In Memory of Consumers Distributing

Some of you may remember Consumers Distributing. It was a store that operated from 1957 to 1996 in which customers selected items from a store catalog instead of from store shelves, and employees would then go to a warehouse behind their counter to get any catalog items requested. I loved Consumers Distributing, and was sad when they closed. I used to eagerly page through the Consumers catalog, wishing I could afford so many of the things that I saw. I can fondly remember random items that I bought there: a baseball glove, a wall clock, a microwave cabinet, a floor lamp. And so many other things. I think I enjoyed shopping there because it was so easy to browse their entire stock as you just stood in one place and paged through their colourful catalog, knowing that whatever you found could immediately be brought out and presented to you like a gift (that you then had to pay for)! It was like Amazon before the internet and without the shipping fees! And just as Amazon aims to provide us with all that we want all on one website, Consumers Distributing tried to provide whatever any consumer might want all in one catalog.

All of these memories occurred to me this morning as I read Proverbs 23:23. "Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding." 

These are all invaluable items! Much more precious than baseball gloves and floor lamps. And it occurred to me that they're all readily available in the pages of one beautiful book that contains the words of God: the Bible! I can eagerly read my Bible knowing that every page is filled with truth and wisdom, instruction and understanding, and all of it is affordable because it's free! Isaiah wrote, "...he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isaiah 55:1). The food Isaiah spoke of was spiritual food. He went on to mention an "everlasting covenant" with God (55:3) in which we know that wine is symbolic of the shed blood of Jesus and milk represents the rich nourishment of God's Word. And it's all explained and made available in a book that has no product pictures, and yet is full of pictures for those who have eyes to see!

So as eager as I was to browse the Consumers Distributing catalog (and as eager as I may sometimes be to browse Amazon), I have so much more reason to be excited about reading God's Word. In the pages of my Bible are truth, wisdom, instruction and understanding; they are always in stock and always free. And the Holy Spirit is continually available as our teacher in these things (John 14:26), though He doesn't wait behind a counter to receive our requests as we find things – He comes right into our hearts to enlighten and encourage us as we read. So read eagerly, looking for all that is available and always free!

© 2016 by Ken Peters

You really only need these two things...

Two things. That's it. That's all you need – it's all you'll ever need. I've grown fond of repeating these two things to my soul whenever I feel a dip in the road, because whenever I'm frustrated or discouraged or frightened, these two things lift me up.

They're both found in an oft-quoted Bible verse I memorized many years ago:
"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."  Hebrews 11:6 (NASB)

The two things are actually one thing: faith in God, that faith being an assurance of the things we hope for and a conviction of things promised that we can't always see with our physical eyes (Hebrews 11:1). But Hebrews 11:6 describes biblical faith in two parts: (1) confidence in God being who He says He is, and (2) confidence in all God's promises being available for those who seek Him. That's all you need when the chips are down and you're not sure how things are going to turn out.

So when you feel like you're struggling keep a good perspective, go ahead and ask yourself, 

"Is God still who He says He is?" (The answer is always yes.) 

And then also ask, 

"Are all God's promises still true?" (The answer to that is also always yes!) 

That is the kind of faith that pleases God – the kind that remembers God accurately and lifts our gaze to be encouraged by His promises.

That means it's vital for us to keep a lookout for who God is as we read the Bible and to remember what we've read so that we can look back to it in times of trouble. God's Word tells us all about who God is! Remember these things when you ask yourself if God is still who He says He is...

1. God is holy (Psalm 99:3; Rev. 4:8)
2. God is good (Psalm 25:8; James 1:17)
3. God is loving (Psalm 13:5; John 3:16)
4. God is faithful (Psalm 89:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:24)
5. God is merciful (Psalm 103:8; Ephesians 2:4)
6. God is powerful (Psalm 29:4; Ephesians 6:10)
7. God is wise (Psalm 104:24; Romans 11:33)
8. God is just (Psalm 37:28; 1 John 1:9)
9. God is ever-present (Psalm 139:7-10; Matthew 28:20)
10. God is all-knowing (Psalm 147:5; 1 John 3:20)

...and so much more!

And we also need to remember the promises of God as we read the Bible so that as we ask our soul if all God's promises are still true, we know what promises this applies to. This isn't complicated stuff! It's just a matter of remembering what we read so that we can remind ourselves in times of need. What has God promised to those who seek Him (which we can only do through Jesus (John 14:6))?

