8 Feb
Just as the flame passes from one Olympic torch to another, so also the flame of faith passes from one believer to a new believer. We often feel inadequate for the task, but it is God who makes it happen. Therefore everyone can participate in the relay of faith!
by James Paulgaard on 7 Feb 2010.
MP3 File
7 Feb
Sex is a good gift from God. Unfortunately this gift is often misused & in its perverted forms, like pornography, it ensnares people in a destructive cycle of temptation, sin & shame. But Jesus invites us to bring our sin, shame and brokenness into the light of his love and forgiveness.
by James Paulgaard on 24 January 2010.
MP3 File
7 Feb
Even though we are part of Jesus' team in this world, we sometimes fail to love and encourage others and, at times, we even cause pain. But Jesus is the best in-between person that we could ever have between us and God. With him as our focus, we have the confidence to play beyond ourselves in service to others.
by James Paulgaard on 10 January 2010.
MP3 File
7 Feb
Through considering the clues for God's presence and activity in the world, we can have a respectful, caring conversation with someone whose beliefs are radically different from ours. And if there is trust between us, we can have an opportunity to share about the clues that point to the Christ child as the Saviour of the whole world!
by James Paulgaard on 27 Dec 2009.
MP3 File
7 Feb
Last Thursday, a van load of us were driving from Langley to Edmonton for the Break Forth Conference when we stopped in Kamloops for some gas. I stopped at a gas station that I had never stopped at before in Kamloops and we noticed a whole bunch of RCMP vehicles around. At first I thought that there had been a break-in at the museum across the road. But when we asked the attendants at the gas station, they said that the Olympic Torch was going to be passing through, but they said that it wasn’t coming until 10 or 11 am. This was about 8 am and we weren’t going to wait that long to see the torch. We continued picking up some snacks when, all of a sudden, I noticed that both the attendants were staring out the window of the gas station in the same direction. I looked towards what they were looking at and what I saw was a runner carrying the Olympic Torch right up the street towards us. It was a surprise and a thrill to see it.
The Olympic Torch Relay 2010
The modern-day Olympic Torch Relay first occurred in 1936 and it is a harkening back to the ancient Olympic games where runners travelled throughout the Greek peninsula, announcing the start of the games and, along with it, the beginning of a truce. The Olympic Torch has come to represent peace, brotherhood and enlightenment and it is a call to come and join the festivities. The 2010 Olympic Torch relay began in Olympia, Greece on October 22, 2009 when the flame was lit by heat from the sun. The flame arrived in Victoria on October 30 and over its 106 day journey it will travel more than 45,000 kms and be carried by over 12,000 people. It will be arriving in Langley tomorrow morning as it travels from Abbotsford to Surrey. And its journey will end on Friday in BC Place Stadium at the Opening Ceremonies as the Olympic Cauldron is lit.
And as one watches the Olympic Torch Relay one of things that make it special is when the Olympic flame passes from one torch to another. The two runners lean their torches towards one another, the second torch ignites and, after a congratulatory greeting, the second runner continues the relay with his or her flame glowing brightly.
There is something similar that happens when a person begins their journey of faith. The Christian Church is always just one generation away from extinction. People are not born Christians. Somehow, in ways that we do not fully understand, faith in Jesus Christ is passed from person to person. As they lean towards one another, this light from the Son jumps from one person to another and the relay race of faith continues on.
Reasons That Hold Us Back
But, if you are like me, there seems to be something that is holding us back from participating in this all-important relay race. Many of us think that we have to change who we are to share our faith with others. Maybe we see someone like Billy Graham on TV and we think to ourselves, “I am not like that, I cannot do what he is doing, therefore I cannot share my faith with others.” Or maybe we feel uncomfortable because we hear stories of people being lit up with the gift of faith and we feel like we have to make that happen somehow, but we don’t know how to do that. Or maybe you feel inadequate for the task of sharing the faith. Maybe you feel like you do not have the gifts or abilities that are necessary. Or maybe like me, you feel guilty because you tried to share your faith and nothing happened. So we run around in circles, and we never share the light and warmth of our torch with others. We think that God has such high standards for people to be able to share their faith, so we end up with a low level of effectiveness in doing it.
