetorical in nature, for they are answered by the story of how God has dealt with His people up until now as told on the pages of the Law.

This is no mere literary device, for asking these questions help the psalmist to fix his mind on remembering how God has acted in the past,
which will be used by God to bring him out of his despair. 

The asking of questions about God’s character that we already know the answers to, serve as a tool against the doubts and thoughts that swirl in our minds as despair grips us. 

Many times, these thoughts are unspoken, often we are too afraid to speak them aloud, but by verbalizing them we can see the foolishness in the questions themselves.

The Lord will never reject those who are in Christ!

This is the year of the Lord’s favour - His grace abounds to us.

His unfailing love cannot by definition vanish.

Nor can His promises ever fail, for they are all Yes in Christ.

God is merciful and He cannot forget Himself, nor act apart from who He is.

The last one is the hardest for us, for many of us in dire situations are secretly afraid that God is angry with us – and that His anger is holding back His hand that if released to move in our favour could heal us and release us from our distress.

Friend, is God angry with Christ? Are you not “in Christ”?

Then how could God ever be angry with us again.

He disciplines us in love, not in anger.

He will be compassionate - He will move in love to deliver us.

Jan 24, 2019 - Suggested Reading Matthew 10 for Jan 27th's message on 1 Corinthians 15:58 in our worship service at 9:00 am

"You will be hated by everyone because of me,
but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved."

Matthew 10:22 (NIV) 

Matthew 10 contains our Lord’s charge to the twelve - He lays out their mission for them, and He tells them what they are to expect as they stay true to their mission. The great challenge for us as we read this chapter is how much of this chapter’s contents are for them only in their ministry context as the apostles of Christ’s church, and as disciples of Jesus during His ministry on earth before the cross, and how much of this is applicable to us in our lives today. We won’t solve anything in this post in regards to the many different ways of interpreting this text for application in our lives, but if we accept that we can at the very least take these instructions for the apostles as applicable principles for our lives, we will be able to apply this verse to ourselves.

No one wants to be hated by everyone, but as we see the climate in Canada changing right now towards Christians, we can recognize that our Lord’s Words to the apostles, are coming true for us here in this country. If the first part of this verse applies to us, then surely the last part applies also. An objection may be raised that this last part was meant for Judas only - that these Words are spoken here so that the apostles may remember that not all of them were saved, but only those who stood firm through the experience of the cross - and yet the New Testament is full of teaching directed at Christians of the importance of standing firm to the end, including our text for this Sunday 1 Corinthians 15:58. 

There is a principle here for us, an important principle for it points to our responsibility to remain strong in not only our faith in the Person and Work of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also in our mission given to us by our Lord to the very end of our lives. Despite opposition from people, including our own families we are responsible to our Lord to stand firm to the end.

As the Teacher in Ecclesiastes 7:8 said - the end of a matter is better than its beginning - surely salvation is the most important matter of all!

Jan 23, 2019 - Suggested Reading Isaiah 7 for Jan 27th s message on Matthew 9:18-38 in our worship service at 10:45am

“The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’”

Isaiah 7:9 (NIV)

Matthew’s record in chapter 9 of our Lord healing the blind men makes it very clear that if the blind men are faking their faith, pretending as it were to believe in Jesus, they would not be healed. The stakes are pretty high for these men - and I wonder if we can think of a situation in our lives where if we can’t muster real faith, a disaster awaits.

Isaiah 7 records such a time in king Ahaz’s life, where he is told by Isaiah that if he doesn’t stand in his faith, he won’t stand at all! The issue is humans- threatening powerful humans- and Ahaz is thinking that he needs powerful humans on his side. Isaiah’s Word is powerful in itself - Stand firm in your faith! - you don’t need human help – you need God’s help - and God’s help comes to us through faith. Faith is the conduit through which God’s grace flows into our lives. It isn’t a matter of saying the right words, or singing the right songs - it is a matter of the heart and the mind as we look to God and God alone as our deliverer, believing in our innermost being that He and only He is able to help us in our situation. Not testing God with demands but  surrendering the outcome to God, and to His good and perfect will. Not being fatalistic which many times we think shows faith, but pressing into God with the desires He has placed on our hearts yearning to see Him glorified through us and our time here on earth.

I think of another king recorded in 2 Kings 13, who visited Elisha on Elisha’s deathbed - yes a man of God with real faith is lying on a bed dying! Elisha wants the king to demonstrate real faith by striking the ground with arrows, and rebukes the king for his lacklustre approach to God for victory. Friend when those moments come to us - those moments where if we don’t stand in our faith we won’t stand at all- may God help us to approach Him with confidence and vigour, seeking His grace to help us in our time of need.

