Mondays & Sexual Molestations

Mondays are notorious for not being the best day of the week! I lost the vision in my left eye for a couple of minutes today. About twenty years ago I had become blind in my left eye due to a cataract. About eighteen years ago my sight was restored in that eye when I had the cataract removed. Brill! Today I rubbed my eyes and lost the sight in my left eye again. It was like trying to see through thick cellophane, just like a cataract. My vision returned after about two or three minutes. Phew! It’s still good.

Then I was asked to fill out an online questionnaire. It was about health and wellbeing. I was doing quite well until I got to the bit about traumatic events experienced in my life and how they have affected me.

I went through the agony of vividly replaying in my mind, watching as a five or six year old, another child of the same age being slowly crushed to death against a brick wall by a the wheel rim of a slow moving lorry (truck). Blood! The child had tried to squeeze through the gap as the truck tried to manoeuvre around a corner where we were. Painful memories. Tears! Aaargh!!!

The survey also went on to ask: Other than rape, were you sexually assaulted or molested? What? I’ve only just started talking about this upon hearing about someone else’s demise. The survey asked at what age did the sexual molestation begin and at what age did it end? And how many times was I sexually molested? Tearing up once more I wracked my brains to recall events from almost fifty years ago! I suppose it was between the ages of ten and twelve. Maybe thirty times? But it was probably more, much more!

I’ve been walking around with this smelly sludge sloshing around in the dark bilges of my mind from pre to post pubescence! Yes, I had told my wife about it years ago and maybe one of my sisters a couple of years ago. But that was about it until recently. Recently I have told about five or six others about this. Man, speaking about it has made me feel better! None of what happened to me was my fault!

But back to the survey… The questionnaire asked how these painful memories were affecting me. Through the tears I ticked the appropriate boxes as I sobbed and blew my runny nose into tissues. Then running both (seeing!) eyes over the page again in order to make sure I had answered all the questions I was ready to move on to the next page. I pressed the button on the screen hoping the questions on the next page would be somewhat less painful than what I had just gone through. No-o-o! It wanted me to “sign in” again. Somehow all the previous data had been irretrievably lost!

I may try again tomorrow but I’m not looking forward to going through all of those painful questions again. But then again, upon reflection, talking about it is helping me to face up to my demons… Begone! Tomorrow's a new day!

Lord Jesus, I trust You. You alone are my hope. You are my Rock. You are my solace. You are my Light in the dark place. Help me to dwell always in the light, Your light. And I thank You that all wrongs will be righted upon Your return!

RACISM?

Growing up on the west coast of Scotland in the ‘60s with its attendant sectarianism did have an effect on me. However, it was probably when I was about eighteen and in attendance at an “Old Firm” match (a football game between two rival Glasgow teams) that I became conscious of some of the words of some of the team songs we were singing. Historical victories by Proddie (ie, Protestant) over the Irish, “papes,” “Fenians” and “Caflicks” (ie, Catholics) were belted out with united and tuneful melody.  The collective songful voice usually ended with the Roman Catholic pope being cursed! The greens responded to the blues in kind! It suddenly dawned on me that this was not healthy team rivalry but sectarianism!

I decided to start supporting my (more) local team, Dumbarton, “The Sons of the Rock.” No doubt the Son’s supporters were “proddies” and “caflicks” together! No cursing popes or queens, no waving Union Jacks or Irish Tricolours at these games. Just football.

I don’t recall any racism at the proddie schools I attended. The one or two folk with black skin were not treated in any racist manner that I could see, ie, they were neither fawned over nor put down. They were just one of “us.”

What is racism anyway? I’ve never understood it. I listened intently at church this morning as the preacher described what was presently happening to an AFL (Australian Rules Football) player. He was being booed by opposing fans (and even some of his own teams' fans) every time he approached the ball. I can’t say I’m too impressed with this Aussie Rules guy. He became irate towards a thirteen year old girl for calling him some name or other. Apparently if a thirteen year old girl calls you an “ape” she is being racist! When will this madness end?  The preacher used the actions of the girl towards the big football player to illustrate that as human beings there is something wrong with us. I agree!

I guess if you have dark skin and someone calls you a monkey or an ape being racist makes sense to you if you are an Evolutionist. I’m not an Evolutionist. Therefore racist remarks are wasted on me. The Bible says, “[God] has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth.” Acts 17:26a. What do apes have to do with humans seeing as we are all descended from the first humans Adam and Eve?

