Unveiling Hope

Going the Wrong Way

Living in Canada in the spring is wonderful. One of the things I enjoy about living in the Great White North is watching the geese come home from their hiatus in the south. The other day while sitting outside I noticed something I’ve never seen in the spring – geese flying south – yupper – they were flying the wrong way! I wondered if they were lost. I wondered if the leader was confused and the others were just following his lead because it’s what they do – follow.

I spent too many years of my life as a follower – the wrong kind of follower - following people who, in retrospect, were just as lost as I was. If they sounded reasonably intelligent, or appeared to have it together, I was right behind them – often with few questions asked. I rarely made my own decisions or formed my own opinions. Why bother? There was always someone who knew better that I relied on.

The first half of my adult life I spent going the wrong way. I have to say, in defence of most of my “leaders”, their intentions were good – they just didn’t know any better. As a parent, I have been a person of great influence on my children. Unfortunately, they had little choice but to follow my lead – and my intentions were good, but the road to you know where is paved with good intentions.

Very few people have an opportunity to change the impact of a poor decision. Many of us form opinions and make decisions on a daily basis without fully understanding the potential consequences, but there is a decision that every person on this planet has to make that will have eternal consequences.

In those days, when I thought I knew it all, I had allowed myself to be convinced that the Word of God – the Bible – was just a bunch of stories made up by a bunch of people. I thought that as long as someone had a “higher power” in their life they’d do just fine in life. They’d have good karma and they’d end up in heaven. I was wrong. Five years of studying has completely and irrevocably changed my mind. If you’re going the wrong way, the time to turn is now.

“Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?” Luke 6:39.

A Great Suggestion

Being part of something bigger than yourself is the greatest gift of all. That gift was given to each and every one of us in and through God. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Before giving my heart to the Lord it was all about me – my pain, my sorrow, my present, past and future. Before I knew Him, I was dead inside.

Recently, our Lead Pastor put this question out to the congregation: “What do you know now that you wished you knew 10 years ago?”  I’ve often wonder what my life would have been like if I would have known Jesus 10 years ago rather than five. I wonder would my knowing Him have had a greater impact on my children? I wonder would my knowing Him have had a greater impact on others? I know what the answers to those questions questions are: unequivocally YES. I would have been part of something bigger that would have taken my focus off myself and placed it on Him and on others.

Why didn’t the God-fearing, Christ-loving people in my life ever share the gospel with me? Did people make assumptions that I wouldn’t want to hear the Good News? They people assume I wasn’t ready to hear it? Did anyone ever look at my crusty and abrasive character and think – “OY! She needs some Good News to soften her up!” Did I seem like a hopeless case?

Hear my heart on this; I’m not blaming anyone for the time I missed with Him. I try not to look back upon any part of my life with regret because I know that God can use and has used much of it for greater purposes than I could have ever imagined. BUT, what if – God forbid – I would have perished before I surrendered?

I try to look for the positive in everything. I choose to look back upon those years and say, had I not fully experienced them perhaps my heart would not be so burdened for others who don’t yet know Jesus. Maybe I’d have assumed that if people believe in God, they must believe in His Son.

So why bother bringing the whole thing up, you wonder? Glad you asked. The Great Commission is not A Great Suggestion. Those of us who say we love God must act in loving ways. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my command,” John 14:15.

Looking back at the past can serve a good purpose. The hurts and regrets of the past are a launching pad to a glorious testimony – a future filled with Good News that can be shared with everyone.

Mission: Possible

Two of the things I love most about our lead pastor is his thirst for knowledge and his compassion for others. The way he lives inspires me to be a person of purpose. He recently sent an article to members of our congregation entitled, Simply Missional written by: Ed Stetzer and Eric Geiger.

Articles such as these get my adrenaline pumping for action, but they also set me to question whether I am allowing myself to be fully used of God for His purpose. I often take a good hard look at myself, the fruit of my living, and wonder if I’m doing “enough” or if what I am doing serves a purpose.

I work in a secular environment. Inside and outside of work, most of the people I come into contact with are not believers. When I meditate on the mission Jesus gave to His disciples – that includes believers today – I am drawn to the words go, all, teaching and observe. Matthew 28:19-20 reads, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of age.” 

I have had countless discussions with other believers who have thought, as I have often and errantly thought, that in order to be an effective disciple  I need to be outside my own country – I need to be a “missionary.”

Canada is a veritable melting pot of people from other nations - people right here – in my community – in the marketplace and in my place of employment. These are places where I go every day. The best way to teach someone is not to give them a book to read – what if they don’t understand it?? Simply telling them what you want them to know cannot fully be appreciated without vision. The best way to teach someone is to teach the way Jesus taught - by example. He wasn’t simply the presence of light; His character and behaviour cast light – many who observed Him were taught by Him. He didn’t always preach to people, sometimes He just shared a meal with them and told stories, and often times that was enough to set things in motion.

