Savoury relationships

You’ve probably heard the expression “unsavoury relationship.”  I read a while back a testimony of a young woman who admitted to being involved in some unsavoury relationships before committing her life to Jesus, inviting Him to define healthy dating.

So we have unsavoury relationship as an expression…  Why don’t we say savoury relationship just as often?

As an adjective, savoury is defined as “morally wholesome or acceptable,” as in a person receiving a savoury recommendation.  Admittedly, I don’t hear or use the word that way very often.  Savoury is more commonly defined as something that is pleasing to the senses, as in being enticed by a savoury meal.  As a husband, I’d like to ask not only “What am I doing to prevent Monica from thinking she’s in an unsavoury relationship?” but also “What am I doing to convince Monica that she is in fact in a savoury relationship?”

We are delighted to come into the home of someone preparing a delicious meal.  We breathe in the aroma, our mouths water, we hang around the kitchen begging to help set the table or something.  How are Monica’s senses triggered when I come home after a day at the office?  Does a smile come to her face while her shoulders relax?  Does she put down for a moment what she’s doing to say ‘hi?’  Or, does she frown and tense up?  Does she remain focused on what she’s doing in the hopes that interaction with me will be kept to a minimum?  If you’re married, how does your spouse respond when you come through the door?  (Are you sure of your answer?)

I pray that with God’s help, I do things that enable Monica to say that she’s in a savoury relationship – a relationship she can savour, that she in general enjoys and delights in.  So I can ask myself questions like, “What am I doing that affirms Monica and shows that I know her and appreciate her?  How can I do (and be) those sorts of things more?”

Gary Thomas, author of Sacred Marriage and speaker at an upcoming retreat in the Bulkley Valley, asks a more pointed, even startling question:

Does [my wife] feel like she’s married to Jesus? 
…I am told over and over in Scripture that my duty as a Christian is to become more and more like Jesus Christ.  Over time, my wife should start to feel like there’s at least a family resemblance.  (p. 64)

Resembling Jesus in one’s marriage…  That sounds savoury to me.
-

Revival

We hear and long for it often, the desire for revival, be it in places in our world where Christians are persecuted, or in the halls of parliament in Ottawa, or in the lives of our family and friends right here in Telkwa.  This is a good desire, a good prayer request.

In his latest newsletter especially for pastors, Jack Stulp from Christian Reformed Home Missions reminds me how revival begins not “out there” somewhere, but right in our own lives…

Scripture consistently speaks about revival for me, for us.  Revival means a fresh focus on the basic things of the faith, on repentance, on asking forgiveness, on living with Jesus as Lord/Master, loving the Lord as God, prayer life, digging in the Word.  Revival should be for ourselves first, and then we should go on to pray it for a people, for a nation.
 

Sex

Maclean's: "Are We Blushing Yet?"

Now that I’ve got your attention, I’d like to talk about… well, sex.  But only because Maclean’s started it.

Their Canada Day somewhat thin double issue’s special report boasts how Canada is “The Best Place on Earth.”  Apparently “we are wealthier than the Americans, live longer than the Swedes, and eat better than the French.  We even have more lovers than the Italians.”  I think Maclean’s is implying that these are good things.

The fact that needing to make comparisons against others to make one feel good is rather juvenile notwithstanding, the unquestioned pursuit of health, wealth and sex (it looks like “sex” has replaced or is simply equated with “happiness”) is all rather anti-Kingdom of God.

I struggle with wealth; I idolize money as well as the next guy.  And then I hear Jesus say, “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.”  I trust in God.  “…But just in case He fails, I’d like to have a decent stockpile of cash nearby, please,” I’m tempted to think to myself.

In regards to health, I can thank the abundance of good (not necessarily always nutritious) food I constantly have within arm’s reach.  In fact, I have so much that I either end up throwing it out, or I eat more than I should.  Poor self-restraint.  I can hear Jesus saying a thing or two about that, as well.

But it’s the sub-article about sex that really gets my blood pumping.  “Not only do we have more partners than the French, Spanish or Italians, we’re more sexually adventurous, too.”  As I said, I think Maclean’s implies that these are good things.  (I admit that the next line made me laugh: “During those long, cold winters, we have to do something to keep warm.”)

