Brechin Baptist

Growing in Thankfulness

2011-11-27T15:42:00.000Z

Well it is my Thanksgiving week... and the verses for the day are in Psalm 136 “Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Oh give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever. Oh give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever:” then several verses describing how God shows this in our world and lives then ends with verse 26 that says “Oh give thanks to the God of heaven! For His mercy endures forever.”

So here it is Thanksgiving on my diary. So I am reminded to be thankful. But what is thankfulness really about? Well long answers are just that so will leave it as a short one for now.

I think most of us understand the basic idea of this—it is gratitude—it is one of those almost natural responses to being blessed. When someone gives us something we wanted we tend to be thankful. Sometimes sadly in our selfishness we have to be reminded. Sometimes it is in the rush of life we just forget, sometimes it is a matter of our hearts and minds are just in different places and thankfulness is not mentioned even when we are.

This week is my reminder to not only be grateful and filled with gratitude and thanksgiving but to express it as well. I give an almost annual speech on Thanksgiving night about how I need this reminder... Thing is I need this reminder and maybe should do thanksgiving 5 or six times a year—just the diet can’t quite endure it...

The examples in the OT are quite clear—when people were thankful they worshiped God, they brought sacrifices... some were mandatory—again because though in many ways Thankfulness is a natural the expression of the blessings of life it is not always so. And sometimes it is our sense of entitlement that makes us think it is owed to us so therefore we don’t need to express our grateful hearts to anyone... but God ‘demands’ it... but when we glorify God and worship God the thankfulness does come naturally... the expression of that comes naturally.

So I will enjoy a few friends over for the whole American Thanksgiving Dinner thing, too much food and fun, my annual speech but still a reminder in the bounty that it is every day the same—God is good and His mercy and provision in my life are forever. Thank you God!

Trying to grow in thankfulness,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Remembrance Sunday and Beyond

2011-11-27T15:40:00.000Z

From 17 November:

Well, good news I think. This past Sunday was Remembrance Sunday, we had a good service at our church and I hope others did as well. Once the services were over many of us met at the Brechin War Memorial to show our thankfulness for the sacrifices that were made so we can enjoy the freedoms we too often take for granted. I am encouraged that this year seemed a bit better attended. Something to be thankful for in my opinion.

Speaking of being thankful, you will know by now that my favourite holiday of the year is Thanksgiving which I have celebrated all my life and was not going to give up just because I moved to Brechin, the other American holidays were ok to give up but no chance with my Thanksgiving. I just love my turkey and stuffing but most of all my pumpkin pie with squirty cream. It is also my annual reminder that I have family and friends and that we are blessed. OH boy are we blessed. We just seem to forget it. I love the ‘occupy’ this, that or the other place all around the world. Sure we all want more, sure most of us are in the 99% they keep shouting about, but the reality is that we really are in the 1% in the world despite our whinging and grousing about.

So here I my time to reflect on my idea of poverty—being me not having as much as I want—and realizing that in the end I am really blessed more than I deserve compared to so many. I am reminded as well that I am to be thankful for what God has done in my life, not to make God do more for me, but just because I am blessed. The Psalms express over and over the glory of God in the creation we live in. 1 Chronicles 16:8-12 says: “Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works! Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord! Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face evermore! Remember His marvellous works which He has done, His wonders, and the judgements of His mouth…”

In the New Testament we are reminded that we are to be thankful for the people God puts in our lives. So many times Paul expresses in his letters his thankfulness that he lifts to God for folk that have been in his life. We also have little to fear and so are told in Phillipians 4:6 ‘to be fearful in nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to let our requests be made known to God’

So aye time for thankfulness and so far this week I am thankful for more folk showing up to be thankful for freedom bought on the battlefields of the past and present.

More thanksgiving to come,

Rev. Jon Bergen

From Shadows to Still Waters and Green Pastures

2011-11-27T15:37:00.000Z

Well the sense of the winter months ahead are here with the time change it is getting dark way early and yet it is nice to have it brighter in the morning. Not completely sure what that has to do with anything really just looking ahead... But really it is a reminder that darkness is just a shadow.

I am working through some things in my life at the moment and was awakened about 4 AM the other morning; way too early for me... as I prayed and wrestled with going back to sleep the words of Psalm 23 came to my thoughts but not the usual way. In my almost back to sleep place the words just wouldn’t come out right, I knew there was more but I just couldn’t get it out.

The way it came out in the end was: ‘The Lord is my Shepherd—yeah though I walk through a valley called Death it is a shadow, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.’ In that early morning hour I came to a place of peace and rest that I pray will go with me through the rest of my life, for I realised that God really is my Lord, and my Shepherd, I am his and he is MINE even when the day comes that I may walk through a valley called death the good news is with God in the person of Jesus it is merely a shadow, it is not real in the way it looks from here because as I go out the other side I will awaken to find myself in the presence of the Lord to dwell with him forever.

As we know from a life time of saying the 23^rd Psalm, there is in this life the promise of the green pastures, the still waters, the rod and staff of the shepherd, the tables prepared for us in the very presence of our enemies. These are good and welcome as they come but really having God as my Lord, my Shepherd and getting to go into forever being with him in the House of the Lord is enough.

Looking ahead,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Personal Ministry Moments

2011-11-27T15:35:00.001Z

From 27 October:

Well this week not sure how you want to categorize it: it might fall under a personal story or under personal beliefs. You can choose which you like. But I must confess I had a really nice time on Sunday night. I got to baptize my eight year old daughter and another lady named Claire. As you may or may not know in the Baptist Church we do baptism a bit differently than a lot of other churches. Where-as many churches do a christening, we practice what is referred to as ‘believers baptism’ and we do full immersion, not just a wee bit of water to dampen the head. The Greek word that is found now in our Bible as ‘baptize’ could well have been translated as immerse, bury, or plunge under. Baptists tend to be a bit literal when it comes to Bible stuff so all the way under is how we do it.

Well as you can imagine it is a fun thing for a daddy to get to baptise his own children. But since we do believers baptism it has a different meaning than a christening. For us it is a part of our testimony that we profess Jesus Christ as Saviour. The immersion baptism pictures a person dying to self and sin as they are placed under the water and then as they come up out of the water it is a picture of Jesus’ resurrection, that we are to model a new way of living. The words I usually say: “Buried in the likeness of our Saviour’s death, raised in the likeness of his resurrection, to walk in the newness of life.”

Well this year was my wee Jessi’s turn, she has been pestering me since I baptized my Anna last year to get baptized so she kept asking: ‘Daddy when can I get baptized?’ I kept putting her off since I was thinking it was just to be like her sisters. So I finally got to the point I just asked her why she wanted to do it. And as only a child can, she gave me back the gospel as simple as you please. Her comment was: “I want to be baptized to tell people that I love Jesus because he died for me.”

I tried over the next few weeks to talk her out of it by asking her more questions but it was always the same basic answer... and how do you answer different than the simple gospel of ‘Jesus died for our sins and we love and trust him for our salvation because of that.’ I wonder often if we don’t make the gospel harder than it really is. Jesus once said to bring the little children to him and later added that we have to come to faith like a little child.

So basically that is what my Sunday night service was, baptizing my wee lassie and I have been blessed to have had a part in helping her and my other lassies share their faith by being their daddy and pastor who got to baptize them. I am one lucky guy, I get to talk about Jesus, minister to my family and community, and I call it work... Baptisms are fun for sure... maybe another time I’ll share about the other lady that I baptized, lovely story that as well...

Thanks for listening to a personal moment,

Rev. Jon (the Baptist...)

Looking Ahead

2011-11-27T15:33:00.000Z

From October 20:

Hope you had a good ‘Tattie Holiday’. We were able to take a wee break as a family to the major metropolis of Cumbernauld. Just took a bit of time to relax and catch our breath. But we did do a bit of playing tourist. We ended up at Stirling Castle and took a look at the breath taking view from the walls of this amazing fortress. We also had a nosey through the palace and great halls absorbing history along the way. Lovely those wee radio things as you tour.

As we went through the Palace of James V and saw the various halls and the splendour that was the flamboyance of the mid-1500’s the lessons of the messages of power and prosperity were obvious. The chambers one had to pass through to get to the inner chambers lead one to understand that the farther in you got the more important you were.. To meet the King James or his wife Mary of Guise in their private bedrooms was the indicator of height of importance you had achieved. To stay in the palace for the night meant you were part of the ‘In-crowd’ of that day. You may be important back home but you might just have to rent a room in the town instead of being hosted in the palace. And so it was in those days and the tradition continues on. Not many of us have even seen the ‘Royals’ let alone spent the night in the Palace.

And as I thought of these things and the £14 Million spent on refurbishing an un-lived in palace that is of historic importance and that leaves me very impressed, I realise in the scheme of life and eternity that it really isn’t much.

As a Christian that has my trust in Jesus I realize that there is a heavenly home waiting that is beyond even the greatest dream of the builders and remodelers of the Stirling Castle Palace. I also from the book of Hebrews in the Bible have the assurance that if I know the God of the Bible that even in this life I can come boldly before the throne of grace of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Why? Because after all he is my heavenly Father and so the way was prepared by the Cross of Jesus so many years ago.

In these troubled days I am reminded that Jesus said: let not your hearts be troubled... in my father’s house there are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you can be also...’ Looking at the spectacular sight of Stirling Castle is awesome, looking forward to my home in Heaven seems even better...

Looking ahead,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Leaning On Jesus

2011-11-27T15:30:00.000Z

From 6 October:

Tattie Holidays are here already. Seems summer never really arrived and it was over. The swiftness of life seems more and more a common theme in my life. The hardships of life also seem more and more to make themselves known and I wrestle with the state of the world and the directions it is going. The value of God in our society is getting less and less and the churches as a whole are struggling to make God meaningful in the world we live in. In discussions with many, the idea of a real God seems at a certain level to be more and more difficult to believe. Yet I am encouraged that while many reject God as a part of their lives there are others that value their relationship greatly. There are also many that I encounter, that while rejecting a deity, are also seeking for a spiritual context for the lives they live.

By now you are asking what that has to do with the swiftness of the passing of time. Well it is this, that as the days pass and I find the dilemmas of life hard to understand in a purely secular context. I take comfort in a faith that continues to grow. I find understanding in a scripture that said things many centuries ago that are still more than relevant in the 21^st century. I find answers to life’s problems that help me get from day to day and week to week.