Yet, in contrast to our ideas, God actually has no standards for people to be able to share their faith. It is the most natural thing in the world for us to share the Good News that we have experienced with others. Have you ever had something wonderful happen to you and then tried to keep it a secret? You can’t. It bubbles over inside of us and we simply must share our joy with others. Just as bees buzz and birds sing, it is the most natural thing in the world for a person to share wabout the joyous difference Jesus has made in their life.
An example of this would be Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. By no standard of the day was this person qualified to tell other people about God. First, there were matters that were beyond her control. She was a Samaritan, a resident of the area just to the north of Judea. The Jews despised the Samaritans for several reasons: they were a mixed race people who perverted worship of the true God by setting up idols and they had allied themselves with Judea’s enemy Syria. And she was a woman and women weren’t even considered credible witnesses in court, let alone credible witnesses for God.
And then there were some other matters in her life. We do not know the reasons, but this woman had been married five times, and the man she was presently with was not her husband. Perhaps it was out of shame that she came to the well at noon during the heat of the day, trying to avoid other people, who usually came in the cool of the morning or the evening to draw water. But God had a Divine Appointment with her that day. And even though Jesus had every human reason to turn his back on this woman and treat her with disdain, he reached out to her in love, striving to break through her shame and confusion. When she was ready, Jesus revealed himself to her as the Messiah, the chosen One of God who came to explain all things and make all things right in the world. The Contemporary English Version of the Bible records what happen next, starting at John, chapter 4, verse 25:
25The woman said, “I know that the Messiah will come. He is the one we call Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26“I am that one,” Jesus told her, “and I am speaking to you now.”
27The disciples returned about this time and were surprised to find Jesus talking with a woman. But none of them asked him what he wanted or why he was talking with her.
28The woman left her water jar and ran back into town. She said to the people, 29“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! Could he be the Messiah?” 30Everyone in town went out to see Jesus.
39A lot of Samaritans in that town put their faith in Jesus because the woman had said, “This man told me everything I have ever done.” 40They came and asked him to stay in their town, and he stayed on for two days.
41Many more Samaritans put their faith in Jesus because of what they heard him say. 42They told the woman, “We no longer have faith in Jesus just because of what you told us. We have heard him ourselves, and we are certain that he is the Savior of the world!” (John 4:25-30, 39-42 CEV)
She may have been deemed unfit by the world to share the Good News of God, but in Jesus’ eyes, she was the perfect person for the task. The circumstances of her birth and gender, over which she had no control, were no detriment as far as Jesus was concerned. All the baggage she had acquired in her life to this point did not disqualify her from running the relay of faith. Jesus reached out to her and showed her God’s unconditional love and acceptance. Here was the Messiah, who knew everything about her, and yet he drank from her water jug and conversed with her. He had fellowship with her and fellowship in that culture was very important for it indicated that there was a close personal relationship. Jesus’ love was what lit the flame of faith in this woman and overjoyed she ran back to her village to tell everyone she knew about this special person she had met. In her haste, she even left behind her water jug which was a very important item in her home and the reason for her trip to the well in the first place. But now she had living waters flowing up inside of her and there was something more important that she felt compelled to do.
So what’s holding you back from running the relay of faith? Is it because you were born into the wrong family, or at the wrong place or time, or with the wrong gender? None of those things matter to Jesus and he loves you just the way you are. Is it because of guilt or shame over something you have done or failed to do? Jesus has taken all of your guilt and shame away from you. Nearly 2,000 years ago, Jesus ran the relay to the cross all by himself. On a hill outside Jerusalem he was lifted up for everyone to see. His life was extinguished, but that was not the end Jesus. On the third day that followed, Jesus rose from the dead and his light now shines brighter than ever before. He gives forgiveness and hope and life to everyone who trusts in him. And he invites us all to run in the relay of faith sharing the light he has given us with others.
