A CBC news report on May 27 warned Canucks fans that “overindulging during the long run to the Stanley Cup Finals could be hazardous to their waistlines.”  With many fans flocking to bars and restaurants the report said that “we’re eating easily a 1000 calories extra than we’re supposed to at a single meal and that can add up to maybe five or 10 pounds… during the series”.

 I am fairly confident that this is correct information.  What’s interesting was the online response following the report.  Among the responses were:

• “Who. Cares.”
• “Obviously dieticians have no clue about the Stanley Cup playoffs!”
• “Choose a salad, she says…. hahahahahaha!...that's hilarious!”
• “Hopefully the Canucks score lots of goals, jumping out of your seat cheering must burn some calories.”

But the comment that caught my attention was the very first one: “Back off lady and mind your own business” followed by a close runner up: “Save the do-gooder lecture and pass the pork rinds.”

I have to say, that on the one hand I feel a sense of relief. It’s not just me. It’s not just the gospel message.  It’s not just about every moral value our country has held dear until recent years.  Our cultural mindset rejects just about every single form of teaching that has anything to say about what a person does and how a person lives.

And that’s the problem.

We have a mindset that basically says that no one can tell me anything, that I am the final decision maker on all things pertaining to me.  Never mind what is “good” for me.  Never mind if others are offended.  Never mind if something is inherently right or wrong.  The only thing that matters is what “I” think and if you so much as even suggest that I am doing something wrong then you need to “back off” and “save the do-gooder lecture”.

That’s what we’ve become.  No one can tell you that the choices you make are wrong.  If you want an abortion, who is to say that you can’t?  If you want pre-marital sex, well, what are you waiting for?  If your spouse isn’t fulfilling your needs, there are plenty of other people around. If you want to “marry” someone of the same sex, that’s entirely up to you.  It sounds like a page right out of the book of Ephesians: “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more” (Ephesians 4:19).

But it comes at a cost.  When society continually rejects any and all forms of instruction, even something as basic as trying to limit salty foods and calorie-laden beer, how can I be surprised when the message of the gospel is rejected?  I can’t.  But that’s not to say there won’t be an effect.  History has shown that whenever a society is bent inward, focused on “what’s good for me” instead of what’s true and right, then that society is heading towards failure.  Moral collapse is inevitably followed by social collapse.  They go hand in hand.

Now, more than ever, we need to be people who respectfully let the voice of reason and truth be heard.  Jesus said it well, “He who has ears, let him hear”.

We live in a culture that loves to be served.  Whether it’s as extravagant as an all-inclusive vacation on a cruise ship or as simple as going to the local fast food restaurant, we expect (even demand?) that we be served.  Successful fast food restaurants tell you that you can have it your way, convincing us that it’s all about “me”.  All week long we are bombarded with messages telling us that people are ready to serve us and do exactly what we want (just so long as we buy their products or pay for their services). And then comes Sunday. The first challenge we have is simply getting out of bed.  We’ve had a busy week; some folks work two jobs; there’s the kids that need attention; there’s the laundry that is piling up; there’s the dozen “minor” repairs that are needed around the house (and did you know that of all the days of the week, we have guests coming over today?). The list is endless.  We are exhausted from a busy week and Sunday is “ours”.  It’s mine to do with it what I please.  If I feel like getting up, I’ll get up.  If I feel like sleeping in, I’ll sleep in.  If I feel like going for a drive that’s exactly what I’ll do.  It’s my day.  Or so we tell ourselves.

Actually, it is the Lord’s Day.  But in our mindset, where everything is about “me”, it’s easy to forget that. We can find a thousand reasons (some of which are very legitimate) why we can’t be in church.  Our attendance becomes sporadic.  We’ll miss a week here or there.  Then we’ll remind ourselves that so-and-so hasn’t been too friendly lately, or the music was too loud or too new or too old, or the preacher went on too long, and, after all, we can always watch religious programming on television from the comfort of our own couches.  And before we know it, the Lord’s Day becomes Our Day.

Ephesians 5:25 describes how “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”.  In our culture, we tend to give up the church, after all, we all know the church isn’t perfect.  But it’s because the church isn’t perfect, that Christ gave himself for her, because he loved her. Love never fails. Anyone who is in love will know that they count the minutes until they get together with the one they love. No distance is too far, no price is too high. I remember driving from Winnipeg to Toronto just to see the one I love for a day or two.  Love does that.