I was told not to long ago though that this was a crutch. And at the time really hadn't thought through what the problem was with that comment. I sort of dismissed it as an off handed remark and threw the idea away. Yet as I think about it I ask; is it so terrible that we use a crutch? We don’t usually see a person using a crutch in the day to day world and say that the crutch they lean on is bad or that they are bad for using it. But yet why is it a bad thing when the ‘crutch’ happens to be the Christian faith? Thankfully Jesus himself said he was the great physician and he came to heal those who were sick. He came not to call the perfect to repentance but the sinners to a place of grace.

My prayer this week is that the days don’t fly past any faster than I have time to find that one that wants to make me spiritually well and that I have the sense to lean on him to support me in this crazy paced world we live in today. Read Matthew 5 in the gospels for a view of who Christ said was blessed. It isn’t those who think they have all the answers rather it is the meek and the poor in spirit... those that are learning to lean on the one who came to seek and to save those who are lost.

Leaning on Jesus,

Rev. Jon Bergen

A Refuge!

2011-11-27T15:29:00.000Z

From September 26:

As usual the days fly past and I notice how quickly events pass us by. a couple of weeks ago the 10^th anniversary of the 911 attacks took place. President Obama as his speech for the observance simply read Psalm 46. It is short and to the point yet speaks into our lives these many years after it was written. They are words of comfort and it reminds us that in our dark times God is a place of refuge and hope. It tells us that in our times of greatest distress and places of conflict in life that sometimes it is best to just be still and know that God is God, experience him as he is, because in him there is victory over troubles. So I share it with you to ponder what challenges in your life may need that refuge and hope:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea:
Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help here and that right early.
The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolation he hath made in the earth.
He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in sunder: he burns the chariot in the fire.
Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

Thankful for the refuge,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Catching up Again...

2011-11-27T15:27:00.000Z

OK here I am way behind again... Looks like I am about 8 instalments behind... so will get them all caught up and you can catch up as well.

Cheers,

Rev. Jon Bergen

From September 22:

In 2004 some of the churches in Greater Manchester had an idea of inviting folk ‘Back to Church’ as they realized that a lot of folk had had connections to the church but hadn't been in quite awhile. In the past several years more than 150,000 folk have reconnected with their link to faith and many stayed.

It reminds me of the story of Jesus as he called his disciples. He called them to ‘come follow me...’ They had little idea of what that journey might look like but they did it anyway. An interesting side story that can relate to a lot of folk that have disconnected with the thought of faith is that of Philip and Nathaniel: the Gospel of John shares that ‘Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, “we have found the Christ... Jesus of Nazareth.” To which Nathaniel replied... Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip simple said back to him; ‘Come and See’. And like the early disciples many will not know what is in store as you also hear the invitation of friends to ‘come and see.’

I think there are many here that will read this and think to themselves; can there be anything good about going to church? After all Sunday is my day to have a long lie, it is my day to do more chores around the house, it is... and you can fill in your own blank of why you may have lost touch and can’t be bothered to reconnect. Maybe you are one of the ripped off that never had a ‘church’ connection in the first place and so you have no idea what it is even about and maybe no one ever asked you to ‘come and see.’

Well this Sunday, 25 September is Back to Church Sunday. Many of you will have been invited and many more will not have been. We have the day planned for special services that will address the idea of connecting to faith and finding out who Jesus really is. This can be one of the most important days of your life, you won’t know unless you check it out. You may have to take a couple of weeks of ‘Back to Church’ to check a few of us out... but it will be worth the effort in the long run...

The main thing is know that we invite you as Philip invited Nathanael with the words:

COME AND SEE!!!!

Inviting the Whosoever will,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Selah

2011-09-13T23:54:00.000+01:00

Psalm 67:1-3 says “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, (Selah) that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!”

There are three things here that many of us want and need in our lives.

First we need graciousness for our lives. The other word often used for the word gracious is merciful. ‘God be merciful to us’ is how the text can read. I know as I look at my life short as it has been so far there is a lot that I need God to be merciful to my life about, things I need to be forgiven for, things I am glad God didn’t just squish me like a bug about. Truth is all of us have these things in our lives. And in the Lord’s prayer we are also reminded to forgive as we want to be forgiven. Some days harder than others to do and I am glad God does forgive out of mercy.

The second thing we are to ask God for is his blessing. The hard thing is sometimes knowing that blessings are not always things we can see or touch. Sometimes there are things that are real challenges that in the end we learn are true blessings. I know I don’t like pain and suffering but often I hear from folk how even those are blessings as one learns the lessons of life. Too often we look at bigger and better as being blessed and that is not always the way God works in our lives. May we not only be blessed but also have the spiritual eyes to recognize the blessings God sends our way for what they really are.

The third thing God wants us to desire is that ‘his face may shine upon us’. This has to do with his glory shining through us into the world in which we live. The old catechism asked the question of what is the chief end of man? Or as I modernize it so I can understand it: what is the purpose of our lives? And the answer comes back: To glorify God and enjoy him forever. It is nice to know something so eternal can still be a part of our day to day life if we ask for it. It comes out of the relationship we can have with Jesus.

There is also this wee odd word –Selah—that simply means- Stop... Think about it.

And as we find these three things in God we can then be part of the ‘peoples’ who praise God...

So my prayer for my life this week is Psalm 67 and my prayer for your life this week is that you too find Psalm 67 for your own life...

Hoping you will take time to Selah Psalm 67 in your own life,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Seeing Past the Waves

2011-09-10T19:40:00.001+01:00

“He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36

The story is told of the preacher who kept a painting in his study of a shipwreck. There were sailors in lifeboats reaching out their hands to people floating on debris from the broken sinking ship. A little boy looked at the painting and asked his daddy, “Are those in the lifeboats trying to save those people or are they just shaking hands?”

Life can be a challenge and there are days that we have the challenges and struggles and there are days it is our friends who struggle with life. As I think about reaching out to save someone or just shaking their hand, I find it can be a fine line between which is needed. Some days it can take a lot of hand shaking before someone that needs ‘saving’ will reach out and take advantage of that help and get into the boat.

The challenge for us is that too often we cling to our own piece of the world like that piece of drifting debris, as if that is all that exists and we don’t even see the helping hand being offered let alone the lifeboat behind that hand. And yet as I watched a wee clip on the BBC the other day about lifeboats I also noticed that the lifeboat came from somewhere even more secure than the lifeboat itself. It came from a place of hope, in hope it was sent to the sea, in hope that it would make the journey there and back, in hope that they would be in time to rescue those in need. The hope of those who go, the hope of those who send it out and the only hope of those about to drown.

And so it is in the storm of life. We cling to the debris and miss the helping hand and fail to see the lifeboat that can be a refuge and even more miss that the lifeboat can get us to a safe place of refuge above the storm.

Can you see the hand outstretched to help you? Can you see the lifeboat and imagine the place of safety that it can get you to? Or do you just see the debris you cling to? Can you see the way to safety and yet all you do is shake hands with the rescuer?

Having friends is great and all of us need to do that. But, the question must also arise in each heart: Are we just shaking hands or making a difference? Maybe you are the one to offer hope to those you know. Day by day we can be one or the other. The key is to be willing to take the help when we need it or offer help to others.

Oh if only we can see, not only the hand and the life boat, but also the place of hope from which the lifeboat came, that final place of safety from the storm...

Cheers from life’s storms,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Suffering For Jesus? Not Really what you think...

2011-08-30T00:42:00.001+01:00

Well another week has flown by. I am not so sure that I like that what ‘old’ people used to tell me is coming true - that the older I get the faster the days fly by.

With that in mind I was reminded last week that we have now been in Brechin for 9 and almost a half years and that September 4 we will celebrate 9 years of the Brechin Baptist Fellowship being around here in Brechin. Someone who shall remain nameless, but he knows who he is, said something about nine and a half years of suffering in Brechin. My reply was along the lines of 'suffering for Jesus' and that eventually lead to a rather joking conversation about Jesus saying “suffer the little children” to come to Jesus. Suffering has for sure changed meaning over the past 400 years since the AV/KJV Bible was printed.

We should know that what Jesus was saying was ‘allow the children’ to come see him and be blessed by him. Sadly we now say that like children coming to church to hear about Jesus suffer in misery. I can’t imagine not making learning about Jesus an awesome thing. My problem is, like I said last week, I still have a lot to learn even in the art of preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus. I wish in the last 9 years I had become the most engaging in this endeavour but though I know the truth of the gospel my stammering tongue still doesn't always get it as interesting as I would like. As ministers and Sunday school teachers we have a passion for Jesus and the gospel of redemption he taught but we have to keep working so our listeners don’t ‘suffer.’

I just know that in the past 9 years that sometimes seem like only 9 months and sometimes seem like 90 years that the call of Jesus is still the same: you who are weary, heavy hearted and run down—or maybe over- come to me and I will give you rest.

So suffer yourself , err, allow yourself to encounter Jesus and get blessed. Though this earthly life flies by, I rejoice in that there is an eternity to live...

Oh yeah and to be clear for the record: I love Brechin and you can’t get rid of me that easily...

Looking forward always,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Summer is Done--Time to Study

2011-08-22T23:30:00.000+01:00

Well that is for sure summer holidays done and dusted. The Brechin young people are back in school and studying hard... or is that hardly studying. Well if you see a young person on the streets in the next couple of days encourage them to get after their studies so they can excel in their futures. If you see a teacher encourage them even more to invest their lives into the lives of our youth.

But the reality is that all of us need to learn more. I have often heard the lines that reflect the thought that the day we stop learning is the day we might as well die and get dirt thrown in our faces... I have said it as well and mostly hope that is true. I want to keep learning all the time. There are not too many topics I can’t talk about, some I only prove how little I know but even my little is more than some folks. And some days as I chat and prove how little I know someone feels sorry for me and gives me a wee bit of education.

I just know I don’t want to be like the guy from Iowa I knew that at the end of his high school days looked at his head teacher as he walked out the door and said: “I’ve had twelve years of book learning and fetching up and I aint learned nothing yet.”

