As a nation we have started down many a slippery path.  One such example has been the abortion issue.  Many think the debate has been decided that it is over and down with. What they may not realize or will not admit is that it put us onto a dangerous and deadly path.  Because Canada has no abortion laws whatsoever, fetuses can be aborted legally right up until moments before natural birth without impunity.  Thankfully that does not happen often as most doctors are far more reasonable than to do such an obvious murderous act.   However the slippery slope has led us down another treacherous path, that of sex selection abortion.  In many cultures around the world, male children are preferred over female.  So in places like China with a ‘one child’ policy the parents will abort a female fetus and try again in hopes of getting a male.  With some couples this scenario may be repeated several times until a male is conceived.  The map below shows that males under 5 years outnumber girls in every single province, some by as much as 30%.  The result of this slippery slope will be catastrophic in 20 years when these young men will literally not be able to find a woman to marry.  Will they have to institute a marriage lottery to determine who gets a wife?

The United Nations estimates that 200 million women and girls are missing due to gendercide, and stated: “Renewed and concerted efforts are needed by governments and civil society to address the deeply rooted gender discrimination which lies at the heart of sex selection.”  Even the normally morally liberal UN feels governments need to act to reverse this trend.  Canada is doing nothing… actually worse than nothing which we will get to in a moment.

In June 2012, the CBC aired an investigation on gender selection. With hidden cameras they visited 22 private ultrasound clinics in Canada. They found that most of these clinics were allowing ultrasounds to tell the sex of the baby so that the parents could choose to terminate the pregnancy if the unborn child is female.

All of this is bad enough in itself but this is where it gets worse, much worse.  On March 28th Conservative MP Mark Warawa attempted to introduce a motion in the House of Commons.  Motion 408 merely asked that the House condemn discrimination against females occurring through sex-selective pregnancy termination.  The motion would have had no legal ramifications but it would have at least represented a sentiment of the Canadian values on this issue.  Warawa claims that 92% of Canadians want the practice of sex selection condemned.  The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs’ rejected his motion and he was not permitted to even introduce it in the House.   Then when he later wanted to speak on the issue on what is a called a ‘point of privilege’ his own party would not let him speak.

As a Canadian that believes in democracy this really angers me.  And it should anger every one of us.  I understand Steven Harper’s reluctance to allow the abortion debate to be reopened, but his misguided sense of political survival is trumping his sense of democratic freedom.  Once you begin to muzzle the free speech of your own MP’s you have started down the slippery slope to the totalitarianism that exists in places like North Korea, Cuba and Syria to name only a few.  In a pathetic attempt to appear untainted by the abortion issue our government has resorted to suspending democracy.  The British Westminster system of government that Canada employs has always afforded MP’s the right to represent their own views or those of their constituents.  It is called the House of Commons for a reason.  It was always meant to be the place where the ‘common’ man could be democratically represented.  I am profoundly disappointed in Steven Harper’s heavy handed approach to handling his MP’s.   He has nothing to lose by allowing Warawa to proceed.  If the House of Commons accepts his motion, or rejects it, that is a reflection on the sentiment of the House not Harper’s government.

The snowball has picked up some new momentum on the way down this slippery slope. This is far more serious than most people realize.  We are not only talking about human lives and social engineering but democracy itself.  At some point you reach the breaking point where you begin an irreversible slide.  Let me leave you with one more very short video.  It is not as terrifying as the last but you will get the point.  No skiers were harmed in the making of this film.

The leap in logic is disingenuous at best and blatantly dishonest at worst.  There would not be a single Evangelical church in Canada that would support the views of the Ugandan government on this issue.  The great irony in this story is that we are the ones doing the good works of love and compassion around the world, yet we are ones being flamed as haters and bigots.  It is confounding to say the least.  Evangelicals spend more money in that 3rd world than perhaps everybody else combined.   Who is taking care of the AIDS orphans in Africa?  It is not the gay rights activists.  They aren’t doing one single thing.  It is the  Evangelical church, the ones that supposedly hate gays.  Who is working to free the 2 million people around the world that have been sold into human slavery?  It is the Evangelical church.  Most people aren’t even aware that there are more enslaved humans today than at any time in history.  And the bulk of this travesty is in Africa.  Have we already forgotten that the Nobel Peace Prize winning champion of  the 1960′s human rights movement Martin Luther King Jr was an Evangelical minister?  Nobody is more committed to fundamental human rights today than Evangelical christians.

I am getting tired of the hypocrisy and stupidity from our critics.  This week NPD leader Thomas Mulcair waded into the fray.  In an outraged interview he said, “We don’t understand how the Conservatives can … subsidize a group in Uganda whose views are ‘identical’ to those of the Ugandan government.”  (Remember the bouncing ball we followed earlier)  He then added, ”…these types of evangelical groups with vision that goes completely against not only Canadian values, but Canadian law.”  I sincerely wonder what planet Mr Mulcair is from.  The Christian church has regarded homosexuality a sin for 2000 years.  He himself is a Roman Catholic.  Why has he not lashed out against his own faith?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:  “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”  The level of hypocrisy is nothing short of staggering.  

Secondly, Mr Mulcair is a lawyer.  He should know that holding the view that homosexuality is sin is NOT “against Canadian law”.  The Charter of Rights and Freedoms holds the freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of belief and freedom of expression as the first of the fundamental Canadian human rights.

The third point, and just as disturbing, is calling Evangelical values un-Canadian.  Mr. Mulcair seems to have forgotten the roots of his own party.  Tommy Douglas, the very first leader of the NPD, was an Evangelical (Baptist) minister and the founder of our beloved medicare system.  It really doesn’t get more Canadian than that.  In 2004 the CBC named Tommy Douglas the Greatest Canadian of all time.  The statements that we have been hearing in the last week would never be said of Jews or Muslims or Catholics in today’s day and age, even though their position is essentially identical to that of Evangelical churches in Canada.  I would think a MP that would say the same things of, let’s say Muslims, would be forced to resign from politics.  If you have 15 minutes to spare you need to hear Ezra Levant’s commentary on this story.  It is brilliantly done.  By the way Ezra is Jewish.

HOLY HYPOCRITES: Click here to watch

I have said it many times before, it is now open season on Evangelical christians?  We are the only religious group that you can openly criticize without any fear of reprisal.  The political and cultural winds are blowing against us.  We are being increasingly criticized, marginalized and manipulated into abandoning our biblical world view.  Those of us that are not willing to yield are coming under increased scrutiny.  If there are now already politicians that think that we are breaking Canadian law, then it stands to reason that the day may come where we will end up in jail for espousing our beliefs.  If the winds do not change soon, this could be the end of religious freedom in Canada.  For the record, I would rather go to jail than compromise my commitment to the Word of God.  Even that would not shut me up.  I would just swap my TV ministry for a prison ministry.  I do not relish the thought, but that is exactly what the Apostle Paul faced during much of his ministry.  He was continually thrown in jail for preaching the gospel.

I think the only thing that will change that trajectory is a wholesale spiritual revival in Canada.  God could bring that to pass with the snap off His fingers.  In the meantime however, religious freedom is at the crossroads.

Our food supply has been seriously compromised and is clearly linked to the epidemic levels of cancers, heart disease and diabetes in our culture.  When missionary doctor Albert Schweitzer arrived in Africa in 1913 he took note that there was almost no instances of cancer amongst the Congolese.  He eventually concluded that the most obvious factor was the significant difference in diet between Europeans and Africans.  Specifically that the Africans were eating fresh food and wild game and none of the refined, processed, canned or preserved foods of the Europeans. A fascinating modern day study has shown that the instances of breast cancer among Chinese women is very low.  However, once they immigrate to North America it only takes one generation for their breast cancer rate to jump to Western world levels.  This fact pretty much eliminates the genetic predisposition argument as the primary cause.

Given what is pretty much general knowledge as to what constitutes a healthy diet today, how is it that the 970 calorie Baconator is still at the top of Wendy’s menu?   In fairness to Wendy’s, the Baconator at 970 calories is not the world’s most unhealthy burger.  Check out this video about the Heart Attack Grill.

The restaurant’s 575 pound spokesman Blair River died last year at the age of 29.

I will admit that I am on a crusade to encourage people to get healthier.  I actually do know what I am talking about when it comes to the food supply.  Many of you will not know that my background is in food production.  I am an Agriculture grad from the University of Manitoba and worked in the farming and grain industry before I went into the ministry.  I was a bit of a radical back then and was always  experimenting.  I was one of the first persons to grow lentils in Manitoba when it was just taking off as a commercial crop in our province..  I imported the seed from Idaho.  Today it is an important Manitoba crop.  Over the years I have watched as our food supply has been poisoned by pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, genetically modified organisms, preservatives, additives etc.  I also know that at times I sound like one of those annoying ex-smokers that is always telling people that if they don’t quit they are going to die of lung cancer.  But I, like the ex-smokers, have pure motives.  It is not about being judgmental, it is because we want our friends to stick around awhile to continue to be our friends.  I could rag on and on about what not to eat and why, and tell you about all kinds of scary things in the food supply, but instead today I want to point you in a more positive direction.

When God created man one of the first things he did was tell him what to eat.  In the Garden of Eden it was fresh fruits and vegetables.  Mankind did not eat meat for at least 1700 years until after the flood. (See Genesis 9)  When God did permit the eating of meat it was already known which animals were fit for food and which were not. The unclean animals were the scavengers (snails, eels, shrimp, vultures, crows, pigs etc.).  The clean animals were those that chewed their cud like cows, sheep, goats, and fish with scales, and non-scavenging birds like chicken and the like. (Lev. 11)  For the record this list was known for at least a 1000 years before Moses law as it is mentioned in the story of Noah.   100′s of scriptures in the Old Testament are devoted to the dietary laws.  Pages and pages on what God’s people should eat, how they should prepare the food and what foods are in fact outright forbidden.  God’s purpose in it all was to keep His people in good health.  He created man, so I am reasonably convinced that He would be the best authority on what they should eat.   My question is this; So, the New Testament arrives and all of a sudden these foods have become healthy?  I highly doubt it.  How Jesus dying on the cross makes bacon healthy is beyond me.  But I digress.

I feel one of the biggest problems is there are too many voices telling us what we should or should not eat that it has become confusing, and so we just eat what we like and take our chances.  There is a simple solution to all this.  Many are probably familiar with the Mediterranean Diet.  It is 1000′s of years old and has come out of the very region that the bible emerged.  It is as close as you will find to the biblical diet.  One of the most helpful tools is the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid.

The bulk of our diet should be made up of ‘whole’ grains, fruits, vegetables and nuts.  Diary should take the form of cheese or yogurt as animal milk is not easily digested by humans and was never drank in the bible.  Fish and poultry are the best forms of meat, with fish having the edge for low fat and high omega 3 fatty acid.  Sweets were only eaten as a special treat, not every day and certainly not after every meal.  An example in scripture was during the major Jewish feasts.  “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” (Neh 8:10)   The sugar in our diets is literally killing us.  Don’t forget that sugar is added to almost every packaged food on the store shelf.  Red meat was never consumed everyday or at every meal as it is today in our culture.  Even among those who were wealthy and could afford it, red meat was reserved for special occasions.  (See the story of the prodigal son  - Luke 15)  They only time we see Jesus eating red meat was during the Passover.  Red meat is too hard to digest and contains more animal fat than our bodies  can deal with.  The objection is always; “Well where will I get protein?”  How about the same place as cows get it.  Cows don’t eat meat. All the protein they make has come from the vegetation they consume.  Grains, nuts and vegetables are loaded with protein.  Lentils have more protein than beef.  Quinoa the ancient wonder grain has 16% protein more than twice that of rice.  But even whole wheat has 14% protein.

If I could leave you with one more challenge.  You have got to get the ‘whites’ out of your diet, they are killing you – white flour, white pasta, white rice, white bread (simple carbohydrates that turn into sugar in your bloodstream) and of course white sugar.  And finally here’s my best dietary advice.  Print this pyramid off and post it on your fridge.   Start putting it into practice every day and  you will feel better, stay healthier, lose weight and never have to go on diet again.  So, meet me at Club Med.

UPDATE: FEB 25, 2013

Today the New England Journal of Medicine published a 5 year study confirming the health benefits of adopting the Mediterranean diet.  The following article appeared in the Calgary Herald:

Pour on the olive oil, preferably over fish and vegetables: One of the longest and most scientific tests of a Mediterranean diet suggests this style of eating can cut the chance of suffering heart-related problems, especially strokes, in older people at high risk of them.

The study lasted five years and involved about 7,500 people in Spain. Those who ate Mediterranean-style with lots of olive oil or nuts had a 30 per cent lower risk of major cardiovascular problems compared to others who were told to follow a low-fat diet. Mediterranean meant lots of fruit, fish, chicken, beans, tomato sauce, salads, and wine and little baked goods and pastries.

Mediterranean diets have long been touted as heart-healthy, but that’s based on observational studies that can’t prove the point. The new research is much stronger because people were assigned diets to follow for a long time and carefully monitored. Doctors even did lab tests to verify that the Mediterranean diet folks were consuming more olive oil or nuts as recommended.

Most of these people were taking medicines for high cholesterol and blood pressure, and researchers did not alter those proven treatments, said the study’s leader, Dr. Ramon Estruch of Hospital Clinic in Barcelona.

But as a first step to prevent heart problems, “we think diet is better than a drug” because it has few if any side effects, Estruch said. “Diet works.”

Results were published online Monday by the New England Journal of Medicine and were to be discussed at a nutrition conference in Loma Linda, Calif.

People in the study were not given rigid menus or calorie goals because weight loss was not the aim. That could be why they found the “diets” easy to stick with — only about 7 per cent dropped out within two years. There were twice as many dropouts in the low-fat group than among those eating Mediterranean-style.

Researchers also provided the nuts and olive oil, so it didn’t cost participants anything to use these relatively pricey ingredients. The type of oil may have mattered — they used extra-virgin olive oil, which is richer than regular or light olive oil in the chemicals and nutrients that earlier studies have suggested are beneficial.

The study involved people ages 55 to 80, just over half of them women. All were free of heart disease at the start but were at high risk for it because of health problems — half had diabetes and most were overweight and had high cholesterol and blood pressure.

They were assigned to one of three groups: Two followed a Mediterranean diet supplemented with either extra-virgin olive oil (4 tablespoons a day) or with walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds (a fistful a day). The third group was urged to eat a low-fat diet heavy on bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, fruits, vegetables and fish and light on baked goods, nuts, oils and red meat.

Independent monitors stopped the study after nearly five years when they saw fewer problems in the two groups on Mediterranean diets.

Doctors tracked a composite of heart attacks, strokes or heart-related deaths. There were 96 of these in the Mediterranean-olive oil group, 83 in the Mediterranean-nut group and 109 in the low-fat group.

Looked at individually, stroke was the only problem where type of diet made a big difference. Diet had no effect on death rates overall.

The Spanish government’s health research agency initiated and paid for the study, and foods were supplied by olive oil and nut producers in Spain and the California Walnut Commission. Many of the authors have extensive financial ties to food, wine and other industry groups but said the sponsors had no role in designing the study or analyzing and reporting its results.

Rachel Johnson, a University of Vermont professor who heads the American Heart Association’s nutrition committee, said the study is very strong because of the lab tests to verify oil and nut consumption and because researchers tracked actual heart attacks, strokes and deaths — not just changes in risk factors such as high cholesterol.

“At the end of the day, what we care about is whether or not disease develops,” she said. “It’s an important study.”

Rena Wing, a weight-loss expert at Brown University, noted that researchers provided the oil and nuts, and said “it’s not clear if people could get the same results from self-designed Mediterranean diets” — or if Americans would stick to them more than Europeans used to such foods.

A third independent expert also praised the study as evidence diet can lower heart risks.

“The risk reduction is close to that achieved with statins” — widely used cholesterol drugs, said Dr. Robert Eckel, a diet and heart disease expert at the University of Colorado.

“But this study was not carried out or intended to compare diet to statins or blood pressure medicines,” he warned. “I don’t think people should think now they can quit taking their medicines.”

By Marilynn Marchione, The Associated Press February 25, 2013 7:50 AM

I do think Morgan is doing us a favour in provoking the debate.  The pro-gun lobby likes to hide behind the mantra “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”.  I could not agree more.  That is why America needs to rethink its gun laws and quit putting guns in the hands of people who kill people.  It is impossible to create laws that restrict the existence of stupid people.  Therefore the only alternative is to create laws that restrict stupid people from getting guns. Don’t misunderstand me, I am not one of these radical anti-gun folks.  I own three guns; a bolt action .22 and a couple of shotguns.  They were registered until recently when the Tories scrapped the long gun registry.  For the record, I do not use them to kill people, but rather other lesser pests.  The biggest problem with the Canadian gun registry, other the billion dollar price tag, was the fact that the criminals forgot to register their weapons.  I guess that’s why they call them criminals.

I do think the debate on gun restrictions is a discussion we need to be having.  To just say this is a mental health issue and unrelated to the proliferation of guns is disingenuous.  A pastor friend of mine in Indiana shared with me of a terrible tragedy in his church.  He says that on any given Sunday there might be a dozen or more people ‘packing heat’ in his pews.  (Maybe not the safest environment for a preacher like me who likes to stir it up a bit)  One weekend one of his members was putting on his three year old daughter’s shoes when his ‘legally obtained and constitutionally protected’ handgun fell out of his pocket and discharged when it hit the floor.  The bullet struck his daughter point blank and killed her instantly.  It was one of the toughest funerals he ever had to perform.  And I would add… the most unnecessary one.  What happens when you arm a society to the teeth?  I think we know.

Columbine, Virginia Tech, École Polytechnique, Newtown… the violence needs to stop.   Can we really just shrug our shoulders and plead innocence?  Here are my thoughts on the matter.

Firstly, the USA is saddled with the unhelpful Second Constitutional Amendment which guarantees citizens the right to bear arms.  It may have made sense when it was enacted in 1791 but today the gun lobby believes that it somehow gives them the right to own a ground to air heat seeking missile if they so desire.

Secondly, North America has become drunk on a culture that celebrates gratuitous violence on TV, in movies, video games and almost everywhere you look.  Research has shown that people are actually instinctively resistant to killing another human. The evidence shows that the vast majority of combatants throughout history, at the moment of truth when they could and should kill the enemy, have been unwilling to do so, and would often shoot over the enemies head.  Sometimes they would actually opt for being killed rather than killing. Today however, we have witnessed so many 1,000′s of virtual killings that we scarcely flinch when we view real wars live via satellite on television.  We have all seen images to which only soldiers in combat were once exposed.  If virtual violence does not desensitize us, then why would the Military use it as a training tool to desensitize solders to killing?

The third factor is the lack of restrictions on some very deadly weapons.  Canada is a lot less violent than the US, at least part by the fact that very few or any of us are ever ‘packing heat’. There are a couple of very important differences between Canada and the US when it comes to gun laws.  Any American with a permit can carry a handgun.  In Canada a handgun can only be legally transported to and from the firing range.  The rest of time it is required to be unloaded, the trigger disabled and locked away in a proper gun case.  Another significant difference is the availability of assault rifles.  (A partial ban was in place in the US for many of these weapons from 1994-2004, but has since expired)  The National Rifle Association (NRA) will point out how many of these so called ‘assault weapons’ are exactly the same as hunting rifles, they just look more menacing.  In some cases that is true but in many it is not.  Although Adam Lanza had two handguns in his possession, he used an AR 15 to kill most of his victims in Newtown.  This weapon is the scary looking semi-automatic version of the M 16 that the US military uses.  They are identical in appearance except that with the AR 15 one must pull the trigger for every shot.  The M 16 can do machine gun bursts by merely holding down the trigger.  It is estimated that 3.5 million AR 15’s are in American hands.  A half million were sold in 2009 alone.

In Canada the AR 15 would be a restricted weapon and subject to strict rules of ownership similar to that of a handgun.  Consequently few of them exist in Canada.  Long guns still serve a purpose. I am not going to tell a hunter or rancher that he is not entitled to own a weapon.  These are law abiding folks using them in a responsible manner.  Nor am I confident that the Second Amendment will ever be (or should ever be) revoked, but there is more than one way to skin a cat.  One place where the US could take a page out of our books is to restrict the magazine size of guns, not the guns themselves.  Most high powered rifles in Canada only have 5  shot magazines.  The AR 15 holds 30.  There is only one hunted species that would ever require a 30 shot magazine… human beings.  If Adam Lanza was only able to get get off 5 shots, he would have been wrestled to the ground as he attempted to reload.  I realize that innocent children would still have been lost, but far, far fewer.

Here is the most tragic part of the story.  After the Newtown shooting… sales of the A 15 skyrocketed as Americans flocked to the gun stores looking for something with which to protect themselves.  Maybe Piers Morgan was right, we really are unbelievably stupid!  Lord help us.

Most of you know that I am a huge Donald Trump fan.  I supported him in his run for the Presidency.  Read Here  If it were not for buffoons like Trump, amateur comedians like me would have no material at all.  If Macy’s dumps trump, I doubt his fortune will be in much jeopardy… but they would have to take down the Donald Trump Christmas tree.

Of course this blog is not about Trump at all, but about a real Star… the one born 2000 years ago in Bethlehem.  In the gospel of Matthew there is a fascinating narrative about the wisemen (Magi) from the Orient.  It says they followed a star, that they had seen in the East, looking for the new born King of the Jews.  When they got to Bethlehem, it states that the star they had been following stood still over the place where the child was laying.  What are we to make of this celestial sign? With the advancements in astronomy there most be a way to figure out if this happened and what it was that they saw.   Astronomer Michael Molnaractually has written an entire book on the subject called, The Star of Bethlehem:  The Legacy of the Magi.  His research is nothing short of fascinating.  His search began when he first purchased an ancient Roman coin for $50 that was in circulation at the time of Christ.  The coin showed a ram looking over its shoulder to a luminous star.

After buying the coin Molnar began to try to unravel the meaning.  With his knowledge of astronomy and a keen interest in ancient astrology, Molnar knew that all of the constellations of stars have names and that each one of them was assigned to one of the ancient peoples.  The Ram is  the constellation of Aries and was considered to represent the Jews.  The second part of the mystery was the star that appeared with the ram.  In 6 BC an extraordinary event took place called the occultation of Venus, and it happened in the constellation of Aries.  This is when the planet Venus becomes eclipsed by the moon and ends up shining particularly brightly.  In ancient times people thought Venus was a star not a planet as they had no knowledge of such things.  It was considered the Royal star as it is the brightest celestial object seen from earth.  To the Magi, who were likely astrologers, the star illuminating brightly meant a new king was born.  The fact that it appeared in Aries was the reason that they were looking for a king born to the Jews.

After the wisemen visited Herod, inquiring as to where the king was expected to be born, the star appeared again.  This time standing still over the place where the Child was.  This seems problematic in that celestial objects cannot stand still (outside of a miracle like in the book of Joshua where the sun stood still) as the earth is in constant rotation.  Molnar discovered that the occultation of Venus happened twice in 6 BC.  The second time was in December and this time the rotation of the earth fell in sync with the orbiting of Venus thus making it look like the ‘star’ was standing still for the period of about one week.

The last piece if the puzzle is the year it all happened.  Most people believe Jesus was born in zero BC.  Turns out that Dionysius Exiguus the Roman Catholic monk who set the dates of the Roman calendar in AD 527 got it wrong.  King Herod died in 4 BC.  Which would mean that Jesus, who spent 2 years in Egypt until Herod’s death, would have to have been born in 6 BC.  Booyah!

Whether you can buy Molnar’s explanation or not (it is head and shoulders above any other theory), the fact remains the birth of Christ is the single most significant event in history. Without it, we would all still be dead in our sins and we would be on a one way ticket to Hell.  For God so loved the world that He sent his only beloved Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life.  He, without equal, is the greatest Christmas gift of all time.  As we get caught up in the festivities of the holidays, let’s not forget that Jesus is the reason for the season and wise men still seek Him today.

Merry Christmas everyone.

I had a bit of a Muttley moment last month when I was nominated for the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.  In honour of the Queen’s diamond jubilee the medal is being awarded in ceremonies all across Canada to a wide variety of people who have “made a significant achievement or contribution to Canada”.  Frankly, I was little surprised to find myself on the list.  The night of the presentation 37 Manitobans gathered at Government House and received the Medal from Lieutenant Governor Phillip S Lee.  It was a unique mix of business leaders, university professors, scientists and ethnic leaders.  It appeared that I was there, at least in part, as a representation of the Christian community as there were Sikh and Muslim leaders as well. The event was actually very multicultural, with people from many visible races and religions.

As much as I could not help but feel undeserving, I was grateful that the work of the church was being recognized.  When was the last time a Christian preacher was publicly esteemed for anything?  I don’t have a persecution complex, but I do think that it has been open season on the Church of late – to criticize and often belittle.  In the last couple of decades we have in many ways been sidelined as an archaic and irrelevant group.  So when my Member of Parliament Rod Bruinooge put forward my name, I decided I would accept on behalf of the Christian Church, or at least my little corner of the vineyard.

Although I clearly feel I was undeserving of the award, there are a few Christians that made the list that might actually deserve a medal.  Saskatchewan MP Maurice Vellacott nominated Linda Gibbons and Mary Wagner for the medal.  Gibbons is a grandmother who has spent 10 years on and off in prison for violating injunctions in front of abortion clinics, and Wagner is in prison in Milton, Ontario awaiting trial right now for the same thing.  When Vellacott was criticized for awarding the medals to convicted criminals he responded  “It’s a pretty upside down world when we honour abortionists like Henry Morgentaler for killing over 5,000 babies and imprison precious women, like Mary Wagner and Linda Gibbons, who try to save babies from such savagery. They are the real heroes of humanity!”  Incidentally, Morgentaler was at one time a convicted felon himself and served months in jail. His conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court.  Then in 2008, he was awarded the Order of Canada – our highest civilian award.  In response, several awardees, including some high profile Catholic clergy returned their Order of Canada medals claiming the award had been tainted by giving it to a murderer like Morgentaler.

When you look at the big picture it is hard to reconcile who really deserves a medal for anything. The Noble Peace Prize has been awarded to men that were widely considered terrorists by many. Yasser Arafat and Nelson Mandela come to mind.  But then, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.  Barrack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for doing… what was it? I forget now… oh yeah, I remember… nothing!

At the end of the day… I mean let’s face it, none of us deserve a medal for being a Christian!   It is hard to escape Jesus words, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matt 6:1)  What do you want… a medal?   Actually no, not when you put it that way.

Update Nov 24, 2012:  Astute reader Bruno has observed that I now have something in common with Justin Bieber.   Except I feel like I might have over-dressed for the event.

In the last ten years we have lost another 158 in the war in Afghanistan.  I personally believe we have no place being there in the first place.  But for these young soldiers who have lost their lives, that is not a sentiment they are allowed to hold.  They must go where they are sent, and must do what they are told, and they do it out of a profound sense of duty.  Every time we see that motorcade travelling down the Highway of Heroes carrying another dead Canadian soldier we need to remember that there are still people out there laying down their lives for us.

Our freedoms have come at  a very great price.  In Winnipeg there is a war memorial with these words on it; “They gave their tomorrow, that we might have our today”.  It is an extraordinary thought that should cause us great pause.  They have given up their future for complete strangers like you and me.  Jesus said, No greater love does a man have than to lay down his life for his brothers.

Last week Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger paid our veterans the ultimate insult when he decreed that children in Manitoba schools were now permitted to opt out of Remembrance Day observances if they so desired.  Specifically he said, “We have religious freedom in Canada and if there’s a very specific reason why people, for religious purposes, don’t want their children (to attend), that is an option that they have.”  What?  What religious reasons?  Remembrance Day has nothing to do with religion.  It has to do with honouring our war dead.  Even if one is a strict pacifist (for religious or other reasons), that does not change the fact that someone laid down their life for their freedom to be a… pacifist.  This is not rocket science.  This is simple common sense reasoning.  You cannot opt out of the historical fact that individual Canadians have had to defend our freedoms at great personal cost.

If it is somehow a thinly veiled reference to immigrants of world religions other than Judeo-Christianity, again, that does not change the fact that someone else died for their freedom to come to Canada and practice whichever religion they chose.  I am appalled at the Premier’s decision and equally appalled that there has been almost no public outcry in support of the veterans.  I do give full marks to Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney who bluntly tweeted, “I find it offensive, they don’t opt out of the freedoms secured by our war dead.”

I would expect a provincial Premier to be a little smarter than this.  This is yet another example of religious pluralism gone bad.  Elected officials do not have the right to rewrite history in an attempt to accommodate those that might be offended by it.  If somehow parents find offensive the fact that Canadian men and women are willing to sacrifice their lives for their children, then they can keep their kids home from school that day.  But let’s not promote ingratitude by revisionist history.

I will make no bones about it, I think Christian parents who are sending their kids out for Halloween are naive and uninformed.  Whenever I bring this up, well meaning parents think I am making too much of a big deal about it and that it is just good harmless fun.  Really?

Even on the very surface it is easy to see that Halloween is clearly rooted in the occult.  It goes back to the time of the ancient Druids in England.  These were Celtic pagan nature worshippers who celebrated their most important religious festival at harvest time called Samhain.  They believed that on this night the barrier between the natural world and the supernatural was removed, and the souls of the dead were able to move freely among human beings.

In AD 835, some year after Christianity was introduced to the Celtic people, Pope Gregory IV moved the ‘Feast of All Saints’ from the spring of the year to November 1st in an attempt to supplant Samhain and break the stronghold of paganism.  The night before (Oct 31st) was know as ‘All Hallow’s Eve’ (Halloween) and was a prayer vigil.  It wasn’t long before the original pagan traditions had crept right back in and reclaimed the night as their own.  The Druids believed that on Halloween wicked souls that had died in the past year returned to their original homes. In order to free yourself from their evil influence you had to set out food and provide them with shelter for the night. If they were satisfied, it was believed they would leave you in peace. If they were not satisfied the ghosts would cast a spell on you and wreak havoc in your home.  Historically this was the basis for dressing as ghosts and goblins and going from house to house asking for a treat, lest you give them a trick.  Today the night before Halloween is called ‘Gate Night”.  Again it is a throw back to Samhain and is considered the night when the these evil spirits are released from the underworld.  Delinquent youth use it as an excuse to roam the streets causing mischief and doing acts of vandalism.  Hello!  This should not be so hard to connect the dots.

Why on earth we have allowed our little children from their earliest age to participate in this blatant celebration of evil completely escapes me. “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer. (Deut 18:10)  Apart from the fact that what we are doing is completely forbidden in scripture, there is at least one more reason to take a pass on Halloween.  When we entertain anything occultic or demonic we are giving Satan an invitation to intervene in our lives.  Eph 4:27 says, “Do not give place to the Devil”. Satan is not permitted to just run roughshod over us.  He really needs an invitation of sorts.  Jesus lived completely free of demonic interference.  On one occasion the crowd tried to kill Him and could not.  They tried to push him off a cliff… but He just walked through the crowd.  He clearly stated that no one could take His life but that He would lay his life down Himself.   Throughout His earthly walk, try as he may, the Devil could not touch Him.  Why not?  John 14:30 tells us;  “… for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.

There are all sorts of ways that we can invite evil into our lives; sin, disobedience, unforgiveness, drugs, spiritual neglect etc.  But nothing is more dangerous and damning than deliberate spiritual invocation through pagan rituals, witchcraft and the occult.  Like it or not, that is exactly what Halloween is.  It is unbelievable that an entire culture has bought into celebrating Halloween.  I will call it what it is; modern day, family-friendly, pagan witchcraft!

For the 25 years our church has been in existence we have always provided a Halloween alternative for our kids.  Some will think even that is an unacceptable compromise.  I don’t.  It is pretty hard to explain to a 6 year old that you are going to stay home with the lights off and spend the night praying, when at  the same time, all the kids from their school will be going out collecting huge bags of candy.  Instead we counter-program the night and do an indoor carnival at the church.  The kids wear wholesome costumes, play carnival games and win tons of candy.  Last year we had over 500 kids come for the evening, plus their parents.  I won’t lie, it is organized mayhem, the place becomes a complete zoo, but at least it offers a safe and superior alternative to inviting the Devil to make our lives a living hell for yet another year.

Whoa Mark, you are stepping on some toes here.  Good, I sincerely hope so!  I think every parent, Christian or otherwise, needs to ask themselves this question; Is Halloween a trick or treat?  Trust me on this one. It’s a trick!

I do hope everybody understands that I am not standing in judgment of your choice but rather trying to provoke a deeper look at Halloween.  When we have been raised doing something (like Halloween… as I also was) it is very hard to see any hidden or inherent dangers.  I have been to countries were spiritism is very much part of their culture.  Places like that celebrate Carnival (Brazil), Mardi Gras (New Orleans), etc. live under incredible spiritual bondage.  These kinds of Halloween type festivals exist all over the 3rd world and have profound spiritual impact.  In many places they have become intertwined with their Catholicism.  In Uruguay we were in an evangelistic meeting where hundreds of people were under the influence of demon possession and needed deliverance.  Once you see firsthand the wholesale spiritual bondage that is possible, you would never ever consider Halloween harmless fun.  There are also hundreds of books written on the subject of Halloween many by people who have studied the histories of these spiritually bound countries.  But instead of reading them many Christians will naively defend their dearly held Halloween traditions.  Do a little poking around for articles online.  You might be surprised what you discover.

One thing I did manage to do this summer was watch the London 2012 Olympics.  It is much more satisfying because there is always a clear winner.  Well, except maybe this year.  This was the first Olympics in history where athletes were expelled from the games for… not trying to win.  The most overt of these were the 4 women’s badminton teams.  Two from Korea, one from China and one from Indonesia.  Due to a somewhat flawed schedule as to which team faced which team in the round robin, all 4 teams tried to actually lose their matches in order to face easier opponents later on.  The result was perhaps the worst badminton ever seen at a world class event.  They were deliberately missing their serves, hitting the bird into the net or missing shots entirely.  They weren’t fooling anyone.  The fans started to boo and the commentators were incredulous.   The IOC stepped up and disqualified all eight players for ‘failure to give best efforts to win’.  Incredibly the world’s top teams were gone allowing lesser teams to medal.  Canada finished just out of the medals in 4th.

There is a far greater biblical connection to the Olympics than most people know.  They were very much a part of the culture of the day in the time of Jesus and His disciples.  The Ancient Olympics were held every year in Athens from 776 BC to AD 394.  In those days only men could compete and only men could spectate.  It may have had something to do with that fact that they competed completely naked.  Today, only women’s beach volleyball compete naked (at least mostly).  It’s a little bizarre actually…

In 1 Corinthians 9 the Apostle Paul makes reference to the ancient games as a metaphor for the Christian walk.  “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?  Run in such a a way that you may obtain it.”  If you read this passage carefully, and in context, you realize that we are all in the race whether we like it or not.  And unlike the Asian badminton players, Paul admonishes us to give it our best effort to win.  He does not say you are going to win every race.  He merely says to run in such a way that you might.  Sports psychologists will tell you that if you cannot see yourself winning, then you never will.

My favourite story of the London 2012 games is that of fellow Winnipeger Clara Hughes (no relation).  She is one of only 5 athletes in history to medal in both the summer and winter games (cycling and speed skating).  After the 2004 Olympics she retired from cycling.  She was  a TV commentator for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  And then, incredibly, just shy of her 40th birthday she comes out of retirement to compete again in London.  (She was still speed skaking and had won a bronze in Vancouver in 2010)  Her best finish in London was an impressive 5th place.  Did she actually believe that her 40 year old body was going to win against a whole new crop of 20 year olds?  The answer is; yes.  That in my opinion is what makes her a true Olympian.  She embodies the true spirit of the Olympics and that is the spirit that Paul claims should also be in us as believers.

The motto of the modern Olympics is Citius, Altius, Fortius; Latin for faster, higher, stronger. This to me is exactly what Paul was talking about.  On our own spiritual journey we need to strive to be faster, higher and stronger.

Faster; in that we should learn to live life to the fullest and not waste a single moment. Everyone of us will from time to time have important opportunities knock on our door.  We should be waiting and ready to seize the day.  Life is way too short to be sitting in front of the TV watching Keeping Up with the Kardasians, Jersey Shore or any other so called reality show out there.  Instead of watching people live their lives on TV, maybe we should be out living our own life… just a thought.

Higher: because we need to find a higher cause for which to live our life.  Everyone of us is called to a higher purpose or as I like to call it a purpose greater than ourselves.  Nothing is more unsatisfying than living only for our own desires.  Just months before Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated he was preaching in his church.  He said,  “I have won many awards, but none of them matter to me, not the Nobel peace prize or any of the 100’s of others.  The only thing that will matter is, did I feed the poor, did I clothe the naked, did I care for others, did I leave this world a better place.”  That is the only question any of us should ask at the end of our life.  The higher purpose IS leaving our world a better place than when we found it.

Stronger; because inner strength is a far greater virtue than physical strength.   After Bruce Jenner (who incidentally is married to Kris Kardashian) won the Decathlon at the 1976 Montreal Olympics he made a startling statement.  “I have always seen myself as an average athlete, but I honestly believe I was mentally tougher than my opponents, that is why I won the gold.”   The Christian walk (race) is not always an easy one.  We see many that when they are faced with even the slightest adversity fold like cheap lawn chairs. Paul goes on to say that these athletes “discipline themselves in all things to win a temporal prize”.   We have all of eternity at stake, let’s run the race with the same conviction and determination.  Stay tuned for my sermon The Olympic Journey coming to a TV near you in a week or two.

The big news this month on the personal front was the marriage of our eldest daughter.  I made the mistake of watching Steve Martin’s Father of the Bride beforehand and sort of psyched myself out.  George Bank’s (Martin) 22 year old daughter is getting married and he is not really prepared for the fact that his little girl has become a woman.   It is funny and emotional and well enough done that any real life father of the bride (me) can easily empathize with him.  Marrying off a daughter is not an easy task.  For years you were her Knight in shining armor and now you have been replaced with a young buck with stars in his eyes and pimples on his face.  Erma Bombeck used to say “One of life’s greatest mysteries is how the boy who wasn’t good enough to marry your daughter can be the father of the smartest grandchild in the world.”  In actuality we really like the young man and that clearly makes it easier but it was still by no means easy.

A pastor friend of mine has three daughters (he claims he doesn’t know how to make boys). All three are now grown and and are married.  He performed all their weddings himself.  I asked him what advice he could give me.  He said, “Here is the most important thing I can tell you, giving your daughter away in marriage is like giving your Stradivarius violin to a gorilla.”  I am not sure he was really helping.

It is a funny thing.  You know from tthe moment your child enters this world that one day they will meet someone and go off and start their own family.  You have years to get ready and yet somehow it feels like it happens overnight.  You wonder what kind of guy will have the nerve to come by the house and risk trying to take out your daughter.  I imagined myself as sitting on the porch with a loaded shotgun warding off any potential suitors.  I got it wrong… I don’t have a porch.

When the big day finally arrived, I did double duty.  My daughter asked me to both walk her down the aisle and perform the marriage.  So when we got to the alter I turned around and said, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?”  There was no one standing there to respond… so we just called the whole thing off.  It was my nefarious plan all along.   Actually, my wife Kathy who was sitting in the front row, stood up and gave the go ahead.  I have to admit that walking down that aisle was far more challenging than I had anticipated. My daughter’s arm was shaking with nervousness and what that does to a father is not hard to imagine.  By the time I got to the front the emotion had got to me and I wondered if I was going to be able to get through the ceremony.  Then it hit me and I knew exactly what to do, resort to my default of humour.  I used the violin and the gorilla story right off the top, got everybody laughing (except for maybe the groom and his parents), and we were off to the races.

I tell all parents to start praying for a mate for their children the day they are born.  It is easily the biggest decision (short of accepting Christ) that any of us ever make.  With a divorce rate of 50%, young people need to be very careful in choosing a spouse.  As parents, we need to be more involved in that decision than our young people are likely to appreciate.  Young love is not always very discerning.  It’s like the old adage,  “Love is blind, but marriage is sure an eye opener.”  That’s why if you start early, bathe them in lots of prayer and keep the relationship discussions open with your children you improve your odds immensely that they will make the right choice.  I always remind folks that there is just so much at stake in matrimony.  Marriage is the closest thing to heaven on earth… or hell on earth, that we get this side of eternity.

This spring the state of Colorado has agreed to put a proposition on the November election ballot that would decriminalize the private use of marijuana. Shortly after the announcement, who was among the first to endorse the proposal? You guessed it, Pat Robertson. He told the New York Times, “It’s completely out of control, prisons are being overcrowded with juvenile offenders having to do with drugs. And the penalties, the maximums, some of them could get 10 years for possession of a joint of marijuana. …It makes no sense at all. I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol.” …“I’ve never used marijuana and I don’t intend to, but it’s just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn’t succeeded.” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/us/pat-robertson-backs-legalizing-marijuana.html The uber right wing Robertson, who once ran for the Presidential nomination of the Republican party, has now become the hero of the pot smoking, tree hugging, granola eating left. It is so ironic that you have to at least see the humour in it.

