God, who gets invited to dinner at your place?
How do we get on your guest list?

“Walk straight,
act right,
tell the truth.

“Don’t hurt your friend,
don’t blame your neighbor;
despise the despicable.

“Keep your word even when it costs you,
make an honest living,
never take a bribe.

“You’ll never get
blacklisted
if you live like this.” (Psalm 15, The Message)

I love this passage because it provides a pretty clear and simple explanation for how to please God.

Walk straight, act right, tell the truth. Don’t hurt, don’t blame, despise wrong-doing. Keep your word.

Although these things are easier to say than to do on a daily basis, if we keep them in our minds and on our hearts, and just take a moment to meditate on them now and then, they will become the foundation for how we go about our lives.

Take a moment to ask God for help with this. He is the only One who can provide you with strength and discipline to walk in holiness and love.

What we may experience as a difficult situation at the time may turn out to be a time when God used us the most. God says in our weakness He is strong. All through scripture, many of the godliest people had to endure extremely difficult situations. I think about Hosea, and how God told him to marry a prostitute, even though God knew that she wouldn’t be faithful. Is it possible that God can actually place us into situations that many would view as painful and even wrong, for the purpose of glorifying Himself or teaching someone else? In the case of Hosea and Gomer, God was providing a real life example of His relationship with Israel.

For me, it is very freeing to think of God as bigger than our pain, and when I’m experiencing pain, to know that I am never outside the will of God, even in the midst of torment. God may not remove that pain immediately, even when dealing with someone of great faith, in order to achieve His purpose, which may only be revealed to us when we see Him face to face. Until then, true faith is the ability to say in the midst of pain, “You are God, and I will trust You!” I believe that’s what Christ said when He prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” Being God, Christ new what God’s will was, and that He had to endure suffering to achieve God’s ultimate plan.

When Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus, God convicted him, and even made him blind so that he would completely depend on God’s guidance to lead him to Ananias, and be healed and anointed by the Holy Spirit. After Paul spent his energy persecuting the Christians, God took drastic measures to stop Paul and use him for His glory. I imagine traveling blind would have been an incredibly uncomfortable experience for Paul, not to mention being convicted of opposing God when all the while Paul thought He was doing the will of God. In that case, God could have made Paul’s conversion more comfortable, but He found it necessary to make Paul depend on Him. It appears as though God did not give Paul much of a choice in the matter.

Now, I realize all of what I am saying can simply be responded to with the argument that God just uses the bad things that happen to us, and doesn’t actually cause those bad things to happen. I guess one has to decide what they believe God is capable of. If the decision is that God is not capable of bringing death and destruction upon His creation, take a closer look at scripture, and you will find that God’s wrath is just as common as His mercy, and His ultimate and final act of wrath will be when He destroys His enemies once and for all. As Romans 9:20 says, who are we to question God?

Finally, I’d like to bring a bit of balance to this matter. It is our responsibility to pray for and take care of those in need. It is not our responsibility to determine whether or not a person is enduring pain as a part of God’s plan, or to try and determine what God’s plan is in that situation. God calls us to take care of those in need, pray for their well-being, and trust that God will take care of them.

Enemy-occupied territory – that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

If all Christians would take this idea seriously, and apply it to their lives, what a different world we would live in. Instead, we have a hard time resisting the urge to indulge in what the enemy has to offer while we are living here.

This idea has been more real to my wife and I recently, as we prepare to make a change that some consider crazy (we know some think this because they’ve told us). We are asked questions like, “how will you support your family?”, “what will you do once you’re done school?”, and other questions regarding our kids and our house which we are selling.

It seems as though we have this idea that we need to have everything in order before we respond to God’s calling. Here are a few things I think about when I have doubts:

• God does not NEED our money. He only asks that we be generous with what we have.
• God does not NEED our abilities, but wants us to be faithful with the gifts He’s given us.
• God does not depend on our plans to fulfill His own plan for our lives, He just asks that we listen and obey.
• We don’t need to know God’s whole plan to take the first step, we only need to trust Him.

Let us not get caught up in becoming too comfortable in enemy occupied territory. Remember, God has us here for a mission, which, in the details, can look different from person to person. But the call to all God’s people is to love and obey Him, love others and live a life that demonstrates the holiness given to us by God through Jesus Christ.

C.S. Lewis states, in his book, The Great Divorce, “There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.”

There was a time when I looked directly at God and made a promise to dedicate my life to His work. Over the last 13 years, I have had periods of my life where I turned my back to God, and the result was darkness. More recently, I have faced God and have experienced no less trouble, but more peace and hope than ever before.

To be good, I think, is to head in the direction that would make us into more holy people, more like the people God would have us be if it weren’t for our sinful nature. Salvation is a promise made by God, our only responsibility is to point our lives in the direction of the holiness offered freely to us.

Over the next couple weeks, we will be making a decision to move to one of two communities, depending on which school I choose. Our first choice is Prairie Bible College in Three Hills, Alberta. This is our first choice for many reasons, most of which have to do with family life within the community. Our second choice is Providence, which is closer to home, but not as good for family life.

Please pray for us as we make this decision, and all of the steps that need to happen from now until August: application and acceptance, scholarships, bursaries and students loans, selling our house and arranging housing at the school campus, and our kids as they will have to adjust to a different living arrangement.

We appreciate your prayers and support!