Wanna hear the numbers that back up Maclean’s claims?  Canada beats both Italy and France when it comes to the average number of sexual partners one has in a lifetime: Canadian men have an average of 23 partners and Canadian women have an average of 10.  It’s in addition to these stats that Canadians are more adventurous, too.  How much more “adventurous” can one be?!  And did I mention that Maclean’s implies that all this is a good thing?

So disloyalty and infidelity, disposable relationships and broken lives are all the rage in Canada these days.  These are celebrated as the characteristics of an advanced civilization.  I cannot help but ask how much more advanced – truly advanced – we’d be if we took Hebrews 13:4 seriously:  “Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”  In light of the other criteria Maclean’s uses to rank Canada so highly, consider also the verses the follow:  “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’  So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.  What can human beings do to me?’”

We have lots of wealth, health and sex.  Ironically, as far as I can tell, the articles in Maclean’s say nothing about how content Canadians are.  Perhaps we’re too busy pursuing wealth, health and sex instead of pursuing the Kingdom of God with His help and strength to realize how pathetic so many of us truly are.

No “Lone Ranger”

The apostle Paul is a significant leader in the New Testament church.  It’s thanks to him that we have so much of our biblical theology today.  After Jesus, he’s the man!

And yet, despite his prominence and capabilities, he’s not a “Lone Ranger.”  You never get the impression that he’s off doing his own thing.  For example (one of numerous examples), at the end of his third missionary journey, Paul returns to Jerusalem.  Paul greets everyone there, including the leaders, and then “report[s] in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry” (Acts 21:19).

If Paul worked within accountability structures and didn’t work in isolation from other believers and Christian leaders, why do I so often think I have to figure stuff out on my own, not relying on other followers of Jesus, including colleagues, friends, authors, traditions?

Indescribable

(Thanks, Dad V, for telling me about this!)

Although God cannot be described with just words, the late S.M. Lockridge once gave a sermon that’s just about as close as you can get this side of heaven!
-

-

Skipping worship as soul emaciation

Is corporate worship (that is, worshipping together as a community of disciples) optional or a requirement for walking with Jesus?  Can’t we follow Jesus on our own, separating ourselves from the politics and hypocrisy regularly found in every single congregation?  Can’t we be salt and light in our world by frequently attending/participating in good events happening on Sundays?

Or is there something about receiving the sacraments, meeting together with other Jesus followers, hearing God’s Word proclaimed, and responding to the call to worship that is critical to our spiritual wellbeing?

Over in his new blog entitled “The Glad Sound,” Pastor Zac Hicks – Minister of Worship & Liturgy, Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church, Denver CO – speaks with loud words on the subject…

In Colorado, Yahweh wars with the gods of nature for the attention of the hearts of sinners and saints:  Skiing in the winter, hiking and camping in the summer.  There’s always a reason to “skip church.”  But worship is where we receive the real spiritual nourishment of the sacraments.  Worship is where we receive the genuine encouragement from being in fellowship with God’s people.  Worship is where we receive the faithful preaching of the Word.  Worship is where we are summoned by God to be on Sunday mornings…  We don’t question the need for physical nourishment.  Unless we’re fasting or just have out-of-the-ordinary eating habits, we regularly nourish our bodies three times a day with food.  God forbid that we [North] Americans forget to eat!  So what about our spiritual nourishment?  If duty is not enough to get us there, maybe our skin-and-bones starving soul will eventually cry out for some self-care.

– 15 May 2009 blog entry of “The Glad Sound”
-

Protection and direction

“See,” says the LORD God to Moses and the Israelites at the start of the Exodus to the Promised Land, “I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.”  At the beginning and throughout the journey, God provides protection and direction.

God continues to provide His people with these things today.  However, like the Israelites, I often desire only the protection part and not so much the direction!  I am eager for safety from harm and danger, but I show hesitation when I feel called or led somewhere I’m not all that thrilled about going.  In short, I want the blessings but not the duties, the rights but not the responsibilities.

This is not a new problem.  Quite happy with God’s protection, the Israelites repeatedly sinned against Him even long before they reached the Promised Land.  But God never gave up on them, calling them His people throughout the journey and beyond.  God doesn’t give up on me or any of His people today either, even when we wander off course.  But with the help of the Holy Spirit, let us keep responding to His invitation, “Return to me.”

