Coming to a Complete Stop

Recently, I got a rather expensive traffic ticket. It had been nearly a decade since I’d last received a ticket of any kind, and on that occasion, it had come with such a clear word from the Lord, that I literally received it with rejoicing! So I was keen to discern whether or not God was again trying to get my attention through His servants of the law enforcement community.

The ticket was at an intersection I typically drive through 4-6 times a day, and I have never previously seen the police monitoring that intersection (and never since). But on that day they were watching, and I was nabbed for failing to come to a complete stop at a 4-way stop sign. I slowed down, but I was in such a hurry that I rolled through without bothering to stop.

It didn’t take much thought to connect this experience with what I had already been feeling rather convicted about lately. My desire is to spend devotional time with the Lord every day. But life is busy, and though the needs I deal with require the wisdom and grace of God, I must confess that I’ve neglected my devotional time with God amidst the many needs that come my way. This is the opposite of what Jesus did. Luke 5:15 tells us that as “news about Him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses”, verse 16 says “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

Jesus was in far greater demand than I am, and yet He still found time to spend with His Father. And if the Son of God needs time in prayer to cope with the pressing demands of life, I most certainly do! But this fall, in the midst of much busyness and much weariness, I had fallen well behind in my Bible-reading schedule and was praying on-the-fly more often than withdrawing to a lonely (or quiet) place to pray. In other words, rather than stopping to pray, I was rolling through my prayer times as I hurried on with my Many Important Activities. And though I knew God was trying to get my attention regarding all this, I busily carried on, planning to do something about it next week.

I’ve heard Barney Coombs say that if God really wants to get your attention, he’ll touch your pocketbook. And it’s extremely wise to pay attention the first time He does this, or it can get costly! It seems, God felt this was important enough to touch my pocketbook. So I’ve had some great times with God lately and hope to do so every day. While so many situations around me continue to seem urgent, I can’t afford (both financially and spiritually!) to get involved in them without the wisdom and grace that comes from spending quality time with God. Jesus thought so. I’m obviously still figuring that out!

© 2008 by Ken Peters

The Power of Pie

Thanksgiving is a day of celebrating our gratitude by feasting on the blessings we're thankful for. Nothing wrong with that, so long as we remember to also make time in our lives for those who have very little, and share our blessings with them. But the fact that there are people in need in this world is certainly not a reason to decry our enjoyment of God's wonderful gifts to us. God wants us to enjoy His blessings, and He wants that enjoyment to give us increased joy in Him, and He also wants that joy to spill over to bless others as we share His blessings with people around us.

For me, the part of Thanksgiving that best accomplishes all that is pecan pie. Yes, pecan pie. I love pecan pie. It's delicious. It's delectable. Give me a pie and a fork, and that's all I need. My thoughts will turn heavenward with every bite. And it just so happens that my wife Fiona makes the best pecan pie on the planet. She tends to bake it at Christmas, on my birthday and at Thanksgiving. This Thanksgiving, she's made three pecan pies! Three pecan pies! What a perfect opportunity this provides for overflowing joy in God! Think of it... Fiona gets to share something of incomparable taste with me... I get to feast on the blessing of many pieces... my joy in the One who has given us the wonder of pecan pies increases by the mouthful... and with three mouth-watering pies, I have an abundance to share with others, thereby increasing both my joy and the joy of others! It's the power of pie -- pecan pie! Such delicacies in life are meant to be God-given pointers to our Father in heaven, in whom we can find far more delight than in any earthly feast and who provides us with such feasts as mere tastes of His eternal and infinite love for us. I want to remember that as I fill my face this Thanksgiving. Just as I also want to remember the people in this world I'm meant to share God's blessings with -- people who don't know how much God loves them. The blessings on which we feast taste best when shared with those who've never tasted them!

Oh, and there's gotta be a lot of whipped cream on pecan pie. Each piece has got to be smothered in whipped cream.

© 2008 by Ken Peters

A prize for the 500th visit!

It's been 161 days since I started this blog on April 28 of this year. And just this morning, someone dropped by for the overall 500th visit to this blog! No, it wasn't that particular person's 500th visit and nor was he the 500th visitor -- but his arrival to the blog marked the 500th time someone had checked out "The View from Here. " So to celebrate, I'm giving away a prize!

I'm pleased to announce that the prize for the 500th visit goes to my dear Dad! And the prize is a copy of the book "Pierced by the Word" by John Piper.

