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Love: Always, Always, Always.

2/14/2020

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"Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Our first thought is to connect this with marital relationships; as we do with so much of 1 Corinthians 13.  After all, 1 Corinthians 13 is all about "love" and what better place to show love than in a marriage!
 
However, 1 Corinthians 13 isn’t written to a couple that has fallen in love… it is written to a church that has fallen out of love.

​Paul is writing to a church that has been bogged down in gossip, slander, sexual immorality, drunkenness; and so much more; to a church that has was not reflecting the holiness of God; and what he is essentially saying in chapter 13 is “hey church, this is what you are supposed to look like." And there in verse 7; Paul describes some key characteristics of the church; which truthfully does apply in all our relationships: “Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
 
Therefore, in the context of the church, what does it mean to “protect” one another?
 
For starters, we can protect a reputation. It happens far too often: someone comes to you with a juicy tidbit of information.  It often begins with the words, “Did you know…” or  “Have you heard..."  Or maybe “don't tell anyone I told you this but..."  Almost inevitably, whatever it is that is being said; it is harmful to the person being spoken about. Love does not allow harm to someone’s reputation to go unchecked like a roaring fire.  James 3:6 reminds us “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” Love does not spread the fire…. even if it's true. 
 
A good example of a love that protects is the love that Joseph had towards Mary. You remember the story.  Joseph didn’t understand Mary’s sudden pregnancy.  How could he? He was prepared to divorce Mary “quietly” in order to save her from disgrace (as much as possible). That's what love does. That's what it means to protect.  Love wants to see as little harm done to someone else as possible. That is certainly one way in which love protects.
 
Another way that love can protect is when someone is about to harm themselves; spiritually or otherwise. This is a little more difficult because everyone has the right to make his or her own decisions. And yet, when you love someone you will do what you reasonably can in order to prevent them from harming themselves. It’s called looking out for one another. Galatians 6:1, “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted."  Love does not sweep sin under the rug pretending it’s not there.  Love seeks to restore someone gently.
 
What Paul seems to be telling the church is that “love" will cause us to look out for someone else’s welfare; even at the cost of our own.  That, after all, is the example that Jesus gave us.
 
Out in the world, the attitude of many is “I'm going to look out for myself".  “Mind your own business.” However in the church, there is definitely a place for us to do as Philippians 2:4 says; “do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” (NASB). It seems to me that this is definitely one very important expression of love.  Love always protects.
 
When someone does something wrong; we have two options.  We can either broadcast it, to the detriment of the person and to our own testimony… or we can seek the welfare of that person and at the same time promote the gospel of Christ… not by hiding the wrongs... but by dealing with things in an appropriate and godly manner.
 
That’s what love will do.  And one of the reasons why love will do this is because love sees what God can be doing in a person down the road. 
 
Rather than jump and shout and claim my rights… rather than telling everyone how much someone has hurt me or wronged me… what Paul is saying is that love holds off on that sort of reaction.
 
Peter had the same idea in mind when he wrote in 1 Peter 4:8, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
 
It’s not that sin is swept under the rug – not at all. It’s that love does not allow sin to have the final word in a relationship.  Love sees that there is more; that there is potential; and so it doesn’t do anything to hinder the continued work of God in that person’s life.
 
As God's people, we are called to love one another in this manner.  Likewise, if relationships in the home are going to work the way God intended them to work, we are going to have to love one another in this manner – a love that bears all things and a love that endures all things – a love that hopes.  A love that will not give up.
 
So today, Valentine’s Day, besides focusing on romantic love; perhaps there is someone in your life that needs the kind of love that Paul wrote to the Corinthians about.  Someone who needs you to stand up for them; someone who needs to know they are not beyond hope; someone who knows you can trust them; someone who will realize that you will not give up on them.  And who knows… that someone might very well be your spouse.

