One year our eldest son Kris worked at a Christian camp/retreat center during his summer break from Bible College. One week he was catching skunks as part of the job. The camp seemed to draw baby skunks, and as you might imagine, campers and skunks are not a good combination.

Kris live trapped the young skunks and moved them to a central holding facility where they were later disposed of. He caught the skunks using a small bucket attached to a ten foot two by four. The small bucket keeps them from raising their tail and spraying. The two by four allowed him to get close enough to get a bucket over them without frightening them too much.

In order to hold the skunk in place, a piece of stiff cardboard was slid underneath the bucket to act as a bottom. Then the race was on. The goal was to get the skunk to the holding facility without dropping the cardboard or the bucket and releasing an angry skunk with rank malodorous consequences.

One day after the drive home from camp, I got a good whiff of a skunk somewhere along the highway. It made me glad that I was not the one to be doing the skunk run at camp. It also got me thinking.

In a way all our secret sins are like that skunk in a bucket. We keep them tucked away hoping desperately that we do not let the bucket or cardboard fall and the consequences of the sin escape. We know that if the sins escape it will be about as pleasant as an angry skunk.

We need to take those sins before God with a repentant heart and throw ourselves on His mercy. There is no other way to get rid of them. He knows that we are carrying them; they are only secret in our minds.

God sees all things, and all things will be made known.

Revelation 20:11-15 (ESV)
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. If all was revealed today, what would you smell like?

Until next time, rejoice that God not only knows all, but that He is willing to forgive all who choose His Son.

Hallelu Yah (Praise the Lord)

Yee Haw

Be blessed

Kevin

Just a few years after Kathy and I were married I decided I wanted a canoe. I purchased a 16′ Coleman (TM) brand canoe made out of a durable synthetic material, and a friend and I assembled it. We assembled it in the living room of a second story apartment, which isn’t the brightest of plans, nor is getting a complete canoe out of a second story apartment an easy task, but that’s a story for another day.

With a little practice, I did learn the basics of canoeing, and while far from being an expert, I can manoeuvre one with relative ease. There was one occasion though where I was still very much still in the early phases of the learning curve and that’s what I want to speak about this morning.

We went down to Alberta’s famous Cypress Hills Provincial Park for a few days of camping and took the canoe with us. Early the first morning, I threw the canoe into the lake, climbed into the stern (that’s the back of the boat for the non-boating crowd) and went for a solo trip. The lake is beautiful and runs east to west for some distance. The prevailing winds come from the west.

It wasn’t long before a breeze came up, which quickly became a stiff wind. I enjoyed racing down the lake with the wind. The scenery was beautiful and the trip exhilarating.

When I got to the far end of the lake, I turned for the long paddle back to the campground. I couldn’t generate enough momentum to work my way back up the lake. With me in the stern, the lightweight canoe just lifted up into the waves and I could make no progress. I’d paddle until I was pooped, get a couple of hundred yards at most and then be blown back to my starting point. I wasn’t literally up the creek without a paddle but for all intents and purposes I might as well have been.

I’ve since learned that if I had thrown some rocks into the bow for ballast, the front end would have cut through the waves with relative ease and I would have been much better off. I didn’t know that then, and eventually realized that no matter how hard I worked I was not going to paddle back up the lake. Since the wind blows there pretty much non-stop that left me in a dilemma. I grabbed the rope tied to the bow, climbed into the lake, and began walking along the shore towing the canoe behind me.

The water was cold and I was no longer enjoying the wonderful scenery. I had walked for the better part of an hour, dragging the canoe against the wind when a motorboat came by and realized my problem. The driver was kind enough to tie the canoe behind his boat and give me a ride back to the campground. In a few minutes we covered what might have taken me another hour or more of walking.

Without the help of the kindly boater I would have had a lot of work still ahead of me. If I had continued trying to paddle instead of getting out and pulling the canoe, I might still be there… well perhaps that’s a bit of an overstatement, but I think you get my point.

Paddling that canoe into the wind solo reminds me of the way many people try to get to heaven. They feel that if they work hard enough, long enough, to be “nice”, “moral” people they will be able to earn their way.

The truth is that no one ever earns his or her salvation. You see, we born dead in our sin. No amount of “work” by a dead person can ever give life. Only God can give life. God is life.

John 14:6 NIV
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Romans 3:21-24 NIV
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Romans 3:28 NIV
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

Romans 5:1-2 NIV
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

This morning’s lesson wouldn’t be complete without the verses you probably assumed I was going to start with

Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast.

Our works are important. There are works to be done after we become believers. God has ordained them.

Ephesians 2:10 NIV
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

James 2:17 NIV
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

James 2:26 NIV
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

By all means continue to paddle, continue to strive for good works, but remember that those works do not earn you salvation. Salvation is a gift from God that must be accepted or rejected on its own merit.

Until next time, consider the state of your salvation. Did you get it by faith? If not you don’t have it! Is it manifesting itself in your life by works of love? If not you need to check your heart.