First off, the good preacher has his facts wrong on the penalty for possession. The maximum sentence for a first time offender is one year, and even a three time loser could get up to 3 years. But one rarely gets that. Actual sentences are usually a fine and/or up to 30 days in jail. What is of real interest to me is Robertson’s solution – to treat marijuana the same way we treat beverage alcohol. Yes, that model has been a real winner. It is impossible to calculate the extraordinary ‘human cost’ of alcohol every year; namely the number of jobs that are lost, productivity that is wasted, marriages that have failed, children that are abused, students that are raped, drivers that are killed… goodness the list goes on and on. I know we can not turn back the clock and go back to the days of prohibition. Alcohol has become as much a part of our culture as food. I just don’t think we are being honest about what a devastating effect it has on our society. Why on earth would we want to create another monster that we cannot tame?

Here are the US governments very own statistics on the matter; 70% of American adults are drinkers, 57% drink regularly and 31% are binge drinkers (that one should be frightening). By contrast only 10% smoke pot and 6% smoke it regularly. You do not need to be a social scientist to know what will happen if you legalize the use of weed. It will skyrocket. Law abiding citizens that would never touch the stuff or even know where to get it for that matter, would now think, “Why not give it a try? It’s not like I’m breaking any laws.”

The Dutch experiment has proven exactly that. Following Holland’s decriminalization of the possession of cannabis, use went up 300%. (15% to 45%) The long term societal effect is not hard to determine now that we have years of relaxed marijuana laws in places like Amsterdam. The city boasts 730 coffee shops, where customers can buy herbal cannabis or hashish without fear of arrest. Millions of tourists flock to the city every year to enjoy a legal high. The Dutch government loves it too as they collect more than 300 million euros in tax annually from the ‘coffee shops’ alone.

If it sounds eerily like a druggie’s Las Vegas, then you are reading this right. And like Vegas the profits to be made from marijuana have attracted organized crime. Holland is no longer known for growing tulips, cannabis is the cash crop of choice. Dutch police believe that the underground cannabis growing cottage industry has now become one of their nation’s biggest earners of foreign currency, worth an estimated 2.7 billion euros in total – about half as much as Holland’s legitimate horticultural business. Organized crime has moved in with strong armed violence to take control of the industry. Max Daniel, Holland’s police commissioner responsible for cannabis, calls it a danger to Dutch society. “There is now so much money to be made that cannabis is sucking in organised crime gangs from abroad and corrupting legitimate businesspeople – especially lawyers, estate agents and bankers. Money laundering is a massive enterprise, and it is bringing together white-collar professionals and the kind of criminals who deal with heroin, prostitutes and people-smuggling.” Daniel laments, “Cannabis is a threat to our democracy.” Some law enforcement officials are recommending closing down the ‘coffee shops’. Their cries are falling on deaf ears as the public has come to enjoy their little vice and government has come to be dependent on their big tax and tourism revenues. Police are now spending one third of their time dealing with drug related crime. Sorry Pat, but it hardly sounds like a solution to overcrowded prisons.

You would need to be closer to my age to remember Joe Walsh’s great album The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get. The convoluted title’s message was clear, the more pot you smoke, the stupider you get. They do call it ‘dope’ for a reason. My question is why is a high profile preacher of the gospel suggesting that we solve a justice problem by opening the door even wider to a world of drugs, organized crime and sin? . He says he has never smoked marijuana. I believe him, so then what is Pat Robertson’s excuse?

When Swinimer returns to school Monday he plans to continue wearing the shirt every day, and is even willing to risk not graduating with his fellow students if that is what it takes to stand up for his freedom of expression.  The main offence according to the School Board is how the slogan is worded.  If the shirt said. MY life is wasted without Jesus, they say that would be acceptable.  Their claim is that the shirt can be interpreted as being a slight against other’s faiths or those of no faith at all.  Swinimer insists that that is not at all his intent and has no ill-will or criticism against non-Christians.  He merely claims it is his constitutional right to express his faith and he is not going to comply with the school or school board’s requests.

Before we go any further with this we do need to ask the question if the slogan in question is indeed offensive or not.  I think the best way of doing that is by simply wording it from the perspective of other faiths, and then asking ourselves if we are offended.  Let’s try it.  If I saw a Muslim wearing the T-shirt, Life is wasted without Muhammad, I would consider that an expression of his faith and not take any personal offence.  Although I do not agree with the sentiment it certainly does not incite hatred or violence.   A T-shirt that reads Death to the Infidel on the other hand is in a whole different category.  Let’s try a few others.  Life is wasted without Buddha.  Sure, why not?  Life is wasted without Krishna.  Fine.  Life is wasted without Darwin.  Whatever.  Life is wasted without Led Zeppelin.  I hear ya.  Life is wasted without Abba.  Getting close to the line.   Life is wasted without Charlie Sheen.  We should be so lucky.

No, I think most would agree that the Principal and the school board are off side on this one. If the T-shirt simply said Let’s get Wasted we would not even be having this debate.  What is really at issue is the new intolerance.  The intolerance of tolerance.  Those that claim that they want to ban the T-shirt in the name of tolerance, are they themselves being intolerant.  The fact probably remains that if Swinimer was wearing any one of the other T Shirt slogans I mentioned he would still be in school.  It is only because he was wearing a Christian T Shirt that he became a victim of the Tolerance police.

In our culture today you cannot (and should not) criticize anyone’s religion, but Christianity is fair game.  It has become open season on Christians.  We routinely get called hatemongers, bigots, homophobes, racists etc.  All without cause or evidence.  Nobody cries foul, nobody gets censured when it is done in the media or in the public square.  Christianity is without question the most persecuted religion in the world.  Michael Horowitz, a U.S. Jewish activist who has written on Christian persecution contends there is a “blissful lack of awareness to this fact that is fostered by preconceptions and conventional wisdoms that lead many in the West to dismiss anti-Christian persecution as improbable, untrue, impossible.”

Horowitz is right.  We have been told for so long that we are the persecutors we have failed to realize that we have become the persecuted.  For the most part we sit quietly by as our faith is attacked form every side.  The media paints us intolerant, hate filled, religious zealots who are against women and gays and drinkers and gamblers and prostitutes and just about anyone that wants to have a good time.  Science portrays us as ignorant, uneducated peons that blindly follow mindless fables.  Radical leftists like to attack us as being war mongers and greedy capitalists that hate the environment and health care.  Others think we are so gullible that we are lead by manipulative hucksters that are just after our money so they can buy themselves Rolls Royses.  Everyday the impression of who we are becomes further and further away from the Christ following lovers of humanity that want to give every person an opportunity to hear the good news that God loves them and has secured a glorious place in eternity for them.  So when I see a 17 year old High School student in Nova Scotia that says, “No, I will not be stripped of my right to religious freedom”, I say… good for you William, I am behind you all the way.

I can tell you this much without ruining the story for you – It is set in the year 2061 where the secret of eternal life has been discovered.  However in order to keep the population under control they have to limit the number of years a person can live.  Everyone gets the first 25 years at which time you stop aging.  After that a digitally installed clock implanted in your arm starts and you have one more year.  I know, not a radical departure for a sci-fi flick so far.  The novel part of the story is this; time is now money… literally.  People are paid for working with minutes, hours and days, all added to you arm clock, (which they sometimes call a ‘watch’).  Everything you purchase you must pay with time which is immediately subtracted from your clock.  A cup of coffee for example costs 3 minutes.  So every purchase and decision you make determines how much longer you live.  People who run out of time die instantly, which they refer to as ‘clocking out’.  There are time bandits, so to speak, that are called ‘minutemen’ and police that are called ‘time keepers’.  People of different economic status live in different ‘time zones’.  The plays on words go on and on. The expression “I’m running out of time” will wear a little thin for some, but I didn’t mind it.

I don’t want to give away too much, but Timberlake’s character Will Salas discovers that there is actually enough time to go around for everyone to live a reasonably long life, but the ‘rich’ have figured out a way to hoard the time to themselves and some have 100′s or 1000′s of years. They loan and broker time at unreasonable rates of interest (advertised as Time Shares) and ensure that the poor die young so that they can live forever.

The social commentary that the producers are making is clearly a reference to the modern day manipulation by the rich of the world’s financial system, stockmarket, banking etc.  And make no mistake about it,  like a slot machine at the casino, the whole system is rigged so that they will win and you will lose.  The economic meltdown of 2008 that caused some two million Americans to lose there homes since that time was completely man made.  Known today as the sub-prime mortgage crisis, using a complicated scheme of investments and mortgages companies like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Countrywide Mortgage and others effectively assured that millions of people would be put into homes with mortgages that could not afford.  When the homes were forced into foreclosure, which they knew was inevitable, it was not the banks that would lose, but individual investors and pension funds that were sold the bad mortgages bundled as high quality investment instruments.  Many people lost both their homes and their pensions.  Instead of sending the CEO’s of these companies to jail, which they should have, the Bush and Obama administrations then gave them a trillion dollars in bailout money.  These companies then went out and used the bailout money to purchase stocks at rock bottom prices in a market that collapsed under the weight of the crisis they created.  They made billions and gave themselves multi-million dollar bonuses for ruining the lives of others.  It seems almost too bizarre to be true but I assure you it is.  I wrote a blog on it with more detail back in 2009,  you can read it here: GREED

And you absolutely need to take the time to watch this parody done about it by John Bird and John Fortune.  It is the most accurate and entertaining description you will ever find of the criminal nature of the global economic meltdown.

Getting back to the movie, for me the most important message of In Time was not the metaphor for financial corruption and greed.  For me it was Will’s (Timberlake) attitude towards time.  Throughout the entire movie his clock is always running down to zero, but whatever time he does have he freely shares with others.  For me, that alone made the movie.  While most others were hoarding and protecting very minute, he is giving it away regardless of how little he has.  I am always inspired by people of generosity.

The reality is that today people’s most precious commodity is ‘time’.   Rush, rush, rush… and because we have become so busy we would rather give up our money than our time. With the exception of the church, volunteerism is way down in North America.  People would rather throw a few dollars at some worthy cause than actually get personally involved.  Most have become very stingy with their time.  And it is not like we are using it wisely.   Folks will spend hours in front of a TV watching shows like Dancing with the Fat American Celebrity Losers and even more time in front of a computer screen managing cyber friends and shopping on Amazon.

Eph 5:16 declares redeeming the time, because the days are evil.   Time really is our most precious commodity.  Unlike Will Salas we never really know how much we have left on the clock.  We really need to quit wasting our time and live everyday to the fullest and maybe, just as importantly, we need to start giving it away.  The only thing that we do on this earth that really matters in eternity is what we did for another person.  The money we made, the car we drove and the house we lived in is all forgotten by the time we have cooled in the grave. But the ‘time’ we gave away to make this world a better place for another… that lives on for eternity.

Last year it was Westley from the Princess Bride of Christ.  I did a cameo as Miracle Max and if you are watching on television this Easter Sunday you will catch at least a  snippet of my performance doing the memorable “he’s only mostly dead” scene.   One year I did my best impression of Michael Jackson in Robin of the Hood.

This year we are pulling out all the stops and doing Batman: The Dark Night.  The Caped Crusader along with Robin the Boy Wonder will be arriving in the Batmobile.  I will be making the requisite cameo, but I am afraid at this writing, that information is top secret.

If you are from out of town and ever wanted to come to a Church of the Rock service, Easter is the one to come to.  If you had to drive half way across the country, I guarantee it would still be worth it.  We have some immensely talented singers, actors and musicians that bring the resurrection story to life.  Last year we had 4,000 people show up for our three services so you have to come early to get a good seat.

UPDATE:

We had a record attendance over the Easter weekend.  Probably close to 5,000 people.  Dozens of seekers came to faith in Christ which is the whole reason we do it.  The Winnipeg Free Press covered the story and we got a front page mention.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/jesus-to-rise-as-batman-in-churchs-easter-play-146514375.html

Despite what our critics said about using Batman to tell the story of Easter, those who actually came, realized it did not cheapen the message of the resurrection at all.  I will say this again. We do not think that Jesus is Batman, Jack Sparrow or Captain Kirk. The play is an allegory along the lines of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The key to telling a parable is to take a well known cultural truth and use it in an analogous way. Before you call foul consider this: In Jesus parables He compared God to an unjust judge that does not fear God or man (Luke 18), a hard man who reaped where he did not sow in the parable of the talents (Matt 25:26), a rich man that commends unrighteous dealings (Luke 16) and an unjust and cruel nobleman in Luke 19… to name a few. He never says God is like these people in ever way.  They are only analogies. He uses some aspects of their life to explain spiritual truths about God and His kingdom.

Just because Batman is a vigilante in our modern day parable of The Dark Night, that in no way implies that Jesus is one. Parable telling is a perfectly acceptable and orthodox homiletic and has been used for centuries. The religious mind will always be offended just as it was in Jesus day. If we read the gospels the religious elite were offended almost every time Jesus opened His mouth. It was not that they did not get the point He was trying to make… they did not ‘want’ to get the point because more often than not, they were the ones getting skewered.

Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” Matt 15:12

Irrespective of that advice, I was intrigued by the offer to let the CBC do the story because I have long felt that the Church needs a better relationship with the media.   On the other hand Jesus said, Woe to you when all men speak well of you.  Well, you could argue that we are doing just fine then because there is no danger of that happening.  Maybe I have been thrashed so many times I have just become numb to it all, but we decided to give it a go. We invited Donna into our ranks to see what we were doing.  It seemed to me that she was genuinely impressed with the manifold activities of a church like ours.  She was completely blown away by a group of our young people, who instead of heading to Banff to ski on their spring break, were heading to Mexico on a 42 hour van ride to work in an orphanage and a home for women that are recovering from drug and alcohol abuse.

She also did a piece on our ESL (English as a second language) class, where free of charge and without strings attached, new Canadians come to our building to learn English. Donna also visited ‘Overcomers in Christ’ which ministers to those who are overcoming drug, alcohol, pornography, gambling and other addictions.  She interviewed ‘Isaac’ who was hopelessly addicted to porn and through God’s grace and ‘Overcomers’ he is walking totally free today.  She asked me why we even let people like this in the church.  After I finished chuckling I told her the day we didn’t let sinners into the church, was the day we would need to close our doors because I would be the only one there (yes, she knew I was joking about the very last part).

The first 4 programs were generally accurate and very positive in nature.  And sure, they pulled the most controversial audio clips from our program.  They particularly zeroed in on my Michael Jackson jokes.   If a late night talk show host told them they would be hilarious, but because a pastor told them many said they were mean-spirited and had some sort of hidden social commentary.  The CBC had lots responses on both sides of the ledger.

Some of the CBC faithful called foul and were appalled that they would run such a positive story about such a terrible, bigoted, sexist, racist and hate mongering church.  These of course, are the very listeners that needed to hear this series.  They are the people that don’t know anything about us.  They don’t know that we have more women on staff and leadership than we do men.  They also don’t know that approximately 10% of our congregation come from a Native background.  They have no idea that we are probably the most multi-racial church in Winnipeg… not to mention that 1/3 of our budget goes out of our building to reach people in other nations and of other cultures, and that we are a church that is founded on the very principle of loving our neighbours and as well as our enemies.  But never mind that, because you will always have free wheeling, uninformed people that will just throw labels at you.  Which in my mind is the very lowest form of debate. Rather than addressing the ideals, you merely brand your opponents with some disparaging label and in doing so you dismiss them and any reasonable position they might hold.  As I mentioned elsewhere it is also known as argumentum ad hominem, where you impugn the character of your opponent to try to dismiss their position as invalid.

I need to give Donna Carierro full credit.  She did four days of fair minded, lively and informative coverage on the church.  I know she would have taken abuse for doing this kind of story but she honoured her word to me that she was not out to get us.  On day five however the story turned negative and Donna was nowhere to be heard.  So called experts that do not know me or anything about us offered their completely uninformed commentary. BTW, one comment during Part 5 makes it seem like I was invited to participate in that mornings discussion, but they were referring to different forum entirely.  At any rate I wasn’t upset about it.  Honest reporting should always include the counterpoint.  I get that.  In fact, to be completely honest, it was actually laughable.  They were so inarticulate that they barely made sense.   At any rate the audio clips are below and you can draw your own conclusion as to whether we built significant bridges to our community, or were just dancing with the devil.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Religious pluralism in the early days of our nation was not much of a problem, as most immigrants came from European countries that were either Catholic or Protestant in faith.  Though the two groups have not always got along, at their core they shared common values… things like the value of marriage, the sacredness of life and fundamental human rights for ALL.  Today most immigrants come from non-European nations, places with cultures and religions that are sometimes inconsistent with our aforementioned core values.

For the record I welcome new Canadians and think we are richer for it.  My bigger concern is that our version of modern pluralism is an invitation for colonization not immigration.  There is a big difference.  Immigrants come to be part of a new culture, to learn the ways of their adopted home, to integrate and assimilate into society— which does not require relinquishing their heritage or forgetting their roots.  I am sure we all feel Canada is a better place for Ukrainian perogies, English soccer or Scottish highland dancing.  Colonists, by contrast, bring their culture with them and live under their own laws. Their loyalties lie elsewhere.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation which represents 56 Muslim countries and the Palestinian Authority has outlined a very clear strategy for the colonization of the West  They are encouraging widespread immigration into to Western countries and resistence to assimilation.  The explicit agenda is to over time gain control of the institutions of the West,  eventually transforming them into Islamic states.  “This strategy should  be targeted at providing the necessary conditions for individuals from the Muslim communities to occupy the key positions within host societies, in the economic, cultural, political or information fields.”  Don’t believe it?  Go read the document for yourself.

http://www.isesco.org.ma/english/publications/strategy/Chap3.php

Many European countries are already getting concerned.  Because of the extraordinary Muslim birthrate there are fears that some countries will have a Muslim majority by 2050.  Politicians have become alarmed that they could end up as Islamic states.  Radical Muslim groups have made it clear that that is their goal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia4Belgium

At any rate the political battles are already well under way.  France has been the first country to ban Muslim head coverings in public.  Belgium has a similar law, which on hold at the moment.  A Swiss referendum called for a ban against building Muslim minarets   I do not want to be an alarmist but I think it is a fair question to ask, what will Europe look like in the future… and can Canada and the US be far behind?

Presently we have already started wresting with the surface questions. Veiled Muslim women can vote without showing their real identity and for years they were able to slide through airport security without showing their faces.  Now at Canadian airports, covered Muslim women must lift their veils, although they may opt to show their face only to a female security screener.  As of last December their faces must be clearly seen when reciting the oath of citizenship.  There was a significant backlash against this ruling claiming it was a limitation to religious freedom.  The fact is, the Quran nowhere requires women to wear a burqa or niqab.  These are cultural customs not religious.  Personally, I believe people can dress however they want, and if it doesn’t effect national security, I am even happy to accommodate some of their special requests.  For example I have never had a problem with the notion of a Sikh man who wears a turban being a member of the RCMP or military.  After all the Sikhs fought alongside the British for decades and the difference of headware was never even an issue.

It is the issues below the surface that concern me.  Pluralism in Canada suggests that we should embrace their traditions on an equal footing to our own Judeo-Christian roots.  That is where I need to get off the bus.  We are beginning to see where pluralism might lead us.  Most would regard the ‘honour killing’ of four women by Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Yahya and their son Hamed as an isolated indecent.  This is what many of us don’t get, Shafia would not have seen what he did as wrong.  In fact, just the opposite.  This educated and successful man would have regarded what he did as virtuous.  In his mind his daughters and his second wife (yes, he was a polygamous as well) had dishonoured his ‘good name’… so he killed them.  As Westerners we are hard pressed to understand this.   How could a parent’s honour be more valuable than a human life?

Under Sharia law a woman’s life does not have near the value of a man’s.  A daughter’s chastity is regarded to be the property of her family, not her own.  So any shame brought to the family should be dealt with with extreme prejudice.  In many Islamic states it is not even a crime.  In Syria, Morocco, Brazil, Colombia, and other countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America, men are permitted to kill female relatives in honour killings, as long as it was a crime of passion and not pre-meditated.  In Syria, even if convicted of a pre-meditated honour killing (which almost never happens) the sentence is only 2 years in prison.  Even though the UN claims there is 5000 honour killings a year worldwide, in reality there are that many every year in Pakistan alone.  In India 5000 Hindu women are murdered every year by their husbands simply because their dowry was not big enough.  It is estimated that 1000 women lose their lives every year in the US through honour killing.

Canadian Islamic groups have condemned the Shafia killing, as they would and should.  By sentencing them to life in prison our justice system has sent a clear message that this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated in the slightest.  Which is a good start.  What does concern me is the importation of this kind of twisted, backward and treacherous worldview in the first place.  Canada may need to rethink our concept of pluralism.  Don’t misunderstand what I am saying, I still support leaving our doors open to immigrants from around the globe.  However new Canadians need to be expected to adopt our historic Judeo Christian values of the sacredness of all human life.  Immigrants that are convicted of human rights types of crimes should be deported after they serve their sentences.  We cannot allow insidious religious or cultural mindsets to creep into our nation under the guise of religious pluralism.  A lot more thought and action needs to go into how we handle our immigration and citizenship.

In the meantime we cannot live in fear of Muslim, Hindu or other immigrants from non-Christian nations.  Even if there is a clandestine mission of Islamic world domination, God has His own mission.  I am convinced that even if we struggle to take the gospel to the nations, God is bringing the nations to us.  We will never reach anyone with the gospel unless we get to know them and learn to love them.  This is not just an New Testament notion either, as even the Old Testament commanded,  The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.  Lev 19:34

The guy below won $181 million in the lottery on Wednesday and then on Friday met the love of his life.  Talk about good luck!

Kathy and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary last week.  Life has been busy lately but we were able to make a quick trip to Tahoe California to ski for 3 days.  We needed to spend the night in Reno, Nevada on the way down.  We stayed in a beautiful 5 star casino hotel for $32.  I felt like I had won the lottery.  You can’t get a campsite for $32 these days.  The casinos are not trying to make money on their rooms, they just want to get you into the hotel so they can get at your money in the casino.  Of course I am not a good bet (pun intended) for them because I don’t gamble.  I have never even been in a casino before.  Like a sly drug dealer they kept on giving us casino chips every time we had a meal.  I had  no trouble at all taking them to the cashier and exchanging them for cash.  I looked out over the casino at 7 AM on the way for coffee and saw nothing but lonely people sitting by themselves before the sun was even up, smoking, drinking and gambling their money away.  No one looked like they were winning and no one was smiling.

Later that day I entered the biggest pawn shop I have ever seen, right across the street from the casino, and saw lines ups of desperate looking people getting a few dollars for golf clubs, electronics and mostly jewelry – all so they could head back into the casino and lose that as well.   There in the display cases were hundreds… no, thousands of wedding and engagement rings that people had pawned just so they could play for a few more hours.  It may have been one of the most pathetic human conditions I have ever seen, primarily because it is self-inflicted.

Frankly, gambling is the one vise I just don’t get at all.  For the most part, almost nobody ever wins.  The odds are ALWAYS stacked in favour of the house.  All you have to do is look around and see the fountains, and the marble, and the chandeliers etc. and it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out whose money is paying for these things.  For the life of me I cannot understand the appeal of losing all my money in a game of chance where the odds are clearly against me.  Yet, gambling has become a huge societal problem that is no longer restricted to Nevada.  Native bands are building casinos ‘to beat the band’, so to speak… on the reserves all over North America.  In the old days it used to be the mob that owned all the casinos in Las Vegas.  Today it is governments of all levels that are by far the biggest gambling proprietors of all.  Winnipeg has 2 government owned casinos.  Then there are the lotteries.  All provinces in Canada and states in the US have government sponsored lotteries that bring millions into their coffers.  I indelicately refer to the lottery as “the tax on the stupid”.  You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than winning, yet every week the majority of Canadians will contribute at least a few dollars to the cause.

In Canada governments have a net profit of $6.5B off their various gambling operations.  Two thirds of Canadians (over 20 million adults) gamble in one form or another.  1.2 million are classified as seriously addicted.  These are people who gamble away their rent money, car payments, or even grocery money for their children.

We had a musician on our worship team at the church that asked if he could borrow our bass guitar to practice at home.  After 2 months of asking him to return the guitar we confronted him, and sure enough he had pawned the church’s guitar and gambled away the money.  Wow, nothing like stealing from God to feed you gambling habit.

This is easily one of the biggest addiction problems  in our culture… and the governments are the bookies or pimps or pushers or whatever you want to call them… and they know it.  Manitoba Lotteries gives $2.6 million to the Addiction Foundations of Manitoba.  No one is more addicted to gambling than governments.  They have become intoxicated on the revenues and like the Las Vegas mob of the past have developed an insatiable appetite to ensnare you and con you out of your money.  I cannot see a good ending to this story.  It is one thing for the individual to bet the farm, but by making their financial future dependent on gambling, governments themselves are betting the farm.

I know I have little compassion when it comes to this issue.  I guess I just don’t get it.  The scripture is pretty clear on this one if you still aren’t. A faithful man will abound with blessings, But he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.   A man with an evil eye hastens after riches, And does not consider that poverty will come upon him. – Proverbs 28:20, 22

The whole 2012 ‘end of the world’ thing is based on the 5,125th and last year on the Mayan (Mesoamerican) long count calendar.  Never mind that there is nothing in the Mayan record that indicates the world is going to end, it just happens to be the last year on their admittedly impressive calendar.  The calender sitting on my desk right now ends on December 31, 2012, but somehow I have a feeling that that in itself does not predict the end of time.

Remember Y2K?  There was this mass hysteria over the date 2000AD.  All because Bill Gates (in his software) neglected to recognize any dates after December 31,1999 the world was going to fall into chaos.  Computers were going to crash, planes fall out of the sky and the power grid was going to grind to a halt.  Those of us in Northern climes were going to freeze and starve to death.  I had pastor friends of mine that stocked up on fire wood and bought gas powered generators.  When they asked me if i was going to buy a generator I said, “Sure, on January 1st when they are on Kijiji for 10 cents on the dollar.”   In fact, in a rather cocky display, I told my congregation that I emptied my fridge and hauled what little firewood I had to the dump.  I really did do that and the whole point was to send a message to our church to not to buy into the irrational hype.  Turned out I was right.  An easy call by any estimation.  One of the things you can almost always go to the bank on is this: anytime the majority of people agree on anything, they are almost always wrong.

2011 was actually a very impressive if not a watershed year.  The cascade of major worldwide events was dizzying.  The dictatorial rule in many Arab rules came crashing down;  Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was toppled, Libyan madman Colonel Moammar Gadhafi was gunned down. Greece, the birthplace of democracy went bankrupt.  A tsunami cripples Japan and trips a nuclear reactor meltdown.  The horn of Africa slides into another famine and millions starve to death.  Drug violence in Mexican border cities escalated to the point where it was no longer safe to drive into Mexico from the US.  (Our missions work in the city of Matamorous had to be put on hold and we have now shifted our efforts to Haiti.)  The list goes on and on.  If you were not paying close attention you might have missed that fact that our world has probably changed for ever.

2012 has begun pretty unspectacularly so far.  All that could change in a hurry.  I think the wildcard for this year is Iran. None of the other Muslim countries have the potential to turn the world upside down like this one.  That is because it is now a nuclear power under the leadership of nut job President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Men like this are hard to understand until you begin to study the mindset of the radical Islamist.  I just finished reading The Blood of Lambs by Kamal Saleem, a Lebanese terrorist that converted to Christ and is now assisting the CIA in counter-terrorism.   It was a great help to read about the context that these Arab leaders have been born and raised.  They have been steeped in a worldview from the womb that sees Israel and the West as the great Satan and an enemy that needs to be eliminated at any and all costs.  Though I still think Ahmadinejad is crazy I realize he comes by it honestly.  That of course doesn’t make him any less dangerous.

Presently Iran is amassing troops along the Afghanistan border and conducting showy naval exercises in the Persian Gulf.   There has been talk that they are considering blocking the trading route in the Strait of Hormuz.  The west will never allow this.  Add to that the fact that last week Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, an Iranian-American born in Arizona who was visiting family Iran was convicted of being a CIA spy and sentenced to death.  My concern is that if they execute him the US will use it as an excuse to invade Iran.  The US military has been quietly sending ships and planes into the Persian Gulf.  It even looks like Canada is might be getting into the act and has just sent the HMCS Charlottetown to the Mediterranean Sea as part of a NATO counter-terrorism mission.

Even though Obama has just finally pulled out of a questionable war in Iraq which cost $800B and countless lives, the US war machine has an insatiable appetite for conflict.  With billions of military dollars at stake and many of the American politicians in their back pocket, the massive arms industry has a vested interest in always keeping America at war.  Not a great prospect at all for what is playing out in the Middle East presently.  Having said that Jesus said, You will hear of wars and rumors of war, see that you are not troubled… It is hard not to be a little troubled, but we remember that God is sovereign and ultimately in charge.  Historically He has always been known to use world events as part of His great master plan to advance His kingdom in the world.  At the moment we are doing quite a pathetic job of reaching the Arab world for Jesus.  So I have to believe that all this has something to do with the coming of the greatest wave of evangelism the world has ever known.   In the meantime I know the world won’t end in 2012.  How?  Because Jesus also said, This gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all nations and then the end shall come.  The world can’t end… we have too much work to do.

On Christmas day I tuned in to Piers Morgan figuring he would be interviewing a religious figure in honor of the day.  I was not disappointed (well actually I was and I’ll tell you why in a moment) as mega-pastor Joel Osteen was his guest.  Larry King used to try to get Billy Graham at Christmas.  Mr. Graham is now in his 90′s and is not in the best of health (he suffers from hydrocephalus not Parkinson’s) and so he is no longer giving interviews.  It is the right choice to make since during his last few appearances, although he did an amazing job for a man of that age, he did struggle not to get confused.  Billy Graham has an excuse if he has water on the brain and his answers get a little foggy, Joel Osteen does not.

Osteen is the pastor of the Lakewood Church in Houston Texas, the biggest church in North America with 43,000 in attendance on Sunday mornings.  He has written (or at least someone has) three books that have sold millions of copies and have made him a multi-millionaire.  He lives in a $10.5M gated mansion.  He has a weekly television audience of over 10 million people.  He will travel to American cities and fill baseball stadiums with 50,000 fans that will pay as much as $100 to hear him speak.  Hmmm… maybe I’m working too cheap, our events are free and we get 49,000 or so less people.

Piers Morgan must lick his chops every time Osteen agrees to come on the show.  Pastor Joel is no match for Morgan’s intellect and Piers completely schools him.  Honestly, Osteen does such a poor job it is embarrassing.  Being the celebrity pastor he is, he has become the poster boy for the evangelical church in America.  He comes on these shows and while he smiles and looks charming he cannot answer the simplest theological question.  He hums and haws and says “I don’t know Piers” over and over again claiming there are a lot smarter people than him that could answer the questions better.  Well, there is no doubt about that, but if you cannot articulate the Christian position then stay home and let those ‘smarter people’ go on air.

While questioning him about Mormon presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Piers asked Joel if he agreed with the Mormon faith.  Osteen said there were things he did not agree with but when pressed he could not name one reason why.  He claimed he was not studied up on it. Morgan didn’t believe him and accused him of being coy.  I genuinely think Osteen did not know.  He was completely dumbfounded and had that deer in the headlights look all over his face.  On the issue of capital punishment he again said he ‘didn’t know’ and would leave it to the ‘smarter’ politicians to answer that question.  Morgan pressing him insisted he must at least have an opinion as a pastor in the number one capital punishment state in the US.   He would not say.  Have a look for yourself.  It is humiliating and distressing to watch.

On the topic of gay marriage Osteen managed to admit that he did not believe in it, but when asked he said that he would attend a gay wedding of a friend or family member out of ‘respect’ for that person.  One commentator compared that to a christian attending a a friend’s first pole dance out of respect for the relationship.  You really cannot have it both ways.  We have got to make moral choices based on our biblical beliefs.  For Osteen it was a hypothetical question since I am quite sure he does not have any gay friends like he claims. I have been faced with the real decision as we have a gay marriage in our family.  As painful as it was, we declined the invitation with the explanation that it was with regret that we could not attend as doing so would undermine our biblical convictions.   We tried hard to express our love and acceptance for the individuals even though we could not support the marriage itself.  It was one of the most difficult things we have had to face and it was sticky to say the least.  At the end of the day we have managed maintain a good relationship.

When Osteen cannot give an adequate answer he will often disingenuously defend himself by saying he has no theological training.  That is like a surgeon who botches an operation saying it really wasn’the fault because he never actually went to medical school.  I don’t think it really matters how big a church becomes, the leader cannot claim to be a Pastor if he has no training to do so.  ”OK Mr Jealous Wannabe, how then DO you explain his phenomenal success?” The Apostle Paul put it this way, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. (1 Tim 4:3)

I completely understand why the masses would flock to a place to hear that they can have the American dream of health, wealth and success. without sacrifice, responsibility or hardship.  And to be honest I actually don’t even care that Joel Osteen does what he does. I just wish he wouldn’t pretend it is Christianity and that he wouldn’t call himself a Pastor.  I would be way happier if he just would tell people he is a  motivational speaker like Tony Robbins or Zig Ziglar.  Then when he does TV interviews he honestly can say, “I don’t know, I’m just a motivational speaker.”   I could live with that.  In the meantime he is making a farce out of our faith and I am more than a little distressed about it… I am embarrassed.  Maybe I should post an ad on Graigslist;  Help wanted! New Poster Boy needed.

You will want to tune into our television program during the month of December as I am doing a new series on the book of Revolution.  Rather than trying to interpret every verse and symbol I have broken down the book into its four major themes.  1) God’s glory revealed 2) God’s judgment executed 3) God’s people empowered 4) God’s kingdom established. Everything that takes place in Revelation falls into one of these four themes.  Understanding this basic framework goes a long way to allowing the reader to be able to interpret the book for themselves and embarking on their own Revelation Revolution.

In this post I have included some of the companion slides for the series.  In Part 2 God’s Judgment Executed I go through the three waves of judgment.  The 7 seal judgments, the 7 trumpet judgments, and the 7 bowl judgments.

Few Christians today understand that God is just.  Because we live in a time the bible calls the dispensation of grace many have forgotten that there needs to be a day of reckoning for the earth.  If we do not receive His mercy now, we will have to face His judgment later. The first wave of judgment seems to be political in nature as the Anti-Christ begins his rise to power through deception.  War, famine and death follows on the heels with 1/4 of the earth’s population perishing.

As the seventh seal is broken the 7 trumpet judgments spring forth.  They seem to have a environmental nature to them unleashing ecolical disasters of an extreme that the world has never seen.  By the sixth trumpet another 1/3 of the world’s population perishes.

Upon the blowing of the seventh trumpet the bowl judgments are poured out.  More nastiness ensues.

Before you get completely filled with despair, take encouragement that the scripture promises us, Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will KEEP YOU you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth (Rev 3:10).  Many have interpreted this to be a reference to the rapture and that we can expect Jesus to return for us just prior to the 7 years of Tribulation. There is only one problem with this; nowhere in scripture does it say that the rapture is prior to the time of God’s judgment on the earth.  In fact it says the opposite.  In John 17:13 Jesus Himself says,  I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should KEEP them from the evil one.  He specifically states that KEEPING us does not mean taking us out of the world.  Instead, He will empower His people to overcome during this time.  The timing of the rapture is actually quite clear, Immediately AFTER THE TRIBULATION of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matt 24: 29-31).

Once we get through the 7 years of we will enjoy a world like we could never really imagine. Though we clearly get a taste of God’s Kingdom today the fullness is yet to come.  When He returns He will rid the world of the problem of evil and establish His Kingdom on the earth once and for all.  Life may be grand, but the best is yet to come.

The Ned ringers contest was part of the Greenbelt 2002 Christian arts festival at Cheltenham racecourse.

I like to ask my congregation this question: If you were arrested for being a Christian would they have enough evidence to convict you? Being a Christian in many other parts of the world means taking your life in your hands every day.  Muslims that convert to Christianity are often disowned by their friends and families.  Sometimes they are threatened or even murdered for it.  Don’t think for a minute that that is something that only happens on rare occurrences – there are more people martyred for their faith today than any time in 2000 years of Christianity.  Those who decide to follow Christ in those places make a decision that their faith is more important than life itself.

In North America being a Christian often means something completely different.  For many it just means we are not Muslim or Jewish.  We get married and will be buried in a church building and we might drop by on Christmas or Easter if we are not too busy.  ”Hey, it was good enough for Grandpa.”

In the Southern US states, everybody still goes to church on Sundays.  I remember a few years back being in the Florida panhandle in a Subway restaurant and I asked the overtly gay (which he freely admitted) worker as he was making my sub if he knew anything about Jesus.  In his southern twang he told me that he and his ‘pardner’ never missed church.  ”Ever-budy goes to church down er”

Here’s an observation to think about; The homosexuals have come out of the closet… and the Christians have gone in. Oh sure, they threw a few stones at each other as they switched locations but even that conflict has pretty much blown over.   My point has really nothing to do with the battle for gay rights and everything to do with the fact that you often can barely recognize believers in our culture.

The night that Jesus was betrayed Peter boasted that he would never forsake his Lord.  Jesus told Peter he would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed twice.  The next morning Peter was confronted by a mere servant girl and yet denied Jesus three times.  What happened next is the most important part of the story and yet most people miss it.  When the rooster crowed twice, Peter remembered what Jesus said and wept bitterly.  This was a defining moment for Peter.  He was overcome by his own shame and disappointment.  Though nothing more is said about it in the narrative, it is clear that Peter made a decision that morning that he was coming out of the closet and would never go back in again.  It was Peter who on the day of Pentecost stood out in the street and told a skeptical crowd of thousands that they needed to repent and be converted that their sins could be blotted out by the blood of Jesus.  Peter lived the rest of his life as a radical follower of Jesus.  History tells us that when he was sentenced to be crucified himself by the Romans, he insisted in being crucified upside down as he was not worthy of the same death as his Lord.

No, our world doesn’t need more church goers that are in the bar Saturday night and in the pew Sunday morning (unless they were there inviting people to church the next day).  We need more real Christians for a real world.  People that are not ashamed of the fact that Jesus has done an incredible work in their lives.  Around the world Christians face the raising of weapons at the name of Jesus.  Here, because we have freedom of religion, the worst response we get is someone raising an eyebrow at us.  Why we have such trouble living our faith out loud is a bit of a mystery.  Maybe we all need a disappointing rooster crowing experience to get us out of the closet.  What do you think?

So from my tiny corner of the universe I began reading a boat magazine.  My new seat mate asked me if I had a boat.  I said, ‘Yes, a speed boat,’ and asked him the same question.  He told me he preferred human powered boats.  ”You mean kayaks or canoes?” I responded.  ”Something like that,” he said.  Something like that indeed!  To make a long story short, I was sitting beside Adam Kreek the gold medalist for 8 man rowing from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.   Adam is now a motivational speaker and he crosses the country sharing the story about their victory for Canada in Beijing.

It was not an easy journey.  After winning the world championship in 2003 they went into the 2004 Athens Olympics favoured to win the gold.  They came in 5th.  They continued to train 6 days a week and in 2007 won the world championships again.  Favoured to win the Olympics in 2008, this time they made no mistake and won the gold by half a boat length.

It was a great story and I loved hearing it first hand from the very one who lived it out. Adam had his Powerpoint presentation open on his laptop and I noticed a page titled Gold Medal Syndrome.  I asked him about it.  He told me that GMS was the belief that you will be a different person after you win the medal than you were before.  When Olympians discover that a gold medal hasn’t made them into a different person they often go into a depression.  He said winning the gold medal was the greatest 4 hours of his life.  ”Then what happened?”  I asked.  “After that,” he said, “nobody knew who I was.”  I then mentioned that it would probably come as a huge surprise, but that I had never actually won an Olympic gold medal myself and I wanted to know how GMS would relate to me.  He explained how it doesn’t matter what we do in life we are not different people after our accomplishments and we had better find our identity somewhere else.  It is a great message for all of us to keep in mind.  The true measure of a person is who they are inside, not what they do or achieve on the outside.  I really enjoyed my visit with Adam Kreek.  Here was a young guy with his head really screwed on right.  He knew a lot about victory, and defeat (not to mention a great deal about team work) and consequently knows a lot about life.

At the conclusion of our flight he asked me if I had ever held the Olympic torch.  I told him I had left mine at home.  Then to my surprise he pulled the Olympic torch out of the luggage rack overhead.  His Beijing team was given the honour of carrying the torch on the first leg of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay.  Because he is the one sharing the story, they gave the torch to him as a keepsake.  I am quite certain that holding the Olympic torch is as close as I will ever get to being an Olympian, but for a few moments I got to touch the glory, and as it turns out that’s all anyone gets… just a few moments.

