Sheep With Sharp Teeth

Wolves in Sheep's Clothing. Image Copyright: unknown

"And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”- Matthew 21:13, ESV

   I had wanted to upload this post while it was still fresh in my mind yesterday. Amidst the business of this weekend, that didn't happen. As the weekend draws to a close, I want to complete this post before I go to bed.

   While reading the blog of a ministry that I am following with interest, I came across a music video that they had linked to. I found its title interesting, because it is relevant to personal experiences along my spiritual journey through the terrain of different church environments over the last three decades that I am still thinking through. I had briefly summarized this journey in a post dedicated to Reformation Sunday, titled "Visiting The Crossroads". I will be exploring this in greater depth in the weeks and months to come.

   My curiosity was aroused, and as I did some further research online, I came across the following short video documentary produced by Christianity Today that not just disturbed, but made me really, really angry. I doubt if I could adequately verbally express the kind of fury that I felt as I watched this:

   

   Why am I so angry? Because I have personally heard and witnessed countless such abominations of the gospel preached from platforms and podiums during my time in the Middle East and India. This mockery of Christ and His cross has been perpetrated on unsuspecting and sincere believers, exploiting and led many astray. I am personally cut to the core and anguished in my spirit as I recollect those memories, because I too was once duped by these people into believing their promises of "blessing". And it cost me heavily. 

   But by the mercy and grace of God, He led me out of such false teaching and over the years, has helped me unlearn much of this theological nonsense, guiding me along the path of truth and discernment. I am deeply grateful for the church He mercifully guided me to - Willingdon, where I have found true water for my soul and have made my home for the last four years. God willing, I will call this my home church till the day I die. I shudder to think about where I would be now if it had not been for the merciful hand of God, who has promised to lead those who He has chosen and called His own. I have no words to thank Him for saving my soul.

    It's time to bring this post to a close and head to bed. As I was writing this, I was reminded of the following passages, which the Lord has been bringing to mind over the course of the last two weeks:

"Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which He obtained with His own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears." - Acts 20:28-31, ESV

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed." - Galatians 1:8-9, ESV

"For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you...to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this that no one may delude you with plausible arguments." - Colossians 2:1-4, ESV

"Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of this world, and not according to Christ" 

- Colossians 2:6-8, ESV

"Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared..." - 1 Timothy 4:1, ESV

   I have a lot of hard thinking and processing to do. I'll be writing more about this in coming posts. If anyone has thoughts that they'd like to share about their own experiences, I'd like to hear from you. Until next time, goodnight.

Grace and peace to you,

 - The Wisdom Seeker

Roses for Vancouver: Sharing the Faith, Hope and Love!

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers...Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."  

- 1 John 3:16 - 18, ESV

   Like the the "Biblical Manhood and Womanhood" event hosted by the young adults group at Willingdon Church last Friday, last Saturday was equally memorable, because of an outreach and evangelism event downtown that I participated in with some friends of mine from Willingdon and other churches. Geared towards the upcoming Valentine's day, they had ordered more than a thousand roses, and painstakingly attached a gospel tract to each of them. The event was set to occur at the intersection of Granville and Robson streets, where I had first ventured out on my own last summer to share my faith after the Stanley Cup Riots [1].

     It turned out to be a wonderful afternoon, as we gave away almost 1,200 roses to passers-by, and in the process has a great chance to engage in conversation with many of them! People were incredulous at first; the most common question that I was asked, was "You mean these roses are free? How come?" I had the pleasure of telling each person that I gave a rose to that it came to them from us with the love of Jesus Christ, because we loved the people of this city and wanted them to know the good news of His gospel. Here are some of the photos that I took of the event:

Two baskets of roses at our corner of Robson and Granville, outside Sears

The stand at the opposite intersection of Granville and Robson, outside Future Shop

Tyron handing out flowers to passers by, and engaging them in conversation

Mauri outside the Bay, as Esther and Stephen engage a passer-by in conversation

Sharing the love of Jesus with pedestrians on the streets of downtown Vancouver!

    As things happened, some of my friends from Willingdon's Entry Level also decided to use the occasion to do some video interviewing of people on the street for our upcoming "John 3:16" event. With my tripod and little Cisco Flip in tow, we had an afternoon of wonderful conversations with a number of interesting people!

In conversation with Alexander, who was handing out flyers for Burger King

A very interesting conversation with Josh, who knew quite a bit about the Bible!

      I had a great time last Saturday, and came away feeling happy and fulfilled. It had been a long time since I got to actively engage people on the street in conversation about my faith - almost six months, I think. As I bring this post to a close, I am reminded of the following verses composed by Charles Wesley:

Jesus, confirm my heart's desire
to work and speak and think for thee;
still let me guard the holy fire,
and still stir up thy gift in me.  

Ready for all thy perfect will,
my acts of faith and love repeat,
till death thy endless mercies seal,
and make my sacrifice complete.

- "O Thou Who Camest From Above", by Charles Wesley

   The more I get to speak for Christ and share the reason that I have for putting my hope in Him, the more I feel a deep sense that this is something I am actively called and gifted by Him to do. I'm looking forward to doing more of this in the weeks and months to come. Hopefully I'll get a chance again this weekend!

Grace and Peace to you,

- The Wisdom Seeker

His and Hers: Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them." - Genesis 1:27-28, ESV

     Last weekend was comprised of a really interesting series of events. One of them was an event held by "Entry Level", the young adults group at Willingdon Church that I'm part of, and lead a small group for with my good friend Esther. Last Friday evening, Entry Level held a "Biblical Manhood and Womanhood Night" geared towards young adults who were single, dating or married and wanting to think through the Biblical roles of manhood and womanhood.

     One particular aspect that this event covered was developing a Biblical paradigm relating to the opposite sex in many streams of life, as opposed to those promoted by the culture around young Christians that continually presents ideas that run contrary to Scripture.

     Taking the stage for this event were Cliff and Erin Ursel! Cliff is one of the pastors at Willingdon overseeing the young adults ministry, and his wife Erin helps lead worship during services and is quite involved in the women's ministry. I first met Cliff and Erin long before I ever came to Willingdon, through Erin's parents who were my next door neighbours when I first moved to Vancouver almost six years ago. Cliff and Erin both gave a talk about their gender as man and woman, and how it defines their roles in many aspects of life - in marriage, family, work, friendships and many other spheres.

     This event was something I really wanted to record, so I took my little Cisco Flip along and recorded the main talk in HD! I wanted to record the Q&A session but was unable to due to lack of space and time. Ladies and Gentlemen, Ruminations of The Sage happily presents for your viewing pleasure, instruction and edification - "Biblical Manhood and Womanhood":

     This talk gave me a lot to think about, especially as I have had questions in this area and am prayerfully seeking God's direction in my vision to be married one day to a woman who would happily and enthusiastically be willing to help me serve God in the call that He has on my life. I will be writing about this in the posts to come, as many of the thoughts that I have been wrestling with over the last few months come together. See you in the next post, in search of wisdom!

- The Wisdom Seeker