1. That we can personally know God (1 John 5:20)
2. That we can be filled with and empowered by His Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17)
3. Forgiveness (1 John 1:9)
4. Abundant life (John 10:10
5. Eternal life (1 John 2:25)
6. God's abiding presence (Hebrews 13:5)
7. God's peace (Philippians 4:7)
8. God's joy (Romans 15:13)
9. God having a purpose for our life (Ephesians 2:10)
10. Answers to our prayers (John 16:24)

...and so much more!

So remember! When life is tough, these are the two things you need in your holsters: To believe that God is exactly who He says He is in His Word! And to believe that every promise He's ever made is true and available when we are following Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20)!

© 2016 by Ken Peters

Protection on Paper

Someone once showed me a poster of "The Christian in Spiritual Armour" that left me feeling like I needed to take a few steroids to measure up to the soldier in that picture. I was a rake of a twenty-something year old, and felt like quite the wimp compared to that muscular dude wielding his powerful sword and shield.

Fortunately, the Apostle Paul's reference to our spiritual armour has nothing to do with our physical stature. The spiritual armour Paul wrote about fits Christians of every size and the sword that goes with it is something that even the most physically weakened Christian is fully capable of swinging.

In fact, I think it would be better to draw the picture of "The Christian in Spiritual Armour" as a young child carrying a paper-product sword and shield rather than some strongman carrying heavy weapons. That's because much of the armour we wear or carry in our spiritual fight is found on paper.

Yes, God calls us to arm ourselves with something found on paper pages. Think about it...

• The "sword of the Spirit" is clearly referred to as "the Word of God" (Ephesians 6:17).
• The "shield of faith" (Eph. 6:16) is produced by the Word of God, since we know that "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17).
• And we know that the "belt of truth" (Eph. 6:14) is also the Word of God, because Jesus prayed that the Father would "sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth" (John 17:17)

This means that we are to arm ourselves from the pages of the Bible. When we do so, we can be certain that the words in that book are sharp enough to pierce through any of the enemy's trickery, and that the truth on those pages is fire-proof against the "fiery darts" that our enemy throws at us (Eph. 6:16). Imagine that! A fire-proof shield on combustible paper, and flimsy pages that are made immeasurably strong and sharp by the words of heavenly truth they contain.

What does any of this mean? It means that no matter how weak you may feel, you can wield and wear spiritual armour. It means that a picture of a child with a paper sword and shield is closer to Biblical reality than a poster of a muscular soldier with his hefty steel sword and shield. It's not brawn that beats the enemy back, but it's the person who reads and embraces God's Word who will overcome the enemy's constant lies and accusations.

That is why it's so worthwhile to saturate ourselves in the Bible's precious contents. And the fact that Jesus is the living Word means that all our spiritual armour is available in Him, and that as we spend time meditating on His Word in fellowship with Him, He will bring His Word to life in our hearts, enabling us to be victors against our enemy by His power rather than by any unreliable strength of our own.

© 2015 by Ken Peters

Devotions aren't Magic

Jon Bloom is the Executive Director of Desiring God, an excellent ministry that seeks to share God-centered resources from the ministry of John Piper. I’ve been encouraged by a great deal of what I’ve read by John Piper and by much of what I’ve discovered on his website. The following post from Jon Bloom's blog was no exception...

Devotions Aren’t Magic

We know that – for the most part.  But still, we can be tempted to think that if we just figure out the secret formula – the right mixture of Bible meditation and prayer – we will experience euphoric moments of rapturous communion with the Lord.  And if that doesn’t happen, our formula must be wrong.

The danger of this misconception is that it can produce chronic disappointment and discouragement.  Cynicism sets in and we give up because devotions don’t seem to work for us.

The longing for intimate communion with God is God-given.  He will satisfy it fully some day.  And the Spirit gives us occasional tastes.  But God has other purposes for us in our daily Bible meditation and prayer.  Here are a few:

1. Soul Exercise (1 Corinthians 9:24, Romans 15:4):  We exercise our bodies to increase strength, endurance, promote general health, and keep unnecessary weight off.  Devotions are like exercise for our souls.  They force our attention off of self-indulgent distractions and pursuits and on to God’s purposes and promises.  If we neglect this exercise we will go to pot.

2. Soul Shaping (Romans 12:2):  The body will generally take the shape of how we exercise it.  Running shapes one way, weight training shapes another way.  The same is true for the soul.  It will conform to how we exercise (or don’t exercise) it. 