2 Timothy 2:15 says ‘Study to show yourself approved unto God a workman that needs not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth’. This really is a thought we can all grab onto and try to live. Learn, study, like it matters, like it can change our lives and the world around us. I think knowing scripture helps in a lot of ways. If you read it, it forces you to think about what you read and if you digest the thoughts it gives guidance for how we live our lives.

I probably should leave the rant alone but I confess I am really bothered by the rioting in England last week. I keep thinking 'if those folk had studied the Bible and took to heart the thoughts of not killing, not stealing, even not coveting, would they have been able to do that junk and done so much damage?' I think not.

My brother-in-law sent me the following: “So sad... Please put this on your status if you know or are related to someone who suffers from stupidity. People need to understand that stupidity is REAL and should be taken seriously. You could be sitting next to a stupid person right now. There is still NO KNOWN CURE for stupidity and sympathy does not help. But we can raise awareness!”

But ignorance can be changed—STUDY does it. And for life the best study I can think of is foundational book—the Bible.

Always more ignorance to grow past,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Moving on...

2011-08-15T23:36:00.000+01:00

It has been a long hot summer with too much sun and not enough sarcasm. Actually it is more like where was the summer? I fear I spent too much of mine being sick so I am a bit tired and worn out. And sadly I am talking to too many others that kind of feel like me. The energy to be creative is many days just not where I want it to be and someone else has it. And yet the days flit by at an ever faster pace. So summer holiday is about finishes so back to work. Somehow the thought that I had figured I had worried to death like a dog with his rawhide chew bone will just not leave me alone as I preach my way through the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. “Let brotherly love continue...”

I see the news and the hearts of people from around the world comes glaring through, thankfully not the majority, but enough to make me realize this ‘brotherly love’ thing is not the world we live in. Oslo Norway comes to mind, the events of last weekend in London jumps out at me as an unavoidable problem. Again the financial crisis of the world economy is heart breaking in many ways, wars and rumours of more war, the political system being questioned in countries around the world including our own... and I think to myself if only...

Then I get to chapter 13 verse five where it says and I paraphrase: ‘let your life be free of coveting because of the love of money and the stuff it buys, instead be content with what you have.’ And I think, wow if we add that to living a life of love that would just about get rid of 90% of the people problems we have. Violence would almost go away, theft disappears, abuse in families and homes—gone, corruption in all areas of life—yes you guessed it: gone. Charities thrive to help the poor and needy in ways we cannot imagine, employers have money to hire folk to work and can even pay decent wages, the burden of taxes goes way down because no one is trying to scam the system and only taking what is fair. And the list goes on and on of how life improves with love and a lack of greed.

Now comes the hard part for me again, this challenge of wanting more than I have, more than God gives into my life. I too desire the nice things in life, stuff that too often I don’t need anyway, I just want it. We all seem to and we don’t know how to get past it. So we have to take on board the promise of God to provide our needs as we trust him and then we work on changing our hearts to meet what godly principles we are to live by. I just know for me it is not always as easy as it sounds.

On a life long journey,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Last thoughts for now on Brotherly Love

2011-07-17T01:07:00.004+01:00

I have been sick the past couple of weeks so have not been as prolific at writing as I should be. It has helped me be more empathetic toward those that are chronically ill. But it has also made me a bit forgetful about what has been going on.

So where was I? Right, brotherly love and my friends that lost a brother in law that while he was gifted and talented and in many ways had the perfect life was instead given to abusing his family in unspeakable ways and a massive abuser of drugs and alcohol. In most ways a wasted life.

But out of the abuse my friends had to learn to love in ways I am not so sure I could do. Then out of that ability to love has come an ability to use that hurt to know the hurt of others and to minister to them in ways that one without that pain and suffering could not know as personally as they do.

They have for a number of years been able to be involved in a special ministry to other ministers who themselves are hurting both from current hurts and past hurts. And out of that ministry so very many are able to heal and mend themselves and so able to then use the same type of healing to help even more people that have been through abuse. Back to learning from the scars that we each have in our lives.

So two thoughts that are always true: 1) If you have a belly button you have a problem and 2) Hurting people hurt people.

But it is not what you have to act in these ways, rather it is what you choose to do with those problems and hurts that will either make you a better person or a person that hurts others.

I know it is hard to believe but even those of us in ministry have our own hurts and struggles in life. Just because we have a special calling from God in our lives doesn't mean God takes all the hurt and pain away from us. I wish... but what we, what I choose to do with these is up to me. How I grow and help others is up to me.

I confess that the past couple of weeks being sick has not helped me be the most kind and gentle person in the world. But I know had I not learned some of these lessons and been trying to be who God desires for me to be... Well suffice it to say it would have been worse. (that is where at the least you are to give a wee chuckle).

Let brotherly love continue: How is it in your life? Are you growing despite the hurts and the problems or are you the cause of hurt and problems in the lives of others? My prayer is that you are growing...

Still learning,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Still working on love...

2011-07-08T18:05:00.001+01:00

Let brotherly love continue: yeah that is easy—when life is good and the relationship is healthy, but what about when abuse takes place. I mean what kind of loving god allows that stuff anyway.

I have friends in Delaware that shared their story with me not too long ago. Her brother had just recently passed away, but he was not one of the good guys so the story was hard to tell yet revealing about how we can grow past even the most awful situation as we find our place with God secure.

The story is one of a great looking guy that was clever and sociable to the point of “able to sell ice to an Eskimo“. He married at 16, had lovely babies and home but the path went from successful looking to the life of an alcoholic drug addict that abused his family in unspeakable ways both physically and sexually. When it came his time to die it was almost a relief to family that knew the truth of the story. This was one of the scars I mentioned a couple of weeks back.

The time came to scatter the ashes on the Atlantic shore and the memories that flew by in my friends’ conversation were in the end reminders of love rather than the hate deserved. Memories of a life wasted and ruined leaving ashes in his wake. The reminder that good looks, money, influence and talent are not what really matter in the life is ended.

The story as I got it went like this: “My wife and I stood on the shore's edge together. The only ones present were her nephew (the son now fully grown and living hand to mouth), her baby brother and his wife, and myself. Well, we also had the ashes of her dead brother in a plastic container enclosed in a clear plastic bag. Missing were his wife, his daughter, his mother, his dad and step mom, and a host of people who claimed to be his friend (as long as he could supply the drugs, booze, and women).”

He continued: “We each said a few memories about him and the son struggled to open the bag. Soon he had the ashes thrown to the wind to be carried into the water's caress. A gray cloud of mucky remains floated on the waves and mingled with water and the sandy bottom. The son cried, "You're free now... you're free!" With that we left and returned to the car and headed back to my father-in-law's home.”

Yet even knowing that her brother was such a rotten person my friends’ thoughts had turned earlier to the question of what about eternity. Despite the pain and hurt of the years it was a ‘brotherly love that overrode it all and her prayer was that somehow maybe, just maybe before it was too late the love that had come to her own life from Jesus would somehow find a place in her brother’s life and death.

Not sure I am able to be that way just yet, but my prayer is that I grow to that kind of love. Jesus the incarnate God came for the sake of love for you and me, yet I struggle some days to model it well. How is it in your life?

Stay tuned,

Rev. Jon Bergen

More Thoughts on Love

2011-06-16T15:22:00.000+01:00

Ok so a few thoughts on love the past few weeks. I guess it is still smouldering under my skin that despite the expressions of love in our society I don’t see it actually working, I hear it more than see it. Then I look at my own life and realize that I also still have a long way to go learning this. The Hebrews 13:1 verse that said ‘Let brotherly love continue’ is still churning away trying to work its way out in the real world. It is a great thing to say we have love and it is awesome to know that God loves us. I mean Jesus came to save us over this whole love thing. Then a few verses later in this Hebrews chapter it talks about marriage and the marriage bed... which then took me to how I am to love my wife... Ephesians says I am to be love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.

But the challenge is I am not God and neither are you so somehow it is a big challenge for us to really love. Me love my wife as Christ loved as God himself loved and therefore gave—HIMSELF. Wow do I stand a chance of that kind of love. Those of you that know Ruth know she is lovable, that is not the problem, the problem is me, I’m not always very loving, I have my own agenda. So God to make this love thing really clear says that a man is to love his wife as if it is his own body. And I reply back to God, ‘Hey I’m just not that good.’ And you know if you look into your own heart you aren’t either. We all struggle with love that deep, that honest, that transparent. To know we should do and to actually get it done are two different things.

Then earlier in the actual words of Jesus we read that the two great commandments are 1. To love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls and minds. And 2. To love our neighbour as our self. I don’t know about you but I have to believe that Jesus just didn’t know some of the neighbours I’ve had over the years. Some were pretty bad.

So I realize very quickly the ability to love like I am supposed to is just not as good as it needs to be and I jump to 1 John where the wee verse reminds me that “God is love.” While I do know and understand that God is so much more than love he is still love. Jesus was/is love incarnate (stop me and ask me if that word needs defining). Wow, so the key to loving and continuing in brotherly love is then to know God, not to do it on my own but to really know God and then let his love flow into and through me to others. And hopefully many others will join this journey...

I will share a story from a friend of mine that had to really learn this...

Stay tuned,

Jon

Scars are Not the End of Our World

2011-06-11T15:04:00.001+01:00

Life often brings scars. Scars come from a variety of places and all hurt to some level. In our physical bodies we carry these scars, both the ones from accidents to the ones that were intended, accidents range from paper cuts that heal overnight to major, requiring great amounts of time and care to get healed. The intended ones are the kinds we make ourselves for a variety of reasons like getting a tattoo or an ear pierced to the knife of a surgeon. Some scars are so small that no one sees them and others disfigure us for the world to behold. Some we get used to. Some we think stand out yet no one even sees them but us.

Sometimes the scars are the emotional baggage that haunt our waking hours and our nightmares. Some are seemingly so slight that our friends can’t figure why we don’t just let go. Others we deal with in ways that those who know us wonder how we can possibly make it. The sayings are that ‘time heals all wounds’ and ‘you will get over it in time’. We also say ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me’. These are all true but all lies as well. Time may well ease the pain but often the scars will not go away completely.

