As promised on Sunday I am adding a one page guide on how to do a half day Fast. I would love for you all to have a go at this wonderful Spiritual time of increasing your focus on God. I trust that the guide will be a help to you.

Pastor Tim

Half_Day_Fasting_Guide

Fasting Guide – Half Day

This is just a suggested guide to follow if you plan to try a half day fast.

Set out a Plan – The night before you are going to fast plan your day or half day to be a productive time of prayer and focus on God. In your plan set out the time that you will get up and identify the times when you would normally eat meals. Target these times especially for prayer and focused meditation on the Word. You may want to vary the rigidity of the schedule based on your personality. Some may want to leave it a bit more flexible which may suit their style. If you can plan your fast day on a day when you have the day off from work, you may find that more effective. I have included a sample plan below that you can use as a guide.

Remove Distractions – Make sure you plan for un-distracted time to spend in prayer and meditation. Turn off your phone (and all other electronic distractions, ie. TV, Radio, Computer) and let your family know that you would like some private time with God. If you have young children you may need to work this out with your wife/husband to share the duties with them for that time so that you can have focused time. Find a quiet place where you can focus uninterrupted on God. You may want to walk or go outside to a quiet place for your time with God.

Food Issues – In order to handle the day without your normal intake of food you also need a plan. Here are some suggestions;- 1. Let the person in the house who makes the meals know that you are not going to eat those meals. (Let them know ahead of time so that there is not an issue at mealtimes.) If you are that person, arrange for someone else to cook that day. 2. If your will power is weak, purposefully stay away from food or people who are eating. 3. Try your best to focus on the spiritual not the physical for the day. Remember that fasting is not really about the food, it is about the spiritual time you are setting aside for God. 4. Drink lots of water. 5. Coffee and Tea are ok for the day if they are something that you regularly have. Some fasts require no drink of any kind except water, while others allow juice etc. I personally find that I cope better with a couple of cups of coffee in the day along with my water. 6. After the fast don’t overdo it on the food. It is better if you eat a light meal after the fast so that you ease back into eating.

Half Day Fasting Plan

7:00 AM – Get up, shower, dress and prepare for the day. (Get up earlier if you take longer.)

7:30 – 8:30 AM – Have your first prayer and meditation time. Plan for this time to be focused on worship of God and personal dedication of your day to Him. Suggested Readings – Psalm 63; Phil. 1

8:30-12-30 – Go through the normal activities of the day (work etc), with a constant focus on meditating on the scripture you read earlier. Remember to focus on God and what He wants to do in you today.

12:30-1:30 – Have your 2^nd prayer and meditation time. Plan for this time to be focused on God’s work in the different areas of your life and family (both home & church family). This is the time to pray for your prayer list and turn things over to God and His will. Suggested Readings – Psalm 61; Matt. 6:1-18

1:30-5:30 – Go through the rest of your day (work etc), with a continued focus on the things of God.

5:30-6:00 – Finish your fast by a time of praise and worship. Suggested Readings – Psalm 66; Eph. 1

6:00 – Have a light meal and rejoice in the nourishment that you have had spiritually all day!

I trust that God will strengthen and keep you as you draw closer to Him through this time!

                                                                                                                        31^st December 2009

Dear Ones in the Body of Suburban,

          I am sitting in a very familiar place right now (at my desk in front of the computer screen) while I contemplate and reflect on the year that was 2009. I have come to love this “place” because it is where I am privileged to sit each week and study the Word of God in my responsibility to spiritually feed the flock here at Suburban. 2009 has been very challenging in many ways, but it has also been a very growing, exciting, Spirit-filled, blessed time of ministry here among this local church of Jesus Christ called Suburban. Often we learn that the challenges that we face provide us with the opportunity to trust in our loving heavenly Father and to receive more of His grace for whatever the struggle or trial is that we encounter along the walk of our lives. 2009 has given us many marvelous opportunities to say “Glory to our great God” for His goodness and grace to us in the middle of our circumstances.