3. Bible Copiousness (Psalm 119:11, Psalm 119:97, Proverbs 23:12):  A thorough, repeated soaking in the Bible over the course of years increases our body of biblical knowledge, providing fuel for the fire of worship and increasing our ability to draw from all parts of the Bible in applying God’s wisdom to life. 

4. Fight Training (Ephesians 6:10-17):  Marines undergo rigorous training in order to so ingrain their weapons knowledge that when suddenly faced with the chaos of combat they instinctively know what to do.  Similarly, devotions make us more skilled warriors. 

5. Delight Cultivation (Psalm 37:3-4, James 4:8, Psalm 130:5):  When a couple falls in love there are hormonal fireworks.  But in marriage they must cultivate delight in one another.  It is the consistent, persistent, faithful, intentional, affectionate pursuit of one another during better and worse, richer and poorer, sickness and healthy times that cultivates a capacity for delight in each other far deeper and richer than the fireworks phase.  Similarly, devotions are one of the ways we cultivate delight in God.  Many days it may seem mundane.  But we will be surprised at the cumulative power they have to deepen our love for and awareness of Him.

Walking the Word (church bulletin cover)

I've heard people described as being a man or woman "of the Word." Of course, I know that to mean that such people are "in the Word" a lot -- reading God's Word, the Bible, a great deal. It must also mean that they know the Word of God very well, remembering what they've read. But if someone can be described as a person "of the Word," it must also mean that they live according to what God's Word says.

Psalm 119, a long psalm written entirely about the importance of God's Word in our lives, begins with a verse that says, "How blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord." As I read that, I'm struck with a question: How much of my life is actually spent living according to what I've read and remember from God's Word? In other words, how much of my "walk" reflects the Word of God?

I'm not talking about being some legalist who introspectively measures every moment of every day and beats myself up for straying the tiniest bit from what I know the Bible to teach. I simply mean, how conscious am I of God's Word throughout each day that God gives me to live for Him? How mindful am I to deliberately love the people I meet, to be thankful for every circumstance, to rejoice always and to share the Gospel with others just as God's Word commands me to? Yes, all of those things are commands in God's Word. Commands I'm meant to obey by the grace and strength God promises to those who know Him. That's how I can truly be a man of the Word -- by walking in the law of the Lord. It's only by walking the words I read in God's Word that I will truly be a man of the Word.

So please join me in seeking God's abundant help to live each day according to what we learn from His Word. After all, that is the exercise we need to grow stronger in walking God's Word.

© 2009 by Ken Peters

Lists to Live by

When we make a list, we're making note of things that matter to us -- we're listing things we'd rather not forget. And with about three-quarters of a million words in the Bible, wouldn't it be handy if God just cut to the quick sometimes and used some clear concise lists to tell us precisely what matters to Him? Well, if you haven't noticed, God does do that. From the ten commandments in Exodus 20 to the eight fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, He uses many lists throughout the Bible to highlight what He truly values!

God uses lists to tell us what we should pursue and what we should avoid. He uses lists to tell us what He requires of us as well as what we need in order to be fruitful. If God offered you a list of character traits and told you, "If these qualities are yours and are increasing, they'll keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful", would you pay attention? And what if He told you of that list that, "If you practice these qualities, you'll never fall"? That'd be an important list to have! Well, there is such a list, and others like it. And personally, I think we ought to remember what God puts on such lists, because they provide an easy way to recall what matters to Him. Let's look at a few, beginning with the shortest list, but also the most important!

Jesus lists in Matthew 22:35-40 what the two greatest commands are in all the Bible... a) Love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and b) Love your neighbour as yourself.

In 1 Timothy 6:11, we find a helpful list of what every man or woman of God should pursue...

• righteousness
• godliness
• faith
• love
• perseverance
• gentleness

Micah 6:8 provides a brief but invaluable list of what God calls "good" and what "the Lord requires of us"...

• doing justice
• loving kindness
• walking humbly with God

And Peter is the one who gives us the list of qualities that will keep us from falling! (2 Peter 1:5-9)...

• faith
• virtue
• knowledge
• self-control
• perseverance
• godliness
• kindness
• love

Those are things God values. And those are things He lists for us so that we'll be sure to notice them. Perhaps they should be on our fridge by our grocery list or in the workshop by our to-do list. And if you want to look up some other valuable lists, see Romans 14:17; 1 Corinthians 13:13; Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 5:9; Ephesians 6:13-18; Philippians 4:8; Colossians 3:12-14; 1 Timothy 4:12 and 2 Timothy 2:22.

