A Walk of Faith.

Real Power.

Prayer. The easiest, yet one of the most difficult things on this planet to do. It is such a privilege to be able to talk to the Holy Father whenever we so decide, but I mean, how often do we ‘decide’ to do this. I know for many people, prayer is a routine quick talk each morning, before dinner, and before bed. It can be as little as a ,”Thank you Jesus for all you’ve done for me.” Or it could be a lengthy list of things that we want God to grant us, do for us, or forgive us for. Yet, I believe that a lot of believers do not grasp the true power of prayer today, I may be totally off with this, but It’s truly what I’ve seen in this past year of my life. 

Prayer is our defense. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are in the middle of a war. One which is both personal and global, one that consumes the physical and the spiritual, one that turns believers away from and to God. This is war is defined as “spiritual warfare”. Each and every day, Satan tempts us, attacks our temptations and weaknesses, and tries to turn us away from the never failing love of our faithful Father. And let me tell you, Satan succeeds. Each time we commit that same sin, Satan rejoices. Every time we place anything before our time with God, Satan gets a little victory. However, in lieu of this, God has given us prayer. When we pray and have these conversations with God, Satan realizes his weakness and we realize the strength and power we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rules, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms,” Ephesians 6:12. As these forces consistently attack us, we cannot attempt to face it on our own. But through prayer and petition, God will give us the strength to face our temptations and tell them that God is the victor. We will have the power to tell this sin to step aside, because we have a God who is more powerful than anything that Satan can try to throw at us, that Jesus has given us His Spirit to easily face and eliminate these sins from our every day lives. In the end, God will win. Satan knows it, but he is trying to take all that he can down with him. So brothers and sisters, pray. Pray for God’s unfailing love, pray for the Holy Spirit to strengthen you as you face Satan’s temptations. Pray to the Father, because He will listen. Come to Him with your faults and failures, and He will redeem them, He will turn your pain and anguish into a beautiful victory. These victories over sin can only happen with the Lord on our side, if we trust in Him, and give it all to Him. The reality is that each one of us is surrounded by sin all day, every day. And the worst part is, that we give in to it. Yet, the way to stand up to this is through prayer, through talking with God and telling Him of your sinful nature and earnestly asking for His strength and redemption within your sinful life. We cannot do it in our own power, it is useless for us to try on our own. I’m sorry to tell you, but you will fail without the power of prayer. Whether we know it or not, prayer is at the heart of this struggle. If we base our life choices, both large and small, upon prayerful decisions, God will use us for the bringing of His Kingdom. If we come to God with every single problem, every celebration of victory, and every sorrow; He will use them all for His purpose. We need to place prayer at the centre of our lives, so that we can talk with God and hear His voice in our lives. Prayer is a gift from God, as was His Son, so that we may try to live life as a Christ follower. How can we possibly lead a life following God, if we don’t ask Him how to do it first? How can we possibly try to obey what He is telling us, if we don’t converse and listen to Him through quiet prayer? “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off into a solitary place, where he prayed,” Mark 1:35. Alright, if Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God needed to prayer, how much more do we - broken, imperfect, sinful beings - need to talk to God first? 

God is on His throne, Jesus on His right-hand, ready to answer your prayers. Willing to hear your needs and pleas. Ready to work and give your life a vision and purpose. Why not go to the Father in Heaven who can change your life, before turning on the TV to watch that same show? Why not bring your sins up to God before immersing yourself within them day after day? Why not rub it in Satan’s face that you are a Son of God, a follower of Christ, and a Christian with the Holy Spirit manifested within you? The truth is, no one can do it on their own, but one can face anything with the power of Christ. 

Amen.

“Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is useless. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do not good. It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones,” Psalm 127: 1-2.

Be Holy.

Be Holy. It’s a command not only from the God to the Israelites -“You will be for me a kingdom of priests a holy nation” in Exodus 19:6. It isn’t just something that Jesus suggested to his disciples when he said, “Be holy, because I am holy.”And it definitely isn’t just an idea that Peter just came up with when he addressed the persecuted in Rome, “Just as he who has called you is holy, so be holy in all you do,” in 1 Peter 1:15. Yet, many people in today’s secularized world don’t truly know what being holy means. They don’t know how to be holy! I know from personal experience that at times, even though I feel that I know what it is, I still do not live out this call to be holy.

Well, first of all, to be holy means to be ‘set apart’. It doesn’t mean to be a part of the Monastic’s, it doesn’t mean that you need to separate yourself from this secular hedonistic culture; it means that we need to be in the world, but not of the world. Being holy isn’t this far fetched idea that one can only achieve through living a perfect life, this definitely isn’t what God wants us to think. Instead, the previous verses tell us to be holy, not just to abstain and keep away from the sins in order to obey God’s command, but in order for us to lead a better life. The Bible tells us that setting ourselves apart isn’t just a requirement of the Christian faith, instead it is a suggestion to living a better life. God has our absolute best intentions when he commands this of us. He knows that if we intentionally attempt to lead this holy life, that our lives will in turn be better! 

