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!

A Unique Nature: Temptation and the Power of Sin over Us

For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15

As a kid, I was fascinated by magnets.

We had a few of them at home. The small round ones. The ones that looked like a bar. We even had a large horseshoe-shaped one. It was great fun to go around and find things I could pick up with that magnet, or put it close to a large piece of metal and feel it pull me toward it! Occasionally I would be caught by surprise, as I put it near or on something metal, only to see it fall off when I let go of the magnet. Why did it stick to some metal things and not to others? It would be years later before I would learn that magnets are attracted to ferrous metals, but not to non-ferrous ones. The magnet could not draw the non-ferrous metals to itself because there was nothing in the nature of the metal to be drawn to the magnet.

As I've walked my journey of faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ, I have (thankfully) grown in my understanding of Him. When I was young, I was taught (rightly) that God is holy and that He hates sin. My inaccurate extension of that was that He waited in heaven, watching me to see if I really meant that I loved Him, showing it by obeying what He commanded. And when I failed to do so, He must be looking down at me with disapproval, thinking "What a disappointment that boy is." I would really want to do well, but it would so often be so clear to me how far short of His standard of perfection I fell. I would be genuinely disappointed in myself. In my teen years I discovered the passage that the apostle Paul penned in Romans 7, where he writes in verse 15 "For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate." As I read that, I thought "Wow. That's me! You mean to say the apostle Paul struggles like this?!?"  In verse 19, he goes on to write "For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want."  "Exactly! Why am I so drawn to the thing I know is wrong, the thing I hate? And why, if I hate it, do I still find myself doing it?"

"Wow, that's me! You mean to say

even the apostle Paul struggled

like this?!?"

Finally in verse 21, Paul writes "I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good."  So I'm thinking "Hey, great! If Paul struggled with it, and he was such an amazing follower of Christ, then he must have found some solution!"  Reading on in verses 24 and 25, I find "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin."

What? No foolproof solution for the elimination of this problem? Just a recognition that, as long as I live on this earth in a human body, I will always face this battle? That seems to be precisely the conclusion Paul came to. How discouraging!

Or is it? Maybe I was missing something. You see, in the 35 or so years since that time, I have come to learn that there is far more to be learned in the process than in the actual destination. You see, in pondering all of this over the years, there are a number of insights that God has opened my eyes to.

This is what God says to me:

"There is nothing you can do that will make Me love you more, and there is nothing you can do that will make Me love you less."

1. The struggle teaches me the wonder of His grace. Contrary to the image I had of God as a young boy, God's love for me does not change based on my performance. We used to tell our son this so often during the last difficult years of his life, and it now occurs to me that this is what God says to me: "There is nothing you can do that will make Me love you more, and there is nothing you can do that will make Me love you less."  Regardless of my failings, my imperfections, my disobedience, God's love does not waver. Oh, rest assured He will deal with the sin! But there's the beauty of it; Romans 5:8 says "... while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Before I ever turned to Him in repentance, before I ever asked for His forgiveness, Christ had already paid whatever price needed to be paid, so that the offense between God and me was taken away and reconciliation was possible, if I would simply accept the gift of salvation being offered to me. I had to learn that  "The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness." (Lam. 3:22, 23) It is in the struggle that I discover that I have no strength to fight in myself; I need to be constantly connected to God and only then will I be able to "...do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Phil. 4:13)  And I recognize that "...nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not." (Romans 7:18) Thus, the struggle teaches me that God's grace reaches out to me in love, regardless of my performance, and He will supply what I need to do what He calls me to do, if I will simply choose to live my life in communion with Him. Amazing grace!

2. The struggle teaches me humility and compassion. If God were to simply take away the struggle from me, I could see myself very easily becoming pompous and prideful, as I consider how truly wonderful and obedient a child of God I am! Oh, it's so far from the truth! And the humbling that occurs as I realize my own inability to do anything of value for God in my own strength allows me to show compassion toward those who also struggle, and fail, rather than to judge them. This is not to be confused with excusing or enabling their sins and failures; rather it is an opportunity to, gently and compassionately, redirect them to the One who can pick them up, forgive them and provide them with whatever they need to continue living for Him.

3. The struggle teaches me how truly "other" Jesus is.  Hebrews 4:15 says, "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." (emphasis mine). I would sometimes get angry, discount the temptation for Jesus, thinking "Well, since He's God, it's not a temptation for Him anyway, so where's the challenge?"  I was seeing it all wrong. The fact that Jesus was tempted as we are, yet was without sin was not a demonstration of His amazing ability to stand up under the pressure of the pull of sin. Otherwise the lesson to us would simply be "You've got to try harder." You see, it's like the lesson of the magnet above: Sin had no ability to draw or tempt Jesus, because there was no sin in His nature to be attracted to a temptation. A magnet can be used to test whether a metal is of a ferrous nature or not. Similarly, temptations can be used to test whether we have a sin nature or not. Jesus did not respond to the temptation, which demonstrated that His nature is holiness. And the lesson to us is this: You can't fight this battle on your own, because your very nature is sinful. You need to constantly look to Me for help! But I'm also going to give you a new nature, one that desires holiness and is empowered by My Spirit! And someday, I'm going to renew you, so that your very sin nature is removed, and the very presence of sin is gone forever!

