We are all afraid of something, without exception:

• I’m afraid of failing.
• I’m afraid for my children.
• I’m afraid facing cancer.
• I’m afraid of being abused.
• I’m afraid of hurting others.
• I’m afraid of losing my job.
• I’m afraid of being influenced.
• I’m afraid of dying.
• I’m afraid my life doesn’t count.
• I’m afraid of conflict.
• I’m afraid of not having enough money to go around.
• I’m afraid of being single for the rest of my life.
• I’m afraid of being married for the rest of my life.
• I’m afraid I don’t have what it takes.
• I’m afraid of speaking in front of people.
• I’m afraid of being in crowds.
• I’m afraid of being alone.
• I’m afraid of the future.

In a broken world, we cannot love fully without fear of and for those we love. Conversely, fear is one of the primary obstacles to giving and receiving love fully. Either way, we’re stuck with fear in this life. But does that mean we should be passive and let these fears dominate our lives? One of the most-repeated commands throughout the Bible is “fear not”. Obviously, fear is not what God desires for us.

So what do we do? Do we simply repeat “fear not” a dozen times and hope our fear disappears? Before attacking fear, let’s try to understand it.

Six realities about fear (from Ed Welch):

1. The Bible speaks often of fear: Everyone has fears. Fear is normal in a broken world.
2. Fear is expressed differently in men and women: Women generally relate their fears to real-world situations more easily than men. Men generally express their fear through anger, depression, and addictions, not always realizing fear can be one of the root causes of these symptoms.
3. Fear is primarily a spiritual phenomenon, and secondarily a psychological one. Therefore, the solution is not simply to condition my thoughts or actions, but to trust.
4. Only the God of the Bible can calm my fears. He is in control.
5. Prayer is the medium by which we make known our fears to God and receive His peace.
6. We need the church, our brothers and sisters, to pray with us, and continually reveal the truth of the person of God.

After some reflection on the substance of fear, how can I attack the fear in my life? How can I help someone walk through their fear, honestly helping them and not denigrating their fear?

Five ways to attack our fears (or walk with someone as they attack theirs) (from David Powlison and Jacob Mathieu):

1. Listen: What, exactly, are you afraid of? (my children’s future, my health, my reputation, lack of money, lack of comfort)
2. Reflect: What is under your control and what is out of your control?
3. Read: According to the Bible, who is God and what has He done? (Example: Isaiah 40, Psalm 71, Romans 8).
4. Pray: Pray together, express our fears to God and ask for His peace (Phil. 4:6-7)
5. Act: What can you do today that is under your control? (Matt. 6:34)

In 2012, let’s not be passive about our fears, but attack them.

Perhaps this was the cruelest sentence of all.  Yes they all died.  For some of them it was a quick beheading.  Others were tortured mercilessly until cries of “Father forgive them” were reduced to spasmic gasping.  But they found relief.  Every last one of them. . .

How he longed for that same relief!  But it was not to be.  One after another.  His friends.  His brothers.  The only ones in the world who could truly understand.  The brotherhood of the twelve.  Well, eleven.  They were so normal.  So ill-equipped.  So naïve.

“Follow me”

Those two words will echo into eternity.

All of this madness.  The world, overwhelmed, shuddering.  Thousands dying.  Some say millions.  More suffering than one should see in 100 lifetimes.  . .  It all began because of Him.

“I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

I could see it.  A lifetime of agony, overpowered by hope.  He continued.  He continued.  He continued.  Tasting the morbid death that hunted them.  An empire on its head.  Evil  seething.  . .  never quenching that defeat.  The one, final. . .

Perhaps the first wound was the deepest.  Absolutely, he believed with all of his heart before.  He had already stood up to the chief priests and Pharisees many times.  He himself had been hunted with many trying to murder him.  It was nothing new.  And yes, there was Stephen. . .  but this was different.  The stakes stretched infinitely higher now.

That day.  That day he paused. . .  walked out of the synagogue, and kept walking, drenching his clothes with tears, until he fell over, shaking from exhaustion.

That day.

His brother was murdered.

Now, 45 torturous years later, the wrinkled brow and scarred hands began to write.  No one must forget why.  No, they must know why.  They must know why he never turned back, why it was worth it.  Why there is still hope.

“In the beginning was the Word. . .”

Mandrake roots

The parsnip-shaped root is often branched. This root gives off at the surface of the ground a rosette of ovate-oblong to ovate, wrinkled, crisp, sinuate-dentate to entire leaves, 5 to 40 centimetres (2.0 to 16 in) long, somewhat resembling those of the tobacco-plant. A number of one-flowered nodding peduncles spring from the neck bearing whitish-green or purple flowers, nearly 5 centimetres (2.0 in) broad, which produce globular, orange to red berries, resembling small tomatoes. All parts of the mandrake plant are poisonous.

Do you know what a Mandrake plant does? Again from Wikipedia:

Parasympathetic depressant, hallucinogen, and hypnotic. Most hypnotics produce low alphoid and spindle alpha brain-wave activity, similar to that found in REM sleep, or the dreaming state. This rhythm does not allow deep sleep to occur although it does lower brain patterns into a dreamy visionary mode, known in magic as an astral plane experience. Mandrake root causes delirium and hallucinations. In high doses, it can even send the user into a coma.

What does this have to do with anything?

Today, while reading through the full-on childbearing competition between Rachel and Leah in Genesis 30. I came across this text:

¹⁴ In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁵ But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁶ When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. ¹⁷ And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸ Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.