At this point, I would like to say a word to parents. When you are a believer, it is heart-breaking to see your kids turn their backs on God and reject the Christian faith. And our natural reaction is to ask ourselves, “What could I have done better?” And we all find something because all of us could have done better as parents, so we tend to drown in an ocean of guilt over where our children are in their journey of faith. But behind this guilt is the lie, the false assumption that if we had just done everything right, our kids would have turned out all right, and that is not true. God was the perfect parent and look how his kids turned out. And it would be presumptuous of us to think that we can do a better job of parenting than God. With God’s help, we do the best we can, but in the end, our children are responsible for their own choices. So we love them and we pray for them, but as parents we can only do so much, and at some point we have to and we should commend them into God’s care.
Now, getting back to the relay of faith, all of us can run this relay, regardless of the circumstances of our birth, no matter what has happened in our lives up to this point, and whether we are young or old, poor or rich, healthy or infirmed, we can all play a part in the torch relay with eternal significance.
Evangelism Triangle
Imagine a triangle with 3 sides, and the foundation of the triangle is “Love.” Sharing our faith is all about love! It starts with God’s love for us, and it continues with our love for other people. The one side of the triangle is “Be Yourself.” The gifts, abilities and personality that God has given to you are just the right package for sharing in the circumstances he will place you in. And sharing will be much more natural when you are being yourself. The third side of the triangle is to watch and wait for those “Divine Appointments” that God will open up for you. You don’t have to force those situations to happen. God will arrange it all.
Then there are six levels in the triangle, and those levels represent the different tasks that we can do as we run the relay of faith. The bottom level is Pray. Everyone can pray. If we are flat on your back in a hospital bed, we can pray that others would have the flame of faith given to them. Next, we can serve, and serving someone else can build a relationship so that those spiritual conversations about Jesus can happen. The next level is to invite people to a special event where they can hear about Jesus. That part of what we are trying to do on Sunday morning: we want to worship God is such a way that you feel comfortable inviting your unchurched friends. That is what we are doing with our Olympic Hospitality efforts: create events to which you can invite your family, friends and neighbours. All of us have a story of how Jesus has impacted our lives, and we can practice our story so that when the invitation comes, we can share our faith story with others. As we go further up the triangle, not all of us have the gifts and abilities to do these things, but some of us do. Some are gifted with the ability to explain about Jesus in ways that resonate with others. And some of us have the ability to convey God’s message into other people’s lives so that it transforms them. The power isn’t in us, it is in God’s Word, but some seem to be able to say it in just the right way at just the right time.
And so I hope that you see yourself somewhere on this triangle. Jesus loves you and he has already given you everything you need to run the relay of faith.
People will be gathering to watch the Olympic torch pass through our community tomorrow. As you watch the torch in person or on the news, I invite you to look into the faces of the people watching and carrying the torch. Jesus loves every one of those people. And think what a joyous celebration it would be if we could celebrate with all of them the Good News that the true light that gives light to everyone has come into the world. (cf. John 1:9) Amen.
(This message was shared at Walnut Grove Lutheran Church, Langley BC on 7 February 2010.)
24 Jan
For much of the 1990’s I worked at an Esso bulk agency where we would sell fuel, oil and fertilizer to farmers and small commercial businesses. And one of the products that we used to sell was ammonium nitrate or 34-0-0. Farmers would use ammonium nitrate to fertilize their hayfields because it worked better than anything else at increasing yields. The other nitrogen product would release some of its nitrogen into the air, but ammonium nitrate fertilizer would stay intact until moisture carried its nutrients down into the soil.
But something happened on April 19, 1995 which made me realize that something that farmers were using to help create more food for the world could also be used to create destruction, terror and death. Timothy McVeigh parked a rented truck filled with explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. And when those explosives detonated, 168 people were killed and more than 680 were injured. It was the worst terrorist attack on US soil before September 11, and one of the main ingredients in the bomb McVeigh made was ammonium nitrate.