What an incredible promise for the one who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ! It begins even here: the more we commune with Him, the more we desire what He desires. As Romans 12:2 states, we will be "...transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

And what about you, the reader who is not yet a follower of Jesus?  The amazing thing of it all is the lengths to which God was willing to go to make it possible for you to have that same freedom from the slavery of sin.  2 Corinthians 5:21 says that "God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."  God dealt with our sin by placing all of our rejection of Him, all of our offenses against Him, all of our falling short of His perfect standard -- placing it all on His Son Jesus, the only perfect, sinless One and punishing Him for it, as if He had done it all!  And then He takes Jesus' perfection and places it on you, as if you had never done anything wrong! Why would He do such a crazy thing? Crazy love for you, that's why. All you have to do is take the gift!

I hope that's an offer that draws your heart to Him like ferrous metal to a magnet!

The Injustice Of Christmas

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, 

but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Mark 10:45

For those grieving the loss of a loved one, Christmas can be painful.

One of the great joys of life with family is the traditions we build. Christmas is one of those special times of the year when this is especially true. We have a tradition of setting up the Christmas tree in the early part of December, while playing Christmas music and enjoying finger foods like wings and shrimp and "cold pizza" and veggies and dip. Each member of the family has a box of their own special ornaments with which they decorate the tree. This year, each of us chose an ornament from David's box that was meaningful to us and placed it on the tree.

These traditions are important; they bind families together. But they are also powerful reminders of the absence of a member of the family who used to be part of the tradition. And I never truly understood, until I became a member of the "club" that no one wants to be a member of.

But I don't want to scrap Christmas as a result. While I mourn the loss of my son, I am grateful for the presence and love of my wife, and my daughter, and my extended family, not to mention my friends and my neighbours. Grief and loss are a reality in our life experience; we cannot avoid them, and through them we often discover things, like who our true friends are, or things about our own character of which we were unaware. There is always something to be learned.

Recently, my dear friend Ashley sent me a link to a video. In it, Craig Aven was singing The Sweetest Gift, a song he had written expressly for those grieving a loss at Christmas time. Take time to listen to it; it's beautiful and worthwhile. (Have the tissues close by!)

It struck me, as I listened to this song, that others who might listen as I share it on Facebook might think, "Well it's a nice sentiment at Christmas, and a comfort to someone grieving, like Mike and Judy, but David? Really? In the arms of Jesus? How can you just ignore all the stuff he was doing, all the mess he was into? The innocence of a small child, or self-sacrificial kindness and generosity, THAT would be deserving of 'the arms of Jesus', but David's sin? His brokenness? His mess? How can we just pretend that wasn't the reality? How does he deserve the arms of Jesus?"

A totally fair and honest question, and it brings to light the total injustice of Christmas.

You see, David doesn't deserve heaven, or the arms of Jesus. Neither do I and neither do you. If God is really perfectly holy and perfectly righteous and perfectly just, then He must make His standard of acceptability absolute perfection. Only a perfect person deserves His heaven, and we all know that nobody's perfect ... well, nobody except Jesus. So according to the standard that God requires, in order to be true to His character, the only one who deserves heaven is Jesus.

And what does Jesus do? The only One qualified to enjoy heaven leaves heaven, and comes to earth to be born as a baby. Why? To die on the cross.

You see, a holy God must punish sin, or He isn't holy. If He allows a little bit of sin, then He contradicts His very nature. The word "holy" means "set apart" or "completely other than". So God is completely set apart from sin; sin cannot abide in God's presence. And yet, His nature also includes perfect love. 1 John 4:8 says "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God IS love." (emphasis mine). It's not just that He loves, He is the definition of love! His perfect love desires unhindered relationship with us, but His perfect holiness demands punishment of our sin. What a conundrum!  How does God resolve it? His perfect love sends His perfect Son, Jesus, from heaven to come to earth as a baby, live a perfectly obedient life before God and us as witnesses, and then go to the cross and suffer the punishment that a perfectly holy God pours out in full, with no discount, on Him. Then, and here's the real injustice, if we are willing to accept the offer, God takes Jesus' perfect righteousness and attributes it to us, as if we had been the perfectly obedient ones! You want to talk about unfair? THAT's unfair!