Stetzer and Geiger wrote: “Missional leaders fall deeply in love with the city or town in which God has placed them. They embrace and embed themselves in their community. Such leaders understand the vital key of incarnational ministry by living out the words of Jesus on a daily basis through a missional rhythm of being a blessing to the people (community) to which they are sent.”

Have you ever thought your “mission” was mission impossible? It’s not. Our mission is mission possible. God never gives us a task without first equipping us and placing us where He wants us.

Nobody Ever Taught Me

When I pray for Israel, I pray also for Israel’s enemies. It’s not easy, especially when you hear about the vile and evil hatred perpetrated against them by the Hamas. Hatred runs deeper than anyone can imagine.

What I love about God is that just when you think there is nothing you can pray that will change the hearts of the enemies of the Apple of His Eye, He manifests His sovereignty and power. Miracles are an everyday thing for Him.

Mosab Hassan Yousef is a young man of 30 years. He was born and raised under the teachings of radical Islam in Ramallah. By his own testimony with Fox News, he tells of his hatred of Jews and Christians. He is candid about his involvement with Islam under the teachings of his father, a political Hamas leader. He is forthcoming about the violence her perpetrated against Jews, both as a child, and as a young man – serving as president of a radical Islamic youth movement.

During his interview, Yousef spoke candidly about time he served at Megiddo prison in Israel, one among many Hamas leaders. In short time he began to see the evil of Hamas and radical Islam. He tells of a walk he took through the streets of Jerusalem one day when he was released. He was invited by a Christian to attend a Bible study; he did just that. Almost immediately, he began to study the Koran and the Holy Bible at the same time and found countless contradictions in the Koran but there was one verse in the Bible that mobilized his need to understand more about Jesus and that verse was, “love your enemies.” During one of six interviews with Fox, Mosab Hassan said, “I had never heard this before . . . nobody ever taught me this.”

The State of Israel is the only nation I have ever heard of who lets their enemies know that they plan to defend themselves if violent, aggressive acts continue against them and calls in advance to let them know. God has taught this to His Chosen Treasure how to love and written it on the tablets of their hearts. If I have learned anything from Israel, from the Jewish people, it is this: it is possible to love your enemies.

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Matt. 5:44.

The Writing is on the Wall

The truth is uncomfortable to speak sometimes let alone hear. There are biblical truths that are frightening even for a Christian. Because the truth must be told however, it is imperative – if we claim to love someone – that we speak in truth.

Jesus always spoke the truth. He only said what He heard His Father saying. He told the truth, as uncomfortable and frightening as it was, to everyone and He spoke it always.

As a new Christian, the Book of Revelation was just that to me – a revelation. What I was able to understand horrified me regardless of the happy ending. As I grow, I realize that people need to understand the truth in order to make informed decisions and choices about where they will spend eternity.

No one knows “when” – only the Father. After studying the books of Revelation, Daniel, and Ezekiel in particular, one can see that the labour pains have started. Who knows if the times we are going through are false contractions or the real thing? What is important however is the fact that He will come like a thief in the night so people need to be prepared.

He told us to preach the gospel to all nations. Salvation and redemption are not just about sins being forgiven and receiving blessings; we need to be doers of the word and not just hearers. Christ did what He saw His Father do and then told us to do the same and that means speaking the truth.

It’s one thing to share the gospel but to share it in its entirety is crucial lest our hands be soiled with someone else’s blood. The writing is on the wall, but not everyone has eyes to read it – that’s where we come in.

Do you share the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

“Immediately, the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. The king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together, . . . then all the king’s wise me came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation ... this is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting,” Daniel 5:5-6, 8,  26-27.

The Prodigal's Brother

I’m sure it’s happened to you ... while reading a parable in the Bible, one you’ve read perhaps hundreds of times, it’s revealed from an entirely new perspective, one that provokes deliberation and introspective investigation. The parable of the Prodigal Son birthed exactly that in me today.

For the first time I noticed that mention of the second brother was incongruously absent from the beginning of this parable other than a reference to his existence. I began to ask myself, what kind of relationship did he have with his younger brother? Did he have anything of significance to add to his brother’s life? Was he caught in the ‘older brother’ situation of jealousy of the ‘baby’ of the family?

Luke 15 tells us that the younger sibling had insisted on receiving his inheritance and squandered it leaving him eating the pods fed to the pigs. Verse 17 indicates he began to question his life, concluding that “I perish here with hunger.” In Matt 5:6, Jesus said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.” The young man knew he would be fed in his father’s ‘kingdom,’ so he sought it out, looking only to be fed as any other of his father’s servants. He expected nothing more and was even worried about his father’s reaction because he had once rejected his father, and everything he stood for.