Let us truly love one another as Christ loved us.
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Family Camp

7/7/2019

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I just returned from a 2200 KM trip (that would be over 1350 miles for my friends in the USA).  12 hours one way.  12 hours coming back.  And that does not include breaks for lunch, fuel, and gas station bathrooms which are hit-and-miss (no pun intended).  Furthermore, there’s an international border to cross (don’t forget your passport).  Construction delays.  Frost heaves (serious ones that will take you airborne if you don't slow down).  Pot holes that threaten to rip out front ends.  Even a temporary highway closure due to forest fire.   Oh ya, and gasoline isn’t exactly free either.
 
There and back again (sounds like a good title for a book).
 
So why bother?  Why go through all that trouble to participate in family camp when I could have spent 5 days relaxing, just an hour away, in my own cottage in the woods? Why put up with all the “hassle”?  I’ll tell you why.
 
First of all; I put up with “all that hassle” because I need family camp.  I need to get away.  I need to get away from my routines.   I need to find that quiet place.  I need to spend time with my wife and/or kids on the road.  I need to be in fellowship with other believers.  I need to hear the messages that came from the chapel.  I need to participate in the fun and laughter.  I need to have those quiet times of conversation with others.  I need to make new connections with friends and rekindle friendships from previous visits.  I need to recharge.   It seems that there are many things that I need… it’s easy to put all those on the back burner at home.  But I need this.  I need Family Camp for me.
 
Secondly, I put up with “all that hassle” because I want my kids, my grandkids, and the people from my church to come to family camp.  Just as much as “I need” all the things mentioned previously, the people that I care about in my life (and that includes you) also need those things.  You need to unwind.  You need to hear from God, perhaps in a different setting than usual.  My kids need the same thing.  My grandkids need all this and more.  If I don’t go, how will others know?  What incentive will they have?  I go because I want to set an example for the people that I care about.  If I don't go, they likely won't.
 
Thirdly, I put up with “all that hassle” because someone else at family camp needs me there.  I do not go in a vacuum.  I am part of a Christian community. There is bound to be someone there who needs encouragement.  There is bound to be someone there who needs to hear the story that I’ve experienced. There is someone who needs a smile on their face.  Someone who needs someone perhaps not quite so close to listen to them.  I don’t know what impact I’ll have on others.  But there’s a reason why the Psalmist prayed, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”  (Psalm 19:14).  My words… My attitude...  My actions… can be a blessing to someone who might have come to family camp broken, confused, hurt.  I’d miss out on that if I stayed home. It's not just about me.
 
The Alaska District is so incredibly blessed to have Camp Maranatha.  I know there have been tons of people who have come up over the years to help develop it to what it is today.  But it takes the leadership of a district to have brought it all together and to keep it going.  It’s a huge camp.  Great facilities.  Wonderful camp directors; and I’m sure a whole team of people planning and implementing the various camps.
 
I want to encourage you, go to Family Camp wherever you may find it.  Go to the nearest one to you (in my case, that’s 1100 km away).  But it’s well worth it for me.  And if you let it, it will be well worth it for you.  Don’t let it slip by because if enough people “skip it” pretty soon there won’t be this amazing resource that is right beneath our noses (OK, in my case, maybe not right beneath my nose, but you know what I mean)….

Now I'm looking forward to next summer.


What about you?  Can you tell us how Family Camp has been meaningful for you?  Leave a comment below.
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Wanted: Fathers

8/16/2009

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When I think of my father I think of the long hours he worked at two and sometimes three jobs. Being an immigrant in Canada and taking care of his family were very demanding. But I also think of the times we spent picnicking as a family, trips to the zoo, the Quebec City winter carnival, road trips, and camping in New York state.