Jan 22, 2019 - Suggested Reading Psalm 62 for Jan 27th's message on 1 Corinthians 15:58 in our worship service at 9:00AM

One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard:

“Power belongs to you, God, and with you, LORD, is unfailing love”;

and, “You reward everyone according to what they have done.”

Psalm 62:11-12 (NIV) 

There is no way we can overemphasize the importance of 1 Corinthians 15:58 in a Christian’s life! It is how a Christian will live their life - when they live in anticipation of the triumphal return of Christ, and our resurrection from the dead.

I am aware that some people pretend that the Old Testament contains no teaching on the resurrection nor triumphal return, but only teaches God's blessing in their present lives, as they live in the promised land, presumably by ignoring the many references like Hosea 13, Isaiah 25 and Job 19, as well as this passage in Psalm 62.

Verse 11 and 12 contain a very neat poetic ending of a psalm that begins with a statement of complete rest in our God. I wonder have we found our rest in our God?

Rest is a different thing than peace, though they are definitely linked together, and found in the same Person – our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace is dwelling together in harmony, working together, blessing one another - whereas rest is to cease from our work and striving. Finding our rest in Christ is part of Matthew’s gospel (Matt 11) and according to Hebrews 4 is a major indicator of true faith - yet how many of us are truly at rest in Christ.

David’s true rest comes from the knowledge that God rewards everyone according to what they have done- which according to the psalmist is the one thing God said, but the two things David heard is that God has all power and unfailing love. These two attributes of God - omnipotence and unfailing love - guarantee that God will reward everyone according to what they have done. A Christian who has found their rest in Christ Jesus will not allow the people around us (vs3,4) nor our ancestry or race (vs9), nor lack of wealth (10) to shake them. If we think metaphorically of shake as in shake a bottle (like Elvis’s song all shook up), we could realize that shaken is the opposite of rest. We can see pretty quickly that for David the reminder that he will stand before a Judge who loves him, and who will reward him for who he is, is what keeps David rested in God. This reminder centers David, calms him, and encourages him to continue in his life of faith and worship, and so a reminder of our Lord coming back in power and us rising to meet Him should center us on Christ's work, it should calm us and it should encourage us to continue in our life of faith and worship, knowing that our lives will not be in vain, but will be rewarded.

Jan 11, 2019 - Suggested Reading Romans 12 for Jan 13th s message on Matthew 9:9-17 in our worship service at 10:45am

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

Romans 12:1 (NIV)

The Pharisees in our Lord's day and the Jews in Hosea’s day were confused about how mercy and sacrifice work together. 

The beauty of this verse in Romans is the simple and very clear explanation as to how mercy and sacrifice are to work together in a Christian’s life.

Paul has spent the first 11 chapters of Romans expounding on our need for God’s mercy, on God’s provision of divine mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ, and on the wonderful benefits that we enjoy in this mercy bought for us by Christ Jesus, and so he asks us to keep this mercy in view, to meditate on in, to live in its reality, to daily seek mercy from God and thank God for His mercy. As we keep this mercy in view our heart will prompt us to worship God, and so Paul instructs us to worship God with our bodies as living sacrifices. Begin with our minds being renewed in terms of how we view ourselves relative to others. Then be sure that we are truly loving others and not just pretending to. This should be our understanding of how mercy and sacrifice intersect in a Christians life. We are to meditate on how great God’s mercy to me is, and then as my heart worships Him, offer Him all that I am, expressed in new attitudes towards others and concrete practical expressions of humble love and mercy to those around me.

Mercy first - sacrifice second is true and proper worship.

Jan 10, 2019 - Suggested Reading Hosea 6 for Jan 13th s message on Matthew 9:9-17 in our worship service at 10:45am

“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Hosea 6:6 (NIV) 

Matthew records our Lord quoting this verse twice, once in Matthew 9:13 and then again in Matthew 12:7. The use of Hosea 6:6 by Jesus must have had a significant impact on Matthew, for his gospel is the only gospel that records this quote. Perhaps the fact that Jesus used this text to justify His relationship with Matthew, gave Matthew a different perspective then the other gospel writers of the importance of Hosea 6:6 in understanding our Lord’s mission and the mission of all who would follow Jesus. We are no better than the Pharisees nor Matthew, so if we don’t go and learn what this means, then we will not understand why Jesus ate and drank with sinners, nor will we eat and drink with sinners.

