August 3, 2025

In Luke chapter fifteen Jesus teaches about the nature of God, the nature of man and the nature of rebellion. Jesus tells us about a man who had two sons, the younger of the two asks for his inheritance early and then uses the money to leave his fathers house and go out on his own to a far country. While there he squandered his inheritance with reckless living. Eventually that country experienced a famine and the man had to get a job working for one of the people there who gave him a job feeding his pigs. He was so hungry that he longed to eat the food the pigs were given. While there he came to his senses and thought to himself how many of my fathers servants have more than enough to eat? I will return to my father and admit I was wrong to leave and ask if I can be just one of his hired servants. When the man returned his father saw if far off and in compassion ran to him hugged him and kissed him. The son admitted that he had wronged his father and sinned against heaven. He said “I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” His father called his servants and had them bring a new robe and a ring and shoes and to kill a fattened calf for a celebration. “This my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!”

The sons rebellion was a wicked betrayal but that did not stop his father from loving him. Similarly our sin is a betrayal as we use the very freedom and power God had given us to turn away from him. God doesn’t stop loving us, instead He like the father in the parable is waiting in hopes that we and all men would realize our mistake and return. God doesn’t force us into a relationship or build fences to keep us from leaving the house. Rather he continually shows us his love and grace in hopes that we will learn that life apart from him is empty and return. 

Before we leave this story we need to consider one further point. What do you suppose happened to the son who returned a week later or maybe a month later? We would like to think that his lesson was learned and that he never again challenged his father or desired to go to a faraway land and waste his resources. Reality however teaches us that is not the way of man. When the son was ready to take on some of the household finances do you think he said, well I know dad would do it this way but I think this risky investment could pay off bigger? Do you think when it was time to marry he thought I know dad has arranged for a good wife from a good family but there is this girl at the market who is always showing off her wears. The fact is submission is hard; we are extremely good at convincing ourselves that we know better than God and will just do this one thing our way. 

Let’s take some time to consider why submission is hard, what methods we use to justify ourselves, and what areas of life we especially struggle to submit to God.

~ Kevin Cleary

July 27, 2025

The Lotto 649 ad encourages you to just imagine. Imagine if you were fortunate enough to live in your dream house. To have everything you need. Your environment was comfortable and beautiful. The temperature was always right. You didn’t lack for anything you had plenty of good food to eat and enjoy with your perfect partner. What more could you possible want? I don’t know what your life situation is now but you probably have moments where you stop and think of how things could be better. This is why the lotto ads are so powerful because no matter how good we might have it the world is not a perfect place. It’s important to point out that lots of money won’t suddenly make the world perfect, even if it could solve some of the problems you or I are dealing with. 

Now imagine instead of thinking ahead to a time when things might get better you could think back to a time when they were perfect. That doesn’t sound sensible to many but that’s exactly the situation Adam and Eve found themselves in. They could remember when the world was perfect. When there was meaningful but not onerous work, when nothing hurt you and nothing hurt. I wonder if Adam in his eight hundred and fiftieth year as he bent low over some weeds to pull them out of his plot of ground thought back to when he lived in a perfect garden where no weeds grew and where his back didn’t fatigue from pulling them. If he stood up sometimes and remembered when joints didn’t ache. If he felt the sun hot on his sweaty face and remembered when it didn’t burn and when none of the plants had thorns and nothing was trying to kill you and your loved ones. Perhaps to Adam it was like the Lotto ad “just imagine” but instead “just remember.” We don’t know how many children Eve may have had but I can imagine her wanting what was best for them just as all mothers do. Then thinking what it might have been like raising children in a perfect place where she didn’t have to always be concerned about what kind of life they would have because she knew it would be wonderful. Did the pain of each new birth remind her of the pain those children would experience in the world? How many times did she think back and ask why did I listen to that wicked snake? How did I fall for it, why did I think there could possibly have been more or better than the beauty and joy we had? 