The Psalmist had it right, “I rejoiced with those who said to me let us go to the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122:1).  Why? Because there was something special about going to the house of the Lord—something that could not be fulfilled in any other way.  It’s the same reason why the early Christians met daily and it’s the same reason why the writer to the Hebrews says “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

Whether we like to believe it or not, our attendance in church says volumes about our spiritual health.  It is true that going to church doesn’t make us a Christian but as Christians we should be doing everything in our power to get there.  It’s kind of like a bride being reluctant to go to her own wedding.  That sure wouldn’t be a very good sign of things to come.

Wherever you go to church; I encourage you, go regularly, go consistently, and go with an attitude of service.  Because in the end, it’s not my day; it is the Lord’s Day and my opportunity to be a blessing to everyone I meet in church.

Pastor Norman

A little over a week ago the CBC was reporting on a Supreme Court decision in a case involving former employees of a Wal-Mart store in Quebec that closed seven months after the store had been unionized. As with most all CBC stories on-line, readers have the opportunity to comment. The very first comment was indicative of the mindset we are living in today. This is what the writer said, “Hmmm…not a fan of Unions…but that then again not a fan of Wal-Mart and their beliefs either.”

I took note of this comment because it indicates how we tend to line up on different “sides” of an issue. The question this person was asking was, “who am I a fan of?” or perhaps “who/what do I dislike the most?” The decision to choose one side over the other became a matter of what the writers feelings were towards the two parties involved instead of which of the two parties is actually doing something right or wrong. It was a matter of who I “like” instead of who is right.

My interest in writing this commentary has nothing to do with what I think of Wal-Mart or the union; it is about how we make decisions. The question should not be how I feel about the two or more parties involved. The question should be if one or both of the parties involved did in fact do something wrong. In the case of Wal-Mart and the union, I can be the most passionate supporter of unions, but if a place of business didn’t do wrong, then I couldn’t support the union’s “side”. On the other hand, I can be the most determined critic
of unions, but if a business did do something wrong, then I would need to support the union. So in essence, who I am “a fan of” has nothing to do with who is actually right or wrong and who should have my support.

What’s the big deal about this? What does this have to do with us? It has a lot to do with us because much of the decisions that are being made every day, are not based on what is true and right, but based on what the majority of people feel. That’s why we have so many opinion polls. You can not turn on the news without hearing about some opinion poll. You would think that opinion polls rule the world! They have become our god. Whatever the majority of people think, that must be right.

It’s a good thing that Elijah didn’t commission an opinion poll on Mount Carmel. Let’s see; 450 or so prophets of Baal telling him that they were right, with Elijah pretty much standing alone believing that the prophets of Baal were wrong. If that happened today, no question about it, the prophets of Baal would have “won the day”, at least in the newspapers. But right and wrong are not a matter of opinion, they are a matter of truth. And truth is not subject to how we feel about something or someone, it is subject to God’s created order and design.

In our post-modern world we want to take charge of everything, even truth itself. But we can not manipulate truth (at least, not successfully), we can only accept (live by it) or deny it. In answering those who were questioning Him, Jesus said “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

Next time you are asked your opinion on a matter, instead of responding on how you feel, consider for a minute who or what is actually right.

Pastor Norman

Dogs are great. I loved my dog. He came to us as a little puppy when my youngest was just 3 years old. There was much excitement in our house the day Frisky came home. She became a great part of our family. Most of our kids lives have been lived sharing the living room with our dog. We had her for almost 15 years. She was a great dog.

On the news recently I heard no less than three different reports about animals; a dog, some ducks, and a koala bear. The one closest to home was Trevor the dog. Trevor had a rough background, was given a new home, but things didn’t work out and was taken back to the shelter and slated to be euthanized.

The “news” part of the story was the fact that people were upset that this dog was going to be put down and that efforts were under way to save the dog. It seems the city was taken to court and the dog has been given a reprieve until an expert can come up and assess whether the dog is really dangerous or not. Then the dogs fate will be determined.

Then there was the story about the fellows shooting ducks (not in the Yukon). Someone posted a YouTube video showing these poor ducks being shot while the shooter celebrates. The “news” didn’t appear to be the illegal hunting; the news was that the otherwise happy ducks were being killed. How can people kill ducks? It was inhuman.

Finally, there was the story about the koala bears. I can’t remember what happened with these bears but apparently we needed to be informed about their plight.

Now, let me be clear, I love dogs, I enjoy seeing ducks (and I don’t mean on my dinner plate), and while I’ve never been up close to a koala bear, I have nothing against them either. They are all part of God’s creation. But it seemed strange to me that so much “news” was centered around these helpless little creatures when so many more helpless little children are not even given a chance to live.

I don’t have all the answers to what to do with so many unwanted pregnancies. I can not imagine the challenges of a single mother raising one preschooler, never mind two or three. But I do know that the answer is not to simply do away with them as if they were no more than an overgrown wart. It seems to me that dogs are given much more protection than unborn children. Something isn’t right.

