... And no meeting space yet

Sunday morning (September 30th) our entire core group, along with three new believers, will meet together to prepare our first Sunday morning service October 14th, followed by a Quebecker-style BBQ (which means along with hamburgers and hotdogs, we will eat Ketchup chips, pour specialty sauce over our fries, and devour a special green cole slaw).

The meeting will be at Bernard and Louise's house... since we have not yet found an adequate meeting place (Despite already contacting over 70 different schools, day cares, and community centers).

We are very much looking forward to our first Sunday morning service, and are praying constantly that God would reveal to us an adequate meeting place for Sunday morning services.  Here are our criteria:

• Not far from downtown St-Jérôme
• a large room (for 50+ people) with two or more smaller rooms for nursery/sunday school relatively close by
• relatively clean
• Available Sunday mornings (we've found a couple of great location available Friday nights). Also...
• a reasonable price (not like the $4,000 a month spaces we have already found)

Please pray that God would provide an adequate meeting place before October 14th.

Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that the title does not represent what I believe. But I had a very interesting experience last night.

As I was prayer-walking in downtown St-Jérôme around 8pm last night I walked by an open door with a lighted stairway descending into a welcoming meeting space. There was some kind of eastern-type religious literature that I didn’t recognize on display, so I decided to descend the stairs and check out what was going on.

It was a sort of open house with two Buddhist-type (though Quebecker) teachers, waiting for curious seekers to come and hear their teaching. Leaving, I began to re-climb the stairs when they called after me, wondering if I wanted to talk.

“Oh no” I thought, “Do I really want to spend time this evening splitting meta-physical hairs with Buddhist-type teachers? Well,” I thought “I could at least speak with them until Jacob arrives to meet with some other contacts.”

One was a medium-height 50-year-old man named Réal with a kind face, and greying hair and the other was a pleasant-looking 60-year-old woman named Carmen with beautiful grey hair and small glasses that gave her an intellectual aura. As they began explaining their entire belief-system with me, I shared with them that I was a disciple of Jesus-Christ, asking them what they thought of Jesus.

“He was a great teacher,” came the reply.

They continued, walking through the idea of Karma, re-incarnation, and the existence of an impersonal force we could also call “God”. We continued for a good 15-20 minutes along this vein; then it got interesting.

“That’s all very interesting” I replied, “the only problem with it is this: If what you say is true, then Jesus Christ is a liar.”

A shocked expression raced across Carmen’s face, her Catholic background appearing in full-force. “Jesus Christ is NOT a liar! Get that idea out of your head and never consider it again!” Réal, less forcefully, agreed. Then they simply asked why; why would I even say something like that?

“Because,” I replied, “Jesus taught that people would live only once, be judged, then be sent either into an eternity with God, or an eternal torment without Him.”

“I don’t remember that” Carmen replied. “I don’t think Jesus ever said that. All Jesus said was that we should love one another.”

I opened my Bible to Matthew and began showing them what Jesus had said concerning judgement and eternal torment. “So” I concluded, “Either Jesus was right, or you are right, but not both.” We also discussed other questions like “if karma and re-incarnation is true, then why did Jesus have to die?” or “how can something be truth, but only for me? Do there exist universal truths for all times and for all peoples that do not come from within myself?”

The response? Carmen responded that Jesus didn’t really say what is in the Bible, that it was written by men with an agenda. However, Réal was rather contemplative the entire time, saying that I raised some very good questions, and wanted to talk more another time.

They both invited me back, but I’m not sure if it is a wise use of my time to debate with Buddhist-type teachers. However, it is incredibly stimulating for me, and the message of Jesus becomes so much clearer and even more convincing as I am forced to defend it.

And no, Jesus is not a liar, nothing could be farther from the truth... the universal truth for all times and all peoples.

As we move forward to to officially launch the St Jerome church in the next few months I'll also be wandering my way through several books for my personal study and nourishment. One such book is Defending Life by Francis J. Beckwith. As a church, at some point, we will clearly and frankly outline why we are against abortion, both from philosophical, theological, and emotional perspectives. I trust that this book will be a great resource from the philosophical perspective. Here is how Francis outlines the importance and direction of his latest work:

Moving to the forefront of our public discourse is an acute awareness of the fragility and preciousness of life, the importance of ethical clarity, and the need to require moral justification when the taking of another’s life may be required...

What is the scope of the human community?...  

After all, if Christopher Reeve was identical to his embryonic self, then we were no more justified in killing an embryo to acquire its stem cells so that Mr. Reeve might walk again than we would be in stealing Mr. Reeve’s eyes so that Stevie Wonder might see again.

The pro-life position I defend in this book can be outlined by the following argument:

1.  The unborn entity, from the moment of conception, is a full-fledged member of the human community.

2. It is prima facie morally wrong to kill any member of that community.

3. Every successful abortion kills an unborn entity, a full-fledged member of the human community.

4. Therefore, every successful abortion is prima facie morally wrong…

…when I say that killing a member of the human community is prima facie morally wrong I mean to say that in ordinary circumstances no one is morally justified in killing another human being. However, this does not mean that it is always wrong in every circumstance to kill someone who is fully human. There could be circumstances in which killing is justified, such as in cases of self-defense or just war…

I do not argue for the pro-life position by appealing to theological reasoning or the authoritative writings of any particular religious tradition. The main thrust of this book is philosophical and jurisprudential. Hence, if my arguments are sound, an atheist, agnostic, or humanist is intellectually obligated to become pro-life. Consequently, those who want to label and dismiss the pro-life position as a merely “religious view” … will be disappointed with my strategy to ground the pro-life perspective in an array of arguments that can be apprehended by engaging in reasoning unaided by anyone’s holy scripture and/or divine revelation…

The cultural conflict over the permissibility of abortion is really a dispute over whether we are justified in extending our nation’s moral progress toward the elimination of unjust discrimination to include those who are the most vulnerable in the human family, the unborn.

On some occasions I’ve struggled while speaking in western churches. There seems to be something missing that leaves me feeling terrible inside. Many meeting are cold and lack the fire and presence of God that we have in China.

In the West many Christians have an abundance of material possessions, yet they live in a backslidden state. They have silver and gold, but they don’t rise up and walk in Jesus’ name.  In China we have no possessions to hold us down, so there’s nothing preventing us from moving out for the Lord. The Chinese church is like Peter at the Beautiful gate. When he saw the crippled beggar he said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk!” Acts 3:6.

. . .

When I’m in the West I see all the mighty church building and all the expensive equipment, plush carpets and state-of-the-art sound systems. I can assure the Western church with absolute certainty that you don’t need any more church buildings. Church buildings will never bring the revival you seek. The pursuit of more possessions will never bring revival. Jesus truly stated, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15. (p. 295-296).

I (Rob) just finished reading the book The Heavenly Man. Whether or not you agree with his theological positions, there are some very provocative statements regarding the Christian life, discipleship, and suffering, sprinkled throughout; which caused me to stop and reflect on my own comfortable walk with Christ.