Post Script

I apologise for being so tardy getting a blog posting up this last couple of weeks. My wife’s brother had been in the hospital for 9 weeks with alcohol related liver disease.  We just buried him yesterday and and its been a very hard journey.  Anyone who thinks that the drinking/clubbing lifestyle is a glamorous one needs to experience the indignity of watching someone die from the consequences.  It is a slow, painful, inglorious death that I would not wish on my worst enemy.  Check out these posts if you are not sure what I think about social drinking;

http://www.churchoftherock.ca/blog/sipping-saints

This one I wrote while this battle was going on in our lives.  The context makes it even more meaningful;

http://www.churchoftherock.ca/blog/mydrunkensummer

While I am at it.  If you have children and are still deliberating the virtues of Halloween and whether your kids should be on the streets ‘trick or treating,’ you had better read this one;

http://www.churchoftherock.ca/blog/halloween-trick-or-treat

The church’s standard on marriage took a big step backward last week when the 700 Club’s Pat Robertson gave a man, whose wife was suffering from Alzheimer’s, the incredibly bad and unbiblical advice to “divorce her and move on.”   After a firestorm of criticism he came on air a week later and said that he was misunderstood.  I listened carefully to both broadcasts.  He never recanted or apologized but instead insisted that he would never advise someone to divorce their sick spouse.   What?  That is exactly what he did.  Watch the unedited video.  It’s pretty clear what he said.

Look, nobody understands better than me how easy it is to say something stupid on TV.  I do it every week.  So I am going to give Pat Robertson the benefit of the doubt that… HE IS THE ONE SUFFERING FROM ALZHEIMER’S AND THAT HE HAS FORGOTTEN WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT DIVORCE!  Sarcasm aside, this is exactly what I am talking about; that preachers have become so soft on this issue that their voices are almost indistinguishable from that of non-christians.  (Although I am quite certain many would not think it very honorable to divorce a terminally ill spouse)  Most vows today still include the commitment; for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do we part. It is a sad state of affairs when we are not willing to stand by our spouses in their greatest hour of need.  In the case of the guy whose wife had advanced Alzheimer’s, it would only be a few years or months and he would be free to remarry soon enough.  We are just so selfish and have no understanding of the virtue of sacrifice.

I spoke about this issue last Sunday in our church.  A newcomer was annoyed with me and told me that her friend’s husband (wink wink) was abusive and she was now living with another man.  Why was she not free to divorce her husband and marry Mr Wonderful, she wanted to know.  ”Look”, I said, “I don’t make the rules.  You do not have to live with an abusive spouse, but you are not free to divorce him and marry another.”  To which she said, “Don’t you believe that God is happy when we are happy?”  I responded sarcastically, “Yes, that’s it, our personal happiness trumps all the other principles of God’s word.”  To which she rebutted quite satisfied, “Then I rest my case.”   Aaarrrggg Lord help us!

If I am to get even bolder and blunter, this sentiment is actually coming from the clergy itself.  We have not clearly articulated God’s will regarding marriage nor provided the resources to help marriages succeed.  Worse yet a frightening number of pastors are divorcing their wives, remarrying and carrying on in the pulpit like nothing was the matter.  38% of pastors in North America are now divorced.  Here is a short list of some of the more well known ones that barely missed a beat after their marriages went south; Kathryn Kulmann, Aimee Semple Mcpherson, Richard Roberts, Jimmy Bakker, Robert Tilton, John Hagee, John Jacobs, Paula White, Charles Stanley, Benny Hinn, Juanita Bynum and the list goes on and on.  How does one justify any of this?

I am not claiming to be morally superior to these people.  Kathy could get sick of me and leave me tomorrow… yeah, yeah who could blame her?  I just want to know why these preachers have not stepped gracefully out of ministry and allowed God to rebuild their obviously broken lives?  Why are we still listening to and following leaders who have put their personal happiness ahead of all the values that Jesus taught on marriage?  The Apostle Paul (who it is generally believed to have been a widower) gave a higher standard for those who are ministers of the gospel. ...He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord–how he may please the Lord.  But he who is married cares about the things of the world–how he may please his wife. Cor 7: 32-33  He taught that if a man was no longer married he should devote himself to serving God not to pleasing himself or a wife. That is not the message that is being communicated today.

Nobody said marriage was easy, but if God isn’t big enough to keep our marriages together than what hope is there for us and our mission to a broken world?  And why would anyone want to listen to our so-called message of hope… they already know how to screw up their relationships… they don’t need our help for that.  The fact is the Bible has wisdom for marriages just like it does every other subject… or as the Apostle Peter said “in all things pertaining to life and godliness.” There are tremendous books, videos and courses on marriage by Tim Kimmel, Mark Gungor, Gary Smalley and 100′s of more.  It is not like we lack resources, we just lack resolve.

I am a little  surprised by some of the names I am called though.  Because I believe in ‘traditional marriage’ –  that of a man and a woman, I am often referred to as an ‘extreme right wing radical’.    Since when did being a ‘traditionalist’ become ‘extreme radicalism’? This definition of marriage has been accepted for 1000′s of years and by every culture and every major religion on the planet.  But in the last ten years we have become radicals.  The same can be said for the issue of abortion.  I have been told I was ‘evil’ because I did not support a woman’s right to abortion.  Let’s think this through a little.  Because I think it is wrong for innocent unborn babies to be murdered by their own mothers, I am somehow evil?   Isaiah wrote of this day centuries ago when he said,   Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isa 5:20)  What a great description of where we are living today.  It is becoming harder and harder to hold to a biblical worldview with every passing day.

You may have noticed that many preachers are becoming softer and softer on the hot button issues as it is becoming more and more unpopular to take these positions.  People don’t want to hear that pornography, or divorce, or premarital sex are sin.  So they are mentioned less and less form the pulpit as pastors, perhaps unwittingly, are attempting to avoid being branded a crazy hell-fire and brimstone fundamentalist out of sync with his world.

Paul warned us about this day.  All who desire to live godly will suffer persecution. Too often we don’t recognize persecution for what it is when it comes.  Today persecution comes in the form of being told that we are wrong when we do right and right when do wrong.  It can be very intimidating.  I got a great real life illustration about this a month ago.  We had a huge White Pine fall down in storm and land in the lake at our families summer cottage.   I decided to limb the tree lying in the water and burn the huge branches to try to clean up some of the mess to the shore line.  I had noticed the day before that the fire hazard was high but did not see a restriction posted.  I built a fire on the shore and started cutting branches with the chainsaw, letting them fall into the lake.  My nephews were retrieving  the branches and throwing them on the fire.  The white smoke from the wet wood was billowing into the air.  Spotting the smoke a boater came by and angrily said there was a fire restriction in place and that I should put out the fire.  At first I did not believe him and kept burning.  Ten minutes later I hear a helicopter in the distance.  I knew that meant a visit from the Ministry of Natural Resources.  I told my nephews to douse the fire.  By the time the helicopter got there the fire was out but the white smoke was 100′s of feet in the air.  The chopper could not land and so circled us 4 or 5 times in a very intimidating manner.  The next morning the MNR arrived by boat with four officers.  I was quite nervous and figured we were in for a big fine.  After inspecting the burn site they told us that someone had reported a forest fire (the boater).  They said the burn site was appropriate, the fire was set at the proper time of day (evening), there was NO BURNING RESTRICTION in place and that we were within our rights to be burning.  Here I was doing absolutely nothing wrong yet due to the intimidation I got convinced that what I was doing was wrong.  That is what moral intimidation can do to us.  Even when we know better we can get convinced that right is wrong and wrong is right.

More than ever we need to be holding fast to the standard of God’s word concerning right and wrong.  If we are not careful we will be led down the garden path and convinced of all kinds of things that are not God’s will for us at all.  It was Abraham Lincoln who said, “I am convinced the the bible is God’s greatest gift to man, for without it we would not know right from wrong.”

As the evenings wore on some of our old friends got stupider and stupider, at which point we excused ourselves and went home.  For the record we don’t drink at all.  Not even an occasional glass of wine.  It is not so much for biblical seasons.  I am quite certain that Jesus would have drank wine as I am pretty sure that Welch’s grape juice was not yet available for the Last Supper.  With the lack of refrigeration and often poor water supplies in biblical times, fermenting grape juice into wine was a practical solution for storage.  The bible does not condemn ‘drinking’, but ‘drunkenness’.  And make no mistake about it, it is not a casual warning but very stern prohibition put in the same category as murder.  …murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal 5:21)

The warnings abound in scripture because it is so easy to abuse alcohol.  At what point have we gone too far?  If one drink is fine, how about 2? or 3? or 4?  Where is the line?  ’Sipping saints’ always tell me they know where the line is for them.  To which I always ask, “Ya, how did you find out?”

For me it is not really a biblical debate but a cultural one.  Our culture has a serious drinking problem. Way too many people drink way too much.  It is as if you cannot get together socially these days without copious amount of liquor to lubricate the event.  When did people lose the ability to socialize without getting hammered?

My grandfather was an alcoholic and started drinking at noon on workdays.  My father did not consider himself one because he didn’t start till 5 PM.  But then he made up for lost time.  Thirty years ago I looked that the damage alcohol does to our world and decided I was giving it up for good.  It ruins marriages, families, relationships and health, is the cause of many accidents and most vehicle deaths. I personally fail to see any good reason to drink and therefore I don’t.  We hear all this nonsense about the health benefits of drinking wine but rarely do we hear that it only takes 2-3 drinks daily to lead to life threatening liver disease.  I have watched people die from liver disease and let me tell you it is a wretched, painful and inglorious way to die.  Especially when you contrast it with the way the liquor industry glamorizes drinking.

Young, good-looking, happy men and women with great bodies and perfect teeth—stretched out in their bathing suits on the beach, or relaxing in their after-work clothes at a local tavern. No matter the setting, the message is always the same—these people know how to have a good time!  Who wouldn’t want their lives to be like this? It is an appealing image, one that marketing experts have honed into an extremely seductive message. All you need to do is drink our beer (or wine, or liquor or cooler) and this could be you with your extraordinarily attractive friends leading the ‘good life’!

How come they never use this girl in the beer ads?

Or this guy?

Or these two winners?

And hey, who wouldn’t want to party with this bunch?

And my personal favorite – this guy?   Everything about this picture screams ‘the good life’ right?

Ok, I will admit it.   I am on a personal crusade to discourage drinking amongst christian people.  If there ever was any virtue in drinking alcohol it has lost its meaning a long time ago.  Our culture has fallen off a cliff in the use of mind altering substances and as christians I don’t think we can jusifty participating.  Would I welcome back a 1930′s style prohibition.  Never!  You cannot legislate behaviour.  It needs to grew out of a personal conviction to honor and please God with our lives.  Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit after all.  I like the way Peter put it;

… no longer live the rest of time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.  For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles–when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. (1 Peter 4:2-3)

We have ”spent enough time” indeed, let’s start living for the will of God.

Other than at the zoo, I have never seen a real live bear up close… until last week.  We were spending some vacation time at the family cottage on Lake of the Woods in Ontario.  Kathy was washing the dishes and she shouts, “Mark there’s a baby bear in the backyard, go take a picture.”  Being the dutiful husband I am I grabbed her camera headed out after the bear which had now wandered down the path.  When I had caught up to the bear he turned around and looked at me.  As I snapped off pictures I now realized it was not a baby at all but a full grown male.  And he was starring me down.  Everything I have read about bear safety suggests that you don’t chase after bears.  Fortunately, he bolted into the bushes instead of after me.   Upon returning to the cottage I discovered that he had already been inside.  He torn open the screen door and had gone for a tour of the kitchen. This was not really bizarre behaviour as the dry weather this year has produced almost no berries and other food for the bears and they are going into populated areas looking for food.  He had also gone through Kathy’s garden and eaten all the lettuce, which was just about ready to be picked.  She was not a happy camper… literally.  Bears and people do not dwell well together.  I got my shotgun and gave chase to the bear.  I had no intention of killing it as I did not want a 400 pound bear carcass to have to deal with.  I just wanted to scare him off.   I caught up to the bear and took a couple of shots over the bow so to speak.  That was the last we saw of him.  Here is the actual shot of him at our back door.

When King David went up against Goliath he claimed that he had killed both a lion and a bear and he was going to do the same to the giant.  My incident with the bear made think about how the scripture describes Satan as a wild beast.  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1Peter 5:8  The Devil will eventually arrive at your door step. You have to decide what you are going to do about it.  The scripture says the Devil is SEEKING whom he MAY devour.  It is not a given that you will be devoured.  It is those who are unaware and unprepared that are victims of bear attacks.  The same is true with our spiritual adversary. He seeks those whom he MAY devour.

My bear incident reminded me of exactly how we are to deal with the Satan.  Here’s my tips on how to deal with the Devil:

1) Don’t leave garbage lying around. Bears are attracted to human garbage.  So is Satan.  When we live carelessly and sinfully, the open garbage is an invitation for the Devil. Pornography, alcoholism, drugs, sexual immorality, greed, unforgiveness, etc. is a stinking pile that will attract unwanted attention form the Enemy.  “Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.” Eph 4:26-27

2) Don’t leave your back door open. We sometimes have many other things we do in our lives that are an open door to the Devil.  Unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, jealousy, are all subtle internal feelings that invite Satan right into our lives.  People who entertain these things should not be surprised when the Devil comes a calling.   Things like the horoscope, New Age thought, Eastern mysticism, even Halloween are not a back door but a front door invitation.

3) Don’t go chasing after him. Chasing after the bear that day was not my most brilliant move.  One on one he would have torn me limb from limb.  The same is true for the Devil. We don’t want to be demon chasers, seeing one behind every bush and under every rock. Christians who become preoccupied with the Devil tend to give him invitation as well.   “Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Jude 1:9  If Michael the angel who ran Satan out of heaven doesn’t pick fights with Satan, then neither should we.

4) Use your spiritual weapons to chase him off when he does shows up.  God has not left us defenseless.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. 2 Cor 10:4  All I did was take a couple of shots at the bear and he never came back.  We can chase the Devil off as well. Prayer, worship and the name of Jesus are all powerful weapons against the enemy.  If we make the our place of habitation uncomfortable for him, he stops coming around.

We have have become complacent to news of violence and unrest.  After all we watched it day after day this past winter as the population of one Middle East country after another rose up to depose their dictatorial leader.  Make no mistake about it, this is different.  This isn’t some backward Arab dictatorship or war-torn African country struggling for independence.  This is England, the birthplace of the industrial civilization, orderly government and the gold standard of democracy in the world for 100′s of years.  And don’t forget, England is Canada’s motherland with their Queen still acting as our head of state.

The violence began last weekend as police shot and killed an Afro-Caribbean man named Mark Duggan in London’s ethnic suburb of Tottenham.  The 29 year old father of 4 had been travelling in a mini-cab when he was stopped by Scotland Yard’s Operation Trident – a special police initiative dealing with drug related gun violence in black communities. Early reports said Duggan fired on police.  It is now known that his loaded gun was not fired.  But he was still carrying a loaded hand gun!

Peaceful protests in front of the police precinct over the weekend soon turned violent as gang members showed up and began throwing fire bombs.  Violence and chaos soon spread to communities all over London and England and this world class city soon turned into a war zone.

Analysts are a little unclear of the exact root cause.  Some are citing the government’s recent economic austerity program, some see it as merely gang related, still others as ethnically fueled.  As of this writing 1200 people have been arrested, over 100 injured (mostly police) and several people are dead.   There has been 100′s of millions of dollars of damage due to vandelism and stolen goods.  But it is not just police clashing with gangs or anarchists.  Vigilante groups of citizens are taking to the streets to protect their property and many of those groups have ended up in violent protests with police.  As in the Middle East, technology is playing a big part in this as riots are being organized on Facebook and Twitter.  Ordinarily law abiding people are showing up and looting shops after being texted by their friends about the latest ‘fire sale’.

We in Canada need to be careful about being too smug that we are somehow above all this.  It was just a couple of months ago that the streets of Vancouver erupted into violence when the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup final on home ice in game 7.  It was one of those days I was embarrassed to be a Canadian.  It is just a game.  It is supposed to be mere entertainment and a mindless diversion not a root of visceral anger.

What is really going on here is a sign of the times.  Jesus told us what to expect in the last days.

“Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.  And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.  ”But he who endures to the end shall be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:11-14

What we may be witnessing in the world, and now increasingly close to home, is the lawlessness and anger predicted by Jesus himself.  There is no question that one of the root causes of what we are seeing is the ethnification of our cities.  ethnic groups from every nation under Heaven are flooding into the world’s major cities.  But it doesn’t mean we are getting along any better.  Most people groups will still pool together in ethnic community enclaves.  Racial suspicions and prejudices linger right under the surface.  Racial tensions have the potential at any time to become frayed and get out of hand.  Most, in fact almost all violence in the world is racially motivated.  But the same phenomenon that is seeing our cities all over the world becoming ethnically diverse is God’s plan for end time revival.  The very passage that mentions ‘lawlessness’ abounding mentions the gospel being preached to all nations.  The reality is we have not done a stellar job of taking the gospel to the nations, so God is bringing the nations to us.  The hope for ethnic harmony is the same hope for all mankind’s problems – the gospel.  The Gospel has the power to not only reconcile man to God, but man to man.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.   For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,  having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,  and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.    Eph 2: 13-16

Anarchy and violence happens when people have lost hope.  The gospel is really the only hope for the world and we are the purveyors of that hope.  When we see blood in the streets, it is time for us to be part of the solution not part of the problem.

The Internet for all its positive uses is the major cause of epidemic porn consumption. There was a time when if you wanted pornography you needed to visit an adult book store or go some sleazy strip club where someone might spot you.  That alone was enough to keep the christian men away.  Today however, porn comes to you.  It is a $4.9B industry with over 4.2 million sites on the internet which accounts for 12% of everything on the net.

Unless you are extremely diligent you cannot avoid it.  Gross (you’ve got to love the name) has determined he is going to help christian men get free from this plague. http://www.xxxchurch.com/ He has an online test to see if you have a problem.  BTW, if you have to take the test to find out, then you do.  He has a program that you can put on your computer as a safeguard.  Not only does it block the sites you should not visit but it will send a report to your designated people if you try to visit questionable sites.  Craig is not a hilarious speaker, but I did crack up when he suggested that making your mother one of your designated accountability partners was a sure fire way to beat the habit. (I think the pun is intended).  He sponsored a program called Porn Sunday that corresponded with Super Bowl Sunday and he recruited several high profile players as spokesmen against the prevailing battle men have with their flesh.  Here is one report where the female journalist is downright incredulous.

I met Craig a couple of months ago at a Promise Keepers men’s conference.  The two of us were on this year’s PK circuit and a lot of Canadian men heard his uncompromising message about how to walk free from this deadly trap that ensnares men, taints their view of women and sexuality, and often destroys marriages.  Don’t think for a minute that you can lust after other women and keep the home fires burning.  Jesus said that “…if look at another women with lust in your heart you are guilty of adultery.” Incidently, 17% of porn consumers are now women, so it is no longer just a male problem.

One thing Craig is doing which is fascinating are the Porn Debates.  He travels to university campuses with male adult movie star Ron Jeremy.   He has been in 2,000 adult films and slept with over 5,000 different women.  The two of them debate the subject in front of 100′s of young people.  Ron is for, while Craig is against just in case you haven’t been paying attention.  Here is a Nightline version of the debates.  I have included all 10 parts if you are so inclined… about an hour and half of material.  It is always important to know both sides of an argument before you take a stand on annything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3dDXppgUpI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDZYEbrTD2g&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngIe2gqH5Zc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVgEMmRTSJA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voFi6FPdU4E&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9bBlr0c9I0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxKo2bAsJcg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUa-ilW3wn4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSY859lsqGs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5j00SifV-c&feature=related

The part of Craig’s agenda that most people don’t get is his ministry to those in the porn industry.  He has printed a bible called Jesus Loves Porn Stars.  He sets up a booth at porn shows and hands out 100′s of these bibles.

His critics claim this is a compromise of the gospel.  Before we throw stones I would ask the age old question; What would Jesus do?   These are exactly the kind of people Jesus hung out with and the religious establishment criticized him for it.  The fact is, Jesus does love porn stars.  Could I do what Craig does?  No, I don’t think I would put myself in a place where I was surrounded by naked women and live sex acts.  But then, I am not called to that either.  Apparently Craig is.  I asked him about the temptation factor and keeping his eyes off the ‘subjects’.  He told me he takes his wife with him as a buffer when he goes to these things.  So he is trying to be careful.  One thing I am doing is praying for him, and so should you.  It is the ones on the front lines that are the first to be taken out.  Lord help him.

No, the reason that  am upset about Donald Trump dropping out of the race is I think he would have provided hours of entertainment value to the race.  He is just so easy to pick on and make fun of.  I don’t know what the late night comedians are going to do without him. The comb-over itself is all you really need.  Did you know there are only 2 objects on planet earth clearly visible from outer space…  The Great Wall of China and Donald Trump’s hair. (rim shot)

The current enormous list of GOP candidates is completely boring;  Michele Bachmann, U.S. Representative from Minnesota.  Herman Cain, former Federal Reserve banker and businessman from Georgia. Newt Gingrich, former U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives from Georgia.  Jon Huntsman, Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to China and former Governor governor of Utah.  Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico. Fred Karger, political consultant and gay rights activist from California.  Andy Martin, perennial candidate from Illinois. Thaddeus McCotter, U.S. Representative from Michigan. Jimmy McMillan, perennial candidate from New York. Roy Moore, former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court of Alabama.  Ron Paul, U.S. Representative from Texas.  Tim Pawlenty, former Governor of Minnesota.  Buddy Roemer, former Governor of Louisiana.  Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts. Rick Santorum, former Senator from Pennsylvania.  Jonathon Sharkey, perennial candidate from Florida.

Apparently every Republican with a pulse wants to be President.  (There once was a Republican Senator that was elected after he died.  He doesn’t want to be President.  But, he also has no pulse.)  Sarah Palin doesn’t even have her name in yet, although there will be no doubt she will.  She has been campaigning for the job since 2008.  She is Dolly Parton’s pick.  “I can relate to Sarah Palin. I always say we’re very much alike. Both small town girls. Both are Pentecostalists and we both carry an AK-47.”

Make no mistake about it, I think The Donald would make a terrible President.  He is emblematic of everything that is wrong with that nation.  He is self-centered, egotistical, greedy, uncompassionate… the list goes on and on.  During one interview he was tossed a soft ball question.  ”What would you say to the guy that has lost his job and his home and is wondering what his future holds?”  Unbelievably, The Donald said, ” Look, there will always be those who will belly ache about the state of the economy, but there are great opportunities out there.  I just paid $10 million for a building that was appraised at $22 million just a few months ago.  We live in the greatest country is the world and I want to make sure it stays that way and that’s why I think I would make a great President.”   Hard to imagine that the guy without the job and house missed that buying opportunity.  The Donald has said that the first thing he would do is slap a 25% duty on every item imported from those ‘lying and cheating Chinese’ who are using unfair business practices.  What he doesn’t tell the American people is that it would essentially increase the price of every single good in Walmart by at LEAST 25%.

Well yesterday The Donald hinted that he might jump back in the race.  “It was not an easy decision for me [to drop out], but I think that it will be an easy decision [to return] if the Republicans choose the wrong candidate and if the economy is bad. I think it will be a really easy decision for me to make.”  His decision to then run as an independent would be made during next fall’s season of The Celebrity Apprentice.  He said it would be really good for the ratings of show.  Well, isn’t that great, there will be something in it for Donald.

In Matthew 20 the disciples got into a discussion about who would be the greatest in Jesus Kingdom.  Jesus never rebuked them for their ambition but instead redefined ‘greatness’.

But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave…

What our world needs now more than ever is servant leaders.  Men or women who are not in it for what they can get out of it but rather for the contribution that they can make for others.  Oh, they mostly all say it (except The Donald who makes no attempt) but they don’t act like it.  There have been few over the years.  I was reading a story the other day written by a man who had an encounter with Abraham Lincoln when he was 8 years old.  His father had taken him to Washington DC.  They were standing by a roadside fruit stand when Honest Abe came striding down the street.  A young street boy was eyeing the fruit when Lincioln as he passed stopped plunged his hand in his pocket and bought an orange.  He then gave it to the street urchin and carried on his way.  The 8 year old’s father told the boy that the President had just bought him an orange and that he should run after him to thank him.  Which he did.  After receiving his thanks Lincoln hunkered down to the boys level and said, “You are welcome my boy.  You were going to steal that orange, but you didn’t because it would have been wrong.  Our world needs more honest men like you.”   And then he turned and walked away.

What our world really needs is more honest men like Abraham Lincoln.  There are few in the political arena today that would measure up to Jesus description of greatness but I pray that we will see some of them is our day.  As for The Donald… he ain’t one of them.

I apologize for not posting the last couple of weeks.  We have been in our annual Love Winnipeg campaign and I just couldn’t find time to get to my computer.  Love Winnipeg is an initiative of the churches in our city to get out from behind the four walls of our buildings and love our city.  85 churches are participating this year.  Donning our conspicuous red Love Winnipeg shirts we hit the streets to clean up garbage, plant flowers, mow grass, remove graffiti, feed the poor, hand out clothes, visit seniors, give inner city kids bikes, hosted carnivals and on and on and on.

Our church alone probably did 50 different projects.  One team did an Honor your Heroes event where they visited the police and fire stations with home baked cookies and thanked them for what they do to keep us safe.  They were visibly moved as almost no one ever thanks them for what they do.  We have done the same with nurses and doctors in the hospital and teachers in the school.  I have seen tears come to their eyes as we express our gratitude.  Some of our young people headed down to a local club, Whiskey Dix and handed out bottled water and lolli-pops to the patrons waiting in a 250 person long line.  The lolli-pops were a huge hit and they had lots of opportunities to share the gospel with a lost generation that is clearly seeking for something… they are just not sure what.

For me one of the funnest things we do is head down to The Village to hand out bottled water on street corners.  Osborne Village is a unique area of Winnipeg just south of downtown.  It is dotted with trendy little cafes, eclectic and unusual shops, and more than it’s fair share of tattoo parlours.  The Village is where you will find goths dressed in black, gay men and women holding hands, squeegee kids washing car windows for a dollar, lots of young people, retirees that love the character of the area, welfare recipients heading to the grocery store, yuppies who enjoy the trendy urban setting and pretty much every other kind of person you can think of.

We ventured into The Village three times over the last week.  Each time we simply took coolers full of bottled water and setup on a street corner.  Tuesday we were there between Vicky the hot dog vendor, Peter the pedal car pusher, and Sarah the ‘observant’ Jewish sunglasses street vendor.  She would not be there Wednesday because they would be observing Shavuot; a holiday commemorating Moses receiving the Torah.

Our little team of five people that night interacted with 100′s of ‘villagers’. A simple bottle of water was all that was necessary to get the conversation going.  We prayed with a lady that had lost her husband.  We offered to go over and move some boxes for a woman on welfare that said she could not manage them.  One man explained to me how my teachings on television perfectly lined up with the new age cosmic confluence… uh huh?  One couple told me their son lived down there and he had told them that if he ever was going to go to church, he would go to Church of the Rock.  The reason?  He had seen the TV preacher (me) there last year picking up garbage.  Almost nobody that night a had a single spiritual clue.  It breaks my heart when I see how lost people are.  I don’t know what lasting results our time in The Village will produce, but my last encounter of the night made my day.  An east Indian man got off the bus.  I asked him if he would like some water.  He responded, “Yes, I am parched, I was just thinking I needed water.  Thank you.”  As he walked away he turned back to me with a sly smile and said, “I was thirsty and you gave me to drink”… Matthew 25:35

I know there are lots of things we can learn from geese.  They mate for life for one thing, which is a lot better than many people I know. “Pastor Mark, are you STILL talking about geese?” You do know what all that honking is about when they are flying south for the winter don’t you?  Frank, you get back here and fly in formation.  Honk, honk. You should be flying beside me not with those buddies of yours.  Honk, honk. And quit trying to show off and fly in the front of the Vee.  Honk, honk.  If you were such a leader where were you when the goslings were born?  Honk. honk.  You were off pooping all the time while I got stuck at the nest with the kids.  Honk, honk. “Pastor Mark, come on now?” No really, after this month I now speak fluent goose.

Let me get serious here for a least a moment.  Well, we are still here after May 21st so I conclude that we are not done in our mission to reach the world with the gospel.  “And this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matt 24:14) I actually think the church might be able to learn something from geese to help reach our goal. Here are five lessons;

1)  Synergy. As each goose flaps its wings it creates an “uplift” for the birds that follow. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.  When we as the church work together in a common direction and sense of community we too can get where they are going quicker and easier because we are relying on the thrust of one another.

2) Strengthen. When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone.  It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.  No one of us should have to go it alone in life.  One of the great benefits of the church is to be a community that is willing to give and accept help from one another.

3) Share. When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies to the point position. It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. It makes no sense to do all the heavy lifting by ourselves. Church of the Rock is successful not so much because I am a brilliant leader (even though I am) but because of the phenomenal staff and volunteers that bring a wealth of skills, abilities, talents and resources to the leadership team.

4) Stimulate. The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.  We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. Study after study has shown the amazing power of encouragement.  One university study revealed that students standing in a bucket of ice water could last twice as long when their classmates cheered them on.  (I’ll remember that for next time I need to stand in a bucket of ice water.)  Criticism or negative honking on the other hand is a recipe for failure.

5) Support. When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again.  What an incredible lesson for us.  When we are part of a church family we should never have to stand alone during difficult times.

“Pastor Mark I would have never thought you could find so much good to say about geese?” Don’t kid yourself, I still have contempt for the poop generating creatures, I am talking here about the church.  Which incidentally can generate it’s own fair share of poop. However, the church has always been and will always be God’s only plan for the future of the world.  Jesus himself put it this way.  ”I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” So we can sit around in our basements and wait for the rapture, or we can get on with the job… but let’s remember the message of the goose and do it together.

Allegedly when Martin Luther was asked some 500 years ago what he would do if he knew the world was ending tomorrow, he said, “I would still plant a tree today.”  The simple point he was trying to make was the importance of always living with a mind for tomorrow.  It is not easy especially when overwhelmed by the needs of today.  We just had a team return from Haiti where we helped build an orphanage.  (That’s a cool story in itself. Last year Hollywood producers asked us if they could use our church parking lot to shoot a movie about a murder at an ATM.  We said they could if they gave us $20,000 to build an orphanage in the 3rd world.  They did and we did.)  The country has of course been devastated by last year’s earthquake, but that only compounds an already desperate situation.  The forest has been slashed and burned to produce charcoal for resale.  The exposed soil has eroded and blown or washed into the sea where it killed the coral.  Not only have they destroyed their farm land but also their fishery.  The sense of hopelessness and distress is palpable on the streets.  Yet in the midst of it the gospel is advancing like no other time in history.  Our team visited an outdoor church with over 10,000 members. Some believe that as many as 50% of Haitians are now Christians.  Their Voodoo religion has not been kind to them holding them in fear and bondage.  Christ is the only hope in a country that has literally lost everything.

The kids have distended stomachs from malnutrition and you rarely see them smile.  All kids should be able to at least smile.  With so much work to be done in the world to tell people about Jesus it actually annoys me that any self-righteous preacher would even propose that they know when the world is ending.  Harold Camping’s group has put up 20,000 billboards across North America with 85 of the them in Canada.  At an average cost of $1500 each that would be $30 million.  That money could have built 20,000 churches or orphanages in the 3rd world but instead it is wasted because the world is not going to end on May 21st.  How do you know Pastor Mark?  Well for one thing I am scheduled to take the weekend off, my first in months and months, and I pretty sure God would not deny me my day off.  But seriously, the scripture is quite clear on the matter.  “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” (Matt 24:36)  Let’s see, if the angels don’t know, and Jesus Himself doesn’t know, I am pretty sure Harold Camping doesn’t know.  He even says he knows the hour…  6 PM.  Although I am not sure of the time zone.

The 90 year old Camping is the founder of a ministry called Family Radio.  This isn’t the first time he has predicted the end of the world.  He said it was supposed to end September 6th 1994.  The day came and went and now he is at it again.  In the Old Testament they used to stone false prophets.  Unfortunately, many of his followers have sold all their goods and have given the money to him to buy billboards.  I wonder what they are going to do Monday May 22nd?  I hope McDonald’s is hiring.  Apparently Camping himself has not liquidated all his  assets and Family Radio will still be in business the next day.

We actually have a sure fire marker as to when Jesus will return.  He said “And this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matt 24:14)  There are still at least 2 billion people on the planet that have not heard the gospel.  We should not even be wasting our time debating the subject.  We have a huge job to do.  Want to know what I am doing on my weekend off?  First I am going to put in the garden and then… plant a tree.

I don’t think anyone expected both Gilles Duceppe and Michael Ignatieff to lose their seats.  It was the ultimate rebuke.  It doesn’t hurt my feelings, as I am not sure I will miss Duceppe’s tiring separatism or Ignatieff”s thinly veiled personal ambitions.  With the Bloc being decimated to 4 seats and the Liberals being reduced to the rump with only 34 seats it is a new political era in Canada.  As it turns out this may be the most significant election since 1993 when the the Tories were reduced to 2 seats and the Reform Party broke through to eventually become the official opposition.  Today the shoe is only the other foot with the NDP breaking out with 102 seats and Jack Layton heading to Stornoway.  It should be interesting.   Half of their seats are in Quebec where Quebecers blindly voted for people they know nothing about.  NDP rookie Pierre-Luc Dusseault is the youngest MP in history and at 19 years old is barely out of High School.  Another Quebec rookie MP, Ruth Ellen Brosseau, has never set foot in her riding, does not speak French, did not put up a single campaign sign and spent part of the election campaign vacationing in Las Vegas.  She was just a name on the ballot and is now heading to Ottawa.  Shadow cabinet material for sure!  Jumping Jack will have his hands full keeping that bunch in check.

I know not everybody will be happy with the results of this election.  Personally I am encouraged because I like it when democracy works.  Despite all the inexperienced MP’s that are heading to ‘the land of the million dollar pension’ (MP’s are eligible after only six years), it is actually called the House of Commons for a purpose.  It was originally intended to be the ‘house’ for the ‘common’ person to represent their peers.  Through the Trudeau/Mulrooney/Chretien era we lived in a democratic dictatorship where we elected one unaccountable, autocratic Prime Minister after another.  We would cast our vote and then they would do whatever they wanted for the next 4-5 years showing utter contempt for the will of the public.  What we are seeing around the globe is a pent up political frustration manifesting itself in the form of the people taking back their governments. Although I am no supporter of Jack Layton, I like the fact that the people spoke up that they are tired of politics as usual.  Though Harper has his majority, which will help get some things done, I suspect he is smart enough to remember the lessons here; that this is still a democracy and the people will throw his party out out on its ear if he doesn’t use his mandate to advance the greater good of Canadians. I said it last week, I’ll say it again; The Most High rules in the kingdom of men, Gives it to whomever He will, And sets over it the lowest of men.’ (Dan 4:17)

I actually have a higher opinion of politicians than I let on.  The scripture says,  The Most High rules in the kingdom of men, Gives it to whomever He will, And sets over it the lowest of men.’ (Dan 4:17)  Politics is God ordained and plays an important role in bringing order and stability to any society.  Many don’t know I ran in the 1993 Federal Election for the Reform Party in Winnipeg South. 15,100 people thought I would make a good Member of Parliament. Second place, but close only counts in horse shoes. I am still a Reformer at heart and I don’t see any party that resembles what we were trying to do in the days before the Reform party became the Canadian Alliance and then was swallowed up by the Tories.  I met Steven Harper in those days as he was also running and was elected as a Reform MP.   He didn’t like the tedious work of a MP and quit after only one term.   You will remember he only returned to politics to run for the leadership of the newly re-branded Tories.

Make no mistake about it he is no longer carrying the Reform banner.  In those days we were a populist party that was trying to reform politics and put the power of government back in the hands of the people.   We wanted an elected Senate, citizens’ initiative and MP recall.  Those things are not even on the political radar today.   Preston Manning used to be fond of quoting Thomas Jefferson on this issue;

“I know of no safe repository for the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to increase their discretion by education.”

Today governments treat the public with contempt and almost all the power of parliament is concentrated in the Prime Minister’s Office.  Back bench MP’s have almost no say in the political agenda and are subject to party discipline if they do not go along with the party line.   There is little difference in the four major parties in that regard.

In many ways I am grateful I lost back in 1993.   It is a thankless job where you take a tremendous amount of abuse.   It is the media that has actually trained politicians to lie.   If you tell the truth to the Canadian people about the state of the economy or what you are going to do about it, you get jumped all over for being either an uncompassionate right wing capitalist or a crazy left wing nut job.   So instead they fudge along, never really answering any questions, spouting platitudes about the good of all Canadians or preserving our values for the next generation…. blah blah blah.

That’s why I was a terrible politician, I like to tell it like it is.  I remember doing a debate at an advancing eduction class for seniors.  I told them that the Canadian health care system was on life support and that if we did not reform the system we could expect huge wait times for surgery and that some people were going to die in the queue.  Not only did they not believe me but they booed me.  The media branded me as a fear monger yet five years later everything I had warned of had come to pass.

Here we are in our 4th federal election in 7 years and almost nobody is paying attention. There is far more interest in Wills and Kate’s royal wedding and the NHL playoffs than what is happening on the campaign trail.  We are snoozing our way to the polls.  I don’t see anyone out there with a compelling vision for the future of our country.  Having said that I still believe it is very important to get out and exercise our civic responsibility to vote. There are many excellent Christian people running in this election that deserve our support.  My advice is to find out which candidate in your riding will vote in the House of Commons most closely to the way you pray for our nation.  It is a mystery to me how people can pray and believe a certain way and then go and vote for a party or a candidate whose values are completely contrary to theirs.  It is an easy choice for me.  Rod Bruinooge, running here in my former riding of Winnipeg South, is a member of our church.  He has been a huge defender of the rights of the unborn and an excellent MP.  We all need to seek out the bible believing Christians that are running and support them at the polls. These people are paying an incredible personal price to bring their faith into public life… the least we can do is stand behind them.  See you at the polls.

If you are planning a trip to Winnipeg any time soon you should try to come for Easter.  We pull out all the stops and do it a little different than any one else… on the planet.  Good Friday is a traditional service focused around the cross and is always very powerful.  Easter morning on the other hand is a celebration that, well… you have to see it to appreciate it.  It is six months in preparation with elaborate sets, customs, lights and special effects.  We usually take some pop culture reference and use it to present the resurrection story.  Last year we did Robin of the Hood which was the contemporary version of the story set in the inner city to the sound of Michael Jackson music.  The year before it was Pirates of the Galilean where Captain Jack Saviour and his band of pirates squared off against the evil Captain Barbosa (played by yours truly).  The year before that it was the USS Easterprise and I was Capatin James T Kirk.  Here’s the television ad we are running for this year.  It gives you a pretty good idea.

Those who criticize our efforts as being sacrilegious are usually those who have never been here to see them first hand.  Although it is all kinds of fun, it may be the most Christ honoring service we do all year because it always, always points to the amazing work of the cross.  It is not unusual for us to get 1,000 first time visitors.  People who would otherwise never hear the gospel but come because they love the movie or the particular music that we are featuring that year.  When we did the Startrek theme we actually had Trekkies show up in costume for the service.  We had one 15 year old dressed as Captain Picard that sat on the bridge of the Easterprise for an hour after the service.  We had to ask him to go home.  I can’t remember any real Pirates showing up when we did that theme.

This year as shown in the video clip we are doing The Princess Bride.  It is a fabulous story that was made into a movie by Rob Reiner and for some is a bit of a modern classic.  In our family we have watched it again and again.  It is family friendly and very funny.  The script adapted itself beautifully to the Easter story and if there is any way you can get to Winnipeg this coming weekend, you will not be disappointed.  I will follow up the play with the message The Princess Bride of Christ.

The service schedule is as follows:

Good Friday:    April 22, 2011 at 10:30 AM

Easter:             Saturday April 23, 2011 at 5:25 PM                                                                                      Sunday April 24, 2011 at 9:25 and 11:25 AM

Hope to see you then.  Have a happy Easter.

