A sad farewell. A fond farewell.

Omar Sharif has passed away, for which I feel a genuine sadness. Which is strange to me, because with all the horrible things to be sad about in this world, why would the passing of a complete stranger affect me? I think it's because of how we were introduced.

I remember feeling absolutely mesmerized as he made his entry to the film "Lawrence of Arabia." It is one of the greatest entries of a character in a movie ever filmed. Who has ever taken longer to enter a film (and I've read that David Lean wanted it even longer but was talked out of it)? 

His entry left me stunned not only because of the wonderful drama of it, but because of how gutsy it was to film for that long without a word spoken as Omar gradually grew from a speck to a fuzzy mirage to a solid form that gradually became a recognizable man. And as that man entered, he entered with a force of principle that left one man dead and another man aghast. 

But it didn't take long for Omar to shift from menace to ally to friend, until he made his exit from the film, disappearing into the darkness, in tears. 

As any of my friends know, this movie has made a significant impression on me, and I am thankful to Omar Sharif for his part in that.

© 2015 by Ken Peters

A whole lotta Good going on!

I gotta do something about this. And I gotta stop being so distracted that I rarely get around to it. I'm talking about something good. Something really good. There I was earlier today, unsuspectingly reading God's book (forgetting that His Word is living and active and changes those who look for God's truth in it), and then I read this familiar verse: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!" (Romans 10:15, NASB). Another translation says "glad tidings of good things" (NKJV). And suddenly I felt kind of excited. The wording made me feel like I'd found something that was good-squared – something exceptionally good – something impossible to overstate! And then I thought, Hey, that means I know something good that's meant to make people happy, and I'm not telling anybody! I mean, I haven't for awhile anyway. Why would I not tell people the happy news about the good things God has done?! And why would I not be happier about it myself so that people could tell I knew about something really good that's happened?

That phrase quoted above (from Romans 10:15) is referring to what the earlier part of the same verse calls "the gospel of peace." Peace with God, peace in our hearts, peace for eternity! Is it possible for Christians to be so familiar with this stuff that it doesn't make us glad anymore? "Gospel" means good news, so it'd be accurate to say that those "beautiful feet" of Romans 10:15 are meant to bring a Gospel of Good Things – things like the very same things I listed in a previous blog post that I don't mind listing here as well. Because these truths are exactly what God means by the good things that are meant to make us genuinely happy – so much so that people will want to hear all about it!...

1. God makes us His people and puts His words in our hearts (Jer. 31:33; 1 Pet. 2:9).
2. We are born again, as new creations (John 3:3; 2 Cor. 5:17).
3. God reveals His mysteries to us, hidden from ages past (Col.1:26).
4. God is for us (Romans 8:31)!
5. God forgives all our sins, and declares us to be holy, blameless and beyond reproach (Eph. 1:7-8; Heb. 9:14-15; Col. 1:22).
6. We can enjoy God's abundant grace (Rom. 5:15, 17, 20-21; Eph. 2:7)
7. God fills us with His love so that we can love others with His love (1 John 4:7-12).
8. God fills us with His joy (John 15:11).
9. God fills us with His peace (John 14:27; Phil. 4:7).
10. God gives us heavenly wisdom (James 1:5; 3:17).
11. We have direct access to God rather than through a mediator (Heb. 4:14-16).
12. God invites us to ask of Him in Jesus' name like never before (John 16:23-24).
13. Nothing can separate us from God (Romans 8:35).
14. Jesus becomes our friend as He becomes our Lord (John 15:15).
15. God's Holy Spirit lives in us to comfort, guide and strengthen us (John 14:26; Acts 1:8; Gal. 5:16, 22-23).
16. We are seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6).
17. We are children of God and co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:15-17).
18. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph. 1:3).
19. We're given everything pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
20. God sanctifies us by helping us to grow mature (2 Thess. 2:13).
21. God gives each of us spiritual gifts for works of service (Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:7).
22. God prepares good works for us to do for Him (Eph. 2:10).
23. We are included on a mission of eternal significance (Matt. 28:18-20; John 20:21; Acts 1:8).
24. We become God's partners in His work (1 Cor. 3:9).
25. We will live with Jesus for eternity (John 14:1-4)!

Good news of good things!


© 2015 by Ken Peters

Unpacking 83 words from Paul

I was about to read Ephesians 1 for the umpteenth time and I never got past verse 10! What’s up with that? It’s because I was mesmerized by one of the Apostle Paul’s uber-long sentences in verses 7-10.

