You Wouldn't Do That In Real Life

Think about the person you married. How well do you know that person before you made the commitment to marry? Did you try to learn as much about that person as possible, or were you satisfied with, “Okay, so, we've met, let's get married”?

2^nd Peter 3:18 says, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

Grow. Learn. Get to know. Become like.

Why is it that so many people think that being a follower of Jesus begins and ends with a prayer of confession and maybe baptism?

Or let me ask these questions. Do you know what a dog is? Do you know what they like to eat? What they like to do for fun? How they breed? What kinds of dogs there are? How about if they can swim? So you know a lot about dogs, right? Does that make you a dog?

Of course not. Just so, knowing a lot about Jesus does not make you a Christian. Visiting a kennel doesn't make you a dog and faithfully attending a Church doesn't make you a Christian. 

Becoming a Christian is when, after knowing and understanding the payment for sin that Jesus has made for every human on earth, knowing about what is expected of you and the cost you will bear for becoming a follower of Jesus, as well as knowing the consequences of both accepting and rejecting His offer of forgiveness, you consciously decide to turn your back on sin, humbly accept God's assessment of your thoroughly and utterly sinful nature, you ask for forgiveness and invite the very Spirit of the living God to take over your life.

Being a Christian is each and every day listening to and for and then following the guidance and correction of God's Spirit. Being a Christian is living life as Jesus would live live if He was in your circumstances. Being a Christian means that the Spirit which lives within you changes and transforms your thoughts and behaviours.

You wouldn't consider your relationship with your husband or wife a good relationship if you just skimmed the surface of human experience day after day.

Real life Christianity involves an intimate, healed and forgiven relationship with the Creator of the Universe and that relationship is personal, on-going and ever growing. If your relationship with Jesus is not becoming more intimate, if you cannot look back and know that you are closer to God today than you were a year ago, then the relationship is moving toward the inevitable break that comes with pretending to be what you never were. 

Best Wedding Ever

What an awesome weekend! Our oldest daughter (33) got married to a man she met on her home Reserve. After many years of really hard living on the part of both of them, they recently became followers of Jesus.

The Church they’re attending on the First Nation is right out of Luke’s description of the early Church in Acts. At the reception it was testimony after testimony after testimony of the changes wrought by Jesus in the lives of fellow believers. It was so wonderful to hear an almost complete lack of pretense and pride.

“My life since Jesus got me out of prostitution . . .”

“My days of alcoholism and addiction to pills was so damaging to my family but Jesus took all that away.”

“Since coming to Jesus I no longer hurt my children . . .”

I promise, nobody in our congregation would come anywhere close to that kind of honesty. We're as spiritually constipated as congregations get.

Anyhow, our daughter and her husband have surrounded themselves with really good Christian friends. The congregation all put together enough funds to put on this wedding “for them.” That’s supposed to be our job - the bride's parents. The thing is, our daughter phoned us on Friday and said, “I’m getting married on Saturday. Can you guys make it?”

And THAT is FASD brain damage - a complete lack of organisational skills.

After driving for 4 ½ hours on Friday to get there, my wife and daughter met at 4:30 - half an hour before the wedding dress store closed and found a dress (the most beautiful wedding dress I’ve ever seen) for $300.00. The owner of the store stayed into the night to do the alterations and we picked it up Saturday morning. Her new Christian friends decorated the Church and they all got together and brought enough food to feed a small army. The Pastor gave one of the best messages on marriage that I’ve ever heard and, well, someday, the rest will be history.

Why did they get married? They’ve been living together for seven years. As they both said, “We’ve been praying about it and the Holy Spirit simply wouldn't let us alone. He placed it heavily upon our hearts that living common-law is just not ok. We're to be committed to each other just as He is committed to us.

The energy and excitement of new Christians is always fun to watch. I pray that God blesses them both and uses them to make positive changes in what is in reality a very spiritually and emotionally sick environment.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been this happy.

Did I mention that this was the best wedding ever?