Such is the situation we all put ourselves in when we fail to trust God. God want’s our best and reveals his truth to that end. When we don’t believe him and obey him in trust we are doing the very thing Adam and Eve did. How sad it would be for us to one day think why didn’t I trust God?

Kevin Cleary

July 20, 2025

Last week I shared a poem. The was written by Matthew Arnold an English poet who died in 1888. Arnold describes that waning faith of the English people as a tide which is on it’s way out and in fact isn’t even visible just the sound of it’s retreating roar is left.

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

This sentiment is not unknown to us today. Many have commented on the seemingly ongoing retreat of faith as a cultural influence in the west. Recently Jay Manimtim visited with us and shared that the number of Canadians who report no religion grows year after year. 

This is a concern for many reasons, what hope is there for children who grow up without a knowledge of God? What hope is there for a society that is not restrained by the knowledge of a moral framework to which we are all accountable? As a practical matter what will the world look like if the influence of Christian faith continues to retreat? What kind of society will our children or their children inhabit?

These thoughts are deeply troubling and should motivate us to share the truths of God far and wide. 

We must also understand that God can still work and all hope is never lost. I heard about the poem above in a book called “The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God” by Justin Brierley. In the book Brierley notes the diminishing influence of “New Atheism” and the realization that society can’t enjoy the fruits of Christian morality without the historical and spiritual roots. 

People with large platforms and influential voices are expressing some appreciation for Christianity, even allowing apologists to defend God and the Bible in some cases. Wes Huff and Steven Meyer have recently been invited on many popular well viewed media outlets. 

While it’s hard to predict the outcome of these things, this change of tone may represent a turning tide. 

We should think seriously about how we can personally and congregationally use this as an opportunity to share the gospel.

~ Kevin Cleary

July 13, 2025

The sea is calm tonight.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

Only, from the long line of spray

Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,

Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,

At their return, up the high strand,

Begin, and cease, and then again begin,

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago

Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery; we

Find also in the sound a thought,

Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Arnold reflecting on the diminishing Christian influence on Europe imagines a faith who’s tide is ebbing and seems to assume that it will not return. Next week I’ll ask you to remember this poem and offer some thoughts related to Arnolds sad reflection on the receding sea of faith. 

~ Kevin Cleary

July 6, 2025

 I am too young to have seen much of the Andy Griffith show, I am more familiar with Matlock which my grandparents watched faithfully. However I am aware of the influence of Andy Griffith and have seen enough to know why many people remember the show and it’s influence fondly. 

A few years ago I read a good little article by Steve Higginbotham. Steve is clearly a bigger fan than I am and makes some wonderful points.

“My wife and I just returned from a visit to Mt. Airy, NC, the home of Andy Griffith. Since we’re fans of the Andy Griffith show, we thought it would be fun to go to Mt. Airy, Andy’s real-life home town, and the model town for the fictional town of Mayberry. We went through the Andy Griffith Museum, took a few pictures, and headed home. Within hours, we learned that Andy Griffith had passed away.

Since hearing the news of his passing, I listened to an interview he gave a couple years ago. The interviewer asked him if he could remember all the episodes of the Andy Griffith Show. Surprisingly to me, he said, “no.” Oh, he remembered many of them, had some favourites, but just didn’t remember all of them. I found that amazing because there are thousands of people across the country who remember every episode, can tell you what’s going to happen next, and even quote lines. But Andy, himself, couldn’t.

That caused me to reflect on how our influence can long outlive our lives. Some of the episodes that Andy Griffith actually participated in were not remembered by him, but thousands of people who simply “looked on” remember every detail. What that tells me is that I had better be cautious about my words, attitudes, and actions. What I might say or do today, and forget about tomorrow, may never be forgotten by an “onlooker,” even long after I am dead and gone.

The passing of Andy Griffith reminded of a truth spoken by the apostle Paul, “For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself” (Romans 14:7). Make sure that the influence you have on others is the kind that you want to outlive you.”

Steve Higginbotham”

~ Kevin Cleary