Although I have admittedly never watched a whole episode of Two and a Half Men, I have watched 5 minutes of one which was enough for me to form an opinion.  I did however watch the entire interview Sheen did with Piers Morgan on CNN just after he got kicked of the show. Morgan in his typical self righteous manner asked Charlie, “So you’re running the network. How would you have reacted to the star of your number one family comedy, which is watched by families and liked by families, behaving off-screen in the way that you’ve been behaving?”  FAMILY COMEDY?  Is he on drugs too?  Sheen plays Charlie Harper a sleazy self-styled bachelor completely devoid of any moral fiber.  He and his brother Alan are raising Jake (Alan’s teenage son) together.  Sheen’s character’s lifestyle consists of drinking excessively, smoking cigars, womanizing, gambling, and wearing bowling shirts.  He sleeps in every day as money “falls into his lap” as he lives a life of free-spirited debauchery.  As a drunken womanizer he has engaged in decades of one night stands (and prostitutes) and never calls any of his girlfriends again after he has sex with them.  In other words, he plays himself.  He got kicked off the show because the network realized… he really was Charlie Harper!  How ironic is that?  In real life Sheen lives with two women that he calls the Goddesses.   But the fact that anybody thinks that this is a family show, watched by families, is what is most disturbing to me.

Some of us are old enough to remember when fathers were presented on television as the pillars of their families; full of character, integrity and wisdom.  Shows like, Leave it to Beaver, My Three Sons and Father Knows Best.  Today fathers are presented as bumbling buffoons, who are selfish, ignorant, manipulative, lazy and undisciplined fools. Think Homer Simpson, Ray Ramona or of course Charlie Harper. The comedic value aside, they are an embarrassment to our gender.  In a day and age that is desperate for good male roles models where do we turn?

In 1965 U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote a report for then US President Lyndon B. Johnson where he warned; “From the wild Irish slums of the 19th century Eastern seaboard, to the riot-torn suburbs of Los Angeles, there is one unmistakable lesson in American history: a community that allows a large number of young men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future…that community asks for and gets chaos, crime, violence, unrest, disorder.”  Since that time we have failed to heed the warning and the role of fatherhood has been in a state of free fall.  The fastest growing model of the family is the single mother.  In Quebec over 60% of children are now born out of wedlock.  34% of all couples live common law.  Where have all the fathers gone?  Anybody can make a baby.  It takes a man to be a father.

There is hope however.  The very last thing God said in the OLD Testament was this, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.  And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” (Mal 4:5-6)  Often the last thing someone says is the most important.  There are few things as important as fatherhood.  God says He is going to restore the role of fatherhood to its rightful place.  Maybe the crash and burn of Charlie Sheen will provide motivation for some men to look in the mirror and dislike what they see.  In the meantime those of us who care about the next generation can endeavorer to live up to one of the greatest callings on the planet… fatherhood.

The fog of war is a phrase used today to describe the complexity of military conflicts, and given that, the difficulty of making the right decisions. It is often attributed to Carl von Clausewitz a Prussian Major General (1780-1831), but is in fact a paraphrase of what he said: ‘War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty.’ I actually pity those political leaders who have to make the decisions of war today.  Keeping the fog of war in mind, many of those decisions will be the wrong ones and they will live with the responsibility of sending brave young men to an unnecessary death.  Some think George W Bush is a heartless warmonger.  Opinions of the man aside, I can see in his face the pain that haunts him when he talks about the lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.  We in Canada can feel it as a nation every time one of our fallen soldiers returns from Afghanistan and makes the journey down the Highway of Heroes.

In 2004 Errol Morris produced an award-winning documentary about Robert S. McNamara entitled The Fog of War.  McNamara was the president of Ford Motor Company when he was recruited by JFK to be his Secretary of Defense.  He later served as Secretary of State during the Vietnam War.  The documentary is a fascinating look at the then 85 year old’s introspections about war and the lessons we need to learn from it. One startling admission that McNamara made was in reference to the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the end of WWII (before his time).  He said that if we had lost the war, those responsible for the attack would have needed to be tried for crimes against humanity.

The first of McNamara’s eleven lessons is maybe the most important.  Empathize with your enemy. He gives the example of the Cuban Missile Crisis and describes how then ambassador to Moscow, Llewellyn Thompson, knew Khrushchev could save face by saying he saved Cuba from US attack.  Later in the film, he explains how ignoring this lesson prolonged the Vietnam war – the North Vietnamese saw themselves in a Civil War and fighting for independence from enemies like China and the US as colonialists attempting domination, whereas they saw only the conflict in the light of the Cold War.

What, if any of this, relates to Middle East right now?  The present situation in Libya is the one that gives me the most pause.  I sincerely hope we do not find ourselves invading yet another Arab country.  Firstly, I understand the political desire to prevent a possible genocide.  But we must not forget that Al Qaida’s stated strategy is to lure the conflict on to Arab soil because they know that is a battle the West cannot win.  Have we learned nothing from Afghanistan and Iraq not to mention the failed efforts of the 200 years of the Crusades (1095-1291)?

Secondly, and of utmost importance to many of us, every time we enter the Arab world militarily we set the work of the gospel back …who knows how many years.  We repeatedly through history transgress McNamara’s lesson to empathize with your enemy.  If you were to ask the average Arab what is the greatest evil committed by Christians today, they would answer, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.  ”What?  ’Christians’ didn’t invade Iraq!”  They don’t know that.  They do not know the difference between Christianity and The West, much like many of us don’t know the difference between an Arab and a Persian or Muslim and an Islamic fundamentalist.  Why would they want to hear our message of the love of God after ‘WE’ just finished dropping bombs on their heads?

Having said all that, many times throughout history God has used geo-political events to pave the way for the gospel.  Christianity is growing faster today in China than any other nation.  The cause can be traced back not to a brilliant missions strategy on our part but to the Cultural Revolution that began in 1949.  When Chairman Mao Tse Tung ushered in communism he unwittingly swept away the deeply held beliefs of Buddhism.  When the cracks appeared in the fabric of communism, there was a great openness to the truths of the gospel with little resistance from Buddhism.

I cannot help but think that God may be using the events in the Middle East as an opportunity for the gospel to go forth in the Islamic world.  As I said, we have not done a great job of reaching the region for Christ.  There are 1.3 billion Muslims and few of them have ever heard the gospel.  Whatever happens I know this for sure, that one day and maybe soon, we will get our chance.  Jesus made this immutable declaration; This gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all nations and then the end will come.

Spotting a man cleaning up his rubble I asked him if he was going to rebuild his house.  “Of course, this is my home and I am not leaving.  This is the third time I have lost it in 15 years and I am not moving.”  Well, give the man full points for stubbornness, zero for sensibility.  The house next door had disappeared completely and the lot was for sale.  “How much for this vacant lot?” I queried. “$400,000,”  He replied.  “Is that with or without the beach?” (Now on the other side of the island.) I asked in a sort of smart alecky kind of way.  “Without,” he explained, “you have to bring back the sand yourself.”  I will leave my opinions as to what I think of building homes on sandbars or below sea level to your imagination.

It seems like almost every week some devastating occurrence happens somewhere in the world …earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, cyclones, volcanoes.  The latest of course, being the incredible earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan.  The images of vehicles and buildings being tossed casually against the shoreline like they were nothing more than little plastic toys was shocking to say the least and of course heart wrenching when considering the loss of human life.

If it seems like these kinds of natural disasters are becoming more frequent, that is because they are.  Hollywood has picked up on it and they continue to make apocalyptic disaster movies like, The Day After Tomorrow, Volcano, Flood and 2012.  They seem to think the earth is going to end in a bang not a whimper.  Even a casual read through the book of Revelation will reveal that on this one they got it right.

So what is going on in these days which we are living?  The Apostle Paul gives us an important clue.  “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.” (Romans 8:22)  These increasing natural disasters are the planet itself groaning and travailing in anticipation of the end.  We often think of the earth as a inanimate object, nothing more than a collection of elements brought together by time and chance.  Not so.  There is something dynamic, arguably personified about our planet.  Paul explains that creation itself is restless and is waiting for God’s people to be revealed in the purpose for which we were created; to worship Him. “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Romans 8:19-21)

In the book of Leviticus God gave his people a list of abominable behaviour.  Things like bestiality, homosexuality, incest, etc.  Some of which we consider normal today.  He warned them saying to avoid them… “lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.” (Leviticus 18:28)  Again the earth is personified and seems to care how we live.  This is about the point where some will react and say, ‘are you trying to say that these innocent people are bringing natural disasters on themselves?’  No, I don’t think that would be helpful to say at all.  If that is the case Hollywood should have been hit with the ‘big one’ a long time ago.  I prefer the way Billy Graham’s daughter Anne Graham Lotz put it after 9/11 when she was  asked where God was in all of it.  She graciously responded;

“I would say also for several years now Americans in a sense have shaken their fist at God and said, God, we want you out of our schools, our government, our business, we want you out of our marketplace. And God, who is a gentleman, has just quietly backed out of our national and political life, our public life. Removing his hand of blessing and protection. We need to turn to God first of all and say, God, we’re sorry we have treated you this way and we invite you now to come into our national life.”

Lotz was correct.  That is exactly what the scripture requires.  “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” Abraham Lincoln put it another way.  “I fear for my nation when I remember that God is just.” Yup, me too.

Anthropologists agree that all the people of the earth have a common ancestry, there are many signs that point towards it.  They of course believe that it took 10′s of 1,000′s of years.  The people in Siberia Russia look suspiciously like the Inuit of Northern Canada. Was there a land bridge at one time across the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska? The scientific explanations end here as there is almost no way to explain how there just happens to be indigenous peoples on every inhabitable body of land on the planet.  The Samoan islands had people on them when the Europeans arrived and the islands sit in the middle of the Pacific Ocean 5,000 miles from any continent.  God on the other hand can put people wherever he wants.  He’s God after all.

The other fascinating thing about the story of Babel is that the evidence still exists today.   There are over 30 Ziggurat towers in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq and Iran) where Genesis 11 originally took place.  Is one of these the remnants of Babel?

The one near modern Babylon (Babel) Iraq was partially restored by Saddam Hussein in the 1980′s.

What is intriguing to me is that the basic shape of these towers can be found again and again throughout history in places far and away from Mesopotamia.  Egypt has 100′s of ‘towers to heaven’ that today we call pyramids.

Central America has them as well.  Built by the Mayans and Aztecs they were man-made attempts to get closer to heaven in order to seek the favour of the gods, often with human sacrifices.  Notice the ziggurat like stairways on this one at Chichen Itza which was built around 600 BC.  Located on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico it is about as far away as you can get from Mesopotamia.

God never claimed He was going to be able to stop man from attempting to build a stairway to heaven.  By confounding their speech all He did was slow them down.  Every time a people become strong and significant throughout history they seem to want to build a tower to heaven and make a name for themselves.  New York City comes to mind.

Or how about the insanely tall Burj Dubai?  It is more than twice the height of the Empire State building.

Check out this graph below and then try to tell me that man has ever stopped his obsession with the stairway to heaven.

The buildings are one thing but it is the spirit behind them that is more important… man’s belief that he can get to heaven without God.  Today we often refer to it as ‘secular humanism.’ The belief that man is the center of the universe and has no need of God.  It is the epitome of human arrogance.

My favorite example has to be the European Union.  They haven’t even attempted to be the least bit subtle and yet almost no one took notice.  In 1993 12 European countries, concerned that they were having trouble competing on a global scale, came together and established a common economy and currency – the Euro.  Today that number is 27 with 4 more waiting to become members.  The borders between these countries are open and you can travel between them without a passport.  They now have built a common European Parliament building in Strasbourg France.  Check it out.

If it looks strangely unfinished, that is not an accident.  It is modeled after the AD 1563 painting of the Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel.

Just for fun… a little Photoshop work and this is what you get.

So is the spirit of the Tower of Babel still alive and well today?  You be the judge.

I cannot ignore the irony that just prior to Valentine’s Day our House of Commons, in its infinite wisdom, has chosen to pass a law to amend the human rights code to extend special protection to trans-gendered individuals.  In case you are not sure what that term means, it is people who being unhappy with the gender of their birth, have undergone a process of one sort or another to change their gender.  If Bill C-389, a private members bill sponsored by NDP MP Bill Siksay clears the Senate, ‘transgender’ will now be listed alongside other basic human characteristics such as race, religion, gender, age etc.  Let me be clear that I believe every Canadian should be treated with equal dignity and respect.  No person EVER should be subjected to hate crimes, violence or derision.  That is not the issue here.  The issue is; what are the consequences when we as a society start normalizing unnatural behaviour?  Make no mistake about it, there is nothing natural about a sex change!  It has only become even possible in the last few years as the result of extreme surgery and ongoing hormone therapy.

Critics of Bill C- 389 have dubbed it the ‘bathroom bill’ because it will give trans-gendered individuals access to gender specific washrooms or change rooms.  They have posed the legitimate concern about having trans-gendered former males in a girls locker room. (Or gay women/men in the boys locker room for that matter).  This is not a hypothetical possibility but a very real concern in a world already marred by epidemic levels of sexual abuse, child pornography and the like.

Then there is the fact that school sex education programs will have to promote an even broader description of ‘gender identity’ to include heterosexuality, homosexuality and trans-gendered sexuality.  Children as early as kindergarten may be introduced to these concepts as schools struggle to make concessions for an ever-changing definition of the family.  What is the right age to start suggesting to our little children that perhaps God made a mistake with their gender and they should start saving their allowance for a sex change?

I am sorry, but we as the world’s most ‘tolerant’ nation have gone mad!  We have been leading the world in this ill-conceived rush to make deviant sexuality normal.  We were one of the first nations to legalize same-sex marriage and now we are leading the way again. KEY

Most Canadians aren’t even aware what is happening right under their noses.   The media has largely ignored this with a yawn as Canada takes a run at becoming the world’s most perverse nation.   What is the next level of ‘sexual orientation’ that Canada will legalize?  Bigamy?  Bestiality?  Pedophilia? The big argument of course is that gays, lesbians and trans-gender are born that way and there is nothing they can do about their orientation.  This is a world class, universally accepted lie.  In 1973 Psychiatrist Dr Robert L Spitzer was instrumental in de-listing homosexuality as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association.  However in 1999 this same doctor conducted a study into whether it was possible to change one’s sexual orientation.  To his surprise he discovered that 67% of those that went through reorientation therapy were able to completely convert from homosexuality to heterosexuality.  His conclusion was; “Contrary to conventioned wisdom, some highly motivated individuals, using a variety of change efforts, can make substantial change in multiple indicators of sexual orientation, and achieve good heterosexual functioning…. mental health professionals should stop moving in the direction of banning therapy that has, as a goal, a change in sexual orientation. Many patients, provided with informed consent about the possibility that they will be disappointed if the therapy does not succeed, can make a rational choice to work toward developing their heterosexual potential and minimizing their unwanted homosexual attractions.” Not coincidentally, those in his study that found success were almost all as a result of faith based programs.  Here are a couple of links to his findings:

http://www.narth.com/docs/spitzer3.html

http://www.narth.com/docs/evidencefound.html

In 1895 when Oscar Wilde was on trial for sodomy he referred to the love of an older man for a younger man as ‘the love that dare not speak its name’.  He mentioned its name and was convicted, spending 2 years in prison under hard labour.  Today, the love that dare not speak its name is the love God and his people have for gays and lesbians. Unfortunately, our message has been misunderstood or miscommunicated and as a result the church has grown conspicuously silent on this issue.  The reason is simple; it is for fear of being branded; homophobes, intolerant, hatemongers, bigots… or worse yet landing them in prison.  Unless something changes, that day is coming.  Don’t forget to visit me.

We get this bum rap, that if we oppose same-sex marriage or the homosexual lifestyle, then we hate the individuals.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  On the contrary we love them enough to tell them that what they are doing is sinful and that God has a better life for them.  And for the record, we are not singling out homosexuality alone, since on the sexual ledger, the list should include adultery, pornography, divorce and remarriage, pre-marital sex, lustful thoughts… did I miss any of you?   The scripture teaches, that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and… that there are none righteous, no not one.

Romans 5:8 provides the solution; But God demonstrates His own LOVE toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Far from hate, it is actually loving people enough to be unwilling to leave them in a sinful and lost state.   For me, that is the love that dare not speak its name, but needs to.

We were in Egypt 4 years ago as part of our 25th wedding anniversary gift to ourselves.  It was for me the trip of a lifetime.  As a history buff, being up close and personal with 4500 years of history was a dream come.   But there was another side of Egypt that was as impossible to miss as the pyramids… the majority of people live in a constant state of mid-grade poverty and a high-grade oppression.  Meanwhile their president, Hosni Mubarak, lives in palatial elegance, more like a modern day Egyptian pharaoh, than a political leader. Egypt has two major industries; tourism and the Suez Canal.  Incredibly, the proceeds from the Suez Canal go directly to Mubarak to do with whatever he pleases.  His personal fortune is estimated at over $40 billion and it is carefully kept in offshore banks all over the world. He has been in power for 30 years, controls the media and bans all political opposition. The elections are a farce as he is the only name on the ballot. He is a corrupt dictator who is known to use torture and police brutality to maintain his despotic rule.

While we were there we visited what they euphemistically call a ‘Carpet School’.  This is where young children from poor families go to learn a trade.  The trade is hooking carpets. They work 12 hours a day, six days a week and get paid a dollar a day.  When I asked the owner where the children go to class to learn to read and write he looked at me like I was crazy.  ”We teach them a trade so they don’t end up on the street,” he defensively responded.  The carpet schools are nothing more than state sponsored child labour factories. This boy showed me what they do all day.  I was horrible at it and he had to undo my whole row and redo it.  I slipped him a dollar when the boss wasn’t looking.

At the moment Mubarak has cut off internet and cell phone service to the entire nation.  He has little regard for the actual people of Egypt and his selfish greed has prevented the nation from moving forward in democracy and prosperity.  When we were there I kept asking people what they thought of him and to my surprise they all liked him.  When I asked about the incredible wealth from the Suez Canal going into his pocket they would say that he deserved it for doing a good job of running the country.  It was perplexing to me at the time because it seemed so obviously out of whack.  So when people have been asking me in the last few days what I think of the situation in Egypt, my response is; It’s about time!

What many Westerners are just finding out now is that Mubarak is in power at least in part due to US foreign policy.  Egypt has been a huge American ally in the Arab world for these past 3 decades.   Mubarak’s ‘dictatorship’ has been propped up to the tune of a billion dollars a year in US foreign aid.  The US has a very long track record of picking losers – the Shah of Iran, Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Augusto Pinochet of Chili to name a few… or for that matter Saddam Hussein in Iraq before his invasion of Kuwait and the Taliban before the US invasion of Afghanistan.  I could go on and on but then I would be accused of anti-American sentiment and that is not at all my point.  My point is the world is full of tyrants and we have got to stop supporting them just because it benefits us economically or politically.

Anytime true democracy surfaces in the world it almost always affords an opportunity for the gospel to follow.  We are having a particularly hard time in the Arab world.  We have a billion Arabs that still need to hear about Jesus and we are barely scratching the surface. In most of these nations it is not even legal to preach the gospel.  We have a missionary working in Cairo right now but he has to do so under the radar.   Andrew has been quietly labouring there for years in a city of 8 million people who are 80% Muslim.  He has an insurmountable task ahead of him but he is faithfully reaching one life at a time.

The situation could go one of two ways in Egypt.  We could see a powerful democratic revolution that would be good for the gospel, or an Islamic fundamentalism that swells up to fill the political vacuum, which I think would hurt our cause even more.  One thing is for sure, Mubarak is toast, and hopefully we have seen Egypt’s last pharaoh.

George Barna is a Christian researcher and does for the church what George Gallup used to do for the secular world.  He polls random samples of people and analyses the data to reveal abiding cultural trends.  Every year Berna publishes his megathemes from the previous year’s data.  This is what Barna claims is happening in the church today.

1. The Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate.

2. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented.

3. Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life.

4. Among Christians, interest in participating in community action is escalating.

5. The postmodern insistence on tolerance is winning over the Christian Church.

6. The influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives is largely invisible.

There is little here to get excited about as even point 4 is more about community involvement because it is socially esteemed behavior, rather than being a passion rising out of a commitment to Christ’s Kingdom.  The more disturbing trend is the dumbing down of the church.  Many Christian people just do not know their bibles.  They are ignorant of the enduring stories of scripture and their deeper meanings… not unlike the teenager in my opening story.  Pastors feel the pressure to bring practical and relevant teachings to help their people cope with a world where everything from relationships to technology has become more complicated.  Which, in of itself, is not a bad thing.  However, as they are busy putting decorative little band-aids on the their member’s spiritual booboos, the church is sinking lower and lower into biblical illiteracy.  The pastor is well aware that if on the other hand he wades into deeper theological waters, his people will walk across the street to the church where the pastor is ‘relevant and culturally hip’.

I don’t get to watch many televangelists on TV because I am usually too busy being one of them.  To be honest, when I do tune in I am often appalled by the glaring lack of substance…. no mention of sin, repentance, commitment, sacrifice, service, honour, heroism, etc.  The word ‘sin’ has become so unpopular that many well known preachers have stopped using it altogether.  The pastor of North America’s largest church was on Larry King Live one night.

KING: How about issues that the church has feelings about? Abortion? Same-sex marriages?

PREACHER: Yeah. You know what, Larry? I don’t go there. I just …

KING: You have thoughts, though.

PREACHER: I have thoughts. I just, you know, I don’t think that a same-sex marriage is the way God intended it to be. I don’t think abortion is the best. I think there are other, you know, a better way to live your life. But I’m not going to condemn those people. I tell them all the time our church is open for everybody.

KING: You don’t call them sinners?

PREACHER: I don’t.

KING: Is that a word you don’t use?

PREACHER: I don’t use it. I never thought about it. But I probably don’t. But most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change. There can be a difference in your life. So I don’t go down the road of condemning.

Hmmm… the pastor of North America’s largest church and he doesn’t use the word ‘sinner’ or ‘sin’ and has never really thought about it! The bible uses the word directly 830 times and indirectly 1000’s more.  Is it any wonder the church in North America is losing ground to secularism at an alarming rate?  It is virtually impossible to convince people that they are in need of a Saviour if they cannot first see that they have a problem.  The universal problem is sin.  Always has been, always will be.  How long can we continue to feed on message after message of;  ’Your best YOU now‘, or ‘You can be your best YOU now‘ or “more of being your best YOU now‘?   I know, when I write my book I’m going to call it; “Get all you can, can all you get, and sit on the can.”

When our message becomes; ‘it is all about YOU‘ we are in big trouble.  That is really what Barna is seeing in his megatrends.   For the record, it is not all about ‘you’, it is all about ‘Jesus’.  The less we know about Jesus, the less we live for Him and like Him.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.  2 Timothy 4:3-4

In the interests of full disclosure I get lots of complaints that my messages are too light and fluffy as well.  And compared to the likes of Jonathon Edward’s ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, they have got a point.  But what I do try to do is combine the powerful biblical narratives with the timeless practical applications that can be and should be found within these great stories of scripture.

Oh, one other thing here before we start pointing too many fingers.  Is it the pastor’s job alone to create a biblically literate church?  Do we not have some level of responsibility to feed ourselves.  Only babies need to be spoon-fed everything they eat.  I like to remind our church that if they only spiritual meal they eat is the Sunday morning brunch… they are going to starve to death.  That is by far the bigger cause of the sorry condition of the North American church.  We consume 20 million greasy fast food hamburgers every day in North America.  If we would start devouring the Word of God with the same passion, George Barna’s analysis would look completely different.

It took Noah 100 years to build the ark.  It was 515′ long and needed to accommodate some 31,000 species plus all the millions of types of insects.  The way I figure it they probably fended for themselves.  I’ve never seen an insect yet that didn’t know how to find its own food.  At 3 stories high the ark mathematically could have housed all those animals. Ironically as the first in history, it was also the largest wooden ship ever constructed.

The fascination with the ark has never diminished.  There are numerous theme parks around the world where you can wander through scale models of the ark and see pens full of live animals.  The most incredible model is in Hong Kong harbour.  Built by the Kwok brothers, it is actually full size.  These billionaire Christian businessmen spared no expense to make this model as authentic as possible.

Still, most people regard the story of Noah’s ark as a mere fairy tale.  How could the whole earth be covered with water by 40 days of rain?  The answer is; it couldn’t.  That is not exactly how it happened.  In Genesis 1:6 it says; “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” In Genesis 2:6 it says that in those days it did not rain but “a mist came up and watered the ground.” Prior to Noah’s flood, it had never rained.  Many scholars believe the earth was covered by a moisture canopy.  Protecting the planet from the sun’s UV rays perhaps this was the reason the inhabitants could live to 800 and 900 years old.  When the rain began Genesis 7:11 describes it this way;  “on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.  And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.” The waters came from above and below.  The canopy that covered the earth came down and waters kept rising until they covered the earth.  Although many scientists will not agree, it does explain why you can find marine fossils on mountain tops.

Unfortunately few people are aware that there is significant evidence that the ark still exists. Every few years a new group claims they have found the ark.  The most compelling is the site near Durupinar, Turkey.  In 1959 an aerial mapping of the Ararat mountains (where the bible said the ark came to rest) produced this photo.

Travelling to the site, ark hunters could not have been more elated by what they discovered.

Investigation teams using some sort of rudimentary ground penetrating radar supposedly discovered a pattern that ran uniformly throughout the boat shaped outcropping, which incidently is exactly 515′ long.

The apparent ribs stick out in a way that makes it hard to imagine that it is anything other than a boat.

A few miles away anchor stones were discovered.  Though not mentioned in the scripture they have been used for centuries to stabilize ships in storms.  To the skeptics you need to ask the question; what are anchor stones doing in the Ararat mountains?  (Their answer is that they are an ancient type of tomb stone.  Hard to know for sure!)

ABC’s 20/20 sent a team to Turkey to investigate the claims and both Walter Cronkite and Barbara Walters reported on it. The Turkish government originally declared the find Noah’s ark and made the site a national park.  Apparently, the visitor center is no longer operating. If I ever make it to Turkey I will make the day long bus trip and find out for myself.

So there you have it.  Draw your own conclusions.  The more important question of course is why God did this incredible and catastrophic deed.  For the surprising answer, don’t miss Part 3 of Wonders of the Word – The Perfect Storm coming to a TV near you.

Millions, mostly women, tune in everyday to see what her and her gang are up to.  She will often have interesting guests and fascinating human interest stories. She doles out practical down home advice that often makes sense and she genuinely seems to care about her viewers.  So what’s not to like?  Well for starters, for someone so influential it is distressing that she lives unapologetically out of wedlock with her long time companion Stedman.  I consider it a terrible example for someone who is clearly a role model for millions.  However my biggest beef with Oprah is her spirituality.  In many ways she is the postmodern priestess of church-free spirituality.  Though she claims to be a Christian (I believe to appeal to her middle America core) there is really nothing Christian about her belief system.  She is deeply entrenched in New Age philosophy.  Oprah sponsored a Course in Miracles by New Age author Marianne Williamson on her satellite radio program and then a 10 week webcast with New Age author Eckhart Tolle who wrote a book entitled: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.  Both books are chocked full of dangerous and unbiblical teachings that essentially declare that God can be whatever you want he/she/it to be.

Here is Oprah’s explanation of what Christ came to earth to do; “Jesus, came to show us Christ-consciousness…Jesus came to show us the way of the heart…Jesus came to say, ‘Look I’m going to live in the body, in the human body and I’m going to show you how it’s done.’ These are some principles and some laws that you can use to live by to know that way.  I don’t believe that Jesus came to start Christianity.  What Jesus said is much deeper than what you… how the church interprets it. There’s a depth to it. And it reflects your own depth when you read it (A New Earth).  So there’s no conflict between this teaching, which is purely spiritual, and any religion.” Understand this; she does not believe that Christ came to die for our sins or that there really is any such thing as sin.  She also believes that there are many many different ways to get to God… which of course is defined as an ‘inner consciousness’ not as a Creator.

The other week I came into the house after work and there on the TV was Oprah’s big Christmas give away show ‘My Favorite Things’.  I had heard about the fact that every Christmas she gives each member of her studio audience 10′s of $1000 worth of gifts but I had never seen it.  Honestly, I was dumbstruck.  As she pulled out watches and jewelry and purses and shoes and cameras and finally a 2012 VW beetle the crowd went into an absolute pathological froth.  Notwithstanding her generosity, which I understand is all donated by her advertisers, I felt it brought out the very worst in these people.  It was a giant gob-fest of greed and consumerism that left me sad and dismayed.  It was everything that is ‘wrong’ with modern Christmas.   If you missed it, have a look here and decide for yourself.

Oprah ends the program by saying “It is all about hope, believing something magical can happen when you least expect it.  Happy holidays everybody.”  No mention of Christmas and no mention of Christ.  This is not a jealousy rant because I can’t afford to outdo her and give away Hummers on my show.  I am concerned with how easy it is to miss the point. Oprah’s give away show is really just a reflection of modern Christmas.  It holds up to our culture one of those carnival fun house mirrors that makes everything look out of proportion.  Most of our Christmases look something like Oprah’s… just on a much smaller scale.

Oh, I am a big believer in giving during Christmas.  We give our kids smallish gifts, mostly practical but also something fun in the mix.  More importantly we should be looking for meaningful gifts to give away during Christmas.  Gifts of true value…  love, friendship, kindness, goodness.  I have a friend who takes his family to the homeless shelter Christmas day to feed the poor.  I need to wrap this blog up here as I am heading down to the Red Cross to give blood in half an hour.  The greatest gift of all, of course, is not the one we give, but the one we receive.  For God so LOVED the world that He GAVE His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe on Him would not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).   Remember… Jesus is the reason for the season and wise men still seek him today.  From our house to yours, Merry Christmas everyone.

Speaking of saggy skin, Church of the Rock is now in High Definition.  HDTV is very unforgiving.  It shows every wrinkle, pimple and misplaced hair.  When I saw my wrinkled up face on HD for the first time I thought, “Wow, Mother Teresa and I finally have something in common.”

We have been working towards going HD for the last few years.  Virtually every single piece of television equipment we own is now obsolete.  The cost of switching over to HD has been in the 100′s of $1000′s.  But we started putting the funds together several years ago, so that when the inevitable came, we would be able to make the transition without having to borrow any money… which we didn’t.  Incidentally, I think every television ministry should live within their means.

Some of our more discerning viewers may have recognized that as of last Sunday Church of the Rock was in High Definition.  If you were watching on a standard definition channel you would have recognized the change by the fact that the picture will appear in a 16 x 9 aspect ratio letterbox.  The picture itself will not have been much of an improvement.  To watch in High Definition you will need to head to the HD channels on your dial.  They are usually in the upper ranks of 200′s or 500′s etc.  Here’s where you will find us in HD so far:

In the Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton we are on channel 214 with Shaw and 613 and 614 on Telus.

In the Toronto area we are on channels 519 and 583 with Rogers and 1214 and 1253 with Bell Fibe.

Some of the HD stations are from other time zones across Canada so don’t forget to check your local listings because you can often find the show running at a different times in your area depending on what city it is coming out of.  There may also be several other channel numbers as well that we are not yet aware.

Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec and the Maritimes are due to come on line with HD sometime in the new year.  If you have Satellite TV there are dozens of different channels and time slots where you can find us.  I have had letters from viewers that say they watch us morning, noon and night on satellite.  I guess those poor folks don’t get out much.

I spent some time reading the Hansard record of the debate on the bill.  It was disturbing that the biggest objection was that many resented having to debate the abortion question and felt it was a closed matter that should never be discussed again.  Even Prime Minister Harper, who attends a bible believing church, says he will not support the bill because he refuses to entertain any attempt to re-open the debate.  What ever happened to freedom of speech and the open exchange of ideas?  The debate NEEDS to be re-opened because at the moment we have no abortion laws whatsoever.  Most thinking people, even non-christians or pro-abortionists, should realize there needs to be some limits on abortion.

In Canada it is legal to abort a baby at 8 months and 29 days of gestation.  As long as that baby is not out of the womb it’s very life is at risk.  It is an unconscionable legal state for a nation to be in and it needs be addressed legislatively sooner rather than later.  Rod’s bill is a responsible first step that should be supported even by the pro-abortionists if they really have any concern for women’s health, which they have argued all along is what motivates them. Unfortunately they are really a murderous lot that believe there is no cost too high to avoid being ‘inconvenienced‘ by an unwanted pregnancy.  Their short-sightedness sets the stage for a scenario where one day our nation could legalize euthanasia of the old and feeble who have become an ‘inconvenience’ to society… and guess what?  They will be the old and feeble.

An update on Birth or Not.  ( A CRUEL HOAX )

The ‘happy’ couple are going to keep the baby.  Personally I regard them as amongst the most irresponsible and despicable parents on the planet and they should have the baby taken away and given to a couple that actually respects human life.  It turned out that most of the votes to have an abortion were fraudulent and 74% of the people that actually voted honestly believed that life was worth preserving.  Maybe there is hope for us yet!

Total votes: 278084
Give Birth: 73.79%      (205,189 votes)
Have an Abortion: 26.21%  (72,895 votes)

This is quite the change from the original vote numbers:

Give Birth 22.37% (448,777 votes)
243,588 Fraudulent votes

Have an Abortion 77.63% (1,557,586 votes)

1,484,691 Fraudulent votes

Christopher Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer just as his new book hit the store bookshelves.  This is an aggressive cancer that is almost always fatal.  Hitchens has resigned to the fact that he is probably not going to make it.  He has told people that want to pray for him; “Don’t, unless it makes YOU feel better!”  He has made it clear that under no circumstances is he going to change his mind about God.  He told CNN that if there are rumors of a deathbed conversion we are not to believe it as it is the drugs or delirium talking.  I don’t think he should flatter himself.  I’m not sure there are too many praying for Hitchens anyway.  Although he does have one committed prayer partner… his brother. Peter Hitchens, who also for years was himself an atheist, today is an ardent defender of the faith saying; “If you drive God out of the world then you create a harrowing wilderness.

More vindictive Christians are rejoicing in his ill health calling it the judgement of God. Hitchens, on the other hand, readily admits that it is a consequence of years of heavy smoking and drinking.  It is hard to like Mr. Hitchens.  He is one of the most mean-spirited and vitriolic people you will ever hear.  After the death of Rev. Jerry Falwell, he was asked if Falwell would now be in heaven.  This is what he said:

I think it’s a pity there isn’t a hell for him to go to. The empty life of this ugly little charlatan proves only one thing: that you can get away with the most extraordinary offenses to morality and to truth in this country if you’ll just get yourself called Reverend. Who would, even at your network, have invited on such a little toad to tell us that the attacks of September 11th were the result of our sinfulness and were God’s punishment if they hadn’t got some kind of clerical qualification. People like that should be out in the street, shouting and hollering with a cardboard sign and selling pencils from a cup. The whole consideration of this horrible little person is offensive to very, very many of us who have some regard for truth and for morality and who think that ethics do not require that lies be told to children by evil old men, that we’re not told that people who believe like Falwell will be snatched up into heaven – I’m glad to see he skipped the rapture and was found on the floor of his office – while the rest of us go to hell. How dare they talk to children like this, how dare they raise money from credulous people on their huckster-like Elmer Gantry radio stations and fly around in private jets as he did, giggling and snickering all the time at what he was getting away with?…the fact is that the country suffers to a considerable extent from paying too much by way of compliment to anyone who can describe themselves as a person of faith – Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard: Chaucerian frauds, people who are simply pickpockets and frauds who prey on the gullible…He woke up every morning, as I say, pinching his chubby little flanks and thinking “I’ve got away with it again!”…I think he was a conscious charlatan and bully and fraud and I think if he read the Bible at all – and I would doubt whether he could actually read any long book at all – that he did so only in the most hucksterish, as we say, Bible-pounding way.  Lots of people are going to die and are already leading miserable lives because of the nonsense preached by this man.”

Needless to say he wasn’t asked to speak at the funeral.

His attacks on religious figures knew no bounds.  He was the only witness to intervene against Mother Teresa’s beatification and canonization hearings at the Vatican.  Speaking later on national TV he said, “The woman was a fanatic and a fundamentalist and a fraud, and millions of people are much worse off because of her life, and it’s a shame there is no hell for your bitch to go to.” Yikes!  Well, at least he’s not bitter!

One has to wonder what fills a man with such hatred towards someone who gave her entire life to serving the poorest of poor.  One clue has to do with his own mother.  She had an affair with a psychotic defrocked Anglican priest that ended in a joint suicide pact in a hotel room in Athens.  That has got to mess with a young man’s head.

Last week Christopher Hitchens debated former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Toronto.  The question was; Is religion a force for peace or conflict in the modern world? Three years ago Blair made the surprising announcement that he had converted to Catholicism from a life long Anglican faith.  He has now become an outspoken proponent of the need for faith in the world.  I watched the debate and it was a good one. No one threw any knockout punch but the crowd voted 2 to 1 in favour of Hitchens.  But it wasn’t  really an even match up.  Hitchens is an intellectual with a million dollar vocabulary and a lifetime of perfecting his arguments while Blair was handicapped by the long-winded rambling style of a politician.  Nevertheless he spoke with passion and conviction and clearly held his own.

Instead of feeling disgust for Hitchens I find myself feeling very sorry for him.  Many believe this will be his last debate and that he is not likely to survive 2011.  The apostle Paul said, “If there is no resurrection… we are the most pitiable of all men.” Christopher Hitchens is certainly in a Catch 22 scenario.  If he recants and repents, he turns his back on everything he ever espoused.  If he doesn’t, he is assured of eternal damnation.  He’s damned if he does, and DAMNED if he don’t.  He’s all dressed up with no place to go.

What sets Pete and Alicia’s site apart is that they have invited readers to vote online as to whether they are going to abort their baby or not.  Yes, you read that right!  They have emphatically claimed from the start of the pregnancy that they will let the vote count alone determine whether they keep and raise the child, or whether they murder their own unborn child.  They have set December 5th 2010 as the decision date since that is just prior to the 20 week window for a legal abortion in Minnesota.  It is incredibly unbelievable considering that they have reported that the baby is wiggling and kicking and has already been identified as a boy!  When I first saw the site I thought it was either some sort of cruel hoax to stir the abortion debate, or perhaps the most irresponsible thing I have ever seen from a set of perspective parents.  What has the opinion of a bunch of random strangers on the Internet got to do with whether you should have your own baby or murder it?

My more carnal side immediately started thinking about starting an alternative site where we could vote on whether we should somehow abort the lives of Pete and Alicia.  People could vote, donate a dollar or two, and then with the money we could hire a hit-man and bump the couple off.  It seems like a reasonable response to me and it is biblical to boot… Exodus 21:22+23 …check it out.  On the other hand, it may be too vindictive and Old Testament for most.  (Note for those that don’t understand sarcasm:  I am clearly joking. I am obviously taking a swipe at the absurdity of letting strangers decide online whether a human should live or die, and was applying the same sick logic back to Pete and Alicia.
A joke is rarely funny if you have to explain it.  I am not going to start a website called You Twit Face either.) In fact, 100′s of more noble people than me have already written and offered to adopt the child, begging the couple not to abort it.

As of this writing 1.5 million people have already voted with 75% saying; ABORT.  What kind of sick people are these?  Have we been transported back to the time of the Rome Colosseum where the spectators call for the death of the gladiators, only instead of warriors the participants are tiny, unborn, defenseless children?  I’m sorry, but this just angers me and completely sours any faith I might have had in humanity.  Now, understand that at this stage of the game, the pro-abortion lobby has gotten into the act and is influencing the outcome of the vote with the use of internet voting-bots.  But even before that happened, over 50% were calling for them to abort.

The latest development in this story is that Pete is claiming that the whole thing was a stunt to reopen the abortion debate.  Apparently he has pro-life leanings and has wanted the baby from the beginning.  His wife Alicia however, is still posting that that is not true and she had every intention of following through with the abortion if that was how the vote went.  Although she now sounds like she might be planning on having the baby, she is still contending that until the fetus can survive on its own outside the womb it is not a viable human being.  That is the stupidest argument ever for abortion!  For those of us that have already had children, we know they cannot survive outside the womb till they are about… 29 YEARS old!   Seriously though, even once a baby is born, it cannot survive without constant parental care for months if not years.  I would argue that once a baby is outside the womb, in many ways it is far more dependent upon the parents for survival.

I will watch this sickening saga south of the border with disgust, but I can only hope it is nothing more than a cruel hoax.  Meanwhile on this side of the border we have a tremendous story of political heroism on the same subject.  Rod Bruinooge who is the Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South, and a member of our church, has launched a bold and courageous fight in the House of Commons.   Rod has been an outspoken voice for the unborn ever since he was elected in 2004.  He even turned down an opportunity to work with Native Affairs (his nationality) to chair an all party Pro-Life Caucus whose goal is to work for the protection of the unborn.  Rod has laid his political career on the line for this controversial and often unpopular cause.  He has repeatedly stated that, “Unborn children have less legal value in Canada than a human kidney.” In a letter he submitted to the National Post, he made this statement: “I have no choice but to advocate for the unborn and seek to have their value restored in my Canada. Our collective future depends on it.” I have great respect for Rod Bruinooge and regardless of your political leanings, so should you.  I see him not unlike William Wilberforce who dedicated his entire political career to fight for the end of human slavery in England.  It took him 39 years and cost him any political ambitions that he may have had, but in the end he won the battle, hearing only on his death bed that the English Parliament had banned slavery.