Death, sickness, financial reversal, broken relationships, mental illness, marital struggles and spiritual failure have all been a part of the Suburban family experience in 2009. These events have touched all of us, but we have also had comfort, healing, grace to endure, provision in the face of need, restored relationships, peace, renewed marital vows, new birth (both physical and spiritual!), spiritual success and loving grace in abundance from the Father! In other words we have been doing life together in amazing ways this last year, and while much of it has been really difficult to navigate we have all grown immensly in our relationship with God and with each other. The Word of God has once again played a primary role in our journey together. We have read it, (both silently and aloud) studied it, questioned it, debated our opinion of it, taught it, preached it, memorised it, meditated on it, applied it and listened to what God has had to say to each of us through it!  Each of you will be able to put a specific face or name or event in place of  the very general words that I used to describe our year in this paragraph. While you are doing that pause and say thanks to the Father for all that you have gone through in this God filled year!

So how do we refocus for the year ahead which begins in a few hours? Here are some words that we can use to help us with that task as we send off the old year and welcome in the new. Prayer, worship, fellowship, the Word of God, faith, trust, grace, hope and love! All of these are words that we know, but they are more than just words, they are concepts and practices which will encourage and build us up for the journey ahead called 2010. As your Shepherd, I am really excited about what is in store for us in this next year! That is not because I know all that it will hold, or because I have great plans. The reason I’m excited is because I have a renewed understanding of my own relationship with God and His desire for me to walk with Him each day! I am trusting that God has been doing a work in me so that He can use me to lead you as a body into the great unknown of His amazing grace! Often refocusing is just about cleaning off the lens so that we can see clearer, as you “pray in” the New Year, 2010 tonight, ask the Father to clean off your spiritual lens so that you can see what He wants for you and what it looks like to walk with Him beginning on day one of this year. I am excited about taking this walk with you as a body in 2010. Shall we…??!!

I love you all, and I am so thankful to be your Shepherd! Have a blessed start to your New Year!

Pastor Tim

 Single people often feel that they are the forgotten ‘people group’ in the church. Because of the married demographic in the church (which is the largest group), singles feel that they are sometimes relegated to a second rate position in the ‘pecking order’ (if there is such a thing) of the church. There were those who have felt that perhaps my emphasis in the “God’s Design” series was a little too married focused and so last Sunday I spoke about God’s design and how it impacts those who are single. I trust that the single members of our ‘family’ were encouraged and challenged. While I don’t want to rehash the message here I do want to elaborate on one point that I made at the end of the sermon. Everyone in the Body, whether married or single, man or woman, needs to be moving toward holiness in their lives.

 In every situation that we find ourselves in as a man or a woman we are faced with the challenge of what it means for us that we are followers of Jesus Christ. While we live in a fallen world which has certain expectations of men/women (and those expectations are constantly changing like the wind) we as followers of Christ have a standard of behavior which sets us apart from this world, establishes a testimony  and gives us a platform on which to minister. We sometimes think that our circumstances give us the excuse to be less than we should be as disciples. But our single-ness or married-ness or man-ness or woman-ness is no excuse for not being holy! Married or single, man or woman, let’s all be single-minded about following Christ!

 As most of you know we are getting on a plane tomorrow to fly across the pacific to visit family for a few weeks. I will be preaching a few times while there, but the majority of the time we will be with family. I will blog from there each week to let you know how we’re going and hopefully encourage you as well. Pastor Steve and Rodney will be doing the preaching for the next few weeks. Treat them well!

I’ll again close with some of the words of Paul to the Thessalonians…

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.

