Chronicles of faith - an introduction

I want to encourage you with stories about some of the experiences I have had with God. Yet I have a dilemma. Years ago I decided to stop attending conferences where speakers gave overhyped presentations about how God had so quickly and lavishly blessed their ministry. I am sure many of these men were quite sincere. Somehow, however, their presentations left me feeling a failure. Then I came across stories told by leaders who had gone through trial and suffering but remained faithful. God had met them too, but often in different and less dramatic ways. And so it has been with me. It seems that often it has been at a point of deep discouragement that God does something that shows that he is God!

So I hope these stories will be a blessing and encouragement to you. All of us have access to a relationship where God speaks to us and, from time to time, breaks into our lives to show his glory.

Katie Overbeek: EP project

God has given Elaine and I eight wonderful children. All of them are gifted in different ways. We have sought, as best we can, to support each of them in their own journey to develop the character and gifts God has given them. Katie is our oldest daughter. She is married to Josh, and is the mother of our wonderful grandson Joseph. When she was 9 years old, she was prayed for by our friend Marc Dupont, whom many of you may know from his prophetic ministry in Toronto and around the world. Marc said she would be a Psalmist to the nations. Many years later, it was our privilege to give Marc a copy of the first CD she recorded, which was very kindly produced at cost by her friends David Kuwabara and Nathan Finochio, both skilled professionals based in New York City. They are now planning to work with Katie on producing a second project, which will be done to the highest standards. Katie has always had a gift to produce powerful and Biblical lyrics to accompany great music. I think that is so important when so much of what we sing today can be superficial. I am sure God’s desire is to use her music truly to glorify him. As parents, we continue to watch and pray as God develops his purposes in Katie, Josh and Joseph. At the age of 2, Joseph is already singing along with his mom. Our desire is for the knowledge of God to be passed down from generation to generation. Our part in this process now for the most part is to pray and encourage them as best we can. As long as we live, we will never stop being parents, whether to our own children, or to others in the body of Christ.

Our hope is that many others will be touched by Katie’s music. These are not days in which we need more Christian ditties.  These are days in which we need more musicians like Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley.

Here is a link to the project. Thanks for your prayers and support.

https://vimeo.com/134053977

Katie Overbeek: EP project

Fixing broken relationships

Young people today are tasting the bitter fruit of broken relationships. Many have been raised without any real father. Yet God has created them with a longing to be fathered, whether they understand it or not. What we, the church, have to offer them is powerful provided we can back it up with a supply of real fathers. The church must become functional and properly ordered, a place of security and integrity in relationships. Young people are longing for the experience of relationship that postmodern culture denies them. Women have sacrificed family for career and are now living to regret it. Their assumption of leadership roles in business and government places them in a boxing ring where men, by nature, fight to win. Is it any wonder that young women are now smoking more than young men or that women’s life expectancy is projected to come down eventually to the level of men’s for the first time? Extreme feminism is under attack — by women as much as by men. Men who have abdicated their roles are feeling the emptiness. Studies show “house husbands” develop more health problems than other men. Young people have lived with a generation of men who have abandoned their families in search of their own happiness and they are sick of it. They are looking for stability and commitment while believing a philosophy which teaches the opposite. No wonder they are confused and under stress!

This is not a time to match what the culture is offering by trying to entertain people or make them feel good. It is a time to preach the loving, disciplining, directional care of the Father. It is a time to preach the cross and commitment to goals higher than ourselves. I believe there are millions of young people out there waiting to hear the call to this kind of discipleship — if we will preach it and live it ourselves.

The family of God

The following sets out, in three paragraphs, a summary of what we need to know ourselves and what we need to teach others as a foundation for people coming out of the kingdom of darkness: God as Father is the foundation of every human family. The Bible states: “I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its name” (Eph. 3:14-15). Note that the NIV translation “from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth receives its name” is incorrect. God’s position as Father is the foundation of every human family, not just God’s family. God’s position as Father establishes order in the Trinity as well as in creation: “The head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor. 11:3). God’s order does not become tyranny or legalism because in His Kingdom, those in authority are commanded to lay down their lives for those under their care — Jesus Himself setting the example.

Husbands lay down their lives for their wives, parents lay down their lives for their children and employers seek the good of their employees. Because God is Father, His kingdom becomes a kingdom of relationship. Relationship exists within the Trinity and flows out into creation. The kingdom of God should be the most relational place on earth, and the place where relationships operate the most effectively and for the benefit of all. True Biblical relationship, at whatever level, is found in people serving one another within the order established by God. Such relationships are characterized by words such as respect, honour, love and sacrifice. These relationships are deep and can withstand any strain or attack.

A city on a hill

Not only are we salt, according to Jesus (see our last blog), we are light. Again (as it was when Jesus talked about salt) the construction in the Greek is emphatic: “You, you alone and no others are the light of the world!” This should be no surprise, because Jesus said of Himself: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), and here He teaches us that we are meant to reflect this light in our own lives. Paul wrote that we are to “become … children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe…” (Phil. 2:15), and that God has “shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6). The next thing Jesus says is this: “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” This statement seems to give a practical application or consequence to His declaration that we are the light of the world. What does Jesus mean by describing the church as a “city on a hill”?

Clearly, it has something to do with visibility, and again a knowledge of the historical context comes in handy. In the Israel of Jesus’ day, houses were often built of white limestone. As such, they would gleam in the sun and could scarcely be hidden, particularly if set on a hill. At night, the light of hundreds or thousands of oil lamps would cast a glow over the hillside. Even as you would not build a city on a hill and try to hide it, neither would you light a lamp and set it under a bowl, verse 15 continues. A lamp is put on a lampstand to give light to everyone, and the church is set on a hill for the same purpose. Jesus was almost certainly thinking about the Old Testament prophecies concerning Jerusalem as a city of light lifted up before the nations who would come to it: “In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it” (Is. 2:2). “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn” (Is. 60:1-3).

Jesus is reminding us that the church has taken the place of Jerusalem as the city of God in the same way that believers of Christ from every nation, Jew and Gentile alike, have taken the place of Israel as His covenant people. In the same way as a city on a hill gives out its light, day and night, God’s city will shine eternally: “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine upon you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory” (Is. 60:19). Jesus now commands us in verse 16 to let our light shine before the world, that everyone may see our good deeds and glorify God. The church is the most powerful solar energy device ever made. We are designed and created to take the light of the universe and reflect it into the world around us, imparting the energy by which that universe was created and by which Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Without us, the people and nations around us will descend into darkness. This incredible power and responsibility is ours.