The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works

- Augustine of Hippo

This is the first of the four corporate disciplines that I will be going through. These are disciplines that relate to the corporate life of a Christian, in fellowship with the Body of Christ.

The biggest problem with confession is that it makes Christians look “bad”. As believers, we like to make ourselves look holy so that others get the impression that we have it all together and that Christianity means a better and holier life. While I agree that Christianity should result in a holy life, I don’t agree that we should withhold confession in order to maintain a good reputation. God could care less about our reputation with others if we neglect our responsibilities as believers to live holy lives.

Another problem we come up against is that of embarrassment. We tend to think we are the only ones not living up to the high standards of Christ, and that we will be looked at as a failure if we confess we have done wrong. What results is a secret and hypocritical life which leads to deeper and more damaging sin.

I admit, I haven’t always confessed what I have done wrong right away. I am no better at it than the rest of us. I have no excuses and no reasons, other than the two mentioned above. What I have done, however, is made a commitment to a mentor that I will confess my sins to him. By doing that, I have someone holding me accountable, someone who cares about me, and who has gone through many years of practicing the christian disciplines.

I encourage you to find a mentor you can trust. Not multiple people, just one, who you can confess everything to. This could be a parent, counsillor, teacher, elder or pastor. My only recommendation is that you find someone who has dedicated their life to practicing christian discipline. My warning is that you don’t choose someone the same age as, or younger than you. The reason is that this can often turn into an accountability relationship, where you are holding them accountable. You may wonder why that is a problem. Here is why: the blind can’t lead the blind. If this person is experiencing the same struggle as you, they would be fine accountability partners, but not a good mentor. Accountability partners walk and struggle together, whereas a mentor leads the mentoree in their walk with God.

When we choose to be a servant, we give up the right to be in charge. There is great freedom in this. If we voluntarily choose to be taken advantage of, then we cannot be manipulated.

(From Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline)

Servanthood requires a great amount of humility. Not many of us are willing to become a servant to the point of allowing people to take advantage of us. Now, let me be clear about what I mean. I am not talking about involuntary and cruel slavery, rather, the type of servanthood in which a person chooses to engage in and allow people to make full use of the servant’s gifts and abilities. True servanthood means serving is constant and never ending, always willing and happy to be of service to another person, even when the other person is not grateful.

Humility is a virtue that is never gained by seeking it. The more we pursue it, the more we move away from true humility. I can’t decide one day that I will be humble, however, I must decide to do good to others and put their needs before my own. Soon, without realizing it, humility will be built within my character and will be evident by the way I treat other people.

While studying and fasting can be done and moved on from, service is something that is ongoing and should be built within someone’s lifestyle.

First, I would like to distinguish the difference between self-righteous service and true service. I will be using references from Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline as well as my own notes.

• Self righteous service is mostly concerned with acts of service that will get noticed and are a big deal. It enjoys serving, especially when the service is titanic.
• True service does not concern itself with acknowledgment or the size of the act.

• Self righteous service acts based on moods and whims.
• True service acts faithfully because there is a need, despite it’s mood.

• Self righteous service is concerned about the glorification of an individual, fracturing community.
• True service builds community. It quietly goes about caring for the needs of others without concerning itself with the glorification of any person.

• Self righteous service comes through human effort and eventually wears out.
• True service comes from a Divine Source and does not tire or grow weary of doing good.

When I first wanted to get involved in ministry, I wanted to do the things that were at the forefront of the ministry, that people would notice and give me praise for. I wanted people to notice that I was serving. I soon realized that I was not getting the acknowledgment I was seeking and quit serving altogether.

As I grow deeper in my understanding of Christian service, I try not to concern myself with anything but simply caring for others and pleasing God. Of course, I am not even close to having achieved this perfectly, but I keep trying and in doing so, God blesses me with more opportunities to serve in a way that will bring blessings to both myself and others.

In the next post I will write about humility and door mats.

I would like to focus on what Foster calls the seven acts of submission:

1. Submission to the Triune God.
   We surrender our body, mind, and spirit into the hands of God to do with us what he pleases.
2. Submission to the Scripture.
   We yield ourselves first to hear the Word, second to receive the Word, and thrid to obey the Word.
3. Submission to our family.
   The primary deed of submission is a commitment to listen to the other family members.
4. Submission to our neighbors and those we meet in the course of our daily lives.
   No task is too small, too trifling, for each one is an opportunity to live in submission.
5. Submission to the believing community, the body of Christ.
   Most frequently, acts of submission are spontaneous opportunities for little tasks of service.
6. Submission to the broken and despised
   Our first responsibility is to be among the “widows and orphans”.
7. Submission to the world.
   Our act of submission is a determination to live as a responsible member of an increasingly irresponsible world

Please Note: I would strongly encourage you to read Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline to get the full message of these disciplines.

In the same way, our Heavenly Father does not need our help. He is fully capable of doing everything himself. However, that is not the point. The point is to have a relationship with His children, to involve us in His work. We sometimes think we are doing all the work ourselves, we grunt and fall and, with our Fathers help, we get right back up and continue the work he invites us to do.

I am proud of my son, and the enthusiasm he has to help me. I pray that his enthusiasm will one day be directed towards helping his Heavenly Father. But for now, I must be the closest thing to his Heavenly Father I can possibly be, so that when the time comes for the Lord to make Himself known to Caleb, he will have already got to know Him through me.