SANCTUARY DEDICAITON - FOURTH ANNIVERSARY- Third post

Sunday, February 22, 2009.

Please note this is the third post. To get it all in sequence, you need to start
in the archives with the first post for February 22nd.

Jurgen Eisenberg concluded with a story about Sir Isaac Newton having an atheist friend who denied that God made the world. When this friend saw a globe in Newton's office, he wanted to know who had made it. Newton said that no one had made it and that it had just suddenly appeared. The friend was annoyed and said that Newton was trying to make a fool of him. To this Newton said that he did the same thing when he kept saying that the world was not made by God.
Grace Bible Church is probably the only church that has two anniversaries: one to mark when the church came into being in the last week of August 1997. We have a second to mark the day when four years ago we started to worship in our own sanctuary on the last Sunday in February of 2005. And of course we celebrate it with a fellowship meal.

Sanctuary Anniversary Service -Second Post

Sunday, February 22, 2009
At the end of the discussions, each group had a representative come up to present their views and conclusions. Adults, children and youth were all involved in the process

Sanctuary Anniversary Service - First Post

Sunday, February 22, 2009.
The last Sunday of the month is always Family Service day, when Indu and Jurgen Eisenberg take the service most of the time and present a message that kids can grasp. Indu turned it into a time for small group discussions. All those present were divided into five groups around the sanctuary.


The topic for discussion was: Is God relevant today or is He just an old-fashioned idea to be set aside?
Some groups approached the topic from the angle of logic, while others appealed to human experience.
The conclusion was that since God is the Creator and is very much involved with our lives today, He is relevant. If He weren't we wouldn't ever pray or think there was any point to looking for help from "above. "

Children and young people were very much a part of the discussions.

GOLDEN RULE PRACTICE

Message preached on Sunday, February 15th

While I was in school, it was quite common for people to talk about the “Golden Rule.” I haven’t heard the term for decades since then. I rather suspect that many of today’s school kids wouldn’t know what it is.

Sometimes I heard people say that the Golden Rule is that we should not do to others what we wouldn’t want them to do to us. But the author of the Golden Rule, namely Jesus, didn’t put it negatively. What He said in His “Sermon on the Mount” was,

Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets (Matt.7:12, NLT).

Eugene Peterson gives us a more graphic paraphrase in The Message:

Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.

If we do good in order to get people to be good to us, are we being manipulative? At first glance it does appear that way. But look at the matter from another angle. What is your rule for your treatment of others? Either, we can wait to see what people do and react to what they do, or we can go ahead and do what we feel is right and good:

Reactive treatment                            Proactive treatment
Depends on what others do              Flows from what you want
Vengeance                                           Adventure
Act of hate                                           Act of hope

All behaviour that is manipulative is bad because there are ulterior or hidden motives. There is an intention to deceive and an intention to take advantage of the person so deceived. While manipulation is not good, we need to recognize that everyone has influence on others, and influencing someone is not all bad, when the motives are good, and there is no intention to deceive or take advantage. As Jesus put it, the influence of good conduct is that it can pre-empt evil, it can touch and transform someone who would otherwise be predisposed to do evil. You could say that it is a good sort of manipulation.

Most Christians would like to think that Jesus was the first to state the Golden Rule. We forget that the Lord Himself had said that all that He was doing was to sum up the entirety of the Law. On another occasion Jesus spelt out the summary of the Law:

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the most important commandment. This is the greatest and the most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself.’ The whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets depend on these two commandments (Matt. 22:37-40, GNB).

The first part of the summary is indeed a quotation from Deuteronomy 6:5-6, but the commandment to love neighbour as self is not in that summary and it’s not part of the Ten Commandments. The Lord got it from a more obscure passage:

Forget about the wrong things people do to you, and do not try to get even. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. I am the Lord (Lev.19:18, NCV)

The Old Testament clearly asserts two things about relating to neighbours:

1. Your neighbour’s business is your business. People can’t have the attitude “it’s none of my business” about other’s concerns. You can’t stay aloof. You have to get involved (Deut.22:1-3).
   