In the political life of a backbencher, they might have one shot at introducing a private members bill into the legislative agenda.  For Rod’s opportunity he has sponsored a bill he is calling Roxanna’s Law.  Roxanna Fernando was a young Winnipeg woman who got pregnant.  When she told her boyfriend Nathanael Plourde she was expecting he tried to coerce her into having an abortion.  When she refused after several attempts, he took her out for Valentine’s Day and then later beat her 20 times with a wrench.  He bound her with tape and threw her into his trunk.  Then he and a friend drove her to the edge of the city and beat her to death with hockey sticks before leaving her bloodied, lifeless pregnant body in the snow bank.

The pair were convicted and received life sentences but that does little to change the fact that it is not only the unborn that are at risk in Canada, but often their mothers.  Roxanne’s Law would change all that making it illegal to even try to coerce a woman into having an abortion.  Rod knows that he is swimming upstream with this bill, but he also knows that it is a fight that could be won if the grass roots gets behind it.  Rod has an excellent website dedicated to the bill. http://www.roxanneslaw.ca/ Please visit it and more importantly sign the petition in support of the bill.  You can even print the petition off from the website and circulate it around amongst your church and friends.  This is a battle worth fighting. Let’s help Rod win this one.  I believe we can do it if we work together, and it could become the first victory in a battle that we have been losing for way too long.

What was really fascinating, for a movie coming out of Hollywood, was the notion that the educated few that remained in this chaotic world knew that the only real hope for mankind was the teachings of the bible.  The mix of violence and religiosity was a bit off-putting at first but it accomplished it’s goal.  It got me thinking about what the world would look like without the bible.  It would no doubt be a sorry place indeed.  Worse yet, we are already going down that path.

Last night I was listening to Michael Moore on Larry King say that those who oppose gay marriage are on the wrong side of the cultural momentum and it is just a matter of time before the issue is resolved the other way.  Unfortunately, he is 100% right.

The fact is most Christians let their bibles sit on the shelf all week long while they listen to the likes of Michael Moore, Larry King, Ellen Degeneres, Bill Maher, Oprah and Whoopi Goldberg.   Abraham Lincoln once said of the bible, “This Book is the greatest gift that God has given to man, without it we would not know right from wrong.” Truer words have never been spoken.  We are completely lost without it.  We so quickly take on the bankrupt values of our world.

Our culture is experiencing what I would call moral entropy.  Entropy is the second law of thermodynamics which states that in a closed system everything will move from a state of order to disorder.  Much like if you drop an ice cream cone on the sidewalk on a hot day it will take on a simpler and less ordered state.  It will never evolve into a higher more appetizing form.  Only with outside influences can something move from a chaotic state to an ordered one.   In Genesis 1 the earth was without form and void and God said, “Let there be light”.  God invaded the the disorder of the universe and brought structure and order.

With the decline of religion and the lessening of the church’s influence, our world is suffering from moral entropy.  Rampant divorce and remarriage, common law marriages, epidemic internet pornography use, legalized abortion and gay marriage, are all just symptoms of a greater problem.

In the Book of Eli evil-doers tried to eradicate every bible on the planet.  They knew that by doing so the world would degenerate into a chaotic cesspool that could be ruled by violence and despotism.   This is not merely the stuff of science fiction.   In the 18th century French atheist and philosopher Voltaire who, destroyed the faith of many people, boasted that within 100 years of his death, the Bible would disappear from the face of the earth. Voltaire died in 1778.  Fifty years after his death the Geneva Bible Society purchased the historic home of Voltaire and used his printing presses to print thousands of Bibles.   Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will  pass away but my word will never pass away.”

The Good news is that God watches over His word.  If we were somehow down to our last copy of the bible, God would preserve it and it would make a come back with such force that whatever moral decline that had taken place would be reversed in a staggering display of  His providence.  God will once again look down and say, “Let there be light.” We have seen it in our own day in China.  During the Cultural Revolution of 1949 Mao Tse Tung expelled all missionaries, imprisoned all pastors and burned every known bible.   The underground church guarded their remaining bibles with their very lives. They carefully separated out the pages and let believers share them one page at a time.  They devoured what the scripture said and instead of the church disappearing it has grown from 50-75 thousand to 50-70 million believers.  The church today is growing faster in China than any other nation on earth.

I am an optimist.  I see great hope for our world, but it all depends on Christian people beginning to live like our bible is the last copy left in the world and, that the future of the human race depends on it… because it does!

The story was set in the fictional town of Ashton and unfolded as a tale of how demons were trying to run angels out of town so that new age philosophies could be introduced into the local college. Despite the book’s inadequacies it accomplished the task of opening the eyes of Christians to the powers of darkness that lurk beneath the surface of our present age.  I am certainly not one for looking for demons under every rock, but the bigger problem today is that many fail to see them anywhere.  French poet Charles Pierre Baudelaire once said, “The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he doesn’t exist?”

I really don’t want to re-open the Halloween debate but my biggest frustration is with Christian parents that cannot see how dressing our kids as ninjas and letting them go door to door could possibly be anything other than adorable.  Is it possible that we could be sowing the seeds in our children that there is nothing wrong with a little entry level paganism?  Look at how Harry Potter introduced an entire generation to soft core sorcery.   At some level do we start to sanitize witchcraft and the occult at an early age so that if they are confronted with something really sinister later in life they won’t even recognize it for what it is?   The house around the corner from me was decorated like a cemetery for Halloween.  It had a skulls and ghouls and tombstones.  I am pretty sure it was not the actual gate to Hell, but it sure looked like it.  Sure, you could have your kids take a pass on that house, but that is not what happened.  It was the most visited house on the block.  It drew kids like a magnet.  The tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the Garden of Eden had the same enticing effect.  Evil is usually tantalizing, not repellent.

Let’s try to move the discussion in another direction.  My question is; at what point do we end up entertaining evil spirits through our adult amusements?  What we know from scripture is that there was a war in heaven between Lucifer and his angels and Michael and his angels. (Rev 12)  Michael defeated Lucifer and cast him and one third of the angels down to the earth… not to Hell.  These fallen angels became demons and are loose on earth.  The simple math tells us that somewhere in the cosmos there are two angels for every one demon.  When Jesus walked the earth He made no bones about the existence of evil spirits.  One quarter of His ‘healings’ actually were deliverances where He cast evil spirits out of people.  These people ranged from the wildly crazy Madman of Gadara, to people who looked like they were just sick, to children who were deaf, mute or epileptic.  This should give us pause to think that many of the things we see around us are not psychological or medical at their root but demonic.

For me an even more fascinating example is in Matthew 16.  Jesus asks the disciples who people think He is.  Peter responds, “You are the Christ the Son of the living God”. Jesus is genuinely impressed.  “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in Heaven”. Peter is pumped.  He got one right and was finally tracking with the Master.   Six verses later, count em six, Peter rejects Jesus plan to suffer and go to the cross.  “But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matt 16:23).  Ouch!  One minute he was hearing from God and the next he was hearing the voice of  Satan himself.

What we learn from this story is how easily demons can influence our thinking, words and actions.  If Frank Peretti over-emphasized the role of demons in our world, most Christians have under-emphasized it.  The bible refers to the day we live as “this present evil age”.  No, it is not all evil, but because evil spirits are still loose in the earth, any time we entertain them we invite them to bring mayhem into our lives.

Anyone who has travelled the third world quickly becomes aware of the resident evil that holds these cultures in bondage.  Hindu India is under an intense spiritual bondage that effects almost every aspect of their society.  You cannot worship 330 million different gods and not invite demons to dinner.  (In reality it is not really known how many Hindu gods there are, but it is a lot.)  Unless you have actually been there in person and witnessed it you really have no basis in which to argue that what they are doing is not worshipping demons.

The animism in Africa, spiritism in Latin America or  Buddhism of Asia are all deeply rooted in the same.   The AIDS crisis in Africa has a prevailing spiritual root.  The witch doctors tell HIV positive men that the only way to be cured from the disease is to sleep with a virgin.  This immoral demonically influenced ignorance succeeds only in producing another AIDS victims.  Two million Africans die of AIDS every year leaving behind another 2.5 million new AIDS orphans.   That is the fruit of just one of the faces of evil.  I won’t even get into the tribal genocide that has been seen in many of these same countries.

If we think these same kind of doorways to the demonic do not exist in western culture you have to look no further than what is happening with internet pornography.  Pornography leads men (mostly) down a destructive path of sexual fantasy that will ensnare their lives, ruin their marriage, family, career and in the case of child pornography land them in jail.  Serial rapist/murderer Ted Bundy told Dr James Dobson that his dark murderous rampage all began with soft core pornography that lead him down the most vile of paths.  Too often we miss the important caution signs along the way.

The faces of evil that we worship in our culture look nothing like Krishna or Kali or Ganesha.  They look more like Captain Morgan (alcohol), Mary Jane (drugs), Hugh Hephner (porn), Goldman Sachs (greed), Harry Potter (sorcery), Quintin Tarantino(Hollywood immorality), Henry Morgenthaler (abortion), Ellen DeGeneres (homosexuality), Dungeons and Dragons (internet occult), Grand Theft Auto (internet violence),etc. etc. etc.  Make no mistake about it, the demon gods that hold us in bondage are no different in our culture, we just call them by different names.

I will make no bones about it, I think Christian parents who are sending their kids out for Halloween are naive and uninformed.  Whenever I bring this up, well meaning parents think I am making too much of a big deal about it and that it is just good harmless fun.  Really?

Even on the very surface it is easy to see that Halloween is clearly rooted in the occult.  It goes back to the time of the ancient Druids in England.  These were Celtic pagan nature worshippers who celebrated their most important religious festival at harvest time called Samhain.  They believed that on this night the barrier between the natural world and the supernatural was removed, and the souls of the dead were able to move freely among human beings.

In AD 835, some year after Christianity was introduced to the Celtic people, Pope Gregory IV moved the ‘Feast of All Saints’ from the spring of the year to November 1st in an attempt to supplant Samhain and break the stronghold of paganism.  The night before (Oct 31st) was know as ‘All Hallow’s Eve’ (Halloween) and was a prayer vigil.  It wasn’t long before the original pagan traditions had crept right back in and reclaimed the night as their own.  The Druids believed that on Halloween wicked souls that had died in the past year returned to their original homes. In order to free yourself from their evil influence you had to set out food and provide them with shelter for the night. If they were satisfied, it was believed they would leave you in peace. If they were not satisfied the ghosts would cast a spell on you and wreak havoc in your home.  Historically this was the basis for dressing as ghosts and goblins and going from house to house asking for a treat, lest you give them a trick.  Today the night before Halloween is called ‘Gate Night”.  Again it is a throw back to Samhain and is considered the night when the these evil spirits are released from the underworld.  Delinquent youth use it as an excuse to roam the streets causing mischief and doing acts of vandalism.  Hello!  This should not be so hard to connect the dots.

Why on earth we have allowed our little children from their earliest age to participate in this blatant celebration of evil completely escapes me. “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer. (Deut 18:10)  Apart from the fact that what we are doing is completely forbidden in scripture, there is at least one more reason to take a pass on Halloween.  When we entertain anything occultic or demonic we are giving Satan an invitation to intervene in our lives.  Eph 4:27 says, “Do not give place to the Devil”. Satan is not permitted to just run roughshod over us.  He really needs an invitation of sorts.  Jesus lived completely free of demonic interference.  On one occasion the crowd tried to kill Him and could not.  They tried to push him off a cliff… but He just walked through the crowd.  He clearly stated that no one could take His life but that He would lay his life down Himself.   Throughout His earthly walk, try as he may, the Devil could not touch Him.  Why not?  John 14:30 tells us;  “… for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.

There are all sorts of ways that we can invite evil into our lives; sin, disobedience, unforgiveness, drugs, spiritual neglect etc.  But nothing is more dangerous and damning than deliberate spiritual invocation through pagan rituals, witchcraft and the occult.  Like it or not, that is exactly what Halloween is.  It is unbelievable that an entire culture has bought into celebrating Halloween.  I will call it what it is; modern day, family-friendly, pagan witchcraft!

For the 23 years our church has been in existence we have always provided a Halloween alternative for our kids.  Some will think even that is an unacceptable compromise.  I don’t.  It is pretty hard to explain to a 6 year old that you are going to stay home with the lights off and spend the night praying, when at  the same time, all the kids from their school will be going out collecting huge bags of candy.  Instead we counter-program the night and do an indoor carnival at the church.  The kids wear wholesome costumes, play carnival games and win tons of candy.  Last year we had over 500 kids come for the evening, plus their parents.  I won’t lie, it is organized mayhem, the place becomes a complete zoo, but at least it offers a safe and superior alternative to inviting the Devil to make our lives a living hell for yet another year.

Whoa Mark, you are stepping on some toes here.  Good, I sincerely hope so!  I think every parent, Christian or otherwise, needs to ask themselves this question; Is Halloween a trick or treat?  Trust me on this one. It’s a trick!

Further comment Oct 25th:

I do hope everybody understands that I am not standing in judgement of your choice but rather trying to provoke a deeper look at Halloween.  When we have been raised doing something (like Halloween… as I also was) it is very hard to see any hidden or inherent dangers.  I have been to countries were spiritism is very much part of their culture.  Places like that celebrate Carnival (Brazil), Mardi Gras (New Orleans), etc. live under incredible spiritual bondage.  These kinds of Halloween type festivals exist all over the 3rd world and have profound spiritual impact.  In many places they have become intertwined with their Catholicism.  In Uruguay we were in an evangelistic meeting where hundreds of people were under the influence of demon possession and needed deliverance.  Once you see firsthand the wholesale spiritual bondage that is possible, you would never ever consider Halloween harmless fun.  There are also hundreds of books written on the subject of Halloween many by people who have studied the histories of these spiritually bound countries.  But instead of reading them many Christians will naively defend their dearly held Halloween traditions.  Do a little poking around for articles online.  You might be surprised what you discover.

You know you have overdone Thanksgiving when…

* Paramedics bring in the Jaws of Life to pry you out of the Laz-e-Boy

* Your after dinner moans are loud enough to signal Dr. Kevorkian

* The “Gravy Boat” your wife set out was a real 12′ boat!

* The potatoes you used set off another famine in Ireland

* A guest quotes a Biblical passage from “The Feeding of the 5000″

* Representatives from the Butterball Hall of Fame called twice

* You get grass stains on your bottom after a walk, but never sat down

* Your wife wears a life jacket at night in your water bed

It is easy to forget the meaning of  Thanksgiving and take for granted God’s incredible goodness to us.  In Deuteronomy 8 God warns the children of Israel about the  same thing.  He says when you come into the promised land and you have eaten and are full, your flocks and crops have increased  and you are dwelling in beautiful homes… “then you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.  And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” Deut 8:17,18
Those of us that live in North America have forgotten how blessed we really are.  We all have enough to eat and except for a very few we all have roofs over our heads.  If someone really wants work there is always a job, and if you are sick you can walk into any hospital and get FREE medical care.

If you own a house you are richer than 95% of the world’s population.  If you own a house and a car you are richer than 99% of the rest of the world.  Not one of us ever has the right to complain about money.  If  you are on welfare you are still rich by the world’s standards.  And then there is the fact that we have incredible freedoms.  Freedom to worship God openly.  Freedom to share Christ without fear of persecution or prison.  Freedom to say and do just about anything we want.  The United Nations ranks the world’s  nations using their Human Development Index.  No nation in the world has won as many times as Canada for having the highest quality of life.  Of all the places in the world we already live in the promised land.

When the pilgrims first came to the North America they were searching for religious freedom.  They were greeted by anything but a land flowing with milk and honey.  Of the 102 pilgrims that landed at Plymouth Rock 52 died of starvation in  the first year.  They had almost a complete crop failure.  Their ration for the winter was 5 kernels of corn per person a day.  Nevertheless in 1621 Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford called the colonists together in the church house to give God thanks.  Considering the kind of year they had had it might have felt like thanks for nothing.  But in God’s providence he took care of them in an extraordinary way.  Ten or twelve years earlier Spanish explorers captured a native Indian by the name of Squanto and took him as a slave.  He was taken back to Europe but was rescued by some Friars that taught him the European languages and introduced him to Christianity.  Squanto ended up in England, learning their language and culture.  Eventually he was allowed to return to his homeland.  When he arrived he discovered his entire  tribe had been wiped out by an epidemic.  The Plymouth colony was now established on the very spot that his people used to live.  Squanto and Bradford became friends and he taught the new settlers how to grow cornto survive in the new land.  Within a year the colony was prospering and flourishing.  Squanto unfortunately became ill and died.  Bradford praised God for Squanto saying, “(He) became our special instrument of God without him we would have all perished.”   On his deathbed Squanto asked Bradford to pray for him that “he could go to the Englishman’s God in Heaven.”

Even when it doesn’t look like things are going our way, God always has the situation in hand.  Even when there seems like there is no way, God will make a way.  Even if it looks like nothing is happening, God always has a plan.  We all have much to be thankful for but even if you can’t think of anything, give thanks for nothing.

There is one question that I am constantly reminded of when I am in funeral mode like I have been rescently.  What is the one thing that  really matters when you are lying in that coffin (or increasingly more frequently an urn)?  The car you drove, the house you owned, the money you made and even the success you had… none of it matters at that moment.  Oh sure there will be plenty of time for the vultures to swoop in and fight over your car and jewelery later, but on this day, none of that matters.  The only thing of real value that we leave behind is not material at all, but rather how we enriched the lives of the people that our life touched while we were alive.

I am fond of telling folks to plan their funeral now.  I am not referring to the coffin, the flowers and the tiny little sandwiches with the crusts cut off.  Who really cares about any of that?  Give me a homemade pine box and bury me in the backyard under the dog house for all I care.  The funeral business is a racket.  They are trained to make you believe that the way to honor the dead is to put you in a rosewood coffin with pearl handles and drive you around in an expensive limousine.  If I wanted to go for a limo ride I would do it now when I can at least see the view and play with the power windows.

No, I am talking about planning what people say about you at your funeral.  It is that brief few minutes where someone stands up and tries to catch the essence of who you where that really matters.  What we did with our life will be summed up in how we impacted the lives of the people around us.  That is our only true legacy.

Several years ago I did a funeral for a man I had only met once, in the checkout line at Zellers.  That says alot about my values too doesn’t it?  When I interviewed the family and asked what kind of man he was, the only thing they could think of was that he was ‘hard working’.  No one was willing to do an eulogy and I had to put together a funeral for a ‘hardworking man who shopped at Zellers’.  It was not my finest work.

On Monday I buried Uncle Norman.  Norman was born in a log cabin in a remote part of Manitoba.  They had no electricity or running water.  Norman never went to even one day of school.  He could not read or write for his entire 71 years.  For most of his adult life he worked at the car-wash.  Ten years ago when the car-wash closed their doors he was unable to get work since he had no marketable skills and he had to go on welfare.  For the last 8 years he lived in the basement of his nieces house.  He never even drove a car, let alone owned one.  When he passed away last week his niece was able to gather all his worldly possessions into one single box.  My goodness, when I die my family is going to spend weeks throwing out boat and car parts that I have stored in my garage for vehicles I don’t even own anymore.

But here is that part of Norman’s story that you don’t want to miss.  For his funeral I thought we would have a dozen people show up.  I was surprised that the chapel was almost full on a Monday afternoon.  Then person after person got up and told of how Uncle Norman enriched their life… how he brought joy, laughter, goodness and kindness to everybody that he met… how what little he had he would gladly share with others.  The expression; “He would give you the shirt off of his back’ was used, because that was literally all that he had.  I was really taken aback by how this simple man who had zero earthly accomplishments; no possessions, no awards, no diplomas for anything, had made such a difference to the people around him.  That day put many things into perspective for me.  I realized I am way too caught up in the things and the cares of this world.

How we live our life and the impact we make while we were alive comes out in the brief moment when we are lying motionless in the coffin.  For me people might say, “Well this is the first time Mark has ever been in front of a crowd… and had nothing to say.”   It is at that moment when your actions will have to speak for you.  Better start planning that today.  Because in the end, death becomes you.

Throughout the evening these men would pause the carnage and poignantly share the gospel in a relevant and meaningful way.  They would use the sometimes death devying feat as an object lesson of God’s grace or power and so forth.  By the end of the night 100′s of people young and old (but mostly young) lined the front of the stage to give their hearts to Christ.  I remember standing there thinking, if I ever have a chance to bring these guys to Winnipeg I would do it.  22 years later such an opportunity is here and the Powerteam will be in the house all week.

We have the team booked into school assemblies all around Winnipeg where they will challenge the students to make right decisions concerning drugs, alcohol, sex and bullying.  They will tell these kids that ‘true love waits’ and that virginity isn’t a curse to be discarded but a gift to be shared with that one special person on their wedding night.  Then each night from Thursday to Sunday at 7 PM they’ll be doing the big block buster (literally) show right here at Church of the Rock 1397 Buffalo Place.

This is an event for the whole family.  There will be scads of young people obviously, but it is a show that is so good you will want to bring anybody that needs to hear the gospel in a novel and exciting way.  Admission is free and we have lots of parking and room for 2000 people a night.  BTW the show is different every night so you just might want to come to all four evenings.  It’s going to be a great week.  See you at 7 PM.

Check out the commercial: http://churchoftherock.ca/sitewyze/files/player/PowerTeam-Ad.html

I remember Dr Phil ragging on a guy who was struggling with his 3rd marriage.  He asked him the question, “Now Billy Bob, what is the one thing all 3 of your failed marriages have had in common?”

“Uh, I dunno.”

“YOU dummy, you are the one thing all of your marriages have had in common.  You, are the problem!”

I watched Larry King ‘being’ interviewed by someone else on the subject of love and marriage.  I was surprised that such an otherwise intelligent TV personality was such a dunce when it came to understanding relationships.  Without getting into the specifics of it, he sounded like a 15 year old high school kid explaining the finer details of dating hot babes.

In 1900 the percentage of marriages that ended in divorce was about 1 in 100.  By 1925 it rose to 4 in 100.  By 1950 it reached 10 in 100.  By 1975  it had exploded to 40 in 100.  Today it is generally regarded that half of all marriages will end in divorce.  Some will be quick to point out that in the last 10 years the divorce rate is actually dropping.  That is true… because more and more people are not getting married in the first place and just opting to live together.   For that matter the divorce rate in Canada is the lowest in Quebec.  That’s because the vast majority of young couples now fore go the institution of marriage completely.  60% of all children in Quebec are now being born out of wedlock.  You did not read that incorrectly – 60%.  Quebec is now being regarded as the world’s first post-marriage society.

People clearly view marriage differently than they used to.  By many it is no longer regarded as a life long commitment but as a agreement that can be cancelled like a cable TV contract.  In fact, some of those cable contracts are harder to get out of.  Most couples that I talk to come up with the same reason; “I married the wrong person.”  (I guess that was the one thing that Adam never had to listen to… about the man Eve could have married.)  Personally, I am not convinced.  I don’t believe for a minute that a hundred years ago half of the population just endured bad marriages to the wrong person.

If people married the wrong person the first time, then presumably they would know exactly what kind of person they should marry the next time.  Then we should see the success rate climb dramatically.  That is not the case.  67 percent of second marriages end in divorce and a whooping 74 percent of third marriages.  No, we’ve got it all wrong.  Marriages are failing today because people are incredibly selfish and have unreasonable expectations for their spouse.  Even if they admit that they were happy at one time, couples will often say, “The love has gone out of our marriage.”  I don’t think they know what love is.  Love is not a fuzzy feeling you get in your stomach when you are near someone… that is called acid reflux.  Love is a decision!  It is a commitment to put the other person ahead of yourself.  When couples commit to the happiness of their partner, they in turn will always discover happiness themselves.  Modern marriages are often the opposite, with the partners trying to extract what they can get for themselves from the relationship.  That was never the original intent of marriage.

The great German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “It is not your love that will sustain your marriage, but your marriage that will sustain your love.”   He was referringto the miracle of marriage, that God joins two people together and gives them the grace to live together for the rest of their lives.  It is not often is easy.  Sometimes it feels like work, but the rewards for grinding out the hard times pay off in the end.  I was talking with a non-christian friend the other day who had recently gone through a divorce.  He said, “I think most people are surprised when they realize that divorced life did not make them any happier.  It’s not what it’s cracked up to be.”

If your marriage is struggling you need to know that as long as there is a God in heaven there is hope.  There are lots of great resources out there.  Rent the movie ‘Fireproof’ and watch it together’.  It is a brilliant representation of the struggles that most couples face today.  Sure there are a few cheesy moments, but the underlining prescription on how to make love a ‘decision’ is very well done.

Someone a lot smarter than me once said, “Love never fails” (1 Cor 13:8).  We just need to learn to believe it.

But what is really paradoxical is that right in the middle of the grounds is a statue of a twisted, tormented Job.  As I stood looking at it I said to the visitor guide (yes, they have guided tours), “A statue of Job?  Don’t you think Solomon in all of his glory would be more appropriate for this place?”  She looked me in the eye and said, “You’re a real smart Alec aren’t you?”

But what about Job?  It has been a story of continual debate.  Why did God allow Job to suffer to the extent that he did?  Was it God’s fault, Satan’s fault or Job’s fault?  Last Sunday I preached on the subject and was not really surprised that I hit such a cord with the congregation.  We have all had our Job moment and we all struggle with why.

The Book of Job begins with perplexing wager between God and Satan where God allows Satan to trash Job’s life being convinced that Job will stand no matter what Satan throws at him.  In one day he loses all his considerable herds of animals, all his servants and all 10 of his children.  How would you handle such a day?  Most would throw themselves off the nearest tall building.  Job shaves his head, rips his robe, bows down and worships God.  Then he coins the oft-quoted famous line, “The Lord gives, the Lord takes away.”  Although it is true, that that is what Job said, that does not mean it is actually true.  Huh?  All one has to do is read the story and you can clearly see that the Lord gave… and Satan took away. Job did not know that.  He had no access to scripture as Job is actually the first book of the bible that was written.  The statement may be gross over simplification of course, because God did allow Satan to do it, so therefore God may have some culpability.  But it actually is not really the point of the story.  The message you don’t want to miss is Job’s amazing response in the midst of tragedy.  The very next thing the bible says is, “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”  This answers two more questions.  One, that it was not Job’s fault and two, it was not God’s fault.  Job clearly recognised it would be wrong to blame God for what had happened.  The bottom line is;  bad things happen to good people.  The scripture says, Job was blameless, upright, feared God and shunned evil.  There was no one on earth that was as good a person as Job and yet he still suffered.

Round two was still to follow and for the next nine months Satan smote Job with painful boils from his head to toes.  Still Job refused to curse God and the scripture says, “Job did not sin with his lips.”  By the end of the book we are expecting some resolution, which we get, but what we don’t get is answers.  Job is basically asking God what is going on with his life.  Instead of answering his question, in Job 38 God responds with a few questions of His own.  “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: Who is this who darkens counsel By words without knowledge. Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?  Tell Me,if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements?   Surely you know!   Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened?   Or who laid its cornerstone… and on and on He goes with the most incredible description of God’s omnipotentence anywhere in scripture. 

It sends shivers up my spine every time I read it.  Have a read for yourself.  The conclusion of the matter is that we scarcely have a clue when it comes to understanding God’s ways.  And rather than crying, “Why Lord, Why me?”  We, like Job, are to accept that we will never fully understand God’s ways this side of heaven.  Because of Job’s incredible attitude and response to his trial, God restored two fold everything that the Devil stole from him.

This is not an easy message.  How do you deal with bankruptcy or divorce or worse yet the death of a spouse or child?  These are real life struggles that are painful to the core when they come.  Job’s faith in God sustained him, all the while believing that God was actually responsible.  Oh, that we would have such faith considering our advanced New Testement knowledge, that it is not God’s fault at all!  He’s on our side! …the bigger question then remains; are we on His?

The truth is that most of us have a deep seated fear of death.  And is it any wonder?  It means leaving this world never to return, and for many they have no real sense of where they are going… if anywhere.   Many people deal with death by not actually thinking about it in the first place.  That is not really an option for me.  As a pastor I conduct funerals and come face to face with real death (not the gratuitous movie version) every week.   It is intriguing to see how differently people respond to a death of a loved one.  Some become completely unraveled for months and years, others barely seem to grieve and move on.  We had a friend who lost her 59 year old husband and within 3 months said she was ready to be begin dating.  After I heard that I told Kathy that if I kicked the bucket she wasn’t allowed to date others till I was cold in the grave six months.  She wryly replied, “Wow, a real control freak right to the end, huh?”.  My daughter who was listening in asked, “Why six months?”.   I told her, “Because any sooner and it would look like she already had a boyfriend.” 

Maybe you heard the story of the wife who asked him if  he would remarry if she died.  “Of course!”  He said without hesitation.  Then she wanted to know where they would live.  “Oh, right here in the house”  He casually added.  “Well, would she sleep in our bed”.   The wife anxiously wanted to know.  “I don’t see why not.”  He said.  Finally somewhat frustrated she asked,  “Would you let her use my golf clubs too?”  To which he answered, ”Of course not, don’t be silly, she’s left handed.”

Should we fear death?  It is as much of a right of passage as birth.  There is no way to escape it.  It touches every family and eventually every one of us.  The scripture says,  “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.”  1 The s 4:13-15 

A few years ago I visited a woman in the hospital that was dying of cancer.  I told her that I was going to pray for her and ask God to heal her.  She said, “That would be good and if he heals me I would be delighted, and if not, I can go be with Jesus and that would be even better, so there is really no downside.”   She had the most incredible sense of peace, and even enthusiasm about death.  I remember how impressed I was with her confidence.  Three days later she was gone and hers was easiest funeral I have ever conducted.  I was able to share about her faith and confidence in the afterlife and the sense of comfort in the room was palpable. 

I can contrast this with other funerals I have done where the ‘mourners’ were inconsolable about the lose of their 95 year old grandfather.  We really should not be caught off guard by the death of a 95 year old.  The loss of a child is another story.  They are the toughest.  We were never meant to outlive our children.  The thought of a young person never having the opportunity to experience all that the fullness of life has to offer does feel like a great  tragedy.

Almost everyone I know has had a brush with death.  I had one last year when in very freakish situation a huge steel pipe got dropped from an overhead crane.  I saw the shadow of it coming and looked up.  In a reflex action which happened in the fraction of a second I stepped out of the way to have it land right where I was standing.  At first it never fazed me but within hours I was replaying the encounter again and again in my head.  I had trouble sleeping for several days.  I finally wrestled through and got peace about it.  I came to the conclusion that it was not my time… that my life was in God’s hands and if my ticket wasn’t up, it wasn’t up.

I have a lot of confidence about where I am going after I die.  Heaven is something I look forward to some day, so I do not have much of a fear of death.  However my brush with death gave me a far greater sense of God’s sovereignty in all this.  Our time is in his hands.  That is something we all need to rest in and come to grips with.  I still think about that moment from time to time but it doesn’t tear me apart.  God is in control and death… took a holiday.

Marge:  “Homer, stop eating your head.”

Homer:  “But I’m so yummy…”

In another episode Homer sold his soul to the Devil for a single donut.  The Devil, by the way, appeared to him at Ned Flanders, Homer’s Christian, goody two shoes neighbour.  That alone was an immensely cleaver touch since the temptations of the Devil rarely appear as terrifying and grotesque, but as safe and appealing.  The devil said to Eve, “You shall not die, but God knows that if you eat the fruit you will be like Him knowing both good and evil.”  The temptation seemed like a good thing coming from an appealing character.  “The Serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field.” 

In the late 60’s Stanford University psychology professor Walter Mischel developed what he called the Marshmallow Test.  He claimed he could predict the future success of 4-year olds based on how they handled his marshmallow test.  He would place them alone in a room with a single marshmallow.  He told them if they wanted, they could just ring a little bell and eat the marshmallow at any time.  However, if they waited for him to return from an errand he would bring with him a second marshmallow and then they would have two to eat.  One third of the 4-year olds ate it immediately.  One third ate sometime within the 20 minutes and one third waited the full 20 minutes and received a second marshmallow.  Here is a video of some children being given the test.  It is quite interesting to watch them anguish over a marshmallow.

The really fascinating part of the experiment was that Mischel continued to track his test subjects into adulthood.  He discovered that those who waited to eat the marshmallow became far more successful as adults.  They did better in school, were more likely to go to college, had better relationships and careers, and scored a remarkable 210 points higher on their SAT’s.  The most impulsive of the group, who ate immediately, were most likely to be bullies or have behavioral problems in school.  They were also more prone to get involved with drugs, less likely to go to college, and struggled in their careers and relationships.  The results were so consistent that Mischel became confident he could predict any child’s future level of success with a single marshmallow.  It’s a bit startling to think that our fate can be determined by a marshmallow.  On the other hand, it makes perfect sense.  Impulsive children grow up to be impulsive adults.  They are always looking for instant gratification.

When I watch people who cannot control their impulses, whether it is drinking, smoking, gambling, pornography, eating, gossip or shopping, I can’t help but think of the marshmallow test.  Billions fail the test everyday and then can’t figure out why life isn’t more satisfying.  They buy the new shoes, car, Ipod, computer or whatever and the next day they feel as empty as they did the day before.  How about you?  Can you pass the marshmallow test?

I have always found this trend incredibly perverse and have the personal distinction of having never watched even a single episode of Survivor.  I have no idea who Richard is… and I don’t care.   Wouldn’t you have liked the badge of honor of being able to say you never watched an episode of The Brady Bunch?  But you can’t do it can you?  And I bet you can still name who played Marcia Brady?  Yup, you got it, it was Maureen McCormick.  Can you name the rest of the gang?  Lord help us if you can!

Big Brother is out there, but HE has more to do with the Internet and the telephone than TV.  We even know where he is.  He’s in room 641A…  of the AT&T building located at 611 Folsom, San Francisco, CA.  In 2003 NSA (The National Security Agency of the US) put a machine in this room called the Narus STA 6400.  Sounds benign enough.  I have a cell phone that has almost the same model number.  But what the Narus does is frightening.  The NAS ran a series of fiber optic cables from the AT&T Internet hub in this building, which serves millions of AT&T customers, to this machine.  This information splitter essentially syphons off all email and phone messages that normally run through the hub, which of course is millions per day.  The NAS then has a duplicated record of every one of those messages, to do whatever they like with.  They claim they are merely monitoring them for possible terrorist threats against the United States and not really ‘listening in’, but does it really matter?  It is a huge breach of privacy. 

Frontline did a fantastic piece on the story in 2007.  Here is the link.  Episode 3 deals specifically with room 641A.  

You can watch the rest of the series by visiting here.     http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/ 

Maybe there actually is some good stuff on TV…  Oh Yeah, I’m on TV.   The story was brought out by AT&T technician Mark Klein.  He worked in the building and saw what was being done and felt the public had a right to know.  He claims there are sights like this all over North America.  Even under the sweeping powers of the Patriot Act, what the NAS is doing is illegal.  I have noticed that when I tell people about this most of them don’t believe me.  “Right Mark, and I bet you also believe their are little green men in flying saucers from outer space spying on us as well?”   Of course not!  They’re not really green, that’s just ridiculous. 

This is some disturbing stuff to say the least.  I’ve barely scratched the surface here concerning the electronic surveillance that is going on out there.  Everyday our personal freedoms are being stripped from us and most people either don’t know or don’t care to know.  I won’t even get into the amount of information people willingly volunteer on Facebook.  And who knows what Google knows?  They are gradually gobbling up the internet.  They own Youtube, Feedburner (A RSS feed sevice) and 71 other related internet companies.  You have no idea how much access they have to you and your internet activities. Ever wonder how the Google ads seem to target your area of interests?  What else could they be doing with it?  Has the NSA taped into it too?  I know you don’t care, that’s the problem.

Maybe the Beast isn’t a ‘who’ but a ‘what’.  Maybe the Internet… that we have become so addicted to… or some aspect of it, will one day rise up and try to ensnare us all.  “Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.”  Rev 13:11

Maybe George Orwell had it right in 1984 all along… except for maybe the timing.

There are aspects of the prophecy that are becoming increasingly clear.  The technology already exists and is in place to restrict buying and selling.  It all began with the innocuous introduction of the retail barcode.  What started as a way to speed up the grocery store checkout process has a far more nefarious possible outcome.  Because the scripture challenges those of “understanding to calculate the number of the beast”, many have tried.  In 2000 years nobody has figured it out, so I am not gong to be so presumptuous to think that I can.   Having said that, I do find it interesting that the typical retail barcode has the number 666 embedded in every single one. 

There are very few occasions where you need to use cash any more to make a purchase.  The debit card has made it easier than ever.  We use them everyday and never think about how we are participating in a cashless society where we give vendors direct electronic access to our bank accounts.  Many people never carry cash at all.  Most retailers already rely on the scanning devices to read the prices on the barcodes.  The same device could be used to scan people instead.  Why go to all the trouble of carrying around a bulky debit card when the same information could easily be implanted under the skin and the transaction is complete with the simple swipe of the hand?  The chip is called a RFID.  Radio-frequency identification.

The tiny chip which is implanted just under the skin can hold 2 megabytes of data and be read from over 6 meters away.  That is an incredible amount of information.  Think about it; all your personal information, health records, financial information and maybe your baby pictures or a video of you singing at last year’s office Christmas party.

The chip is manufactured by a company called Verichip.  They were originally marketed to be implanted in pets so that they could be tracked if they became lost.  Now parents are having them implanted in their children for the same reasons.  The chip can remain in them for the rest of their lives and the data constantly upgraded without removing the chip.  Verichip’s sales pitch has been for the safety and convenience of carrying your health information with you at all times so that medical professionals can act accordingly in a variety of situations.  Watch the advertising video and then continue reading.

It all sounds so comforting, doesn’t it?  Verichip has now purchased a company called Steel Vault, an information security company that can store and track personal and financial records.  The newly branded company is now called Positive ID and is capable of amalgamating all personal, health, and financial records onto one data base and place all the pertinent data on the RFID chip.  If all this seems to you like far fetched sci-fi conspiracy theory stuff, then you are right where they want you to be.  They RFID chip is already in use in several parts of the world and is catching on at an alarming rate.  Warnings that this might be the Mark of the Beast, are being  inexplicably ignored by the masses.  Check out this incredible video of how the chip is being used in Europe.

Oh, by the way, you already have a RFID chip in your wallet.  By now your credit card has been upgraded to a ‘chip’ card.  The chip is a RFID.  You may also have one in your car if you have a toll road ‘speed pass’ or any ‘swipe and pay’ fob for paying at the gas station.  They are being used at an accelerating rate in all kinds of applications. 

I cannot say for certain that the RFID is the Mark of the Beast, but it is definitely a good possibility.  Maybe the thought of having a foreign object implanted under our skin seems disconcerting to some of us old fashioned folks, but not so to a new generation that has embraced the trend towards tattooing and body piercing at a frightening pace.  I think it is all part of a diabolical plot to desensitize the population to what would have seemed seriously creepy only a few years ago.  At any rate you won’t see me wearing a lip-ring or a RFID any time soon, but I am seriously concerned about a younger demographic who would not think twice about having another needle plunged into their already ‘beautifully adorned’ bodies.   The Mark of the Beast is coming, and may already be here.  Where are you planning on drawing the line?  Or are you just going to be led down the garden path with billions of others?

The story takes place in a little sardine fishing village called Swallow Falls on an island in the Atlantic. Because their only industry is sardines and nobody really likes sardines, they have to eat them all themselves and life is a very boring culinary existence.   A young nerdy inventor named Flint Lockwood desperately wants to make a name for himself and builds a machine that can turn water into food.  The machine ends up being trapped in the atmosphere over the island and it begins raining food on the delighted townspeople.  Predictably, things start to go horribly wrong as the food begins to mutate and becomes bigger and bigger.  I will stop here and avoid the spoiler alert.

Now I am not sure if the movie is making a statement on genetically modified food (GMO) or not, but I couldn’t help but see one.  Bio-genetic engineering is quietly going on behind the scenes at an astonishing pace.  There are already many foods that you eat everyday that are genetically modified and you don’t even know it.  For example; you cannot buy margarine that is not made out of Canola.  Check the label, even if the lid says olive oil it is probably mostly made from Canola oil .  Canola was originally developed from rapeseed (an industrial oil seed) using traditional plant breeding technology to reduce inedible erucic acid.  Whether we got a healthier oil out of it or not is a matter of debate.  In 1997 however agri-biz giant Monsanto took it a step further.  They trans-genetically modified (cross species breeding) Canola in order to make it resistant to their Round-up herbicide.  To be specific they inserted the gene of the enzyme 5-enolypyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase  from the CP4 strain of Agrobacterium tumefaciens as well as the glyphosate oxidase gene.  Say what?  I won’t even get into the fact that Monsanto owns the patent on the GMO Canola variety and will sue farmers for trying to plant their own seed that they have grown from it.  Of bigger concern is the fact that scientists do not know if the forced insertion of one gene from one species into another gene of another destabilizes the organism, encourages mutations or produces abnormalities.  Likewise, no one knows if or how eating mutated food could affect people’s own DNA.  Neither Canada nor the US require labeling of GMO foods.  Virtually all of the Canola that goes into making your table margarine has been genetically modified.  You are eating it every day.   