Sex and sexuality is kind of like ammonium nitrate. Sex is a gift from God to humanity which he has given to us to enjoy within a marriage relationship. God has given us sex both for pleasure and for procreation. God has created men and women to fit together face to face and he has hard-wired the two sexes to be attractive and attracted to the other.
But just like ammonium nitrate, sex can and is being used in ways that causes terrible destruction. Continue reading
10 Jan
Brit Hume discusses with Bill O’Reilly what he said on FOX News Sunday about Christianity and Tiger Woods.
10 Jan
Let’s begin with a little quiz. The Olympics are coming up and there are several sports involved in the Olympics. And so, let’s consider this question: Which sports are individual sports and which are team sports? Let’s start off with hockey. Is hockey a team sport or an individual sport? It is a team sport. How about curling, is it a team sport or an individual sport? It is also a team sport. Next is figure skating an individual sport or a team sport? It is both, because there is both individual figure skating and there is pair’s figure skating. 
Now what about downhill skiing? Is it team or individual? It is an individual sport. But in each of these sports, even if it is an individual sport, the athlete usually has a team around them. There could be a coach and a trainer and an equipment person, and all of them work together to support the athlete and help them win even though only one person stands at the top of the podium.
If following Jesus was a sport, what kind of a sport would it be, team or individual? Maybe we could give either answer and be correct. Because being a Christian is an individual sport in the sense that we are not saved by someone else trusting in Jesus for us. We are only saved when the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of faith and we trust in Jesus ourselves. So it is very much an individual focus in that sense.
And yet, Christianity is also a team sport as well. One time, Jesus was asked,
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:36-39)
And so being a follower of Jesus is not just about loving God, it is not just you and Jesus. It is also about loving people. That is how we live out our faith: in the context of community. In the Bible there is this special description of this community of faith that God has gathered together and called the church. It is described as a body made up of several different parts, all inter-connected, all working together and no part is greater than the others even though we do different things. And so I think that we can say that Christianity, being a follower of Jesus, really is a team sport.
But sometimes our team doesn’t play very well. Continue reading
27 Dec
The title of this message is “The Clues that Point to the Christ Child.” And what I hope to do today is show how people of different beliefs can have respectful, caring conversations with each other about faith. And I will also point out some of the clues that support believing in the Christ Child as one’s personal Lord and Saviour.
I would like to begin with by suggesting that there is no such a thing as an unbeliever. Everyone believes in something. And whether we consciously or subconsciously choose the belief system that becomes the foundation for our lives, generally speaking there are three criteria for belief. Whatever we are considering has to 1) be plausible, 2) besignificant, and 3) explains things to such a degree that it is worth giving my life to it.
"Hannah and Simeon in the Temple" by Rembrandt
For example, consider the statement, “In the sport of soccer, the Manchester United team will win the English Premier League this season.” But a person living here in Canada might say, “That may be plausible, but it isn’t really significant in my life and its explanatory value isn’t worth me giving my life to it.” Or consider the statement “The moon is made of green cheese,.” A person might say, “If someone were to believe that that may have a significant impact on their life and they might deem it worthy of giving their life to such a belief, but given what we know about the moon, I don’t think that such a belief is plausible.”
Now different people have different standards for what they consider plausible when it comes to matters of belief. Many people today live by what philosophers call “strong rationalism.” And the central principle of Strong Rationalism is the “Verification Principle” which states that no one should believe anything unless it can be rationally proven by logic or empirically proven by sense experience to such an extent that no logical person could disbelieve it. Now you may wonder what does this have to do with anything in real life? Well, the other day, I was having a conversation with someone and the topic turned to matters of faith. And the other person said that God would have to come down here and talk to him in person before he could believe in the God of the Bible. That is the Verification Priniciple at work. In recent years, several atheists have become quite evangelical in sharing their message of non-belief. For example, Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, Christopher Hitchens, author of God is not Great, and Sam Harris, author of A Letter to a Christian Nation, all maintain that the evidence for God is not sufficient for belief.