2. Your neighbour’s need is an occasion for your charity. The Lord reminds His people that they have reason to be grateful, indicating that charity is the natural overflow of a grateful heart (24:19-22).
   

What our Lord did was to emphasize the teaching of the Old Testament that had been lost sight of. He clarified and elaborated what was obscured by tradition and ritual. The Golden Rule was not some isolated or obscure saying of our Lord. It was central to His ethic. He placed it among the Beatitudes when He said,

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy (Matt.5:7, NRSV)

In the prayer famously known as “the Lord’s Prayer”, He taught that to be forgiven, we must be forgiving, and He thought that it needed to be emphasized, and so that is the only line in the prayer that He comments on with an elaboration of the principle (6:12,14-15). Later Jesus told the story of the unforgiving servant (18:21-35). Even though the Lord taught that we must forgive to be forgiven, in the story the servant is forgiven first, but fails to forgive another and as a consequence loses his forgiveness. So Jesus was not teaching about forgiving others to manipulate the forgiveness of God. Rather, like the Old Testament, His teaching is about forgiving because we are forgiven, and warns that those who do not appreciate forgiveness will lose it.

In His famous Sermon on the Mount, the Lord said that we are not to react to enemies in the same way as they behave toward us. We are not to practise the rule of “eye for eye, tooth for tooth.” Instead, we are to love our enemies and do good to them. Instead of being like them, we are to be like our Heavenly Father (Matt. 5: 28-48; Lk. 6:27-36).

Paul considered all of the Lord’s teaching, and said, “Be like Jesus” (Phil.2:5). He called for people to

• share love and be united (v.2), 
  
• be humble and honour others (v.3) and 
  
• be unselfish take an interest in others (v.4)
  

by asking them to be like Jesus (v.5), because

• He didn’t cling to His divine status 
  
• He humbled Himself
  
• He became a man
  
• He was obedient
  
• He died on the cross
  
• He is the Risen Lord now
  
• He will be acknowledged Lord of all (vv.6-11).
  

Paul’s logic is seen when we take his instructions in reverse order:

• Jesus is Lord
  
• Jesus humbled Himself
  
• Be like Jesus
  
• Love others as yourself
  

One last consideration: are we to practise the Golden Rule in regard to God? Our Lord put the love of neighbour second, and the love of God first. If the Golden Rule is to be practised in regard to neighbour, we ought to be practising it toward God, except that He is the one who is proactive in the relationship. “We love Him, because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4: 19).

Are you committed to God the way He is committed to you? He sacrificed His most beloved Son. Our Lord Jesus sacrificed His life—all His time and all He possessed. Are you expecting God to bless you without you ever reciprocating His loving sacrifices.

We are human, and so we love ourselves first, but God says love your neighbour too just like you love yourself, and don’t forget God comes first. He has first claim on your love and your life.

BE A BBG

Message preached on February 8, 2009
Isaac Watts, John Newton and William Cowper were three of the great hymn writers of the church. Watts’ well known hymns were

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Joy to the world, the Lord is come
O God our help in ages past
When I survey the wondrous cross

Though Cowper battled terrible depression, there is a wonderful assurance that comes to us when we sing his hymns:

God moves in a mysterious way
O for a closer walk
There is a fountain filled with blood

Newton’s best known hymn is “Amazing Grace.” The reason I’ve cited these three hymn writers together is that each of them wrote at least one hymn describing himself a worm.

Newton wrote

In mercy, not in wrath, rebuke
Thy feeble worm, my God!

Originally Watts wrote

Alas! and did my Saviour bleed?
And did my Sov’reign die?
Would he devote that sacred Head
For such a worm as I?

Cowper’s hymn referring to worms is not as well known:

When darkness long has veil'd my mind,

And smiling day once more appears,

Then, my Redeemer, then I find

The folly of my doubts and fears…

But, O my Lord, one look from Thee

Subdues the disobedient will,

Drives doubt and discontent away,

And Thy rebellious worm is still.

We sing their hymns with great gusto because we love the tunes and we love to sing. But do we share their view of our spiritual status?