Brian Ferry popularised a song in the early 70s with the words, “I’m in with the ‘In’ crowd, I go where the ‘In’ crowd goes. I’m in with the ‘In’ crowd, and I know what the ‘In’ crowd knows.” Since becoming a Christian (in my early thirties) I’m no longer in with the “In” crowd. I no longer follow the herd mentality. Instead I follow Christ. By calling all of us “sinners” He breaks down all sectarian walls of partition, be they racist walls, rich/poor walls, Left/Right walls, Socialist/Capitalist, Evolutionist/Creationist walls et al. All manmade walls are pulled down by Christ and a new one is erected by our Creator. We “are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28b.

Bottom line? As human beings we will never escape sectarianism in its variety of manifestations (including racism). However, it will not be cured by Political Correctness or any other forms of Progressive Social Engineering. Racism is sectarian in nature. Believing in the Triune God and singing the praises to Him in gratitude for forgiving all our sins on account of Jesus Christ is the only cure for our sectarianism. It works for me!

Repenting of your sins and believing in the Gospel may not get you in with the “In” crowd but I will enable you to love God and your neighbour as yourself!

RAINBOWS

RAINBOWS

 

September brought with it spring showers to Tasmania. My friend told me that it was the land of many rainbows. Many rainbows I saw! One of the most beautiful was suspended in the air over the deep Derwent River in Hobart. It straddled both shores, more picturesque than the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Life began anew in Tasmania as trees in the orchards began placing perfume behind their ears and on their wrists as they tried to entice sleepy bees into kissing them. Like summer dresses all the colours of the rainbow were in their flowering buds.

Rainbows are beautiful, but what is a rainbow? Is it merely droplets of water hanging in the air refracting light? Or is there more to the rainbow than this? After the Flood God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth” Genesis 9:12&13. The rainbow, then, is the sign of God’s covenant with the earth.

What is a covenant? Charles Hodge says: “A covenant is a promise suspended upon a condition.” When God instituted the rainbow as a sign of the covenant He said: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease” Genesis 8:22). Notice that the conditional promise stands while earth remains. However, ultimately Jesus Christ is God’s covenant or conditional promise to us: “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen…” 2 Corinthians 1:20. Jesus, then, is the true sign of God’s everlasting covenant. He is the everlasting covenant (e.g. see Isa. 42:6; 49:8). Therefore, somehow the rainbow is a picture of Jesus.

He died suspended between heaven and earth. And when He ascended bodily up to heaven “while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight… ‘This same Jesus… will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:9,10). “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him” Revelation 1:7a, (see also Dan. 7:13).

God’s conditional promise is well illustrated in the following oft quoted verse: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16. The condition for receiving everlasting life is that we believe in God’s covenant Jesus Christ.

I remember many years ago seeing a classmate bathed in a rainbow. He had gone to fetch a stray soccer ball from the playing field. He was asked to stop where one end of a rainbow had touched down. Someone yelled to him, “Quick! Start digging.” God bathes His children with His rainbow as He shines His light upon us through the prism of His Son Jesus Christ. When He sees us in Christ He remembers His everlasting covenant.

Excerpted from my ebook The Song of Creation - http://www.amazon.com/SONG-CREATION-OTHER-CONTEMPLATIONS-ebook/dp/B006WRZDES/ref=la_B006NTVAWY_1_18?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1437595066&sr=1-18&refinements=p_82%3AB006NTVAWY

FESTIVALS

Festivals

Festivals with their attendant festivities ordinarily are seasons of happiness. Christmas is the festive season. However, festivals are not always outwardly religious in nature. There are rock, jazz and folk festivals as well as many other festivals celebrating historical and/or cultural events. It has been said that culture is religion externalised. If we keep this definition of culture in mind we can easily see that all community festivals are therefore broadly religious! Festivals are an expression of things communities hold dear, things worth celebrating. What is religious about a rock or a jazz festival? If you’ve ever been dazzled by a piece of music or gripped by song lyrics beautifully sung you’ll have had a religious experience. It’s a feeling of being elevated, ecstasy, i.e., a momentary feeling of having been transported to a higher plain. Food can do it. Drink can do it. Music can do it. Add these and more together and you have cultural festivities, a feast, a festival. However, the person needs to be in tune with the event.

The simplicity of the Lord’s Supper is that it is designed to lift up the communicant on wings like eagles to soar in heavenly realms, for the communicant by the Spirit through faith eats and drinks in the presence of the Lord at the wedding feast of the Lamb. Some Christians see the bread and wine only as a symbol and others only as a sacrifice. Properly understood the Lord’s Supper is an actual celebration using symbols to remember Christ’s sacrifice. It is a joyous occasion, a festival in which the food and drink elevates the soul and strengthens the believer’s faith.