But Timothy Keller, in the book The Reason for God says the following about Strong Rationalism: Continue reading
27 Dec
Ironically, the way that Christmas is celebrated can result in judgment. But Jesus has come to bring us joy!
by James Paulgaard 20 Dec 2009
MP3 File
23 Dec
Judgement and Christmas are two things that normally don’t go together. But those two things were brought together for me by two recent events. The first of these was when I served on jury duty. I learned so much during that time. For example, when a criminal case comes before a court, there is a partnership between the judge and the jury. The judge is the sole interpreter of the law, and the jury must apply the law as the judge interprets it to them. But the jury is the sole interpreter of the evidence, it is the collective determination of 12 ordinary people that counts. No one can trump the jury’s determination regarding the evidence that is presented in the courtroom. 
But for the prisoner, the court case is not a time of learning. It is a time of judgment. One of the first things that the judge does is instruct the sheriff guarding the prisoner to put the prisoner in the charge of the jury. And the prisoner’s life is in the hands of twelve people he doesn’t even know.
The second experience that brought judgment and Christmas together for me happened at a local post office counter. As I came up to the clerk to mail my letter, music was playing in the background, as is often the case this time of year. And the song that was playing went like this, “Have a holly, jolly Christmas, and in case you didn’t hear, oh by golly, have a holly jolly Christmas this year.” And the clerk said to me, “Are you doing that? Are you having a holly, jolly Christmas?” Before I had time to answer, she continued. “I’m not. I don’t even have enough money to buy Christmas presents.”
We have this season called Christmas. And it is supposed to be a time of celebration and goodwill, but the way that much of the world celebrates Christmas can bring judgment for other people. For some people, Christmas brings a judgment of shame, like my encounter with the clerk at the postal counter, as people are ashamed of their lack of resources because they can’t celebrate Christmas like their friends and neighbours do. For other, Christmas brings a judgment of debt, as they go beyond the resources God has given them and pile up a mountain of debt that will take months to overcome. For others, Christmas brings a judgment of grief as they look around the table at their Christmas family gathering and remember the loved one who is not there. And this is the first Christmas without them. Continue reading
22 Nov
We tend to think that living life to its fullest means being exalted over others. But Jesus shows us, through his example and our experience in this life, that we experience life in all of its fullness when we humble ourselves and serve others.
Presented by James Paulgaard & others on 22 November 2009
MP3 File
22 Nov
My parents visited us last month for the first time since we moved to the Lower Mainland. And as the time came for us to say good-bye to each other, it was, as it always is, a poignant time. My mom is 70 years old and my dad is 72, and I am very much aware that each time I see them may be the last. So the most important thing for me in those moments is that I want my mom and my dad to know that I love them. And this is not easy with my dad because he is from Norwegian stock, and as some of you may know, northern Europeans don’t tend to be very expressive about their feelings. So we sometimes have some awkward moment as we both try to communicate our love for each other. But it is important, so we do it. With my mom, it comes a little more naturally for her.
Jesus Washing Feet
And this value of making sure that those closest to me know that I love them goes in two directions, because something could happen to me someday. All of us are mortal and all of us will die one day, unless Jesus comes back to this earth beforehand. And so, I want my wife and my children to know that I love them too. So I make a point of telling them that I love them and I make a point of showing my love for them with a hug or some other appropriate physical sign of affection.
So imagine what is must have been like for Jesus as he gathered to eat and celebrate the Passover meal with his disciples for the last time. He KNEW that this would be the last meal that he would have with them before he died. He KNEW that one of his own followers had already decided in his heart to betray him. He KNEW that the pain and suffering of the cross lay before him. And yet, the most important thing to Jesus, in that moment, was that his followers would know that he loved them. A contemporary paraphrase of the Bible called The Message puts John 13:1 this way, “Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end.” Behind our English translation of this verse is one particular Greek word, telos, which means “end, completion, finish” and so we can say that Jesus, having loved his all of his disciples throughout all of their time together, Jesus now loves them right to the finish.
