Peace Out!

Is it just me or is peace a commodity that the world has bailed on? Ongoing war, political unrest, terrorist threats have unfortunately become all too common in our vernacular. Even this week another foiled terror attack on an airliner has reminded us that we live in a very fragile world. It seems the closest term to peace the world can come up with is security. I find it interesting that the quest for world peace has been replaced by the second best ideal, global security. In fact, Google “global security” and you’ll get over 80 million hits versus 42 million hits for “world peace”. I know we can’t read too much into Google hits but it’s interesting nonetheless.

In the midst of the Christmas season we often hear the Isaiah 9 passage: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

A “Prince of Peace” in the 21st century? This name given to Christ is much more than seasonal poetry. Christ came to give us…

• PEACE VERTICALLY – a peace with God through Christ who has become our very peace through his death on the cross.
  
• PEACE HORIZONTALLY – a peace in our relationships with each other. Christ came to not only restore a relationship to himself but to reconcile and restore our relationships to one other.
  
• PEACE ULTIMATELY – one day the Prince of Peace will return to rule and reign as King of all Kings and of this peaceful kingdom there will be no end!

Our role in the meantime is to live in that peace and to extend that peace. Matthew 5:9 (KJV) 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Peace out!

How to Lose the Wow!

It's the most wonderful time of the year right? Well, for many it’s just another celebration, another event, another party.

"So we have this holiday that celebrates celebrating. The problem with this is that there isn't enough gasoline to keep the engine going. Over and over again I hear people talk about the acute loneliness they feel at Christmas, and about how they somehow "can't get into Christmas this year." When the celebrating has lost its reason, it becomes empty, meaningless, and incredibly boring. Something similar, while far more subtle, has happened to Christians. We continue to do the forms of celebrating. We sing the hymns, we repeat the creeds, we say the prayers; but the malaise has set in. We've lost the joy of it all because we've forgotten that what we believe is true—really true!" (Steve Brown in Follow the Wind)

These words struck home to me in a profound way. We have become experts in celebrating celebrations but they do indeed leave us without enough gas to keep our engines going. It's reminiscent of Paul's words to young Timothy in describing a people who have "a form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Timothy 3:5). This Christmas let's not be guilty of enjoying forms and rituals. Let's dig deep into the great truths and mysteries of the event we call the incarnation. It is true...really true!

How to Keep the Wow!

“A virgin giving birth would be a miracle but a virgin giving birth to the Son of God...now that’s incredulous!” Erwin McManus

If there’s an example of “familiarity breeding contempt”, it certainly can apply to the Christmas story. Many of us have grown up year after year reading, rehearsing, and reciting it. By the time early December’s seasonal festivities begin, our onset of nostalgic emotion is often swept quickly under the rug of busy schedules and endless shopping lists. To say that the wonder of the Christmas message gets lost in the commercialism of our culture is perhaps the understatement of the year. But there is a miraculous Christmas story that supersedes all the “fluff” that we have added. The story is indeed miraculous:

*A virgin conceives and gives birth to none other than God himself.

*Multiple angelic announcements to rival any Christmas e-card.

*A well-timed GPS star points the Wisemen in the right direction.

*A heavenly ensemble makes a debut appearance that may have even made the top iTunes downloads.

This whole story is a story of miracles. It’s a story of amazing grace that should cause our jaws to drop, our eyes to swell, and our hearts to be strangely warmed once again.

As Christian leaders, I wonder does this fading Christmas wonder happen more frequently than we’d care to admit? Are we still amazed with the opportunity we have been afforded to serve Christ in the ministries God has called us to? Are we still lost in wonder as we lead worship events, deliver His timeless Word, and minister to His bride? Are we moved with every answered prayer, every ministry miracle, and every changed life? The same desensitization that happens at Christmas can happen in the context of Christian ministry. Too many times we’re dragging ourselves out to the next ministry with little expectation and low-level dreams. So how to we keep the wow?

