Fear Not!

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them,

and the glory of the Lord shone around them,

and they were filled with great fear. 

And the angel said to them, 

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy..."

Luke 2:9, 10

"Go, sit in your room and wait until your father gets home." Those have to be the most fear-inspiring words of my childhood!

You see, the guilt of wrongdoing brings fear, the fear of punishment, because wrongdoing has consequences. Thankfully, my parents also taught me that, when there is repentance, there can also be forgiveness and restoration.

I love the story of Christmas, because it is a BIG story, one that transcends my day-to-day existence ~ the struggles, the disappointments, the pain ~ and gives me reason and confidence to hope that there is something more!

But first, a disclaimer: these thoughts that I am about to share are not all my original thoughts. I read Our Daily Bread together with my wife the other morning, something we strive to do on a regular basis, and the devotional centred around these thoughts, on which I have elaborated.

Throughout the Bible, we read various accounts of people who have encountered God in one way or another. In fact, the Bible begins with the creation account, and once God created man, He placed him in a beautiful garden, filled with everything the man could need (and likely, some things he might just want!) When we read between the lines in Genesis chapter 3, we discover that it was a regular habit of God and mankind (the man and the woman) to walk together in the cool of the garden.

Stop for just a minute and contemplate that.

God and mankind, just hangin' out, walking together, enjoying one another's company, talking about things, maybe laughing over some of the ridiculous antics of the animals ... and absolutely no fear on the part of the man and woman at being completely vulnerable before an all-powerful, all-knowing and perfectly holy God.

Sadly that would change before too long. The story goes on to describe how mankind chose to distrust God (who had done everything to demonstrate His trustworthiness and love), believe the lies of the serpent (who had done nothing to demonstrate his trustworthiness) and rebel against their Creator and King. And once they ate of the fruit, "their eyes were opened" and they hid themselves. Why? Because their guilt brought about fear of judgement from the Righteous Judge. And, being holy, God had to judge their sin and rebellion, and declare the aforementioned consequences for their wrongdoing.

What He didn't have to do, but did, was promise that the curse would not be for always, but that God would provide a Saviour, who would rescue His people from the curse of their rebellion. When there was repentance, there could be forgiveness and restoration through the Saviour.

As I mentioned previously, in the Bible we read of people coming into the presence of this holy God, and the response of each individual, when their own sinful self is exposed by His perfection, is to be fearful. At Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:16), when the presence and glory of God rested upon the mountain, "all the people of the camp trembled." In Isaiah 6, when the obedient prophet Isaiah is confronted with the holiness of God, he says, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips ... For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

Fast forward to the New Testament. An angel appeared to Zacharias in the temple, and Luke 1:12 records that "fear gripped him. But the angel said, "Do not be afraid ..." An angel appeared to Mary, the soon-to-be mother of the promised Messiah, and one of the first things he says is, "Do not be afraid!" (Luke 1:30). In chapter 2, when the angel appeared to announce the birth of the Messiah to the shepherds, it says in verse 9 that "they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord." "

Again and again, the refrain "Do not be afraid!" rings out! Why? Because Jesus has come! Even though the presence of God naturally brings about fear, the message of Jesus' birth is that the Saviour has come! The name Jesus means "Jehovah saves!" We couldn't save ourselves; God Jehovah had to save us! And He did, in the person of Jesus. Jesus did not come to judge sinners, but "to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10). John 3:17 says, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him." There is no more need of fear, because Jesus came to tell of God's love for sinful mankind. 1 John 4:18 says "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment ..." The holy God still had to exact the consequences, the punishment, for sin. But He chose to have His loved Son pay the penalty for our sin, in our place. So the price has been paid! No more cause for fear! If we will repent of our rebellion and sin, there is forgiveness and restoration offered through Jesus the Messiah!

Jesus came to teach us that we no longer need to fear God's holiness. If we accept God's offer of forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ, we are restored to the kind of relationship mankind once enjoyed with God; one marked by love and joy, one that can be safe in its vulnerability before an all-powerful, all-knowing, perfectly holy God, because the punishment has already been served by God's Son.