If you have salvation by faith and works as an outpouring of love rejoice! If not, it’s time to get right with God today.

Hallelu Yah

Yee Haw

Be Blessed

Kevin

The difficulty in preaching God’s righteousness in any culture stems in part from the inherent inability of the finite mind to comprehend the infinite. However, through the analogy of language we are able to have some comprehension of the truth, albeit not an exhaustive understanding. We can know that God is righteous and that on our own we are not even if cannot comprehend fully what that means.

Recognizing the limitations of finite understanding, we are still compelled to preach the righteousness of God within any number of cultural specific settings. Jeremiah 9:23-24 makes it clear that to some degree God is knowable and Romans 1:20 declares that we are without excuse when it comes to not knowing God.

I minister primarily with the context of a Canadian subculture i.e. the “cowboys” or perhaps more accurately described, those with an affinity for the western lifestyle. This group of people, broadly speaking, tends to be blue collar workers or hold lower level white collar positions. Many have vocational training, some have college degrees and relatively few hold any form of graduate degree. Someone once said of this group “They are long on wisdom and short on schooling” and while that might be a bit of a caricature there is some kernel of truth.

This group tends to have high exposure to general revelation from nature, given their affinity for the outdoors. There is a general awareness of God (however one might choose to define that term) and an understanding that we don’t measure up. You can find evidence of this in their music[1] and their literature[2].  A common response is found in the words of actor John Wayne “I’ve always had deep faith that there is a Supreme Being, there has to be.”[3]

Prevalent in the western novel and movie are typically well defined “good guys” (white hats in the old movies) and “bad guys” (black hats). The bad guys (outlaws, desperados, those on the owl hoot trail, riding for the border, or on the dodge,[4]) are typically portrayed as one of two classes, those very clearly evil and those who break the law but were forced on the run by circumstance. It’s not uncommon for those in the cowboy culture to “sow their wild oats” when younger and settle back into a more restrained lifestyle as they get a little older. The younger phase of life may encompass overindulgence in alcohol, sexual promiscuity and the like[5], but crossing the line to the point of being “on the dodge” is not tolerated. Such an individual finds themselves outside the community and regarded as no more than a common criminal. While alcohol abuse and the like are tolerated by the community to no small extent, there is still an awareness that such things are wrong.

Like any community, it is sometimes difficult to convince this group that anything which doesn’t please God is sin, but there is sufficient awareness of their “big sins”[6] to convict them. From there study of God’s Word and biblical teaching can bring them to more of an awareness of their “smaller sins”

An awareness of these things gives me an advantage perhaps over a more post modern audience in that I seldom have to convince my audience of the existence of God or their sin. The challenge remains in teaching them the true nature of justification sola fide.

Where difficulties can occur is in the stubborn self-reliance of the cowboy. There can be a reluctance to turn “outside” for assistance and deal with the problem under one’s own strength. This often means that a cowhand often must be “down on his luck” to accept a helping hand and make it hard to accept the gift of salvation from Christ (although such an attitude is common in many areas of Canadian culture today). Conversely though, this makes for emotional testimonies as people in this group often hit bottom before reaching out to the Lord. In addition, this group tends to be suspicious of an easy believism and more willing to embrace a full commitment Christianity when they do make the “leap of faith”. There is an understanding that while salvation comes freely, there is a cost associated with following Christ.

Within the mythology of the west, there still exists to some extent a cowboy code. There is an awareness of right and wrong.[7] This morality, this idea of a “right living code” demonstrates an ideal that we fail to live up to. While it doesn’t correspond directly to the Decalogue and can easily be applied in a secular context, it does show an awareness of right and wrong and implies there is a penalty of some sort for wrong living.

Embedded in the mythology of the west (and the way that mythology is lived out today) is the concept of loyalty. “Riding for the brand”, is deep seated within the culture. In short it means to be loyal and to look out for the “brand” even over your own interests. This concept of doing what it takes to hold fast to a promise, or to an ideal, transfers across to the idea of God doing what is required for the sake of His name. God is ramrod[8] of his own outfit and ultimately responsible for keeping His promises.

It is not a quantum leap to take my audience from their own sort of “folksy wisdom” to Scriptural truth. Given the proclivity of the “cowboy” to seek “justice done” (however flawed it might be in practice) it is an easy step to discussing the concept of a wholly, righteous and fair judge. The old style of “cowboy justice” done at the end of a noose or from the barrel of a gun hasn’t been open to this group since the early twentieth century. The community self polices to some degree but has increasingly resigned itself to using the Canadian legal system.[9] They do see the system as flawed and unfair and long for someone who would apply the law justly.

Knowing these things, I can follow similar steps to Paul’s letter to the Romans and quite readily establish God as that wholly and righteous judge and our lack of ability to stand before Him on our own merit uncondemned. It becomes easy at that point to show the mercy of God and offer them the hope of sola fide.