But, I mean being holy is a pretty big call. It isn’t something that anyone can or should take lightly. Yet, in many of our Christian circles, this holiness isn’t our number one priority. I believe strongly that this needs to change. Each and everyone of us has the capabilities to lead an intentional, set apart life each and every day. But in all seriousness, how many people are consciously thinking about that all of the time? I know that in my personal walk with my Father, that I struggle and continue to struggle with this. I’m not saying that tomorrow morning each and every one of you should wake up, and tell yourself you’re going to be holy; because it just isn’t that easy. It is going to be a struggle, it is going to be a difficult task, you’re going to have some fighting to do.But luckily for us, you have the God of the vast Universe on your side. So really, keep that in mind as you struggle to do His will and try to literally change your life. Day after day, this change needs to be a decision you make every morning to set yourself apart. 

The final question that arises in my mind when writing this, is how exactly do you expect me to do that? Well, from my personal experience as a man of God who is continually growing more in more in the love of the Father; love. Love everyone. Show this love through your encouraging words, by doing the little things for other people, by holding a door open for a stranger, by intentionally praying for someone that you know needs it, and most of all, opening yourself up to the Holy Spirit to work in your life. Acknowledging that it is His will, not yours. These things don’t come easily, I know that full well, but they do come if you are intentional. As you obey God’s true call to be holy each and every day, always remember that God wants nothing more than for us to be his ‘holy nation’, to be ‘set apart’ for Him in our sinful culture, and to be that light on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 

Why not live a life for God today? 

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. 

Jesus, He’s Still Here.

¹⁵ “If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^[c] in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” - John 14:15-20

Read this verse one more time. The essence of it is that Jesus Christ, who walked the Earth 2000 years ago, is still walking this very same Earth today! That’s right, THE Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lord’s and Son of the God most high. If you are like me, you’ve read this verse so many times and understood, yeah yeah, the Holy Spirit is in me. The Holy Spirit is flying around all over the place. But really.. this Holy Spirit is, as Jesus says, “Another advocate”. This means that Jesus is still here, just not in human form. We would be foolish not to understand this, just because we cant SEE him. We have been given the gift of knowing this, when the world doesn’t. Why doesn’t this make us want to shout for joy? Why doesn’t this lead each and every one of us to want to “Walk as Jesus did” as 2 John 2:6 tells us too?

Well… if you are a University student like me, there is so much going on in your life that a Spirit that isn’t visible can sometime just pass over you. Yet, I can tell you right now, that if you make that effort to surrender yourself to God and His Spirit, you will physically feel the Spirit working in your life, leading you to do things you thought you never would, making you want to change your life entirely. 

Imagine for a second that you had Jesus with you everywhere you went. Imagine just walking around with Jesus by your side, taking part in your everyday life with Jesus as your companion. Go to class with Jesus, play soccer with Jesus, hangout and have a coffee with Jesus! Well guess what everyone, if you open your eyes, he is with you - in His Holy Spirit. He is in and of everything, we just need to open ourselves up to that, to His work in our lives. 

I challenge each and every one of you to open your eyes, minds, and hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit today. To find Jesus’ advocate not only in your life today, but in everything that you do. He is right there with you, he isn’t going to leave us as orphans, but he is going to come to us. 

I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. 

Broken.

Every single one of us is torn and broken. From the inside out, we are walking this Earth as truly shattered beings. My realization of this over these past few months have come and gone like a Spring breeze. Certain days, its staring deep into my eyes, heart, and soul; while others I write off my mistakes as human error. I check the box on that sheet of paper to God, that states, “I’m just not perfect” and send it up to Him for forgiveness. Yet, is this truly what we are called to do as Christians? How many times did the Israelites fall, break, shatter, and call back out for God’s saving Grace. I wonder how many times God was reluctant, “Alright Israel, but I am getting sick and tired of this. How many times do I need to send quail, water, fire, part a sea, or save you from Exile? When will you ever learn?” Today, honestly, we are so blessed. Yet, when we cry out to God has His people, He doesn’t instantly save us. He doesn’t swoop down and get us out of our low paying job, our abusive family, our constant cycle of sinfulness, or our physical pain.

