February 2, 2025

     I recently had a conversation with a friend who was thinking about a couple of important things in his life. At the end of our conversation he said that he would wait to do anything until he could talk to his dad about it. What do you do when you want to get prepared for a major life decision or change? Going away to school, changing jobs, having a baby, making a major purchase? We all have to decide what we will do about all kinds of things every day. Knowing what will be best is something that can cause great stress leaving us sleepless and unsure. Or these decisions can cause great excitement and anticipation. 

     One common method people use to work through these times is talking. We even have the saying “talk it out.” We may talk to a trusted friend, a parent or someone who has been through a situation like our own. Jesus made a regular habit of talking about the big things he was going to do: before a major preaching tour, before calling his twelve closest followers. Before he asked the twelve who they thought he was, before his own trial, and before the trial of a close friend. Jesus spent time talking to his Father. It’s no accident that before virtually every major event in Christ’s life and ministry Luke records that he spent quiet time in prayer.

     There are all kinds of things that we can and should do before a major event or decision. We may sleep on it. We may list the pro’s and cons, or make a to do list to ensure nothing is forgotten, more important than any of these is spending time talking to our heavenly Father. 

     This is a good habit to have in our personal lives and we should apply it there. That however is not the only way we should learn from and apply Jesus example. In Luke 9:18; 29; 11:1, Mat 26:36-45 and many other places Jesus includes his disciples in his time of prayer. The disciples continued this practice after Jesus resurrection and ascension in Acts 2:41; 12:12; 13:2 just to mention a few, the disciples spent time together in prayer.

     What about us? When our congregation is preparing for something important, when a family member is facing trouble, when there is great need in our community, or among our brethren in different locations do we set aside a time of prayer? We have recently been studying I Thessalonians where Paul reminds the Corinthians to “Pray without Ceasing” the idea being not so much that we spend our life walking around with our heads bowed muttering to God. Rather Paul wants us to develop a mindset which thinks of God and His role first. One important further point to consider is praying about smaller more regular things. Before we go to work or start a new task. Before we study the Bible or spend time with friends. Praying without ceasing means praying about all aspects of our lives.

     I plan to develop a relationship with Joel and Asher such that they will want to come to me when preparing for something they think is important. In the same way our heavenly father wants us to come to him with the things that we are doing. 

     As we prepare for ministry and look ahead to the ways we need to serve God let’s keep in mind that we have not prepared until we have talked with our Heavenly Father.

~ Kevin Cleary

January 26, 2025

People often ask me if we are nearing the end of time or if it can get any worse. We are currently studying I Thessalonians and some of them had questions similar to these. 

Recently I heard a government official describe the economy of today as “the worst he’s ever seen.” In environmental matters the cry is constantly, “the sky is falling,” or some equivalent. The older generation sees the youth of today as the worst ever. The young often see the older ones as more out of touch than ever. In the church, alarms are often sounded that if we don’t watch we’re going to see the church cease to exist. No wonder people are unhappy and worried.
There’s good reason to be worried. Lots of things aren’t what they ought to be, and they might get worse. Who knows? Nobody likes to live in such a state. While ignoring the conditions of the times is like hiding ones head in the sand, thinking it’s all over is also unrealistic. A lot of people have lived before us in all sorts of circumstances. Don’t you think they sometimes thought things would never be better? Every generation is near-sighted, only seeing what’s right in front of them. They fail to see what has been and what happened then.

Some perspective is in order. God holds the world tightly and as long as He does it will stay together (cf. Col. 1:17). God has promised that as long as the world stands, ”seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22) . So much for global warming or global freezing worries. A bit of God’s perspective takes away a lot of unnecessary worry.
God rules in the Kingdoms of man as well (Dan. 4:32). He may even allow a bad ruler to thrive (Psalm 9:17), or a wicked nation to be victorious (cf. Isa 19:5 ff). But God’s plan for the work He is doing will always work toward His good (Rom. 8:28). If you think the morals of today are worse than ever, read the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19), or read of ancient Rome. Makes 2025 look pretty tame. Family values are greatly lacking, but are not so different than times past. Remember Judah (Gen. 3-8) and David. Most of us wouldn’t want to go back to those “good ole days”. As for the church condition, are we naïve enough to forget about Corinth, Sardis and Laodicea?
In all these cases God didn’t quit working. Even with the flood when God only saved a few He still kept going with His plan of redemption. He promised that that kind of destruction will only happen one more time, at the final day of judgment. We can never fail to be serious about our troubles and meet them head-on, dealing with them aggressively. But we must never lose sight of the real power in the world. God and His word provide us with the proper perspective in which to see all things.”

With all this in mind I would make two suggestions. First be diligent the days are dark and light is more needed than ever. Second be confident knowing that God is in control his word is still the truth and whatever affliction we may face in this world it is not worthy to be compared to the glory that awaits.

~ Kevin Cleary

January 19, 2025

One of the things you will hear in an emergency is someone saying “somebody do something” often because of danger and or ability a situation can’t be easily remedied. I recall a time at a large warehouse fire that some people showed up and promptly began to panic we had to physically restrain them from entering the burning building. One young many in particular was in full blown melt down. It turns out the back of the building was being used for a dog sitting service. Known or unknown to him was that the front of the building was being used for growing large quantities of marijuana. 