One scar is the scar of guilt we bear, both for things we do and things done to us that we take the blame for. And day after day, month after month, year after year the pain is there, the healing doesn't seem to catch up. But somehow we have to find a way to get past that guilt. Picture it if you will as a gift box wrapped in a silver paper, with a lovely bow... day after day we look at it and wonder what it is. We open the box and wallow in that guilt or grief and then wrap it up and put it back on the shelf and keep looking at it and the pain just doesn't go away. So we open it over and over to check if the pain is still there-- 5 times, 10 times, a hundred times we face that pain of the guilt and the more we see it we realize the paper is more torn, the bow less shaped the box is getting battered. And then one day we find that we don’t need to look at the box or unwrap it and we can finally take it out and put it in the bin with all the other rubbish.

I think this is part of what Jesus meant when he said, “take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.” We don’t use a yoke very much these days but two oxen or horses yoked together makes the load easier to pull. And that is what Jesus knew, and what he taught in his own suffering as he cried out from the cross: ‘Father forgive them...’ So we learn from him and eventually something we think is of value yet leaves us in pain we can toss out and finally move on. We may not forget that box but we can put it someplace it doesn't hurt us quite as easily anymore.

Just thinking,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Making a Difference

2011-06-05T02:38:00.000+01:00

Well the days are getting markedly longer and longer, a nice change of pace for the next few weeks before we start fussing about the nights drawing in again. But I can tell I am getting more culturally acclimated in that I find myself fussing about the coolness of the days like everyone else. Yet I also see that the fields are shaping up with the rape blossoms now fading quickly, the tops of the barley growing into heads and the fields growing so very quickly.

I guess with the funeral for Steve last week the reminder of how quickly life passes by came by my heart one more time. Then we received news Sunday morning just past that Ruth’s uncle of 59 in Houston Texas had passed away unexpectedly as well. I have talked to some that are in their later years and they so often mention how quickly their lives have flown by and how quickly the days come and go.

The reminder to make my life count seem to fly into my heart and head—the sense that I don’t want to waste what is left of my life. Suddenly in that contemplation I start to think of guys who lived short lives that made big differences in the world around them. I think of an almost local boy from Edinburgh who by his ministry is a name more linked to Dundee, a young man by the name of Robert Murray M’Cheyne who lived only to the age of 29 yet one of the greatest of Christian revivals surrounded his ministry in those short years at St. Peter’s Free Church. I have read a couple of the biographies of his life and am often convicted by what I read to do more than what I actually do.

Another man that was more than a mere man, yet died at about 33 was Jesus Christ. His life though short has literally changed the world for almost 2000 year. But more importantly he is still changing folks lives today.

While I know that I will not change the world the way Jesus did, nor will I change Brechin and Scotland like M’Cheyne did, I do hope that I can change a few lives by sharing what Jesus did and that as some come with me on this journey of life that we then don’t waste our short lives and instead can be a blessing to our world. As I was reminded last week, I must’ let brotherly love continue’ and it is a lesson hard to learn some days, but it will make a difference in the long term.

Praying I learn before it is too late,

Rev. Jon Bergen

“Let Brotherly Love Continue.”

2011-05-29T10:21:00.001+01:00

Hebrews 13:1 says quite simply: “Let brotherly love continue.”

It is verses like this that give me a lot of trouble in life. Sunday we had a Brechin City FC V Ayr United football match as the final playoff match... I woke to the rain and the wind and knew in light of my sermon on this particular passage of scripture I was in trouble. As a minister it is sometimes even for me a challenge to love everyone I come in contact with, let alone an Ayr fan at the final Brechin City match...

I must confess I wanted a nice warm sunny day... for me but that nasty rain was just what I wanted for those Ayr fans. I knew they were bringing a load of supporters up and that they wouldn’t all fit in the David Will stand. I also kind of figured that our folk could squeeze together in a brotherly love sort of way in the Cemetery End coo shed... so it was a mixed emotion of how do I pray—did I really want to love my fellow football fans or did I want to wish them ill will? Well as you may or may not know I can’t control the weather, we get what God allows or sends our way and in the end it was really a lovely, if a bit blustery, day. A fitting day to meet and battle it out on the pitch.

It ended up one of those days of bitter sweet emotions, the 2400 plus folk at the Glebe gave a warm round of applause for our departed fellow football fan and avid BCFC supporter Steve Mitchell. Yet we lost by one goal. A hard day to celebrate and show love to the other team. Our friend is no longer among us, my beloved City is still in second division and the rapture predicted for last Saturday didn’t happen... and still the sun came up and life will gradually get back to whatever it is we consider ‘normal’.

So forgive me today for my rather disjointed thought and give to me as well a wee bit of the brotherly love as I need to receive it as much some days as I do to continue to learn to give it to the world in which I live. I keep being reminded of love and the difference it makes to each of us. We all need it but somehow it is one of those gifts that the more we give the more comes back as well... so let a brotherly love kind of thing keep going and going in our community and let’s see if it changes something. I know 2000+ years ago God’s love made itself known and all these years later we still ken that God/Man Jesus Christ. So love does make a difference day by day, may it long continue.

Learning to love more,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Thoughts on being behind.

2011-05-08T00:36:00.001+01:00

Have had many thoughts for the week and been meaning to get them up here. So the plan is in the coming weeks to catch up from ages ago. The thing is is anybody even reading these things? No comments so hard to tell. If you read this then let me know with a bit of feedback to say either that you like it, it makes you think or it stinks... so seeing I am 4 months behind I have a lot of 'out of date' material that has been in the Brechin Advertiser that I will try to at least catch that up with several bits and then these will be archived here at least for you to check out and take note of.

Oh and if you are on this but haven't been to the Brechin Baptist site the Bible reading for May is now up at Bible Reading. This is a reading from John's Gospel to start on May 9 and finish on June 3.

Till soon then,

Jon

Snow Days or should that be daze...

2010-11-30T22:29:00.000Z

Thought two in one day--go figure, must be snowed in or something...

Well here it is day 4 of the snow days... hard to believe we have had as much snow as we have had lately. Sunday it was treacherous out on the roads. Woke up to several inches of the white stuff in the street and watched even the police not able to get up the drive way to the police car park without a bit of help. The police van was parked in the street covered in snow... the grit trucks hadn’t even been by and the pavement was covered and slick. Our back carpark was too full of snow to even think about clearing it away and now it is today and there is only more snow than was there before... finally have the front pavement cleared and non-slippery with plenty of grit down, one of few in the City centre.

Well with all this white stuff lying about it was decided that the wise thing to do was to hold off on having services on the Sunday. But what a challenge to my thinking, it went totally against what was to be on offer in the study of Hebrews we have been on for the past six weeks, errrr, 11 months... finally in chapter 10 and one of the main verses is verse 25 which reminds us; “not to forsake the assembling of yourselves together...” oh the dilemma—should we be safe or live up to this verse... now the funniest part of this is that in September I had sat with our church secretary and set out the preaching schedule through the end of the year and this was right on schedule 28 November, Hebrews 10:19 to Hebrews 11:1...

Now tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humour...

Till the next time,

Rev. Jon

Thanksgiving and Beyond

2010-11-30T20:10:00.001Z

Not sure what happened last week... must have been that it was Thanksgiving and it is the one American Holiday I refuse to give up. So was a bit busy supervising the cooking and preparation for the turkey dinner. (Thanks Ruth for working so hard and letting me get the credit) I quite honestly love this particular holiday. It is not like the goofiness that Halloween is turning into, trying to decide if it is just a bunch of fun or an excuse to get as close to evil as we can without quite admitting that is what the witches, ghosts and goblins represent. And then there is Christmas which is one we get so mixed up on we don’t know what to do with ourselves, is it an excuse to be a kid-(I like that part), is it about gifts for those we love and care about, or maybe it is about the dinner, that excuse to do away with our diets for one extra big go, but whatever we come up with about Christmas it is to my mind being ruined by the excessive commercialism, but I think anymore we say this every year and no one pays much attention to the idea that Christmas promotions starting already in October makes most of us a bit tired of it all by the time Christmas actually arrives.

But one thing I am observing is that we are losing too often the meaning of the holidays we have on the books. Remembrance Sunday, “we will not forget”, is falling fast by the wayside, the couple of handfuls that showed at the Memorial this year sadly to my mind shows that, say it was cold all you want but the lads that died in the trenches had it colder. I am glad for those who do show each year. Halloween as mentioned has lost the sense of it being the eve of All Saints Day. How many of us really know who St. Andrew even was as a historical figure? And Christmas, the season which really officially started in the churches this past Sunday, is really about Christ and his incarnation. Yet the tradition seems for too many of us Christians to be that of bemoaning the fact that Jesus is getting left out more and more. That political correctness is trying to remove the trappings of what Christmas is really about. It is ok to do the Santa thing, and decorate a bit, but don’t say Happy Christmas, must say Happy holidays or X-mas. We forget that the beginning of it is ‘Christ’, if he hadn’t come we wouldn’t even have this holiday.

So back to my busy week of Thanksgiving; I love it because it reminds me in my life to be thankful for all the blessings I receive and to be thankful even in my hard times since in them somehow my loving heavenly Father has a lesson for me to learn. So for me it is three ‘F’s; Family, Food and Fellowship and my thankfulness that I can enjoy all three...

Now let Christmas Joy begin,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Tribute Part II

2010-11-11T17:17:00.003Z

This week is a bit of a joint effort and you will I hope understand. As in the Brechin Advertizer print edition;

Death is a challenge for all of us to deal with but the sudden death of a young person of good character is even harder for us. This past week has been a challenging week with the sudden passing of Andy Crowe. We will all have seen the articles in the Courier and in our local Advertiser that gave wonderful tributes and news of what has happened.

I have been chatting with the Head teacher, Mr. Dempsey, at Brechin High School and want to share some from him this week. So a bit of a collaborative effort...

“The school community especially has been affected by the tragic death of one of our pupils, Andy Crowe on Friday 29 October. Special assemblies were held on Monday 1 November to pay tribute to him. It provided an opportunity for the school to share stories about Andy’s life and encourage the young people to talk and celebrate his life and his achievements. He was an inspiration to all of us to set targets and goals for ourselves. Andy’s family have encouraged young people to talk about him and share his memories with each other. Jon Bergen and a member of the Angus Council Educational Psychology staff attended the assemblies and were available throughout Monday to offer advice and support. The pupils have responded in a most respectful way to the sad loss of a valued member of the school community.”