The Lord’s Supper is the joyful fulfilment of the four seasonal festivals that existed in Old Testament times, viz., as per the season in the northern hemisphere, Spring, Unleavened Bread/Passover (Matthew 26:17-20); Summer, Harvest/Pentecost (Acts 2:1), Autumn, Ingathering/Tabernacles (John 7:2) and Winter, Dedication/Lights (John 10:22). As do all festivals, these point to celebratory events.

The opening chapter of the Bible contains an allusion to festivals. ‘Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years”’ Genesis 1:14. The Hebrew word here for ‘seasons’ is moo’a:dym. Not only has this word to do with climate, but it also includes the idea of festive gatherings, or seasonal celebration. As each season of the Old Testament calendar contained a festival, so each season in the New Testament calendar contains the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Traditionally Presbyterians have quarterly Communion. Each seasonal festival was also a reminder the Lord’s coming was/is drawing nearer.

Yet from Bacchus to Woodstock and beyond some festivals have degenerated into drunken and/or drug induced orgies, i.e., bacchanalian. However, if we keep in mind that culture is religion externalised we won’t fail to see that these are simply distorted forms of true religion. Don Mclean in his song ‘American Pie’ asks, ‘Do you believe in rock and roll? Can music save your mortal soul?’ Well, in line with the 1^st Commandment it needs to be said that the trinity of ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’ is no substitute for the triune God! Whether it is in food, drink, music or whatever, wherever a person pursues happiness there is his/her god! However, the best festivals are those that have God at their centre.    

 

 

SCOTUS: A NEW KIND OF TYRANNY?

SCOTUS: A NEW KIND OF TYRANNY?

The 5 – 4 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to make all 50 states of the union endorse, encourage and promote unnatural sex by redefining marriage to include same-sex couples is reason for great concern.

First off SCOTUS, to my knowledge, never actually provided a definition of the thousands of years old Biblical institution of marriage that the States are supposed to comply with. And secondly, how on earth did SCOTUS come up with its decision to bring chaos into the American household?

To me it is all quite straightforward and no mystery whatsoever: It is on account of a liberal view of the Constitution and the Holy Scriptures upon which the Constitution is based.

A “wax-nose” view of Scripture is held by Theological liberals whereby, very simply and very briefly, the Bible is viewed as a record of humanity’s search for God rather than God’s revelation to humanity. With such a view the Bible can be twisted this way and that in order to make it say whatever you want it to say.

The refrain is that those people back then do not know what we know today and therefore wrote a lot of things out of ignorance. In other words, they got things wrong! Apply this to the American Constitution and you can see something of where the five of the nine SCOTUS members are coming from. An example of this erroneous way of thinking would be that were James Madison et al to construct the Constitution today they would have most certainly intended that same-sex couples not be excluded from marriage! In other words, (like the Bible as viewed by Liberal Theologians), the Constitution can be twisted (like a wax-nose) to point in whatever direction most suits the political views of the liberal judges! Thus politics not truth that drives these five judges, (unlike the Christian who believes that God’s Law upon which human law is derived is absolute, truth to the liberal is merely relative, which is to say that these judges are Post Modernists and as such, unlike those who hold the Christian worldview, have a worldview of uncertainties.)  

Why should I, as a resident of Australia (not America), care what happens in America? Well, the United States of America is a great experiment, a great Christian experiment! If America goes under the whole of the West goes down with her because America as a world power is what protects and maintains the Western freedoms we all enjoy. America is our big brother defending the rest of us against bullies such as ISIS and the utopian follies of Socialism etc. But alas! There are five liberal judges wanting the whole of the Union to destabilize the very bedrock upon which society, including all of Western society, rests, i.e., Biblical marriage which is between one man and one woman for life!

In light of recent events (such as the vilification of bakers for their refusal to go against their consciences and bake cakes that openly promote a gay lifestyle) as a Christian minister who is a marriage celebrant I am getting a little nervous, foreseeing a time when I will be hated and thrown in prison for my refusal to marry same-sex couples an account of my holding the thousands of years old and Biblical definition of marriage.

Please do not ask me to concur with those five liberal judges who endorse and promote sodomy and now would have every one of the fifty States of America submit to their will and do likewise! This is not freedom. This is not the America of the Founding Fathers! This is tyranny!  

