Problems and Ministry

You thing YOU have problems...One of the things about being a minister and chaplain is that people entrust information with you that you normally wouldn't hear at parties. Some are very personal, others are just...odd. Then again, when I think back to my life experiences and some of the choices I made (and some that were made for me), I have to stop and ask myself "Was I any different?" I think the answer is an unqualified no.

Religious people get themselves into trouble when they look down their noses at others that aren't walking or talking the way they think they should. We can all fall into this category if we're not careful. When I hear some of the things I hear, often my first reaction is "What is WRONG with people?!" Whenever I start to think like somehow I'm the only normal one in the world, I have people (like my wife) that remind me that I'm still a card-carrying member of "team-idiot". We're all members of this team, we just think we're not. Some of us mature in our normal fallen states and because of this, along with an abundance of stupid decisions made over a lifetime, we can call ourselves 'wise' and pat ourselves on the back for making it through life and can now pass this 'wisdom' off to the next generation that won't listen either. For those of us that are fortunate enough to be a member of God's chosen sheep and are in the process of being sanctified by Him, we too can look back on our previous lives and see how utterly foolish we were, and that by God's grace alone were we able to live through some of the oddities we were guilty of, and can now use this to build up the Kingdom of God, not glorifying ourselves, but glorifying Him.

When we become Christians, God gives us a heart of flesh, and replaces our heart of stone (Ezekiel 36:26) which enables us to see God for who He is, and wonderful His ways are, allowing us to love His Law (Psalm 119:97). When I hear some of the worldly wisdom today I cannot help but shake my head. Would it do any good to argue with them? Most definitely not, they don't see the world with the same eyes as I do as a Christian. Yet I can say that once upon a time I would've been in complete agreement with them previous to my conversion. What the world needs most definitively is the gospel. People need to be transformed by the power of God so that they too can come to understand the difference between His ways and our ways (Isaiah 55:9).

Some days it's hard ministering to people. Some are hurting from past sins, some have lived hard lives, some are searching for something they will never find. Many bury their hurt, their sin, their emotions, and plod on like good soldiers with a weight they were never meant to carry. The saddest part is that apart from the gospel, these hurts will never go away, they will never be truly free of them, they will only learn to cope so they can continue to function in a 'normal' way and life. They will continue to see the cross and Christ crucified as 'foolish', yet cannot see the ways of destruction they are currently on. Pray for lost people, pray for hurting people, pray for the sheep, that they would minister to a lost and hurting world instead of snubbing our noses at them.

HCRBC is preparing for our church meetings, beginning in August in our home, then moving into Spray Lakes Sawmills Recreation Centre in September. We will have time for fellowship from 10-10:30, our services will start at 10:30 and end around noon. If you are interested in joining us, drop us a line or email. Our website is almost complete with a sample of sermon given in Canmore of March last year. When the sight is up I will announce it here.

God bless.

Opinions (everybody's got one)

There are times in life when we have an opportunity to share our thoughts and opinions with others. Sometimes, these opportunities create hard feelings because one person has a vastly different opinion that others, and no one likes to be wrong (especially our spouses...works for either gender). The church (universal) has gone out of its way to alleviate discontent and the differing of opinions by simply refusing to acknowledge any differences at all. They may give them "lip-service", but in the end, the church by-and-large ignores them in the name of unity.

Christ, in His lengthy prayer to the Father in John 17, prays that the church be unified. Obviously this is important to God, and so it should be important to us. But at what cost? Where do we draw the line? Many Christians and non-Christians fail to see the difference between the LDS members and Protestants. Many Protestants have tried to work more closely with the Roman Catholics. The Roman Catholics have been trying to patch things up with the Eastern Orthodox Church. These are all noble endeavors, but at some point we need to talk about the things that separate us, and make sure that those outside of the Creeds are correctly labelled "heretical" and not be included in the body of Christ. This is a very closed-minded stance to take in today's pluralistic and relativistic age, but it is one that must be done, for the SAKE of unity! If unity means getting rid of all labels and understanding, then there is no unity, only equal opinions. No truth, no right or wrong, just post-modern 'seeking'.

Inside the Protestant church, we have many denominations. Even inside the Baptist tradition, there are many different families that do not agree on many things. Our church (HCRBC) is different from most others in the area. I have been told by many that our church won't work because we aren't doing certain things that churches MUST have (like a youth pastor). We don't have children's church, so our children will stay with the parents during the service. Again, we've been told, people won't come, they don't want to be in a church where there are "a million kids" running around. So much for parenting.

Regardless of opinions, we all need to focus in on Christ. If we do that earnestly, we can understand each other, while still disagreeing, but in a loving and respectful fashion.

Merely Parched

Have you ever poured yourself a glass of water, expecting to sip it slowly, only to drink the whole thing and go back for more? It is funny how we can be more thirsty than we think we are.

