Thought of the Week

A Day For Families

Posted on by Shannon

Tomorrow is Family Day here in Ontario. The first time it was celebrated in our province was in 2007, but its origins come from an earlier celebration in Alberta. Eight out of our ten provinces observe it, some using different titles. It’s encouraging to see our country acknowledge the importance of families.

The world over, families are viewed as the foundation of society. The first family was, of course, Adam and Eve (Gen.3:24). The book of Genesis is full of stories of the patriarchs searching for good people to marry, their successes and failures. Soon adultery and polygamy began to spoil things, the first being that of Lamech’s illicit relationships that were accompanied by violence (Gen.4). That has continued throughout time and is present today. But that doesn’t destroy the need for good families. In fact, all nations have passed laws protecting families, usually out of concern for the welfare of children or the orderly allotment of assets should a family dissolve.

There is nothing quite like a good family. Think about the following:

· Commitment adds security

· Love adds joy

· Children add focus

· Grandchildren add fun

· Old age adds appreciation

· Common faith adds purpose

No family is perfect. Sometimes there are disagreements, differences and poor attitudes. But love, commitment and determination will help a family moderate, adjust, prevail, and thrive.

Some people lose much of their families to abandonment, death, or to great physical distances. As Christians we must step in to help look after such people, for we are family in Christ – the household of God (1 Tim.3:15).

Enjoy your family this weekend, but also reach out to those who are alone. You’ll be blessed if you do both.

– Tim Johnson

The Effect of a Good Home

Posted on by Shannon

Good homes don’t always produce smart kids. Try as we may, our children sometimes make big errors when they get out on their own. The world and all its temptations beckon, questionable friends fill voids, and life’s hard edges easily discourage.

Jesus spoke of a young man like that in Luke 15:11-32. We don’t know his name, but we know his type. He had his hand out and felt his dad owed him something, then stormed off when he got it. His story is like that of many young people today: easy money is used up far too quickly and there’s nothing left when times become hard. For the young man of the parable, he ended up doing the dirtiest job possible for survival: feeding pigs out in a muddy field. And that wasn’t even enough; he was so hungry, the pig food looked appetizing.

But one day he remembered home. Things really weren’t that bad there. Everybody had enough to eat and nobody was cold at night. He decided he’d been foolish and wasteful, and it was time to go back. He didn’t know it, but his father was hoping he would see his son come over the horizon soon. There was a tender reunion, although a few snags had to be ironed out.

A good home facilitated this. If his dad was a hard, unforgiving man his son would have preferred starving before he’d go home. But he was a kind and just person. His son had come home ashamed and weary; his dad welcomed him. The son knew his father. Theirs was a home that allowed second chances. It was also a home that used good communication to sort out problems. When the older son protested the homecoming party, they sat down and talked it over. Good homes do that.

Kids think of home when times are difficult. Make it a place worth remembering.

– Tim Johnson

Day of Reckoning

Posted on by Shannon

We’ve all been shocked and surprised by the downfall of many politicians and people in the entertainment industry due to poor morals, bullying, or bad behavior prompted by alcohol. Their victims have been harmed physically and emotionally, and many of them have courageously said, “enough!” For many offenders, the courts will pass judgment.

Some people may cynically point out that for every person caught many more escape justice. While this is unfortunately true, there is a day coming when every guilty person will be dealt with. No one will escape. Even criminals who have carefully left a cold trail that no one has yet been able to follow to apprehend them will face justice.

The Bible calls it the day of judgment. God assures us that “He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). That man, of course, is Jesus Christ. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

Here’s what we know about it:

· It will happen at the end of the world.

· No human calendar reveals the date.

· It will completely surprise people.

· All judgments will be righteous and fair.

· All judgments will be final.

While all men should be aware of the Day of Judgment and let it temper their behavior, God has provided a way to be delivered from its fury. We are to “wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

Have you taken steps to ensure you will do well when that day comes?

– Tim Johnson

No Pain

Posted on by Shannon

All of us are well aware it is flu and cold season in our part of the world. It’s almost impossible to escape its clutches and many people suffer through a series of ailments for months. Yet how can we complain when so many suffer with more serious illnesses that take extensive treatments to cure, if at all? Pain and suffering are part of human life.

Statistics Canada says that we fill 300 million drug prescriptions a year (2005 figures), which works out to roughly 10 for each man, woman and child – or 3 billion dollars worth! That’s a lot of medicine to help us fight painful conditions.

In John’s final New Testament book, he describes “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Rev.21:2). Most people think he is writing about heaven; others believe it is a figurative picture of the church protected by God. Perhaps it is the latter but foreshadowing the former. My point is that He promises “there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away” (v4). Can you imagine an existence with no pain? John seems to imply there will be no more sickness either. At the very least, we understand that pain will be absent from heaven. Wouldn’t that be nice!

This is not just pie in the sky. Jesus successfully healed people from their illnesses and pain every day. He was the Great Physician, and He knew what He was talking about. One of my favorite passages in the New Testament is Matthew 4:23-25. “And Jesus was going about in all Galilee…healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people…all who were taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.”

Looking forward to a time when there will no longer be any pain helps us deal with our own struggles in life for the present time.

Relief is coming!

– Tim Johnson

Made for Another World

Posted on by Shannon

In Ecclesiastes 3:11 it says, “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.” We can’t know all the purposes of God, but we can certainly be aware of eternity. He has put it into our hearts – a certain taste or longing for it that cannot be discovered through the experiences of life. Men may deny eternity, or laugh at the need for it. But there will always be a longing within us for something more than we have experienced.

Creatures are not born with desire unless satisfactions for those desires exist. A baby feels hunger – there is such a thing as food. A duck wants to swim and there is such a thing as water. People desire to work and there is work to be done.

We find in ourselves a desire that no experience in this world can satisfy. The most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.

Augustine, the great thinker and church leader of the 4th century, said, “Thou has made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they learn to rest in Thee.” That says it as succinctly as it could be said. The unrest we see in our world and in our hearts, tells us we have not found our rest until we have entered the world for which we are made – eternity.

C.S. Lewis, the popular British theologian of the 1950’s, helped us when he said, “Our Heavenly Father has provided many delightful inns for us along our journey, but he takes care to see that we do not mistake any of them for our home.”

– David Johnson, with revisions from Tim Johnson