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Pastor's Blogby
A window into the heart and mind of the Senior Pastor for Harvest Bible Chapel Calgary.
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 Who Are You Listening To?
Psalm 1 speaks of there being two paths men are on. The one is the man who walks in the counsel of the wicked, stands in the way of sinners and sits in the seat of scoffers. The other is the man who delights in the law of the Lord and he meditates day and night on it. The psalmist then goes on to explain the results of following each and reveals what their end is.
First, we need to note that there is no middle ground. There is not good counsel available from the wicked, or sinners, or scoffers that does not first find itself in the Word of God. In other words any counsel that does not agree with God’s Word is not to be followed.
Which path are you on? Whose counsel do you follow? If you have been a follower of Christ for very long, then I think you would agree that it is all too easy to follow the counsel of the wicked. In fact it is our “default” position. If you are not diligent to spend time in the Word daily, it does not take long before you are beginning to adopt thinking and living based off of counsel from the world rather than the Word of God. The change does not drastically, but rather happens slowly as you begin to slide down a slippery slope. Your focus and goals change. Happiness becomes more important than holiness. Your kingdom becomes more important than God’s kingdom. Your thoughts seem higher than God’s thoughts. It is not until you get back into God’s Word that you realize how far you have strayed in your thinking and your lifestyle.
Brothers and sisters in the Lord we must heed the warnings of this Psalm. Pastors we also must heed the warnings of this Psalm. Do we make much of the Word of God? Do we delight in the Words of God? Churches who have lost their way, are churches that have turned their back on the Word and have adopted the counsel of the wicked. The results are clear! They will be like chaff that the wind drives away and they will not stand in the judgment. (Psalm 1:4,5)
Be careful to be daily in the Word! Take care to make sure that it happens in your home and in your church. Have someone who holds you accountable. Keep your Pastors accountable to preach from the Word each week. We need to hear, “thus saith the Lord” weekly! If we do we are told that we be like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. (Psalm 1:3)
I close by quoting from Isaiah "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Is.55:10,11)
If you have been encouraged to get in the Word daily and would like help developing a reading plan then please let me know. I would love to help you out!  Forgiveness
A few weeks ago we looked at the importance of forgiveness. We all are in desperate need of it and without it we are eternally condemned. Those who are true followers of Christ understand well their need for forgiveness. However, they are not always quick to extend forgiveness to their fellow man. Christ illustrated the foolishness and wickedness of this with a parable. (Matthew 18:21-35) In the parable there is a servant who has an unpayable debt owed to a king. He asks for patience from the king, saying that he would pay him back. The king was merciful and forgave him his debt. However, having been forgiven an unpayable debt the servant does not respond to his fellow servant in the same way. He does not forgive the debt owed him and has his fellow servant thrown into prison. The king then hears what has happened and has the unmerciful servant thrown into jail until he should repay the debt. (Remember that this debt was unpayable) The consequences were great for the unmerciful servant! Jesus ends the parable by saying, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” These are sobering words for anyone who is not willing to forgive their fellowman. These words are repeated in Matt.6:12-15 in the Lord’s prayer and commanded in other verses in the New Testament (Col.3:13; Eph.4:32). Forgiveness is not an option for the believer.
Photo courtesy of Harley Winborn
Our sins can be completely forgiven through Christ. (Ps.103:12)
The book “The Self Confrontation Manual” outlines how forgiveness is lived out.
Forgiveness in Action
1. Keeps no record of wrongs
1 Cor.13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; (the Greek word for irritable includes the meaning of not keeping track of wrongs committed)
2. Not a gossip about a person’s sins to others
Eph. 4:29 “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear”
3. Not dwell on the offense yourself
Phil.4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
4. Restore fellowship with the forgiven person or the offender, as far as is biblically possible
Rom.12:18,19 “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
It may be that the person who offended you is unrepentant. The transaction of forgiveness can not then happen. You are able to forgive them before the Lord, but if the person is not willing to repent and change then there can be no restoration of the relationship.
Ie David and Saul…Saul at times even spoke of repentance, but there was no repentance and the relationship was never restored. David trusted the Lord to deal with the sin of Saul and yet he did not move back to the palace, because he knew the heart of Saul.
5. Loving God without loving people is an impossibility (1 John 4:20,21). Forgiveness should include comforting those who have sinned and repented, as well as reaffirming your love to them. (2 Cor.2:6-8)
6. Forgiveness is to be granted when requested without limitation (Matt.18:21,22)
It is the Lord’s desire that the body of Christ be united.(John 17:20-26) There can be no unity without forgiveness. We will inevitably sin against one another, but we need to be a people who are quick to repent and a people who are quick to repent. We need to be people who are eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit. (Eph.4:3) We can forgive, because we have been forgiven. We would not understand what true forgiveness is without having experienced the forgiveness of God. When we truly grasp how much we have been forgiven, we will be a lot quicker to forgive. As we forgive we are able to pursue being the kind of church that God wants us to be. I conclude this blog with the words written by Peter in (1 Peter 3:8). “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.”  PrioritiesRather, ironically I just spent two hours writing a blog on priorities only for it to disappear into thin air. So the question is whether or not writing this blog should be a priority? There are many things that I need to be and should be doing. So I have reached a compromise, so to speak. I believe that this is an important blog so I will rewrite it, although with brevity. There are many of us who go week after week and life just kinda happens to us. Our days are on an escalator and we are along for the ride. Many days we look back and have regrets about how we spent our time and wish that we could have that time back so we might do things better. However, our regret rarely brings us to a crisis where we actually do anything about it.