As I reflect on my own kids growing up I feel a tremendous satisfaction in being a father to them. I haven’t been perfect by any means, particularly when it comes to doing things that I don’t especially enjoy, but we have had many great times together. What an incredible experience to have little children look up to you, trust you, and learn much of life from your own life experiences. What a blessing it is when I see other fathers taking time to interact with their children, playing with them at a picnic, rolling around “wrestling” in the living room (often at the chagrin of their mother), or enjoying the outdoors together. I have learned that children are quick to overlook your faults when they know you love them, which, in the mind of a child, is equated with spending time with them and doing things together. Long gone are the days when fathers were expected to be the “bread winner” while the mother was the only one who developed a relationship with the kids.

Unfortunately there has been a movement that promoted the idea that children don’t need fathers. From the entertainment industry that portrays fathers as buffoons to feminists who flat out reject the necessity of fathers, fatherhood has taken a beating.

The truth is that there are fathers who have really blown it. Let’s face it, some fathers have not been much of a father, (maybe because they didn’t have a father themselves?) and in some homes have made life worse by their presence. But to reject the importance of fathers because a small minority of people managed without a father in the house is like finding a 80 year old smoker and saying that smoking is fine because smoking doesn’t seem to have hurt the 80 year old. We know that smoking kills. Maybe not always, but almost always. And certainly, there will be a few homes in which a father is more harm than good, but by and large children do much better with fathers than without. Statistics confirm it again and again. The percentage of children who are content, productive, and responsible citizens is much higher in two parent families than in homes without a father. When it comes to raising children, there is no substitute for a mother and a father (which is all the more reason we need to stand by and support the single parents in our community).

If you are a father, take pride in raising the next generation of godly men and women. God has given you an incredible and awesome responsibility. Don’t listen to the voices that say you have no part in the lives of children. Enjoy your children. Be involved. Do things together. Teach them the things of God. Set boundaries. Lead by example. Treat their mother with love and respect. And you will be blessed.

God’s Word is true.  Psalm 127:3,5 says it well: “Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him… Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.”

For additional resources on fatherhood, check out the Focus on the Family web site at Fatherhood Resources or for general family information, go to the Focus on the Family Main Web Page. They will provide you with much encouragement, resources, articles, research and support.

Pastor Norman

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Children: Blessing or Burden?

6/14/2009

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A Yukon News article printed on May 22nd reported the decline in the number of children who attend the local elementary school in Porter Creek. From a peak of 510 children, in the past decade the school has seen its enrollment cut nearly in half. I’m sure there are a number of factors responsible for this decline, including the fact that the community itself is slowly aging, but one of the factors must also be the changing attitudes society has towards children. When I was young, I used to hear a phrase often: “Children are a blessing from God”. I don’t hear that often any more. Today, many people think of children as a burden rather than a blessing.

It is a fact. Children can get in the way of careers. They can get in the way of financial aspirations. They can get in the way of freedom to do what people want to do. And now, on top of all the other pressures against having children, we keep hearing about the environmental impact children have upon our world. I can’t remember what magazine I’d seen it in, but I remember seeing one ad that displayed exactly what kind of environmental impact each child would have in his or her lifetime. The message was clear: having children was bad for the environment. And the message is getting through. If you have more than 1 or 2 children, there are members of society who will frown upon you.

Of course, this goes contrary to God’s plan. In Genesis 1:28 God said, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth…” This command was repeated to both Noah (Genesis 9:1) and to Jacob (Genesis 35:11). Psalms 127 speaks of the man who has many children as the man who is blessed. And indeed, God does view children as a blessing. Often times when God blessed people, He almost always included in that blessing the promise of many children. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and many more were promised the blessing of many children!

Heather and I have been enjoying the blessing of four children. As with many other parents, we could not imagine our home with any one of them not here. Some of you have heard me say before that if I knew how much blessing our four children would be I would have wanted another four. They have filled (and continue to fill) our lives with love and excitement. Sure there are challenges, and there are sacrifices to be made, but right from the start our attitude needs to be that these little bundles wrapped up in tiny blankets are a blessing, and we need to believe and expect that they will continue to be a blessing even as they grow up. They are a gift from God that we need to treasure every day because [WARNING: cliché coming up]… “they grow up so fast”.

