Protecting our Precious Children

CNN had a news story yesterday about the arrests of 125 people for subscribing to infant pornograohy sites. Then there are the almost daily stories of parents killing their kids, school shootings, molestation and other horrific events. The increase in North American violence against our most precious possessions--our kids--is sickening, sad and shocking.

While it is true that the world will get worse before King Jesus returns, I have a growing sense of urgency for us to protect our children from evil and nuture them in the ways of God. The old line "I don't want to shelter my child," should be struck from our lingo. It is afterall anti-biblical. God calls us to train up our children in the ways of the Lord not expose them to smut so they'll mature. Romans 16:19 says "but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil."

With so much at stake, we believers must make a concerted effort to inculcate biblical wisdom into our children in order to equip them for worship and a life of service. Simultaneously, we need to protect them from the stuff of the world that will poison their souls. When they are inadvertantly exposed to harmful influences, we need to be vigilent in talking through their feelings and thoughts and pointing them back to the Word of God for guidance and abundant life God offers and the world rejects. Biblical Christianity is pro-life when it comes to the unborn. But it must also be pro-abundant life once the child has been born.

A Picture is Worth a 1000 words!

< Me & bro. Nate in 1984>




Conducting a wedding rehearsal...always fun!

Susie & the kids in River Canard summer'05


On the Great Wall 07/05

Christianity for Dummies (aka: Christianity Lite)

Susie and I watched a documentary last evening called "Beyond the Gates of Splendor" based upon the famous killings of five missionary men in Equador in the 1950s (I saw the movie last summer). While both movie and documentary contain surprisingly few references to "missionary" and fail to make mention of the Gospel story, the viewer who is aquainted with the true faith these men possessed cannot help but be overwhelmed. These were men who could stand head-to-head with the biblical Daniel, Ruth or Joseph for their willing example to "put it all on the line" for their Lord.

I have also been reading a novel called "Safely Home" about the persecuted church in China and recently finished a book about Margaret Werner who spent nearly 10 years in the Soviet Gulags where she learned so much about faith and perseverence. While she did not become a Christian until after her release, she recalls seeing signs of God's benevolence in her life during her imprisonment, pointing her to Himself.

In contrast, when one surveys the mediocrity of much of the Western church today, compared to the likes of the afore mentioned figures, a distinction is clear. While I do know many very committed believers in my church context, there are far too many signs of compromise in the Canadian church as a whole. Many have opted for a non-offensive, materialistic, and morally soft version of Christianity, or "Christianity Lite" as I regretfully call it. I sometimes wonder how many of us would be willing to take a bullet, do jail time, or lose a spouse on some distant beach for the sake of proclaiming the Good News? In many ways I hope we're never put in a position to find out. Then again history seems to indicate that the church grows stronger under trial. The Bible itself tells us that the testing of our faith produces (the much needed element of) perseverence.

I think we can learn a few lessons from those who have endured much for Christ. One of which is to live examined lives in light of Christ's life and those who have reflected Him best-to embrace courage, boldness and purity as a means of honouring our Saviour and living up to our "high calling".

Someone Gave Me "the Finger" on Sunday

Someone gave me “the finger” this past weekend. Not because I cut them off in traffic or called them a name. Instead the man in the black pickup truck was upset that I was standing out front of Met Hospital with a sign reading “Abortion Kills Children”. He expressed his displeasure at my presence, and the presence of my wife, kids and fellow Windsorites with a nasty blast of the horn and the F-word given digit-ally.

I’m not naïve to the things of the world. I know that there are plenty of people who are not merely neutral to the issue of killing the unborn, but actually favourable toward it. But what else should I expect from unbelievers? Their hearts are darkened to truth and captive to the will and wishes of our Enemy. The greater problem is that many in the church today really couldn’t give two hoots about the abortion issue. My mother even called me last week to complain that a number of people in her Bible study group in London didn’t think that using “left-over” fertilized human embryos for research was a big deal. “I’d rather my husband get well,” one woman said, whose better half had recently benefited from modern medical technology (i.e. cells from a dead child). Mom was shocked. I was saddened.

Has the church drifted so far as to lose sight of the fundamental truth that God is the author of all human life and therefore all human life is sacred? Apparently some have. What used to be so fundamental to our faith as to barely receive mention in a Christianity 101 class has apparently been discarded along with countless developing human babies. Christian couples that permit the fertilization of multiple eggs, only to use one or two should be ashamed that they have so missed the mark on the issue of the sanctity of human life. To dispose of an embryo is to dispose of a human! Christians who are either too afraid (“what will people think of me?”) or too philosophically complicated (“do you really think rallies are effective?”) as to be rendered impotent in their reply to the horror of abortion need to wake up from their slumber. This is one issue the church cannot forfeit, even if the world has.

At the heart of the Gospel is the message that God values human life and has set out to redeem Adam’s children. Jesus’ love for people is not contingent upon a person’s ability to breathe air or cry, or run. He loves the unborn as well, whether composed of only a few cells or 50 trillion. We may have lost the battle for the unborn in the public square, but God forbid if the church itself succumbs to the Enemies wishes and fails to take a stand for the unborn within our own ranks.