Your Shepherd,

Pastor Tim

As a young man in ministry I heard a lot of rhetoric about the authority of the Pastoral position, and often this was proof-texted (is that a word…?) by the passage where David said about Saul that he would not “stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed!”. What ensued as a result of that type of thinking was a number of Pastors and ‘spiritual’ leaders who were unaccountable and many times believed and acted as if they were close to infallible. The devastation of that kind of thinking and leadership has had a significant effect on the lives of many people in congregations across the world. An English Baron, John Dalberg-Acton famously said in the 1800’s, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!” Interestingly Baron Dalberg-Acton made that statement as a commentary against the dogma of papal infallibility which was being proclaimed by the church in Rome, and the pope at the time Pius IXth. I don’t have to elaborate on the corruption which has been seen in that tradition in the years following, proving the Baron’s statement to be true.

Unfortunately those of us in an evangelical tradition cannot say that our ranks have been exempt from that kind of abuse of power and influence. It’s probably the reason why some people approach the subject of roles and authority in the church with such fear. If you have ever sat under the ministry of someone who was without accountability, or who had ‘yes’ men who provided a sort of pseudo-accountability, then you will know what I’m talking about when I say that it is a scary and disturbing place to be in. The New Testament has a lot to say about the qualifications of our leaders in the church. Do they have a mandate from God to minister in the body with spiritual authority and power? Yes, that is God’s design which is taught in the Word, however it is also God’s design that those men be spiritual men who are held accountable for their teaching and behavior according to the Scriptures. In answering a question which came to me this week about the message on Sunday, I wrote the following statement about the qualifications and accountability of our church leaders.

“We can never really know what is going on in a man’s home behind closed doors. What we can do is watch the public actions of that man and seek to understand how he interacts with his wife and family in that arena. Then we can seek opinions from those who know him the closest, and from those that he is ministering to. We also have the safety net of “multiple leadership accountability” which means that our other Elders and Deacons are to be ever vigilant and prayerful that God will reveal any issues in each others lives and families. That is why I believe strongly in a plurality of Elders as a part of NT teaching. There is always danger when one person gets too much authority and ‘unchecked’ influence in a church. Any leader in the church who has no accountability is a disaster waiting to happen! To top all of that off, we have the advantage of the Holy Spirit giving us wisdom and discernment as we appoint, monitor and hold accountable the leaders of the church. We can never be 100% sure that we as humans won’t get it wrong at some point, but that should not stop us from obeying God and following His direction in all of this. The other thing that I must say is to point out where our authority as Elders in the church comes from…The Word of God! When we at any point go outside of that in teaching or practice then we no longer have authority from God!”

Accountability should not be a difficult, onerous or optional practice in the Body of Christ. It should become so natural that it is quite obvious when it is not in place. This accountability when practiced with the right spirit and attitude will be welcomed by leaders as an important safe guard for themselves and the congregation. So, God’s design is not just for any men in the church to lead, but that the leaders should be qualified, spiritual and gifted men who are willing to submit to accountability and follow their head, the Lord Jesus, in everything.

This coming Sunday we will wrap up the series and try to address some of the other issues which are important to us as we seek to Recover God’s Design for Men & Women. I know that we have given a lot of information in a short time, but I trust that you have all benefitted from this time in the Word together. Sunday night at our coffee shop we will be discussing the series and its implications for our lives. Come and share that time with us! Please post any questions or comments you may have so that I can know what you are thinking! I’ll close with some of the words of Paul as he fare-welled the Elders at Ephesus…

Acts 20:28 28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”

Your Shepherd, 

Pastor Tim

 On Sunday afternoon I had the privilege of officiating at my 27^th wedding since starting Suburban. Rain was threatening as the limos pulled up to the little path that would lead the bridal party to rows of white chairs which were carefully set up for an outdoor garden ceremony. After a few drops of rain spit down out of the sky, things quickly turned around and it seemed as if God was smiling at David & Sonia while the ceremony unfolded in bright sunshine. As this clearly besotted couple repeated their vows to one another, I was reminded again of why I invest so much time and energy in the institution of marriage. God indeed was smiling, because this was His idea in the first place! A wedding is usually like the one on Sunday, all smiles and tears and beautiful dresses and flowers and romance and music and dancing and family and friends! With all of that beauty and happiness at the start of this, God’s institution, how does it all seem to go so wrong in many homes? And why is that also true in Christian homes where we as God’s people should know better?