As I have watched the students and interacted with them I want to brag on what a great group of students I have talked with at the High School. The staff at the High School have been marvellous as well, both in support and example of how to live through hardship. I have been amazed to see and hear of the many ideas that have come out of the student body to show caring and appreciation for Andy and the support for each other and Andrew’s family.

Mr. Dempsey wanted to share some of the many ideas that have come as a tribute to Andy these include:

“On Thursday 4 November, the football team asked for the whole to participate in one minute’s applause before morning interval;

On Tuesday 9 November and Thursday 11 November, the school canteen will serve Andy’s favourite meal, spaghetti Bolognese, with donuts;

A mural is being designed for the fitness suite; a memorial plaque is to be placed in the fitness suite; Walks are being planned around some of Andy’s running routes; a cup will be awarded at Prize Giving 2011 in his honour for a sporting achievement; Running events are being planned for later in the school session.”

The funeral service was a moving, emotional occasion for all those who attended. We will never forget the tributes from Andy’s family and friends. The whole community has been affected by the events of the last week. We have been reassured by the strength and resilience shown by the young people in the way they have responded. They have bonded to provide support and comfort to each other. It was also moving for myself, Mr. Dempsey and most of all the family to see the tremendous support of students, Cadets, the Royal Marines and so many others of our fair City and area that packed the Cathedral on a bright but chilly Saturday morning to show honour for a fine young man. I know for my part one of my encouragements was for all to look to Andy’s example and to live life to that high standard so that our lives matter and are not just wasted. Andy’s life was not wasted; it was lived to the full. How can we not desire to follow that example?

Yours in Service,

Rev. Jon Bergen and Mr. Steve Dempsey

A Tribute and Reminder

2010-11-02T15:13:00.001Z

By now everyone will have heard about the death of Andy Crowe. We are saddened at the news and yet in our hearts he lives on. There will be many testimonies of the great life he lived in his 15 years.

I was blessed to be a part of the assemblies at the Brechin High School and to have an opportunity to interact with several of our Brechin teens. I want us all to know that we really are blessed to have the great group of teens we have in our community. Andy was one of them with goals and ambitions well beyond his years. I am thankful he lived the full though short life he did as an example for us. I do hope and pray that his example will be a catalyst to move all of us to live life to the fullest.

I also shared with the students, teachers and some of the other staff that I am glad to be a minister at times like this to share the message of hope, of peace and friendship that Jesus often spoke of. I am glad to represent Jesus who was called ‘a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief’. I am glad that when he went to the tomb of his friend he wept... if it was ok for him then it is ok for me as well to sorrow and grieve. But I am as well glad that Jesus also represents hope for a resurrection for his followers. I am glad that I get to share that part of the story in times like this as well.

The hard part is finding a way to explain the ‘Why’. Or to explain how long the hurt will last. The lack of a quick answer to this is still one of the mysteries of all time. But I lean on the unchanging God to have a purpose in all of this that someday I may understand and know that even in these hard times God will still be God and as hard as that is on me, it is enough.

So my sympathy is with family and friends and I am blessed to be a part of a life lived to the full. Can you say you are living the life God gave you to the full? I hope and pray that you do...

Rev. Jon Bergen

Illusions again...

2010-10-22T17:48:00.001+01:00

Ok, so back to the illusions of what church is or isn’t... often I find that the illusions come in pairs. The big pair that was thrown up to me not too long ago was that the ‘Church is full of perfect people” and then within a couple of breaths the idea “that the church is full of hypocrites”. So which is it really?

Well the reality is both and neither. Let’s take the second one first; ‘The church is full of hypocrites’. Aye too right too often. But are they really hypocrites? I am learning that many of the folk I know are not hypocrites so much as just struggling Christians that really need to learn what the Bible says we are to live like. We act wrong because too often we believe wrong. We somehow think if we are ‘good’ then God will love us more and be nicer to us. Truth is God loves us and will love us no matter what. But still we try to be good to get something better and God says ‘I love you so be good because you love me back.’ But it looks like hypocrisy because we are trying too hard to ‘DO something’ and we don’t always ken what it is we are to do, as much out of ignorance as anything.

The ‘Church is full of perfect people’ one is really the same problem but looks different to some because people are doing to make God be nice to us and to love us more. So we look good and smell good but have the wrong motivation too often. And then we end up talking like we have it all figured out and it ends up all show and no go.

So the church ends up in too many people’s minds to be full of perfect hypocrites... oh the joy...

Now to the reality; the church really just has normal ordinary folk who mess up. The church is full of exactly who you would expect it to be full of; liars, cheats, thieves, gamblers, drunks, adulterers, losers and well violators of all the Ten Commandments. HAH you shout with glee---‘I knew it’ all those goody goody folk are exactly what I thought they were... too right. The good news is for many of us that there is a wonderful not so wee clause that says that Jesus came to pay the debt for our sins so we can be forgiven. There is in the reality a bunch of folk who are trusting not in our ability to be ‘good enough’ to be better but rather trusting in God to change us, some days just a wee bit at a time and sometimes in bigger steps. We don’t have to live the lives we really represent, we can do good because it is the right thing to do.

It is about grace, not about doing. But if we get the grace right then we sometimes get the doing right as well... but some days we just do what you do and mess up and have to go back to that glorious well of grace for a new cup of the living water... Yes, church is for imperfect people, but ones who want to be changed by grace.

Loving Grace, because I am neither perfect nor a hypocrite,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Asking questions??? Maybe-maybe not...

2010-10-18T22:46:00.001+01:00

Well it is for sure that time of year again. The Tattie Holidays are over and the nights are drawing in. The summer is trying to hang on but not doing a very good job of it. The harvest is coming in and much of it is well finished. The reality is that the nights are gettng chilly more than not...

But that doesn’t really mean the days get less busy. It is hard to believe that just a few Sundays ago was Back to Church Sunday. Did you go and see if there was anything changed at your church since the last time you went? If you didn’t, why not? I know several folk did as you stopped me on the street and here, there and other places to say that you did. That really was a good start...

I also had some stop and ask me what exactly it is that church is supposed to be about. That always ends up an interesting dialogue. I got asked: what is it do you do your talk about? And that leads to an explanation of what preaching is. I don’t do ‘talks’, I preach... it is what preachers do among about 500 other things. It is that “foolishness of preaching” thing that Paul says leads to salvation. Not because we champion certain causes but because good and great preaching centres on Jesus. Once the Jesus thing gets sorted then the response is doing good works. But like I said a few weeks ago we tend to get Christianity confused and too often it gets backwards.

If you have a question about what Biblical Christianity is or should be do ask. You can often catch up with me out and about the City, or you can stop in for a coffee (I do tea as well some days if coffee isn’t your thing) or you can send me an e-mail question at bbfpastor@gmail.com. If I don’t know the answer I will make one up, not really, but I will do some home work and find one for you or just admit I don’t know. I get asked the one about why bad things happen to good people all the time so save that one for a face to face chat as this forum doesn’t allow enough space for that one unless I do a 52 week series. So it should make for a few interesting thoughts and before we know it the nights will be drawn in and Christmas will be here...

So ask away,

Rev. Jon Bergen

2010-09-22T20:18:00.000+01:00

Some days doing what I do can be a really enjoyable thing. But too often I find that there really is a lot of confusion about what it means to live a ‘Christian’ life. There is real confusion about what ‘Church’ is all about.

I suspect this train of thought could go on for several weeks actually. And I know that there will be many that will take a different perspective to it than I will... which is ok... if they want to be wrong... (ok that was where you were supposed to give a wry grin and say to yourself ; Aye but what does he know? But those of you that know me also know I can be a bit tongue in cheek as well...)

I would like to focus on what church is to be about in light of the up-coming ‘BACK to CHURCH SUNDAY’ coming up. I talk to people that claim to be Christian but they haven’t been to a church service in donkeys. Sometimes for perfectly good reasons, well at least they think so, and sometimes I agree with them. But more often than not I find folk just miss the point. Somehow we have gotten confused and think church is about us, truth is it is about God, about Jesus and what he came to do. We think that if the church service doesn’t ‘do it for us’ something is wrong with it.

We were bored, it was too charismatic, not charismatic enough, the building was too hot, too cold, the singing was too loud, not lively enough, someone spoke to us and we didn’t like it, someone didn’t speak to us, the sermon was too loud, I couldn’t hear the minister. And on and on the excuses go. Just be sure you pick a good excuse, eternity is a long time to live with it.

Truth is too many folk haven’t been in years and have no idea what is going on in the church in 2010, rather it is stuck in their head that it is the same as it was in 1926 or something and they weren’t even born then. Or the opposite is true and they think the church has changed too much since 1926. And then there are many that have never been to church apart from school services and funerals or a wedding or two, but still think they won’t like it having no idea what it is really about.

Back to Church Sunday is 26 September and would make a good day to try it out. I will make a shameless plug and say the church I minister in is the best, but I suspect other ministers might say the same about their place of ministry... I won’t pretend that the church I am minister in is for everyone, not a chance. So check us out, you might be surprised.

Plan for being Back to Church on the 26th and I’ll address other confusion topics more in the future, I’m going to have fun with this one.

Rev. Jon Bergen

Illusions

2010-09-13T13:02:00.001+01:00

It has been a wee while, OK, OK over 8 months... have I really been that busy...? I suppose not really but should at least be getting my stuff up that I do for the Brechin Advertiser most weeks... so here is one from two weeks ago and I will try in the coming weeks to do better, I know, I know--I keep saying that but... so here is a newish one anyway... (reminder to self--put this paragraph in the clipboard for future use...)

This past week I had a chance to talk with a good group of teens about illusions. The contrast of what you see compared to what is actually there. Our world is full of illusions at times that leave us a bit confused and wondering who and what we can believe.

Religion is one of those things that too often gets confused for what it isn’t as much as what it is. Christianity especially these days is under a rather strange attack considering the long history it has had. Yet one of the problems is that ‘Christianity’ has to many become an illusion of being the same as religion.