In the ESV and NKJV (two highly literal translations), those four verses are an 83-word sentence. A study quoted on onlinegrammar.com stated that:
When the average sentence length was fewer than eight words, readers understood 100 percent of the story. Even at nine to 14 words, readers could understand more than 90 percent of the information. But move up to 43-word sentences, and comprehension dropped to less than 10 percent.

Martin Cutts, in his Oxford Guide To Plain English, suggests that writers should maintain an average sentence length of 15-20 words in order to improve readability. So perhaps this is why my brain was stalling on Paul’s 83-word sentence!

But that wasn’t even what got my attention. What stopped me in my tracks were some key words I kept seeing over and over. In those four verses, there are ten personal pronouns in reference to God, plus a direct reference to “Christ” (in the NKJV). Compare that to just 3 personal pronouns in reference to people. In other words, this is what got my attention:

Him, we, His, His, He, us, us, His, His, He, Himself, He, Christ, Him

So even though Paul’s meaning wasn’t immediately clear to me as I first read this marathon sentence rather quickly, it was almost like his repetition of those words was causing an important impression to grow in my sub-conscious: …Ken, this is about HIM… not you.

Then when I looked back, I noticed something else that added to that impression…

• Things Paul mentioned that God is doing or will do: 5… redemption, forgiveness, made His grace abound toward us, made known the mystery of His will, gather all things in Him.
• Things Paul mentioned that we are to do: Zero.
• Attributes of God mentioned: 3… grace, wisdom, prudence.
• Our qualifications mentioned: Zero.

The essence of Paul's 83-word sentence was getting clearer and clearer as the impression became a message in my mind: Get my eyes onto God and off of me!

That is so helpful! In other words, if this sentence was a painting, one could say that we would appear as very small but very strategically placed under a massive waterfall of God’s infinite grace and wisdom that dominated the scene and sent saturating showers of God’s blessing into the atmosphere all around!

With all this in mind, if I were to now paraphrase this sentence in about half as many words as Paul used, I would write:

God has pulled the curtain open to reveal a wondrous scene: a magnificent and powerful waterfall of His glorious grace and wisdom are washing away all the sins of a people He has redeemed through Jesus so that we can be with Him forever and ever!

Lord, may I always remain and live in the embrace of the endless waterfall of Your grace!

© 2015 by Ken Peters

Just a Momentary Glance

Written after unexpectedly, and for the first time since the surgery, walking past the open doors to the ward on which my wife, Fiona, recovered from a kidney transplant four months ago...

Just a momentary glance,

And a million memories flood my mind.

I stop and stare

Down a never-ending hallway,

And yet the door at the end

Is all I see before me.

A door to a room

In which everything changed.

It is where it all ended.

It is where it all began.

Just a momentary glance,

And the tears well up.

People moving all about,

And I think of those who cared so very much.

Too many people to recall,

But one who is so easy to remember

Who gave all that he was able.

And it was enough.

It provided a brand new day

After such a long, long night.

Just a momentary glance,

And I'm filled with gratitude,

As I remember a never-ending saga

With a brand new beginning

That washes over every other thought.

A new life.

A new kidney.

New hope.

I stop and consider,

And thank the One who did the most.

© 2015 by Ken Peters

Pithometer / pith’-ō-mē-tər / (n) : an instrument for assessing pithy remarks. Today’s remark: “You're so heavenly-minded that you're no earthly good.”

I've never been accused of being too heavenly-minded, ...and that's a shame. 

Don't get me wrong. I don't say that because I don't want to be any earthly good. It's just that I simply don't believe that it'd be a bad thing if I was more heavenly-minded, or that being more earthly-minded would make me any more relevant in this world.

Sure, being earthly-minded can help us to be better aware of the needs all around us and of how we can respond to those needs in order to help others. But there's another way of being earthly-minded that's probably more common and certainly more dangerous that can leave us paralyzed with self-analysis and crippled with guilt.

In the Apostle Paul's letter to the Colossians, Paul addressed earthly-mindedness when he referred to a performance-based "Do this! Do not do this!" approach to life (Colossians 2:21), and he warned the Colossians that it would rob them of their reward of a rich life in Christ (Col. 2:16-19). I feel continually vulnerable to this way of thinking as I regularly worry about whether I'm doing "well enough" at life. The accusations of the devil seem constant, leaving me unsatisfied with whatever I may or may not be doing at any given time and always wondering if I'm meeting some earthly standards at being any earthly good. This earthly-minded focus on myself and on my internal performance ratings inevitably robs me of the joy that God wants us to experience as we live for Him in this world. So much for earthly-mindedness being helpful!