In Christ, God sees us with perfect love, and perfect love casts out fear. This Christmas, accept the Greatest Gift ever given, the gift of freedom from guilt and judgement, the gift of forgiveness and restoration that God offers you through His beloved Son, Jesus.

Reformation Day: The Quest For Truth

"I am not ashamed of the gospel,

for it is the power of God for the salvation

of everyone who believes."

Romans 1:16

Does it matter what you believe? 

Martin Luther seemed to think so. He was willing to put it all on the line to confront what was false and open up the discussion about what was true.

Some would say, "It doesn't matter, as long as you're sincere." But what if you're sincerely wrong? Someone I know sincerely believed that his cancer would not be helped by chemotherapy or radiation therapy; instead he should drink copious amounts of a type of naturopathic tea (I believe it was called Essiac). Sadly, it did nothing and he's been buried for several years now. There were doctors who injected pregnant mothers with thalidomide, sincere in their beliefs that it was helpful, rather than harmful. There are many who have suffered as a consequence.

So it is NOT enough to be sincere. You need to be sincere AND right, especially in the really big stuff. If there is an afterlife, then that would qualify as "big stuff". And if there isn't, then you only have this one life, so getting that right would be "big stuff" too.

Some people expend significant time and energy preparing for retirement: pensions, stock market, RRSPs, health care, real estate. They research, they invest, they monitor. If, by reason of amazing health and good fortune, we enjoy 40 years of retirement, it is considered outstanding! Sadly, I've also known friends and colleagues who diligently planned ... and then unexpectedly died within 6 months before or 6 months after their retirement date. The reality is that retirement is not inevitable ... but death is.

Yet rarely do we spend the same kind of resources to settle the question of eternity. So often I hear comments like "Well, I feel ..." or "In my heart, I believe ..." but almost never "Well, I did some research and here's what I found ..." The infamous Ben Shapiro loves to say "The facts don't care about your feelings!"

Belief systems often purport to have things to say about the afterlife. Atheism (yes, it's a belief system) claims there is no God, and nothing afterward. Islam promises paradise for the faithful. Hinduism describes the process of reincarnation; do it again until you get it right. Since there is no empirical evidence for any of these claims, they must be accepted by faith.

Christianity, at first glance, seems to be "more of the same". There's a heaven for good people and a hell for bad people. But on closer scrutiny, the Bible says more. Yes, heaven is real and so is hell. Jesus mentioned hell frequently; it was clear he believed it was a real place. But here's the thing: heaven, the Bible teaches, isn't for good people; it's for perfect  people. (Wait ... what?) And hell wasn't originally intended for people at all. It was designed for Satan and the angels who followed him in his rebellion against God. The Bible goes on to say that the human race, in Adam and Eve, rebelled against God too, so we are all, by default, headed for hell ... unless someone perfect intervenes for us.

And that's what happened; the perfect Jesus took our place, took our punishment, took our death in our place ... and God offers us His perfection in exchange! So the only ones who get into heaven are not the worthy, but those who accept God's generous, loving, free offer and are made worthy in Jesus Christ!

This is distinctly different from all other religions. Every other religion teaches "If you DO this, you can be saved." Christianity teaches "Because Jesus Christ has DONE it, this is the ONLY way you can be saved."

Now, we can't prove empirically that Christianity is true. But it stands or falls solely on the person of Jesus Christ, and he was a historical figure, so if we prove him a fraud, we could at least eliminate Christianity from the plethora of options.

Jesus said, in John 14:6, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me." He didn't claim to be a way or a truth; He said He was THE way and THE truth. No one comes to the Father except through Him. That means Buddhism won't do it, Hinduism won't do it, Islam won't do it; it's Jesus or nothing, according to Jesus's own claims. He also claimed to be the Son of God, which is what qualifies him to be the Way. So if we are honestly searching for the truth, we need to decide between "It's Jesus Christ, and all else is false" or "Jesus Christ is a fake and Christianity is nonsense" and we move on to our flavour of preference.