Theologically simple, spiritually profound

My friend and colleague Rick Apperson (who recently moved from the city of Smithers to the suburbs of Telkwa!) posted some reflections on his blog based, in part, on something that my 3-year-old daughter Hannah said.  How cool is that!  His reflections are here; what follows is an excerpt…

I think we should endeavor to go deeper with God on a regular basis.  However I think that we, the church, put people off by our secret language, our members only mentality and our complication of the things of God…

It is why I love kids.  Kids have a child-like faith that is incredible.  They just believe.  Tell them God moves mountains…OK.  He raises the dead…OK.  They believe!  They don’t take the cynical, justifying faith approach we have as adults…
-

Practical holiness

Using the story of Ananias meeting Saul as a launching point, I spoke yesterday on practical ways we can live holy lives as God’s holy people empowered by the Holy Spirit.  Ananias serves the church today as a model of this in his obedience to Jesus.

The message concluded with these two quotes:

…True holiness is seen over time in our persistence.  It is relatively easy to “flirt” with righteousness – being occasionally courteous to other drivers (if you happen to be in a good mood), helping someone in need by opening the door for them (if you have time), throwing a few extra bucks in the offering plate (as long as you won’t miss them).  But this behaviour is in reality superficial righteousness.  The righteousness God seeks is a persistent righteousness, a commitment to continue making the right decision even when, perhaps hourly, you feel pulled in the opposite direction.  Holiness is far more than an inclination towards occasional acts of kindness and charity.  It is a commitment to persistent surrender before God.

(Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage, p. 108)

-
…As a person works daily – hourly and by the minute – to grow in reverence and love, in faith and fear toward God, he or she generates and offers God both worship and service…  When I make it my daily calling, my chief aim, to remember my Lord’s goodness toward me, then, in turn, my heart will be moved with gratitude and my lips will long to tell God, “Thanks, Lord, thanks, thanks, thanks!”  In response, I’ll set my sights on worshiping and serving my good and faithful Father with all that I’ve got – with my hands, my feet, my lips, my will, my emotions, my conscience, my everything.

(Dale Cooper, “Piety and Religion” in The Banner, Jun 2009, p. 29)

-
Here are a couple more things I picked up in my research into the story of Ananias and Saul that were beyond the purview of yesterday’s message…

First, in his commentary on Acts entitled True to the Faith, David Gooding comments on how Saul, immediately after his conversion, spends a great deal of time with other Christians.  Reflecting on this, Gooding writes (pp. 145-146):

You can come to saving faith in Christ, as Saul did, all by yourself through personal acceptance of Jesus as Lord.  But if that faith is genuine, it will lead to acceptance of the Lord’s people… They are His disciples, His saints, they call on His name; and in giving the Holy Spirit to each one of them, He unites them all in one body (cf. 1Cor 1:2; 12:13).  I cannot receive that Holy Spirit and refuse to be a member of that body.  I cannot claim to love the Lord Jesus and refuse to love His saints.  I cannot claim to be identified with Him and refuse to be identified with His people.

Second, considering how God can transform even enemies like Saul the persecutor into brothers and sisters in Christ, there is hope for anyone who is wandering far from God’s loving embrace!  The implication is this:  The Lord’s people (read: the church) need to be prepared to welcome people they never thought they’d welcome.  In fact, as Mark Buchanan urges in an article entitled “Messy, Costly, Dirty Ministry,” we need to be praying for encounters with these people…  and then for the ability to show them the grace of Jesus when we meet them.  This is not easy, which suggests why the church isn’t consistently good at this.  But welcoming our enemies as brothers and sisters is precisely the mission of reconciliation Jesus invites us to join Him on.

There’s probably a God

I realize this is already a bit dated, but I only ran across it the other day.  It’s in response to the controversial atheist ad campaign earlier this year (official ad site | media coverage).

Edit (27 May 2009):
Perhaps this requires a bit more explanation as one person was wondering whether the above was meant to be multiple choice, implying that it doesn’t really matter at all which one you choose.  I read the United Church of Canada’s wondercafe.ca campaign as saying that we can be without worry and enjoy life for the exact opposite reason that the atheists assert.  That is, because we know God exists, we can confidently put all things in His hands, allowing us “to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever” (Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q&A 1).