Here’s what struck me: God listened to Leah. She was in the middle of a less-than ideal situation: married to a dude that never took a premarital class or read a book on how to love his wife. She’s taking various drugs trying to medicate through the situation, getting pregnant to try to get his attention; introducing other women to him in an insane servant/wife-swapping situation (Bilhah and Zilpa’s situations are even worse), she prays… and God listens.

And God is working through these drug-using polygamists to build for Himself a people for His glory.

There is hope.

No matter how bad the situation. No matter how horrendous the sin. No matter how messed-up my life is… God not only listens, but He can even build something beautiful, for His glory, that will last for generations.

This doesn’t mean drug-use or polygamy are all right. But it does mean that when I cry out to God He is capable of breaking through the worst situations imaginable and making something beautiful.

Thank you God for examples like Genesis 30.

Winter Portrait: Van in Ditch

It’s been snowing for two days nonstop. And yeah, there is more on the way. I love it. This is livin’

And here’s the artistic version:

For those with a more artistic bent

This month we’re celebrating 4 years as a new church. Over that time we’ve changed buildings once… because we haven’t found another one. We are currently renting an elementary school gym (see photo).

So here’s our dilemma (and food for prayer):

We've since added more chairs.

The gym is packed nearly every Sunday. We’re also meeting in homes every week. There are hardly any more spaces to sit.

So what do we do? Each chose offers specific challenges:

Do we plant a daughter church?

• We would love to! This is part of our original 5-year plan… so, concrete plans should begin to take place this year to do that (we don’t yet have a qualified church planter to send out). But in the meantime… what do we do?

Do we go to multiple services?

• We already have people setting up and tearing down from 7:30am to 12:30pm. We may have to do this, but we don’t want to burn anyone out.

Do we rent a larger space?

• We can’t yet find a large enough place to rent for less than $6000/month.
• Currently we’re paying $2000/month for a few hours Sunday morning.

Do we buy?

Old Theater in St Jerome: for sale for $765,000 (they already refused a $500,000 offer, however, we aren't sure if it is worth more than that yet)

• We can’t find a large enough place, in the general vicinity of downtown  for under $750,000… not including renovations.
• Most places are for sale for well over a million.
• Though it may be possible to raise the $$, do we want to invest that kind of effort to find $$ right now? Or do we want to continue investing in people?

Do we build?

• We have enough resources to build something that may not give us much time to grow. Again, do we want to invest our limited resources in something that may possibly be too small in a couple of years?

We aren’t saying “no” to any of these options. I’m simply asking you to pray for us as we pray and look.

Thanks for praying.

Filed under: Church Planting, Prayer, St Jérôme Tagged: Building, building a building, Church Building, church planter, Church Planting, daughter church, elementary school gym, multiple services, Prayer, St Jérôme, Sunday Morning ]]> http://robertkarch.com/2012/01/11/the-building-dilemma/feed/ 7 movementquebec The elementary school gymnasium Old Theater in St Jerome http://robertkarch.com/2012/01/09/looking-ahead-to-2012-make-the-most-of-your-time-because-the-days-are-evil/ http://robertkarch.com/2012/01/09/looking-ahead-to-2012-make-the-most-of-your-time-because-the-days-are-evil/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:31:02 +0000 Rob Karch http://robertkarch.com/?p=4689 ]]> -Ephesians 5:16

NOTE: I’m not saying things will go badly, or that there will be a global meltdown, etc., I’m simply saying not to sweat it, there are more important things to worry about.

Jacob knocked it out of the park yesterday (in his sermon at our church, you can watch it here) with these three observations (I’m taking a lot of liberty in melding his sermon with my reaction to it):

1) Paul doesn’t exhort us to make the most of our time because the future looks so bright, but because the present and near future look so bleak.

I’m not complaining. (My life is phenomenal in every sense. I’m married to an amazing woman..we just celebrated 10 years! I bless God for my two children. Friends and family are spotted all around the globe. Our local church is healthy and growing, regardless of the myriad of challenges.) I’m just saying that Paul’s is an anti-prosperity message. Are you worried about what lies ahead? Are you worried about the ramifications of a collapsing Euro? An indebted USA? Global unrest? Sickness? A loss of a job?

Paul tells us that these are actually the sources of unique opportunities.

These are all reasons to make the most of my time, investing in what will never fade. When bad times came, Paul didn’t encourage the church to hunker down. He encouraged the opposite. Times are bad? Get out and engage into our mission with gritted teeth, armed with hope that surpasses death. Are we on the verge of global collapse? Stand up and be counted, don’t hide in a ditch.

2) Paul’s exhortation is not to more action, but to intentional action.

Making the most of my time doesn’t mean sleeping less. It means opening my eyes to the unique opportunities around me during bleak times. What really counts? What doesn’t? Maybe I need to spend less time at work and more time with my family. Maybe I need to spend less time in a softball league and more time loving on those hurting in my community. Maybe now is the time to sell it all and move to another community, or country.

Losing a job may be the biggest blessing of my life, causing me to reevaluate what life is for. Cancer may be what shatters the chains that attached my heart to what matters least. An exploded marriage may be what forces me to my knees for the first time in years.

As a pastor and missionary, this is exactly what I’ve seen. I can give multiple names for each one of these examples. When times are evil, my frenetic life screeches to a halt as I wrap tearful arms around the few things that count. Thanks you Jesus for the evil times.