Here, at least, we can apply empirical analysis, since Jesus was a real person with measurable claims. C. S. Lewis stated that

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice ... You can shut him up for a fool; you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

So to simplify, here are the positions:
1. Jesus was a liar, who was out to take advantage of those who would fall for his wild stories. If that is true, we ought to do everything possible to expose him as a fraud and gag his followers.

2. Jesus was a mentally ill megalomaniac, who actually believed the claims he made. If that is true, we still ought to expose him, but with compassion, and gently educate his followers.

3. Jesus is exactly who He claims to be; the Son of God who came to be the Saviour of mankind. If this is true, we ought to reject all else and grant Him our worship, our obedience, our very lives.

Two "hostile" atheistic individuals who examined the evidence and wrote about their discoveries are Lee Strobel (The Case For Christ) and J. Warner Wallace (Cold Case Christianity). Strobel was an investigative legal editor for the Chicago Tribune, who set out to disprove Christianity when his wife became a follower of Jesus Christ. Warner Wallace was a homicide detective specializing in cold cases, who decided to put his significant skill set to work disproving Christianity. I own both books, and they are definitely worthwhile reads, since we can't possibly do all the evidence justice in a short blog post.

If Jesus was a liar, we can understand that he would enjoy the "ride" for a while; free meals and stays in followers' houses, a fair bit of attention and notoriety. But if he was looking to increase that, why did he say such difficult things, that even his present followers began to leave? (John 6:66)

And then there's the issue of crucifixion. The Romans had perfected this torture device to exact the most pain from the victim, while extending the suffering for days. Anyone who was knowingly creating a false persona would NOT hold on to the deception in the face of crucifixion. The "Jesus as a liar" argument is a washout.

So what about Jesus as a madman? Gary R. Collins, Ph. D., stated that there were several things to indicate that he was in his right mind:

• He was an emotionally healthy individual; he did not demonstrate inappropriate emotions
• He spoke clearly, powerfully and eloquently; he demonstrated no thinking disorders or irrationality
• He had deep and abiding relationships; he exhibited no unsuitable behaviours.

Jesus wasn't lying when he stated his claims, and he wasn't crazy either. But just because someone says something is true doesn't make it true. We would want some evidence to back it up. If I tell you I'm married, you don't have to believe me just because I wear a wedding band and have a marriage certificate. But if I have those things AND a reputation of being truthful AND a pile of witnesses who were there at the wedding AND more witnesses who had done life together with us over the past 29 years, the claim becomes pretty reliable.

Jesus's claims are far more significant; he didn't claim to be a messenger from God, he claimed to BE God! "Whoa, Mike! That's crazy talk!" you respond. In Mark chapter 2, verses 1-12, we find the record of Jesus healing someone who had been paralyzed for some time. Interestingly, his first response is to the friends' faith, and he says, "Son, your sins are forgiven you." Since only God can forgive an offense against God, Jesus was either blaspheming (not typical of him) or claiming to be God (right in line). The religious leaders observing this were outraged at his apparent blasphemy. Jesus responds, "So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins ..." and then turns to the paralytic and says, "Take up your stretcher and walk!" and he does.

If I tell someone their sins are forgiven, there's nothing to see to prove that my declaration has come true. But if I tell a paralyzed person to walk, you'll know very shortly if I'm a fraud! Jesus demonstrates his authority in the spiritual realm by exhibiting his power over the physical realm. He healed the blind, the lepers, the hemorrhaging, the lame. He calmed storms and he raised the dead to life. And ultimately, he himself rose from the dead, proving that he was who he said he was, and that he can do for you what he said he can. No one in history has ever been or done anything like Jesus. He stands unique among all others.

Martin Luther decided there was more to the Jesus of the Bible than stale and abusive religion. I asked Jesus to be my Saviour and Lord many years ago, and am still learning what it means to be his follower; I've never regretted that decision. You can do the same!

The Fingerprints of God

Since the creation of the world His invisible attributes,

His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen,

being understood through what has been made ...

Romans 1:20

I do some of my good, deep thinking in the shower. (Too much information?) Anyway, the source of this most recent pondering is my cancer.