And Jesus shows them his great love for them by getting up and, even though he was the guest of honour, he took off his outer clothing, stripped down to his loin cloth, which is what a servant would wear, wrapped a towel around his waist, took a basin and some water and began washing his disciples’ feet. Continue reading
10 Nov
Like a space shuttle leaving the launch pad, reaching out to others with God's love requires abundant motivation to overcome the barriers that impede us.
Presented by James Paulgaard 8 Nov 2009
MP3 File
8 Nov
One of the quirks that you may not yet know about me is that I am a bit of a space nut. When I was a kid, I used to soak up everything I could about the Apollo space missions. I remember the crew of Apollo 8 reading from Genesis 1 as they saw the earth rise above the moon on Christmas Eve 1968. I remember aggressively lobbying my parents to let me stay up late so that I could see the broadcast of the first man walking on the moon. I didn’t win that debate, but I remember when it happened. I remember praying, along with the rest of the world, for the crew of Apollo 13 and not knowing if those three men would make it back to earth alive. I remember looking at the moon one night after a successful moon landing and thinking to myself, “There are human beings up there, right now!”
Space Shuttle Launch
On February 22, 1996, I experienced the thrill of a lifetime when I watched the Space Shuttle Columbia lift off from Launch Pad 39-B at Cape Canaveral, Florida. We were five miles away from the launch pad but NASA had set up loudspeakers and we could hear the communication between launch control and the shuttle crew. 16 seconds before the launch, 300,000 gallons of water were dumped underneath the launch pad to absorb the tremendous shock of the rockets and protect the launch pad during lift off. People began calling the last 10 seconds of the launch countdown. Then the main engines and the solid rocket boosters ignited, the heat from those rockets hit the water, producing a huge cloud of steam which enveloped the shuttle. Then slowly, surely, the shuttle emerges from the cloud and climbs into the sky on a plume of fire. Even at the distance we were from the shuttle, when it climbed high enough in the sky, the sound of the solid rocket boosters hit you in the chest and vibrated through your whole body. Higher and higher the shuttle climbed until we could see it no more.
But there are two things to be aware of anytime that you want to launch a vehicle into space. Continue reading
26 Oct
"God had given us a great opportunity—to live our lives in such a way that everything we do, even the small things, can make a difference that will last forever. "
Presented by James Paulgaard on 18 October 2009
MP3 File
18 Oct
Pastor Mike was in his office working on his sermon for next Sunday when Bob Smith burst through the doorway shaking some papers he had clutched in his hand. “All you guys think about is money! And you keep trying to get me to give you more of my money! And I have had enough of this! Don’t send me these letters anymore!” Bob was the husband of Darla, who served as a Sunday School teacher at Peanut Grove Lutheran Church. “Whoa, whoa!,” said Pastor Mike, gesturing for calm with his hands. “just hold on a minute here, Bob! What’s this all about?”
“You put another one of those letters in my mailbox and if I get one more of those things, I am leaving this church and never coming back again!”
“I think I know what you are talking about Bob, but I want to make sure. What letter are you referring to?”
15 Oct
Read: John 1:35-51
Focus: What does it mean to be an apprentice?
Inform
14 Oct
Read: John 1:19-34
Focus: What signs can you identify by their shapes? What are some things that signs point towards?
Inform
21 Sep
(Significant Scriptures: Psalm 103:1-12; Ephesians 4:1-16; John 13:31-35)
As I was preparing this message, I had an idea. I thought it was a good idea at the time. My thinking was something like this, “What if we did something different? What if we had a taste test where there would be three dishes, two of which would have a missing ingredient? Then I could ask someone to come up and taste the three items and they would a) notice that the first two dishes would have a missing ingredient and b) choose the dish that was not missing any ingredients. And this would then be a great introduction to the rest of my message when I could talk about the Missing Ingredient in our lives and how small groups can help in that area. 
So that I went ahead with that idea. And as a person who values integrity and honesty, I need to tell you that things did not, in any way, go the way that I thought they would. Here is what happened: Continue reading
James Paulgaard
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