 Answering that question is sometimes very complex and is not the same for every marriage breakdown. There are however certain principles which do apply here and can be a great help in understanding what has gone wrong. The first of those principles is the fact that we are in a constant battle with our flesh, which tends toward selfishness, unloving behavior and disobedience. We will struggle with those things in our lives individually until we are one day sanctified for good in heaven. When we make the ‘choice’ to love one another as husband and wife, we are in fact saying that we choose to die to self, practice loving behaviors and follow God’s instructions for having a Christ honoring marriage. Remember that love is a choice, and while feelings will accompany that choice, we cannot determine our decisions and actions based on feelings but they must be based on our choice to obey God and love each other!

 The second principle that I want to mention is submission to one another as God’s people.  The concept of submission has been clouded by misunderstanding and the meaning is often lost in the unending debate and arguments about roles and who should submit more. The Bible is clear about marital roles and leaves no doubt about the submission/headship issue which we have dealt with at length. But here I want you to look at submission as it is to be lived out by every believer. Submission at its very basic meaning is to subject oneself to another and is best illustrated by the example of the Lord Jesus when He subjected Himself to all of us. He became human, lived on this earth and died in our place for sin! That submission was the ultimate sacrifice and Paul used that sacrifice to illustrate how we are to respond to each other and have that same mind that the Savior had when He subjected Himself to us. (Philippians 2:5-8) That is to be the predominant attitude which we have at home as we interact with each other as husband and wife. If we practice that, then we are well on the way to having a home which is not only happy but is filled with the blessing of God! A happy home is not a myth, it can be a reality if we will choose to obey God and follow His directions in how we treat one another.

 Sunday we will address the topic of God’s Design for the Church as it concerns men and women and their roles. I trust that you will come with your hearts and minds open to God’s Word and what he has to say to you. Please post any questions or comments you may have so that I can know what you are thinking! Some more scripture to meditate on…

 Philippians 2:5-8
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Your Shepherd,

Pastor Tim

Wow, I have been very encouraged by all of the positive comments about the message series. I don’t really know what I was expecting but I guess I thought there would be more flak than there has been. Maybe this is the calm before the storm? (Hope not…:>)) A Few people have said that I spent too much time in the beginning of each message ‘apologizing’ for what I was about to say…which certainly was not my intention. I simply thought that it would be good for everyone to know the journey that I have been on for the past six months in coming to the Biblical conclusions that I have about all of this. Most of the information and teaching that I am giving each week is the compilation of hours of reading and study, which would be impossible to present in its full form on a Sunday morning. So the intro is all about letting you know how I’ve come to my conclusions Biblically. Anyway thanks to everyone who has been so encouraging to me, it means a lot! Before we get to the subject at hand, let me first give you the podcast link to the Mark Driscoll sermon on Marriage and women.  http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/marriage-and-women Because I gave the link for the men I thought it would only be fair to include the ladies as well. Please go and listen and I think it will add to your insights on this topic.

Today I want to refer to a verse that we used on the week we talked to the men, but which relates to the sermon about women. 1 Peter 3:7 says that men should live with their wives in an understanding way as with “someone weaker”! Wow did Peter really say that women are weaker? Yep! That’s exactly what he said. Some versions use the words the “weaker vessel”. While those words do come from the original language, they are not used for the purpose of ascribing worth or value in the relationship. I believe that Peter is trying to help us to get our minds around the need for men to be understanding of their wives as they live with them. Part of that understanding is that in comparison to men they need to be treated with care as they are a precious vessel which is not meant to be treated roughly and without care. I like the analogy of the ‘precious china tea cup’ v. the ‘old metal mug’, because it helps us to understand that the difference is at the heart of our design not about some flaw or mistake, or a result of the structure in society. I believe that means God created women to be a ‘china cup’ physically, emotionally, and relationally. Ladies don’t ever let a man tell you that you are no good or have no value, because of the fact that you are not built the same way he is. That was God’s intent, that you should present the softer side of the “one-flesh” union of a man and a woman.

