The First Disciples

I came across another thought-worthy devotional by JR Miller I would like to pass on. – GFC

“And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.” Matthew 4:18

When Christ needs men for important positions He never looks for them among idlers. He always seeks in the ranks of busy people, among those who are at their posts and are faithfully doing their duty. When the Lord wanted a man to be the deliverer of His people, He found Moses tending sheep in the wilderness. When He sought for a man to be king over Israel, He found a shepherd lad watching over his flocks. When He wanted a man for a prophet, He found Elisha at his plough. When Jesus needed men to become apostles, to lay the foundation of the Christian Church, He walked by the sea and sought for them among those who were busiest. No doubt there were many idlers loitering along the shore that day, lounging among the boats and watching those who were at work; but Jesus did not call any of these to be His apostles. He did not want for His apostles idle men or those whom their neighbours did not care to employ; so He passed by all the loungers, and kept His eye on the men who were at work. He must have men of activity, men of energy and earnestness, and He knew where to look for them.

The whole Old Testament was full of Christ. There were a thousand fingers along its pages, every one pointing to Him. All its types and prophecies and promises were fulfilled when He came, and lived, and died, and was raised up and glorified. It is very interesting to take up Christ’s whole public life and ministry, and show how perfectly He lived out the wonderful mission which the prophet here outlined for Him centuries before He came. He preached the gospel to the poor; He was the friend of the poor. He healed the broken-hearted. Wherever He went the sorrowing and the troubled came flocking around Him. As a magnet draws steel-filings to itself from the heap of rubbish, so there was something in Him that drew the sad to Him.

We ought not to lose this lesson. If we want Christ to call us to important places we must be busy and active, that when He comes seeking for persons to do His work He will see that we are competent and worthy. We should notice also that Christ often calls those who are engaged in lowly pursuits. If we think our occupation unworthy of us, the way to rise to a better one is to be faithful and diligent where we are, until we are called to a nobler and worthier pursuit. It is to him who is faithful in little things that the charge of greater things is promised. He who does not fill well the lower place is wanted neither by God nor by men for the higher place.

 
 

Rejoice in the Lord

Down through the years, one of my favourite songs by Ron Hamilton has been “Rejoice in the Lord.” Ron wrote this song back when he first was diagnosed with cancer in his left eye. Though Ron & Shelly did not understand all that God was doing at the moment, through that difficult and trying time, they learned to commit themselves to God’s gracious hand and let Him do what He knew was best. Of course, looking back now, everyone can see that God was preparing the Hamilton family for a lifetime of musical ministry to children – our children through “Patch the Pirate.” As I listened to Ron give his testimony last summer, it was clear that he would not change one step of the way of his life and he was careful to give God the glory, rejoicing in the Lord.

“God never moves without purpose or plan, When trying His servant or moulding a man. Give thanks to the Lord, though your testing seems long; In darkness, He giveth a song.

O rejoice in the Lord, He makes no mistake. He knoweth the end of each path that I take. For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold.”

Times of trial are not meant to be enjoyed, but they are meant to be understood. While we may not always fully comprehend what God is doing at the moment, we can understand that God never works on a whim or with randomness, but with purpose to shape us, cleanse us, and prepare us for greater things.

James 1:2-4
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

1 Peter 1:7
7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

When I go through times of testing and trial, I try (not always succeeding) to ask the Lord to help me see His hand as He works to purge me, strengthen me, and clarify His plan for my life. And if I cannot see His hand, to at least continue to trust Him, knowing He has promised to never leave me or forsake me. When I do this, He enables me to face each new day and new challenge with a sense of His purpose and trusting my life to His care.

“Now I can see, testing comes from above; God strengthens His children and purges in love. My Father knows best, and I trust in His care; through purging more fruit I will bear.”

This is the ultimate goal in God-allowed trials. To bring us to the place where can bear more fruit. The testing, the trials, the learning to depend upon Him all work together to make you and me more productive in God’s harvest field.

