I CAN’T HELP BUT WRITE ABOUT HIM

There once was a man in a church– a mean-spirited and unbridled supposedly leader named Diotrephes. His sick love for authority made him a church tyrant. He had this really sick obsession with authority which perhaps seemed to him as genuine concern for the church.

The old disciple John tells us that Diotrephes kept his position held by attacking good men with “malicious words.” Slander was his weapon against those who might threaten his position. By twisting words, or by circulating rumors, or by cunningly framed innuendos, he persuaded his followers against good and faithful brethren. I find it surprising to imagine how much greater harm Diotrephes might have done if he were living in the 21st century. He could have published a paper, blogged, made a nice PowerPoint presentation or had access to the Internet, or even a cellphone!

He appointed himself to authority and tried to deny fellowship to any who were not in his clique (III John 9-10), “only those who follow the hermeneutics and church government upheld by John McArthur can be in my clique!” It is reasonable to assume that he did this under the pretense of standing for the truth. We can imagine that he defended his circulation of “malicious words” against good men by saying he was “marking” them in order to keep the church pure! (Much evil has been perpetrated by just such a perversion of Romans 16:17.) He had drawn his own line of fellowship and dared any to cross it. Practically speaking, he had a list of men he approved and a list of those not approved. His admirers let him define the lines of fellowship.

Diotrephes “refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.” Those who received the ones he had “marked” were themselves “marked.” The only proof required was their kindness toward his enemies. No stronger evidence was needed than that they were guilty by association. After all, he might have reasoned, John himself had said that to receive such would be make one a “partaker of his evil deeds” (II John 11). (Again, it must be admitted that this is another text that has too often been used as little more than a convenient vehicle for self-promotion.)

While the apostle was guided by the Holy Spirit, we cannot imagine that Gaius, Demetrius or Diotrephes had any notion that these significant notes about them would be considered by millions of people for more than twenty centuries. We do not know whether they were buried with tombstones, or whether such tombstones might have had epitaphs etched upon them. If there were such monuments they no doubt have long since weathered away. But in this little epistle each has an eternal epitaph.

What reputations do men leave behind? How shall we be remembered in the short time that one, two, or maybe three generations will still think about us? More importantly, what will be remembered of our lives in the eternal record of heaven? “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God…and the dead were judged . . . according to their works” (Rev. 20:12).

There are yet among us those who are as Diotrephes, leaders who regulate the brethren by presumption and intimidation, or who sway many by “good words and fair speeches” (Rom. 16:18). Some have an agenda to overthrow apostolic authority, just as did Diotrephes of old. These are the liberals who want to remake the church in the world’s image. Others use an exaggerated loyalty to the truth as an excuse for `prating against us with malicious words.’ These are the radicals, who find fault with anyone.

But thank God there are also many with the truth and love of a Gaius and with lovely reputations like Demetrius.

unbound yet tied

Lately, whenever I think of the fact that for an entire year my visa limits me from traveling anywhere else in the world except the United States, I almost feel cuffed with some kind of an invisible chain with its peg staked deeply into the cold Canadian ground. But when I think of how huge North America is, I realize there’s no way for someone in a lifetime to be able to see or visit every major city in every corner of this entire land mass!

And whenever I think of geographical limits and political boundaries, I cannot help but think of GRACE! And no, I am not talking about a woman, I’m talking about this spontaneous, unmerited gift of the divine favor. Paradox? Yes! Grace– God’s love is so huge it knows no bounds which makes me. While in Calgary, I took the LRT several times and there’s a section downtown called the Free Zone– no tickets required. But it’s bound along 7th avenue between 9th Street and McLeod Trail. I enjoyed free rides but only up to a point. But grace doesn’t have a borderline or an end point. It is boundless. And yet, the concept of boundless grace is hard to grasp especially in a world where everything has to be earned. Generally understood by followers of Christ to be the “free gift” of an uncaused and overflowing love─totally undeserved mercy, there are some Christians who theorize there must be some point when we can no longer plead “Grace!” But there really isn’t.