In certain situations there is divine intervention, there are still miracles don’t get me wrong, but within this pain there is so much more. There is a history over 2000 years old of people doing the same thing over, and over, and over. Why don’t we learn! Does not a single one of us have eyes to read? Minds to comprehend? The Bible, this Word of God, is a gift from God. A book full of pointers and cheats in order to live a life that is generously blessed and loved by the Big Creator up there Himself. The Bible gives us examples of people who have failed, it gives us strict rules in how we need to live our lives, it gives us practical parables to see that God’s Word is applicable, it gives us the story of God’s only Son that died for you and I today, it tells us that this Son left one alike Him to live within us today - the Holy Spirit - to love and guide us daily. How on Earth are we so blind! How much do you want to bet that God is sitting up in Heaven, looking down on us just wanting to yell at us that its ALL IN THE BIBLE. Just like the always failing Old Testament Kings, we forget God’s calling and rules. Not only the Ten Commandments, but God’s call to have His Word written upon our always breaking hearts. He isn’t giving this to us as a joke, as a book to store on your shelf to collect dust. It is the Word to base our entire lives on. Yet, we are constantly oblivious to this. As if we were all running this race, yet no one knows where we are running too. And rather than stopping and remembering the history and past that God has given us as guidelines to finish in His Kingdom, we become distracted by the florescent signs of greed, sex, pride, gluttony, anger, cruelty, and abuse. Satan just makes them look so great, he pretties them up for all to see. But you know what, he can go back to hell where he belongs. Jesus tells us even 2000 years ago that “His Kingdom is HERE!” Why do we not understand this.

This world, this culture, this society that you and I are both a small dot within, is God’s Kingdom; not Satan’s playground. Brother’s and Sister’s in Christ - Satan has convinced us that we are broken and cannot be fixed. He has placed us in routine, habitual sinful lives; of which we believe we can never escape. But I have news for all of you. You can. Oh how God can save you. Oh how God can shake you for all your worth, to open your eyes and see that this world is still HIS. That this land you walk still sings HIS name. That these people all around you, no matter how sinful, are made in HIS image. So shake yourself out of your constant accommodation to whatever that sin is in your life because Satan is the one whispering in your ear, not the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. Take heart. Put your trust, love, hope, obedience, and character in your God. Go agaisnt this raging river that is the sin of the world. Yell back at Satan that you are a Son of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that his pollution has absolutely nothing on you. You are a Warrior of God. Confide in Jesus, and you won’t know what it means to be BROKEN.  

A City That Needs God.

This weekend, I visited my Brother in his apartment in downtown Toronto. As I left the bus station, I was instantly swarmed with countless advertisements, pamphlets, and men of all ages asking for spare change - anything they could get. As I continued walking, billboards promoting every possible new and must-have item of the season were plastered on any wall space available. One of these billboards read - “Tis’ the Season for Pleasin’ and Teasin’. In reading this I cringed at the sight of the promotion of sin, the promotion of sex, and the promotion of an overall hedonistic lifestyle. And as I continued to walk, that hedonism was just a part of life. I continually thought to myself, if only these people knew God; if only they knew that they have a saviour who loves them, who will forgive them, and who has the best intentions for them. It would be a better place, all of these people could do so much good if working for the highest good. As I looked up at these flashy and exciting billboards, back to the true poverty covering the streets, I remembered an article that I had just recently read. 

“The city is not to be regarded as an evil invention of ungodly fallen man… The ultimate goal set before humanity at the very beginning was that human-culture should take city-form… there should be an urban structuring of human historical existence… The cultural mandate given at creation was a mandate to build the city. Now, after the fall, the city is still a benefit, serving humankind as refuge from the howling wilderness condition into which the fallen human race, exiled from paradise, has been driven… The common grace city has remedial benefits even in a fallen world. It becomes the drawing together of resources, strength and talent no longer just for mutual complementation in the task of developing the resources of the created world, but now a pooling of power for defence against attack, and as an administrative community of welfare for the relief of those destitute by reason of the cursing of the ground’ (Meredith G. Kline, ‘Kingdom Prologue’).

In this quote, I truly understood the fact that God created this city. That God is still present in this city that is full of sin. That even though Satan seemingly roams the streets, he is just a pawn in Jesus’ hand. This was clearly seen in the story of Job, when Satan had to ask permission to treat Job the way he did. Without God’s consent, he couldn’t act as he did. Satan has no power, but the Lord Jesus Christ does. He has power not only over these somewhat fallen cities, but over the cosmos and the universe. 

The next place within the city I found myself was The Eaton Centre. As it was around Christmas time, I am pretty sure there were 10 million people running up and down those halls to buy gifts for their families. The amount of money flowing in and out of that mall must have been incredible. As I walked up and down the lit halls of the beautiful centre, I couldn’t help but think about other countries in the world and how they are ‘preparing’ for Christmas. The fact that children in Africa were most likely looking through garbage patches to find material they could sell, the fact that places like Vietnam most likely had children workers being forced to work 12 hour days to support their families, and our North American kids sit at home on their xbox’s while their parents spend thousands of dollars on gifts. I couldn’t help but feel like, there is something wrong here.