Our world would be in trouble if we were depending on the men to provide the nurturing that is a natural part of how God designed a woman to be. While that passage is speaking to the men about having understanding, I think it also gives us some insight into how you ladies are to respond. Despite what some feminists would say, you do not need to prove anything about what you are or raise your status as a woman! God has already put your status up there as a precious china cup and he has instructed men to treat you accordingly! So stop striving to prove yourself to be like men or equal to them or better then them…you are special, unique and different and that has been God’s intent and design all along. As worthy men begin to obey God and His purpose for them you will have an exalted place in society, your homes, the church and the world.

As we continue to build on our series Sunday we will deal with the topic of God’s Design of for the Home. Please post any questions or comments you may have so that I can know what you are thinking! Some scripture to meditate on…

Ephesians 5:33

33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

Your Shepherd,

Pastor Tim

 Before I get into the serious stuff I guess I need to comment on the 80 minutes (it was pointed out  to me…) that I took to preach the message on Sunday. It has been reported that the great preacher Jonathan Edwards, when he took over at Princeton University preached his first sermon there on the Unchangeableness of Christ. The sermon lasted upwards of 2 hours and was said to have been “listened to with such profound attention, and deep interest, by the audience that they were unconscious of the lapse of time and surprised that it closed so soon”. I am aware that there are some competing factors at work in our services on Sunday mornings, young children in the service, volunteer workers in the crèche, shift workers fighting sleep deprivation, people who were out too late on Saturday night struggling to stay awake…and I know that I am not Jonathan Edwards and we are not in the 1700’s! So what does that have to do with my 80 minutes this past week? Well, I just want to say that I was so impressed with the attention and grace that you all gave me on Sunday! Toward the end of the message you could hear a pin drop (…and no it wasn’t because everyone was asleep…) and it seemed to me that you were all engaged right to the end. As you know Sunday’s message was certainly not the norm for our services, but I hope that when the subject requires it, and God leads me to finish what I start, that you will continue to give me grace and hear what God wants to say to you through the message! With all of those things above in mind, I will certainly give you my promise that I will seek to make the messages, Biblical, relevant, clear, and as free from redundancy as possible. On your side, I only ask that you come each week having prepared yourself to listen, stay awake and hear from God as His Word is opened.  For those of you who had to leave early last week or missed it altogether the podcast should be up soon.

Now to the topic at hand. First men, let me give you the podcast link to the Mark Driscoll sermon on Marriage and Men. http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/marriage-and-men I’m sure that you will all benefit from listening to this very ‘man-focused’ sermon on our responsibilities as husbands and men in general. I was greatly challenged by it and I’ve watched it several times. Let me say that I am very thankful for men like Pastor Driscoll who are unashamed to call us to a Biblical standard even in the pluralistic times which we live in. I am also thankful that there is a large church like Mars Hill which provides resources like this one free of charge. I know that God will bless their ministry for being so generous.  It is true that as men we receive things very differently than women. Sometimes we need someone to really be hardcore with us, and just tell it like it is! Take a risk and listen to the sermon sometime soon!

