A FIT????

Since my retirement from Rosedale Baptist Church in 2013 my desire has been to serve the third world church in whatever way I can. My preference would be to teach and equip Pastors through Bible and Theological studies but I have nevertheless made a trip to Chad to teach English to Muslims and a trip to Guyana to distribute Jesus DVD's.

I have recently been accepted as a teacher with Training Leaders International (TLI) . Here is a description of what TLI does: "Training Leaders International mentors and sends pastors, seminary professors and graduate students to bring theological education around the world through short-term trips, long-term sending and school planting." Please have a look at this website, <http://trainingleadersinternational.org/>

As I pray my way through Operation World a reoccurring theme for many countries is the need for trained Pastors and church leaders. Not only do millions upon millions of Pastors have no formal training and no capacity to get formal training but they also have very little in the way of resources. I am grateful to the Gospel Coalition for its Theological Famine Relief Program that provides resources for church leaders in needy countries and areas. TLI provides teaching and course materials so that the training these Pastors receive can be given to others. The TLI program has 24 courses. You can view the curriculum online under "In the Field".

I have committed to a team trip to the Philippines from May 19th to 29th to teach Hermeneutics.

HERMENEUTICS

Rules and Guidelines for Interpreting the Bible

TrainingLeadersInternational.

Here is a formal description of our trip: "TLI is conducting a non-formal, pastor training program designed to build and strengthen the church in this 7,107-island Southeast Asian nation. The pastors in the program come from various areas around the island. Most of the pastors are responsible for several churches. You are invited to join us in strengthening and encouraging these pastors in this traditionally Catholic country experiencing a growing Muslim influence."

For me this will be a time of learning how to teach cross-culturally. So far I am impressed with Training Leaders International (TLI) and hope this will be the beginning of a long and beneficial fit that will benefit many Pastors. I plan to keep you informed through blog updates if I have access to internet.

I will be working through Reach Beyond Canada <http://reachbeyond.ca/> who has an Agency Agreement with TLI.

If you would like to support this trip you can donate through:
1) Rosedale Baptist Church, 11 Rosedale Place, Welland, ON, L3B 1J2. Please specify that your donation is for the Short-Term Mission Fund for Ron Latulippe.
2) Reach Beyond Canada, Unit 3- 44 Saltsman Dr, Cambridge, ON, N3H 4R7 or online by clicking DONATE button, and then from the drop down menu - "Donate to a missionary and indicate name below in message", then enter my name in the "Message for Reach Beyond" box below, then fill out remaining information.
3) US citizens can donate directly to TLI at PO Box 310 / Wheaton, IL 60187 and specify that your donation is for Ron Latulippe for the May Philippines trip or this link <http://trainingleadersinternational.org/trips/139/philippines-may-2016#fl.260.teams.assocTrips> click "support this person" and follow instructions.

Let me know if you have any questions.

THE HEART OF ROAD RAGE

Road rage can be ugly and sometimes even deadly. What is your road rage level these days? Has that level changed since last year?

Let's look at some causes of road rage. Anger is certainly a cause of road rage but we need to go further back to the cause of that anger. Is it a long-burning bitterness, a deep-seated unforgiveness, a guilty secret which cannot be shared, retaliation toward overpowering authority? Any one of these things or a number of others can cause anger which comes out in an encounter with another driver. The fundamental problem is that these issues have not been recognized and properly dealt with through admission, repentance, confession and forgiveness. You can make a road rager take anger management classes but the deep seated answer to his anger is a change of heart through an encounter with God through Jesus Christ. The new birth means a new heart to deal with road rage.

Perhaps the cause of road rage is impatience, the absolute necessity of making that next appointment, of reaching that destined goal even though you have not allowed yourself enough time for unplanned encounters. Those unplanned encounters with those "stupid" drivers is cutting into your all important schedule. Well let's look a little deeper into this impatience. Impatience does not leave room for the sovereign rule of God in unplanned circumstances, or for the greater goal that supersedes the planned destination, or for the rest and peace of God in traffic jams and accident snarls. Those who have a new heart in Jesus Christ need not panic or get angry in uncontrollable and unforeseen circumstances. A rise in anxiety is a cause to call upon God for His peace and patience which passes all understanding.