There are hundreds of different foods that are now genetically modified.  One bio-tech company engineered a soybean with a gene from a Brazil nut, to aid in pest resilience.  Brazil nuts are not prone to bug infestation.  Many people are allergic to Brazil nuts, some to life-threatening levels.  If someone with a severe allergy to Brazil nuts were to eat this specific GMO soy in tofu, they could have an outbreak. Fortunately in this case, a laboratory test picked up on the allergen and the soy never made it to our supermarkets.  The argument justifying all of this is the need to feed an increasing global population.  The concept of giant over-sized fruits and vegetables is not science fiction anymore.  A frost resistant tomato was developed by adding a gene from the fish Flounder.   That’s just kind of creepy.  

Bio-genetic engineering gets even scarier when it comes to humans and animals.  We all marvelled in 1997 when scientists is Scotland cloned the first sheep.  Her name was Dolly.  What many don’t know is that Dolly died of old age at 6 years old, about half of the normal 11 or12.  Australia’s first cloned sheep didn’t make it to 3 years old.  The animals were full of diseases typically found ony in much older sheep.  Human cloning is now entirely possible.  I am quite certain it is not being considered because we don’t have enough poeple on the planet.  The real agenda is therauputic cloning.  In other words, cloning for the purpose of harvesting spare body parts.  One day wealthy movie stars will be able to have spare parts cloned so as they age and become unemployably ugly they can go in for a full upgrade.  I wonder if Donald Trump’s clone will be bred with the same hideous hair?  The ethical considerations in all of this are frightening, but the spiritual ones are even worse.   Man is starting to play God.  We are creating new life forms that God never originally intended. 

The original sin of Adam and Eve is sometimes missed as being about eating fruit.  The temptation was really to become like God.  The serpent said to them,  “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  Gen 3:5.  The disobedience was one thing, but the level of human ambition to be like God was a serious act of high treason.  Cloning and genetic engineering is the latest demonstration of man elevating himself to the level of God.  It may just be the ultimate example of human arrogance.  Maybe we can’t stop it, but one day God will, and I don’t want to be party to it.  He will not share His glory with any man.

The campaign kicks off with the Red See Rally.  Thousands of red shirted christians gather at the Manitoba Legislative grounds and then we fan out to clean up the streets and spread the love of God.  This year we got rained out on May 30th so we have rescheduled to Sunday June 13th at 3 PM as a wind-up instead.  If you are in the city on Sunday, come join us!   Our church has adopted an area of town called Osborne Village.  The Village is one of Winnipeg’s most unique places with a mix of trendy shops, street kids, drug culture, homosexuals, etc.  We found a dozen street kids living under the Osborne bridge.  A group of our young people cleaned up their somewhat disheveled abode.  We hauled 99 bags of garbage out of the Village in just over an hour.  Here are some of us last year as we were gearing up to head into Osborne Village.

June 6th we did what we call Caring for the Core.  The 85 or so participating churches concentrate our efforts on the somewhat economcally depressed core area of the city.  We do dozens of major carnivals in varous neigbourhoods.  The people come out in droves and are gracious and grateful for the food, fun and fellowship.  Church of the Rock’s chldren’s ministry did a project called Love on Wheels.  A group of men fixed up a couple of dozen bikes and gave them away at one of the carnivals.   They were all gone in just a couple of minutes. Every age group in our church gets involved.  It is touching to see our suburban young adults interacting with the inner city kids.

Everyone gets into the act.  This little girl is maybe 10 years old and spent the whole day face painting other kids at a street party on Sherbrook.

Over the course of the two weeks 1000′s of lives get touched with the love of God.  It is easily the most effective thing the church in Winnipeg does over the course of the year.

If you live in another city there may be a campaign going on there.  If not, talk to your pastor about getting one started.  Even if only a few churches get involved at the beginning, others will join.  Our tag line is; The only thing missing is You! Here’s our promo video.  Enjoy!  No, better yet, get involved!

There is one hot spot that you won’t read about in the tourist brochures – Times Square Church.  The church was founded in 1987 by David Wilkerson.  If that name rings a bell, it should.  Wilkerson is best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade.  In 1958 he came to New York specifically to try to share the gospel with 7 youths accused of murder.  It’s an incredible story detailed in his book. If you haven’t read it you should.

God used him tremendously in those early years and eventually he founded Teen Challenge, arguably one of the most effective drug and alcohol program of all time.  Today there are 550 centers around the world.  In 1987 Times Square was not the popular tourist spot it is today.  The economy was struggling and the area was shabby and dangerous having been overrun with pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers and X-rated theaters.  Wilkerson felt led by the Spirit to establish a spiritual presence in the area and founded Times Square Church.

In 1991 he purchased the Mark Hellinger Theater for $17 million.  It is right in the heart of Times Square and is one of the biggest and most prestigious theaters on Broadway.  The arts community was appalled at the time having lost their flagship venue and has been trying to buy the theater back now that Broadway is back in vogue.  The latest offer was $50 million.  The church is not selling, they are still on a mission.

On Sunday morning I took my mother to the 10 AM service and the place was standing room only.  There was 1600 people in the theater and another 1600 in the annex next door watching it on video screens.  Although in general, the service was a little traditional for my tastes, I was wholly impressed with what they are doing.  They have 3 packed out services every single Sunday.  The worship band was as good as any other band on Broadway and the 100 person choir brought tears to my eyes as I realised that God was being praised in a city where most people worship the almighty dollar.

Unlike many places in the new world, New York was not founded by people seeking religous freedom.  It was a established as a Dutch colony by people looking to make money.  To this day you can literally feel the presence of a spirit of greed.  It is a very expensive place to visit (or live) and eventually you just become numb to how often you have to open your wallet and part with your money.  Time Square Church was the one place I felt like I wasn’t spending my money but investing it.   A great missionary once said, “Don’t give me a little cabin in the corner of glory-land, but an outpost at the gates of hell.”  I pray that  more and more churches, like Times Square Church, would see that as our mission.

Canadian writer/director James Cameron brilliantly included every element necessary to produce an international box office hit.  Action, drama, romance, science fiction, fantasy, and incredible groundbreaking special effects… although there was little of what I would consider real comedy.   A bit of a downer for a guy who spends most of his TV time on the Comedy channel.  I am really looking forward to the upcoming release of Bean Atar.

Somehow, to the shock of many, Avatar did not win Best Picture at the Oscars.  Nevertheless, it is still being lauded by many as the greatest motion picture of all time.  Probably not surprisingly to most of you, I am not one of them.  I did enjoy the unique concept and the overall experience but the unoriginality of the storyline and the obvious predictability of the outcome was a bit comical.  It should have been entitled “Pocahontas Meets the Smurfs in Outer Space”.

I have little comment either way about James Cameron’s overt environmentalist message or his broad handed swipe at the insensitive racist American imperialistic capitalist pigs that he lives among in his newly adopted home in Hollywood.  The real problem I have with Avatar is Cameron’s shameless pagan religious message.  Cameron has an axe to grind with Christianity.  He personally funded the production of Simcha Jacobovici’s The Lost Tomb of Jesus.  It was a combination of terrible science and contemptible intellectual dishonestly to try to disprove the resurrection and the deity of Christ.  The holes in the logic were so big you could sail the Titanic through them.  It is not worth even talking about and almost nobody bothered to see it anyway. 

Avatar is a different story because the whole world has seen it.  $2.7 billion at the box office so far.  Make no mistake about it, Avatar is a religious movie.  Most christian critics would call it neo-pantheism… the belief that Nature and God are one in the same.  More specifically, that Nature is god.  That there is no personal or creator God but that the divine nature is found only in the Cosmos itself  and all that it contains.  Cameron calls it Eywa or The Mother…  you know… Mother Earth!  Eywa sounds oddly familiar to Yahwah, and Pandora looks strangely like what one might imagine as the Garden of Eden.  The Na’vi (naive?) have perfect super-model slender bodies and are for the most part naked and innocent.  It all seems like a remake of the story of Adam and Eve in the garden.  Oh, and the brutish Americans have been cast as the deceitful serpent.  (Personally, that’s why I think it didn’t win best picture at the Academy Awards, but it did at the Golden Globes.)  There is even an unlikely saviour in Jack Sully, the dumb but good looking paraplegic jarhead.  But that is where the biblical comparison ends.

Cameron’s religious message is actually better described as Animism than Pantheism.  Outside of organized religion Animism is the oldest and most common religious philosophy on the planet.  It is the spiritual belief that souls or spirits exist not only in humans but also in animals , plants, rocks and natural phenomena.  Most primitive pagan cultures practiced animism which almost always included some form of ancestor worship.  Hollywood has not invented a new religion but has recycled the oldest of them all.  Again and again the message in Avatar is stated that all plants and animals are interconnected.  Eywa acts to keep the ecosystem of Pandora in perfect equilibrium. Living things on Pandora connect to Eywa through a system of neuro-conductive antennae; this explains why Na’vi can mount their direhorse or ikran steeds and ride them immediately without going through the necessary steps required to domesticate such wild animals.  It is a bit like a huge biological Internet; the trees being computer servers that store information. The Na’vi can upload or download memories from it using their tails.  The Tree of Souls grants the Na’vi access to the psychic essences of their deceased, which is how the Na’vi communicate with their ancestors.

James Camerson explains it this way,  “Avatar asks us to see that everything is connected, all human beings to each other, and us to the Earth. And if you have to go four and a half light years to another, made-up planet to appreciate this miracle of the world that we have right here, well, you know what, that’s the wonder of cinema right there, that’s the magic.”  Avatar was just in the wrong category at the Oscars that’s all.  It should have won for Best 3D Religious Science Fiction Film of the year.

I think every Christian should see Avatar.  (Warning: There is some course language, but nothing you wouldn’t hear on prime time television.)  We need to see it first, just for the entertainment value, but more importantly to be aware of religious message Hollywood is selling to the masses.   We are in a battle for the hearts and minds of our friends and family.  If you know what the lie is, it is much easier to communicate to them the truth.

When I was growing up referring to someone as being ‘green’ either meant they were an envious human being or an alien from outer space.  Today the word ‘green’ is synonymous with being environmentally friendly.  The word is grossly overused and often abused.  Manufacturers label everything as ‘green’ in a shameless attempt appeal to environmentally conscious consumer.  Often times it means little more than the packaging might be able to be recycled.  Big deal!  When GM came out with their environmentally friendly hybrid pickup truck it got 17 mpg.  The conventional V8 got 15 mpg.  Probably a net environmental loss when you consider the extra manufacturing outputs and $5,000 price premium. 

Probably the biggest scam going on today is the selling of carbon credits.  Air travelers are being guilted into paying $100’s for some opportunistic entrepreneur to plant trees for them to offset their carbon footprint.  Major industrial polluters around the world can buy carbon credits that supposedly compensate for their continuing dumping of toxins into the atmosphere.  For me the biggest joke is the emphasis on CO2 emissions in the first place.  We are so pre-occupied with Al Gore’s A Convenient Lie… that CO2 emissions from your car are causing global warming… that we have almost completely forgotten about the real problem of millions of tons of toxins and poisons that are still being dumped into our water, air and soil at an alarming rate.  Click HERE to read my blog GLOBAL WARMING AND OTHER MYTHS.

Christians have been remarkably slow at getting onside with the environmental movement.  There are two reasons, both theological.  One has to do with the misinterpretation of Gen. 1:28  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”   Many christians actually have a human-centric belief that the planet is here for our absolute pleasure.  To indulge and imbibe at whatever the cost.   We have therefore been slow to condemn the burning of the rain forests or the devastation that has been left in the wake of some (arguably not all) oil sands operations right here at home. 

The second reason is found in one the last books of the bible.  We are told the whole thing is going up is smoke one day.   But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. (2Peter 3:7)  Many of us have just shrugged our shoulders and said, “Well, God is going to toss the whole mess into the oven one day anyway, I might as well just enjoy myself while it lasts”.   We forget that the Genesis mandate was all about stewardship. We seem to have neglected the part where he said be fruitful.  Being fruitful requires maintaining the planet in a state where it can… well… produce fruit.  We have failed to recognize the value God Himself puts on creation.  Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. (Gen 1:31) 

When God put Adam in the garden He instructed him about stewardship, again.  Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to TEND IT AND KEEP IT. (Gen 2:15)   Make no mistake about it, we have a responsibility towards God’s creation.  The big difference between us and the tree-huggers of the world is this; their humanistic worldview means their future is entirely dependent on the sustainability of the planet.  It is all they have.  As Christians our hope is in the Creator and not the creation.  It is immensely different.  Our interest in saving the planet should be born out of the utter awe and respect for the God who created it all, not a sense of our own self-preservation.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse  (Rom 1:20)  The God of the universe is revealed in His creation.  I believe that when the church gets with the program we are going to kill two birds with one stone.  Firstly, as I have already said, to honor God’s creation.  But secondly, to gain favor with the very people we are trying to reach with the gospel. Left leaning environmentalists are often the same people we contend with on issues of abortion or same sex marriage.   They often feel we have nothing in common with them and they tune us out before we have a chance to point them to Christ.  Maybe, just maybe green christians will not be seen as just aliens from outer space.

He is so socially inappropriate that it is funny.  That’s the point actually.   His unique ability to sexually or racially stereo-type is a running gag.  In one episode Oscar says, “Both my parents were born in Mexico, and they moved to the United States a year before I was born, so I grew up in the United States… my parents were Mexican.” ” Wow“, says Michael, “that is a great story. That’s the American dream right there, right? Um, let me ask you, is there a term besides ‘Mexican’ that you prefer? Something less offensive?” Then when Michael attempts to assemble a basketball team, Oscar responds, “I can play, if you need any help”. Michael rebuffs him, “I will use your talents come baseball season, my friend. Or if we ever decide to box.”

The thing that makes Michael Scott so funny is that he is usually not trying to be nasty.  He is hopelessly unaware of how mean-spirited he comes across.  He is obnoxious, narrow-minded and has no social graces.  Michael actually thinks he’s a wise boss, trying to teach, motivate, and entertain his employees.  Instead, his ignorance, desire to be popular, and enthusiasm, combine to produce some outstandingly inappropriate comments!   He is a caricature,  no manager would last 5 minutes in the corporate world being so insensitive.  Michael Scott is the world’s worst boss.

The reason we laugh at him is that we all know someone who is somewhat like him.  We were once traveling abroad with a group of friends.  One of our party was trying to impress upon us the dangers of venturing out at night alone.  After explaining that there were sexual predators in the region, he said to us, and to one of our group (who might be described as a dowdy middle-age woman), ”They’ll go after anything… even you Rachel!”  Ouch!  Smooth move Bonehead.  A Michael Scott moment if there ever was one.  Pop culture has now given a name to this social inappropriateness.  It is called the Michael Scott Syndrome.  Life imitates art.

I watch The Office in awe wondering how the writers can dream up so many inappropriate remarks for only one episode.  I can only think of one or two stupid things to say on TV every week.  Michael is so incredibly obnoxious primarily because he has no sense of self-awareness.  It is all rooted in his insecurity and self-centeredness.  He has no idea how people really see him because he can only see things from his point of view or vantage point.  Although taken to the extreme on The Office, Michael Scott Syndrome is far more widespread than we might think at first blush.  Our goal in interpersonal relationships needs to be twofold; to seek to understand AND to be understood.  We are better at the later.  We want others to see our point of view so we talk incessantly, usually about our favorite subject… ourselves.  No one enjoys a one sided relationship where there is no effort to seek to understand.  Instead of listening to you, when they do give you a chance to speak, they are busy thinking about what they are going to say next.  It usually sounds something like, “Oh, that’s nothing, do you know what happened to me”! Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.  (Phil. 2:4)

In any relationship we need to spend at least as much time listening as we do talking.  If you are always doing the talking, you are not learning ANYTHING that you did not know before.  You are probably far more boring and tedious than you could possibly ever tolerate from another.   And you don’t even know it!  Michael Scott Syndrome is when it is all about ME.  Millions suffer from the disease and there may be no cure.

Perhaps one of the most exciting services of the year at Church of the Rock is our annual pie auction.  My sermon from that weekend airs on television April 25th, 2010.  If you miss it you can always watch it on our website from April 26 – May 2.  Click  HERE to watch.  In what can only be described as miraculous, we raise over $100,000 for missions in just a couple of hours.  Those who have never been here for the auction have trouble imagining what happens.  Pies sell anywhere from $80 to $3500, with the average somewhere around $400-500.  People ask, “What kind of pie is worth $3500?”  None that I can think of.  It’s not really about the pies, it’s about the cause.

People pay way too much for a pie as a way to invest in our missions projects in the 10-40 window.  This is the area of the globe between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees longitude running through Africa and Asia.  93% of the world’s unreached people live in the 10-40 window.  This is the immense population area where there is the fewest Christians, the least number churches and unfortunately also the fewest number of missionaries.  We can never accomplish the great commission, “to go into all the world and make disciples” if we do not reach the 10-40 window.

As a result of our annual pie auction; we are able to fund an Arabic language christian radio station in Malta that broadcasts into Muslim northern, and another one that does the same into war torn Afghanistan.  We support a Canadian missionary in Egypt that is doing amazing work in a country that is 80% Muslim and hostile to the gospel.  We wholly fund bible translation projects amongst two totally unreached peoples, one in Nepal and the other in India.  We support a bible and literature project in Pakistan and send teams to Uganda that build churches, wells and power generators. 

Above is a team from our church who took their summer holiday to build a church in the Ugandan jungle.  Below is the finished product.  We often leave the locals with the responsibility of putting on the roof.  It gives the ownership of the building back over to them on a number of different levels.

I have kept my description brief, but these are really some remarkable projects.  They are the reason our people go over the top buying pies.  Perhaps some of you reading are wondering how you can get involved.  It could not be easier.  We have a link on our website that lets you donate directly to these projects.  Click HERE to donate and choose the box that says 10-40 window.  We always make a commitment that 100% of the funds raised go to missions.  We never take anything for administration or other costs.  I look forward to partnering with you in this incredible opportunity.

I am aware that on the subject of tattoos I may get seriously flamed here.  51% of young people now sport a tattoo and the trend has gotten so out of hand that some have guarranteed that the only job they will ever get is as a model for Ripley’s Believe It or Not. 

Even my generation has warmed to the trend and many are getting the requisite ‘tat’ to keep up with the times.  “All done sir, and your rolls of fat give the flag a realistic wavy look.” 

My big concern is the way Christian youths are getting into the act like their very salvation depends on it. 

Though I have never come right out and criticized the fad, most of the young people in our church have got the drift that I am not a big fan.  Several have challenged me and said, “Prove to me from scripture where it is wrong.”  If I pull out Lev. 19:28, “You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the LORD,”  which seems pretty clear, they come back with, “Ya, but Pastor Mark, Lev 19:27, the very verse before it says,  “You shall not shave around the sides of your head, nor shall you disfigure the edges of your beard.  So how come you cut your hair?  BOO-YAH!” 

Alright, let’s go there.  God gave Israel these laws having just come out of Egypt.  Egypt was a religious culture that served all kinds of pagan gods.  Two of the ways they honoured them were to make tattoos on their bodies, as well as cut their hair in a manner in which these gods were depicted.  Check out the picture below.  Their hair was shaved at the sides. 

It is the reason orthodox Jews wear the long curl of uncut hair at the sides of their heads. 

It’s quite simple, wearing a mullet is an abomination to God.  Billy Ray Cyrus is going straight to hell.

Seriously though, it was all about not identifying in any way with the pagan rituals of their day.  The hair issue is no longer relevant today as we no longer have the celestial hairstyles of the gods.  The issue of tattoos might be a different story.  A study of primitive cultures reveals that almost every single pagan religion, of any time period, and on every continent employed ritualistic tattooing as a means of honouring their pagan gods.  For example, the headhunting tribes of Polynesia sported full face tattoos that resembled their demon idols.  Most primitive cultures also used them as tribal makers to identify what clan they belonged to.  Young people today tell me that their tattoo is just a way to express their individuality.  I always like to ask them, “Well, if everybody else is doing it, aren’t you really expressing your conformity?”  

My feeling is that tattoos have become the “tribal marks” of youth culture.  A way to feel connected with the times.  They provide a sense of cultural belonging not unlike how the ‘baby boomers’ fought tooth and nail with their parents over the issue of growing their hair long in the 60′s.  The difference of course is, when the 60′s were over you could always cut your hair.  The problem with the tattoo of that ‘soaring eagle’ on you arm, is eventually it is going to look like a ‘sulking chicken’.  In an attempt to make a statement, some are sporting artwork that screams, “I am just plain stupid”.  Literally!

1 Cor 3: 16-17  says, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”  Our identity is not with our culture, but rooted in our God.  Our very bodies are considered His temple.  The study of scripture reveals He is actually offended when we abuse the temple in any number of ways; drugs, alcohol, overeating, sexual immorality and maybe, just maybe, the body art and piercings that have become so ubiquitous today.

Today, that is not the case.  The bullies are big or small, smart or stupid and resort to the same attack stategy as used by a pack of wolves or heinas.  They target the weakest and gang up on them until they destroy them.  There is quite a good movie about it called Mean Girls starring Lindsay Lohan.  Lohan’s character tries to get back at the school female bullies by infiltrating their inner circle.  In the process she ends up becoming just like them.  Here is a typical line form the movie.  “And evil takes a human form in Regina George. Don’t be fooled because she may seem like your typical selfish, back-stabbing slut faced ho-bag, but in reality, she’s so much more than that.”   We let our teenage girls watch this edging movie to educate them on the subject.  The message was not lost on them.

The bigger question is; why is bullying epidemic today?  Because we live in a mean-spirited culture!  We feast on the nasty and cruel words of Simon Cowell as he berates the hapless victims on American Idol who are willing to endure any level of humiliation to be the next Kelly Clarkson.  Even celebrities are now lining up to be the object of Donald Trump’s condescending put downs.  Every single reality show includes at least one segment where a contestant gets ganged up on by the others and verbally thrashed before they get voted off the island or fat farm or the who-gives-a-rip.  And we mindlessly watch and are amused by this very lowest form of entertainment.  I think they should take all those shows roll them into one and call it, “Dancing with the Big Fat American Losers”.  I know, now I am being mean, but don’t miss my point, it is all contributing to the culture of bullying.

The biggest question of all for me is; where were Phoebe Prince’s defenders?  Out of an entire high school was there no one that was willing to intercede for her?  Was no one willing to stand between her and her tormentors and say, STOP IT?  An entire school stood by and watched this play out for months.  I saw Dr Laura on Larry King Live last night and she said, “I put every one of the parents on notice because you have failed to raise your children to care about others and stand up against injustice.  You have raised a generation of spoiled brats who don’t care about anybody else but themselves”.  You go girl!  I’m with Dr Laura on this one.  A couple of guys or a handful of other girls, that’s all it would have taken to have stopped this. 

Jesus stood between an angry mob and an adulterous woman all by himself, and spared her life without raising so much as his eyes from the ground.  Where are the heroes in this next generation?  Heroes are made, not born!  It is our responsibility as parents to train our children to first see the injustices around them, and secondly do something about it.  Oh…  and by the way, we may have to actually lead by example.

This year we are doing Robin of the Hood.  Set to the music of Michael Jackson, Robin and his band of Merry Men go on an adventure to discover the true meaning of Easter.  Services are at 9:25 AM and 11:25 AM and you do not want to be late or you will likely miss most of it …if you get a seat at all.  You’ll just have to show up to find out what part I play.  Oh, and I’ll be preaching the sermon “THRILLER”.   I hope to see you Easter morning.  He is RISEN!

It is not being rich that destroys people.  It is what it does to their attitude that ruins them.  Proverbs 18:23 says, The poor man uses soft entreaties, but the rich man answers roughly.  This should invoke the mental picture of a lowly servant speaking softly when making a request knowing he has little clout.  The wealthy man on the other hand has financial power behind him and speaks in a demanding and condescending way.  Donald Trump’s Apprentice comes to mind.  The upstart young entrepreneurs answer The Donald carefully hoping to win his favour.  Trump barks back at them, “As project manager, the failure is yours and yours alone, you were disorganized and sloppy, you will never make it like that in this business, you’re FIRED!”  For some strange reason the masses are entertained by this demeaning, egotistical and self-important display of power.  How is it that this old school buffoon is being held up as the model and a mentor for today’s executives?

The bigger question is; who are we supposed to be?  The rich man or the poor man?  Jesus answered the question in the beatitudes when he said, Blessed are the poor in spirit,  for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.  He didn’t say it was good to be poor, but poor in spirit.  Irrespective of our wealth we should strive to maintain the gentle entreaty of the poor instead of the harsh dismissiveness of the rich.

When I was a young pastor one of the big name American TV preachers came to our church.  He arrived in his own Lear jet and taught brilliantly on loving the non-christian in order to bring them to Christ.  The next day I was privileged to join him for lunch.  To my shock and amazement, he was so rude to the waitress I was embarrassed.  After we left the restaurant, I secretly returned and apologized to the waitress explaining to her that he was an idiot who didn’t know any better.  It was after the experience I stumbled upon Proverbs 18:23, The poor man uses soft entreaties, but the rich man answers roughly.  I realized that this preacher had taken on the spirit of a ‘rich man’.  I decided right then and there that I was going to strive to live by the spirit of the ‘poor man’.  It is not easy for me.  I realize I am an outspoken, opinionated A type personality. 

I slipped up this past weekend.  About a year ago a young man in our church saw me eating a cupcake.  He said, “Hi, Cupcake”.  It felt it was totally inappropriate and disrespectful but I let it go and jokingly said, “That’s Pastor Cupcake to you.”   After a very demanding and busy Sunday service this week he passed me and again said, “Hi Cupcake”.  I snapped at him and said, “DON’T CALL ME THAT… IT’S NOT FUNNY!”  As soon as I had walked away I realized I had gone ‘rich man’.  When I turned around to apologize for my harshness he was gone. 

Jesus was the King of Kings and yet He came into the world literally and figuratively as a poor man.  The only times he raised his voice He was yelling at the weather, demons or the occasional dead person.(Dead people are hard of hearing).  We all have to decide what kind of people we want to be.  Our world already has enough boorish and mean-spirited people.  We should strive to live to a higher standard… ironically that of a ‘poor man’. How is our grocery clerk multi-millionaire going to make out.  Well, the first thing she said was, “I have a message for my ex-husband… SUCKS TO BE YOU!”

That would probably be funnier if it weren’t in fact a reality amongst many young people today.  10% of children under the age of 14 are already sexually active and 50% of those under 18.  You can understand it.  We live in one of the most sexually charged cultures in human history.  The movies and television shows that target youth are almost exclusively sexual in nature.  No more Happy Days with Richie Cunningham and Potsey Weber anguishing over whether it is too early to ask a new girlfriend for a first kiss.  Young people today have grown up on a diet of  Sex and the City, That ’70s Show, Friends and the disgusting Two and a Half Men.  In these programs they learn about oral sex, orgasm and group sex.  A recent study just published found that exposure to these very TV shows will increase your child’s chances of teen pregnancy by double.  No big surprises there if you ask me.  Oh and by the way, most parents don’t have a hot clue what their kids know sexually… or what they are doing with it.

Add to this the fact that the only sex education they are likely to get will be about “safe sex”.  Safe sex of course, is just our humanistic attempt to create a consequence-free sexual promiscuity.  The demand to legalize abortion was merely a desire to avoid the responsibilities that come with sexuality…namely children.  Every year 100,000 Canadian women decide they would rather take the life of their own innocent unborn child than face the shame of their sexual irresponsibility.  The frantic search for a cure for AIDS is less about curing those who are now infected and more about getting back to a time when “free love” didn’t mean you were putting your very life at risk.  Safe sex education isn’t working anyway, here’s why;  Risk avoidance is a weak motivator in teenagers since the development of the pre-frontal cortex in the brain, which governs self-control, lags well behind the amygdale which drives emotions and impulses.  In other words young people do not do a good job of measuring risk/reward.  That is why they pursue extreme sports, drive too fast and take up smoking despite the years of warnings that it will kill them.

I think there is however one strategy that can work with young people.  We need to teach them about God’s greater purpose for sex.  And no, I am not actually talking about procreation.  Although I do like to joke that sex was God’s way of tricking us into having children.  Right?  How many would most of us have had if we had to pre-order them from Costco?  As important as procreation may be, that argument is not a big seller for young people.  The greater purpose of sex is covenantal.  Let me explain.  Every time God made a covenant with man there was the shedding of blood.  Bulls, goats and sheep in the Old Testament and the blood of Jesus in the New Testament.  What most people don’t seem to know is that sex is a blood covenant between a man and a woman.  The female hymen serves no biological purpose except to be broken, only once, and to shed blood.  It was called the “tokens of virginity”.  You can find it in Deuteronomy 22.  In God’s design, sex was to be the act that created a blood covenant between a man and woman.  In the Old Testament they did not even have weddings per se.  if you slept with a women, she became your wife.  That is why Jacob ended up with four wives.  Go read it for yourself.  Even the New Testament says, Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her?  For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” 1Cor 6:16

Many young people see their virginity as something they want “to lose” as soon as possible.  What we taught our children was that their virginity was not a curse to be discarded, but a precious gift to be shared with one person and one person only.  If they wait until marriage they can enter into that blood covenant with their life partner untainted and unspoiled by sin.  Their sexuality will become a glorious thing that they can spend the rest of their lives exploring without bringing into it a bunch of worthless baggage from the past.  I am convinced that abstinence makes the heart grow fonder.

Last week’s blog was a good example of the our amazing capacity for selective hearing.  My comments on Benny Hinn’s divorce elicited two responses.  Those that thought he was wrong, and those who thought I was wrong (for “criticising” him).  Even though I said repeatedly that I was just a vulnerable as Hinn, people wrote and said, “You are just as vulnerable as him”.  Even though I concluded my comments by saying that divorce was not the unforgivable sin and repentance, restoration and reconciliation was what I was looking for, people said, “You should be praying for his marriage”.   Yes, we are all vulnerable, yes, none of us are without sin, and yes we should pray for Benny Hinn.  That was not the point I was trying to make!  My point was God’s word is the final authority on everything, not our personal sentiment or experience.   No one has a right to redefine God’s standard to fit their situation.

When Jesus addressed the issue of marriage and divorce, it was actually in response to a question asked by the Pharisees. (Matt 19:3)  Based upon their interpretation of Moses’ teaching in Deut 24:14, the Pharisees believed a husband possessed the right to divorce his wife if he found in her ‘erwat dabar’, which can be translated “anything indecent”.  The intended meaning for the Hebrew words became obscured in the course of time. As a result, the Jews had heated discussions about what constituted cause for a valid divorce.  Just as we do today.  Jesus clears it up, ONCE AND FOR ALL, and says, “If a man divorces his wife and marries another, for any other reason except adultery, he commits adultery”. They were offended and sought for a way to kill Him.  Why?  Because at least some of them would have been divorced and wanted to justify themselves.  They only wanted to hear what they wanted to hear.

The Church in North America has clearly become compromised on God’s standard of divorce and remarriage.  But that is really just a symptom of a bigger problem.  Some of the biggest names in ministry today have twisted the word of God to make it fit the American dream of fame, fortune… and folly.  We have high profile preachers who are living in greed and avarice, committing adultery, marrying and remarrying, and are accountable to no one.  The example to the Body of Christ is abysmal and indefensible.  Paul warned us, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers” (2 Tim 4:3)  But we only hear what we want to hear.

When we talk about pharisaism in the church today we almost always think of it as “legalism”.  Not true.  When Jesus told His disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees He was referring to their teaching.  “Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Matt 16:12)  “And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (Matt 15:9)  Therefore the leaven of the Pharisees, at least in part, is believing what we want to believe irrespective of God’s word.  Almost every time Jesus spoke, the Pharisees were offended.  He continually cut across the grain of their pre-conceived beliefs.  When you read the gospels, the crowds too were in Jesus corner only as long as he didn’t say anything that offended them personally.  There is a great expression.  If you throw a stone into a pack of dogs, the one that yelps is the one you hit. This is often how we react to God’s word.  It’s all fine and dandy until it affects us personally and then we, like the Pharisees, get offended.

The leadership crisis in the Church is much worse than many might think.  Most of us don’t know the half of it and I am not going to be the one to air the dirty laundry.  Others will however.  Senator Grassley from Iowa has been investigating six televangelists.  He wants to know why they are using money given for charity to buy corporate jets, mansions and Rolls Royces (one preacher owns 2 of them).  So do I!  One ministry that is not even part of the investigation owns 31 mansions around the world reserved for the exclusive use of their family.  Last year they brought in $170 million dollars and used almost none of it for missions or ministry to the poor.  What is wrong with Christians that they continue to defend these people and worse yet send them money?  “But just look at the lives being touched!”   Just because someone got healed or saved through a ministry… the ends never justifies the means.

I wonder if the real issue is that many of us are just too content with the bar being set low.  In the guise of grace and forgiveness, we too can live the compromised life without any feelings of guilt or shame.  Look, God’s word is either true or it isn’t.  Its time to stop hearing only what we want to hear.

Last week, Benny Hinn, world famous, jet setting healing evangelist (he lives in a $10 million house and owns a Lear jet that costs $100,000/month to operate) announced that his wife of over 30 years is divorcing him.  Even though the couple had been separated for a month, Pastor Hinn said, “He… was shocked and saddened to learn of this news without any previous notice.”  Hmmm, so he didn’t know his marriage was in trouble?  What does that tell you?  To make matters even worse, Hinn’s ministry released a statement saying, “Pastor Hinn also wants everyone to know that he remains firmly and unquestionably committed to God’s calling—as he continues in his thirty-sixth year of ministry—to take the life-saving and miracle-working Gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations through crusades, broadcasts, and mission outreaches.”  In other words, “I am more committed to carrying on my ministry than my marriage.”  I’m sorry, but that is a pathetic new standard from God’s ministers.  In God’s greater economy, family is always to be our first priority.  If we fail on that front, then we have failed in job #1.    

I know I will hear the typical horrified responses.  “Pastor Mark, who are you to judge another? …Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. …Where is grace and forgiveness?”   Blah, blah, blah!  Before you see me as a self-righteous Pharisee, let me be clear.  I am not claiming to be one bit better than him.  I am as vulnerable to failure as the next guy.  The real point is, shouldn’t God’s ministers, of all people, be held up to His highest standard?  What kind of a message does it send to the rest of the Church?  If the pastors who lead God’s people can’t hold their marriages together, then what hope is there for the rest of us?  Actually, no one has the right to lower that standard.  History has shown us that people of position rarely feel the rules apply to them.  Remember Henry VIII?  He didn’t like the rules of the Church as they related to him… so he changed them.  Of his six wives, he divorced two and beheaded two.  A mnemonic for the fates of Henry’s wives is “divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived”.

The list of famous divorced and remarried ministers is not a short one. Oral Roberts’ son Richard divorced his first wife Patti in 1979 and married Lindsay and kept on trucking.  He has 2 children from Patti and 3 from Lindsay.  Jimmy and Tammy Baker of the infamous PTL scandal divorced and both remarried.  Baker is back on TV, albeit a much more humble man.  More recently, tattoo decorated Canadian revivalist Todd Bentley divorced his wife Shonnah, married his girlfriend and was back in ministry within a year.  The list goes on and on.

What are we going to do with Jesus words on the subject?  “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery” (Luke 16:18).  I know that divorce is not the unforgivable sin, and that many reading here are themselves divorced.  But that doesn’t change God’s standard.  If these men merely turn the page and carry on like nothing happened, then God’s word means nothing.  Where is repentance, restoration or better yet reconciliation?  As much as I have slagged Tiger Woods for his marital indiscretions, at least he has had the decency to take a leave of absence from golf and TRY to work on his marriage.  Pastor Hinn has stated he is not planning on missing a beat.  Maybe I have been too hard on Tiger!

As a skier I have the obligatory contempt for the snowboarders.  They are the evil cousins with which we share our ski slopes…the tattooed, pants too low, dope smoking underbelly of the ski world.  Do you remember Canadian Ross Rebagliati who almost lost his Gold medal at the 1998 Olympics for testing positive for marijuana?  “No seriously man, I never smoked the stuff, I was just hanging with my buddies who do.”  “Oh, OK we believe you Ross, here’s your medal back”.  They put marijuana on the list of banned substances after that.

That’s why it is ironic that one of my greatest heroes of sport is a snowboarder.  At the Torino games in 2006, American Hannah Teter won the Gold medal in the Halfpipe.  This is the sport where they charge down a slope shaped like a ‘half pipe’ with 20’ high sides.  They throw themselves another 10-15’ above the sides and spin their bodies in various tricks that have bizarre names like the McTwist and the Nixcy Grab.  Only they know what they are talking about as they have invented a language all of their own.

Most snowboarders are young self-indulged kids that are just out to have fun.  That’s why Hannah Teter stands out.  Since the Torino games she has donated ALL her cash prizes from competitions to charity.  Over $75,000 so far.   In partnership with World Vision she has adopted a village in Kenya.  In the last 3 years she has provided clean water, farming supplies, school fees for the children and more to the village of Kirindon.  She has set up a non-profit business called Hannah’s Gold that sells maple syrup from her home state of Vermont.  All the profits go to charity.  $161,000 so far.

By the way, there are other altruistic athletics out there.  Fellow Winnipeger Clara Hughes donated $10,000 to charity after winning the gold in the speedskating in 2002.  But then that should be expected… she is a Hughes after all.  Before the Vancouver games Hannah Teter told reporters that if she won the Gold she would donate the $25,000 cash prize to the earthquake relief in Haiti.   She won the silver, beat out by Australian Torah Bright. It probably doesn’t matter, Hannah was the clear winner. The media and public are far more interested in her story.  Most Olympic athletes want to win for their own self-aggrandisement.  Hannah told reporters, “I am competing for a higher cause.  If it is just about what I can do for myself then that wears thin pretty quickly.  I grew up in a family that has a motto, ‘do good for others’.  I’m competing for the suffering children around the world.”

Jesus never judged ambition, but instead redefined it.  “Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.  And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave– just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matt 20:26-28)  As much as it pains me to praise a snowboarder, I have to admit Teter is my kind of athlete.  I pray that her example is an inspiration to every one of us to start living for a cause greater than ourselves.  Hannah’s silver is pure gold.

Last month the two teens were sentenced to 2 years plus the one year already served.  The media dutifully followed the story but in all that time nobody ever asked the question “WHY“?   What was it that motivated such hate and violence that two young people would even think of doing such a thing?  Here’s the answer!  The two teens had entered the dark world of Goth.  It is a growing sub-culture rooted in the literature and music of vampires, ghosts, zombies, graveyards and horror.  It is becoming increasingly more mainstream with the popularity of teen movies such as Twilight which glorifies the lives of vampires and werewolves.

Members of the Gothic community claim to be non-violent in nature, but all one has to do is look a the names of the bands in a genre that is called death-rock to know that isn’t true.  Try these on for size; The Damned, Sex Gang Children, 45 Grave, UK Decay, Dead Can Dance and Killing Joke.  Sounds innocent enough, right?  Ironically, the two youths that are now in jail were no strangers to us.  One of them was part of our youth group and our youth leaders had worried about him as they watched him getting deeper and deeper into this dark and twisted world.  You may be asking, “Well why didn’t they do something to help him”?  They tried, but they only saw him for a couple of hours a week or less.  It was what was going on the rest of the week that was the issue.

The bigger question was,where were the parents in all this?   Many parents today are frankly just ‘clued out’ as to what is going on with their kids.  Most teens spend hours unsupervised on the Internet every week.  Many parents have no idea what their kids are into and who is influencing them.  The vast majority of young people have never been to a church.  They have been brought up in a spiritual vacuum and then the hapless parents say, “I just don’t know what’s wrong with little Johnny!”  Well, I do… YOU.  You are what’s wrong.  Many of us have become inattentive parents that have neglected to instill a moral and spiritual foundation into our children.  So when the devil comes a knocking, they don’t even recognize him.  Make no mistake about it, these two teens could have been any one of our children.  Yours or mine.  They were not born the ‘seed of Satan’.  They didn’t dream this demonic scheme up on their own.  They came under the influence of some very evil forces and nobody had sufficient equity in their lives to steer them away.