I can assure you that my Dad had no inside information regarding this prize. I had told absolutely no one about any prize or even that the blog was approaching this milestone. But it does seem a happy coincidence that my Dad's 74th birthday just happens to be tomorrow, October 6! It looks to me like God simply wanted to bless my Dad on this special occasion. Happy birthday, Dad! The book will be in the mail tomorrow.

© 2008 by Ken Peters

A memorable visitor

This past Saturday afternoon, I was reading Luke 1-2 as part of my regular devotional time with God, and I found myself freshly impacted by the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth. I always find it a bit startling as the angel Gabriel appears and says, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son..." (Luke 1:13). It's startling to me because I assume that Zechariah and Elizabeth had stopped praying that prayer a long time ago. Verse seven tells us that "Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well along in years." In other words, old -- too old to have kids. And then along comes this angel promising a son, with no reference to why this answer to their prayers had taken so long. To God, it seems, the time-delay is irrelevant. What matters is God's timing, and this is God's time for the answer. But to us, who sometimes struggle with unanswered prayers in our lives, such lengthy seasons of unanswered prayer can be difficult, and I expect Zechariah and Elizabeth must have felt that way. Judging by what Gabriel said to them -- "Your prayer has been heard" -- they may have wondered if God had even been listening to their prayers. And I know from personal experience that it's also a temptation to wonder if you've prayed enough -- maybe God hasn't healed Fiona because we haven't been persistent enough or haven't prayed with enough faith. Or maybe I'm just not good enough for God to bother with my prayers! It's amazing where your mind can go as heartfelt prayers remain unanswered. But this passage shows us how unanswered prayers can have very little to do with whether or not we're "good enough"! Verse six says of Zechariah and Elizabeth, "Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly." That's high praise for a couple that happened to be barren and might have wondered if God was displeased with them. But in fact, God was very pleased with them, and He had heard their prayers, and was now answering them according to His timetable. But as I finished reading Luke 1-2, I found myself asking God, "Have you heard my prayers, Lord? My prayers for Fiona?"

Later that day, in the early evening, I walked into our bedroom, and there on the window sill of the window just beside Fiona's dialysis machine, was what appeared to be a dove (see picture above). I stopped in my tracks and called Fiona, and the kids came in closely after her. We were all amazed. We had never seen a pigeon or a dove in our neighbourhood before, let alone one with such striking colour on its wings. The dove was aware of us in the room, but didn't seem disturbed. It didn't even mind as we edged closer and closer to the window. Fiona and the kids eventually got right up to the glass in order to see its features more closely, and it just looked at them, unconcerned at their proximity.

Later, at bedtime, it was still there. We moved to and fro getting ready for bed, and it remained on the sill, calmly watching us. And even when Fiona pulled down the blind on that window, it wasn't frightened away. In fact, it stayed there all through the night. Every so often, Fiona would wake up and would hear its little feet pitter-pattering on the sill and as she would peek out at it, the dove would casually turn and look at her. And in the morning, when we eventually opened the blind again, there it was, still keeping us company. And just minutes before we left for church, I went back up to our room to get something, and it was no longer on the sill. But as I looked through the window from across our room, I could see the dove sitting on our neighbour's roof still staring back at me. That was the last I saw of it.

Later that day, I wondered again about our little visitor, and I wondered if God had sent that bird. I then thought that it would seem more like a God-thing if I happened to read about a dove in my regular Bible-reading schedule. Unfortunately, I didn't give that another thought and didn't even get around to reading my Bible that day!

The next morning, I opened to Luke 3 as I was reading my Bible. I was oblivious to what I was about to read, and I wasn't even considering what had happened on Saturday as I began reading about John the Baptist. But as I got to Jesus' baptism, and the dove came fluttering down from heaven, my head shot up and I stared out at the sky for what seemed a long time. What just happened, I wondered. And as I connected the dots from the Father's affirmation of His Son at His baptism to the dove on Fiona's window sill to the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth and all their supposed struggles with years of unanswered prayer, I was in awe. It seemed to me that God was saying, "Yes, I have heard your prayers." And if that assuring message is even more like the one delivered to Zechariah, that could mean He also intends to answer our prayers.

I'm no closer to knowing what God will do or when He will do it, but it does seem to me that He sent us a visitor so that we would know He is with us, and that He hears and cares about the many prayers we've prayed for Fiona. I'd like to believe that dove was also meant to assure us that He will answer our prayers for healing, but I need to leave that with God, trusting that whatever He does, whenever He does it, is good and acceptable and perfect. And I thank God for the beautiful way in which He sent us such a message!