Today, as we celebrate Children’s Day, we hold a Children’s Service planned entirely with children in mind. We want to not only show the children that they are a blessing by having a church service focused on their needs, but we also want to remind every parent, every adult, every person who will one day be a parent, that children are a gift from God.

Proverbs 17:6 says “Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.” Psalm 127:3,5 says, “Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him… Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.”

Instead of being a burden, children are in fact a blessing. Certainly we need to take care of them, we feed them, we look after them, we make sacrifices for them, we teach them the ways of God, but ultimately, like everything else that is in our care, they come from God and they belong to God. They are not ours. They belong to Him. And somehow, in God’s wisdom, He entrusts us with the littlest members of His family and calls them a blessing.

What God considers a blessing, may we never turn into a burden.

Pastor Norman
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Family: It's about Time!

1/11/2009

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Family. What images does the word bring to mind? For many, “family” brings warm thoughts of happy times, growing, learning, being taken care of, being loved, being supported, being encouraged. You might think of special holidays, maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas when the family gathered together. If you’ve been raised in such an environment, consider yourself blessed. If as an adult, you continue to enjoy time with your siblings and/or your parents, consider yourself doubly blessed.

For others, “family” reflects pain, memories of bad times, neglect, maybe abuse, a childhood that wasn’t. Sometimes the difficulties of family come out in adulthood, often when adult relatives disagree over an inheritance or when one adult child is making sacrifices to care for an elderly parent when others don’t seem to be involved. These can be among the most difficult experiences for anyone. I can not imagine what it is like to feel alone, nor would I wish it on anyone. Over the years I’ve seen the pain in the lives of numerous people who are living in such situations. I’ve also seen how important the church family is. The Church is the Body of Christ. We are a family. It’s for a reason that Jesus considers all who do the will of His Father in heaven to be brothers and sisters; because that is ex-actly what we are—family! The reality is that for some people, the church is the only meaningful family they may have.

On our recent road trip, my children and I experienced the blessing of family. We spent approximately 120 hours together in our van. We’ve always enjoyed doing that. We were able to enjoy plenty of time with brothers, cousins, parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts. We enjoyed all those experiences. We counted on them. We expected these happy experiences.

We also experienced something we weren’t expecting; the outpouring of love, generosity and concern by other members of the family of God.

On our return trip home, after much delay due to mechanical matters, we arrived in Edmonton with one night rest in the previous three nights. I could have easily re-written the dictionary definitions for both exhaustion and frustration (and, for that matter, “gratitude” that we were actually going home). But still, exhaustion was a strong reality. We arrived in Edmonton expecting a bowl of soup, a bit of rest, and then we would be carrying on to Whitehorse. Instead, we were greeted with an incredible feast, literally.

There must have been enough food for our family and every teenager in our church; and it was all so good. BBQ chicken, T-bone steaks, shrimp and of course all the trimmings that go with these things. We were spoiled. Totally. But it wasn’t just the food, it was the care that came with it. For the first time since starting work on my engine, I was able to relax. Certainly my family in California helped me tremendously (especially my brother working with me through the night). My parents provided me with every comfort they can give. But I was under a lot of stress at the time, making it difficult to relax. In Edmonton I relaxed. When it was time to leave, they loaded us up with enough food for about 3 days (I was hoping this didn’t mean we would need 3 days to travel home!). Lots of good food, all packaged and ready for a road trip. And, on top of it all, being the eve of the Armenian Christmas, they gave us wonderful gifts to take home. What a blessing. All that to say, they became family for us.

Christmas is over. We’re all back to our regular responsibilities. Let’s not forget one of our chief responsibilities - being family to those around us. I can guarantee you one thing, you won’t have to look far to find someone you can be family to.
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    Pastor's Perspective

    Welcome to Pastor's Norman's blog, "Pastor's Perspective".  

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    The opinions and commentaries expressed here do not necessarily represent the Church of the Nazarene.  They are provided here for your interest.

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