1. Slow down and spend some quiet moments in reflection and meditation on His great story that we get to share.

2. See every ministry engagement as an opportunity for the miraculous.

3. See yourself as you truly are...a sinner saved by an indescribable and incomprehensible gift of grace. Do these things and the WOW will be in your NOW!

We have much to celebrate at the end of 2009, but our greatest celebrations will be not of our successes but of His story. Let’s peel away the layers of the onion of our lives to get back to the core of this Season. Oh, and if we find that peeling that onion brings some tears...embrace them...tears may be a sign that we have indeed rediscovered the wow!

A Coincidence in Missions

Ola! I just returned from a great week in the Dominican Republic. No it wasn’t a holiday…although I think I could use one just about now. I participated in a short term mission’s trip with seven other Newfoundlanders exploring one aspect of international missions: child sponsorship. Like most of you, I like to know where our monies are being invested and if the directed funds are truly directed to the recipients that we intend. We’ve all seen too many misuses of funds in the past whether in the spending scandals in our own government or in the boardrooms of corporate America. These unfortunate events naturally raise our skeptiscm antennas. I’ve seen child sponsorship in action in the past both here and abroad and so this trip wasn’t an eye-opener as much as a reassurance. The bottom line for me: child sponsorship works. It changes lives. God is uses sponsors and sponsoring agencies to change the world one child at a time. The best way, though, to describe my impressions would be through one amazing incident that capped off my week in the Caribbean. On a Thursday morning we took the familiar and semi-comfortable small 20 seat tour bus to yet another ministry location known as a “project”. Once we arrived were warmly greeted by the leaders and pastor in their native espanol. These warm introductions were followed by some sincere but feeble attempts to reply our new found language. Soon the joyful sounds of children with their singing, recitations and laughter, filled the air. After a brief time our tour began with a class of children singing “Open the Eyes of My Heart” in Spanish followed by our own Canadian quartet’s English version of the same song (interestingly enough, this quartet quickly turned into a trio when one of our songsters bailed to “take photos”…I’m not bitter). We represented Canada well! Ok, we represented. On to more classrooms and visits with dozens of children studying, coloring, and singing. But then our role turned into waiters and waitresses as we had the immense privilege of serving these little Dominican children a simple but significant luch. We were told that this particular project had an unusually high number of Canadian sponsors so when the opportunity was afforded I scanned the record book that included pages and pages of sponsor names, numbers, and country information. Around page 3 I started to weary of the repetitive data when out of nowhere a name leaped off the page…a name that I knew but surely was a name that belonged to someone else in the great white north. So that curiosity didn’t kill the cat (namely me), I decided to send a text message back home in order to “rule out” this possibility. The response to my text however, verified my assumptions were anything but correct. This was indeed the sponsor child of a friend from my home city. What an amazing coincidence right! We just happened to be in this little girl’s project, on this day particular day. I just happened to come across a familiar name in a very big record book. I just happened to be able to verify her Canadian sponsor in a matter of minutes. Over 40 000 Dominican children are sponsored though this missions agency and I happened to come across the one girl that was connected to a friend in my home city. Amazing coincidence right! Hardly! In these moments God quickly but clearly reminded me that he is concerned about EVERY person on this planet. No one is too small or too great, too young or too old, too poor or too rich…He loves us all. Through the generosity of my friend’s family back home we were able to purchase a care package of groceries and goodies and present this little girl with a small token of some Canadian love before we travelled back home. Hopefully our words of encouragement and this little gift left a lasting reminder to her family that there is a God that loves and cares for them in ways beyond our level of human comprehension. He’d even send some Newfoundlanders into a little local church to stumble upon a name and into a series of events to do so. Sponsorship works. There are real children and families that need our support and love. On this trip we observed church after church reaching child after child with the reality of the Gospel. I have seen few greater missions’ investments that yield any greater spiritual returns in a life, a home and a community. For God so loved the world…now that’s no coincidence! Dios de bendiga!