What trials have you passed through of late? Have they helped you grow in your relationship to the Lord? Have they brought maturing in faith, strengthening of resolve, and humility of spirit? Remember that God allows these times of trial to make us better, not bitter. And when we experience our spiritual fruitfulness increasing, then we, too, can join in singing, “O rejoice in the Lord, He makes no mistake. He knoweth the end of each path that I take. For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold.”

As time passes by…

As this writing, I am now waiting for my flight home from Kalamazoo. Once again it is early – I don’t know how I always get these flights. Tonight, at home, I will go through our house, changing the clocks because we are moving to daylight savings time. Losing yet another hour of sleep, another marker that time is passing.

The last few days have reminded me of this “passing of time.” I sat with my dear mom and watched her struggle to remember and understand her surroundings. It was obvious the grip of dementia getting tighter with each passing day. I won’t say it was easy to see her like this, it wasn’t. I am thankful that on my last visit to her before I left, I do believe she finally recognised me and we had a few brief minutes really “together” before she drifted off again. While I know my mom would be very frustrated over the turn of events in her life, I also know that her complete confidence in her Saviour would give her grace to accept what He has allowed. I can only ask Him to give me of His grace, too.

My sister gave me a gift on this visit, a scrapbook of pictures and memories of my life and family. It was lots of fun going through it – and wondering where the time has gone. Helping my dad in and out of the car, also spoke to me about the passing of time. We all live busy lives, constantly on the go, filling every moment with activity or media, and before we know, time has passed us by. The Word of God admonishes us: Psalms 90:12
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

We cannot stop to march of time, but we can make sure that we are living every moment for things that are truly important to life and eternity. Take time for your walk with the Lord, take time for your family, take time to enjoy the time God has entrusted to you. Or before you know it, time will have passed you by.

Riding the Rails

I write this sitting on an Amtrak train heading out of Chicago on my way to Kalamazoo to see my dad and mom – and my only sister and her family. I like travelling by train – the pace is much slower, the seats much roomier, and you actually get to see something of the countryside – more on that in a moment. As my dear parents age in body and mind, it becomes more important for me to make this journey to see them – even if I must come alone. My wife and I came to understand some years ago that my parents’ travelling days to see us in Vancouver were over. And so, here I sit on this train.

As we made our way through the ageing and rundown neighbourhoods on Chicago’s east and south sides, I looked out at the many houses and walk up apartment buildings and wondered who is taking the gospel to these needy people. Sure, the area seems poor and unattractive, but are the people here any less valuable to God? We all know the answer. The reality is, old cities and old neighbourhoods don’t inspire much in the way of “vision.” I doubt many missionary church planters would venture to try to raise support to come to such urban mission fields. Yet, the need is genuinely here. How we need to pray that God would send forth labourers into His harvest.

Seeing these neighbourhoods has made me think about my city, my home, my neighbourhood. In Vancouver, we replace ageing houses with huge new ones, but the spiritual needs are no different than what I see out my window today. Could we not also ask, “Who is trying to reach these people with the gospel of Jesus Christ?” I am glad to say that we at GVBC are doing something to take forth the most important message ever given. But then we must frankly ask ourselves, and I must ask myself, “Am I doing all that I could do? Is there a passion to impact my city, my neighbourhood?”

Getting so completely removed from the busyness of daily ministry and the routines of life itself gives an opportunity to reflect on life and it’s direction. Leaving home gives you a chance to look at things from a distance so to speak and to let God direct your thoughts and heart into seeing as He sees.

How well I remember driving the streets of greater Vancouver so many years ago now, and how every street seem to cry out, “Come over and help us.” To me, Vancouver was a “mission field” and it became the place God would choose for me to give my life in serving Him and reaching those streets with His Word. Have the years changed those streets? Has Vancouver been completely evangelized? Sometimes it feels like we haven’t even scratched the surface. There is so much left to be done.

As I look out the window of my train and see all the houses on so many streets, I think of the people who live in those houses and understand that they will spend eternity somewhere. I pray that someone has come to their neighbourhood with the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. I also ponder the work left yet to be done in my own neighbourhood and pray for God’s grace and strength to keep this all important work until He comes.