© 2008 by Ken Peters

The Value of Numbers

Numbers can be numbing. But we’re battered with them everyday. Polls and percentages, stats and stocks, discounts and death tolls – it’s all coming at us in every form of media available. It’s no wonder people switch off when they hear the latest estimates of a famine or a bomb blast. It’s the downside of an IT culture in which so much information is available that we can’t possibly absorb it all, let alone give a considered response.

And yet I think there’s value in knowing what’s going on. As a Christian who believes that Christ has called His people to share the Gospel with every people group on the planet, I find numbers helpful. I think it’s worth knowing that there are about 16,314 people groups in the world and that about 6,739 of those are still considered unreached with the Gospel (that’s about 41.3%). Now depending on whether you’re a glass half-full or glass half-empty person, you could find that encouraging – about 59% of the world’s ethnic groups have a viable Christian church already among them, and essentially two-thirds of those groups are considered primarily Christian! In fact, of the world’s 236 countries, 169 (or 72%) are Christian-majority countries. And isn’t it encouraging to know that over 95% of the world’s population has the Bible, Bible-portions, the Jesus film, gospel radio, or gospel recordings available in their language (4,334 out of 6,516 languages)?

I could throw around so many more numbers that you’d have to be a real stats junkie to keep reading. If you want more like that, Joshua Project is a great place to go. But it doesn’t take long before all those numbers begin to feel overwhelming – or like some kind of artificial reality. After all, a number doesn’t move us the way a real person does. A number is data that informs our mind, but a face is a neighbor that touches our heart. That’s why it is known among aid agencies that the calamities that draw the television cameras will get far more dollars than more serious tragedies that are merely reported in print.

Though I understand why this would be, I still believe that numbers have great value in helping us to understand the state of the world. Do you know how many people are on this planet? Do you care to know how many of those people still have no Christian witness living among them? Or do you want to know how many people in this modern world still live without safe drinking water, or how many kids in Sudan have no access to a school? Such numbers shouldn’t be used to appeal to a sense of guilt, but rather to stir our interest. Figures can feed passions, and depending on what our passions are, some numbers will interest us more than others. But the point is, know what God has given you passion for and know the numbers that will feed that passion. Don’t go numb to all the numbers coming at you just because there are so many. Look for the ones that matter to you. That’s why I’ve inserted a population counter just above the news headlines in the left margin of this blog. And that’s why you’ll also find a live stat-counter regarding all kinds of concerns at the bottom of this blog (just scroll down to view it).

But the million dollar question is, What good are such numbers – even the ones that pertain to our passions – if we aren’t going to do anything about them? The danger, of course, is that if all we do is read the data and do nothing with it, we will become bloated with facts and calloused to the plights of the people they represent. We’ve got to act! Ezekiel 16:49 says that the sin of God’s people was that they were “arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” I live in a land of physical and spiritual abundance, and that leaves me feeling vulnerable to the same thing being said of me! And it is for that reason that numbers matter to me. Numbers like how many are in need, how many are unreached, how much money do I earn, how much can I share? I can’t respond to all the numbers – and nor am I expected to – but I can do something about the numbers that tally the things God has given me passion for. And that is why there is great value in numbers.

© 2008 by Ken Peters

Seeing God in it All

Many people are reading the news these days and asking, “How bad are things going to get?!” Well, whatever the answer, my conviction is that whatever is happening in this world, both now and throughout history, on either a personal or societal level, God 's purpose is to magnify Himself and make Himself known. I believe that because of how much I see that to be the case in the Bible. Quite recently, I was reading Ezekiel 38, which happens to be an intense battle scene. It's an event far more serious than today's news headlines. Gog of Magog and a vast army of many peoples “like a cloud covering the land” (38:9) are advancing “like a storm” (38:9) on God’s people, intent on destroying them. What could be a worse scenario for Israel? Isn’t this the kind of global scene that would cause a person at risk to wonder where God is or to question God’s faithfulness and to flip out with anxiety? Though more serious, it has the same feel of the financial storm that many people today see approaching (if they don’t feel it’s already come upon them). The picture Ezekiel describes in chapter 38 is one of imminent disaster, of impending doom, much like many news headlines today.

Enter God. In fact, God has been in the picture all along. It is God who actually gathers that vast army from Magog to stand against His own people (38:16). And when the battle is over, it says that all those troops and peoples will be strewn on the mountainsides, food for the beasts and the birds (39:4). God says in Ezekiel 38:23 that all of that tension and catastrophe will be to magnify Himself, to set Himself apart and make His name known in the sight of many nations! Wow. Why such extreme measures? Many people suffer in a scene like that. But God’s view is that wherever there are those who put their trust in something other than Himself, like Prince Gog of old, those lesser things must be shaken, and if necessary, struck down, for God will not share His glory with another.