There’s one song popular among evangelical churches written in 1990 by a composer named Eugene Greco called “Purify My Heart.” The refrain goes, “Purify my heart, cleanse me Lord I pray. Remove from me all that is standing in the way of Your love.” I remember hearing it in Bible College chapel one morning which drove me to ask, “What sin is too great to stand between me and God’s love? Did Paul not ask ‘Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?’ Is is not my sinfulness that nailed Christ to the cross and die for me?” I remember whispering to myself, “Nothing. Nothing stands in the way of God’s love. Nothing.” And that’s because grace is not just God’s loving kindness, favor or mercy, but God’s divine life itself, which enables the work of Christ to flow through us. This same grace causes those who accept it by God’s help to live it.

This is what Christ offers– boundless love, and we loved into freedom. God wants us to live in freedom – freedom to love, to be good people; freedom to change old habits and ways of being that only reveal our lesser selves; freedom to change what no longer serves us well and what hurts others; freedom to let our ancient ruins be healed and our trampled streets to be repaired; freedom to give of ourselves to those who need what we have to offer, and in giving, in setting aside our own desires, we discover the life God has always longed to give us. This is the life we’re being called to live, and it’s the life that will set us free to be fulfilled beyond measure. It is this life that God will make soar to the heights of the earth. We can soar, and yet we are tethered to God like a kite. We can never reach the heights unless we are tethered to Him.

blackaby and me

One thing I have learned about my own faith journey is that I have learned to value searching more than finding. And a lot of times, I come away finding a few nuggets of answers that give me the courage to live more fully into the life that faith that I’ve been given.

This Faith entails the understanding that we don’t know how things will unfold– the substance of things of hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (Heb.11:1). As Christians, we move in faith to be part of God’s vision turn into a reality. We begin to want what God wants. And what God wants is more than we can imagine.

Faith is a part of my heritage. My parents practiced faith. They were a bit restrictive a lot of times but they never stifled our dreams, never tarnished our creativity, never let us to think for even a moment – no matter how weird – that anything was impossible. And while not everything turned out the positively a huge part of me still has that idea. It’s not daydreaming it’s catching a vision for one’s own life that leads to actions and decisions that lead to possibilities.

A couple of years ago, I was in my condo preparing to go to bed when I received a phone call, “Hi Jon, this is Pastor Ta and I’m the senior pastor of First Baptist Church. Richie, an elder from our church will be flying out to Manila to meet with you.” When he was finished I hung up the phone and called a friend and I said, “You will never believe what just happened.” I remember thinking to myself, these guys must be crazy!

But over the next weeks and months, the Church and I entered into more conversations. And the more they shared the more inspired I became. I realized that First Baptist Church had also been living in faith, patiently working for God’s vision to come true; the vision of a church where God was central and the people were making a difference among themselves and in the world. It a ways from the intentional disciple-making megachurch context I am coming from. But I saw great potential for the church to be a worshiping disciple-making community. It arrested my attention, and in the end I realized that it was my vision too.

For the first time in my vocation, I had to wrestle with the fact that God may be calling me to the boondocks of Alberta. A part of me wanted to go but a huge part of me wanted to live in a mega-city! I’ve always been a city boy! Someone asked why in the world I would want to leave, to walk away from everything I had known and go all the way to Alberta alone – to a different culture, a different denomination, a different lifestyle? From a comfortable 8000 people church to one ten times smaller!

And I remembered what Dr. Henry Blackaby said in a sermon when he preached at my home church:

“Many of us don’t want to give attention to our character,
we just want the big assignment from God.”
– Henry Blackaby

(photo taken in 2008 at GCF with Dr. Blackaby when he preached and led a conference)

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Our lives are not the sum of all our choices, thank God.

Our lives are not dependent upon the power of our positive thinking or on the strength of our own skills. If that were the case, then we’d easily end up in despair – for we know well enough the limits of our own power to make it to the gym or to write that letter or make that phone call – much less our power to make life different, to make love appear, to make relationships work, to solve the crises that face the human family.