To his surprise, his father welcomed him with open arms, running towards him to greet him with the love that had never stopped burning in his heart. He prepared a celebration to welcome him home. In Luke 15:3-7, Jesus spoke of a shepherd leaving his 99 sheep to go and seek the one who was lost. He ended the parable by saying, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

When the eldest brother returned from working in the fields he notices a great celebration underway. He was offended, resentful and jealous of his brother.  His father tried to make him understand the significance of his brother’s return but his son would hear nothing of it. “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him?”

He was unable to rejoice. His works, deeds and obedience were clearly righteous; his heart wasn’t others-centred but rather self-centred. He viewed his brother as his father’s other son.

During my time of reflection I had to ask myself, what kind of sister am I to the children of God, those who are lost? Am I more of a sister to the 99? What condition is my heart in? Do people recognize Jesus in me? Can they tell by my actions and reactions that I am one of His? Have I forgotten that I was once His prodigal daughter? As a disciple of Christ, I am a shepherd. Waiting for the prodigals to return is unacceptable. Clearly, we are called to go and find them. If they are not with the flock, they are lost. Are you seeking?

Will You? Can You?

She was a shy woman, desperate for a friend, longing for another human being to walk alongside her. She heard the words spoken from the wise man in the pulpit, “look around, step out, take a chance,” but she could not. She was just not quite there yet.

There came a woman who saw a need. She reached out, but the shy woman could not take her hand. In the secret places of her heart she whispered, “please don’t give up on me,” while fear overcame her taunting her to push the other away.

Each Sunday the woman hoped that the other would see fit to look past the barricade that surrounded her. One Sunday at a time, the bricks of the wall began to come down. The Persistent Hand of God was reaching down through the kindness of one of His children.

That shy woman was me. The woman who saw the need was my friend Gail. Gail kept reaching out when others gave up. She saw something worthwhile. She walked through the gates of her own personal comfort into unknown territory; she stepped out. She was obedient. She loved me in a way that no other, besides God, had tried. She was the human expression of His love, exemplifying the second greatest commandment by her words and actions.

It’s been almost five years since Gail took that walk with me. From God’s perspective, it was more than one woman befriending another. God was training me. I was being lead by example. This past summer, I too felt a calling. “Look for someone who can’t seem to make the first move. Look for someone who longs to be loved by me and express my love to her. Walk with her.”

I’m still that shy woman and that may never change. But I know one thing for certain, we cannot profess to know the love of God and not express it to others. God never let Moses get comfortable, or Joshua, or Gideon, or Esther, or Paul; He’s not about to accept it from us.

Wherever you are right now in your walk there is someone who feels exactly like I once did perhaps how you once did. They don’t feel as if they belong, but they want to; they need a walking partner. Will you – can you – stand back and do nothing?

“And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14.

Living Together

Living together . . . now that I have your attention . . . Wednesday past our official new Lifegroups started meeting again. I was really excited about this new group, excited and a little scared.

I was thinking about the time when Noah was loading up the ark. All the animals entered the ark and lived together for almost a year. They shared their provisions and their space; they grew their families and shared their lives. I wonder if the smaller animals were ever intimidated by the larger ones or the younger by the older.

My former lifegroup met together several times over the summer. It wasn’t easy for us to get to know each other in the beginning; we were so different and yet so very much the same. Trust was an issue that had to work itself out by stepping into the ark together. And it did. We became very close. But towards the end of this summer (yeah, it’s been over for weeks in Canada), God spoke to my heart; “You’re getting too comfortable.”

Over the last year or so He’s been wrecking my heart for the younger generation. I felt called to bring together a small group of women – some in their forties and some in their twenties. The vision was that the older generation would be the Aarons and Hurs surrounding the younger women - holding up their arms while they answer their callings and fight on the battlefield. But I felt like a little mouse would have felt sitting beside the elephant on the ark – why would they want to spend time with me? What do I have to offer them? Wouldn’t they rather be around someone who’s younger and cool?

So what changed? I was wrecked to a greater extent than the measure of my fear. There is a generation coming, a generation already here, that needs – now more than ever – to be supported. They are the ones who are going to rock this world and they need back-up.

Each generation has something to offer the other, whether it’s the generation ahead of them or behind them. We are part of the same world, facing the same issues, fighting the same battles. We are called to be parts of One Body working together in unity, doing life together, living together. That is music to His ears. THAT is the best kind of worship. That is LOVE.

“As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up – one on one side, one on the other – so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword,” Exodus 17:10-13.

Are you holding up someone’s hands?