The reality of Christianity is far too many only see the illusion of the outer trappings of the ritual and the buildings and then they look behind the curtain and see the ‘rules and regulations’ and that is all they see. Or they see the rules and regulations and say that isn’t for me or worse say wow the hypocrisy of it when they have this stuff called sin but nobody pays attention to it. It really comes down to that it has never become personal to them. Many see the outside but never meet the personal God that is really there waiting to become a personal friend.

We celebrate the glitz and glamour of the celebrity life style and at the same time the celebrity types are trying to lock us out of the their world so we don’t see the illusion of brokenness and shallowness of their world that they see. Yet some of them if we really knew the personal side that goes beyond the outer appearances, we would think ‘wow nice folk too bad others can’t see they are just normal. I remember well the first time someone looked at me and said; ‘Wow Jon, you are almost like a normal person.’ But then I realized I had shattered their view of what they thought a minister was supposed to be like and I said ‘thank you what did you expect green skin and horns or something?’ The problem wasn’t me it was with the illusion of what they thought from afar a minister was supposed to be, but once we got to know each other personally the image changed.

So it is with Christianity, it has its challenges and folk have illusions built up about what it is supposed to be, but once it becomes personal and the perspective changes the illusion goes away and suddenly it can make sense. I suspect that this is true of a lot of life but when Jesus becomes personal instead of a building in the middle of the town or out in the country, the whole story changes.

Till the next time,

Rev. Jon Bergen

Where are the Prophets?

2010-01-07T20:49:00.006Z

There is an interesting verse in the Proverbs that says; “Where there is no vision, the people perish...” (29:18), its parallel is in Psalms 74:9 as it says “We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, nor is there any among us who knows how long.”

I find in our current day that the crises seem to keep coming and that there is so often a knee jerk reaction from the leadership of the world. We endured in 2009 the banking crisis in which the governments dumped trillions of a variety of currencies at the banks only for them to give themselves massive bonuses for getting the world economy in such massive trouble. We saw and heard about the Copenhagen mess about 'Climate Change', which is an absolute joke of a topic in the first place if you read the Express article “Climate Change is Natural: 100 Reasons Why”, but getting off topic a bit and we see that the concern is the CO2 being dumped in to the atmosphere and how did the folk all get to Denmark? OH yeah, by carbon burning and CO2 producing vehicles and air craft... the participants and protestors probably made the most pollution in the world for that two week period...

Do we even want to go to the Nobel Peace prize recipient who’s only claim to fame is he is President of the USA? MPs that won’t change a system of benefits that amount to as much or more income than the average salary earned in the UK. Renewable energy folk protesting the clean wind and wave power they say they want... And the list goes on and on. Yet it seems there are none who have real answers to these challenges in our world as we start the New Year, even a new Decade. The answer it appears is more everything but nothing of substance. Nobody it appears is thinking long term, but rather trying to react to the polls and stay popular for the moment.

So what do we do? What can we do? Well the truth is if I really knew the answer to the mess I could write the book and save the world. So I guess I am not much help in saving the world, all I can do is try to affect the small part of the world around me. Try to make a difference in the lives of my friends and family, maybe at some level in the bigger picture of the City of Brechin. But maybe if we all get a sense of our own footprints and maybe for some of us a slightly bigger picture of what is outside our window we might at least make a difference in a small part of our world and in the end if enough of us do a little bit it adds up to something way bigger. It is that salary of a penny a day for a month doubled or £1000 a day situation where we all know that the penny doubled is the best way to go at the end of the month. Just doesn’t seem so to start. (Check out a movie ‘Play it Forward’ as well.) This brings us to Ecclesiastes 4:9-13 which points out; that if one is good, two is better and says a threefold cord is not quickly broken and ends with “better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king...” Let us work together in wisdom every chance we get, and maybe we can make a difference.

Rev. Jon Bergen

Thinking into the New Year

2010-01-02T20:17:00.005Z

Hard to believe how fast the year 2009 has flown by. And now we are already into 2010. That double '0' was easier to type but we'll get used to the new one before it is all done. A lot has happened since the last post on the blog took place at the end of August. I wonder if all bloggers have this challenge of trying to keep something posted and up to date? I suppose so as one of my regular reads took a break and went to the archives to keep posts on theirs daily. My problem is that I haven't done enough years of this to have an archive to draw from.

So that brings me to resolutions for 2010 and the long list of things I should work on, but it seems year to year that I keep trying to make the same ones; lose weight, get organized, be nicer to the folk around me, read my Bible every day just for fun and not just for study, be a better dad, a better husband, a better sibling/son... and on and on the list goes... But like you and 6 billion others on this planet I seem to get a nice start and then I get busy and miss a day or three and that turns into a week or four and suddenly I am too far behind to catch up so start looking forward to the next New Year to start over. But the older I get the more I realise what others told me when I really was young that time flies and it seems 2009 just flew by.

So I hope to develop the gift that I want to develop of writing more and hopefully will have some things of worth to share and pass on as the year goes by. I do have several 'Thoughts for the Week' that I can put here as I do them. Some of the better ones that others write I will either quote or get a link to. Then also I can do wee short glimpses of Sunday messages here as well... so we shall see what happens and then there is the whole Twitter thing... but I am not known for saying things in less than 140 characters so not a good venue for me... LOL

So here is to a good New Year and keeping some basic resolutions as 2010 flies past...

Jon

2009-08-26T20:30:00.000+01:00

So I left the topic of requirements for life a bit unfinished to say the least in the last post, so will pick up with the ‘Justice’ thought; We live in a world that is crying out for justice and even has many organizations that are set up to promote justice. But what is it really? Well a simple dictionary definition comes down to the idea of impartial... But at the end of the day it is something that when it is right we know it and when we are treated un-justly we know that as well.

There are days that justice would give me things I really don’t want, that I would receive the penalty of the deeds I messed up in. and there are other days I just want a fair go in life. So really what I desire in the area of justice is just getting what is fair and balanced and impartial. But we all tend to want our idea of justice for ‘me’ and let the other guy get what he gets.

But God requires us to ‘do justice’, this is about more than what we want, it is about how we live our lives. It is about how we treat our fellow man. I was reminded again of one of the great documents in history as I listened to a group of actors read the US Declaration of Independence. It has been a while since I read that document for myself, but to actually hear it read was well worth the effort and a reminder of the sense of what we are to be about. That famous line; “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It gives to me a sense of what justice is, it outlines things that are essential to human life and dignity.

But too often I fear we want it for me at the cost of others, forgetting that God wants us to live this principle for ourselves but also for our community, country and the world at large. While I understand that I will never change the world as such, I hope that I can at least influence a few others around me to be better, to live justly as we try to be impartial in our treatment of each other. It will often come back to the two great commandments that say; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength and the second is like it, love your neighbour as yourself, on these two hang all the law and prophets.

But as we add living justly, treating people around as they deserve to be treated in an impartial and fair manner, to our standard of life, we must grow into the second requirement of loving kindness or as the old Authorized Version puts it, love mercy...

To be continued...

2009-08-24T16:52:00.002+01:00

Hard to believe how fast this summer has flown by. When I originally wrote this it was just a week and the children were to be back in school, and now they are a week into the new term. Several o of the children let me know they didn't want to be reminded of that tremendous fact. Yet some are so very ready for this event to take place... the mothers.

I have on my Facebook page an album of pictures I took around the Brechin and Glen Esk area in the early spring. I vowed that I would get back to these places several times over the spring and take up-date pictures. I wanted to do so each week to show the progress of spring, suddenly I find that even the thistles are well bloomed and my Elderflower champagne is ready to drink. Where did the time fly to? I think how busy I get some days and I am sure there are too many days you feel the same way. Busy. Busy. Busy...

Even as I am trying to think of something creative to say, to make us think as we go our way day to day I have a dozen things rattling about in my head that I need to do before my day is done. And yet again I ask myself if these are the important things or just good things. If all that list are the best things or just things that need doing.

And the reminder comes flying out of Micah chapter 6 that cries out with a similar question of what does it take to please God? All my good things I do day to day, bowing before the Lord on high, maybe it is offerings given, maybe a calf...? No surely it is not that easy, maybe it is a thousand rams given or ten thousand rivers of oil offered...? Maybe it is even that proverbial first born child?

But actually it is something simpler, yet harder in that it goes against our nature some days. It is the requirement of “do Justice, and love Mercy and to walk Humbly with your God...” Just three simple things; Justice, mercy/kindness and humility in our day to day walk, with God to help us in this our life journey. Can it really be so simple? Can it really be done? Well we have to try and God wouldn’t require it if it was impossible...

To be continued...

2009-07-04T09:27:00.002+01:00

So picking up kind of where I left off last time;

How can living Bible principles as they are make a difference? Well, even as a minister, sometimes things in the Bible don’t always make me happy, some things kind of get under my skin and I have the same reaction as you do... I don’t like what it shows me about myself.

So just as the doctor who has the patient that has a major problem in their body, they have to speak up, they have to prescribe a solution to that problem. Some times that involves surgery or chemo that has some nasty side effects. It hurts and there can be scars, yet hopefully at the end of the day the patient gets well. But, what happens if the doctor says to the patient; “If you do what I tell you there is a 95% chance you will be fine but with no treatment you will die” and the patient refuses to take the treatment? Well the patient will die.

And so it is in our society with moral values. I read the papers most days and try to watch the news and too often it is pretty bad news, as I have mentioned, crime is up; theft, drugs, gun and knife crime, murder (even in our City which is by most standards safe), fighting in the streets, drunk and disorderly conduct... and the list goes on and on. Diseases of all types seem to be on the rise; STD’s, alcoholism and the effects of excess drinking, drug addiction, heart disease and things folk get living a lives of excess. How does greed affect the world we live in? We look at poverty and need. Pollution is another problem caused by careless living and greed.

All that bad news, what can we do? Well I happen to believe in God and the Bible as the word of God. I don’t always manage to live it perfectly, but I am growing in that direction and maybe by the time I am a hundred and five I might make it—almost. But the neat thing is the same Bible that shows where we are in error is the same Bible that teaches us love, forgiveness, grace and mercy. A cure for the things we run afoul of. It is the prescription for ‘sin’ (there is a word we don’t use much anymore), grace is effective 100% of the time when we apply it and it lets our society down when we ignore it.