Amazing Grace
While the word “worm” is not used in Newton’s “Amazing Grace”, we are compelled to sing time and again

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!

According to English dictionaries, the word “wretch” can have two meanings. A wretch is either someone who is a poor unfortunate or a criminal.

The words on Newton’s tombstone are

John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy.

Newton was born in 1725. His father was a sea captain. His father got him the position of slave overseer on a Jamaican plantation his infatuation. Before sailing he had to visit the home of his mother's cousin and became infatuated with her fourteen year-old daughter Mary, also known as 'Polly'. He lingered at his aunt’s home too long and missed the ship to the West Indies. When he returned, his father decided that his punishment should be to sail as a common seaman.

On John's return from that voyage his father got him an officer's berth, but before sailing the boy was given permission to visit his mother’s cousin and family. Once again John overstayed his leave and missed his ship again. Though initially angry, his father found him another ship but before he could join, he was caught by a press gang. Through his father’s intervention however he was promoted from seaman to midshipman enabling him to escape the dreadful conditions below decks. But whenever allowed ashore before the ship sailed, Newton overstayed his leave.

Just before the ship sailed when Newton was ordered to fetch fresh supplies thinking of the long period of separation from Polly he deserted. Two days later he was arrested, publicly stripped and whipped, and when fit for duty again he returned not as midshipman but at the lowest rank of seaman.

In an exchange of seamen, he was able to leave the warship and join a slave ship. Raiders would capture poor men, women and children from the interior parts of the African continent, bring them to 'factories' or warehouses on the coast to be bought by slave traders. His new employer was married to a highborn black woman. She was an extremely important person and she expected to be the mistress of the island. Newton had somehow fallen out with the black woman and she kicked him out of his comfortable hut into an empty slave shelter and his rations were cut to a handful of boiled rice. Half-starved Newton relied on roots pulled up and eaten raw and occasionally on food brought by African slaves. Later, when accused of cheating by another trader, it was believed and his situation worsened. He appealed to his father to rescue him.

Conditions improved when Newton’s employer let him go and he began to work for another trader, who treated him decently. Newton was given responsibility in the trade in gold and other commodities. Things were looking up and Newton began to enjoy the life. But when his father intervention’s worked, the thought of seeing Polly drew him back to England.

The ship 'Greyhound' spent nearly a year working her way south, trading. Newton didn’t work on board, and was thoroughly disliked. He ridiculed anyone who was a Christian by persuasion. One night he became drunk and almost drowned trying to recover his hat, which had blown overboard. Eventually with her holds full the 'Greyhound' began the long journey of seven thousand miles without touching land once!

The Hand of God
One of the few books on board was George Stanhope’s The Christian's Pattern, a prosaic paraphrase of The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. Newton was reading this on the voyage home. When the ship was caught in a storm and rode it, he reflected on

the extraordinary turns in my life; the calls, warnings, and deliverances I had met with... about six in the evening (I heard) that the ship was freed from water, there rose a gleam of hope. I thought I saw the hand of God displayed in our favour; I began to pray.

Though they survived the storm the crew was in danger of starving because everything had either been washed overboard or destroyed when the casks of provisions smashed. They had, just enough food for a week if it was rationed strictly. On the fifth day a cry of 'Land Ahoy' went up but the damaged ship was unable to stay on course. The wind blew continuously for a fortnight preventing the ship reaching shore. Conditions became unbearable. Newton was regarded to be the Jonah on board and was threatened with a fate to similar to the prophet’s. Finally the wind changed and they were brought safe home. Newton commented:

About this time I began to know that there is a God that hears and answers prayer.

John Newton never saw his father again, who had been appointed Governor of Fort York in America and three years later drowned in a swimming accident.

Newton served next as first mate on a slaver. During that voyage to West Africa, Newton studied Latin using a Latin Bible and one of Horace's Odes in a magazine.

Marriage Changed Newton
After completing that assignment when offered a command for the next sailing season, he accepted. Calling on Polly he proposed marriage. Polly refused him twice, but finally accepted and they married on 1st February 1750.