I’m not a big fan of film producer Michael Moore primarily because he wears his politics like a cheap baseball cap and cannot approach a subject objectively.  In Bowling for Columbine, I was disappointed with his mistreatment of Charlton Heston at the end of the movie (I mean after all the man is Moses, and you don’t mess with Moses).  However, there were some brilliant moments in the documentary.  Like the shot done in the Lockheed Martin plant located in Littleton, Colorado where the Columbine High School massacre took place.  The PR man for the company, the world’s largest weapons manufacturer, is standing in front of a warhead wondering where two young people could have learned such violent behaviour.  The ironic imagery is powerful.  Here’s the clip if you care to watch it.

Proverbs 29:15-17 says  The rod and rebuke give wisdom, But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.  When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increases; But the righteous will see their fall.  Correct your son, and he will give you rest; Yes, he will give delight to your soul. Too many parents are asleep at the switch, and that includes many Christian parents.  Children are not only God’s greatest gift to us, but our greatest responsibility.  I would love to think that our city learned something in our brush with disaster, but honestly I don’t think we did.  I pray we don’t have to knock on Columbine’s door again to get it.

Wow, I guess Tiger didn’t like my joke.  It goes like this in case you missed it.  What’s the difference between a Cadillac Escalade and and golf ball?  Tiger Woods knows how to drive a golf ball.  Good thing I didn’t tell my other one.  What do Tiger Woods and a baby seal have in common?  They both know what it’s like to be clubbed by a Norwegian.  Actually, that one is cruel…to the baby seal.  Tiger on the other hand deserves everything he has coming to him. 

I told a few benign jokes about Woods.  Jack Todd of the Montreal Gazette totally thrashed him in a brutal article about Woods.  He said, “Tiger Woods is a man whose life is built around greed and a ruthless, monomaniacal obsession with winning. No wonder he’s obsessed with acquiring mistresses. The man has always had everything he ever wanted. Who is going to tell him no? When I read about Woods, all I see is stories about when he’s going to return to the PGA Tour, how he’s going to rehab his image (as though it’s all about image and nothing else) why he’s likely to come back better than ever. No one mentions that this was one twisted, greedy human being….”  Well, after that he just got plain mean. 

Woods has shown himself to be an shallow and selfish individual.  He will rarely sign autographs for his fans, will do anything for money from selling cars to cell phones,  and yet gives little back to the world that has made him countless millions (He does have a charitable foundation but almost all of the money it gives away is raised from others).  However, it is the revelations of his habitual infidelities that are the most disturbing.  In retrospect he never really tried very hard to conceal his string of mistresses and was seen in public with them on many occasions.  It’s called entitlement.  A sub-consciously held belief that one somehow deserves privledge and is not held up to the same social mores as other lesser mortals.  The pharaohs, kings and emperors of the past and the CEOs, rock stars, movie stars and sports superstars of today all suffer from the disease of entitlement.  King Solomon admitted he had the illness.  Ecc.2:10 10  “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure...”  Solomon in his wealthiest moment, was in his most bankrupt state of mind.  He came to the place where he lamented, “It was all vanity and grasping for the wind…therefore I despised my life.”  I place Woods in the same category.  Whatever the eye of the Tiger desired, he took. 

Of course it is not entirely his fault.  We idolize people like him, put them on a pedestal and require nothing in return but to watch them perform like circus animals.  He’s a liar, a cheat, a bad husband and poor example of a father but all you hear is, “When is Tiger coming back, the Tour needs him, he is such an amazing golfer.” 

I really did get that voicemail.  And, yes I know it was actually an angry Tiger Woods fan that thinks, that of all people, a preacher shouldn’t be picking on the poor misunderstood Tiger Woods.  I’m sorry, I do not feel the least bit of pity for Woods.  The scripture says “…surely your sin will find you out”…or in Tiger’s case “Shirley your sin will find you out.”   Now, I really do hope he learns from his folly and comes to a saving knowledge of Christ.  Without Christ not one of us are one ounce better than him.  Which brings me to my real point.  When are we going to learn what Jesus said, “You shall know them by their fruit…” in other words, do not be taken in by peoples gifting and talent.  We all need to be measured by our character not our talent. 

 When are we going to get this?  Bill Clinton philandered around his entire presidency, took advantage of young women in his employ, and the American voter shrugged and said, “Well at least the economy is doing well.”  The principle here goes for everyone of us.  We are only as good as our character and morality.  How good a golfer, or surgeon, or preacher we might be is irrelevant if there is nothing more behind the us than talent.  When we stand before our Creator and hear the words, “Well done good and faithful servant,” it will have everything to do with our character, integrity, and faithfulness and nothing to do with our golf handicap.

What they are no one really knows, but here is their story.  In the 1930′s an eccentric and gifted animator at Warner Bros. created Yakko, Wakko and Dot.  From the beginning, however, these three were labeled too wacky, too wild and just too zany for prime time.  Their comical genius was too far ahead of the times.  Behind top-secret closed-door meetings, the studio executives decided to lock them up immediately in the Warner Bros. Water Tower. They remained imprisoned in that water tower for over 60 years, when in 1993, they escaped!  As soon as they got out, the Warner Siblings immediately began to amuse themselves by wreaking havoc upon an unsuspecting world.  The Animaniacs may be gone but they have been replaced by the Egomaniacs.  Also set in Burbank the cast has escaped from late night television and they too are wreaking havoc on an unsuspecting public.

Yakko is being played by Jay Leno, Wakko by Conan O’Brien and Dot by NBC.  If you haven’t been following the story…well good for you.  But here it is anyway.  Five years ago NBC promised Late Show host Conan (Wakko) the Tonight Show when his current contract came up.  In 2009 they delivered and moved his show into the coveted 11:35pm EST time slot.  They moved Leno’s (Yakko) show to prime time at 10pm EST.  After 6 months Yakko’s ratings were down 14% and Wakko’s a whooping 49%.  The execs down at NBC (Dot) decided to give Yakko back the 11:35 slot (for only 1/2 hour) and move Wakko to 12:05.  Yakko agreed, Wakko went kamikaze.  He was not willing to give up his dream job and would go down in flames if he had to. Unwilling to budge NBC bought out Conan’s contract for $33 million to him personally.  Never mind that he put 200 people out of a job, many who had fllowed him from NYC to LA to work on the show.  It’s a matter of principle, right?  The public (94%) for some strange reason sees him as the victim.  Yes, the poor baby, how is he ever going to live on $33 million?

Ego is a Latin word that means “I myself”.  Pop culture is driven by it and the world watches on and is mesmerized by it.  Award shows like the Oscars are the quintessential example.  Celebrities gather together in in the most self-congratulatory way that it is sickening.  Yet billions, not millions tune in to swoon over the most shallow, self-indulgent and immoral members of the human race.

Young people in particular are so taken with pop culture’s enormous cast of Egomaniacs that they want to be just like them.  In fact they will line up by the 1000′s to be the next American Idol.  Last time I checked an idol was a bad thing.  I am sure the bible must say something about it somewhere?  Scripture warns us not to think more highly of oneself than you ought.  Jesus said, “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:11).

Here we have a disaster in Haiti that has left 100,000 dead and millions homeless and yet the airwaves are still preoccupied with whether Yakko or Wakko is right.  If you don’t give a rip…you have made the right choice.  It’s just TV!  It doesn’t matter, it’s not even real life…none of it.  “Wait a minute, aren’t you one of them Pastor Mark?  Isn’t your ugly mug all over the screen too?” I ask myself almost every day why I do what I do.  The day I answer,” for I myself,” I am in big trouble.  God said, “I will share My glory with no man”.

Anytime any of us do anything solely for recognition, credit or to be noticed by others we have stepped into the Egomaniac trap.  Make no mistake about “the meek will inherit the earth”. We all have to ask ourselves the question, what reward do we really want in life? To be noticed by man or to be noticed by God?  One reward lasts for Andy Warhol’s famous 15 minutes of fame.  The other for eternity.  Take your pick.

Marriage is never easy.  I do not know anyone who has not struggled at one point or another.  Billy Graham was once asked, “Have you ever considered divorce?”  He humorously answered, “Divorce?  Never.  Murder, many times but never divorce”.

The greatest marriage success secret of all time is found in Ephesians 5.  So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. (Eph 5:28) Three times in 3 verses Paul tells husbands to love their wives.  What is he driving at?  What could he be trying to say?  There must be a message here somewhere!  The simple fact is this, a wife’s single greatest need is to be loved, cherished and honored by her husband.  If men could learn to treat their wives like they are the most precious thing in the world they would see amazing results.  When men tell me they don’t know how, I tell them they do.  All you have to do is treat her the same way your do that $20,000 motorcycle in the garage.  You baby it and run your fingers across the gas tank like it is a million dollar Stratovarius violin.  Just treat her the same way.

On the other hand, Paul never tells the woman to love her husband (although I suppose she can if she wants).  Instead he says, Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she RESPECTS her husband.  (Eph 5:33)  What’s that all about?  Well, a man’s greatest need is not love but respect.  Ladies, us men are completely ego driven.  We want you to think we are the most amazing thing since Gucci handbags.  You know; smart, talented, hardworking, good looking…basically we just want you to think we are AWESOME!  I am really not kidding.  Respect is a man’s greatest need.  Any marriage that gets into the groove of love and respect is a marriage that will stand the test of time.

I can honestly say that I love Kathy more today than I ever have.  We have had our rough patches just like any other marriage, but never once have I regretted the decision I made 28 year ago.  And I have always felt her respect…even when she was mad at me for doing something stupid.  Which is basically every day.  No, Paul got it right 2000 years ago. Love and respect is the ultimate marriage success secret.  Ignore it at your own peril.

The history of Haiti is a complicated and sad story.  The island of Hispaniola is shared with the Dominican Republic.  Haiti is the French side, the DR is the Spanish side.  The indigenous population was almost completely wiped out by European diseases centuries ago.  The island was entirely repopulated with African slaves.  On the Western side, France created a major sugar, rum, coffee and cotton center.  By the end of the 18^th century, France had enslaved more than 500,000 Africans to work in their territory.   After a successful slave rebellion early in the 19th century, the former slaves defeated the French.  Most whites were killed or expelled from the country.  Ultimately France recognized Haitian independence in exchange for 150 million francs in 1825.

The heavy deforestation of Haiti for the coffee and sugar plantations exposed the country to immense erosion turning much of this formerly fertile country into a wasteland.  The damage can be clearly seen by aerial photographs.  The boundary between Haiti and the Dominican Republic used to be called the green line as the deforestation literally followed the border.  Today it is only a little less evident.

The Haitian religion of Voodoo has not served them well either as many believe life is simply predestined by the Voodoo spirits called lwa.  Early Catholicism tried to discourage the practice of Voodoo but today the two religions are often practiced together.  Recently Evangelical Christianity has made great inroads in Haiti.  15% of Haitians are now evangelical Christians.  7 of the 11 radio stations are owned by Christian organizations.  1,000′s of missionaries are in Haiti already, although sadly many will have died in this earthquake. 

As the world reacts Christian organizations will be amongst the first to be on the ground in response.  Church of the Rock will be partnering with some of these groups.  I will post back shortly as to who we will be working with and how you can get involved.  In the meantime let us pray for this nation in crisis.

UPDATE:

Church of the Rock will be working with Franklin Graham’s organization Samaritan’s Purse.  They have already sent a team with 4,800 blankets, 160 rolls of plastic, 2,200 solar-powered flashlights, two community water filters capable of filtering 40,000 litres of drinking water per day, 1,152 jerry cans, and 1,440 hygiene kits.  A team of 60 volunteers have been mobilized to help distribute the materials.  A second team will land in Haiti on Thursday. It will include six doctors from a medical ministry in Ecuador, who served with Samaritan’s Purse following a deadly earthquake in Peru in 2007.  Other relief will be sent as funds are available.  The government of Canada has said they will match every dollar donated.  (They have not confirmed what organizations qualify but at the moment it looks like SP will)  If anyone wants to donate they can do it to Samaritan’s Purse directly http://www.samaritanspurse.ca/ or through Church of the Rock http://www.churchoftherock.ca/.  Just hit the Donate Online link.  Monies donated in Missions General box will go to Haiti relief until the end of the month.

Here is the information on how to volunteer.

Current Work Opportunities

To effectively respond when a disaster occurs, we need immediate communication with potential volunteers. We maintain a list of people throughout Canada who are interested in responding to natural disasters both internationally and within North America.

Samaritan’s Purse relies on volunteers to carry out relief operations, and we provide the equipment, materials and leadership needed to respond.

Our disaster Relief Teams bring tangible help in a time of great need. We seek committed volunteers who have and heart to serve, and understand the mission of Samaritan’s Purse to go and help people in Christ’s Name.

Join our Contact List

To effectively respond when a disaster occurs, we need immediate communication with potential volunteers. We maintain a list of people throughout Canada who are interested in responding to natural disasters both internationally and within North America.

If you would like to be added to our contact list, send the following information to info@samaritan.ca:

• Your name
• Address
• Phone Number
• Email Address

If you are part of our contact list, you will be informed whenever Samaritan’s Purse has a relief opportunity and is in need of volunteers. You are under no obligation to sign up for a team.

How to Volunteer

To join a Relief Team, you must complete and submit the Application Forms below. You are welcome to do this in advance, should you want to join a team when a disaster occurs. **If you are interested in signing up as a church or group, please contact Samaritan’s Purse directly for further information.

Application Forms

• Relief Teams Application

Contact & Submission Info

Samaritan’s Purse – Canada
ATTN: Relief Teams

20 Hopewell Way NE
Calgary, AB T3J 5H2

Phone: 1.800.663.6500
Fax: (403) 250.6567
Email: info@samaritan.ca

Please take the time to review our privacy policy.

I’m not much of a beach person but there was something strangely satisfying about lying on Miami Beach in 30C heat whilst the mercury plunged to -30C back home.  What I really like doing when I venture near the water is checking out the boats.  Those who know me know my passion for watercraft.  I never own less than 3 boats and sometimes my fleet goes up to 5.  Most of them are project boats that need a little TLC and sometimes a lot of it.  The boats down in parts of Florida are in a whole different category.  Sixty footers, 90′s and many 120′ yachts grace their harbours.  This is as close as I got to getting aboard one.  I sat here by this 125′ Palmer-Johnson for 10 minutes before a crew member told me to take a hike.  Hey, they shouldn’t have set the chair out so inviting-like if they didn’t want me  to sit in it.

As I stood gawking at these giant multi-million dollar toys of the rich and famous I casually commented to Kathy that these things make me feel poor.  She laughed and said, “not me!  We have so much more than most of these people. We have a marriage that has lasted 28 years, 3 grown kids that all love God, and all our real needs are always meet.”  Man, I hate it when she is right.  Which is most of the time.  Its like the old saying, If a man is walking alone in the forest, and he says something, and there’s no woman there to disagree with him. Is he still wrong?

When Jesus said, blessed are the poor he was not talking about poverty.  There is nothing blessed about people starving to death.  He was talking about being poor in spirit…humble and contrite under the mighty hand of God.  With wealth often comes a certain pride and self-reliance that feels it doesn’t need God.  Paul said in 1 Cor.1:26  “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” This is not to say they are not invited, because they are.  What it means is that too often they do not accept the call to follow Christ.  Jesus made that clear in the story of the rich young ruler.  He invited him to sell all and become one of His disciples.  But he walked away with his head low “because he had much riches.”  Jesus told his disciples, “how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God.”

It got me thinking, maybe if I was born into wealth and it was me aboard that yacht, would I have given my life to follow Christ?  My less sanctified side still says, well I would at least like to give it a try and find out.  But, my wiser side says, No, Kathy is right, we have everything that really matters in life. So in a way being poor in spirit is what makes us truly rich.

There is one day however that has gone down as one of our brightest moments in human history.  It was a midnight clear on Christmas Eve in 1914.  It was just 6 months into the bloody conflict in Europe which later became known as WWI.  The Germans had been in a fierce battle with the British and French on the battlefields of Flanders.  Both sides were dug in, safe in muddy, man-made trenches six to eight feet deep that seemed to stretch forever. 

The miracle began as the Germans set up hundreds of miniature Christmas trees (tannenbaums) lit by candles.  They followed by singing, Stille nacht, heilige nacht  (Silent night, holy night).  When the song finished, the men in the British trenches actually applauded their enemy and responded with The first Nowell.  Then the Germans came back with O Tannenbaum, followed by O come all ye faithful by the British. Yes, right from the trenches of the war to end all wars, instead of exchanging gunfire they were exchanging Christmas carols across the battlelines.

The miracle did not end there.  From the German side the words came, “English, come over!  You no shoot, we no shoot.”  British, French, Belgian and German soldiers for miles climbed out of the trenches and meet in the middle; “no man’s land”.  The first order of business was to bury the dead who had been previously unreachable because of the conflict.  Then, they exchanged gifts.  Chocolate cake, cognac, postcards, newspapers, tobacco.  The English brought out a soccer ball and a game ensued using the the spiked German helmets as goal posts.  To this day both sides claim that they won.  Of all things that matters the least.

The cessation of hostilities lasted in some locations through Boxing Day and in other locations into the New Year. Ultimately however, the ceasefire came to an end when the horrified generals on both sides ordered their troops back to war. For the next few days many shot their weapons in the air instead of at their enemies, who had now become their new found friends.  Do you remember the movie from the sixties?  Suppose the gave a war and nobody came?

I have always claimed that the only reason people hate each other is because they really don’t know each other.  With the influence of the message of the gospel in the world, I think we should be doing a whole lot better than we are.  But for one brief moment in the history of man, the common soldier, with the spirit of Christmas in their heart, put into practice the glorious Christmas message of “Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men.”

May those eternal words ring in your heart this Christmas season.  God bless and Merry Christmas from my house to yours.  Pastor Mark

As Dr Suess tells the story, because the Grinch hated Christmas he stole all the toys and trees from Whoville thinking that would put an end to it.  To his surprise, come Christmas morning what did he hear?  

Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?”
“It came with out ribbons! It came without tags!”
“It came without packages, boxes or bags!”
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.”
“Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”

Today the Grinch has come up with a new strategy to steal Christmas that is working a whole lot better.  Instead of depriving people of the trappings of Christmas, we have been over-indulged instead.  Christmas has reached a whole new level of excess.  Many of us run around buying gifts that nobody wants, with money we don’t have, for people we don’t like.  Amidst the parties, the decorations, the lights, the turkey dinners, the eggnog and obligatory gift giving most Canadians will not be able to find even one hour to attend a Christmas church service and thank God for the gift of His Son.  Many Churches have stopped even having Christmas services altogether. 

It has paved the way for the politically correct police to waltz in and quite literally take Christ out of Christmas.  The cards now say, Seasons Greetings.  Listen carefully, Christmas shopping is only referred to on the news as Holiday shopping.  Even the lowly Christmas tree has been renamed the Holiday tree.  Or in the case of the Manitoba Legislative building…the Muliti-cultural tree.  Whatever the Sam Hill that means.  Did you hear that the Supreme Court ruled there can be no Nativity scene may be erected in Ottawa?  Oh, not for religious reasons…they just couldn’t find three wisemen in the entire nation’s capital.  But, they had no trouble filling the stable with jackasses.  Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

One city, Newport Virginia has actually renamed Christmas and is calling it HollyDazzle.  The Christmas tree is now the Tree of Illumination.  And the theme song…Frosty the Snow Man!  Does it get more overt than that?  I love the story about a woman who called a church with a sign that said Jesus is the Reason for the Season.  She chided the pastor, “do you people have to drag religion into everything?”

Oh, I think the Grinch is very much alive and well.  His strategy is working far better than it ever has before.  In George Orwell’s 1984 he feared the world would be controlled by those who would inflict pain on the population.  Aldous Huxley in A Brave New World believed they would be controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.  He wrote “(they) failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions”.

What would happen if we as Christians began to lead the way by simplifying Christmas?  Instead of excessive gift giving we could find a way to serve the poor.  While we are attending the office party we could offer to lead in some Christmas carols.  Even rank heathens will sing these songs…everybody knows the words.  Then, we could look for subtle opportunities to share the true meaning of Christmas.  If you are looking for a Christmas service to attend, we have two of them Christmas Eve.  One at 6 PM, the other at 8 PM.  Why not plan your festivities around it.  We do.  We invite the family over for dinner only after they have come to church with us.  It’s not a hard sell.  Deep down they know that Jesus is the reason for the season.   Merry Christmas everyone and remember wise men still seek him today!

There are so many powerful messages in the movie.  The abuse of power for one.  Frost asks the question, “Are you really saying the President can do something illegal?”  Nixon, “I’m saying that when the President does it, that means it’s not illegal!”  Wow!  Over the years a number of US presidents have clearly acted like they believe this, the revelation here is that one of them actually admitted it publicly.  Lord Acton once said, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.  As long as we have people in positions of power we will have people abusing that power.

For me however, the defining moment of the movie was when Nixon finally broke down and admitted he made grievous mistakes unbefitting the office of the Presidency, and that he let down the American people.  The sense of guilt from the continually lying and denying felt almost palpable on the screen.  Becoming too heavy for him to bear any longer he consciously decided to lay himself bare and face the possible derision of the world.  

More often than not we characterize guilt only from a negative perspective.  You’ve heard the jokes…

A man calls his Jewish mother in Florida: “Mom, how are you?”

MOTHER, “Not too good, I’ve been very weak.”

SON, “Why are you so weak?”

MOTHER, “Because I haven’t eaten in 38 days.”

SON, “That’s terrible. Why haven’t you eaten in 38 days?”

MOTHER, “Because I didn’t want my mouth should be full if you called.”

Guilt, however, can have a profoundly meaningful role in our lives as well.  What would our world look like if no one every felt guilt or remorse for their actions?  It would be a cruel and violent place indeed.  In a way, guilt is the gift that keeps on giving.  The guilt of our actions haunts us until we can come clean and confess it to someone… sometimes to anyone.  The sense of relief that comes is clearly liberating. 

Far from being negative, Godly grief is one of our most important gifts.  It nudges us to that place of repentance where we find God’s greatest gift; grace.  2Cor 7:10  For godly sorrow (guilt) produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow (guilt) of the world produces death.  Why anyone would want to go through life carrying the guilt of the past and the weight of sin is beyond me.  Never mind the eternal price of sin, the temporal price is far too high as well.  Un-atoned guilt produces shame and condemnation that can last a lifetime.  When Christ died on the cross He made a way for all of us to unload the sack of guilt that most of us have been carrying around way too long.  Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  If you haven’t checked your baggage lately, maybe now would be a good time.  This is one bag that if don’t unpack it, it could leave you on a guilt trip that could last forever.

If there is a Goliath today in the lives of most men it is Internet pornography.  70% of adult men admit to regularly viewing Internet porn.  I suspect there are a whole lot more that don’t admit it.  Until recently it was only a few of us religious prudes that were warning of the inherent dangers of pornography.  I mean after all, it’s just a little harmless fun, right?  Today more and more psychologists are starting to warn of the potential damage pornography is inflicting on our world.  Experts say men who frequently view porn develop unrealistic expectations of women’s appearance and behavior, and have difficulty forming and sustaining genuine relationships.  Mark Schwartz, director of the Masters and Johnson clinic in St. Louis, Mo., says porn not only causes men to objectify women—seeing them as an assemblage of breasts, legs and buttocks—but also leads to a dependency on visual imagery for arousal.  Men, both single and married are allowing this counterfeit world of sexuality to twist how they view their spouse (or future spouse that each day becomes less likely to find, as their expectations grow increasingly unrealistic).

A survey of divorce lawyers say 2/3 believe online pornography now plays a significant role in the majority of divorce cases.  A whooping 15% of all men admit that Internet porn has taken over their lives and is negatively affecting their day to day functionality.  There was a time when men had to go out of their way to seek out pornography; mail orders that came in brown paper wrappers or late night visits to the Adult book store.  All that has changed.  Goliath has come to us.  Soft-porn is now regular fare on evening television.  Even daytime television has become highly sexualized.  2.5 billion porn emails go out every year.  Banner ads beckon us on almost every website.  And we have taken the bait.  A shocking quarter of all Internet searches worldwide are looking for porn.  The Internet is the crack cocaine of sexual addiction.

Make no mistake about it, this is not a grey area.  “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  (Matt 5: 28)  What can men do about it?  First, they need to tell someone.  Unlike David, I am yet to meet anyone who has defeated this giant by themselves.  They make a promise to themselves (and sometimes to God) and then fall right back into it during a weak moment.  The scripture says, “confess your sin one to another”.   Bringing the battle to the light is the only real hope for victory.  Like AA, find someone with whom you can be truly accountable.  Second, put a block on your computer and have your accountability partner hold the unlock code.  Honesty is key though.  Last week I suggested this to a struggling man and he told me he did that but he found a way around it.  He was shocked when I suggested that the next step was to get rid of the computer altogether.  It is no different than an alcoholic who keeps a bottle on his kitchen shelf where it tempts him everyday.  Third, is prayer.  Jesus said, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.” (Mark 14:38)  You would be surprised how interacting with the Lord in prayer when faced with temptation can bring instant victory.  When David defeated Goliath he never tried to do it in his own strength.  “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”  1 Sam 17:4  Internet pornography is every man’s battle.  It is time for Christian men everywhere to rise up and kill this giant, before it kills them.

The devil’s proven approach has always been to take the youngest.  Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Matt 2:16

It’s a simple strategy; target the youngest while they are most defenseless and you determine what future (if any) they have.  Hitler established his Hitler Youth Movement in 1922 as a paramilitary arm of the Nazi party.  Weapons training was given to children sometimes as young as 10 years old.  By 1936 there were 5 million members.  Hitler’s murderous march across Europe could never have happened without having first captured the impressionable minds of an entire generation while they were still youth.

Youth today are still Satan’s primary target.  Music about sex, violence and suicide fill their Ipods.  Peer pressure to pierce, tattoo and lose one’s virginity are at extraordinary levels.  And many parents are frankly just clued out.  “I have no idea what Jimmy does on the Internet all night long?”  Well, why don’t you find out Mommy-head in-the-sand!

Like my observation of the kids on the streets at night…it is a parental issue.  Parents need to engage their children in meaningful conversation through every stage of development.  If we miss even a few years because we are distracted climbing the corporate ladder or being preoccupied by our own self-actualization we chance putting our own children at risk.  No one is immune from the danger.  Before there was a Billy Graham there was a preacher named Billy Sunday.  At the end of his life he said, “My greatest regret is that I won thousands to Christ but lost my own children.”  He blew it!  Our first and greatest responsibility is always our children.

Our children are now all single young adults.  We engage them in conversation regarding dating, marriage, pre-marital sex, youth culture, music, the risks of drugs and alcohol.  Far from tuning us out, they tune in.  They are no less curious than anyone else and want to talk about it.  They are liberated from the peer pressure by being able to process it with people who have been there as well, albeit in a less complex age.

A couple of years ago we decided we as a church were going to be more intentional with reaching the next generation.  We launched a church-wide initiative we call The Amazing Journey.  It is more about equipping parents to reach their children then us reaching them.  We do father/son, mother/daughter, father/daughter and mother/son events.  We bring in some of the best known speakers on parenting from Focus on the Family and other groups.  We invested 1.5 million dollars to expand our Youth and Childrens’ ministry facility.  Our children’s ministry called KidzRock is the biggest in all of Canada.

We are now partnering with inner city ministries to reach the 10′s of 1000′s of at risk children in Winnipeg’s core.  If the strategy to take the youngest works for the Devil, it only makes sense to do the same and reach them first for God.  We are determined not to lose this generation to the world.  We cannot do it alone as a church, we need the parents of our nation to join us in this Amazing Journey.  How about you Mom?  Dad?  Are you in or are you out?

The price for our freedom today has come at a very high cost.  In WWI  66,665 Canadians lost their lives.  On the battlefronts in France and Belgium, it was Canadians that decided the final outcome of the war. The victory of Passchendaele Ridge in the autumn of 1917 alone cost 16,000 Canadian casualties. We have only one surviving WWI veteran still living.  John Babcock is 109 years old and living in Spokane Washington.

In WWII Canadians were again instrumental in deciding to final outcome.  46,998 lost their lives and 55,000 were injured.  We are grateful for the American contribution which tilted the odds in the Allies favour, but they never joined in active European conflict until 1943.  Canada had been there since 1939.  It was Canadian troops that liberated Holland in May 1945.

There is a war monument on Winnipeg’s Memorial Blvd. that says,” They gave their tomorrow, that we might have our today”.   I am anything but a warmonger, but I am concerned that this generation’s desire for a conflict-free world makes them indifferent to the price of peace.  Jesus himself said,   “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”  John 15:13  Those who have fought and died for Canadian freedom have demonstrated the ultimate expression of biblical love.  Enjoy your day off.  But please, please remember to remember.

I grew up in a chuch that did not teach tithing.  In fact, I had never even heard of it until I was 23 years old.  I remember the first time I heard the pastor go on about the importance of the ‘tithe’.  I thought, well if it’s important to God, then that’s good enough for me.  So for the next few weeks I wore a necktie to church and felt pretty dang proud of myself.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered I had misheard him and he was actually talking about the importance of the ‘tithe’ not the ‘tie’.  “The tithe?  What the heck is a tithe?”  “10%?”  ”What’s he been smoking?  I’m not giving the church 10% of  anything?”   It was funny how my pious obedience turned into abject rebellion when it turned out it was about my money.  In retrospect I am not sure why it was such a big deal.  I barely made any money anyway.  My tithe might have been all of $10 a week.    

Because of my personal journey I am empathetic when I hear how Christians struggle with the concept of tithing.  I understand what a huge mental block it is for so many.  But, because of the personal experience with tithing over the last 27 years, I am also passionate about telling people of the rewards of giving to God what the bible says already belongs to him.   

‘And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S. It is holy to the LORD.  Lev 27:30

Tithing requires something of a spiritual epiphany for most;  a breakthrough in their thinking that this isn’t God’s plan to punish them, but a way to provide an avenue for financial breakthrough for them.  I often ask our congregation this question.  “How many of you can live better on 90% of your income than you could before on 10%?”  The number of hands that go up is astounding.  That’s because it is one of God’s most enduring principles.

Those who argue that tithing is an Old Testament law miss the point entirely.  Tithing existed both before (Gen 14:20) and after the Law (Heb 7:6).  The point is that if we will honor Him with our finances to advance His work in the earth, He will bless us financially in return. 

Mal 3:10  Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.

There are so many terrible investments we can make with our money today; banks that pay a pittance in interest and stocks that can become worthless in a day.  God on the other hand invites us to lay up treasures in heaven, and when we do, He steps into our finances in way that can turn around even the most desperate of situations.  When people object  and tell me, “But you don’t understand, we can’t afford to tithe.”  I always respond, “No you don’t understand, you can’t afford not to.”

What I am saying here is, I guess I need to admit that I am not terribly aware when I have offended people.   I do understand that if I go on national TV every week for half an hour and talk about sin, or God, or hell, or politics, or homosexuality, I’m going to offend at least a  few people.  And sometimes a whole whack of them.  Now, I don’t do it on purpose, although I probably enjoy far more than I should.

In the New Testament the word for offense is ‘scandalon’ from where we get the English word scandalize.  A ‘scandalon’ was a trap that that would be set for an animal.  Once it’s paw was caught in the scandalons jaws it was trapped and would probably die there.  Offense is exactly the same.  Once we become offended by something someone says or does, WE are the ones who have set our foot in the trap.  Like the old coot behind the wheel in my illustration more often than not the offender has gone merrily on his way. 

We live in a hyper-sensitive world.  People are offended by everything.  Comedians like David Letterman and Conan O’Brien spend their whole lives apologising to Hollywood’s delicate geniuses who are the butt of their jokes.  They are happy to do it because every scandal (scandalon) only boosts their ratings.  It is the one who is offended that becomes the real loser.  Bitterness and unforgiveness are the world’s most destructive forces.    How many families do you know that will not speak to one another because of some stupid petty disagreement that in the greater scheme of things has zero value?  Life is too short to carry bitterness for even one minute.

Then there is another kind of offence that is even worse.  I call the second-hand offence.  When we become offended for someone else…who incidently may not be offended at all.  When I tell Newfie jokes I get a raft of angry letters.  But never from the Newfies (who probably came up with the joke in the first place) but from others who are offended for them.  Proverbs 26:17  says, He who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a dog by the ears.   Grab a dog by the ears and A) you realize there is no good way to let go, you’re into it now and B) no matter what you do, you are going to get bit.  Pick up someone else’s offence and… well you get the picture.

There is a simple way to deal with offence that can  actually change your life.  Learn to forgive everybody all the time.  Really, it is a decision.  I have been doing it for years.  Even if someone says something really hurtful, and trust me they do (you should read my mail bag) I have learned to forgive everybody all the time.  It is completely freeing!  You don’t lose a moments sleep planning a murder you will probably never commit anyway.  If more people would live by this simple principle our world would be much better place.

In Matthew 22 Jesus likened the Kingdom of Heaven to a wedding feast.  The invited guests failed to show up because catch this…they all went to work (Mt 22:5).  So the servants went into the highways and byways and invited a bunch of bums.  They of course showed up and ate all the food  because they have lots of time, bums don’t have jobs.  I realize there is a far deeper meaning here but you don’t want to miss the fact that the Kingdom of Heaven is a party. 

In the Old testament they were required to cease from their labors seven times a year and have a party.  The bible calls them Feasts and their purpose was to worship God but they were still parties.  Lots of food, friends, family and fun.  The very first thing we do when we get to Heaven is go to a party.  It is called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  I think it was Oz Guinness who said one of the greatest sins of the church has been to bore God’s people.  I agree!  The church should be in celebration mode every time we open the doors. 

In the 1920′s Aimee Semple McPherson built a church in Los Angeles called Angelus Temple.  It held 5300 people and was full several times on a Sunday.  Hollywood producers used to slip in on Sundays to get ideas for their movies.  The church should be leading the way in creativity not following decades behind.

The scripture says that we are created in the image of God.  It is impossible to even describe the level of creativity possessed by a God we actually call the Creator.  The heavens and earth and everything in it, the complexity of the biological DNA, the physical properties of the universe, the psychological construct of man and on and on was created by Him. 

Surely, some of that creativity has rubbed off on His children?  It clearly has, look arond at man’s accomplishments.  Why then is it so stifled in the church?  Why do Sunday services look like they came out of a celestial cookie cutter?  I have preached in India, and Africa, and South America, and Europe, and Central America and have been amazed at how church services look the same wherever I go.  Same music, same format, same blah, blah blah from the preacher… Oh yeah, I was preaching wasn’t I?  Oh well, never mind that part.

It might be a oxymoron but in our church we have worked hard at having fun.  Anyone who has ever attended our services knows we take God and his word very seriously but we are having big fun along the way.  We are putting together a video of some of the music we have done on Sunday mornings.  Next week I am going to post the video for you to have a look at, so check back next Wednesday.  In the meantime relax and try to have some fun.

Of course the devil doesn’t really look like that, nor does he carry a pitchfork, but the phantom menace he is.  I cannot even think of a better description than that for our adversary the Devil.  It’s quite perfect.  Like a phantom he cannot be seen and he is the menace at the centre of all mankind’s ills.  I think the greatest strategy of the devil is to try to convince people that he doesn’t exist in the first place.  In Canada 82% still believe in God but only 34% believe in a literal devil.  That is a major disconnect.  If people do not accept the existence of the Devil, then God is going to get a lot of blame for things He hasn’t done.  The insurance companies have been doing it for years.  What do they call a catastrophe?  An act of God.   

I am surprised that so many cannot accept the possibility that a real devil is loose on the earth.  If there is no devil, how do you explain Hitler or Pol Pot or Joesph Stalin who all were responsible for killing millions?  How do you explain the current genocides in Rwanda, Darfur and Somalia where the killing is done face to face, neighbour against neighbour.  If the human heart is that dark, then there is no hope of the human race. 

Just before the betrayal of Jesus the scripture says, And Satan entered Judas.  To me that little verse speaks volumes about the real problem with the human condition.  Too many of us are willing pawns of the Phantom Menace.   A little lust, a little pride, a little greed goes a long way once it takes root in the heart of man.  Think about it, if he can get spouses blaming each other for the strife he stirred up in their relationship maybe he can end the marriage.  If he can implant greed into the heart of big business it is just a matter of time before entire nations can collapse economically.  If he can get people groups to hate each other enough to kill each other, then he can just sit back and watch the carnage. 

One would think that a creature like Satan would want the publicity for himself but maybe he is too smart to let his own pride ruin his guise.  If people figure out who it is that is behind their problems, he loses much of his effectiveness. 

Deception has always been the most deadly weapon in Satan’s arsenal.  The bible teaches us to try to recognise when it is the devil that is at work.   1 Peter 5:8 & 9 says,  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.  The devil shouldn’t scare any of us.  He really only has as much power as we give him.  People do almost all of his dirty work.  If we begin to recognise when he is at work, especially in us, we just need to refuse to cooperate.  As strange as this sounds, our world would be a much better place if more people just believed in the devil!

Up until the so-called Scopes Monkey Trial in 1926 it was illegal to teach anything other than creationism in American public schools.  The trial was a watershed moment and today not only is creationism not taught in virtually any public schools but evolution is taught as a fact not as a theory.  I would hardly expect the the public school system to do otherwise.  After all, what do secular educators know about creation?  No, my beef is with the vast number of Christians that have bought into the lie.  Professing to be wise, they became fools,  and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man––and birds and four–footed animals and creeping things.  Rom 1:23-24  The apostle Paul was probably talking about idols but the comparison to evolution works perfectly well. 

Many Christians are in a way embarrassed by creationism.  Having been bombarded by secular thinking for years, the idea of the heavens and the earth being created in six days and man coming from the dust of the ground, seems fairy tale-like to say the least.  It seems to fly in the face of the mountains of scientific evidence that the earth is billions of years old and that the species all seem to have flowed one from another.  The big problem of course is there is nothing objective about today’s science.  All the evidence they collect is now interpreted based on the presupposition that evolution is a fact.  It is actually a belief system; a kind of secular faith that many spend an enormous amount of time and energy trying to defend.  Never mind that after all the years and the millions of dollars spent, they still have never found a single convincing ‘transitional form’ (a sub-species that clearly links one species to another).  If various creatures evolved one into another, then these transitional forms should have been discovered somewhere along the line, but they haven’t been.  The lame explanation is called ‘punctuated evovlution’.  Meaning, that the species didn’t gradually evolve, but jumped from one form to another so quickly that the transitional forms are too few to be found in the fossil record.  Oh please, what do they take us for?  

I’ve always contended that evolutionists have far more faith than creationists.  They need to believe that a lifeless planet floating in the void of nothingness spontaneously exploded into biological life.  Then out of the primordial ooze, driven by upwardly mobile ambition, we just kept on upgrading from one celled, to multi-celled, to aquatic, to land mammal, to primate, to humanoid, to land line, to cell phone, to Blackberry, to Bluetooth…Wow, now that is an extraordinary level of faith.  

Let’s face it, it is a whole lot easier to believe that a supreme God used his supernatural power and created the whole thing. It is not hard to see what many are now calling “intelligent design”.  It is all just too magnificent to be an accident.  We are amazing creatures that can love and care for each other, think abstractly and live in an almost incomprehensible universe that can meet every human physical need we can think of.  If science could ever start to get truly honest, they would begin to see all the signs point to an intelligent creator.  Consider this.  Having mapped the human genome they have discovered that all males’ DNA can be traced back to one man around the time of Noah.  Makes sense, we started over again with Noah.  But… all females’ DNA somehow goes back farther.  Remember, Noah’s son’s three wives were not related to Noah.  The female lineage goes all the way back to Eve.  Anthropolegists are well aware of this oddity but never talk about it because they have no explanation.  We do.  The story of the bible has always been reliable. 

If we are going to start questioning the historical and scientific accuracy of the scripture then what else are we going to choose not to believe.  It’s time for Christians to become aware of this amazing owner’s manual we have called the Bible.  All other textbooks pale in comparison.

When I was a newer christian I was part of a group that held a month long 24 hour prayer vigil for a 25 year old young woman dying of cancer.  She confessed every sin known to man and we prayed with every once of faith that seems humanly possible.  She still died.  Many of the group  became so disillusioned they stopped praying for the sick altogether.   Some reacted even worse and were spiritually shipwrecked.  I was in the other camp that decided I was going to become even more vigilant to pray for healing.

I have lost many battles since that day including my father and brother that both died of cancer while I prayed by their bedsides.  I mourn their losses, but I have only increased my resolve to see a breakthrough in healing.  In this church, we have declared war on cancer and are determined to fight till we win.  We receive hundreds of prayer requests every month in our prayer room.  We pray for them one by one.  You would be shocked at how many families are being touched by cancer today.  We hear terrible tales of this relentless disease afflicting the young and the old.   You can’t help but feel their pain when you pray for people by name.