Yet I know there are those of you that will say; “Well Jon, I don’t believe in your God or your Bible so what do you think of that?” My response is ‘that is your choice.’ I still submit that at the very least, if our society and culture would live by the principles one finds in the Bible we could still have a better society than we have now. We would do more good, less harm and have a better time getting through this life. While I don’t think we can really live life without God, I also still believe a biblical standard helps us all. We could get rid of a lot of guilt, illness and crime. We would show love and not prejudice, we would give to those in need, and we would use good stewardship to keep our planet clean and use the resources instead of abusing our world.

Jon

Telling Biblical Truth--Love? or Hate? I say loving.

2009-06-24T10:22:00.002+01:00

Thought for the Week

If you have been following my ‘to be continued’ series, they have been wrapped up in the idea of the Bible being a good source for a world view and a guide to how to live life. The amazing thing in the context of several statements in the last few weeks has been an almost denial of the Bible as a source for Christian living, a dismissal of all but the four Gospels. In light of the General Assembly a few weeks ago even some ministers gave the idea of; ‘While ministers may read some of the Old Testament, they no longer read the Bible as literal or as the word of God.’ The way it was asked of me was; “You don’t take the Bible literally, do you?” To which my reply was “How else can one take it if it is the source of what you believe?” Of course that raises many issues on the topics to which the Bible speaks.

So, I have been asking about the Bible knowledge of some in our fair City, and though many have great opinions about the Bible, even of some that actually attend church, very few actually read it or know what it says. For while the Bible speaks to great values of love and compassion, it also speaks to great topics like the holiness and righteousness of God, the sinful condition of man and it really does explain why our society is in the shape it is in. It explains that lack of morals on the part of people leads to a price to pay. Look at the challenges in the area of honesty in the Parliament that has lead the news stories lately. Read the papers on crime stats and drug and alcohol abuse. Look at the rise of STD’s in our country and you will see that they are rising despite a ‘safe sex’ secular message. I have seen the late night commercials for avoiding these, as have you. The Bible tells us that we need to be honest, that we need to stay sober, that chastity is a virtue. Violent crime would disappear if the biblical mandate of ‘love God and your neighbour’ was followed. The Bible teaches us to limit sexual relations to a husband and wife married to each other. Teen pregnancy? Tayside has some of the highest rates in the UK, but it can be solved. HIV/Aids? Well, you wipe that out in short order if monogamy in marriage and/or abstinence is taught and practiced.

Are these messages popular in our world today? Not a chance! I have talked to too many even here in our City to think that. I am surprised though at the number of folk who don’t even really understand that this is basic Christian principle. But at the same time I find odd the concept that to take a stance for traditional Christian morality makes me “un-loving”? I have friends who live different than my sense of Christian values suggests they should, but we are still friends. As I was reminded, the doctor who tells the person with cancer that they need surgery or chemo is not unloving. But a doctor who tells a patient they are fine when the patient is sick is unloving.

And thus it should be with a literal Bible message, it must be shared for the truth it is, yet in love with a view to changing the world...

To be continued...

Rev. Jon Bergen, Brechin Baptist Fellowship

Father's Day Thought for the Week...

2009-06-20T21:45:00.002+01:00

This was what I put together for the Brechin Advertiser this week. Hope you enjoy.

With Father’s Day this up-coming Sunday, 21 June, I will take a wee break from my ‘to be continued’ series and give a few thoughts on fathers. There are days dads get a rather bad deal and days we only get what we deserve, and then there are times we get better than we deserve. I try to take all three types of days in stride.

The challenge with being a father is that it is easy to get the job of dad, sometimes before one thinks he is really ready, truth is we are never really ready, but as I said it is can be an easy job to get, after all it is just a matter of biology. But really being a DAD and FATHER on the other hand is not so easy and part of the problem with being a dad is that sometimes our dads didn't do such a great job of showing us how to do this big job. Sometimes it is a matter of us not being in the right places at the right times to really be part of our children’s lives. Sometimes we are just lazy and there are a bunch of other factors of course.

As a minister I try to spend a bit of time reading my Bible and in it sadly there are not very many ‘great dads’ to model what it takes to get the job done. Our first father Adam really started the whole mess, couldn’t even obey God to not eat one little piece of fruit for goodness sake, then he blamed Eve... Then over and over we find dads that let their kids down, did the wrong thing for the wrong reason and we wonder why we can’t get it sorted our own selves.

There is a wee story, that I have no idea of the origins, of a dad that is watching his son trying to move a really heavy stone. The lad is grunting and groaning and making hard graft of it and still no joy. The dad asks, “Son, are you sure you are using all your strength to get that stone moved?” The exasperated son says “Of course I am...” To which the father replies, “No you are not, you haven’t asked me to help you.”

Thing is we, as dads, really are that wee lad trying desperately to move the rock of raising our children all by ourselves, when we could so easily ask a heavenly father to help us. God does want to be our heavenly father so that we can call out to him as Jesus did and as Paul encourages us to do; to call out Abba Father, or Daddy Daddy. There is all the help we need if we just ask.

I don’t know how you feel but it warms my heart when my wee lassies come running up to me and tell me they love me or what a good dad I am. I’d tell you it works as well when my big braw lads tell me they love me as well, but goodness knows I’d never want to embarrass them by saying that in public, so we shall leave it to the wee lassies to make a Daddy feel good inside. But God, ‘Our Father which is in Heaven’ also likes to hear from us once in a while as well. And he sets a pretty good example for us to follow. The best line I think starts out; “For God so loved...”

Rev. Jon Bergen

Going well...

2009-06-10T17:09:00.003+01:00

Well today I am in St. Andrews with a bunch of ministers. Alister Begg is the speaker and he has so far nailed it exactly with a call to us a pastors to PREACH the GOSPEL! Look out when I get back, you only thought I wanted to preach... Anyway keep me and the others in your prayers as we face the future of Church in the 21st Century... More to come...

Jon

Idolatry

2009-04-28T23:27:00.003+01:00

Just finished listening to Tim Keller's lecture on Idolatry given at last weeks Gospel Coalition.

He raised some really interesting points which I'll try and summarise below:

He makes a case for discerning, exposing and destroying idols.

Firstly we need to understand, to see our own idols and the idols of our community (our city).

An idol isn't just a little statue that people bow down to it is a thing or person or idea that we place above God.
An idol is any object, relationship or pursuit that is so central that we can’t have meaning to life without it.
"Hang on a minute" you maybe saying, "but I worship God above anything else, I have no idols".
Well before you go on, analyse what else is important in your life - your lifestyle, your status in the community or at your job, your husband, your wife, your girlfriend, your opinion, your boyfriend, your children.
If you lost whatever it is that is important to you, how would you react, you may feel gutted, devastated, but would your life feel meaningless as a result? If it would that is your idol.
When you make a good thing an absolute thing you have an idol.

How do we do something about it?

When idols are opposed it is dangerous
Idols are worthless things, they are created things, things we made ourselves which doesn't have the power to give us what we want
But on the other hand they are extremely powerful because through them the forces of darkness control us.
BUT Jesus defeated the powers of darkness
We know Jesus died for our sins and took the punishment for our idolatry
But we need to see what he's done for us, know what he's done for us, when this hits home we can free ourselves from the stranglehold of idolatry
Remember your career, marriage or children can't die for your sins

Read Acts 19

Moving from Perfect Church to a Real Church

2009-04-26T13:24:00.003+01:00

One of the challenges is that there is a 'Perfect' Church out there... but not at the moment really so while we don't want to settle for a second rate ministry or church, we also must accept that there are challenges to being a 'perfect church' that are most likely beyond our ability in this life to achieve. So with that in mind we are working through a series of messages addressing the idea of an ideal church and trying to lay out principles that will help us to be the best church we can be where we are. Though I don't intend or have the ability to put a complete series of notes and whatnot up for all. I am going to try to at least give a seed thought as time goes by.

Some time back the questions were posed of 'What is Church and what isn't church?' The next question was wrapped around the idea then of what it takes to be a 'perfect church.'

Last week and this week were intros to the topic of perfect verses ideal verses where we are... so hopefully later I will get some notes up. But to get started read Titus 1 and 2 as the scriptural introduction.

So stay tuned and we will get there.

In Christ,

Jon

Things to come...

2009-03-23T09:07:00.002Z

Here it is Monday morning... a busy Sunday of a morning service for Mothering Sunday, had a really great evening with Michael Harcus. If you missed the concert you missed a blessing. It was pretty casual and informal, but it gave a chance for just wonderful reflection and as pastor I don’t often get that ‘sitting in the pew’ experience very often. Also I love Michael’s music anyway so to hear some of the background stories of some of the songs he and his fellow musicians have written was really fun and helped to add understanding to them as I listen in the future. Even had a good laugh at a cell phone incident... worth the price of admission just for that... But if you missed the concert you can still at least get some of the music as I have a few of the CD’s available. The new one is worth it for, well actually, all twelve songs on the album... The one ‘Unchanging God’ is special and one that speaks much deeper than my first listening led me to understand is ‘Your Word, Love and Grace.’

But I was in bed early for me and then woke up at 3:30 AM and just couldn’t get back to sleep... so got up and spent some quiet time... I don’t always do well with the quiet times in that too often after a day like yesterday the thoughts roll and God talks in the still small voice. Problem is I don’t always like what he has to say. It too often points out the things I need to change in my life. My message for yesterday was an eclectic mix of three stories of sons and a nation. It was the contrast of Isaac and Ishmael. One son of a wife and one of a slave. One of promise and one of the flesh as Galatians points out. Then there was the bit on Hannah and Samuel... Hannah’s co-wife was blessed and Hannah felt rejected but in the end God granted her a son that she then surrendered to God for life. Then in contrast there is the story in Numbers about the serpent being lifted up in the wilderness... The thing that draws these stories together is the whole picture of grace... Sarah didn’t ‘deserve’ the promise of Isaac, Hannah didn’t have a right to Samuel, the nation of Israel didn’t earn the salvation from the serpents but grace prevailed and gave a way to have promise fulfilled. So I ended in Galatians 5:1 with standing in the liberty that God gives us.