They got off to a shaky start because Polly was timid and reserved, but later on John could write to her,

the prospect cleared up and by quick stages I attained that consciousness of your affection which I would not exchange for empire or the riches of the whole globe.

When Newton sailed as captain on in August 1750, he had charge of some 30 sailors. He was determined to set a good example. As the commander of a slave-ship, he had a number of women under his absolute authority, and knowing the temptations he faced, he curbed his libido by abstaining from meat and strong drink during the voyage.

Marriage to Polly had affected his behaviour at sea. On the previous voyage on a slave-ship his behaviour was not so moral. Apart from normal young male libido at work, crews were actively encouraged by the owners and captains to have intercourse with the female slaves because pregnant slaves would fetch a higher price at auction, particularly if it were obvious that the child had been conceived at sea since a mulatto baby would fetch a higher price than a dark-skinned one. Light-skinned slaves were prized as house servants, which fetched higher prices than field hands.

What a Great Saviour
After returning in July 1751, a year later he sailed in a new ship, appropriately called 'The African'. That voyage ended in August 1753 but six weeks later sailed again for West Africa. The trading was poor and Newton carried only 87 slaves to St Kitts (St. Christopher's) in the West Indies, instead of the usual 220.

While in St. Kitt's, Newton met Alexander Clunie, a sea captain who was not involved in the Triangular Trade (selling black people kidnapped from the African continent to slave in America to gain other commodities and profit for European owners). They soon became friends. Under Clunie’s influence, Newton's understanding of his faith grew, until it was no longer an intellectual exercise but heart-religion. After 'The African' docked in August 1754 Newton never returned to the sea.

While working as a tide surveyor he studied for the ministry, and for the last 43 years of his life preached the gospel in Olney and London. At 82, when his memory was failing, Newton said,

My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.

Newton understood grace well. That brief message of his says it all. That is why I say, “Be a BBG. Be a beggar before God.”

What’s Your Expectation
Like I said, though we enthusiastically sing songs like “Amazing grace” and “Alas! and did my Saviour bleed? And did my Sov’reign die,” we don’t feel like worms or wretches. These old song writers remind us that is what we are for all stand before God enthroned. Usually, a throne represents royal power and royal pomp. God is the only Sovereign who sits on a “throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16). When anyone stood before an earthly throne, power would stream toward them from it. When you stand before the throne of grace what is your expectation? That’s the question. You see, if you don’t want grace, there’s no point in standing before the throne of grace. God’s throne dispenses grace and nothing else.

What is grace? The textbook definition is that it is unmerited favour. When I was learning Hindi, I would not get enough marks to pass. Whereas the pass mark was 40 out of 100, invariably I needed one or two marks to be able to cross over into the promised land. I was almost there, but I didn’t qualify. But I couldn’t march up to the teacher and say that I deserved to be given those one or two marks. I had no right to them. It was entirely up to the teacher’s sense of grace.

Back to the question: when you stand before God’s throne of grace what is your expectation? Do you expect payment or a handout? Payment is what you get when you have done your job well. No one can legally deny you payment. But a handout is for beggars.

Our Lord Jesus told a story showing us that there are just two kinds of people before God. The two kinds are not Christians and non-Christians (though I suggested dropping the term, in this context it is appropriate to use), nor the religious and the wicked. Jesus said that one kind is confident of their own rightness. When they stand before God, their claim is, “I’m good; I’ve done good.” They don’t ask for grace. Their prayer is answered. They don’t get grace. But the other kind say, “I’m no good; I need mercy.” They ask for grace and grace is what God gives out to anyone and everyone (Luke 18:9-14).

Let’s face it. We are more like the Pharisee than we think. There is a striking resemblance. We’re good. We know we are good. And we do look down on others for their lack of religiosity like ours.

One reason we don’t like grace is that grace is unfair. Jesus told a story about that. A landowner hired people to work his farm. He hired batches of people at different times of the day. At the end of the day, he paid the last lot a full day’s wage. They didn’t demand it. He wasn’t forced to do it. It was done out of the generosity of a good heart. But the ones who worked all day, felt it was unfair that he paid the last lot the same as them (Matt. 20: 1-15).