Paul's advice? He recommended that those who want to be any "earthly good" need to be so heavenly-minded that we see ourselves as residents of heaven! Paul wanted his readers to die to the kind of earthly-mindedness that focused on the do's and don'ts of personal performance so that they could then live with a more fully heavenly perspective. Paul wrote: "Therefore, if you have died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to... the commandments and doctrines of men?" (Col. 2:20).

Paul actually writes, "...as though [you were] living in the world..." as though he thought we weren't! It's as if he doesn't believe we live on this planet, but live in heaven already. Talk about being heavenly-minded! Paul's attitude was that it's earthly-mindedness that we need to be on guard against, and that it's heavenly-mindedness that will make us useful in this world. Paul goes on to say that we need to "seek those things which are above, where Christ is" and to "set our mind on things above, not on things on the earth" (Col. 3:1-2). "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3). Only then will we be able to grow in the godly Christian character Paul goes on to describe and to be the heavenly salt and light we're called to be in this world.

When my mind is fixed on Jesus in heavenly places, and on all He has accomplished for us as the exalted King of kings -- meaning I'm spending time seeking Him in prayer and in His Word every day -- I'll be much more effective at expressing His goodness to others! And I'll be a much more cheerful person as I ignore the earth-bound, self-oriented, performance-based, guilt-ridden legalism that seeks to devour my joy and rob me of the heavenly-mindedness that God wants me sharing with everyone around me.

© 2015 by Ken Peters

Getting in on the Glory!

Picture a ramshackle gold rush town full of down-on-their-luck prospectors, and there's you, sitting alone at the saloon, depressed at the little you have to show for all your efforts. Inwardly, you're kicking yourself for being such a fool who would think that little ol' you would be one of the few who would strike it rich. Then all of a sudden, in a burst of whoopin' and hollerin', in comes the guy who started it all -- the man who long ago found the first vein of gold in these hills -- and now he's shouting something about a new deposit and about there being enough for everyone! And he walks straight over to you, plops himself onto a stool next to you and says, "Hey! How 'bout I grant you a share of my riches?" You're speechless. You stare back at him. He laughs and says, "I'm serious! Out of all the riches of my claim, I want you to have a share!"

Now fast-forward to today, and picture you or me sitting alone on a couch brooding over a stew of self-recriminating thoughts, and getting discouraged at some character flaw or some circumstance that we feel defeated by. Then all of a sudden, the door flies open with a burst of light and in walks the resurrected Jesus! And He walks right over to you, plops Himself onto the couch next to you and with a big grin says, "Hey! How 'bout I grant that you, according to the riches of My glory, be strengthened with power from the Holy Spirit living in you, so that I can keep you rooted and grounded in My love? Hey?! How about that?! I grant that you should have some of the riches of My glory!"

That's Ephesians 3:16. God wants to grant wonderful things to us from the great wealth of His glory! It's like if I had a billion dollars, and said that according to the riches in my bank account, I want to grant you a few things, then you'd be correct in understanding that you just got in on the riches of my bank account. And God wants to remind us that according to the riches of His glory, He wants to grant us the strength and grounding that comes when Christ dwells in our hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17). That means we're getting in on the riches of His glory!

That encourages me. It excites me. It's meant to get us up off that couch -- or out of that saloon -- and celebrating in the streets! God is sharing the claim He made at Golgotha with me! New life is mine! I have strength from God because of His Spirit living in me! I'm rooted and grounded in Jesus, never to be uprooted by anything or anyone ever again (Eph. 3:16-17)! And now I can actually begin to comprehend -- with all the saints -- what is the width and length and depth and height of the amazing love of Jesus, which is beyond complete understanding (Eph. 3:18-19)! 

There's no greater gift that could be given to us! As God grants us gifts from His infinite glory, we are "filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19)! Let that lift us from any temptation to feel down on our luck!

© 2015 by Ken Peters

New Covenant Drama

As a young boy, I was always fascinated with the painting of the Last Supper that was hung on a wall at the First Baptist Church of Royal Oak. I remember that I used to sometimes stand and stare at it for quite a while. There were so many expressions, so many gestures, and then there was that terrible Judas selfishly clutching his money bag. I was very concerned about that. The whole scene seemed so dramatic. And so it was.

But later in life, as I read the story in the Gospels, it seemed dramatic for a different reason. Amidst all those expressions and gestures, Jesus said something earth-shattering as he served the Passover meal: "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood" (Luke 22:20). A new covenant? What did that mean to his Jewish disciples 1,300 long years after the old Mosaic covenant had been established by God at Mount Sinai? A "new covenant" with God meant that something dramatic was happening before their very eyes!