It's not a big deal; there's no need to worry.  It doesn't even remotely compare with those who are suffering through leukemia, breast cancer and the like. I have had malignant melanoma in the past. It's a genetic gift from my mother. (Thanks, Mom!) I get checked out annually at Sunnybrook and the amazing Dr. Mary Mackenzie keeps a close and caring eye on me! She noticed something unusual in colour on one of my moles and referred me to another doctor to have it removed. Not the first time, probably not the last. It'll give me another cool scar to make up some ridiculous story about!

What sparked the "deep thought" was that, when I went to the plastic surgeon, I also had him look at something unusual on the side of my nose. He immediately identified it as a basal cell.

What made me think I should point it out to the doctor? That little bump on the side of my nose wasn't behaving the way it was supposed to.

Isn't that interesting? The fact that it wasn't behaving as it was supposed to implied that there was a way in which it was supposed to behave. According to what? Or who?

The truth is, your cells ARE supposed to behave a certain way; it's in their internal programming, in the DNA. But why? If we are to believe that we (as living organisms) arrived by random, naturalistic processes, then why would ANYTHING have a "supposed to" state at all?  Logically, chaos + time on its own does not equal order + structure; it requires the external input of intelligence. I see this as I look out the window at my lawn and gardens; heaven knows I've waited a long time, and the chaos has not come to order by itself! It's going to require my (ahem!) intelligence to bring some order and structure to the chaos that is there. Left to itself, it will revert back to wilderness. The very fact that there IS a structure, and order, and predictability, to the universe, is an argument for a Creator.  Even Charles Darwin said, "The impossibility of conceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose through chance, seems to me the chief argument for the existence of God."

I am a marine biologist by training, and a teacher of mathematics by profession. However, I am not just a scientist because I've been trained to be; it's in my very nature (you can ask my wife). If my faith was indeed blind, if it required me to ignore or refuse the facts, the truth, I could not; it would contradict every part of my being. But in fact, what I find is that what I read and learn from God's Word, the Bible, beautifully and cogently explains what I see and what I experience in the world around me.

The Bible tells us that God wants to be known by us, that He desires to reveal Himself to us so that we can have a relationship with Him. Romans 1:20 (above) indicates that He reveals something about Himself in the very universe He created, just as we might learn things about a painter by examining the painting, or about a sculptor by examining the sculpture. The creation reveals that the Creator is powerful, and creative; artistic, and detailed. The creation shows us that the Creator must, by definition, be outside of His creation, beyond His creation, free from the limits of His creation.

But I can't ever truly know Picasso, or Michelangelo, or any other famous artist, just by examining their work. To truly know a creator, I would have to be able to meet them and spend time with them.

And that's precisely what God, the Creator, made possible. He came to this world, in the person of Jesus, to have us meet Him, and be able to spend time with Him, to truly know Him. He explained God to us through His words, and He showed God to us through His actions. Most importantly, He demonstrated the incredible, incomprehensible love of God for us by going to the cross and dying in our place, so that a relationship with God could become a possibility, even a reality!  And God left us the Bible so that we could read this "letter from God" and understand His plan, His design, and His heart for us.

Dear reader, I'm here to tell you that you are not an accident; you are an intentional part of God's magnificent work of art!  He came up with the idea for you, and He formed you with intent and purpose. He knows you, and He wants you to know Him. And those of us who know Him and are known by Him want that same beautiful intimacy with God for you! One way to explore this topic in a very open and non-threatening way is through Alpha. My wife and I are presently hosting an Alpha course. Every Monday, we share a meal together with the group, watch a 25-minute video and then spend some time in discussion. We love the friendships we develop with some fascinating people! If Alpha sounds like something you might enjoy, see if there is an Alpha course being offered in your area here.

Sir Francis Bacon, great scientist of the 1600s, wrote "Let no man or woman, out of conceit or laziness, think or believe that anyone can search too far or be too well informed in the Book of God's Words or the Book of God's Works: Religion or Science. Instead, let everyone endlessly improve their understanding of both." Both God's Works and God's Word reveal His character and His nature.

And as a result, I can even find it possible to thank God for the things He's teaching me about Himself through my cancer.

A New Year: No Fear?

Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,

Your faithfulness to the clouds.

Psalm 36:5

New Year's Day is always a good day for reflection.