I think it is important to remember ALL healing comes from God.  I have a friend who is an orthopedic surgeon.  He tells me, “Mark, I can’t heal anybody.  All I can do is set the bone and rely on God to heal them”.  I love his humble attitude, but I also think we need to be of the same mind and be open to however God wants to heal.  If someone gets healed by chemo, antibiotics, medical intervention or herbal supplements I am going to give God the praise.  The ultimate goal is healing, I don’t care how we get there.

One evening we called folks forward who had pain in the sciatic nerve.  Of the 30 people that came forward probably 10 got healed.  It was a particularly good night.  One man had been off work for 5 years and the pain was completely gone and has now been able to go back to work.  Another had had a neural stimulator implanted under his skin and in the 8 months since we prayed that night, he has not had to use it once.  He has been completely pain free.  I love to share these stories, but what about the other 20 that did not get healed?  I think there could be any number of reasons why some do not seem to get healed when they receive prayer.  In my experience, we are not likely to figure out why.  I just don’t know why we don’t see results every time.  Anybody that thinks they do is only fooling themselves.  All I know for sure is that God has made it clear in his word that He wants to heal us.   But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. Mt 12:15  And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all. Lu 6:19

For me it is like any battle, the more people you can get on your side the more likely you are to win.  My appeal is for christians everywhere to get into the fight and just keep on asking, keep on seeking and keep on knocking.  I don’t feel any need to MAKE something happen.  We don’t push people down when we pray for them and we don’t pretend they got healed when they clearly didn’t.  God doesn’t need us to lie to protect His reputation.  Jesus said, “And these signs will follow those who believe… they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16:17-18.   Simply put, it is our job to do the praying for the sick, and then, leave the results up to God.

It’s actually a very good question, what in heaven’s name are we doing having church on SUNDAY?  The historical explanation is simple.  The disciples began meeting on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7) as it was the day of Christ’s resurrection.  It also became known as the Lord’s Day (Rev 1:10).  But that doesn’t explain what happen to the seventh day, which God in His Ten Commandments declared as holy.  That’s easy some will say, Christ abolished the Law (Eph 2:15). 

So if the Law is ‘history’, so to speak, then we no longer need to worry about honoring our parents, stealing, murdering or adultery either.  Party on dude!  Not so fast, Jesus gave us the new commandment to love your neighbour which essentially covers the not killing them thing, and stealing from them, or lying to them etc.  The Sabbath is a stickier issue, and what we really need to do is remember what the purpose for it was in the first place.   When it comes to the Sabbath, Jesus was a trouble maker!  He repeatedly healed the sick on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees where so offended by it that they missed entirely the fact that Jesus was literally transforming the quality of life of some really sick people. 

For me the key to the whole thing is found in Mark 2.  Jesus disciples, also trouble makers, were picking grain to eat in the fields on… you guessed it; on Saturday.  Jesus responded to His critics by saying, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath Mark 2:27 

Most tall buildings in Jerusalem today have Sabbath elevators.  They stop at every floor going up and down because an Orthodox Jew will not even push an elevator button on the Sabbath.  I always wonder how we justify the poor slob that has to work on the Sabbath to keep to hydro running so that I can have an effort free ride up to my penthouse.  Glaring hypocrisy is not hard to find in Israel, or in the church today.  This kind of legalistic adherence to the Sabbath day has been going on since before Jesus day (Although I am pretty sure they had no elevators). 

The main purpose of the Sabbath was to give man a break from his labours.  A time to recharge his spirit and to worship God.  The essence of that has never changed.  The New  Testament puts it this way.  One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.  He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it.  Rom 14:5&6  

The way I read it, the actual day doesn’t matter so much as the spirit of the Sabbath which is to cease from ‘business as usual’ and focus on our Creator.  In our culture, the days of the week are increasingly all starting to look the same.  The malls are open, people are at work, kids’ sports are in full swing and many churches are sadly empty.   We may have successfully extricated ourselves from the letter of the Law, but I fear we have forgotten the spirit of it as well. 

So the question is, will we see you in church on Sunday…or Saturday?

It is intriguing to me as to how many scriptures in the Old Testament are devoted to dietary laws.  Pages and pages on what God’s people should eat, how they should prepare the food and what foods are in fact outright forbidden.  You do not have to be a nutritional expert to realise that God’s purpose in it was to keep his people in good health not to make their lives unreasonably miserable.  My question is this; So, the New Testament arrives and all of the sudden these foods have become healthy? 

I am deeply concerned with the prevalance of cancer in our world today.  They now say 1 in 3 will develope cancer in their lifetime.  At 51 years old I am the oldest living male in my family.  My elders have all died of cancer.  Every last one of them.  Last year it was my 53 year old brother of lymphoma.  It gives one good reason for pause.  My wife Kathy are on a journey to good health.  We have looked indepth into this epidemic of cancer and have come to some conclusions.  We realise that no one seems to know for sure what causes cancer but I think we have some good clues. 

When Albert Schweitzer arrived in Africa in 1913 he took note that there was almost no instances of cancer amongst the Congolese.  He eventually concluded that the most obvious factor was the significant difference in diet between Europeans and Africans.  Specifically that the Africans were eating fresh food and wild game and none of the refined, processed, canned or preserved foods of the Europeans. A fascinating modern day study has shown that the instances of breast cancer among Chinese women is very low.  However, once they immigrate to North America it only takes one generation for their breast cancer rate to jump to Western world levels.  This fact pretty much eliminates the genetic predisposition argument as the primary cause. 

The human body is a remarkable creation.  Every several years it completely recreates, replacing every last cell with a new one.  Cancer is simply some of those cells mutating into a degenerated form and then reproducing even more of these unhealthy cells.  Evidence points to the conclusion that these cells have been invaded by something from outside the body that has damaged them.  Something we breathed in (cigarette smoke) or something we ate.  Everyday North American’s are bombarding their bodies with toxins, poisons and preservatives in the food we eat.   The majority of us are overweight and undernourished because we fill our faces with crap all day long.  We are immensely undisciplined in how and what we eat.

There had a to be a very good reason for God’s preoccupation with diet.  God isn’t like the arbitrary father that says, “Cause I said so, that’s why”.  There is always a reason for everything God says and does.  The forbidden foods were less healthy or perhaps even unhealthy.  Scavengers (including pigs) will eat just about anything;  garbage, feces, rotting flesh etc.  Do you really want to be the next one along the line in the food chain?  If that wasn’t enough many of our foods have any nutritional value processed out of them and various suspect chemicals added in their place.  “Stays fresher in the jar than peanut’s in the shell”  What exactly is it that they added to Kraft peanut butter that preserves it for up to a 100 years? 

Christians generally use Peter’s Acts 11 vision of unclean foods as a basis for completely disregarding biblical dietary laws.  “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’  “But I said, ‘Not so, Lord! For nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth.  But the voice answered me again from heaven, ‘What God has cleansed you must not call common.’”  The context has NOTHING to do with Peter needing to change his diet and everything to do with his attitude towards the gentiles. 

In the last few years our family has embraced the biblical diet.  We do not eat pork or shellfish, in fact we have gone even further and don’t eat any red meats.   Unless you are eating wild or organically grown meats then you are feasting on unnatural growth hormones.  Our children are growing taller than us not because they are eating healthier but because they have been bombarded with the bovine growth hormones found in all modern farm produced dairy and meat.  The hormones (and toxins) are stored in the animal fat.  This is what God says about fat.

‘This shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings: you shall eat neither fat nor blood.”  Lev 3:17
“Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘You shall not eat any fat, of ox or sheep or goat.”  Lev 7:23
“And the fat of an animal that dies naturally, and the fat of what is torn by wild beasts, may be used in any other way; but you shall by no means eat it.”  Lev 7:24

We bit the bullet and removed most animal fats from our diet including milk, cheese and butter.   We have reduced processed and refined foods and eat lots and lots of fresh fruit and vegatables.  The next question for us is always , “then where do you get your protein?”  The same place cows get it…from the produce of the ground.  There are all kinds of legumes and beans that are loaded with protein.  Lentils, which we eat a lot of, are 27% protein.  There is much more to this story than I can tell here but you get the picture.  If we really are what we eat, then we really are a bunch of pigs. 

I think we are slowly poisioning ourselves with our diet.  We can pray for people till the cows come home (pun intented) but the rate of cancers are just going to keep on climbing if we don’t make drastic changes to our diet.  Maybe, just maybe God knew what He was talking about when He told the Jews what was good for the bodies to eat.

This summer I bought an outboard motor from a marina just over the border in Minnesota.  I mentioned to the owner I was going to have to pay PST and GST taxes on it when I brought it back across the line.  He immediately offered to write the bill of sale up for less than half the purchase price.  I told him that I was not prepared to do that and I would just assume pay the extra taxes than lie to a border official.  He looked genuinely perplexed when I asked him, “Sure it’s another $250, but what price is virtue?”  Oh, don’t get me wrong, it pained me to pay the extra taxes at the border and I entertained the thought of how easy it would have been all the way home.  I really could not have been discovered.  I paid in cash.  I would have the bill from a ‘reputable’ dealer.  It would have been the perfect crime.  Muhahahahah! Muhahahahah!

Someone once discribed integrity as, ” who you are when no one is looking”.  It is easy to be honest when you are trying to look good or when you know you might otherwise be discovered.  It’s another thing when we know, or at least think, we can get away with it.  I’ll spare you the statistics, but the number of people who cheat on their income taxes, say nothing when undercharged at the cash regisiter or lie to their bosses (“I just called in sick …”) is staggering.  (Take the survey and see how you stack up.  http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/how-honest-are-you/article28518.html Be honest now!)

Proverbs 11:3  says, The integrity of the upright will guide them, But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.  There is a very powerful principle here.  We can let integrity be our guide.  My young-adult children are now discovering that life presents them with many moral dilemmas.  We talk openly about the peer pressure they face almost daily.  When they ask how they decide what to do in a given situation, I always give them the same advice.  Decide every morning that whatever choices you are faced with that day, you are always going to ‘try’ to do the right thing.  In doing so we have actually made 10,000 decisions in advance.  Truth be told (irony intended), we almost always know what the truth is, we are just not sure we want to tell it.  Many times the truth comes with a price tag, but in the greater scheme of things, it is never too expensive. 

No man can purchase his virtue too dear, for it is the only thing whose value must ever increase with the price it has cost us.  Our integrity is never worth so much as when we have parted with our all to keep it.  Metamorphoses 43 BC -17AD Roman Poet

This evening some High School friends dropped by and we were catching up on all the friends each of us had lost track of.  One that came up in the conversation has become a hopeless drunk that can’t keep a job and his younger brother has to pay all his bills and give him an allowance.  On the other hand another manages a billion dollar investment fund and owns a 10 million dollar yacht.  He was spoken of in glowing terms.  It was hard for me to be impressed.  He has always been self-centered, shallow and narcissistic.   I found myself far more interested in taking about his boat than about him.  But then I do like boats and… I don’t like him.  The fact that his boat is worth $9,995,000 more than mine does not make him smarter, better or more significant than me.   Not that I sound jealous or defensive anything.   After all,  he who has the most toys when he dies…still dies. 

God’s words to Joshua as he took the mantle from Moses are very revealing to what should really be important in life.  “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.  BE strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.  Only BE strong and very courageous, that you may observe to DO according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.  Have I not commanded you? BE strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”  (Josh 1:6-9)

Three times God tells Joshua who he should BE (strong and courageous) while he is observing to DO.  The promise is also clear that this is the pattern that leads to true success and prosperity.  The question therefore should not be, “So what do you DO”, but “So, who do you BE?”  Maybe not the best grammar, but clearly that is what really determines our true worth and value. 

The world seems to be obsessed with the likes of Donald Trump and Paris Hilton.  I am too…because I love to make fun of them.  All the money in the world and the poor Donald can’t get a decent haircut.  And Paris, well she’s just an idiot in my books.  Yes, I know Jesus still loves her.  Thank you for reminding me. 

Few of my heroes ever made any money.  They are the Albert Schweitzer’s and Mother Theresa’s of history.  Both gave there lives to serve others.  Schweitzer spending 40 years in the Congo and Mother Theresa even longer in Calcutta, India.   Interesting though that both were awarded Nobel prizes.  What they did,was clearly a reflection of who they were, and even the world took notice. 

We do not have to go to Africa or India to start to BE before we DO.  We simply have to determine who we want to BE regardless of what we do.  If we are in business are we going to BE honest?  If we are employees are we going to BE hard working?  If we have position and power are we going to BE humble?  You get the picture.

NFL fans will know the name Kurt Warner.  He’s lead his team to the Super Bowl 3 times.  Most recently this year with the upstart Arizona Cardinals.  In 1999 and 2001 it was the St Louis Rams.  Both years he won the Most Valuable Player. 

Kurt Warner is far more than a football sensation.  In 1999 Family Magazine named him Father of the Year.  He has 7 Kids.  His youngest Zach is blind and mentally handicapped.  Kurt describes him, “Everything is a struggle for him.  He falls ten times a day and gets up and exudes joy.  For me to get down on myself for throwing an interception would be a joke.”   So when Kurt was Introduced at 1999 NFL banquet as “a football player who is also a Christian.”    He went to the mic and responded, “I would rather BE a Christian, who just happens to play football”.

So, who do you be?

I would hardly be considered by anyone who knows me as a socialist.  I have a profound belief in self-reliance and personal responsibility.  However, I believe the greed motivator of our modern economic system is one of the most egregious forms of evil.  “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”  This was the signature line of Michael Douglas’ character Gordon Gekko as he was shamelessly corrupting his young apprentice played by Charlie Sheen in the 1987 block buster Wall Street. 

Many of us naively believe that people like Gekko don’t really exist and are purely fictional.  In the last few years we have discovered that they are all too real and their unfettered greed has brought the entire world to its economic knees.  I am not even talking about the blatantly criminal acts of the likes of Bernie Madoff who bilked his equally greedy friends out of $50 billion.  No, I am talking about the ones that don’t break any laws and often are the very people who make them.  Try this on for size. 

In 2008 Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sach’s former CEO Henry Paulson was appointed as US Treasury Secretary.  (The 4th GS CEO appointed to a senior government position.)  When the $700 billion bailout package was announced it was his job to decide who to give it to.  Understand this is like hiring the fox to guard the henhouse.  He denied the request of the rival bank Lehman Brothers leading to the largest bankruptcy in human history.  ($600 billion)  The very next day he gave insurance giant AIG $85 billion of which immediately $13 billion went to pay back a loan to none other than… Goldman Sachs!  The AIG execs then headed off to a California resort to celebrate where they ran up a tab of of nearly $500,000, all at the taxpayers expense.  God Bless America!

Goldman Sachs then received another $10 billion directly as well as a loan of $28 billion.  The firm then announced a profit of $3.5 billion and paid out $18 billion in salaries and bonuses, an average of $622,000 per employee. A Goldman spokesman explained it though, “We work very hard here.”

Over the last couple of years we have watched as the North American economy went into free fall.  Most of us don’t have a clue why. Let me help you connect the dots.  360,000 Americans lost their home to foreclosure last month.  That’s the 17^th month in a row of over a quarter million families losing their homes.  The sub-prime mortgage fiasco was…(deep breath) a completely man-made scenario of giving ridiculously high mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them to buy over-priced homes and then selling the mortgages to investment firms as high quality financial instruments that made perfect investments for hapless investors trying to make a killing in the world of high finance…only to discover the homeowners could not sustain the payments, the homes could not retain their value, the investment firms went bankrupt and you just lost your retirement fund.  Now tell me, can you see any signs of greed anywhere in that narrative?

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed”  Mahatma Gandhi

The sub-prime disaster was merely the tipping point.  There were literally hundreds of other factors equally as diabolical at work.  Nevertheless, the entire world, from North America to Europe to Asia went into an economic melt down.  The citizens of Canada and US demanded that government fix it.  Yeah, that’s always a good idea.  Stephane Dion, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe threatened to form the unholy alliance and bring down Steven Harper if he didn’t dig deep into YOUR pocket and solve the problem.  I guess the government decided that being a right wing party was highly overrated anyway.  The purse strings suddenly came flying off and they began spending (and borrowing) money like drunken sailors.  $9.1 billion alone went to the bankrupt General Motors.  Barrack Obama coughed up $50 billion and now the Canadian and the US governments own GM (11.7% and 60.8% respectively)   Oh, I can’t wait for the new models, the Buick Barrack and the Harper Hybrid.

Before we cry “shame, shame”, we need to ask ourselves if we, the great unwashed, are complicit at all in this.  When was the last time you drove by the full parking lot of your government run casino?  We have given them permission to fund the coffers by our own greed .  And, I have always been intrigued by the power of the lottery.  I sometimes stop in the mall and just watch the long lines of people just waiting to throw their money away on a 649 or Super-7 lotto ticket.  Your chances of hitting the jackpot are 1 in 14 million.  Just to put that into perspective, there are now 8 Canadians out of 34 million who have flown into outer space.  So you have a roughly a 1 in 4 million chance of getting picked for the space program.  Excellent odds… considering we don’t even own a space ship!  I often jokingly tell people they have a better chance of going to the moon in their life time than winning the lottery.   Apparently, it is not a joke.  In my typical subtle way I like to refer to the lottery as Canada’s tax on the stupid.  In reality it is a tax on the greedy.

A faithful man will abound with blessings, But he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished. (Prov.28:20)

Listener – “Whoa, Pastor Mark, why do all your jokes need to be ethnic jokes? Wouldn’t it be just as funny if it were just two guys?”

Pastor Mark – “Oh OK, you’re right, let me start again. So these two guys were walking down the street; Hans and Wolfgang…”

Speaking of which…Canadian Ernst Zundel is serving five years in a German jail for denying the holocaust. It’s a stupid position to take given what we know concerning Nazi Germany, but my question is; since when was stupidity against the law? (If that’s the case I can think of a few politicians that need to go to prison for life). Whatever happened to freedom of speech, and freedom of thought and expression? Zundel has never been convicted of inciting violence (or any criminal offence for that matter), just denying the Holocaust and trying to convince others of the same. His views clearly offend the sensibilities of many, myself included. So what? He also has written extensively on the existence of UFO’s. How about the feelings of the poor Martians he has maligned? Waaaa! To my way of thinking, the real intolerance is on the part of those of us that won’t tolerate him.

The biggest complaints I ever get concerning my preaching are about my sense of humour. Some people just cannot understand why I am so politically incorrect, and in their minds, offensive. Here is an example of a fairly typical letter:

Dear Pastor Mark

one thing that confuses me when i see the Church Of the Rock television broadcast is Pastor Mark’s brand of humour: if we are to walk in love, doesn’t that mean we are to love Michael Jackson…etc etc as well? i get a very non-Christian instruction on how to behave, in with the Christian message. “according to scriptures we must this and this and this, except when it comes to making fun at the expense of celebrities” now, i don’t want to make your work more difficult and i’m not a person who gets offended easily (at all!), but isn’t that how the devil works? a little bit of truth to make the evil go down? i just don’t get the ‘jokes’ and the mixed message they send. Joel Osteen doesn’t make fun of people and he tells jokes, too.

Sincerely KL

Dear KL

Yeah, but Joel Osteen isn’t funny! Oops, there I go again…

I believe most of us are far too easily offended. We live in a culture of hypersensitivity. People get bent out of shape everyday because of the most petty of things. I think people take themselves waaaaay too seriously. When we are offended because of an ethnic or gender comment, what is the real root of our offence? Is it not human pride? Our race, religion, culture and gender are all important, but all too often they become too important. The original sin of the fall of both Lucifer (Isa 14:12-15) and of Adam and Eve (Gen 3:5) was pride. Pride could be described as ‘thinking more highly of yourself than you ought’ (Rom 12:3).  What do they call that gay parade they hold every year?  That’s it, Gay Pride. Yeah, that’s working for me.

Look at the way Canadians describe themselves. No one is just a Canadian. They are either Italian Canadian or Indo-Canadian or German Canadian etc. It doesn’t seem to matter if their family has been here for 300 years! The Census taker at my front door was offended when I looked down the list options and told her I was a Native Canadian. “No, sir, what is your ethnic origin?” she indignantly replied. “I was born here, that makes me native Canadian.” I calmly responded. I have no intention of carrying the ethnic pride of my great, great, great grandparents. I haven’t even been to their birth countries. I am certainly not going to be offended by a joke related to their (or my) ethnic origin. I am of course not talking about mean spirited racial slurs and hurtful comments.

If you want some great Jewish jokes, go to Israel. The best Newfie jokes are told in Newfoundland. We were there a few years ago and they are easily the friendliest and perhaps funniest people in Canada (think Rick Mercer). When I tell a Newfie joke I get a raft of letters, not from Newfoundlanders, but from others who are offended for them. We really need to lighten up. Trust me, the Newfies are not nearly as bent out of shape as we are. You can buy this T-shirt in St Johns.

Personally, I think it is healthy to poke fun at ourselves and even our differences. For me no one is off limits, but in fact, I poke more fun at myself than anyone else. I do it deliberately as a provocation not to take ourselves too seriously. If that is a sin, then I am guilty as charged. But to me the far worse sin is the sin of hypersensitivity.

Firstly, we read of no disease in the early goings of mankind.  If they had no sickness, they would only have death from accidents and killings.  As sin took root in the human race, sickness also took hold.  …sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned…Rom 5:12   Sickness is really just death on the installment plan.  The human body was originally constructed to live forever as it continually regenerates itself.  Every seven years almost every cell in your body has been replaced.  Unfortunately, as we are all too aware, as each cell regenerates it is reborn a little more decrepid than the time before.  The process is called ‘aging’… maybe you’ve heard of it?  Your skin becomes wrinkly, your hair turns grey and everything creaks and groans.

Secondly, the climate of planet earth was significantly different in Noah’s day.  The bible says that it had never rained but the dew came up from the ground to water the earth.  There was something of a green house canopy that covered the earth and shielded out harmful UV rays and produced an ideal growing climate.  There are some biblical scholars (not necessarily me) who believe the dinosaurs roamed the earth during this period, not millions earlier.  Repitiles grow indescriminately and therefore the older they are, the bigger they become.  The theory is, they were just really old reptiles.  So once the atmospheric canopy broke up and poured out rain for 40 days the potential for man to live almost 1000 years (and the dinosaurs?) was gone for good.

More importantly, God was not impressed with sinful man and his bad behaviour.  Leave him around too long and there is no telling the damage that he could do.  Hitler only lasted to 56.  Imagine his type around for several hundred years.  God fordid… and He did.  God changed the rules.  And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”  Gen. 6:3  Well, apparently He meant it.  The oldest living person in the world is Gertrude Baines of California at a mere 115 years old.  120 seems to be the upside limit and most of us don’t make it anywhere close.

Last week I was in Ottawa for the Billy Graham School of Evangelism.  Mr. Graham of course was not there.  He is now 90 and physically not doing well.  Mentally and emotionally though, they say, he is as sharp as ever.  We did however have a cameo appearance by George Beverly Shea.   Mr. Shea began working with Billy Graham as his music director in 1947.  He holds the world record for singing to the most people ever with a cumulative live audience of 220 million.  You can keep trying Mick Jagger, but you will never catch up.  “America’s Beloved Gospel Singer” is actually a Canadian.   He was born a pastor’s son in Winchester, Ontario.

A select few of us had the opportunity to sit down for lunch with ‘Bev’.  He regaled us with stories of the old days for an hour and then he sang, Just a Closer Walk with Thee.  His voice is crisp and his mind is sharp and absolutely clear.  He still summers at his cottage north of Ottawa and drives his twenty three foot, 300 HP boat.  He walks with a cane and will often travel any longer distances by wheelchair.  Still, not bad for a man who is in his 101st year!  “I’m a hundred and a half,” he likes to say.  I felt like I was interacting with a piece of living history… because I was. 

Only the good die young?  Not always.

This week we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.  Turns out the only man on the moon was… well Neil Armstrong (followed by Buzz Aldrin).  The Man on the Moon is actually just some of the Moon‘s seas, such as the Mare Imbrium and Serenitatis, which with people associate the Man in the Moon‘s eyes. 

One of the goals of space exploration was  to investigate the possibilty of other life forms in the universe.  You remember Niel Armstrong’s famous words.  One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.  This was to usher in a whole new era of planetary exploration. 

40 years later the dream has all but been forgotten.  We have not been back since 1972 and to date only 12 people have ever walked on the moon.  Hardly colonization, let alone becoming an interplanetary species.  I guess we have enough problems of our own on planet earth.  Still, the fascination with finding life in outer space has not left our imagination.  Carl Sagan once speculated that the universe had other life forms, perhaps entire alien civilizations.  Movies like Star Trek and Star Wars have only proved to reinforce the belief that we are not alone in the universe.  After all, they found water molecules on Mars, meaning there was possibly life there at some time. 

But overwhelmingly science is actually telling us a different story.  In 1961 astronomers noted that there were certain characteristics about our universe and planet Earth in particular (like the ratio of the gravitational force constant to the electromagnetic force constant) that were so specific that if they were altered even slightly the universe could not contain human life.  It later became known as the Anthropic Principle and states that the universe appears “designed” for the sake of human life.  Today 150 finely tuned characteristics have been identified.  If there was any slight change in the way the universe exists, it could not sustain human life.  The chances of there being life in the universe at all, including us, is one trillionth of one trillionth percent.  So the odds that any given planet in the universe would possess the necessary conditions to support intelligent physical life is a number so large it might as well be infinity.  We are breaking all the odds.  There are 100 billion solar systems like ours (the Sun and nine planets) in our galaxy the Milky Way, and there are 100 billion galaxies in the universe, and yet our planet is the only one that can sustain life.

Simply put, science is now strongly suggesting that we are not a fluke of nature and that the entire universe was designed so mankind could have a place to live.  This just confirms how some of your friends have been living anyway…acting like they were the centre of the universe.  But seriously, to the bible believing Christian this really is something we have suspected all along.

The bottom line is the universe exists for the purpose of sustaining human life.  God created the heavens and earth and stars.  He made the universe stretch out, all 13.67 billion light years of it, and put us right in midst of it.  That is why King David as he laid under the night sky cried out;

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,  What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? (Psalm 8:3&4)  

We should live everyday in this same sense of awe.

I am well aware that you cannot judge a global trend from anecdotal evidence gathered from one’s little dot on the planet.  Others, like my wife, will think I have no business commenting on matters outside my expertise in the first place.  When has that ever stopped me before?  Actually, my whole point of this blog is to discuss things that might not be ready for prime time.  My explicit goal is to speak my mind on controversial issues and get us thinking.  I don’t mind if people take issue or not.  It’s not about always agreeing, it’s about the free exchange of ideas.

I’ve never believed the hype about global warming.  When I have made even vague reference to that in sermons I have received quick and sometimes severe reaction.  I usually just joke about it saying, “Hey, I live in Winnipeg…we are praying for global warming”! 

By now everybody has seen Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.  I rather enjoyed it and was impressed by how interesting the otherwise dull Al Gore was.  But an Oscar and a Nobel Prize was a bit much.  Who could not be alarmed by the images of huge chunks of glacial ice melting and calving into the sea? 

The fact is that is what glacial ice does when it reaches the ocean and ironically since the film was made the earth has been in a cooling trend.  The planet has been cooling down since 1997 and the polar ice in many areas is growing.

Much has been made about the Northwest Passage opening up for the first time ever.  Really?  Some conveniently forget their history.  The NW Passage has been traversed many times.  In 1906  Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen sailed it in a converted 47-ton wooden herring boat, just in time to escape creditors seeking to stop the expedition.  (And yes I know he had to over-winter in the ice, but the passage still opened up in the summer to enable his passage just the same). 

Around 1000AD the Arctic climate was much warmer than even now and the Norsemen freely sailed the Arctic.  Radioactive testing has shown that the ocean temperature was at least 1C warmer than today.  The Norse colonized Greenland which they called Vinland because it was actually green, at least in parts.  There was no manmade CO2 dumping into the atmosphere so there must have been a different explanation.  Then during the Middle Ages we had a “Little Ice Age” and these northern colonies were no longer sustainable and disappeared.

Many reputable scientists agree that man is dumping an unprecedented and perhaps unhealthy amount of CO2 into the atmosphere.  However they do not all agree that that is the cause of global warming (or cooling).  The alternative explanation is the effects of cyclical solar activity.  The planet warms and cools in accordance with the ebb and flow of sunspots (the amount of solar energy that is emitted from the sun, which follows short, medium and long term cycles something like the stock market).

At the end of day I am a skeptic.  If it seems obvious, it’s obviously wrong.   I usually approach a subject with this in mind; if everybody believes something to be true, then it probably isn’t.  Do you remember the oil shortage of the 1970’s?  The world was running out of oil and industrial collapse was right around the corner.  Today there are hundreds of oil tankers filled with oil, floating offshore with no buyers at any price.  Do you remember Y2K?  All the world’s computers were going to crash January 1^st 2000, the electrical grid was going to go down, food would disappear from the shelves and there would be anarchy and blood in the streets.  I made a bit of a statement on this to my congregation by emptying my fridge and hauling my firewood to the dump on December 31^st…and not only survived, but lived to gloat about it.

I feel there are other motives behind the global warming movement… economic and political ones.  The selling of carbon credits is one of the biggest economic scams of our time.  It has nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with money.  Secondly, if you can keep the masses in a state of constant fear you can exercise political and societal control.  But that is a subject for a whole other blog.  I honestly believe it is a global conspiracy.  Yes, I know, a strong word, but one that fits the bill!

I believe in taking care of God’s creation.  We are mandated to do so (Gen 1:26-28).  I recycle, reduce and reuse.  But, I refuse to live in fear and will not buy into the Chicken Little political manipulation with which we are constantly being exposed and coerced.  What do you think?

The bible specifically teaches that it is drunkenness that is the sin.  Gal 5:19-21 lists drunkenness amongst the very worst sins of the flesh.  Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness… drunkenness.   And 1 Cor 6:10  names it as a bit of an eternal deal breaker… nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

Christian homes in the past were typically dry, particularly after times of spiritual renewal where worldly pursuits melted away.  Today we are seeing more social drinking amongst believers than ever before.  I hear the theological justification similar to what I mentioned in the above.  “It is OK to drink as long as you don’t get drunk.”  Personally, I think that is a gross oversimplification. 

First off, where exactly is the line between sobriety and drunkenness?  Inebriation creeps up on people and they usually don’t recognize the line till after they have crossed it.

Secondly, what about the cultural aspects of drinking?  In bible days they had no refrigerators and often poor quality water.  Wine (fermented grape juice) was an excellent way to preserve your drink.  It was practical and not unhealthy in measured moderation. 

That is not why people drink today!  Drinking has become a huge social crutch.  Many find it impossible to entertain or party without the requisite social lubricant of alcohol.  Inhibitions come down and bad choices start to be made.  The stupid factor goes up exponentially with each drink. 

But for me the more important consideration is the inherent dangers of alcohol.  I was only 16 years old when I lost my first friend to alcohol.  Kevin, John and Bob were heading home after an evening of drinking.  Kevin wrapped his car around a light standard and John was killed on impact.  Bob suffered a severe brain injury and after he finally came out of the coma was actually a completely different person.  Kevin walked away from the crash but in many ways may be the most injured.  The emotional toll has been lifelong.  Ironically Bob might have fared the best as eventually he gave his heart to Christ and is a committed believer today living a very full life.

For every one story someone can tell me about the benefits of alcohol, I can tell you 100 more of these tragic stories.  I have lost way too many friends to alcohol…both figuratively and literally. The list of the dead, maimed, divorced, bankrupt, friendless, imprisoned, addicted, homeless, and sick from the effects of alcohol goes on and on. 

1Cor 6:12 says, All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful.  I have found these words very instructive for dealing with the many issues of life.  Even if drinking is not sinful, it has not been very helpful.  As Christians we are to avoid even the appearance of evil.  Imagine this scenario.  I am sitting in Tony Roma’s, I’m laughing, talking loudly, jumping to my feet to illustrate some story I am telling and generally acting a little loopy.  Why?  Because this is how I act in public…ask my kids.  Now all you need to do is put a Molson Canadian in front of me and the story now reads; “I saw Pastor Mark in Tony Roma’s last night and he was just hammered.”  All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful

Young people today have an immense peer pressure on them to drink.  Their culture more and more revolves around alcohol.  The jury is in on this one as to whether it is a hinderance or helpful.

We have never had alcohol in our home as we are holding up a higher standard to our children.  We do not forbid our of-age children from drinking.  Instead we challenge them to live to the same higher standard and to be confident with whom they are as individuals without having to resort to loser Kool-Aid as a means to having fun.  It is a standard to which I think all Christians could strive.  Our world would be a better place for it.

In 1533, Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence River to Montréal. To commemorate the founding of Montréal, Cartier wrote in his diary “…we all kneeled down in the company of the Indians and with our hands raised toward heaven yielded our thanks to God.” Montreal today is one of the most unchurched cities in the Western world. However, a drive through any part of town reveals that that was not always the case. There are church buildings on literally every street corner. Many of them are enormous with seating for over 1000 worshippers. Today these now almost empty churches are being sold to make way for condominiums or being converted into nightclubs. Clearly a sign of the times.

September 1, 1864 is one of the more important dates in Canada’s Christian history. For that was the day that the 33 fathers of confederation gathered in Charlottetown to discuss and draft the terms of the British North American Act. There were many suggestions on what to call this new “United Canada.”

That morning, Sir Leonard Tilley the premier of New Brunswick read from Psalm 72:8, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” He became so convinced that Canada should be a nation under God, that when he came down to the Conference session, he presented the inspired “Dominion of Canada.” The other Fathers readily agreed and accepted. Canada’s official motto is a shortened version, “He shall have dominion from sea to sea.” Our coat of arms, adopted in 1921, stands upon the Latin phrase “A Mari Usque Ad Mare,” which when translated means “from sea to sea”.

Today Canada is a secular nation.  Believers casually say in resignation, ‘well everybody knows you cannot legislate morality’. That is complete rubbish. Morality is legislated everyday. The bigger question is; whose morality? More cunning men than us have known this for ages and have intentionally led us astray from our Christian roots.

Pierre Trudeau was  unquestionably one of Canada’s most memorable Prime Ministers. I myself have never been a fan of Trudeau but for different reasons than most. He brought to the political scene a whole new set of values that flew in the face of our Christian heritage. Trudeau studied at the London School of Economics under the famed socialist economist Harold Laski. Truudeau was profoundly influenced by his mentor who espoused the strategy of advancing socialism via the ballot box, which he argued was a much better road to power in established democracies than revolutionary Marxism. 

The strategy is summed up by Laski as being “permeation [by socialists] of existing political parties rather than the creation of a separate political party.” The need to remove God and his Law from the political and judicial arena was paramount for the success of this strategy. Trudeau’s greatest political achievement was the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms adopted by Parliament in 1981. At first blush patriating the constitution seemed so noble. However, every single law on the books was now held up to a different standard. We literally started from scratch on a God-free, bible-free moral basis. Essentially the Charter threw out 400 years of Common Law rooted in an established Judeo-Christian tradition. Legalized abortion and same-sex marriage are just two examples of where the new road has led us.

In 1982, barely one year into our new reality, ‘Dominion Day’ was thrown on the trash heap in exchange for the unthreatening, if not innocuous ‘Canada day’. Canada had become a pluralist society where all religions (or none) have equal value. This is not to say God cannot work in the midst of this. If anything the days ahead will be our finest hour. On an equal (or unequal) playing field Christianity will always rise to the top. Either way my Canada is still the ‘Dominion’ of Canada, and He shall have dominion from sea to sea.

Happy Dominion Day everybody!

The King of Pop is dead! It is strangely reminiscent of August 16, 1977 when the headlines read, The King of Rock is Dead. Elvis only made it to 42 years old.  Decades later, crowds still converge on Graceland every August to remember the King.  His early demise was credited to the use and misuse of prescription drugs.  Which incidentally, is already being implicated in MJ’s death.  The dangerously unhealthy lifestyles combined with massive quantities of drugs were really just a symptom of a much deeper problem.

I am an admirer of Jackson’s music.  During his heyday, he was arguably the most creative musical talent on the planet.  (As was Elvis in his day). The person of Michael Jackson was another matter.  I’m trying not to speak ill of the dead but I cannot think of another person who seemed as tormented with who he was than Michael Jackson.  He didn’t like the color of his skin, nor the nap of his hair, nor the shape of his nose, nor the shape of his chin, etc,etc…  By the time he was finished with the plastic surgery he could only be described as being severely disfigured.  All self-inflicted!

The drugs are one thing, but we really need to back up the truck and get a better view.  It would seem nobody is able to live up to the social expectations of a being called a King.  The fascination with Elvis’ death and now MJ’s is only emblematic of what they lived with their entire lives.  The constant media attention and public fawning sent them a perverse message that they really were Kings, that their lives mattered more than the rest of us mere mortals and that perhaps the world did revolve around them.  The end results were profoundly disturbed men caught up in self-indulged and narcissistic existences.  Both these men lived deeply troubled lives.

My conclusion in the matter is; being crowned King is bad for your health! I’m not just being cute, I am quite serious.  Only Jesus was qualified to bear the title King.  And incidentally after being crowned a King, He too was dead within a few hours.

Both Elvis and MJ were on spiritual journeys that ended badly.  Elvis once knew the Lord and sang gospel like nobody else.  Those close to him say he drifted far from God as fame, fortune and amphetamines took over his life and eventually claimed it.  Jackson was raised Jehovah’s Witness but was excommunicated after the JW brass were less than thrilled with his Thriller video.  Friends say that last year he converted to Islam in search of some spiritual meaning in an otherwise confused existence.

In a way many are guilty of Elvis’ and MJ’s sin.  Judges 17:6 says, In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. When we fail to recognize Christ as King we crown ourselves as king.  At that point we have an unqualified and dangerous person on the throne and the end result will never be pretty.

The more technically astute staff around here have been telling me for years that I need to start writing a blog.  They have been saying it is a great way to connect with people.  I said, “OK I’m in but I’m only going to do it if I can speak my mind.  No more holding back like I do on TV.”  They said, “You’ve been holding back?”  Well, not entirely but I get letters of complaint every week and I do try not to offend everybody at once.  So, what I am thinking here is to deal with some of the more prickly topics and speak to them plainly.   For some of you that may mean, no more Mister Nice Guy.

In a recent episode I mentioned that a few years ago the House of Commons changed the 6000 year old definition of marriage with the stroke of a pen.  I received many letters on both sides of the issue.  This was one from a typical, misinformed, politically correct, I believe everything I hear on the TV news, type.

Pastor Mark,

You say that politicians with a stroke of a pen changed the definition of marriage.  I couldn’t disagree more.  The issue of gay rights and same sex marriage has been an issue that has be fought with blood, sweat, tears, and trauma, and debated adnosium for the past several decades.

No mention of the fact that because of the Charter of rights and freedoms, same sex rights (including marriage) have been upheld by all courts in this country, including the SCC, so the politicians where simply catching up with these basic human rights

Please continue to spread the message of love, respect, good decisions, education, effort, and a law abiding population, but refrain from those comments that simply degrade and minimize people currently living in loving same sex marriages.  We have enough hate in the world, spread the words of love, caring, and compassion.  We need more of that.

NB

One of the cheapest forms of political debate is to just try to end the argument by labeling someone a racist, bigot or hatemonger.  I have little patience with this tactic.  If there is one thing the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does guarantee, it is freedom of speech.  I decided a long time ago I wasn’t going to let people tell me what I can and cannot say for fear of being labeled.  As a diverse cultural and religious nation there is no way we are all going to see issues the same way, but no one has the right to say you are a hatemonger just because you do not agree ideologically with them.  The most fundamental aspect of democracy is the ability to debate the ideas without being shut down because it is not politically correct.

When people say the church is motivated out of “hate” because we disagree with same sex marriage, they are the offenders of freedom.  The church is merely holding up 6000 years of human tradition not to mention the unequivocal biblical standard on the subject.

Abraham Lincoln once said “the Bible is the best gift God has given to man for without it we would not know right from wrong”.  For those of us who have committed our lives to study and teach the scriptures, we cannot simply disregard the parts that are no longer culturally popular.

The Supreme Court of Canada made a serious judicial error when they upheld same sex marriage.  The Charter of Rights does not include sexual orientation as a fundamental human characteristic and during the entrenching of the Charter in 1982 the Trudeau government specifically stated it would never be extended to include same sex marriage.  So, in fact, it was imposed upon on the Canadian public by Parliament under false pretenses and therefore I stand by my comment that the definition of marriage was changed with the stroke of a pen.

Having said that, I would still stand alongside the homosexual community to fight for their right to be treated equally as human beings.  Marriage, however, is the exclusive domain of one woman with one man.

Pastor Mark Hughes