On Sunday I said that God designed men to be leaders. They are to lead in their families, in the community, in the church, in their workplaces or where ever they are in contact with women. Just reading a statement like that sends many people into fits of rage about chauvinistic men who only want to beat down women and keep them in their ‘place’. The reason that it is so infuriating to many people is because they do not understand the essence of God focused leadership, and perhaps they haven’t seen it lived out in any man they know. That kind of leadership as God sees and outlines it in the various scripture passage’s, is described really well by John Piper in a book he contributed to and edited, “Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood”. He said in the first chapter, “Mature masculinity expresses itself not in the demand to be served, but in the strength to serve and to sacrifice for the good of women.”.  That kind of leadership is not chauvinistic, or abusive, or overbearing, in fact it has at its very core the goal of giving women the value, honor and service that they rightly deserve as God’s special creations! Somehow we have developed the idea in our world that if someone leads with strength then that means the followers are somehow demeaned or lesser in value than their leader. In actual fact a good leaders will recognize the strengths of those around him and will mobilize them to rise to their potential and make a difference.

Mature men who lead as God has designed and instructed them are not threatened by strong, intelligent women (…which all of you are ladies…J). They are able to mobilize and enable those women to effectively fulfill their roles without feeling demeaned or beaten down in any way. One of the major things that needs to be recovered in all of this is mature, God focused leadership by men who will practice it in all of their various relationships with women. Sunday we will deal with the topic of God’s Design of Women. Please post any questions  or comments you may have so that I can know what you are thinking! Some scripture to meditate on…

Genesis 2:22-23
22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”

Your Shepherd,

Pastor Tim

Wednesday, 12th of August 2009

Early in my ministry I would never have dreamed that I would be spending time doing something that had a name like blog! I guess in reality it is no different from the time I spend doing Shepherd’s Reports, teaching, one on one mentoring or counselling, it’s just in a little different format. So here goes…

As I expressed on Sunday this topic is fraught with the possibility and potential of misunderstanding. Part of my goal in blogging every week is to try and bring in some of the other thoughts and foundational material which led me to what I presented on Sunday morning. While I have not had any questions sent to me this week, I did have a conversation which I’d like to reflect on for a moment. One of the comments that I got in that conversation after the service was about the word ‘design’. Being that God ‘created’ the world and men & women, is that the right word to express what we are talking about here? Did God sit down and go through a design process so to speak and come up with the prototypes … Adam1 & Eve1? While I know we are limited by our earth-bound definitions and perspectives of words, I believe that we can make words and language work for us to communicate the meaning that we want.

In preparing any sermon series I always spend a lot of time thinking through the title as a promo tool as well as using it to help the congregation get an idea of the direction that I am going for the series. The word ‘design’ was chosen very deliberately to express the created intent of an omniscient God who really did know what He was doing when He made us like He did. I sometimes get offended for God, (I know that’s silly but…) when people go through the process of trying to figure out God and their theology about Him concerning this topic! They often come up with a fictitious chauvinistic God, who somehow let His ego/macho-ism get out of control and accidently mucked up the creation process and then led His chauvinistic writers (a la Paul…) to support that through culturally insensitive instruction to husbands, wives and churches. Wow, did I just say all of that? Ok, I do have a tendency to a ‘little’ overstatement at times … maybe people don’t go that far in their explanation of it all, but it sometimes feels like that.

All I’m trying to say with the word ‘design’ is that a God who can design and create the multiple intricacies of the biological systems in human beings, would also be very aware of the emotional, relational, social and gender specific intricacies involved in His creation. In other words God has made us specifically to be who we are as men and women, and all of the aspects of that design, when put together, give us a picture of what God’s intent was when He said “Let us make man in our image!”. We’re going to have a great time exploring that design as we go through this series. I hope and trust that when we get to the end you will at least have a better understanding of what God’s intent was. You may not always agree with me, but at least we can enjoy the process together.

In my short and very limited exposure to blogging it seems to me that part of the goal of the blog is to elicit comment, question, and participation in the conversation. Many times that seems to be done by way of inflammatory comments or opinions. Hopefully I haven’t done that in an insensitive way, and I can assure you I won’t be trying to pick a fight just for the sake of it. If you have some helpful things to add or ask, please feel free. I’m looking forward to Sunday as we explore “God’s Design of Men”. I’ll sign off with some scripture for you to meditate on.

Genesis 1:27 “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Blessings,
Pastor Tim