With that placed before them, Holy Spirit can convict as He sees fit. My responsibility is to be obedient to the best of my own ability, while striving to be obedient to Holy Spirit’s call. He provides the fruit (if any)

If you read this morning’s title, you are probably wondering what in the world a Bagzend is and how it can relate to you. Let me explain.

To begin with, Bagzend is pronounced bags-end. When I’m cooking, and I go the freezer, I frequently find the ends of several bags of vegetables or other goodies. That night, I’ll combine the left over bags of vegetables and we’ll have them with supper. It has become a running joke around here that when I’m asked what we’ll be having for supper, it might include “Bagzend” brand veggies.

The other night bagzend veggies were peas and a stir-fry mix. There have been some very eclectic combinations but they always seem to work. I’m never quite sure what they’ll be until I open the freezer. Bagzend can also apply to things other than veggies, it might be bagzend fries (usually shoestring and curly mixed), or it might be the meat course (some chicken wings and some ribs or whatever).

In many ways the church is made up of bagzend people. Throughout the Old Testament we see God using the wise and powerful, but also the oddballs, misfits and unqualified. Who else but God would use a prostitute (Rahab) to save his people? Who else but God would use a frightened man from a small tribe (Gideon) to win a huge military victory with only 300 soldiers?

Jesus’ disciples were a misfit lot that would never have “qualified” for church leadership in the first place. The Apostle Paul started out as a fanatical persecutor of the church until his conversion. Who else but God would use a Jewish tax collector, hated by Jew and Gentile alike, to write one of His gospels?

I’m so blessed to know that God can use the leftovers, the bagzend. You see I’m one of them. I come from a non-Christian home and lived an ungodly life until I found Christ. If He didn’t love bagzend as much as the rest of the bag, there would be no hope for most of us.

The lost ones He came to find are often the bagzend of the world.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Luke 15:1-7 ESV

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and `sinners’?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:27-32 ESV

Until next time, if you’re one of the bagzend who has found Jesus, rejoice. If you’re a Christian who looks down on bagzend people, check your heart, Jesus loved them.

Be blessed.

When we think about Christian service we often tend to think about very “spiritual things” and that sometimes scares us because we don’t think of our gifts and passions as being very spiritual.

Perhaps you like to paint or carve wood. Perhaps you like to garden or cook. Maybe there is an old time skill that we know how to do. Maybe you like to tinker with small engine repair. Maybe you like building birdhouses or working in leather.

Scrapbooking? Stained glass? Floral arranging?

Those thoughts got me thinking about the ways we can impact our community. Maybe you would like to host a group of painters or teach some teens and kids your skills. Maybe you would enjoy running a small engine repair clinic.

Perhaps you’d like to coordinate a community garden.

Maybe you can teach people how to properly plan a meal and eat nutritiously.

The possibilities are limited only by our collective passions and desire to serve the Lord.

You can do that in the name of Christ. You don’t have to do “the big sell” evangelism. You don’t have to know all the theological answers or everything about the Bible. You simple have to share what you are passionate about and love the people God sends your way. As the relationships build the topic of your faith will come up naturally and then you can share and/or invite people to the church.

You have gifts, talents and passions that the Lord has not given to your pastor. You can reach people who might never come into the church.

Give it some thought and prayer and then talk with me. Maybe we can find a way as a church to encourage you in your passion and love your neighbors at the same time.

This morning’s guest post is hardly cowboy in it’s theme, but the passion for God resonates in my heart … Kevin

Breaking Away

Breaking away, the comedic drama about a boy who wants to be an amazing cyclist despite all odds. He is a no one with a passion for cycling and ends up proving himself to his family, friends and even a group of thugs.

What is so special about this movie: It is inspiring, right after watching it I wanted to go out and jump on my bike and ride. It makes me want to experience the thrill of adrenaline pumping through my veins while pedaling as hard as I can.

Breaking away to me is a symbol of how I want my life to be. I want it to be simple, I want to be passionate and I want to have a good family.

After I got it out of my system that I wanted to go for a ride, I started thinking about my spiritual life. What inspires me to be a better Christian. What would be my “Breaking Away’ for my spiritual life?

Is there a movie I can watch, is there something I can read, what about listening to something?

Sure there are all of those things, but I think the most inspiring thing is to hear about people, to hear about their passion and love. True stories that show about God’s love, his working and his people doing something good. That is what I want to hear.

I also want to be inspiring, so my challenge: To live a life worth telling. I can tell all the stories in the world, but will someone tell my story to inspire others at some point. I hope so! I don’t know where my life journey is going, but this I know… even if I never become famous, or don’t die an amazing death for my faith; I can live a life worth hearing about.

So I want to “break-away” I want to live a life worth living. 1 Corinthians 9:24

Kyle Corbin

Kyle is a youth Pastor and blogger. You can visit his blog Simple Ministry at http://www.kylecorbin.blogspot.ca/