For people of Christian faith, true life is found not in our choice, but in God’s choice to love us and all the world so much that God does not abandon the world but rather invites one and all to share in the feast that is life in Christ Jesus. There is a larger vision, a bigger reality, a deeper love, a more profound being that holds us and guides us and strengthens us. And because of that, no matter what decisions we make or what path we take, we know that God will be with us on the journey. That means every journey bears sacred possibility – the possibility to learn and mature such that we begin to have the same mind and heart that was in Christ Jesus.

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Transcript of my video log

I just want to share with you a fascinating story. This story is fascinating not because I’m in the middle of it but this because I have seen a faint display of God’s sovereignty, perfect timing and saving grace.

You see, I was in Calgary last weekend for my appointment at the US Consulate there. Since I moved to Lloydminster I’ve been planning a trip to the US for Thanksgiving with my sister in Florida. So you can tell that I’ve prepared for this appointment real well.

As an added bonus though, a board member of the church Richie Davies, after hearing about my planned trip to the consulate in Calgary, he offered to give me a ride and a tour of Calgary, experience the Stampede and swing over to the resort town of Banff in the Rockies.

So on Monday I was at the consulate at 9AM. Ready for my visa interview; the lady at the desk told me that they would not let me in because I filled out an outdated application form. I could not have made that mistake since my form reads: “Valid until November 30, 2011.” But seeing there was no point in arguing, I asked about the new form. She gave me a website where the new form is and was promised that if I’d make it back to the consulate before 11:30AM they’d let me in. Frustrated, I rushed out of the consulate and search for an internet shop! A city like Calgary should have one—but it didn’t!

At 10:15 getting more jittery and frustrated I asked Richie for help. He found one at the business centre of the Hyatt Hotel. I rushed to the Hyatt, went online, filled out and printed the forms at 11:20, and was out back on the street to run four city blocks! When I arrived at the consulate the same woman said “You’re back! But you’re late?” I was like, “How can I be late when it’s 11:25?” “Well,” she said, “our cut off is 11:20.” She told me to come back tomorrow. I wasn’t planning to stay another day in Calgary because we’d planned to swing to Banff and Jasper and head back to Lloyd by nightfall. But then I didn’t have any choice. I had to extend.

Red with fury and panting for breath, Richie and I met at the Hyatt where he treated me for lunch. Over lunch he asked, “What could God be up to?” It was a simple question with universe-size implications! And I must say, I am dying to know the answer! Richie and I decided to pursue our plans to go to Banff at 12:15.

Just as we were driving out of the parking lot it began to rain hail on us! Pea-size pieces of ice—not snow- Ice! So we hid the truck behind a structure hoping not to get hit by golf ball-size hail which could potentially damage cars and hurt people. So we sat behind that building for a good 20 minutes which added to the frustration!

As we drove out of Calgary and into Cochrane, we saw a young man with an over-sized bag on the side of the road, drenched, cold and shivering. He appeared to be a Native Canadian with some hints of Caucasian facial features that made him look more like a Latino.

Out of Richie’s kind heart, he pulled over and invited the young man in. He’d been walking for two weeks from Big River, Saskatchewan—about 800Km away from where we found him. He was heading out to Vancouver. Brief introductions led to a deep conversation about why his journey. You see, he was running away from his rough and tough past and wants to start a new life in Vancouver. For weeks he’d been sleeping on roadside gutters and living rooms of people his family knew along the way. One can tell how tired he’d been. In a span of four months his mom died, his dad jailed, he lost his job and his uncle threw him out of his house, and very recently his girlfriend just returned to Big River from Saskatoon pregnant with a baby that isn’t his. He was one wounded young man. With $70 in his pocket and a lot of courage he left Big River to escape the life that treated him so badly.

All through the drive, we talked about his past and his frustrations with the hope of reaching Vancouver to start anew. Banff is an amazing place—the scenery, the people! But it grew even more meaningful when you walk around it with a new friend! After hours of hopping from one scenery to another, and story after story, while he dried his soaking wet jacket in the washroom, Richie and I stood on at the foot of a ski resort agreeing that Jordan was the main reason why our plans got thwarted in the first place. God had to thwart my plan in order to accomplish His main purposes for the entire trip! God wanted us to minister to the kid exactly when He wanted to!