Yet, there is a crisis. How many have been led away from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ? (2 Cor.11:3) I believe many are so caught up in the rat race of life and the things of this world that we have lost our focus. How many of us can say Christ IS our life (Col.3:4)? If we can't, then we need to stop making excuses and start prioritizing our lives accordingly.
What were the priorities of those in the early church? There are 4 things I want to highlight that need to be part of our daily lives.
1. Be Devoted to Prayer (Acts 1:14, 2:42, 6:4; Eph.6:18; Rom.12:12; Col.4:2)
2. Be Devoted to the Word (Acts 2:42; 1 Tim.4:13; 2 Tim.3:16)
3. Be Devoted to Fellowship (Acts 2:42; Heb.10:24,25)
4. Be Devoted to Good Works (2 cor.9:8; Eph.2:10; Col. 1:10; Titus 2:7,14, 3:8, 14; 1 Peter 2:12)
These are things that need to be priorities in our lives if we are going to live in devotion to Christ. How does your life measure up against these priorities? If you are not sure, then keep track for a week where you spend your time. Record each hour what you've done. At the end of that time, you will see where your priorities are. Are they what you want them to be? If they are not, then schedule into the following week those things that you know should be your priorities. It may mean less sleep or less leisure time. . . it may even mean some drastic changes in what your family does each week. But. . . it will be more than worth it! Something I heard said years ago still applies today. If someone arrested you for being a follower of Christ, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Prioritize your life accordingly!! Hospitality
Yesterday, we looked at the importance of kindness in the church. Today, I would like to take that a step further. The Bible is clear that we are to show kindness to one another in the body of Christ. We are too good to everyone, but especially the household of faith. The many verses that we looked at yesterday highlighted the need to show kindness to our brothers and sisters in Christ, to those we know.
However, we are also to show kindness to strangers. We translate the Greek word φιλόξενος and get our English word hospitality. The Greek word is actually two words put together. The first word is philos which is a Greek word for love, or a friend. The second word is xenos which is a word for stranger. Thus the word means a friend to strangers or loving to strangers, kind to strangers.
Romans 12:13 says that one should seek to show hospitality. The idea here is to pursue, to do something with intense effort and with definite purpose or goal—‘to do with effort, to strive toward. [1] We need to be intentional in our pursuit of being hospitable. It doesn’t just happen. We need to purpose to be a people who pursues being hospitable. Harvest, will we be a church that is hospitable? Will be a church that shows kindness and love to strangers.
When looking at someone who would be qualified as an elder in our church we see that he must be one who is hospitable. An elder should be one who is kind to strangers, one who is a friend to strangers. (1 Tim.3:2; Titus 1:7,8)
The writer of Hebrews highlights it’s importance when he tells them that there are some who have entertained angels when they showed hospitality to strangers.( Heb.13:2) We need to be a church that does not neglect showing hospitality to strangers. When we do show hospitality we need to do it with the right heart attitude. Peter writes that we need to show hospitality without grumbling. (1 Peter 4:9) How many people do the right thing with the wrong heart, which ultimately defeats what was to be accomplished. Let us be hospitable with joy and thankfulness. It is our opportunity and privilege to serve God in this way. Who knows what eternal good could come about by our showing hospitality! Harvest let us not neglect the importance of hospitality!!
[1]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996, c1989). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament : Based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd
edition.) (1:662). New York: United Bible societies.
 Kindness
Every one of us in the church has ministry to do. While we may function in different roles we all have ministry responsibilities. NEVER, EVER, should it be said that there is no ministry to be done. It should never be said, “we currently don’t have anywhere for you to serve”. There is always ministry to be done. While many of us have grown up in churches where ministry has been seen as a position there can be a tendency to think that only the mature and talented can do ministry. However, we miss out on so much when we think of ministry as a position. Everyday there is ministry to be done and everyone that is a believer is equipped to do this ministry, because you are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Ministry is done through the power of the Spirit. We are to be people that are characterized by the fruits of the Spirit. (Gal.5:22,23) This is how we are to function around one another and throughout our week in contrast to the list that preceded it. The fruit that I want to focus on particularly is the fruit of kindness.
Why is it that I can go to Disneyland I see more smiling faces and people who are kind to me then I find in a lot of churches? From the people who pick you up at the parking lot, to the people you buy tickets from, to the people who check you in, to the staff who run the rides, work at the food places, to the characters...all the staff is taught to be kind...if you don’t you lose your job. If we are not a kind church we ought to close our doors, because we are not exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit.
What does the Bible say about kindness? The Old Testament shows that kindness is to be pursued. “He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. (Job 6:14) Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honour. (Prov.21:21) Describing the godly woman the proverbs read, “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”(Prov.31:26) He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8) Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, (Zech 7:9)
(Photo from Harley J Winborn)
The New Testament shows that kindness is not only to be shown to our friends and family, because God is kind to all. “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” (Luke 6:35) “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4) “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant.” (1 Cor.13:4) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.” (Gal.5:22) “Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Eph.4:32) Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, (Col.3:12)
This list of verses is by no means all the verses that speak of the importance of kindness. Kindness is important to God. Is it important to you? Is your church known for its kindness? Do people see your kindness in your words, in your disposition towards them and in your actions towards them? Everyone in our church needs to be exhibiting the fruit of the spirit of kindness. This is something that is a fruit of the spirit and to be truly impacting it needs to be an overflow of your walk with the Lord. But we need to be intentional to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. Harvest lets be a church that is marked by its kindness! People need to be ministered too!
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