I felt so strongly as I left that Toronto is a city that needs God. A city where people need to hear the message of an ever powerful, loving, and encompassing Saviour who died for their sins. I saw the poverty, I saw the immense amounts of money, and I saw the sinful nature that seemed to be everywhere. I know whole heartedly that Toronto is a city where God is trying to make His way in being the focus, but we are Christians need to be His advocates and deliverers of this message. This doesn’t necessarily mean stand at Young and Dundas Square with a megaphone - yelling out the contents of Acts 2:38, but I do feel that it means we need to become an evident force within the streets and alleyways of a city created by God, for God - Toronto.

Loves Like A Hurricane.

 

Today, I learned one of the most valuable things in my faith as I ever have. The fact that my Father, Jesus Christ, the LORD Almighty, loves me. He actually loves me. A skinny, lanky, 18 year old, wealthy, Canadian, male. What have I ever done to deserve his love? What have I ever done for God to actually love me? I am a sinner, I am a man who in no way follows God completely faithfully. I continually fall off of the path, I veer down the wrong path, and I truly let the enemy take me away from what God wants and needs me to do. Yet He is jealous for me, He loves like a hurricane. Although at times His love may seem aggressive, overpowering, and even somewhat torturous. He truly loves me. He has the best intentions for me in all things. He never wants to hurt me, He always knows what is best; even when we feel that it is seemingly a useless and terrible happening. Yet God works through His love in mysterious ways, He works through suffering. He refines our rough edges, he refines us from dirty rocks to shinning gold. God calls us to recognize this love, He wants us to know that He is constantly looking out for us, attempting to steer us the right way. Now the first way for us to actually start making those right choices among the controversy, is by acknowledging that they exist. I feel that this is our calling by a God who loves us unconditionally, to come to a clear understanding that He loves us more than anything. He loves each and every single one of us. So we need to acknowledge this, we need to understand that because He loves us, He always gives us the choice which will be the best for us. He gives us the choice that may look like a hurricane, but in the end a clear reward will prevail. God knows what we are capable of, He knows that suffering brings meaning. Yet, we too need to acknowledge this for us as Christians to fully grow in Him. To fully grow in our faith.

Living At The Crossroads.

                            

“God is the biggest tool in this world, that we never use.”

In reflection of Goheen and Bartholomew’s book entitled Living at the Crossroads, I clearly came to an evident understanding of one thing - we are, just as Israel was, at the crossroads of the world today. Just as God placed Israel in the middle of two immense trade highways of their time - the Via Maris and the Jericho Road - so does He place us at the highways of our time, also known as North America. God has given us countless resources, unbelievable blessings, and a perfect place to allow us to literally use them. God chose Israel as His holy nation, set apart to do His work in all they do. He placed them in a place of utmost influence, an area of the world where it was literally impossible for them to not be heard! God in every way possible,  set them up for an evangelists dream. However, rather than taking advantage of God`s blessing, they continually ignored it. Their ignorance of God and His gifts proved to be a costly falter for the Israelite’s, and a celebration for Satan himself. However, God in no way gave up on His people, even though the clearly gave up on Him. 

Now believe it or not, this same God is still pursuing us. We are his holy people, we are the Israelite’s. God placed us so clearly in an area of influence, with mass media just a click away. Yet, we chose the easy way out. We find ourselves becoming caught up inexorably with materialism, consumerism, and a spiral of postmodernism. Where each and every one of us has our own understanding of what faith or belief means to us. In this sense, distractions are everywhere. We too have our golden calves. We too find ourselves becoming ignorant to our God who is screaming out to us each and everyday. He has blessed our North American culture in every fathomable way, yet we squander these gifts. We toss them out for our materialistic gain. Satan is laughing at this, he knows that his temptations are constantly winning over victims. Yet during this time, we must know that GOD WINS. In every sense of the word. Satan is trying to take as many down with him, he knows that his end is near. 

We need to get back to the fact that we are at the Via Maris and Jericho Road. Christians are in the centre of the marketplace. We are in business, media, physical labour, and missions. Just because we may not find ourselves in a clearly mission related role in life, God will make that role mission related. We need to truly acknowledge the fact that we can be used by God in all ways, and He has blessed us with this opportunity as North Americans today. I feel that today, God is the biggest tool that we never use. So today, go out into this war. Step out of your comfort zone that you may have yourself confined. Use each and every God given breath to proclaim His name. Use each and every thing you do as worship. This is how we can clearly and evidently, live at the Crossroads.