I experienced this today, believe it or not, at church. As I was sitting there listening to Trevor preach the word of God I realized how rare it is to hear someone open the Bible, read it, then explain it. Not skipping verses that might be hard or awkward to receive, not giving cute stories that merely summarize the meaning, not taking anything out of context. It is amazing the fruit that comes from someone doing their job. I learnt a lot this morning and was reminded of what a great shepherd we have in Jesus. I was challenged to trust in Jesus when times are good, hard, and uncertain. I needed to be reminded of that and am so thankful that I can trust in an Authority higher than myself.

So here is what I am driving at. Go to a church where the Bible is taught! You won't regret it. At one point in my life I thought that church was somewhere I could go to serve and help out. This point is true, but it is not the only factor that counts. I have heard people say things like this too and stay at churches that they can serve at... Regardless of how withered they become. The church is also a place where the Gospel must be proclaimed through the word of God. Why? So that those who are already saved can grow and mature, and so that those who aren't saved can hear and be saved. Everything starts with God's word and grows out of that. How can you believe if you don't know who God is? How can you serve and obey if you don't know God's commands? How can you belong to anything if you don't know what (who) unifies.

Hosea 4: 1,4-6 "Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land", and "Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me".

Knowledge does not equal righteousness, but knowledge is a platform for us to work off of. So, are you being fed at church? If not then why do you remain and serve there? Find a church that will faithfully feed you the word of God, then act on that knowledge (obey). Therein you will find best and truest form of community. Let knowledge gird your belief, direct your service, worship, and community life.

Don't dehydrate yourself. For those in NW Calgary, check out Harvest Bible Chapel. For those in South Eastish Calgary, check out Rocky Mountain Calvary Chapel. For those searching cochrane, check out Hill Country Reformed Church (meetings start in August, and launch in September).

ESM,

Ryan.

Intellectual conversations

I like them. I find them stimulating, and they invigorate my intellectual senses. I was able to have one of those with a very intelligent cousin of mine at a family function yesterday. She is a Buddhist. To be honest, I never realized there were different kinds of Buddhists, much like there are different kinds of Christians. If I remember her analogy correctly, she equated her kind of Buddhism with Protestants of Christianity. Neat. But what I found most fascinating was that while she is undoubtedly more intelligent than I am, she fully admitted that the Buddhism she follows isn't even after a REAL person, but a figment of their collective imaginations. There is a statue at the front of the temple of this 'Buddha', but he's not real...never has been. Historically, according to those that follow the Buddhist tradition, the teachings of Buddhism is from Siddhartha Gotama, born in 563 B.C. in Nepal. After being unhappy with his current state of affairs in life, he began a search for deeper meaning in life, and after 6 years, he became 'enlightened'. From age 35-80, he taught his experience and understanding to others. To this day, the main thrust of Buddhism is the search for 'enlightenment'.

I fully admit that my knowledge of Buddhism is low, so I'll need to do a little research into the practices and teachings of Buddhism in order to speak intelligently about it. What I will talk about today though is the idea that Buddhism doesn't like labels, and they are very open to other beliefs. For instance, there are a number of people that call themselves "Christian Buddhists". Somehow, you can be both Buddhist AND Christian. Knowing little about Buddhism, I will still endeavor an educated guess that this is impossible, and here's my reasoning. Christianity came out of the traditions and practices of Judaism. Our Lord God, Jesus Christ, was a Jew. He taught in the temples, He followed the Law perfectly, and prayed to the God of the Bible. So it would seem that if any religion could be in concert with Christianity, it would be Judaism. But it is not. Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one come to the Father but by me" (John 14:6). Jews don't believe this. They reject Christ Jesus, therefore they reject God Himself. How can a person follow the 'wisdom' of a man (who died, and is still dead) while proclaiming the truth claims of Christ? I would argue that you cannot. And what is most interesting is that the Dalai Lama has said the same thing. I quote: "The conceptions of God and Creation are a point of departure between Buddhists and Christians" (55), and that "If you are Christian it is better to develop spiritually within your religion and be a genuine, good Christian. If you are a Buddhist, be a genuine Buddhist" (46). He then used illustrated his feelings here by quoting a Tibetan expression, which says, "Don't try to put a yak's head on a sheep's body" (105). The Good Heart (Wisdom, 1996), 81-82.

Christ and the teachings of Buddhism are not compatible in the metaphysical sense, therefore they are not compatible, for in Christianity, our basic foundation of faith is on the person and work of Jesus Christ. To follow any other teachings, whether it be Gotama, Muhammed, or Krishna, it is not the teachings of Jesus, God incarnate. You cannot put Jesus on par with any other person in history, for there has never been anyone like Jesus, nor will there ever be. Every religious leader in history has a grave, and that grave still exists, all except the tomb of Christ. Amen.