How can God treat me the same as the repentant prostitute, the repentant thief and the repentant murderer? I’m better; I’m good, and I’ve done good.

But the message of the Bible is that God has only one thing to give: grace. It’s all grace. And there’s only one way to receive grace: Be a BBG. Be a beggar before God.

DROP “NON-CHRISTIANS”

Message preached on February 1, 2009
Do you know any heathen or pagans? [When I asked that question in church there was an uncomfortable silence that was my answer]. I want you to reflect on the reason for the discomfort we feel with these terms found in the Bible. For instance, the King James Version of the Bible uses the term “heathen” 150 times, while the New International Version uses it just once in 1 Thessalonians 4:5, and instead uses the word “pagans” a number of times. Our Lord Himself used a word that has been translated as “pagans” in Matthew 5:47; 6:7, 32. Paul used that word (1 Cor. 5:1; 10:2; 12:2) and so did Peter (1 Pet. 2:12; 4:3) and John (3 Jn.v.7). On the other hand most of the Bible and theology dictionaries I consulted had no articles on either “heathen” or “pagans”. When I looked up the Oxford Dictionary the word “heathen” was defined as a derogatory noun identifying “a person who does not hold a widely held religion (especially Christianity, Judaism, or Islam)” and the word “pagan” was defined as “a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions.”

The only exception among the Bible dictionaries that I had in my library was the New International Bible Dictionary which had an article on “Heathen, Pagan”. In summary the article indicated that these words were literally a translation the word “nations” which in most cases was translated “Gentiles.” While it is true that ancient Jews despised Gentiles, the word itself was not loaded with any sense of abhorrence. It was merely an in-house word to distinguish God’s people from others.

Keep this in mind as you think about this: should we be using the term “non-Christians” when referring to those who are not followers of Christ? Most Christians use the term without any qualms. I have used it all the time until now. But recently I was in a situation where there were both Christians and those who were not Christians. The moment one of the Christians present dropped the term “non-Christians” my eyes went to those who were not Christians to note that their faces lost the animated, involved expression and a cloud came over their face indicating their withdrawal.

First of all we need to face this fact: God does command the practice of separation by His people. That is the essence of being holy. When a person or thing is holy or dedicated, the person or it is “separated” or “set apart.” In that sense it is not a religious word at all. When we had a dog, one plate was holy or dedicated to Elsa.
When a person or community is holy to God, dedication consequently involves being separated from others:

Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you're going. This will prove to be a trap to you. But tear down their altars, crush their sacred stones, and cut down their poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah. (Never worship any other god, because the LORD is a God who does not tolerate rivals. In fact, he is known for not tolerating rivals.) Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in that land. When they chase after their gods as though they were prostitutes and sacrifice to them, they may invite you to eat the meat from their sacrifices with them. Then your sons will end up marrying their daughters. When their daughters chase after their gods as though they were prostitutes, they'll lead your sons to do the same thing (Ex. 34:12-16, God’s Word Translation)

While I’ve read the Bible through a number of times, it was when my former associate pastor Paras Tayade drew my attention to it, that I noted the significance of Leveticus 18:3

Do not follow the practices of the people of Egypt, where you once lived, or of the people in the land of Canaan, where I am now taking you (Good News Translation).

God clearly indicated to His people that they were not to be like people they knew in their past, nor to be like people they would know in their future. He didn’t give them any room for accommodation or compromise of any kind.

The New Testament reiterates that position:

Stop forming inappropriate relationship with unbelievers. Can right and wrong be partners? Can light have anything in common with darkness? Can Christ agree with the devil? Can a believer share life with an unbeliever? Can God’s Temple contain false gods? Clearly, we are the temple of the living God (2 Cor. 6:14-16, God’s Word).