3) The evil times will pass, the investments we make in what really counts will last forever.

The stakes in 2012 are eternal. What this means is that I can stop sweating the small stuff… (like the strength of the Euro/Dollar/Yuan, a global economic meltdown, or a stupid Mayan calendar), and begin investing in what matters: the people all around me: my wife, my children, my neighbors, my fellow image-bearers in Cairo, Guayaquil, Paris, and Phnom Penh: their physical needs, and their current and future relationship to their Savior.

Let’s sweat the big stuff in 2012: loving on our fellow image-bearers: weeping over their physical and spiritual situations. Jesus did not conquer death for the benefit of a stable global situation in the present era. He conquered death to save people, now and forever.

Close your eyes. Do you see their faces? Do you see your Savior?

Evil times will pass. These investments will last forever.

Thank you Jacob for yanking us back to reality yesterday.

• Jesus was likely born in the Spring or Fall not December
• There is no indication the star was there on Christmas Eve
• The Wise Men weren’t at the manger scene and Jesus was likely up to 2 years old when they visited Him

Dan speaks out against letting misconceptions slide… (and I agree with him):

“If we are having a play or art piece about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness and in the artwork or actors in the play we have Peter, James and Thomas standing there with Jesus – we would be thinking “What are they doing there? They weren’t in that scene and there when Jesus was in the wilderness?’. Or if we had an art piece or play portraying the Last Supper and in the art piece or play we also put in Pontious Pilate being at the Last Supper with them. We would be like “What is Pontious Pilate doing there? He doesn’t come into the story until a little later after Jesus was arrested?”.  It feels like as we put the Wise Men and the star in our Christmas portrayals is basically the same.”

I’d encourage you to read the whole thing

Secondly, the the team over at I-Monk debunk the myth of the Candy Cane:

“Besides, the “true story of the candy cane” is not true. Not one bit. (Snopes is your friend in these kinds of things.) Here it is, as passed on in emails by well-meaning Christians this time of year.

A candymaker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would remind people of the true meaning of Christmas; so he made the candy cane to incorporate several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ. He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy. White to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the Solid Rock, the foundation of the Church, and the firmness of the promises of God.

The candymaker then shaped his cane into the form of a “J” to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to the earth as Savior. It could also represent the staff of the “Good Shepherd” with which He reaches down to to reclaim the fallen lambs who, like sheep, have gone astray.

Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candymaker stained it with red stripes. He used three small stripes to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Christ on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life.

Ok, first of all, think about this for a minute…” Keep on reading here

Lastly, I uncovered a short, informative video from Focus on the Family a while back:

1. Jesus was born in the shadow of one of Herod’s greatest fortresses, though today we only remember Herod for one thing: the evil king who tried to kill the baby Jesus, massacring many innocent children in the process.
2. A stable and a manger are not what we thought they were (see the video)

• A phenomenal brunch cooked up by a team of men from our church
• We sang Christmas carols
• A skit: “What if Jesus was born today in Québec?”
• 4 giant paintings representing original Christmas scenes, painted throughout the celebration.
• A kids triangle where they could color their own Christmas themes.
• Songs and skits by our Sunday school classes.
• Sermon: “The original meaning of Christmas: Jesus came to live, die, be resurrected, so that we can become God’s children”

Praise God for working through a new and very imperfect church like us.

Here are a few photos:

The light from a baby Jesus swallowing up the evil of Herod the Great

Multiple Magi arriving from the East

The Herodian (one of Herod the Great's fortresses) overlooking Bethlehem

Shepherd children looking after the sheep

71,000 Christians praying in Egypt... the largest prayer gathering in 1000 years!

You’ve heard all about the Arab spring. Revolution I. Now, Revolution II is ramping up… this time a spiritual revolution. Here’s what eyewitness Andrew Jones has to say:

We left Egypt a week ago, right before Revolution II broke out.

Something is happening there.

In some ways I wish I was still there but at the same time, I feel we were present for the beginnings of a spiritual revolution that is just as important as the political changes, and instrinsically linked to it.

You don’t read that in the newspapers.

That’s not to knock the newspapers. In fact, one newspaper has consistently delivered the the most accurate coverage of the Arab world protests including Egypt. Articles from the English news source, The Guardian, are forwarded to me almost daily friends in Cairo. These articles have come in the past few days from friends in Egypt.

Nov 22: Egypt’s military rulers continuing Mubarak-era Abuses

Nov 23: Revolution II

Nov 23. Egypt has halted the drive to derail the Arab revolution

But more than just reporting from the scene, The Guardian has provided aninteractive twitter map of the Arab Protests to plot the tweets from the on-location reporters.

And if you want some history of this movement then check out The Guardian’s interactive Path of Protest Timeline.

Thats impressive! HUGE KUDOS to The Guardian. Reminds me of CNN’s role in the Gulf War.

However, the newspapers in general have neglected some essential pieces of the larger puzzle. One piece in particular is the movement of prayer, the 11.11.11 prayer gathering of 71,000 people in Cairo on Nov 11,2011 which was Egypt’s largest Christian gathering in over a thousand years [how did they miss that?], the movement of unity among the churches themselves and between Christians and Muslims, 

Go to his blog to read more…

These two images* confirm the fruit of their radical sacrifices for Jesus… and point us toward the coming fruit of current ambassadors for Jesus Christ scattered across the globe:

Each blue dot represents 50,000 Evangelicals

Each blue dot represents 50,000 Evangelicals

And here are the two photos layered one on top of the other… take a minute and breathe in the radical changes in S. America, Africa, China, and S. Korea:

QUESTION: Is every blue dot 100% accurate?