So though the message may not have gotten across as well as I wanted in the end it started working in my heart, then the music and testimony of Michael pushed me to the next level as I woke hearing one of the songs ringing in my mind, dwelling on the coming of Christ... and asking myself; what am I doing to live my best before God and the society in which I live. What makes me be church not just go to church.
Which finally leads up to some upcoming things; So we have a few weeks leading up to Easter, and I really want to focus on Jesus and what Easter means. This coming few weeks I anticipate staying with the Lectionary Scriptures as a starting point through Easter. After Easter I intend to do a series based on the work we did with the whole idea of ‘What is and what isn’t Church’ and then unpack several items with the whole ‘Ideal Church’ thoughts we had. This will lead inevitably to many thoughts and blogs so watch this space.

Jon

The passing of a friend

2009-03-20T12:45:00.003Z

It is a hard thing to hear of a friend passing away. This past two weeks I have had two pass away and despite my knowing the truth of the gospel message it still is a hurt that goes very deep. This morning I received word that my friend Pastor Boersma passed away. (click here for a link to the Blog notice) I am saddened by this news, yet know that my friend is in the presence of our best friend--Jesus. So sorrow with me a wee while and then rejoice that his pain is over and his soul is in the presence of our Saviour.

Michael Harcus

2009-03-17T21:46:00.004Z

Link (click on title) to the dude whose coming to perform this Sunday (22nd) at 6:30 (pm in case you were wondering).

Saint Patrick - from Resurgence blog

2009-03-17T21:29:00.002Z

“I am a servant of Christ to a foreign nation for the unspeakable glory of life everlasting which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” – Patrick

My family name was originally O’Driscoll until it was changed a few generations ago by relatives hoping to more fully assimilate into American culture after immigrating from Ireland. Though I was raised Irish Catholic, I knew virtually nothing about Saint Patrick other than the green beer, parades, shamrocks, leprechauns, and drunken Red Sox fans that celebrated in his honor every March 17th.

Technically, Saint Patrick is not even a saint, as he was never canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Additionally, Patrick was not even Irish. Rather, he was an Englishman who was a Roman citizen that spoke Latin and a bit of Welsh.

Patrick was born around 390 A.D. When he was roughly 16 years of age he was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland on a ship where he was sold into slavery. He spent the next six years alone in the wilderness as a shepherd for his masters’ cattle and sheep.

Isolation

Patrick was a rebellious non-Christian teenager who had come from a Christian family. His grandfather was a pastor, and his father was a deacon. However, during his extended periods of isolation without any human contact, Patrick began praying and was eventually born again into a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ. Patrick endured the years of isolation in rain and snow by praying up to 100 prayers each day and another 100 each night.

In his early twenties God spoke to Patrick in a dream, telling him to flee from his master for a ship that was waiting for him. Amazingly, Patrick made the 200-mile walk without being caught or harmed to find a ship setting sail for his home, just as God had promised. The sailors were out of food for the journey, and after Patrick prayed a herd of pigs miraculously ran toward the ship, providing a bountiful feast for the long voyage home.

God Speaks to Patrick

Upon returning home, Patrick enrolled in seminary and was eventually commissioned as a pastor. Some years later God spoke to Patrick in a dream, commanding him to return to Ireland to preach the gospel and plant churches for the pagans who lived there.

The Roman Catholic Church had given up on converting such “barbarians” deemed beyond hope. The Celtic peoples, of which the Irish were part, were an illiterate bunch of drunken, fighting, perverted pagans who basically had sex with anyone and worshipped anything. They were such a violent and lawless people, numbering anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000, that they had no city centers or national government and were spread out among some 150 warring clans. Their enemies were terrified of them because they were known to show up for battles and partake in wild orgies before running into battle naked and drunk while screaming as if they were demon-possessed. One clan was so debased that it was customary for each of their new kings to copulate with a white mare as part of his inauguration.

Unique Missionary Strategy

In faith, the forty-something year-old Patrick sold all of his possessions, including the land he had inherited from his father, to fund his missionary journey to Ireland. He worked as an itinerant preacher and paid large sums of money to various tribal chiefs to ensure he could travel safely through their lands and preach the gospel. His strategy was completely unique, and he functioned like a missionary trying to relate to the Irish people and communicate the gospel in their culture by using such things as three-leaf clovers to explain the gospel. Upon entering a pagan clan, Patrick would seek to first convert the tribal leaders and other people of influence. He would then pray for the sick, cast demons out of the possessed, preach the Bible, and use both musical and visual arts to compel people to put their faith in Jesus. If enough converts were present he would build a simple church that did not resemble ornate Roman architecture, baptize the converts, and hand over the church to a convert he had trained to be the pastor so that he could move on to repeat the process with another clan.

Patrick gave his life to the people who had enslaved him until he died at 77 years of age. He had seen untold thousands of people convert as between 30-40 of the 150 tribes had become substantially Christian. He had trained 1000 pastors, planted 700 churches, and was the first noted person in history to take a strong public stand against slavery.

Roman Opposition

Curiously, Patrick’s unorthodox ministry methods, which had brought so much fruit among the Irish, also brought much opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. Because Patrick was so far removed from Roman civilization and church polity he was seen by some as an instigator of unwelcome changes. This lead to great conflicts between the Roman and Celtic Christians. The Celtic Christians had their own calendar and celebrated Easter a week earlier than their Roman counterparts. Additionally, the Roman monks shaved only the hair on the top of their head, whereas the Celtic monks shaved all of their hair except their long locks which began around the bottom of their head as a funky monk mullet. The Romans considered these and other variations by the Celtic Christian leaders to be acts of insubordination.

In the end, the Roman Church should have learned from Patrick, who is one of the greatest missionaries who has ever lived. Though Patrick’s pastors and churches looked different in method, they were very orthodox in their theology and radically committed to such things as Scripture and the Trinity. Additionally, they were some of the most gifted Christian artists the world has ever known, and their prayers and songs endure to this day around the world, including at Mars Hill where we occasionally sing the “Prayer of Saint Patrick” and the Celtic hymn “Be Thou My Vision.”

Mark Driscoll

For Further Study:

At www.ccel.org there is a free copy available of Patrick’s book Confessions.
Steve Rabey’s book In the House of Memory is a good introduction to Patrick and Celtic Christianity.
Thomas Cahill’s book How the Irish Saved Civilization is a fascinating historical look at Patrick and the implications of Celtic Christianity on western history.
www.ChristianityToday.com/history is the site for Christian History and Biography magazine, which is a wonderful resource that includes an entire issue on Patrick and Celtic Christianity.

Random Thoughts About Dentopedology

2009-03-06T16:23:00.006Z

Random thoughts is one of my favourite ways to think... well actually it is not so much a favourite as it is one of those things that just happens a lot. Here I am working through a bunch of papers on my desk and came across a Courier from September that I pored over to figure why I had saved it. Suddenly off the page jumped a reminder of why I had saved this particular editorial section. There is this random thing I do way too often and joke about it by saying that "I open mouth and insert foot." Well this particular copy from September 10, 2008 had the scientific definition of that syndrome; "Dentopedology is the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it. I've been practising it for years."--The Duke of Edinburgh.

So not sure what kind of company that puts me in, I guess it depends on one's point of view on the Duke of Edinburgh. I wish I could also put in the cartoon that is next to it as a construction worker type says; "we need another @#!#*#@# swear box--this one's @#!#*#@# full!!"

But thinking of this reminds me of James as he points out the challenge we have as we face our day to day lives and deal with the whole thought process and the words we use and he makes the case so well that if we can control our tongues we can control the other areas of our lives as well. Our words can be a blessing or a curse. A salve or burning fire. Small compared to our body our tongue is compared to a rudder that steers a ship and so it is with our words as we say things we sometimes have to live up to the words we speak and sometimes if our words are not right they steer us a wrong direction. But if our words are right and true then they can steer us in a good way as well.

There are days that it is a real challenge to bite my tongue both in a negative way but also in a positive way. There are times my human nature gets in the flesh and I want to say something that is not of value and would in the end come out as course and vulgar... the times I don't give in to this are victories in life. But there are other victories that are the times I want so desperately to meddle in the lives of people around me, to say things that while good for them and could possibly make their lives better that I say nothing as I realize that they are not in a place in their lives to appreciate the comment and the intent behind it.

The challenge as well is to know when to actually speak up and help someone's life be better. It is finding that balance between saying the right thing for the right reason at the right time to make a difference and being a busybody...

May God grant the grace to pick which is right at the right time.

Here is to us speaking Godly,

Rev. Jon

4 Reasons Why We Need to Tell People About Jesus

2009-02-22T00:07:00.004Z

These reasons were provided during a talk given at the Christianity Explored conference in Edinburgh on Saturday 21st February 2009.

Grace - We know the awesome good news of the grace of Jesus and our desire is to share it (Romans 1: 5-6).
Gehenna (the Jewish equivalent to the concept of Hell. The name derived from the burning garbage dump near Jerusalem) - We know he is the only way to salvation (Romans 1: 16-17). Imagine knowing there was a bomb on a plane before it takes off, disembarking unnoticed and watching the plane take off loaded with passengers destined to die.
Glory - because like the apostle Paul our motivation is to see God alone glorified and we all know the chief end of man is 'to glorify God by enjoying him forever'.
Godliness - because being Godly is not suppressing, but proclaiming the truth of Jesus (Matthew 28:19)

What should Church be like

2009-02-20T11:50:00.000Z

You are important to God and important to us!!!

We are seeking to do a Christ centred ministry with you in mind.

We are interested in what you think !!!

What would you change about church if you could?

What causes you to dislike church or what keeps you from attending?

What is missing from most church services?

What kind of service would meet your needs or the needs of your family?

Please Help us by responding to this blog - Giving us your insight.

Questions

2009-02-19T14:26:00.000Z

Ok here is a question place... maybe... again in the learning curve so will have to see how this works. Ask a question and we can carry on a discussion to see where it takes us. I will moderate the comments and hopefully come Biblical conclusions...

First Endeavour

2009-02-17T01:06:00.000Z

Setting up a blog shouldn't be too hard... it is the ability to keep up with it that is the challenge. But we shall see. So this is a first, but hopefully not the last. I hope to use it as a tool to chat amongst our Fellowship and get us better connected. It should also be usable as a tool to ask and answer questions and hopefully keep up with the events of Brechin Baptist Fellowship.

Here is to getting started,

Jon