Children are being aborted by the hundreds every day, approximately 100,000 annually in Canada alone. But the headlines don’t speak about it. Instead the headlines speak about dogs, ducks, and bears (and yesterdays news that a mouse was found chewing $20 bills inside an ATM machine in Oregon).

This is what our society has turned into; a society that is fragmented (little or no family support) and highly self-centered (I do what feels good for me). In that setting, it’s no wonder we see the lives of unborn children taken. What can we do? We can “do” three things.

First, we can pray. Pray for the generation that feels they can do whatever they want without worrying about consequences (including premarital sex). Pray for the moms and moms-to-be that are considering abortion. Pray for the fathers to take responsibility.

Second, we can support pregnant women. Help them so they don’t feel they need to go through this alone, or point them to agencies/people that are eager to adopt a child.

Third, we can educate. Many people don’t realize just how well formed an unborn child is extremely early in the pregnancy. The pregnancy is not just a “blob” of tissue. There are tiny feet and tiny hands that will one day clasp a finger.

Go ahead and love your dog. But let’s not forget the most vulnerable and pinnacle of God’s creation - the children of God.

Pastor Norman

Unlike the original Fords, which you could purchase in any colour you wanted as long as it was black, today we have an onslaught of choices to make. We choose our flavour of ice cream. We choose what we want on our hamburgers. We choose the colour of our vehicles. We choose from among dozens of breakfast cereals. We choose the career we want to pursue and the university we want to attend. Salespersons may even tell you that you can choose your low monthly payments.

Some choices are trivial and some have life-long and even eternal consequences.

Having choices is one of the gifts and responsibilities that God has given us. We seen it when God created Adam and gave him the responsibility to name all the animals. We seen it in the invitations of Jesus, to follow Him. We seen it in Joshua’s challenge to his hearers to “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).

Having choices is a good thing. But with choices come responsibility. While all of us have the freedom of choice, the challenge (or the lie) that we face today is the mistaken belief that all choices are equally good; that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe sincerely. We’ve taken the slogan meant for hamburgers, “have it your way”, and applied it to matters of faith. We live in a culture which likes to pick and choose what we are going to believe, even if if means making a selection from a variety of faiths and putting them all together into our own personal self-satisfying combination.

In 1 Kings 18 Elijah, the prophet of God, was having a bit of disagreement with Ahab, the king of Israel. They decided to hold a contest between their gods to see whose god was real. Each person/team would build an altar and make a sacrifice. Whoever’s god responded to the sacrifice with fire would be known as the true god. The 450 prophets of Baal offered their sacrifice, but nothing happened. They shouted, they danced, they even slashed themselves with swords and spears in order to get their god’s attention. “Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention” (1 Kings 18:29). On the other hand, when Elijah prayed to the Lord, God responded in a very dramatic way (see 1 Kings 18). Not only did God respond, but there were severe consequences toward the prophets of Baal. Who they chose to follow made all the difference in the world.

In an age when we think so much is relative, in an age when we think we can make up our own reality, do as we please, believe what we want as though we were making spiritual selections from a buffet, this lesson from Biblical history shows us that who you believe God is and what you believe about him makes a world of difference.

Each individual has the choice of whom they will serve, as they should, but we must never believe the lie that every choice is equally good. If the Lord God, the God of Israel, was fact the same god that the prophets of Baal worshiped – just with a different name, then there wouldn’t have been a problem on Mount Carmel. But the difference between Yahweh (the name of the God Elijah worshiped) and Baal is not just a difference in name, terminology or semantics. The two are worlds apart. Today, we need to be careful we don’t try to blend them, as so many are trying to do.

It might be a nice thought that all religions lead to the same God, that the only thing that matters is that you are sincere, but it simply isn’t true. Joshua said it best, “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”.

Ever since I was a child I can remember television advertisements encouraging fitness. The idea was to get active, whether it meant swimming, biking, a team sport, of just walking. Today there are many people who enjoy a good workout as a means to not only stay fit, but also to reduce stress. It seems that fitness and stress reduction have cropped up everywhere, including schools. Who wouldn’t want to teach children to take care of their bodies? What could possibly be wrong with teaching children to relax?

Just this past week CBC television covered a story about an elementary school in the east that was participating in a study to find out the impact of yoga on children. They were teaching children to practice yoga as a means of promoting calmer, less stressed students.

Yoga is certainly nothing new, but it has spread in recent years. There are yoga exercise mats, yoga clothing, yoga cruises, all sorts of yoga books and much more. Yoga is practiced in schools, offices, medical centres, and even in some churches. There are some who practice what they call “Christian Yoga”.