Hosea 6:6 is a parallel statement which means that we can gain some understanding of what it means by comparing the parallel statements inside the verse to each other. The word sacrifice is clarified by the parallel burnt offerings, which leaves no doubt that God is speaking of the sacrificial system that he instituted on Sinai when He made the Jews into a His nation, and gave them their religious framework. The word mercy is then clarified by the phrase the acknowledgement of God - or the knowledge of God. So mercy used here carries the concept of living every aspect of our lives with God intertwined, not as an afterthought or as a sidekick, but with God in relationship as our Lord, our Judge, our Sustainer, and our Shepherd. The word desire speaks to God’s heart - that is that God prefers or that God wants mercy to be a characteristic of our lives more than He wants religious sacrifice, or that God does not want religious sacrifices from people whose lives do not exhibit mercy. A person who acknowledges God in every aspect of their lives will know their need of God’s mercy in their lives, for we fall short so often, and our thankfulness for God’s mercy in our lives, causes us to call others into God’s mercy. So what our Lord told the Pharisees was to go and learn what Hosea 6:6 means, knowing that instead of shunning sinners and writing them off, we would engage them, we would forgive them, we would tell them of God’s great mercies available to them through Christ for we have first-hand knowledge of our need for God’s mercy, and for His heart for sinners to repent.

Jan 9, 2019 - Suggested Reading Psalm 51 for Jan 13th s message on Matthew 9:9-17 in our worship service at 10:45am

“You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.”

Psalm 51:16 (NIV) 

As we continue our quest to obey our Lord by learning what Hosea 6:6 means, in the hopes that by us truly learning this lesson we will take the gospel to the lost, we need to meditate on why our Lord would tell us that He does not desire sacrifice. At first thought, it seems to be a contradiction to the entire canon of scripture, for we have sacrifices recorded beginning in Genesis, and then a multitude of sacrifices commanded in the Law, as well as our Lord’s sacrifice fulfilling all of the shortcomings of the previous sacrifices. How can God’s Word tell us that He does not desire sacrifice? Psalm 51 provides us a beginning of an answer, or rather a way forward to help us to learn this truth. In this great penitent psalm, David pleads for mercy and prays for restoration with God, and as he does so he realizes that God doesn’t desire sacrifices, but rather God desires a broken and contrite heart. This is the first step to learning, truly learning, not book knowledge, but experiential learning of the truth that God does not desire nor delight in burnt offerings. No, what He desires is that I approach Him with a broken and contrite spirit. We will only learn this lesson as we confess our sins! Do we truly want to obey our Lord and learn what it means in Hosea 6:6 where it says that God desires mercy, not sacrifice? If we truly want to embark on this journey of learning we will begin to regularly confess our sins to the LORD. Perhaps we could use Psalm 51 as a template, but we should be careful that it is true confession – from the heart- and not a rote thing that we repeat. God forbid that we would forget that God looks at our hearts and that if our hearts and our words are not lined we will have learned nothing! But if we face our sins and truly confess and truly experience forgiveness - we will begin our journey of learning. 

Jan 8, 2019 - Suggested Reading Genesis 19 for Jan 13th s message on Matthew 9:9-17 in our worship service at 10:45am

“Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die.”

Genesis 19:19 (NIV) 

This Sunday in our 2nd service we will be introducing the key verse for 2019 at Parkdale. This verse will be displayed on the walls of our worship centre for the year, and is found in Matthew 9:13 where Jesus tells the Pharisees “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ Our goal this year at Parkdale is to encourage one another to obey our Lord by going and learning what this means, for this command to go and learn is clearly connected to taking the gospel to sinners. Now if we are to go and learn we should start this journey of discovery by looking at Old Testament text our Lord is quoting, and we find out that in Hosea 6:6, the English word mercy comes from the Hebrew word hesed. This is an important Hebrew word in the Old Testament, that appears some 224 times, and is only translated mercy 6 times but translated love 129 times. This word is used to describe the actions of God towards those with whom He is in a covenant relationship with. We see this clearly defined thru the context in Exodus 34:6 as God describes Himself as abounding in love (hesed) and faithfulness, maintaining love (hesed) to thousands. Hesed describes the actions of God towards those He is in a covenant relationship with. We see this word in action for the first time in the Old Testament, in the account of Lot’s deliverance from Sodom, as Lot speaks of the great kindness (hesed) shown to him through his rescue from Sodom. It is clear from the story of Lot’s deliverance that the Lord acted to deliver Lot because of the Lord’s covenantal relationship with Lot through his uncle Abram. But that is just the start of learning, for Hosea 6:6 tells us that God desires mercy (hesed) from us, which means that our actions towards God should reflect mercy- and that is certainly a mystery - how can it be that I should act towards God with mercy? We need to learn this- not in a head knowledge, book type learning, but in an experiential, seeking to please God type of learning. How can I live in such a way that my daily actions are described as mercy (hesed)? May God our Teacher teach us this lesson in 2019!