Let's look at one more. Road rage is caused by a sense of privilege and entitlement. We have so much in this country and that can make us feel entitled to those things instantly, always and at all times. Anyone who gets in the way is stepping on our privileges and needs to get out of the way. I have a right to an open highway, an open way through the traffic, no one's destination is more important than mine. Again I must go back beyond the cultural conditioning that has caused this sense of privileged entitlement to the selfish condition of the individual heart. That is the fundamental problem.

The anger, the impatience, the sense of entitlement that rises in our hearts in a traffic jam or in any other circumstances is not somebody else's fault, it is God's call to us to conformity to Christ in a deeper way through repentance, confession, forgiveness and new grace to become what we are in Christ. For the unbeliever these things are a call to come to Christ for a new heart, but for us God calls us in many ways each day to a deeper fellowship and fuller conformity to Jesus.

You are not likely a full blown road rage candidate but be alert to those calls to sanctification in your everyday life. There are plenty. God's plan is to make you like Jesus in every way. What an exciting privilege and challenge.

ROOT CAUSES

Why is the Canadian government (and other governments for that matter) increasing in debt? Leaving aside fiscal mismanagement, costly short-sited decisions, corruption, excessive salaries and interest on existing debt, the problem is that the government’s focus is on symptoms and consequences and not on root causes. Our problems are systemic and generational but our government is only dealing with immediate and present symptoms and the consequences of our problems. They do not ask why things are like this or what brought us to this crisis. They do not examine inflated expectations, a growing demand for personal rights and other underlying factors. They do not look back at the dominos of causes which have led us to the present circumstances. They just keep attacking a growing mountain of symptoms with more borrowed money.

The reasons for this approach are multi-fold. First of all the government seems to be blind to the systemic and generational causes of our present problems. Second if the government does see these systemic and generational causes they are afraid to point them out and remedy them knowing what an uproar and backlash that would cause. In short they are afraid and unwilling to do what is needed. Those would not be politically correct decisions. Finally, any remedy dealing with systemic and generational causes would require a radical worldview change. I think that apart from a wholesale revival in our land we have gone beyond the possibility of dealing with systemic and generational problems. Secularism, materialism and human rights now dominate our thinking, and our culture is sufficiently blinded by false worldviews that it will no longer deal with the problems which are the result of our throwing off the ways of God for the sophisticated and advanced ways of man. Greed, my rights, having my problems solved by the government, comfort, security, a free share of the wealth, all work against any true and lasting solutions.

Politicians are not ready to provide those kind of answers and face the consequences. Their solution is to keep pouring cash toward those symptoms and consequences, knowing that in the end costs will increase and no true and lasting remedies will be achieved. Unfortunately these increased costs are always transferred to the citizens in the form of ever increasing taxes on products, services and income at all levels of government.

Enter Donald Trump. Why is he so popular? I believe one of the reasons is his willingness to openly address what he believes to be some of the systemic and generational causes of the problems in the United States. He is the focus for people who are fed up with being laden with government debt to meet symptoms that do not deal with causes. I am not saying I agree with Trump’s policies nor to I believe he is addressing the most fundamental problems but he is not leading a populous movement for no reason.  There is at least the appearance of dealing with causes. Implementing answers that deal with systemic and generational causes will not be as easy as Trump implies and he has only addressed economic and security needs and not root causes.

 National change will only result from a revival. Politicians cannot change hearts, only policies. As believers we can see individuals changed through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that is what is most important at this time. We are to continue to give to Caesar what Caesar demands even if we do not like it but we must give to God what God demands with praise and joy. Governments are bankrupt with regard to lasting solutions. Our culture no longer has a conscience while it focuses on pleasure and finding happiness on its own terms. But in Jesus Christ eternal life is still offered and will be received by those whom God has called out of this evil world and into the kingdom of His Son.