And because Jesus was perfectly willing to take that position, to be found innocent by Pilate but condemned to death anyway, to be perfectly obedient to God but be punished for all of OUR sin anyway, to suffer that punishment because He willingly took our place ... because He did that, we have the opportunity to have our debt before God wiped clean. The price for our crimes has been paid. We need only tell God that we agree with Him that WE deserved the cross, that we accept the price that Jesus paid on our behalf and that we authorize Him to take over the throne of our life ... and in Christ, we are now seen by God as deserving of heaven. 1 Peter 3:18 says "For Christ also died for sins, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh ..." (emphasis mine). The rebellious one gets treated by God as perfectly righteous because the Perfectly Obedient One was treated as if He had committed every sin.

David is in heaven, enjoying the presence of Jesus. Judy and I will join him there some day. Not because of anything we have done or not done; on our own, we are perfectly deserving of eternal hellfire. No, we'll be there solely because we have accepted the Gift that God offers: salvation through the perfect work that Jesus did when He took our place before the Holy Judge of the universe.

I hope you'll join us. Let this be the Christmas you receive the Greatest Gift Ever.

Lest We Forget

"Do this in remembrance of Me"

Luke 22:19

As a first-generation Canadian of Dutch ancestry, Remembrance Day is always of special significance to me. It is a reality that, were it not for the part that brave Canadian soldiers played in Holland during World War II, I very likely would not be here, writing this blog.

My father was a young boy during WWII, the oldest of (eventually) 7 children. At one point they lived in Arnhem, and late in the war, were awakened in the middle of the night by Allied soldiers who herded them down to the bank of the Arnhem river where Canadian soldiers had erected rope bridges across, in order to evacuate civilians prior to a major offensive. My father's family crossed the river and travelled to relatives in the country, where they stayed until the fighting was over. And on May 5, 1945, Holland was finally freed from Nazi occupation. To express their deep gratitude, Holland sends gifts of thousands of tulips to the Canadian government to this day.

I am a husband and a father. It staggers me to think that countless young men, many husbands and fathers themselves, volunteered to go and fight, and quite possibly die, to achieve freedom for those who might never even know their names. I am humbled at the selflessness, the sacrifice made on my behalf, that I might enjoy the freedom that I do today. And I choose to honour that sacrifice; I don't believe they paid with their blood and their lives to buy me a freedom to do anything I want, although that is a possibility. No, I choose to honour that sacrifice by doing what is good and right, seeking what is true, striving (in weakness and imperfection) to use my freedom to serve others, in the same spirit that these incredibly courageous men and women served, and still serve, others. To stand against injustice and oppression against the poor, the helpless, the needy, the down-trodden.

And I remember, with thankful heart.

Another fierce battle was fought, nearly 2000 years ago. A Man left behind everything he enjoyed because men and women that he loved deeply were enslaved by a cruel and oppressive tyrant. He wasn't about to leave them in that situation. He demonstrated through his life that he was exactly who he said he was: God, and "God is love" (I John 4:8). He loved the poor, the helpless, the needy, the down-trodden. He defended the orphans and the widows, the outcast of society, and showed them love. He stood up to the religious leaders, who did not love his people but burdened them instead.

He was finally arrested, unfairly tried, found innocent but unjustly condemned and sentenced to death on a cross, the most horrific and shameful of all executions. He gave his blood and his life on that cross. His name is Jesus.

Doesn't sound like much of a battle, does it? But the battle was a spiritual one, we are those enslaved by sin and Satan, and the payment for our freedom, for our redemption from slavery, was blood, his blood. When he hung on that cross, he stood before the Ultimate Judge, God, and paid the penalty we owed, with his own lifeblood, so that we might have the opportunity to go free. To prove that he was the only qualified candidate and that the payment was accepted, he rose from the grave three days later.

He bought my freedom. I don't believe he paid with his blood and his life to buy me a freedom to do anything I want, although that is a possibility. I could squander my freedom by being self-serving. No, instead I choose to honour that sacrifice by doing what is good and right, seeking what is true, striving (in weakness and imperfection) to use my freedom to serve others, in the same spirit that my Saviour loved and served others. To stand against injustice and oppression against the poor, the helpless, the needy, the down-trodden. To share with them the news of the freedom that can only be found in Jesus Christ, freedom from the power of sin, freedom from the penalty of sin and, someday, even freedom from the presence of sin.

To those who have chosen to follow this brave and courageous and selfless Warrior, his command is that we gather to remember him in his death. We call it communion. Will you? Will you honour and remember him in the breaking of bread and drinking the cup? Will you remember that his body was broken for you, his blood was shed for you? He paid the ultimate price, a price I was incapable of ever paying, so that I might be free to have a relationship with him, to love him, to worship him, to honour him, because he is worthy.

And I remember, with thankful heart.