Hill Country Church will begin meeting at our home in August. It will be small and informal as we work through some details before we move into our public hall in September. There will be a message, the Lord's Supper, and some worship. If you would like to join us, please email us or call us. hillcountryreformed@gmail.com Ph. 403-932-0519.

The will of God

In our last church plant meeting, we were discussing some very difficult issues that we (along with any church plant) are currently facing. One of the things that seemed to keep coming up was everyone's desire to "do God's will", and not our own. How do we know what is God's will and what is not? R.C. Sproul covers this topic in his study of systematic theology called "Foundations", and I will be using the outline of that lesson here to elaborate on the topic.

R.C. recognizes two kinds of "God's will." The first is His decretive will. This is defined as 'what God sovereignly, absolutely, efficaciously, brings to pass. It is what He has determined will occur.' With this definition we understand that God's soveriegnty is intact, and that everything that comes to pass is due to God ordaining it that way. Nothing catches God by surprise, and although we may not understand why things happen the way they do, we can trust in the character of God and that all things are for the good of those that belong to Him according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28). God does not reveal everything. Deuteronomy 29:29 states 'The secret things belong to the Lord...' which makes clear that we do not know God's decretive will, except for what He has revealed to us (Deut. 29:29b).

The second kind of God's will is His preceptive will. This is defined as 'what God has spoken as right and true. It can be and quite frequently is resisted.' An example of this is that He has called all to repentance. As our world (and even often our church bodies) show is that His preceptive will that all would come to Him is rejected and resisted on a regular basis. Anytime any of us break any of the 10 commandments we are resisting God's preceptive will. These are things that we can know, and should be striving to follow on a minute by minute basis. God's preceptive will has been made known in the Holy Scriptures.

When our church planting group, or when we as individuals want to follow God and His will, all we can do is follow His preceptive will, and pray about His decretive will. If our actions break His preceptive will, then we are not following Him. If our daily decisions are following His preceptive will, then He will open and close doors as we move forward. We need to pray, trust and be aware of these openings and closings, and enter where we feel led to go, not to get frustrated at our lack of complete understanding of where and what we are to do. If we live in a way that fulfills God's commands, He will guide us where He wants us. As is mentioned in the study, "tomorrow is the surest revelation of the hidden will of God."

John Calvin states "Where God closes His holy mouth, I will desist from inquiry." R.C. makes a similar statement with "The hidden will of God is none of your business." While this may seem harsh to our sensitive ears today, we need to seek His wisdom and direction as best we see how, and leave the rest to Him. God is in control, and we must rely on His will, and trust it completely.

Information on our church plant will be coming shortly. If you have any questions about who we are and what we believe, feel free to contact us either via email at hillcountryreformed@gmail.com, or call us at 403-932-0519.

Hurting People

This title is relevant on a couple of levels today as I've booked off work due to stomach ailments from the quality food we were served at the Hunter Education Camp this past week. Not to say it was bad food, but it was 'camp' food, highly processed stuff that is served to masses of teenaged kids that can process styrofoam. For those of us that have worked on eating very healthy foods over the past couple of years, a week of that stuff wrecks you. I'm hurting. However, on the more grand scale of things, this past week gave me a wonderful opportunity to speak to some of the other volunteer parents that were there. Out of the 10 volunteers, I was able to speak in depth one-on-one with 7 of them. One parent in particular stood out as she shared with me about her community, her family, and more importantly the death of her young girl of cerebral palsy. Often when I speak to those that are hurting in ways I cannot imagine, the most I can do is shed a tear with them, listen carefully, and ask relevant and tender questions to help them work through things. Fortunately this parent had already worked through the painful parts of the loss, and is now reminiscing about the good times and I was able to share in those. Three men were still dealing with divorces, and all of the heartaches that go with that. Another was doing well in his retirement, able to spend quality time with his daughter, but his heart was in Belize where he and his family do mission trips every year or so. He talked at length about what he sees there, and how we in North America have too much, to the point where we can't empathize with the poor in the world until we experience it personally. You could see the pain in his eyes when he talked about the conditions there, and the nuns who had so little did their best to serve all others.

Folks, we live in a world of hurt, and after listening to Dr. John MacArthur's expositional preaching on Mark 13, I'm now convinced that the pre-millenial view of end times is the correct one, and that we'd better get used to conditions in the world getting worse, not better. What can we do in light of this? I think Jesus said it best, "Go and make disciples." Christ is our hope in this hurting world, all others end in further tragedy, loss and hopelessness. Go and give hope, share Christ with someone today.

Our group is holding off on the John Piper study until the fall when life returns to normal for most. We will be gathering weekly to fellowship and have some open theological discussions. Feel free to contact us if you'd like to join us. Our email is hillcountryreformed@gmail.com, or call us at 403-932-0519.