ANSWER: I’m sure many of the blue dots, as individuals, are the subject of much debate. No one, however, can question the overall explosion… especially the movement of the center of evangelicalism from Europe and N. America to S. America, sub-Saharan Africa, and East Asia.

QUESTION: Do all of these dots have a true comprehension of the “evangile” (gospel), or are there other aberrant movements and theologies mixed in?

ANSWER: Many different radically pentecostal and prosperity-oriented theologies are most likely somewhat mixed into these results. However, again, one cannot deny the overall movement taking place. For more info, check out the Mission, Vision, and Ethos of Operation World. 

*These maps are a slight re-working of the material found in the 2010 edition of the Operation World DVD. In my humble opinion, every Christian should own a copy.

Martine, je t’aimais, je t’aime, et je t’aimerais.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Martine a bit younger...

To my good and loving Heavenly Father. Thank you…

(1)… that I was created in Your image, created to reflect Your Trinitarian glory.

(2)… that I was chosen by You to be Your son.

(3)… that I was called by your Holy Spirit, through the means of those you placed in my life, out of my spiritual deadness, and You gave me life.

(4)… that I was justified through the death of Jesus, your unique Son, on the cross, and His victorious resurrection over sin, death and Satan.

(5)… that I will one day be glorified, given a new body with which I will carry out an eternal and all-fulfilling experience in the new heavens and on the new earth, in community, in Your presence.

(6)… that I’m still here, on mission to reflect Your glory, goodness, and love, in community, to those around me.

(7)… that this community on earth begins with the blessing of marriage as Martine and I reflect God’s glory together.

(8)… that this community continues in the privilege of fatherhood, the blessing of Caleb and Constance, following Your example, my heavenly Father.

(9)… that I have the privilege of living out this mission in daily community with brothers like Jacob, Paulo, Louis, Terry, Réal, Danny, Pierre, Philippe, Pierre, Jean, Benjamin, Jonathan, Bernard, Michel, Olivier, Jeremiah, Raymond, Zac, Étienne, Angus, Carl, Alex, Pat, Benoît, Robert, Hermann, JS,  and the list goes on…

(10)… that this community is intrinsically tied to my local “ekklesia” as we live out our mission, the gospel and community, with all of its ups and downs, blessings and difficulties, laughter and tears, together.

For these gifts I deserve no merit. They are gifts from you and you alone my good and loving heavenly Father.

Thank you.

Amen.

The theme of my talk was “The Pursuit of Jesus as my ultimate dream”. Dreams grounded solely in this world will let us down… whether I succeed or fail…

Here are some photos and a video of the event (somehow I didn’t make it into this round of photos. At least you can see what the event was like):

After a full summer, including 2 weeks at World Venture Headquarters and vacation time as a family, we’re back in the swing of things here in St Jérôme. We’re looking forward to speaking at the Momentum Conference in two weeks in Gatineau, Missions-Fest Montréal in November, continued involvement in church-planting Province-Wide, as well as preaching through the Gospel according to John this year.

Building update: no clear response yet from the owners… they are taking their time (God has it all under control)
Support update: we’re still several hundred dollars behind each month, but God is providing… month to month.

Thanks for praying!

WorldVenture began sending men and women to reach out for Christ to the Sendai area 60 years before a 9.0 earthquake and a giant tsunami brought the name Sendai to world news on March 11.

World Venture has trustworthy, talented people on the ground right now who can take your gift and turn it directly into aid and support for tsunami victims. Now, at this great time of need, this established network of pastors, churches and missionaries that God has raised over these years is more positioned to help on the ground with earthquake and tsunami victims than many agencies in the world.

HOW CAN I PARTICIPATE?

Send financial support. We have the infrastructure and the people in place, but we need resources to empower them to make a difference.

Spread the word. Connect others to us on Facebook and Twitter. Or download and use this pdf to inform your friends, church and community: WorldVenture-Japan-Crisis-Flyer

Go on a short-term team. When it’s time to rebuild, come and help.

Connect your church to a crippled Japanese church. Contact one of our Regional Mission Directors to start your journey of joining your community with theirs.

WE’RE PLANNING DEEP IMPACT

Phase 1 : Relief
At first we are responding like everyone with basic necessities for victims of the disaster. Our network of pastors and missionaries already have deep roots and connections in the communities hit by the tsunami and earthquake, which allows us to find and meet needs more efficiently.

Phase 2 : Rebuilding
After basic needs are met, we will begin moving into the communities to rebuild. During this time we will be facilitating short term teams and church to church partnerships on from the U.S. church. In Japan, we will be working with local pastors to begin putting things back together in the name of Christ.

Phase 3 : Restoration
In the long term (and this may rank as the most import stage of the relief plan), we will begin rebuilding individuals within the community. We’ll work with churches to extend grief counseling and pastoral care as the wounds and sorrows of lost family and friends cause the Sendai people to seek after hope … a hope we know is found in Jesus Christ.

Certainly, the fact that Christ has a lot to say about loving ones enemies explains fairly adequately the (lack of) a response.  We can say with confidence that any call by a “Christian” for a violent response would be roundly, publicly, and nearly unanimously condemned by other Christians. (Much as the Christian community publicly and vehemently condemned oh what’s his name (the pseudo preacher dude) down in Florida a while ago.