- Pastor Gordon Conner

 

Olympic Moment #2

This has been an exhausting and exhilarating week! How exciting to be a part of all this Olympic “aura” and celebration. The world has come to Vancouver and there is a genuine buzz all around the city, the thousands of visitors, the upheaval in work schedules, the cheering crowds, the throngs filling our downtown streets… but even greater has been the opportunity to be part of a dedicated gospel outreach to the people of our city and to those from around the world.

The time spent on the streets passing out J&Rs (the good news of Jesus Christ) to Olympic attendees from near and far has been a learning experience to be sure. I have rejoiced to hear the stories of witnessing, of people coming to know the Lord. And I have been frustrated by the vast number of folks who simply do not care. Polite Canadians often return the booklets; “no thank you” and off they go. You want to call after them, “Wait, you don’t understand, you will desperately need this one day…” But we can only do so much in the few seconds we have.

I know God can do what we never can do. His Word can find its way into a heart like nothing else on earth and I am trusting that there will indeed be faith that will come by hearing (and reading) the Word of God. I am thankful for the many people from our church and from our sister churches in Metro Vancouver who have been willing to head out into the battlefield for their Saviour. I know God will bless them as they have obeyed His commend to “go into all the world and preach the gospel.”

We have yet another week of Olympic fever. I am praying that God will do something special in the hearts of those who need Him most.

Olympic Moments #1

What a show we saw last night for the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games here in Vancouver! It was eye-dazzling and exciting to see the special effects, the athletes, more special effects… and to hear of Canada’s strengths and beauty. I am confident that most Canadians – at least the ones watching it on TV at our house – were proud of the opening ceremonies. (Even though the final torch lighting did not turn out as planned.)

But there was a cloud over the entire evening as word had come that a young luger from Georgia (the country) had been killed earlier in the day when he lost control of his sled at very high speed at the end of a training run. The video clip hits like a hammer, a punch in the stomach. How terribly sad, this young man, just 21 years old, now gone. Nodar Kumaritashvili was remembered with a moment of silence in the midst of all the opening celebrations, but it could not bring him back.

I was surprized at how badly I felt about all this. Certainly other young people have their lives tragically cut short through accidents all the time. Maybe it was because it was so public, maybe because he was a fine athlete, but one thing for certain, he did not come to Vancouver/Whistler to die.

As I pondered the reality of this, I was once again reminded of James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. Life is so uncertain – even for the young and healthy. It serves to remind me why we are launching this Olympic outreach, taking forth the Word of God to many who have come for the games and many more who live in this great city. Their lives, like that of young Nodar are uncertain and they need to be prepared to meet God. Please pray with us for this gospel outreach, please get involved and go.

- Pastor Conner

An Incorruptible Crown

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

 

For months now, we have been bombarded the advertising campaign “do you believe?” I think it is an interesting way to build loyalty and support for our Canadian Olympic athletes. But you know, all of this “believing” by us – the public at large – will not really help our athletes go faster or perform more skilfully. It may make us feel good, it will definitely add pressure to them, but it won’t help them. And when you think about it, though a good positive attitude is important and very helpful in your performance as a sport figure, good attitude alone is not enough.

I can guarantee that the athletes who will represent our nation and those from every other nation who are coming to compete are not depending solely on good will or even their own “can do” attitude and determination. They have trained, and trained – hour after hour, day after day, weeks, months, yes, years – to prepare their bodies and minds to a level of excellence suitable to compete on the world stage that the Olympics presents. All of this effort and preparation takes one thing: a hunger to win and the discipline to make it happen.

When I watch those people from the comfort of my Lazy-Boy recliner, I sort of feel ashamed at my lack of physical discipline. Makes me want to get up and at least sit on a hard chair while I watch them on TV. But more than that, if these athletes can pay such a price, to sacrifice so many comforts, to be rigid and determined in training to compete for a few ounces of gold in a medal, should not I, who desire to please my Lord and Saviour be willing to exercise some spiritual discipline in order to finish my course?

As we enter into the Olympic experience, may the Lord use the disciplined determination of our athletes to stir up some spiritual discipline in us for the race set before us…

- Pastor Gordon Conner

Heavenly Guidance

I have been blessed by a little volume by J.R. Miller. I trust it will be a blessing to you as well. Here is his devotional for February 5^th.