So how then should we view the troubles we face in these days? Is God uninvolved in the turmoil of Wall Street or Bay Street? Or is He allowing things to escalate until all will clearly see where we ought to put our trust and who ought to be our God? God will allow enemies to advance in our lives, and He will allow pressures to build, with the ultimate intent of magnifying Himself above everything else in our lives! He wants to do that in each of our hearts, but as we see in Ezekiel, will sometimes do so on a wider scale so that all will see that God “is the Lord” (38:23).

My desire is that this realization of what God was up to in Ezekiel 38-39 will spill over into my perception of 2008. God is worthy of all glory, and is robbed of glory when anything becomes so important to me that when it is shaken, I lose my trust in God. So my response to the news these days is to magnify God – to trust and depend on Him through it all – before He needs to take desperate measures to make sure He is magnified in my life.

© 2008 by Ken Peters

Has your day ever started like this?

I tend to feel better if I avoid caffeine -- it makes me feel like an electric current is coursing through my veins -- but this commercial is still a personal favourite of mine. ...Though I think it should've been called "Ken" instead of "Glen" in memory of the years I worked in the credit and revenue accounting offices at Reimer Express. There were days when I would have appreciated the guys in this video. Check it out!



© 2008 by Ken Peters

Lord of Everything (church bulletin cover)

The world sometimes seems out of control. Stock markets are in turmoil... people in countries like Haiti and Burma starve at the hands of oppressive regimes... terrorists bomb markets full of innocent people… the list can go on and on. And then one can add personal challenges to the list — a serious health issue, a relationship in trouble, a vehicle breaks down. Life begins to feel like the perfect storm.

Last week, Stanley Mehta preached at Gateway on Jesus and His disciples crossing the sea amidst a serious storm. It was so bad, the disciples thought they would drown. Perhaps some of us felt similarly overwhelmed this week as we read some of the news headlines. Yet as chaotic as things seemed in the storm of Matthew 8:24, it says in the same verse that Jesus was asleep. Is Jesus equally calm amidst the storms of September 2008? I think He is. As the disciples woke Jesus while waves were crashing into their boat, Jesus’ immediate response was to challenge their lack of faith in the midst of the storm. He then rebuked the storm so that “it became perfectly calm” (v.26). Fear turned to amazement. As one of the disciples aboard that boat, Matthew writes this account in a chapter packed with other miracles-stories. The disciples had just seen Jesus heal a leper and a centurion’s servant, as well as Peter’s mother-in-law. And now they discover that He is even Lord of the elements! Then, when they come ashore, Jesus delivers a demoniac. But not before the demons asked if Jesus had come to torment them “before the time” (Matt. 8:29). This is significant because their question revealed the truth that Jesus even had authority over the times in which we live and the times to come. This brief chapter essentially tells us that Jesus is Lord of everything!

If that is true, then we can know that the world is not out of control. Jesus, who is clearly Lord of all creation, is Lord in all of Matthew 8 as well as Lord of all September 2008. Why then should my faith be small in days of turmoil? Everything must obey Jesus, and He has invited us to call out to Him in time of need. Seas, wind, sickness, demons, nations, commerce -- it must all obey the Lord of creation. And I’d be wise to obey Him as well, by putting my faith in Him in every situation I face in this uncertain world. Only then will I be able to have confidence amidst a world that seems out of control!

© 2008 by Ken Peters

When God lets the Pressure Mount

Pressure in life is to be expected. Especially amidst the hectic lives we lead in a fast-paced society. But sometimes, pressures can become overwhelming, and while I was in Sudan last month, God helped me in how I view such situations. From our very first day in Sudan, we were faced with the pressures of unexpected expenses and big uncertainties about our tomorrows. We were flying into a town packed with displaced people due to flooding in the surrounding areas, where hotel rates were set at NGO-levels of $150-per-person-per-night, and where we had no one to pick us up at the airport and no affordable accommodations arranged. For our first eight hours in that town, I had no idea where we would actually spend the night as we shuffled from one shady spot to another in search of something affordable. But God spoke to me on the very flight that took us to that town, and He assured me that whatever happened on this trip… it was Him. Yes, that’s what I felt He actually said: “Whatever happens on this trip is of My making.” That gave me a whole lot of peace amidst a whole lot of uncertainty for much of our time there.

