And So It Begins...

The documentary based on the book Stan Porter and I wrote, Unmasking the Pagan Christ, will be airing on Vision this Thursday (April 2) night at 9:00 pm. You can see the documentary on the Pagan Christ the night before. That means that we have promotion to do this week. I have two interviews to do:

1) Today I will be on Faith FM 94.3 (Waterloo) at 11:15 am. You can listen online at http://www.faithfm.org/.
2) April 2, I will be on NEWS 95.7 AM (Halifax) at 9:00 am. You can listen online at http://www.news957.com/.

I would appreciate prayers for all of these interviews.

Appreciating Amanda

There are many reasons that I appreciate Amanda. One of them is how great she is with the kids. This is something that I am going to really notice this week. Today Amanda left to spend a week in Calgary and Vancouver. Amanda was not able to come out to Vancouver with me for Arrow so this is her time away. She deserves the break and I am glad to give it. I have survived my first evening and all the children are in bed safe and sound. I have some help coming in for times I have to be out of the house (like Sunday mornings) but I will be glad to have Amanda back next Saturday. Have a great time Amanda!

The Sacrifice of Isaac

Last Sunday we started a new series called an Old Testament Easter, looking at Old Testament pictures of the cross. We started with the sacrifice of Isaac from Genesis 22:1-14. I must confess that this is not my favourite passage. Before I was a parent I found it bizarre, as a parent I find it deeply disturbing. It is not a passage I enjoy. One problem. It is in the Bible. It is there and it must be dealt with. One of the important aspects of it is that it is a picture of the cross. Isaac is called Abraham's only son even though there is another son because he is the unique son of the promise. God has many adopted children but only one begotten Son and that is Jesus. Both Isaac and Jesus are called the beloved. I believe that God gave his friend Abraham a peek into His heart as to what He would go through two thousand years later. We see Isaac carrying the wood of the sacrifice as Jesus carried the wood of the cross. Isaac is to be sacrificed at Moriah. Jewish tradition says that Moriah was the place of the Temple. Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice replaced the Temple sacrifices. Here is where things change. Isaac does not die but a ram becomes his substitute. At this point we become Isaac and Jesus becomes the goat. Jesus is our substitute so that we do not have to die spiritually. This story is also important in that it teaches us that obedience is not easy, all that we have is God's and obedience does not go unrewarded. We may never enjoy this story, but continues to have important principles that speak to the Christian faith.

A Big Step

Some people move every couple of years and some people stay put. For the first 75% of my life I was in the latter category. Except for a year living in an apartment, I lived with my parents on Chestnut St in Merritton. Technically it is St. Catharines but everyone in Merritton still calls it Merritton decades after the amalgamation. I have many great memories of this house. Many Christmas' with our skinny fake tree that the cats kept knocking down. Being told I had to cut the grass even though I had a friend over and discovering that it was a trick to discover the go-cart my parents had bought me. It was in my bedroom in this house that I prayed to accept Jesus as my Saviour and Lord. It was at this house that I got stuck in the driveway in the snow forty-five minutes before Amanda and I got married. Many, many memories. The memories remain but the house has to go. My mother has been having some health issues and it is time for her to move up to Meaford with us. Therefore, on Monday night we put the old homestead up for sale. You can find the listing here. As I walked through the house I could see my father who passed away five years ago sitting in the familiar places. I could see myself laying around reading comic books. It will be tough to let it go but the memories are more about the people than the building. It will be good to have my mother living with us. And whoever buys that house will take possession of the property but the memories will remain with me.

Documentary Nomination

You may or may not have seen the documentary based on our book Unmasking the Pagan Christ but it has already been nominated for an award at the Yorkton Film Festival. You can find the list of nominees here. This is rather exciting even if we don't win.

Star Wars

I am a big Star Wars fan. But I also realize not everyone has seen the Star Wars movies. Here is a retelling of the story by someone else who has not seen the movies.


Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Have Some Compassion

Last Sunday we concluded our series on First Baptist Church's vision statement. We finished up our series by looking at compassion. Numerous times we find in the Gospels Jesus being motivated by compassion. The problem with compassion is that people misunderstand what compassion is. Compassion is not pity. Pity is feeling sorry for someone. Compassion is not sympathy. Sympathy is having a sense of how someone feels, perhaps because of similar experiences in the past. Compassion literally means suffering with. It means entering into another person's experience to the point that you almost share their pain.
The other myth about compassion is that it is just an emotion. Compassion is meant to be acted on. That is what Jesus did. This has become personal to us. On Saturday, Logan took off all his clothes and escaped out our front door. Amanda called me at the office and then contacted a neighbour to watch the other four while she searched for Logan. As I rushed home I saw two vehicles parked on the side of the street. There was a man holding Logan wrapped in a coat. Those two people could have had pity on Logan or felt sympathy toward us as parents. Instead they had compassion and stopped to prevent Logan from crossing a busy street. We were very scared but also thankful that Logan was safe. We are thankful for compassion.
Finally, we looked at compassion as a form of worship. One of the Greek words for compassion in the New Testament is connected to the organs of a living thing such as the liver and kidneys. These happen to be the same organs that were often given as sacrifices in the ancient world. When we are compassionate toward others, we are offering pure worship to God.

Serving Community

Last week we continued our series on the church vision by looking at serving community. This is extremely important. A recent survey of non-Christians revealed these perceptions about the church: anti-homosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, old-fashioned, too involved in politics, out of touch with reality, insensitive to others, boring, not accepting of others and confusing. The only way to respond to these perceptions (some of which are true) is to embrace an attitude of service toward our community. we do not give up on truth issue but by demonstrating love, we earn the right to be heard. Service is not complicated, it is simply seeing the need, reflecting on your God-given resources and doing what you are able to meet that need. Another survey, this time of born again Christians, revealed these as the top two or three priorities of the Christian faith: Lifestyle – 37%, discipleship – 31%, evangelism – 25%, worship – 25%, relationships – 23% and service – 18%. Only 18% of Christians thought that service deserved to be in the top two or three priorities. We must really wrestle with how this fits with the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. How did we stray so far?

Dealing with Conflict

One of the speakers during my week at Arrow that I really enjoyed was Jim Van Yperen, author of Making Peace. Jim presents not just a "how-to" for dealing with conflict, he also helps build a solid biblical and theological foundation for understanding conflict. Jim and his wife Sharon have a ministry that helps churches deal with conflict. I highly recommend their ministry and their book to equip Christians and churches to understand and deal with conflict in a biblical manner. You can find out more about them at http://restoringthechurch.org.

Documentary Update

A number of people have been asking me when the Unmasking the Pagan Christ will be on TV. The documentary will be on Vision on April 2. If you are familar with HDNet, the documentary will be airing on March 12 and 14. You can find out information about the HDNet airing here. I appreciate your support of this project.

Arrow Graduation

Last week I had my fourth and final week in the Arrow Leadership Program. For the last two years I have been heading out to Keats Island off the coast of Vancouver for intense leadership training. I have heard some of the top speakers and authors. I have been challenged with new ideas. I have met some great leaders throughout the United States and Canada. The best part of the program was learning to think through every area of my life and ministry strategically. I have seen a huge change in how I look at things. I highly recommend Arrow to any Christian leaders forty years old or younger. I want to also thank Amanda for her support in this. Unfortunately Amanda was not able to come to BC for my graduation as Faith was sick. But she did send a beautiful letter and I really sensed her prayers and encouragement.