 

“Be thou there until I bring thee word.” Matthew 2:13

 

All our movements should be under the direction of God. In very olden times God guided his people by a pillar of fire and cloud, which lifted and moved when they were to move, showing them the way, and which rested and settled down when they were to halt. In these days of so much fuller revelation there is no need for any such visible token of guidance, yet the guidance is no less real and no less unmistakable.

 

It was an angel that brought to Joseph the bidding to flee into Egypt. Angels do not now appear to our eyes; but who will say that they do not whisper in our ears many a suggestion which we supposed to come from our own hearts? At least we know that in some way God will always tell us what to do; and if only we have ears to hear we shall never fail of guidance. We should always wait for God’s bidding before taking any step. Especially in times of danger, when we are moving under his guidance should we wait and not move until he brings us word.

 

It ought to give us great comfort and a wonderful sense of safety to know that God is caring for us so faithfully. Some people laugh at the simple faith of childlike believers in God, and say that it is all fancy that there is no one in heaven taking care of us. But we need not be worried by such sceptical ones. There is a God in heaven, and he is our Father. He never sleeps. He has charge of all the affairs of this universe, and is always “at the helm.” This should give us all confidence. Our whole duty is to be ready always to obey. Whenever the voice comes bidding us arise and depart, there is some reason for it, and we should not hesitate to obey. Wherever we are sent we should quietly stay till again God sends to call us away. The place of duty is always the place of safety, and we should never move until God brings us word.

In With the New

Well, here we sit on January 1^st, 2010 – a new year and a new decade await us like fresh snow untraveled or marred. I love the start of a new year – getting a new calendar, placing the family birthdays, new scheduled events and wondering what unexpected things the next months hold in store if the Lord delays His coming yet another year.

It is a great blessing to face each year, not with a sense of dread, but of hope and the certain knowledge that whatever comes my way, God will still be God and will remain in my heart and at my side to see me through. I face the year with new dreams and aspirations, with new goals and yes, a few “resolutions,” too. I know I will need God’s help to reach those goals, but I also need a good dose of self-discipline and determination.

My greatest desire is to be used of God to help someone in their walk with the Lord, to point the lost to the Saviour, and to become more like Him in my attitude, holiness, and day to day life. I desire to be a better husband & father, to be more faithful to my Lord, to love others in a greater way. Big dreams, high hopes, but with God’s help – nothing is impossible.

As you ponder the road ahead, this new year of 2010, consider carefully your stewardship of the life entrusted to you by the Lord. With His help and an abundance of His grace, we can make a difference in our life and the lives of those around us. May God bless you as you seek to follow Him this year.

Micah 7:7
⁷ Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

from the firing line…

Pastor Gordon Conner

Out With The Old

That is a common year-end saying and a suitable sentiment for forward thinking and forward looking people. I would surmise that most of us have some memory from the last twelve months that we are ready to toss out with the close of 2009. And it is good to move on from bad events, sad experiences, and negative thinking – unless there was a lesson to be learned in them.

Life is not always easy, the roads we travel not always smooth, but for the child of God – even the toughest of times have purpose and reason behind them. There is nothing that can come into my life or yours without the “permitting” hand of God. So when I sigh and mutter, “I am sure glad that’s over.” Maybe I would do well to reflect on the lessons God had for me in those times of trial, testing, or unpleasantness. Did the trials serve as God’s chastening? Was I brought into a closer relationship with the Lord? did my faith fail or grow stronger? Did the Lord desert me? God never left my side and here I am – a survivor of 2009. As someone once said many years ago, “The trials of life are meant to make us better, not bitter.”

So as we close out another year, we may be ready to let it all go… and that is okay. God’s mercies are new every morning, and we then, can look forward with fresh anticipation to the new year with all it holds in store for us. It is a fine balance we should embrace – learning from the tough times, but also not allowing them to rob us of a fresh future in 2010.

Philippians 3:13-14
¹³ Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, ¹⁴ I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.