With so many jumping on the yoga bandwagon you might wonder why there are others (like myself) who are critical of what’s going on when it all seems like harmless fun.

To understand yoga we need to understand its basis. Where does it stem from? What is really happening during yoga?

For some people, yoga is just an exercise. But is it really? Yoga may involve exercise but yoga is essentially a whole philosophy based entirely on eastern mysticism, a philosophy that is seriously contrary to Biblical Christianity.

Merriam-Webster defines yoga as “a Hindu theistic philosophy teaching the suppression of all activity of body, mind, and will in order that the self may realize its distinction from them and attain liberation.” Even the word “yoga” comes from the word meaning yoking. The whole point of yoga is not exercise; it is a practice that strives to unite the individual soul with the “greater soul” of the universe. In fact, if you told a Hindu that you were going to practice yoga for exercise or stress relief they would be just as insulted as you should be if someone told you they were going to practice baptism as a way to learn how to hold their breath longer. You don’t need baptism to practice holding your breath and you don’t need yoga for fitness or stress relief. A Christian can engage in any number of forms of exercise that are not based on Hinduism.

Brian Flynn, of One Truth Ministries writes, “rather than trying to persuade Christians that they are in error, (the hard way) we have chosen to accommodate their error and call it “Christian” Yoga to make them feel better. For once I can say that on a spiritual topic I agree with the Hindus, there is no such thing as “Christian” Yoga.”

Swami Param of the Classical Yoga Hindu Academy agrees. He writes, “Every week, we get calls from Christians and Jews who would like to study “yoga.” When we inform them that all of Yoga is Hinduism, they are shocked! Of course, they choose not to come to our classes. These people should be informed, for they waste our time to say nothing of their confusion. The phoney yoga teachers do not care. Many Christians and Jews have taken such classes, and, when they discover they have covertly been learning Hinduism, there are many mental and emotional ramifications.”

The fact is, yoga is a form of eastern religion, a religion that teaches an entirely different philosophy from Biblical Christianity. Exercise is good, but when it embraces a method that includes meditation of the soul with the greater soul universe (as just one example), there shouldn’t be room for it in our schools, let alone our churches.

There’s no denying that we’re living in uncertain times. In a period of one year we’ve seen the economic and political landscape take a roller coaster ride, both in Canada and the USA. We have seen the Canadian dollar go from trading around 60 cents to up to $1.10 US funds, then take a turn again. We’ve seen the barrel of oil more than double in price and then settle back. Meanwhile we’ve also seen the stock markets take record-breaking falls, only to come back with some record gains in return. No one knows what will happen next. It seems that the only thing certain is that nothing is certain. Add to this the political changes happening in the USA and with it the inevitable appointment of more liberal judges to the US Supreme court, and you begin to wonder where all this is headed.
There is little doubt that both Canada and the USA are headed towards further secularization. We have drifted away from moral absolutes (which stated there is a standard of right and wrong) to moral relativism (which stated each person decides for themselves what is right and wrong) and now we are encroaching on moral nihilism.

What is moral nihilism? Nihilism refers to the total rejection of established laws and institutions. Moral nihilism would be the rejection of any basis for moral judgment. We’ve moved from “there is a right and wrong” to “I decide what’s right and wrong for me” and now we’re heading toward “there is no right and wrong”. In essence, we are pushing God out of our nation. When God is rejected a society will eventually fall into anarchy. We have seen this happen with other great societies in history, societies that eventually fell apart. Take a read through Romans 1:18-32 and see if this doesn’t describe what’s happening in our world today. It’s not a pretty picture. Go ahead and look it up. Pay special attention to verses 29-31. This is what happens in a world of moral nihilism. When God is rejected, when the mindset of society is bent on denying God and God removes his hand of blessing on a nation, that nation will crumble. Just like our roads are crumbling, the heart and soul of a nation without God will crumble.

Do I sound like an alarmist? Perhaps. Am I worried? Not at all. God is in control. Man’s rejection of God does nothing to diminish the actual power of God.

Political landscapes may change, economic conditions will rise and fall, and nations will reject the Lord their God, but we are called to remain faithful and to persevere. Our hope is not in the economy. Our hope is not in political parties. Our hope is not in our accumulation of wealth, power or prestige. Our eyes our not fixed on what is temporary but on what is eternal. Our home is not here, we are only passing through. If we really believe this, then all the economic, political and moral upheaval will not shake us. Our hope is in the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He does not sleep. He does not slumber (see Psalm 121)… and His kingdom will come and His will will be done.