Not long after leaving Sudan, I wondered why I didn’t always seem to live with that same sense of peace amidst pressures in Winnipeg. And I remembered something God had shown me from King Saul’s life just a few months ago. I’m thinking of the story in 1 Samuel 13 in which Samuel tells Saul that the kingdom will be taken from him due to Saul’s disobedience. I realize that King Saul got things all wrong in that story, but I find it so easy to relate to Saul’s earth-bound insecurities. I feel for him, in a way.

It had not been a very long time since Saul had been yanked from a life of peaceful obscurity, chosen to be king of a fledgling nation. Now he’s facing enemies of great numbers, and his people are without swords or spears and have inferior numbers, and all the people expect him to do something kingly to deliver them all. Talk about pressure. It says in 1 Samuel 13:2 that Saul had 3,000 men and in 13:4 it says that “the people were then summoned.” Whether that speaks of the 3,000 or to others in addition to them is almost irrelevant, for 13:6-7 describes them as so fearful that they were hiding in caves or high-tailing it across the Jordan.

Meanwhile, the Philistines have gathered for battle with 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horseman and soldiers as numerous as the sands on the seashore (13:5)! And now Saul is expected to wait! When Samuel had anointed Saul as king, he had instructed Saul to wait seven days at Gilgal for Samuel to come offer burnt offerings to God (10:8). But every day that he waits, more soldiers desert. Every long day, Saul’s numbers were reduced while he waited for Samuel (13:8). So what does Saul do? He’s the king, so he takes charge – he makes an executive decision. He literally takes the bull by the horns and presents the burnt offerings himself. Saul was down to 600 men at that point. I’m sure he felt understandably desperate. I think I would have too.

But Saul’s disobedience to God’s servant Samuel reflected Saul’s lack of trust in God. His eyes were on earthly pressures rather than on the God who is Lord of our circumstances. Even though that’s probably because God seemed as far away as the troops who had scattered, things were not as they appeared. God was there watching as Saul was tested – as Saul failed to trust God as the pressures mounted. Interestingly, in Judges 7, Gideon was down to 300 against “innumerable hordes” and he won a victory. But Saul lost the battle and the kingdom because he allowed the persistence of life’s pressures to rob him of perspective. In the end, he tried to rush God rather than waiting for God's way in God's timing.

In Sudan, I had to trust God amidst many pressures that left me wanting to get aggressive and make something happen! And God then worked things out way beyond my expectations. I hope I can remember that here in Winnipeg. That way, I can live amidst life’s pressures with peace rather than panic, trusting that the sovereign God will work out His will in my life in ways that only He can do!

© 2008 by Ken Peters

The Action-Cluster of Life (church bulletin cover)

There are certain behaviours that are meant to go together like action-clusters. Action-clusters are like atoms—separate the components of them to your own peril. Split an atom and there’s trouble. Break up an action-cluster, and your life loses its potency. As I read Jesus’ story of the man who built his house on a rock, I see an action-cluster containing three key activities: pursuing, listening to and obeying Jesus. Jesus said, “I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice.” (Luke 6:47).

I can’t help but think that so often I major on one or even two of those things, and not often enough on all three. I may find myself coming to Jesus and enjoying His presence in times of worship, but not do much listening amidst the familiar songs and my hasty prayers, let alone obey what I would’ve heard if I’d been listening more carefully. Or, I may find myself able to hear Jesus as I cruise through my day too busy to come to Him for a devotional time, but in that busyness, fail to obey whatever I heard Him say! Or, I may be so busy doing things I once heard Jesus asking of me that I’ve switched off listening any longer, and have even stopped coming to Him because of how busy I feel doing what I’m doing for Him!

The variations of all the ways I can smash this action-cluster begin to feel so complicated when Jesus made things so clear in Luke 6:46-49. He simply wants us to come to Him (spend time in His presence), hear His words (be quiet enough to listen), and obey His words (do what I hear God saying). Simple. Come, listen and obey. An action-cluster that represents the building blocks of our spiritual lives. That’s all Jesus asks of those who want their lives to be able to stand up amidst the winds and storms that come our way. And it works, because of course, the One we’re coming to, hearing and obeying is the Lord of the winds and the storms! Who else would we rather turn to?

So as we look to the season ahead of us, let’s not allow ourselves to become so busy with the activities of this world that we’re unable to regularly come to Jesus, hear His words of life and put them into practice!

© 2008 by Ken Peters