God makes it very easy for us to see what matters to Him. Just check the lists. And be encouraged that the rich wealth of words before and after each list tell us how God provides us with all we need to live these lists every day!

© 2009 by Ken Peters

So eager to spread the Word (church bulletin cover)

As we approach Love Winnipeg, a two-week time of intentional evangelism for the church of Winnipeg, I wonder about my lifestyle for the other fifty weeks of the year. And as I do, a little verse in the book of Acts comes to mind: "Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word" (Acts 8:4).

This was no evangelistic program organized by the church. These were people running for their lives! Acts 8:3 tells us that Saul was ravaging the church, systematically dragging men and women out of their homes and throwing them in prison. Stephen was dead and Saul no doubt intended the same fate for many others. So people scattered. And in my comfort-oriented, pleasure-seeking, self-gratifying world, I think that if I were going through similar circumstances, it might be said of me and my kind, "Now those who were scattered went about keeping their heads low and out of sight!"

Is it a given that those who are threatened because of the Gospel go about telling even more people about it? Would Christians in the culture I'm a part of be just as quick to risk our lives for the Gospel? It's as though the attitude of the Christians in Acts 8 was something like, "Hey, let's tell as many people as we can before they catch us!" That's because they were so convinced of the truth of the Gospel -- so satisfied in their lives in Christ -- and so aware that this world is not our home. All this must have filled them with a desire to tell others about Jesus even as they were running for their lives!

Such a scene compels me to examine my own heart as I realize that I'm not so eager to make waves through the sharing of the Gospel. May I treasure Jesus as much as the early believers did so that I'll be found sharing the Gospel as eagerly as they did!

Why I've chosen to read the ESV

Do you want to guess what had me excited in 2008 as 2009 drew near? I had bought an ESV Study Bible (which, by the way, is an amazing resource for any student of God's Word), and I was excited about the thought of reading the English Standard Version of the Bible this year! I haven't changed the translation of the Bible I've been reading for 29 years, and was wondering if reading the Bible in a different translation would help me to catch some fresh insights. So since January 1, I've been reading the ESV.

Prior to 2009, I'd been reading the New American Standard Bible (NASB) since I was 16 years old. My parents gave me my first copy on my 16th birthday, January 24, 1980. That was the year (in early spring) I really began seeking to live for God rather than for myself, and I made good use of that new blue, bonded leather Bible. It's pretty beat up now, with a few loose pages and lots of personal notes written in the margins (some of which reflect my very first exposure to various passages). I don't suppose it would have mattered what translation I was using in those days, as long as it was English. I just loved reading God's Word, and found that God spoke to me as I did so.

We live in a time in which a multitude of wonderful English translations of the Bible are available, all of which help us to get to know God and to see His beauty as we read them. I don't care what translation you read as much as I care about whether you read one or not. The key is that we feast on God's Word in any translation rather than filling ourselves up on the the junk food of lesser things.

But that being said, I can't help but have a preference for the Bible translation I read, and to have reasons for it. The main reason for the translation I choose is the method of translation used to write it. I want a translation that shows me, as closely as possible, what the original writers wrote rather than what someone thought they meant.

There are two main methods of translating texts from one language to another: the literal method (NASB, NKJV, ESV) and the dynamic equivalent method (NIV, NLT). Simply put, the literal method translates word for word or phrase for phrase as much as possible, and the dynamic equivalent translates idea for idea or thought for thought, taking larger blocks of words at a time, translating the essence of what writers meant without worrying about the words and phrases all being as close to the original as possible. The result is that the dynamic equivalent translations are more readable while the literal translations are more stiff and wooden in their style. But another result is that the dynamic equivalent translations make ample use of paraphrase and offer far more interpretation (a text explained) than I like to see in a translation (a text in a new language). So I prefer literal translations.

But dynamic equivalent translations have proven to be enormously popular because of their readability. And that is actually the reason I chose the ESV for 2009. It's a literal translation that flows better and is more readable than the NASB. It feels as though I may have found a translation that I'll be happy with for another 29 years! As John Piper writes, "I do not claim that the ESV is without its own level of 'paraphrasing.' Some will always be necessary. And there will always be disagreements about how much is necessary. I am simply arguing that the ESV is the best balance available of readability and literalness."

So if you've been reading the same translation of the Bible for quite awhile now, I encourage you to consider a change. Look at God's Word in a fresh way with a translation you're not so used to. And if you choose to do so, consider the ESV. The ESV Study Bible is well worth the investment!

© 2009 by Ken Peters