We headed back down the mountain and went straight to the Greyhound Station where surprised Jordan got a ticket to Vancouver from Richie as a gift so he would not have to hitchhike and put himself in danger ever again. I cannot describe the look on Jordan’s face! It’s the “how-could-two-strangers-be-so-kind-to-me-like this?” look on his face!

Richie took us to this fancy place for supper. Richie stood to go to the washroom when Jordan said, “Dude, I just a chills down my spine!” He continued, “I’ve never been a religious person but I’m beginning to believe that a higher power is somewhat in control because this force has been throwing people into my life who say they believe in Jesus.” And you guys are the ultimate!

Following dinner, we headed back out to the bus station. Richie handed him some reading materials for the road ahead, but I asked if I may share something with him. He agreed. And that night, before heading to Vancouver, Jordan prayed to receive Christ.

We sent him off with a commitment to pray for him and some cash to help him with some expense. I told him to go to a church that can help him start anew in Vancouver.

As we drove away from Banff, Richie and I kept praying for Jordan and praising God for such a marvelous experience. All the other scenery in Banff became merely bonuses to the real purpose why God sent us to Banff! When we wanted to marvel at God’s creation, He came and showed us His new creation take form in Jordan! What could be more meaningful than that?

The next time you sense a frustration looming, God’s hand might be working on something that is bound to marvel you for the rest of eternity.

Pray for Jordan.

FREEDOM

On Canada Day, I was invited to supper (as Canadians call dinner) by a family from church. The host/head of the family bowed and said, “Lord…we thank You for our freedom which we do not take lightly.”

After dinner, I went to the park to celebrate my adoptive country’s Canada Day festivities. In mid-June, my native Philippines celebrated it’s independence day, and early last week, the country inaugurated a new president. Yesterday, I watched some stuff on TV related to the Independence Day celebrations in the US, where some of my family have decided to settle for good. Freedom. William Wallace screamed it out at his execution, and  oh what a beautiful word freedom is!

This morning, I was preparing some documents for my upcoming visit to the US Consulate. As I opened my passport, I couldn’t help but be moved by the thought that I am a free man!

Which reminds me of a book I read back in university. It appeared that the book was published a few years before I was born and yet, it seemed untouched when I first got hold of it in 1998. It was a  novel by American author Alex Haley titled, Roots: The Saga of an American Family where I found the moving story of Kunta Kinte. Kunte Kinte was a Mandinka tribesman from West African. He was captured by slave traders and was taken to North America. He was purchased by the plantation owner down in Annapolis and he’s put to work in the field. His new owner decides  to change Kunte Kinte’s name? He changes his name to Toby. But when Kunte Kinte is called Toby he doesn’t respond, his only reply is “My name Kunte Kinte.” Well, the foreman decides he’s going to teach Kunte Kinte his new name, so he lashes his hand to a post and he asks him, “What is your name?” and Kunte Kinte replies, “My name Kunte Kinte” and, crack!, the whip rips into Kunte Kinte’s flesh. Again he’s asked, “What is your name?”

“My name Kunte Kinte.” Again the whip sings out and begins to flail open Kunte Kinte’s back, and again and again and again he’s asked, “What is your name?” And again and again Kunte Kinte replies, “My name Kunte Kinte”, and the whip continues to rip him wide open until the point where he’s beaten and bloodied, and one final time the foreman says, “What is your name?” and now in a broken voice with tears and sweat pouring down his face Kunte Kinte replies, “My name Toby.”

Some years ago, fearless men and women defended the cause of freedom so that none of us will have to be flogged just for saying our originally given names, now we can hold on to our passports and understand that we are free individuals, and we can worship and express our faith without having to fear imprisonment for doing so. For these freedoms many eventually cost them their lives to defend and keep it for the generations following them.

But a little more than 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ was fastened to a post, humiliated, mocked, and beaten and scourged and killed. Hanging on Calvary’s cross, he went through all of that so that we will never have to be slaves again.

It is for freedom Christ set us free, and he Whom Christ frees is free indeed! Let others know about this freedom in Jesus Christ!