Inversely, much of the Islamic rhetoric we see and hear and read so much about marches to a drumbeat of violence against those who do not hold to these extreme “ideals” (though every Muslim I personally know does not personally hold to these doctrines of violence and is not afraid to speak against it, so it would be very wrong to put all who claim to be Muslim into one basket).

But there is a much deeper reason for the contradictory responses to what appear to be similar actions (Bible burning and Qur’an burning), a reason that cuts to the very fabric of Islam and the heart of Christianity, and why Islam is fundamentally incompatible with the reality of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

I’ve seen this reason hinted at in various places. The best explanation I’ve found is over at the Desiring God blog where John Piper quotes Andrew Walls:

Christian faith must go on being translated, must continuously enter into vernacular culture and interact with it, or it withers and fades.

Islamic absolutes are fixed in a particular language, and in the conditions of a particular period of human history. The divine Word is the Qur’an, fixed in heaven forever in Arabic, the language of original revelation.

For Christians, however, the divine Word is translatable, infinitely translatable. The very words of Christ himself were transmitted in translated form in the earliest documents we have, a fact surely inseparable from the conviction that in Christ, God’s own self was translated into human form.

Much misunderstanding between Christians and Muslims has arisen from the assumption that the Qur’an is for Muslims what the Bible is for Christians.

It would be truer to say that the Qur’an is for Muslims what Christ is for Christians.
(The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History, 29)

Then John Piper goes on to explain in greater detail:

Did you catch that last line?

The parallel between Christianity and Islam is not that Christ parallels Mohammed and the Qur’an parallels the Bible. The parallel is that the Qur’an parallels Christ. The giving of the Qur’an is in Islam what the incarnation of Christ is to Christianity.

If this is so, then Qur’an-burning is parallel to Christ-crucifying.

But ponder the implications of this. On the one hand you might say this goes a long way to explaining Muslim rage. Yes. But more importantly it goes even farther to show the deep differences between the two religions.

In the process of being crucified, Jesus rebuked the use of the sword (Matthew 26:52) healed his enemy’s amputated ear (Luke 22:51), prayed for the forgiveness of his murderers (Luke 23:34), and sent his followers out to love their enemies and do good to those who hate them (Luke 6:27).

So the Qur’an has been burned and the Christ has been crucified…

Even in the crucifixion of Christ, Jesus condemned the use of force by his disciples… making it evidently clear that He is more than capable of protecting himself.

And that is who we worship, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. He who was crucified once and for all. This message liberates us to live like lambs  going to to the slaughter. Loving our enemies, especially when we are wronged in the process.

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^[j]

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31-39

Thanks for praying for me.

Mark Driscoll writes:

Patrick was born around 390 A.D. When he was roughly 16 years of age he was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland on a ship where he was sold into slavery. He spent the next six years alone in the wilderness as a shepherd for his masters’ cattle and sheep. Click here to keep reading…

I agree wholeheartedly with his assessment that Patrick was one of the greatest missionaries who ever lived. To read more about his life, The Celtic Way of Evangelism is a great place to start:

Andrew's Japanese friend Mika

As we hear more and more about the earthquake(s), watch video of the Tsunami, and pray against a nuclear catastrophe similar to Chernobyl, it’s easy to forget the people who are the Japanese. Here are a few links that may help to give a name and a face to these people created in God’s image:

#1: Japanese house churches and the earthquake:

From Andrew Jones (Tall Skinny Kiwi):

One of my Japanese friends is Mika who asked for prayer on this blog when the earthquake happened. I have an update from her.

#2: Video interview as missionaries gather supplies to bring back to Japan

John and Eriko Houlette’s homepage can be found here

#3: Prayer video:

This video was (obviously) made prior to the earthquake. But it gives some direction as to how to pray for this nation so often misunderstood by the west:

#4: Prayer info for the Japanese as a people (from operation World prior to the current crisis):

Answer to prayer: Uncertainty about the future has prompted spiritual searching…

Challenge for prayer: Japan is a nation facing many crises… moral, political, economic, sociological…

#5: Japanese Churches near the Epicenter

(from Missions on the Frontline):

Please pray for the Conservative Baptist Association of Japan (CBAJ) church families in…

1. Kurihara City.  There are  two CBAJ churches there and this is nearest to the epicenter.

2. Kessenuma City.  This is the city that is in flames.  There are two CBAJ churches there.

3. Natori City.  This is where the tsunami inundated farm land.  There is a church there as well.

4. There are 30+ churches within a 60 mile radius of the epicenter.

Ken Taylor, WorldVenture Japan Field Leader, reports that local church and mission groups in Japan are organizing for coordinated responses to the overwhelming needs. In the days to come, we anticipate releasing specific details in which individuals and churches can participate in those efforts.

Update: Click here To give to the relief effort coordinated by missionaries and churches

A few spontaneous reactions of mine:

• their cultural identity appears to be intact, simply transformed by the gospel
• elders in action, I love that everything begins with the older men and women transformed by the gospel.
• the clear vision to pass the bibles from generation to generation for centuries to come

What is your reaction?

Tim makes a few comments about Jesus’ identity and his 2,000+ year-long impact that are worth listening to:

To be typical, you’d most likely be reading this:

是典型的，你最有可能被阅读本

This year (November 2011) God decided I needed to attend Montréal’s version: Mission Globales (en français). Several thousand are expected to attend, with over 70 missions agencies represented. It’s a bilingual event, and I’ve been asked to speak in French… a message specifically directed to teenagers.