Clearly Christians must practise separation. However maintaining our distinctiveness does not require being offensive. It is offensive to define others by our identity, as though they have no identity of their own. It would be offensive for me to introduce someone with the word, “Meet my friend non-Kuru.” That would be a denial of the other person’s individuality. Describing people of other faiths as non-Christians is just the same. We treat them as non-entities whose existence must be described with reference to ourselves.

We need to guard our distinctiveness. So, separate we must. But we still need to remember that we are to reach out to those who don’t know Christ, not keep aloof from them or brush them off. Jesus told His disciples,

Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt.28:19).

There are three things Christians must do in relation to those who do not follow Christ:

• Share the good news that Jesus has come
• Draw one and all to the Lord Jesus
• Include them in our community of love because every proclamation of the gospel is an invitation to brotherhood (1 Jn. 1:3)

But if we are to reach out to people in love with the love of Jesus, then there is a need for sensitivity toward people who are different from us. To be sensitive we need to learn to think instead of shooting off our mouths. And if we are to be think before we speak, then we need to become good listeners—including listening to the way we talk and what we say. So, listen to God, listen to others and listen to yourself when you talk.

Pastoral Letter to Youth of Grace Bible Church

My dear Young People,

As your “church father”, I enjoy watching all of you growing up. I now feel the need to talk to you about an aspect of your growth.

You have reached an age at which you are discovering a new interest: the opposite sex.

At your age, your body-chemistry is very strong—sometimes stronger than all other feelings. This is specially true when it comes to the physical and emotional excitement you feel when with someone from the opposite sex.

First of all, I want you to understand that these feelings of yours are not love. You may think they are, but they are not. Most young people outgrow these early feelings. However, your heart can still get hurt. The best thing to do is to guard your heart by making sure you don’t concentrate your attention on any one person, but instead spend your time in the company of a number of young people of both sexes together.

Some of you will shortly leave home—either for studies in a college in another city or for a job. When you do, there will be a sense of new freedom. The restrictions you felt when living at home with your parents will be gone. Suddenly you will have the time and the opportunity to spend time with friends in a way you can’t while at home. Add the body-chemistry of your feelings for members of the opposite sex and you have a dangerous mix: it’s like a bomb waiting to explode.

Increasingly young people are making their own choice about whom to marry. You probably will too, rather than allow your parents to make a choice. So, as your father I would like to share some principles with you:

Let your closest friends—especially those of the opposite sex—be those who believe in Christ, because it is from this circle of closest friends that you will end up making your choice.

The Bible strongly urges that believers should not choose unbelievers for significant relationships:

Do not try to work together as equals with unbelievers, for it cannot be done. How can right and wrong be partners? How can light and darkness live together? How can Christ and the Devil agree? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? How can God’s temple come to terms with pagan idols? For we are the temple of the living God (2 Corinthians 6:14-16).

Here are the reasons for not choosing a person who does not believe in Jesus:

The deepest part of you (the “I” inside your body) is shaped by your upbringing, your family and your home. You need to remember that the other person is also shaped on the inside by his or her upbringing and background. So, if there is no feeling of agreement at the deepest level, a relationship is not really strong.

Where there are differences at the centres of two persons, sooner or later those differences (and other small differences too) become points of conflict.

Some conflict is to be expected when two independent centres (two “I”s) come together. There is a sort of tug-of-war to work out the equation and distribution of power between the two. But when the centres are totally different, the clashing will be constant or all the time. No relationship can survive that sort of continuous battle of wills.

That is why the Bible says that you as a believer should not consider making an unbeliever a partner for life.

Everyone gets into marriage thinking that trouble that came to others won’t happen to them because they are too much in love. No one goes into marriage with plans to fall out of love and break up. Everyone plans on being in love always, and being married for all their lives. So when the plans fail and the marriage breaks up, it is because they didn’t plan to safeguard their lives and their relationships.

I don’t want you to make the mistake others have made. Guard yourself against getting entangled with unbelieving friends in college or at work. If you find yourself attracted to someone who is not a believer, put an end to it by not spending any time with that person alone, and then come and talk to me. Let’s pray together.

In Christ's love,
Pastor Kuru