A FATHER'S LOVE

A Father’s Love

 

My wife Dorothy and I share an evening meal once a week at our place with our daughters and their husbands. I was silently watching my little two-year old grandson playing with his daddy. My tall son-in-law was sitting on the carpet and his son had his undivided attention.

I thank the Lord that he gave me three daughters all of whom I love dearly. However, I perceive that there is a special relationship between a father and a son, just as my wife Dorothy has that special ‘girly’ relationship with our three daughters. At the end of our evening together the boy’s dad picks his son up in his strong arms and carries him. It’s plain to see that he loves his son. In this I see a cameo of God’s love for His children.

An Army Chaplain was lamenting that his grandson, the apple of his eye, had grown up and had gone off the rails. I pray for my little grandson daily that he’ll always know a close walk with the Lord. However, I’m reminded that God’s people, from Adam till today, have been known to wander from the well-lit paths of righteousness to play the fool in the shadows. One only has to read the warnings in the Book of Proverbs about the flattering seductress. However, ‘A wise son makes glad a father, but a foolish son is the grief of his mother’ Proverbs 10:1. I pray my little grandson will grow up wise!

God’s children in the wilderness years were easily enticed away from their loving heavenly Father. Indeed, it’s during tough times that our love for our Father is most tested.  We look to God to protect us, but when devastation and destruction comes we tend to question His love for us. Wandering in the wilderness His children had been afraid to enter the Promised Land. So Moses in a speech reminded them of how God had looked after them, and, ‘In the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place’ Deuteronomy 1:31.

How does a man carry his son? He wraps his arms around him and holds him close to his heart. But look again at God: ‘The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are His everlasting arms’ Deuteronomy 33:27a. How did Job manage to trust God when his faith was so sorely tested? God asked Job rhetorically, ‘Have you an arm like God?’ Job 40:9a.

I love that poem ‘Footprints in the Sand.’ ‘You promised me Lord, that if I followed You, You would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed You most, have You not been there for me? The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”’

 

From - http://www.amazon.com/CURTAIN-Other-Contemplations-Cullan-McKinlay-ebook/dp/B009HN05EW/ref=la_B006NTVAWY_1_20?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434877855&sr=1-20&refinements=p_82%3AB006NTVAWY

VISIONS

Visions

 Because they were one of God’s methods of revelation the Bible contains a record of many visions. Visions increased with the arrival of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. (Joel 2:28 with Acts 2:17). One of my favourites is part of what John sees on the Isle of Patmos: ‘Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea’ Revelation 21:1. Sometimes the visions contained real scenes and other times they contained symbols. Context helps us decide which. However, my old theological professor never tired of saying that what John saw was this old heaven and this old earth renewed not replaced!

It is precisely because visions in the Bible are revelation from God that we can determine how we are supposed to understand them. The Bible is self-interpreting, which is to say that ‘The infallible rule of interpretation is the Scripture itself: and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.’ (Westminster Confession of Faith, 1, para. 4)

I don’t know about you but I think there is more than enough going on with the revelation of the sixty-six books of the Bible than having to worry about people claiming to have had a vision. Whereas the former can be interpreted objectively, on account of it being subjective interpreting the latter is fraught with many dangers. Not the least of them being darkness posing as light! I recall one preacher telling his congregation about the vision he had while looking at a tapestry. What it meant to him might have been edifying but it was wasted on me, so much so that I saw it as my cue to leave that congregation to find another in which the Bible was expounded! This is not to suggest that Christians cannot experience the close and intimate presence of God.  However, I personally favour the Spirit working with His written Word in my heart than me wondering whether Satan was trying to trick me with a lying sign or wonder! The former is objective (and therefore can be tested against the rest of Scripture) but the latter is subjective for the one who experienced the vision and also for anyone who wishes to believe it.

New religions have been formed by people claiming to have had visions, e.g., Joseph Smith’s ‘Mormonism’ and Muhammad’s ‘Islam.’   

After my conversion and thus my becoming spiritually tuned into God as a new Christian I entered into an intellectual and emotional wrestling match at the subjective level. How was I supposed to tell the difference between the Spirit of God acting on my personal life and the spirit of darkness posing as light? Scripture says, ‘Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.’ 1 John 4:1. How are we to test the spirits? We test their view of the Jesus revealed in the Bible. Scripture says that He is the Word, the final revelation of God, which is to say that there are no more prophets to come after Him. E.g., ‘God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son’ Hebrews 1a.

The Bible is complete. Jesus is the last prophet. ‘I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth’ Job 19:25.