Standing By The Side Of The Road

"Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
    Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow..."

Lamentations 1:12

It's probably hard to believe but, as a child, I sometimes behaved badly.

Okay, maybe that's not the stretch I'd like it to be. My brother and I could be pretty obnoxious with each other, and toward each other. And long stretches in the car could serve to amplify our ability to get on everyone's nerves. I remember in particular one day where we had been up to our usual miserable antics, heedless of the warnings from Mom and Dad, when Dad suddenly pulled the car over at the end of our street and said, "Okay, BOTH of you: OUT!" In shock, we did as we were told, the door closed and they drove off. (Keep in mind that we lived out in the country; this portion of our road was all fields as far as you could see.) We were left to walk home the remaining half a mile; an opportunity to burn off the extra energy we had previously been expending in an enclosed space ... and a chance to think.

I remember vividly the feelings my 12-year-old self experienced as I watched the car drive away. I felt a sense of abandonment and loss, even while I knew my parents hadn't stopped loving me and my then-10-year-old brother was right beside me. I felt some distress at being so far from home, even while I knew I had ridden my bike to and past this very place multiple times. I felt like no one cared, as the occasional car drove by and the occupants either stared at us or ignored us, even while I knew they would have stopped to help if we were in serious trouble. There was a repeated feeling of being left behind.

Those feelings have become familiar once again.

In the past couple of weeks, my wife and I have finally summoned the emotional fortitude to design and select a monument to be erected at the gravesite. We were able to purchase a plot for ourselves right beside David. As I mentioned to a good friend, it is a strange thing to see your own name on a tombstone. But I found it especially hard to see my dear son's name and dates there. Really brings it home that much more.

At times I wonder what's appropriate for me to feel, or if "appropriate" even has any relevance in this context. Sometimes it "feels" all wrong; life is going on around me, but I'm still standing at the side of the road. And this time, David is in the car that I'm watching disappear down the road. I feel a little bit left behind. And at times, it feels like I'm being stared at or ignored by the passersby; I imagine they ask, "Who is that?" and hear "Oh that's the man whose son has died."

After David died, there were times when it felt so wrong that life just carried on for other people, like everything should stop for a while to recognize this great tragedy. I wanted to shout, "Don't you understand my son has died?!?" And, to be completely honest, I still feel a lot of that. Yes, I'm carrying on. Yes, I show up every day at work and do my job. Would it make sense to say, however, that often it feels as if everyone else's life is in colour, and mine is just black-and-white?

I know it's not really like that. I'll get a text from a friend every now and again, or from my cousin, saying "We're still praying for you" or "You were on my heart today". Where would we be without dear friends like you?

And there are moments when it's good again, right again. Our little Charlotte, our beautiful grand-daughter, brings such joy to our hearts! And there is such healing in being around her lively self, hearing her laugh, seeing her smile, feeling her hugs and kisses. I'm so grateful to God for her, for the joy she brings to our life, for the little piece of David we can hold onto and treasure in her.

But the surprise moments still catch me unaware. Today my wife and I decided to go to a Craft Show at the local college. We drove in, not really knowing which building it was being held in. We parked in the lot and climbed aboard the shuttle bus. And then, as it turned down one of the side streets, I realized where we were going. It was right beside a set of residences where we had gotten David a short-term sublet, so he wouldn't be on the street. That hadn't worked out well at all, and a short time later, he was evicted. The memories rolled over me like a tsunami and I fought to hold back the tears. Judy squeezed my hand and said, "You too?"

As I read the account of Jesus' crucifixion, there were people rushing about all around, trying to prepare for the Sabbath. They might have been hurrying to market to buy last-minute groceries. They might have been travelling to someone's house to share the Sabbath meal with them. There were things to do, to finish up, that day, because no work could be done come evening. And Jesus hung on the cross, not for His own sins, but for yours, for mine, for David's, for Charlotte's, for the sins of the people at the foot of the cross waving their fists, hurling their insults, for the sins of those who hurried by, paying no mind because there was so much still to do.

Did Jesus' heart ache for someone to just stop and take notice, to weep as He hung between heaven and earth, bearing the brutal and indescribable punishment for our sin? Did God the Father look around for someone to appreciate the immense sacrifice that He and His beloved Son were making so that mankind could be redeemed? "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like My sorrow" could be words that either of Them could have spoken.

I might feel abandoned at times, I might feel alone at times, but if I'm completely honest, I know I have never been alone, never been abandoned, never been forsaken in this journey of grief. Jesus cried out from the cross "My God! My God! Why have you forsaken Me?"; He did so because He was bearing the punishment that I deserved, and God had to turn His back on His own Son because of it. 

And because I have placed my faith and trust in the One who did all that for me, because I am "in Christ", I will never experience that.

Jesus was forsaken so that I would never, ever be.