Jeremiah had spoken of this day over 600 years earlier when he wrote, "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah" (Jeremiah 31:31). What does this "new covenant" with God mean? I invite you to quickly read through this list of some of the many treasures God intends for us to enjoy in this "new covenant" each and every day! It will encourage your spirit.

1. God makes us His people and puts His words in our hearts (Jer. 31:33; 1 Pet. 2:9).
2. We are born again, as new creations (John 3:3; 2 Cor. 5:17).
3. God reveals His mysteries to us, hidden from ages past (Col.1:26).
4. God is for us (Romans 8:31)!
5. God forgives all our sins, and declares us to be holy, blameless and beyond reproach (Eph. 1:7-8; Heb. 9:14-15; Col. 1:22).
6. We can enjoy God's abundant grace (Rom. 5:15, 17, 20-21; Eph. 2:7)
7. God fills us with His love so that we can love others with His love (1 John 4:7-12).
8. God fills us with His joy (John 15:11).
9. God fills us with His peace (John 14:27; Phil. 4:7).
10. God gives us heavenly wisdom (James 1:5; 3:17).
11. We have direct access to God rather than through a mediator (Heb. 4:14-16).
12. God invites us to ask of Him in Jesus' name like never before (John 16:23-24).
13. Nothing can separate us from God (Romans 8:35).
14. Jesus becomes our friend as He becomes our Lord (John 15:15).
15. God's Holy Spirit lives in us to comfort, guide and strengthen us (John 14:26; Acts 1:8; Gal. 5:16, 22-23).
16. We are seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6).
17. We are children of God and co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:15-17).
18. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph. 1:3).
19. We're given everything pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
20. God sanctifies us by helping us to grow mature (2 Thess. 2:13).
21. God gives each of us spiritual gifts for works of service (Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:7).
22. God prepares good works for us to do for Him (Eph. 2:10).
23. We are included on a mission of eternal significance (Matt. 28:18-20; John 20:21; Acts 1:8).
24. We become God's partners in His work (1 Cor. 3:9).
25. We will live with Jesus for eternity (John 14:1-4)!

We're meant to enjoy every promise on that list every day. And that is just the beginning of all that we can enjoy in God's new covenant with us!

© 2015 by Ken Peters

Encouraging Contrasts on Palm Sunday

Imagine "a very great multitude." Imagine the mixture. Imagine the variety. Imagine the riff raff. This is how the New King James Version describes the crowd that assembled for Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem: "a very great multitude" (Matthew 21:8). A mass of people.

I don't want to stretch things too far in how I imagine this crowd, but I'm inclined to believe that this wasn't an overly orderly scene, and that this wasn't a mob that had time to spruce themselves up for the occasion. I expect there were people in ragged, dirty robes, some with dirty faces from a hard day's work, and even some body odour amidst those congested conditions. I'm imagining a chaotic scene, but with Someone serene at the centre of it all: an unruffled and unwavering Jesus, riding on a donkey into the purposes of God.

But that's not all. This crush of people was a bunch of sinners. Surely with so many there, many not even knowing why as they asked others, "Who is this?" (Matthew 21:10), there must have been sinners in the crowd. Selfish people, mean people, dishonest people, proud people. I'm sure of it.

Imagining that, I can't help but be struck by that contrast. Here's the morally unblemished Jesus working his way through an adulating crowd that is filled with moral failure. Holiness surrounded by haughtiness. For despite the excited hosannas, this is a people who are destined for such a dreadful judgment that it caused Jesus to weep as He drew near to the city saying, "If you had known... the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will... close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground" (Luke 19:41-44). 

And yet, Jesus is undaunted. He presses through, accepting their praises and pursuing their salvation. As perfect as He is, He's not put off by their dirty robes or faces, nor deterred by their sinful hearts. He presses through that multitude because they are the harassed and the helpless He wants to save. That gentle Jesus on a donkey had no plans to stop until He reached the cross!

But that's not the only contrast that occurs to me as I imagine Jesus riding through this swarming crowd. This Jesus on a donkey is the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 who plans to suffer and give His life for us. But the next time we see Him riding, we're invited to imagine the heavens opening "and behold, a white horse! And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True" (Revelation 19:11)!

Praise God that the same Jesus who died for the masses to which we belong, rose victorious and now reigns as the "King of kings and Lord of lords" (Rev. 19:16)! And He invites us to join "a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, people and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'" (Rev. 7:9-10).

As we open the gates of our hearts to the Saviour who rode on that donkey, we have the privilege of following a great and mighty Lord who will one day gather us all to Himself as He comes to us riding a white horse with the armies of heaven!