Sometimes we can get away with a questionable situation with no consequences. However, its usually not worth taking that risk. This brings up a different use of the term phrase “do something”

When things are not right we should not wait around and let it go because sometimes we won’t get any time it will be too late before we try to act.

Maybe there is a sin we are struggling with and we say well later Ill figure this out. 

Maybe there is something we know we should do but we keep putting it off. Maybe we know someone who is in trouble and we think I need to talk to them and offer some help but we just don’t get around to it. It is a scary conversation after all.

Kevin Cleary

THE SIN OF DOING NOTHING AT ALL

He made no mistakes and took no wrong roads;

He never fumbled the ball;

He never went down beneath the load.

He simply did nothing at all.

He lost no hard fights in defense of the right;

He never bled with his back to the wall.

He never fell faint in his climb to the light;

He simply did nothing at all.

So death came nigh, for life slipped by,

And he feared for the Judgment Hall.

When they asked him why, he said with a sigh:

“I simply did nothing at all.”

So, God will pardon your blunders, my friend,

And regard with pity your fall.

But the one big sin that surely means Hell

Is simply to do nothing at all.

Anonymous

“Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin”

(James 4:17).

January 12, 2025

Who do you want to follow? Maybe you have a favourite author, a great mentor at work or a family member who has been a great example to you and who you try to emulate. 

We normally choose who we will follow based on their ability to achieve a result. 

In 1936 Dale Carnegie wrote the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” it has sold millions of copies. People bought it because Carnegie had been a very effective and successful salesman for Armour and Company.

 

If you go to the gym and want to find a personal trainer you won’t necessarily pick the trainer with the best knowledge of human anatomy and or sports nutrition you will likely pick the person who has the physique you want to achieve. Their results will be the thing that draws you to take their advice. Mark Rippetoe once said if you have never squatted 600 Lb how can you teach someone else to do it. 

When it comes to determining who we will model our lives after we might be tempted to pick a person who has achieved certain levels of earthly success and that is perfectly reasonable if we need to know or achieve something in their field or area of achievement. 

As Christians we have set our aim higher than earthly achievement. This is not to say we have no earthly goals or responsibilities it does however mean that we will be going to places that probably won’t feel like the best or most desirable. None the less Jesus says follow me:

I have no place to lay my head, Follow Me; 

I am despised and rejected ,Follow Me; 

I am humble and lowly of heart, Follow Me; 

I will do the will of the father, Follow Me; 

I will hurt for others sins, Follow Me; 

I will be a Servant to all, Follow Me; 

I am going to the sick and dying, Follow Me; 

I will preach good news, Follow Me; 

I will take the burdens of the weak, Follow Me; 

I will invite all men into my Kingdom, Follow Me; 

I will teach the ways of God, Follow Me; 

I will build my church, Follow Me; 

I will carry a cross, Follow Me; 

I will lose my life to gain others, Follow Me; 

I will rise from Death to life, Follow Me

~ Kevin Cleary

January 5, 2025

     The bible is one of the most read books in the world. According to Wikipedia Portions of it have been translated into more than 3500 languages. The whole bible has been translated into 750 languages. In addition the United Bible society reports that there are approximately 900 English translations of the Bible. Every year the Bible holds the top spot for copies sold at 100 million. A book only needs to sell a few thousand copies a week to be a best seller totally in the hundreds of thousands per year. The Bible exceeds this standard many times over and does so year after year. This also places it far ahead of any other book in all time sales a few highly popular books like “The Lord of the Rings” (a personal favourite) or “A Tale of Two Cities” have all time sales of 150 million. Again, these numbers of dwarfed by the 3.9 billion copies of the Bible sold over time. As these numbers reflect It is respected by many people for many reasons. Its words have considerable bearing on the worlds three largest religions Judaism Islam (with qualifications) and of course Christianity. It is widely regarded as the single most influential book in western civilization. 

     Given how much attention the bible receives both in North America and around the world it’s hard to understand how people who have so much exposure to the bible fail to heed it’s teaching. 

     However if we will give it a little thought it makes a lot of sense. Is there anyone who thinks smoking is a healthy choice? Is there anyone who thinks Drinking and driving is good and safe? Obviously people know better than to engage in these behaviours. That does not keep them from doing it. 

     Not to just pick on certain vices I am confident that we all have things that we know are not wise and yet we do them none the less. 

     This accounts for some of the challenge. However there are a few others things we might want to consider. 

     The second reason that people don’t follow the teaching of scripture is just that they don’t know what it is despite having spent some time reading it. We all know that just reading something over doesn’t mean we know much about it. Who hasn’t agreed to terms and conditions having only skimmed the pages provided. Some people approach the bible in a similar way.

     Even those who have read more carefully may not be emotionally mature enough to set aside personal opinions and biases. In almost twenty years of preaching I have had many people tell me they know what it says they just won’t do it. Further some will only take from scripture what they are wanting to find there. George Deholf once wrote that “the bible is written in such a way that if a man want’s to cavil he may”

     We will all struggle from time to time and need the grace of God but let’s make it our aim to approach God’s word with a deep desire for understanding and a strong commitment to obey it. 

Kevin Cleary