In education circles, we encourage our students to stop and reflect periodically, and then use those reflections to revise their plans going forward. I don't know about you, but so often I find the pace of life so crazy that "pause and reflect" opportunities certainly don't present themselves and they are even difficult to schedule. But the wise person schedules them anyway.

As I look back over 2017, there are many thoughts that come to mind. If this is not the first post you've read, then you know that 2017 was the hardest year I've ever had to face. It took me to my knees, literally and figuratively. At times, it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other, and just keep going; often, that was my only goal. Some of those in our circle of friends looked at us and said, "You're doing so well" or "You two are such strong people" or some such thing. In reality, it often felt as if we were barely holding on. You didn't seem me weeping in my car in the parking lot and then struggling to pull it together before heading in to the school to teach my classes. You didn't see me lying awake late at night (or early in the morning), nor hear the thoughts chasing each other through my head as I wrestled with what I could have done differently, how I might have failed my boy as a father, what I could have done to rescue him from the path he was taking. I would have done just about anything to change the outcome. But the things I could affect weren't really the things at issue; David had the free will to make the choices he made, the choices that eventually took his life. And so I often found myself on my knees, asking God for my boy, asking God for the courage to trust Him when things looked so hopeless. And after David had passed, asking God to help me take that next step, and the next. Asking God to heal my heart, which felt violently ripped open. Asking God for my wife, and my daughter, that He would hold and heal and comfort them in ways I just could not.

Faithful

And so, as I look back over 2017, the consistent theme of the year is a God who is Faithful, through every single step I have taken, every new milestone I have had to face, every need I had, every pain and doubt and fear I faced. My God has faithfully walked beside me every single moment of every day in 2017. My God has faithfully provided the help and the strength, the courage and the healing, the friends, the prayers, the comfort that I needed for every thing I faced. Why? Because I am such a great guy? Because I'm such a faithful follower of His? No, a thousand times No!

God has been faithful because it is who He is. Faithfulness isn't just part of His character; it's the other way around. He is the definition of the word! 2 Timothy 2:13 says, "If we are faithless, He is faithful, for He cannot deny Himself." (emphasis mine). God's faithfulness, therefore, is not dependent on my performance, or yours! And God is not necessarily being faithful to you or me; God is being faithful to Himself, to His character, to His reputation, to His plans and promises. But part of that includes His faithfulness to me, and to you if you are also His follower.

Chris Tomlin, in his song Faithful, writes:

Faithful, forever You are faithful
Father to the fatherless
You uphold the one who feels forsaken
You are faithful, God

Faithful, forever You are faithful
Lover of the wounded heart
You defend the poor and the forgotten
You are faithful, God

And I will sing to the maker of Heaven and Earth
God, You reign forever and Your love will endure
Faithful and true is the name of the Lord
You are faithful, God

Faithful, forever You are faithful
Shelter for the fragile soul
You lift us up, You hold us all together
You are faithful, God

You are there in every season of my soul
You are there, You're the anchor that will hold
You are there, in the valley of the shadows
You are faithful, God

As I now look forward to 2018, I find myself settled and at peace. Is it because my circumstances are peaceful? Not necessarily. In just a few short days, we will face the first anniversary of the loss of our first child. At work, there are things that I face that I'm not confident I am ready for, or even capable of. My parents and in-laws are aging; will this be a year where I must say goodbye to another one that I love? My daughter is not only planning for post-secondary education, but thinking about reconnecting with her birth families; what will that mean for her relationship with me, with us? The world at large is experiencing great unrest; what about the impact that will have on me, and on my family? I don't know the answers to all those questions.

But I do know the One who does have those answers. I know His heart, and I know His faithfulness, both intellectually and experientially. I have so many memories of the times I have tested His faithfulness, and found it to be wholly trustworthy. This is why I can face whatever is coming; I know I won't face it alone, and I know He will supply whatever resources I need, because of His faithfulness.

And for you, dear reader, I wish the same: that you would come to experience and know the faithfulness of the Faithful One, the God who created you uniquely, and loves you unconditionally! Won't you give Him your 2018? I promise you, you will never regret it!