© 2015 by Ken Peters

The Ultimate at Hide & Seek

Jesus has got to be the best there is at Hide and Seek. I'm not kidding. I've always been intrigued by the many instances in which He commanded people who had been healed by Him to "tell no one." I mean, what was He thinking? How could you expect a leper who had just been healed to keep quiet about it? Such a miracle would open the door for him to return to his family, to hold his children and to see his friends again! Yet Jesus said, "Tell no one" (Luke 5:14). Or how could you expect the parents of a child whom Jesus has raised from the dead to be silent? Their friends knew their daughter had died, and Jesus had just asked many of them to leave the house in which they were mourning the child's death. Doesn't Jesus realize that these people will see the child alive very soon? And yet He "charged them to tell no one what had happened" (Luke 8:56).

Whatever Jesus' reasons for giving such commands (which were frequently ignored, as is very clear in Mark 7:36), we can certainly learn one thing from these stories about Jesus: He doesn't seem to mind being hard to find. He liked to keep a low profile even as He went about doing exceptional things. And I think He's still doing the same thing today, though for different reasons. 

When was the last time you wondered, "God, where are you?" Have you ever asked that? The psalmists did. Such as in Psalm 10, which begins with, "Why do you stand afar off, O LORD? Why do you hide in times of trouble?" And yet, God is often doing exceptional works of grace in our lives in the very same seasons we find ourselves asking God that question. When He walked this earth, Jesus tended to avoid publicity so that people couldn't coerce Him to do what He wasn't prepared to do, such as to take up an earthly throne. And now that He lives in our hearts, Jesus sometimes prevents us from seeing what He's doing in our lives so that we can learn to trust Him no matter what, which is what is truly necessary for Him to be on the throne of our hearts!

We can see that He hides, but Jesus also likes to seek. In fact, the very reason He came to earth as a man was "to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). The very same Lord and Saviour who chooses to hide His face from us in times of adversity, testing our hearts and growing our faith, is continuously seeking us, interceding for us (Romans 8:34) and rescuing us when we get lost (Luke 15:4). That should assure our hearts that we won't get lost amidst the trials we face, or miss God's purposes despite our inability to see all that's He's up to. For though God may sometimes choose to hide Himself from us, His thoughts and ways being so much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9), we can be sure that He will also continually seek after us to make sure we don't lose our way. 

Yes, Jesus is the ultimate at Hide & Seek. He hides from us to grow our faith, and He seeks after us to make sure our faith finds Him!

© 2015 by Ken Peters

Look for the Cross

Lately I've been increasingly aware of old long-standing lies that are competing for space in my heart with precious Biblical truths that I've also long believed. When the lies get loud enough, I find myself having to ask, what is it I'm going to believe? What am I going to accept as the truth in my life?

When this battle gets fierce -- and I know it is when the lies get loud enough to feel extremely convincing -- there's only one way to be sure of what the truth is: Look for the cross. That's because the cross marks the spot where God showed us the truth about Himself and about His relationship with us. You want to know God who God is? Do you want to know what He thinks of you? Look for the cross. Look at Jesus on the cross: the Lamb of who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)!

Jesus is the "exact representation" of God's nature (Hebrews 1:3), and that is why He could confidently say of Himself, "I am the truth" (John 14:6). Jesus is where we find the truth, and Jesus on the cross is the greatest expression of the truth Jesus came to reveal. The Apostle John described Jesus' coming by writing, "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). The glory John saw is the same glory Moses was given the privilege of seeing when He asked God, "Please, show me Your glory!" (Exodus 33:18). And when God's glory passed by Moses, the declaration Moses heard was, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth" (Exodus 34:6)!

There it is again: Truth, mingled with mercy and grace -- which is the very same glory that Jesus expressed on the cross. The cross is the most profound picture of God's mercy and compassion that the world will ever see. In His perfect representation of God, Jesus took what was privately revealed on a mountaintop to make it a public proclamation on a humble hill outside Jerusalem. God's Truth, the incarnate Word of God, hung on the cross to express the truth of who He really is and of what He really thinks of us. 

We hear from that cross the forgiveness that each one of us needs to hear as Jesus even forgave those who put Him there (Luke 23:34). We sense the assurance of His love as He says to the thief who acknowledges Jesus' Lordship in his final hours of life, "Today you shall be with Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). And we rejoice in the finality of what He accomplished for us, leaving nothing for us to do to earn the love His sacrifice expressed, as he shouted, "It is finished!" (John 19:30). That is the truth I choose to embrace. And the cross marks the spot where that truth was most emphatically declared.

© 2015 by Ken Peters