Please pray for me… as I ask God for a clear, exegetical message of a radical sacrificial love for His glory, and for the joy of the French-speaking world.

Just got Triumph of the City by  Edward Glaeser (an Economist at Harvard). Can’t wait to read it.

Diana Silver has some good things to say in the New York Times about this book.

Here’s a blurb:

America is an urban nation. More than two thirds of us live on the 3 percent of land that contains our cities. Yet cities get a bad rap: they’re dirty, poor, unhealthy, crime ridden, expensive, environmentally unfriendly… Or are they?

As Edward Glaeser proves in this myth-shattering book, cities are actually the healthiest, greenest, and richest (in cultural and economic terms) places to live. New Yorkers, for instance, live longer than other Americans; heart disease and cancer rates are lower in Gotham than in the nation as a whole. More than half of America’s income is earned in twenty-two metropolitan areas. And city dwellers use, on average, 40 percent less energy than suburbanites.

Glaeser travels through history and around the globe to reveal the hidden workings of cities and how they bring out the best in humankind. Even the worst cities-Kinshasa, Kolkata, Lagos- confer surprising benefits on the people who flock to them, including better health and more jobs than the rural areas that surround them. Glaeser visits Bangalore and Silicon Valley, whose strangely similar histories prove how essential education is to urban success and how new technology actually encourages people to gather together physically. He discovers why Detroit is dying while other old industrial cities-Chicago, Boston, New York-thrive. He investigates why a new house costs 350 percent more in Los Angeles than in Houston, even though building costs are only 25 percent higher in L.A. He pinpoints the single factor that most influences urban growth-January temperatures-and explains how certain chilly cities manage to defy that link. He explains how West Coast environmentalists have harmed the environment, and how struggling cities from Youngstown to New Orleans can “shrink to greatness.” And he exposes the dangerous anti-urban political bias that is harming both cities and the entire country.

Using intrepid reportage, keen analysis, and eloquent argument, Glaeser makes an impassioned case for the city’s import and splendor. He reminds us forcefully why we should nurture our cities or suffer consequences that will hurt us all, no matter where we live.

Looking forward to our urban church planting event in downtown Montréal (more on that later)…

Yesterday Bob Smietana reported in The Tennessean about the plight of Said Musa, a former aid worker in Afghanistan who has been put in prison for converting from Islam to Christianity. A Twitter campaign over the last few months has grown to more 10,000 tweets, with leaders from John Piper to Rick Warren advocating for the release of Musa. Click here to see the tweets.

I spoke with Bob as he was writing this piece and I told him, “We have to get to the place where the world speaks out and says it’s unacceptable to kill a man for changing his religion.” Simply put, conversion is not a crime.

According to the article, it appears that American officials have intervened, and that Musa has been moved to a new jail and is not under immediate threat of execution. But his safety is still not guaranteed. And, the fact that his story made the front page of The Tennessean yesterday helps– it reminds the U.S. backed Afghan government that people are watching.

This situation should open our eyes to the reality of persecution around the world. Although Said Musa’s story has gained traction through social media, there are countless others who stand in the same position. As we watch a climate of growing unrest on the other side of the world, we will do well to remember that there are brothers and sister ready to die for their faith. In turn, we should not be silent. Conversion is not a crime.

You can read the article here and learn more background to the story in this articleby Paul Marshall in National Review.

Ed & Diane Marcelle

Monday, my friend Ed drove up from Albany to talk to a bunch of dudes passionate about church planting in Québec. His talks were incredible. The first touched gospel and culture. The second explained the motivation and theology behind  the Acts 29 network.

As us guys discussed, Martine and Diane hung out elsewhere. At the end of the day, everyone was encouraged.

One quote from the first talk:

Our Gospel must encourage the church to live differently and to reach out to the community around us.  We must faithfully preach and teach the Scriptures and then as people go out into the community. Living out our faith in tangible ways will undergird our voice to speak into the community and speak of issues of faith.

Thanks for investing in Québec Ed!

HT: Justin Taylor

I thank God for the opportunity to benefit from the collective wisdom and experience and look forward to what’s ahead!

1. the Constitution,
2. Le règlement numéro 1 (a legal document with the province of Québec),
3. the annual budget.

What does this mean?

1. We are a legal, functioning church in the eyes of the Province.
2. We are financially autonomous for the first time! This means that all expenses, including Jacob’s salary are 100% paid for by the church with no outside financial help to do it… (though our salary is not included in this).

Here are some photos of the occasion so you can praise God together with us!

Here are the thirteen bound volumes of manuscripts found buried in an earthenware jar at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945. Their discovery has produced endless controversy over what books should have become part of the New Testament.

“…when the many manuscripts and movements usually categorized as Gnosticism are examined closely, various clusters of characteristics can be identified, but the only element common to all is that each is remarkably heretical, which is how they were quite properly judged by their contemporaries–not just “one heresy but a swarming ant-heap of heresies,” as the distinguished Simone Pétrement explained.

Purely as a matter of faith, one is free to prefer Gnostic interpretations and to avow that they give us access to secret knowledge concerning a more authentic Christianity, as several popular authors recently have done. But one is not free to claim that the early church fathers rejected these writings for nefarious reasons. The conflicts between many of these manuscripts and the New Testament are so monumental that no thinking person could embrace both.