FOR THE RECORD

As a Christian I do not want to live in-camera but publicly live and proclaim my faith. I acknowledge that in countries where Christians are severally persecuted some are secret believers, but for us that is not an option. We should live and proclaim our beliefs in a way that those around us ask about the hope that is within us or have a legitimate cause to mock and hate us. The Bible calls us to be kind, patient, not quarrelsome, able to teach those who oppose us that perhaps they may repent and come to a knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 2.24-26). Live what you believe, proclaim what you believe and be able to share from the Bible why you believe.

 For the record, there is only one true God who has revealed Himself, His character, and His purposes to us through the Bible. The God of the Bible is not Allah the god of Islam. God has no equal.

The Bible is God's revealed word to mankind and is the final authority on origins, the sinfulness of humanity, how we can be accepted by God through Jesus Christ's death on the cross, holy and loving behavior and morality, how the world will end, and the eternal destiny of mankind.

The heart of mankind is essentially sinful and corrupted, not good. We are not evolving into gods or oneness with the universe by means of meditation, enlightenment, or mysticism. Our essential problem is not a need for education, better politics, fairer distribution of food and water, financial equity. We need a new heart by the supernatural work of God through faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. This new nature leads to God focused motives, thoughts, attitudes and actions which change the individual and can influence those around them. Those who trust in Jesus Christ receive the gift of eternal life and those who reject Christ will be separated from God for eternity in a place called the lake of fire. One day God will establish His eternal kingdom on earth.

This world is under the control of the Devil through numerous false religious systems, false teachers, false worldviews, and the lie that man can earn his way to God. Behind these earthly powers are spiritual powers which seek to destroy the image of God in man, seek to destroy children and families, and biblical based morality. The Devil seeks to defame and falsely represent the true God who is revealed in the Bible. The Devil hates God and all those who are aligned with God and all that reflects the image of God. The Devil also works through institutions and governments where leaders and worldviews are under his control.

Christian it is time for you to rejoice that you know the true God of the universe, that you have a new nature in Christ, and that you are in the world but not of the world. Be true to your calling in Christ. Live Christ, proclaim Christ, and know what the Bible teaches you about Christ in you the hope of glory.

Ordinary

This week I would like to share with you a devotional written by F. B. Meyer. Snuggle in on this beautiful snowy day, sit down with your favorite cup of tea or coffee or juice and enjoy this truth, then live it out as you can each day.

MODERN MIRACLES

"Many resorted unto Him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things John spake of this Man were true. And many believed on Him there."-- Jn 10:41, 42.
THE PEOPLE were inclined to disparage the life of John the Baptist because he performed no miracle. But surely his whole life was a miracle; from first to last it vibrated with Divine power. This is still the mistake of men. They allege that the age of miracles has passed. If they admit that such prodigies may possibly have happened once, they insist that the world has outgrown them, and that in its maturity mankind has put them away as childish things!
No miracles! But last summer God made the handfuls of grain, which the farmers cast on the fields, sufficient to feed all the populations of the world as easily as He made five barley loaves suffice for more than five thousand persons! No miracles! But last autumn He changed the dews of night and the showers of morning into the fruits that rejoice the heart of man, as once in Cana He turned the water drawn from the stone jars into the blushing wine! No miracles! but next spring, from tiny seeds and dead-looking bulbs, He will clothe the world with beauty and colour and perfume.
Many who will read these lines seem powerless to work miracles. For them the monotony of the commonplace, the grey sky of uneventful routine seems the predestined lot. But let all such take heart! The real greatness of life is within their reach, if they will only claim it by the grace of God. Do not try to do a great thing, or you may waste all your life waiting for the opportunity which may never come. But since little things are always claiming your attention, do them as they come from a great motive, for the glory of God and to do good to men. No such action, however trivial, goes without the swift recognition and the ultimate recompense of Christ. All life is so interesting, but we need eyes to see and hearts to understand! Dare to be yourself--a simple, humble, sincere follower of Jesus, and it may be said also of you: "He or she did no miracle, but by life and word spoke true things about Jesus Christ, which we have tested for ourselves. Indeed, they led us to believe in Christ for ourselves."