Consider that some Gnostic ‘scriptures’ equate the Jewish God with Satan! Should those who defended conventional Christian teachings stand condemned of bigotry for not siding with such views? In addition, many of the Gnostic scriptures are obvious forgeries, easily recognized as such by the early church fathers, just as they ought to be today, in that whoever wrote them tried to deceive readers into believing they were the work of famous figures of first-generation Christianity-Peter, James, Mary Magdalene, Pilate, or Thomas, for example–or someone claiming extraordinary status, such as being the twin brother of Christ.

Whether the Gnostic teachers were ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, that they were heretics vis-à-vis conventional Christianity cannot be disputed.”

-pp. 141-142 “Cities of God,” by Rodney Stark

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding. -Proverbs 3:13

A few books I’m currently working my way through (or recently finished):

I’m personally struggling with these questions as we continue with church planting in Québec. Here is how Ed Stetzer puts it:

So, they (church planters) sincerely set out with a new formula that will fill the local middle school gymnasium or movie theater with lost people. They have a vision of lost people streaming en masse through the doors on launch Sunday shouting, “I found it!” No wonder that planter will spend the majority of the week getting the production ready. The band, slides, movie clips, coffee and donuts, are all a part of an environment that helps people feel at home. But at the end of the day, the demanding grind of an attractive church can potentially take away from the pursuit of those far from God. Simply put, when you have an attractive plant it can end up solely with an attractional strategy. The end result will be that you “sell” a new and better church (product) to consumers of religious goods and services.

It is possible (and even common) to spend too much energy focused on only one aspect of the church plant: the Sunday morning crowds. There are many solutions, including opening up new lanes to all kinds of church planting, something Warren Bird and I discuss in Viral Churches.

One solution is to personally invest significant time in relationships with lost people and new believers. The sermons may need to be simpler with less “special effects.” The band may need less programmatic direction and more relational investment with you. At the end of the day, the core team and lead planter must personally invest heavily in the harvest. Not only is that great for the moment (for those lost people, etc.) but it creates the culture for the future of every person who connects with your church. The long term future of the new church is in the harvest, not a Disneyfied Sunday morning experience.

I think there are some inherent tensions in Ed’s books and writings (maybe I’ll share them at a later date), but I think he is onto one of the main issues. And effectively responding to this challenge will liberate the québecker church like never before.

As a church, we must, must, must have an answer to this question. If not, lives, marriages, families, and churches will (continue to) crumble.

If you live close… come on out!  If you live far… thanks for praying!

TRANSLATION:

Sunday, February 6, 5pm – 7pm

655 rue Fillion, St-Jérôme

100 Bowls created by artists from here

Bowl – $20, Soup – Free

All of the proceeds go the “L’Ami(e) du quartier” (Friend of the Neighborhood)

From time to time I’ll share a few thoughts from our living room about what God is doing here in Québec, in my life, or in the church.

Thanks for praying!

“Ah,” the neighbor says. “I hear you are religious! Great! Religion is a good thing. Where is your temple or holy place?”

“We don’t have a temple,” replies the Christian. “Jesus is our temple.”

“No temple? But where do your priests work and do their ritual?”

“We don’t have priests to mediate the presence of God,” replies the Christian. “Jesus is our priest.”

“No priests? But where do you offer your sacrifices to acquire the favor of your God?”

“We don’t need a sacrifice,” replies the Christian. “Jesus is our sacrifice.”

“What kind of religion is this?” sputters the pagan neighbor.

And the answer is, it’s no kind of religion at all.”
—Tim Keller, King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus, p. 48.

via: Justin Taylor

This question is ably answered by Michael Rydelnik in his book The Messianic Hope. It’s a quick read (190 pages) with hundreds of footnotes (pointing to a plethora of resources for extended study).

His treatment of Rashi’s influence on the interpretation of messianic prophecy is eye-opening… if not shocking. Here are a few slices of chapter 8:

If the messianic hope is so evident using a literary reading of the Hebrew Bible, why is it that so many contemporary exegetes fail to recognize it? (p. 112)

…

Perhaps one answer to this question can be found in the work and influence of the great Jewish biblical commentator, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzkhaki (1040-1105), most commonly known by his acronym, Rashi. His interpretive methods along with the approaches of the medieval Jewish commentators whom he influenced, ultimately found their way into Christian commentaries. Is it possible that Rashi’s more historical approach ultimately affected the way Christians interpret messianic prophecy? That is the question that will be examined in this chapter. (p. 113)

…

Rashi was unique as an interpreter. He became beloved and revered for his unique ability to combine traditional derash with innovative peshat. Moreover, he wrote for the common person, making the Bible accessible to the entire Jewish community. Beyond making the Scriptures understandable, Rashi included an occasional application or homily, showing a pastoral concern for his readers. But as will be evident, Rashi’s greatest impact would be to transform both Jewish and Christian interpretation of the Bible, particularly in the realm of messianic prophecy. (p. 117)

…

The central effect of Rashi and other medieval Jewish interpreters on post-Reformation Christian interpretation was a less messianic understanding of the Old Testament. Rashi and the other medieval Jewish interpreters, arguing from a historical understanding of peshat, advanced a nonmessianic understanding of a number of key messianic texts. Afterwards, Christian interpreters adopted their views as the true peshat of those passages as well, leading to a demessianized understanding of the Old Testament, as is evident even in contemporary Christian interpretations of the Hebrew Bible. (pp. 122-123)

I’d recommend this book to anyone serious about understanding the Old Testament. It is well worth the $13.00 on Amazon

We are currently looking at the possibility of buying one of these two buildings, each with their limitations/challenges and advantages:

"L'Assemblée du Nord" is one of the other evangelical churches in the region. The auditorium can hold about 200... and is right next to one of the cities high-schools (the large brick building in the background)

"R. Thérien" is an old auto parts store. The building is in great condition. There is loads of parking across the street facing the building. The beige and white building to the right is an elementary school.

Several of us are currently praying through these and other possibilities. Perhaps God would want us to buy one of these two buildings, or another, or none at all. We are moving ahead to see whether the doors are open or closed.

Thank you for praying with us as we move forward for the glory of God in St Jérôme!

Here’s a video that captures the passions bound up in these protests:

So how do I pray? I can continue to pray through a prayer video made a few months ago… praying for every man, woman, and child created in God’s image in the beautiful country of Egypt:

We are praying for you Egypt!

Central Africa, where ethnic and international conflicts have brutalized the populations. Tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples in Rwanda and Burundi led to civil wars and periodic genocidal massacres over the past five decades. The Rwanda genocide of 1994 triggered a chain reaction of war and waves of refugees, affecting surrounding countries. The Second Congo War of 1998-2003 embroiled DRC, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Chad, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi in a confused and bloody conflict that involved irregular militia groups as much as national armed forces – and had no real decisive winners, only losers. Eastern Congo in particular has been devastated, and the simmering of disgruntled militias and ethnicities poses a continued threat there. The heterodox and occultic Lord’s Resistance Army also plagues the population of Uganda as well as southern Sudan and northeast DRC with raids, murder, mutilation, abduction and enslavement.

Lord, we pray for righteous leaders – locally, nationally and internationally – who will act with justice and decisiveness to prevent war and conflict. We pray also that the lives of those devastated by loss and destruction might be rebuilt from the ashes.

-From Operation World

(I just bought my copy)

If you go to iTunes and download the song “Actions Speak Louder Than Words” ($.99), 100% of the proceeds go to His Voice Global to build a fourth orphanage in Southern Sudan. Sudan is a war-torn country with over 2 million dead, and scores of orphans. Once build, the orphanage will be self-sustained by HVG’s trucking company there.

HT: Justin Taylor

Guy Muse, an Ecuadorian missionary, talks about idols common to missionaries and christians as a whole. (He would know.)

Anything that becomes an end greater that God Himself becomes an idol,  or “replacement” god, no matter how good the thing is in and of itself. Tim Keller calls it a “counterfeit god“.

Elisabeth Elliot was on to this concept decades ago in her book “No Graven Image” (referring to Exodus 20:4-5).

Unexpectedly, the graven images in this story are the ones that exist in the heart of the Christian, not the pagan. The book’s message is this: as Christians, we engrave in our minds, images of what we think it means to serve God – a picture of ourselves doing a good thing – and that is idolatry. We need God’s grace to help us see ourselves as we truly are and worship the God who calls us. As Margaret says in the book, The Indians had become people to me – the were no longer my “field”. While I had once declared them to be my equals, I now regarded myself as theirs. Instead of saying, “Oh, you are as good as I – let me help you,” I now said, “I am as poor as you. God help us all.”

Guy Muse continues with some convicting thoughts over at the M Blog.

Here is Tim Keller’s take:

We took this photo at Mont Tremblant, a famous ski mountain and village about an hour north of Montréal

These come directly from the Buzzard Blog:

COMPLETING AND REMEMBERING 2010

• What was your biggest triumph in 2010?
• What was the smartest decision you made in 2010?
• What one word best sums up and describes your 2010 experience?
• What was the greatest lesson you learned in 2010?
• What was the most loving service you performed in 2010?
• What is your biggest piece of unfinished business in 2010?
• What are you most happy about completing in 2010?
• Who were the three people that had the greatest impact on your life in 2010?
• What was the biggest risk you took in 2010?
• What was the biggest surprise in 2010?
• What important relationship improved the most in 2010?
• What compliment would you liked to have received in 2010?
• What compliment would you liked to have given in 2010?
• What else do you need to do or say to be complete with 2010?

CREATING THE NEW YEAR

• What would you like to be your biggest triumph in 2011?
• What advice would you like to give yourself in 2011?
• What would you be most happy about completing in 2011?
• What major sacrifice for the gospel are you willing to experience in 2011?
• What would you most like to change about yourself in 2011?
• What are you looking forward to learning in 2011?
• What do you think your biggest risk will be in 2011?
• What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving in 2011?
• What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore in 2011?
• What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of that in 2011?
• Who or what, are you most committed to loving and serving in 2011? How?
• What one word would you like to have as your theme in 2011?

Caleb turns 7 today. He loves reading (stops and reads every sign and label he possibly can… I got lost in enchanted village when I was his age because of this),  is learning how to calculate his riches as we play Portland-opoly together (much better than the regular version), loves his Adventures in Odyssey Bible almost as much as his Dangerous Book for Boys, prays for orphans he’s never seen and friends his sees every day, and loves to run and take cover as I pelt him with snowballs (really).

God has blessed us with 7 years of his presence… 7 years already? (I must be getting old).

Katie is my sister and Trevor is my brother-in-law (no, Trevor is married to one of my other sisters). We love you guys! Here’s a birthday greeting from Caleb and Constance on a chairlift… (kind of).

...and they both have their special happy birthday faces on for you both!