PRAYER

Teach me, my God and King,

In all things Thee to see,

And what I do in anything,

To do it as for Thee.

A servant with this clause

Makes drudgery divine!

Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,

Makes that and th'action fine. AMEN.

HIGHWAY LIFE

Last week as I was driving on the 406 I thought of the famous song by Tom Cochrane "Life is a Highway" not because I like the song but because of surrounding circumstances. Let me explain.

I was driving back from St Catharines doing the speed limit when this red sportscar turned into my lane from the passing lane attempting to pass a car in the passing lane that was apparently going to slow for him. I then noticed that most of the cars were passing me in their desire to reach their destination as quickly as possible. The thought came to me that the Christian life is like my highway experience.

Here I am keeping the speed limit (not something I always do) and all these other drivers are rushing past me to get to their destinations. I was more of an obstacle to them than a help. Herein lies my metaphor. As Christians we hold certain beliefs and ethical positions that are not popular and are seen as impeding the fun and love and human development of those who do not hold the same beliefs as we do. We are impeding access to their desires and goals which they pursue in spite of us, but we are still there to remind them about these old fashion beliefs and virtues. They view us as not keeping up with the culture while reminding them of a culture that has been left behind.

And so we steadily persevere down the highway of life to our sure heavenly destination while the world around us rushes to a destination that will not be what they expected. They will find out that what they rejected as naive and old fashioned and outdated is truth and reality.

So Christian, keep plodding along the highway of life while those around you blindly rush into eternity. Do not be too concerned that everyone seems to be passing you by, embracing the present godless culture, waving, shouting, mocking and laughing. One day you will reach your final eternal destination in joy and peace. And on the way, at the rest stops, make sure you speak to those rushing motorist about the destination they are expecting but will find to be empty and tragic. Some may change speeds and decide to join you in your plodding path to eternity on the highway of life.

PUZZLE FOCUS

Over the Christmas holidays Gloria and I put together a 750 piece puzzle of a Normal Rockwell painting, 40 inches by 13 inches. Much of that puzzle was snow and sky so differentiating colors and puzzle shapes was essential. But we got it done. Since then when I drive I see what is before me as puzzlescapes. I notice the small white piece of birch bark left on a rotting tree, the orange plastic bag sticking out of the snow, the small patch of ice remaining in a green field. I notice how intricate the branch systems are on trees and the fine detail of the bulrushes along the highway. I am seeing the world with puzzle focus. I sometimes have to remind myself that I am not looking at a puzzle but the real world. Amazing what focusing on a puzzle can do to perception.

Let me translate this experience to our spiritual vision. Last week I spoke about the worldview outlined in the Bible which we have as Christians. Understanding this worldview is essential to our perception of the world today and how we are to respond to the circumstances we live in and the people around us. Too often as Christians we know this biblical worldview but live by the worldview of the unbelievers around us. We adopt standards of speech and dress and materialism and attitudes and goals that originate from a secular worldview and not a Christian worldview. We do this unconsciously because we do not have a Christian worldview focus. We do not apply what we know about the Christian worldview to everyday life. We know and confess the Christian worldview when required but live differently and do not notice the disconnect.

Applying the Christian worldview to daily life requires discernment and critical thinking. We must discern the worldview source of choices, attitudes, goals, statements, hopes against the standard of the Christian worldview and then respond accordingly in love, in the power of the Spirit. Applying the Christian worldview to daily life also requires courage and boldness, in humility and without self-righteousness. Applying the Christian worldview to daily life also requires perseverance and consistency with integrity. Applying the Christian worldview to daily life should be done in joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. Finally applying the Christian worldview to daily life requires a daily fellowship with God and reflection on the Word of God.

God has not only given us the exceedingly rich gift of understanding a Christian worldview but also the privilege and power to live it out as shining lights in a dark world. Let us love God with our whole mind and will, and enjoy the fullness He has granted to us as His children.