Trinity Christian Church // Owen Sound, Ontario

Attacking while attacked.

trinity — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:04:02 +0000

Even though things may from time to time be difficult, and there will be moments when we feel despair, the truth is that, no matter what is happening externally, God is powerfully at work accomplishing His purposes. I think each of us can look back to times when things looked very bleak, times which were very hard for us, times when we were tempted to lose hope, yet God brought us through those times. And looking back, we can often see how He was working out His purposes through it all. Ask the Lord to open your eyes to how He has worked things in your life through times of battle which would never otherwise have happened. And ask the Lord to show you that attack verifies one thing: you — yes, you — are a threat to the kingdom of darkness. The enemy does not bother with those who do not threaten him. And of course, just because battle is a reality does not mean it is constant. God provides times of rest between the storms. But we do live in a fallen world. Revelation 12:12 teaches that the devil has come down to the world “in great wrath” to do battle with the church from the time of Christ’s resurrection until the time of His return. He will not give up an inch of his territory without a fight. The battle is a given. But we are victorious in it. Attacking while attacked, inch by inch, we move forward, not backward. I pray God will encourage you daily by opening your eyes more and more to the ground that has already been gained.

- David Campbell

How faith works.

trinity — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:37:50 +0000

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” The key word here is “substance”, which represents the Greek word hupostasis. This word is used twice elsewhere in Hebrews. According to Hebrews 1:3, the Son is the exact representation of God’s hupostasis, and according to Hebrews 3:14, believers share in Christ only if they hold fast the beginning of their hupostasis to the end.

In the Greek language, this word originally meant that which supports something, a deposit or sediment in the ground, or even an item of immovable property. It came to refer in a more figurative sense to the underlying reality behind a thing. Christ is pictured in 1:3 as the exact representation of the reality, substance or being of God. The eternal reality of who and what God is in the eternal, unseen realm is made physical, earthly reality in Christ. In the same way, the things that exist in the eternal realm – the “things hoped for”, the things we do not yet possess, are made into flesh and blood reality in the lives of individual believers in Christ through the exercise of faith. As Christ brings the invisible substance of God into this physical world, so faith brings the things we do not yet possess into our possession. Our faith in Christ reaches out for and secures what is real in the invisible world and brings it into the physical reality of this present world, whereas the outward realities of that world are in fact only passing shadows. What is real in the eternal world but has no substance in the material world gains substance through the exercise of our faith. It is this substance which enabled the heroes of faith, whose lives are recorded as chapter 11 unfolds, to conquer everything the world threw against them, and still emerge victorious, whether in life or in death.

And of course, the substance of our faith is Christ - He is God’s guarantee standing behind everything we believe — so how can we fail? Maybe it’s time we took some more steps of faith by testing the substance of what we have but often fail to exercise. We may be amazed at the results!

- David Campbell

Faith for the fight.

trinity — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:26:12 +0000

How do we view the Christian life? What does it really mean to follow Christ? We would all admit that we live in a very pleasure-oriented, self-seeking society. This attitude can overflow into our understanding of Christianity. Do we teach people becoming Christians that following Jesus means to be rescued from all worldly troubles? Or that Christianity is a gateway to material prosperity? Or that it is a guarantee of protection? If so, we will not have a framework for understanding spiritual warfare when it occurs. But what if we take the Bible seriously in its portrayal of the Christian life as a battle in which we besiege the powers of darkness, fight against them and defeat them? In this case, we will have some expectations in place:
** a battle presumes an opposing power;
** this opposition will do some damage to us;
** the moment this damage occurs is the critical point where we must trust God and hold fast our position;
** no matter what the ups and downs of the battle, God guarantees ultimate victory.

If, on the other hand, we present the Christian life in terms of benefits and protection, the result — paradoxically — will be fear. Why? Because when trouble comes, we will have no frame of reference to understand or cope with it. Why is this happening when we thought God would protect us? This is the downfall of much teaching on faith. If faith is understood as trusting God that He will keep us from financial, physical and emotional hardships, we will have no means of dealing with those situations when they inevitably arise — and we will find ourselves in confusion and even disillusionment in our relationship with the Lord. But if we present the Christian life in terms of a battle which we fight offensively, the result will be peace — albeit peace in the midst of a storm. Why? Because:
** we have anticipated the attack of the enemy;
** we are trusting God to keep us in it;
** we see God as sovereign over it; He has warned us in advance that attack will come, but He promises to keep us in it and bring us through it.

Revelation repeatedly presents the Christian life as one of overcoming — which presumes we have things to overcome, but that, by God’s grace and empowering, we will do so. And when we have fought the battle, we will never regret doing what He called us to do.

- David Campbell

Ready For Battle.

trinity — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:15:20 +0000

There is no doubt that Paul faced severe attack — far more than any of us are likely to encounter. Yet for Paul, the reality of these ferocious attacks did not change his fundamental perspective on spiritual warfare, which is that we are besieging the enemy, not that the enemy is besieging us. How do I know this? The “weapons of our warfare” he refers to in 2 Corinthians 10:4 are in fact siege engines — powerful devices used to launch an offensive attack on a besieged city, in this case the fortress of Satan. Perhaps we can describe the process as “attacking while being attacked.” But this does raise a number of questions about spiritual warfare. Who is in control of the circumstances? How much do we have to suffer? To what extent will God protect us? Will we emerge victorious? These are legitimate questions. And we can give some brief answers, all from Romans 8.

Who is in control? God is in control — otherwise He is no longer the sovereign God the Bible says He is, nor could it be truthfully said that He works all things together for good for those who love Him (Rom. 8:28). Even where the enemy is at work, inflicting damage on us as best he can, God is working over, through and in it all to bring about a bigger and better purpose, which sooner or later will become clear. There are times when we just have to hold on and trust Him.

As to how much we may have to suffer or to what extent He will protect us, the same chapter in Romans says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Rom. 8:35). The fact is none of us can define the extent of what may come against us. One thing is for sure: it is hardly likely that this entire list of challenges — all of which (except possibly the sword) Paul personally experienced — will befall us. Yet none of them deterred Paul from following Christ, or made him feel that following Christ was not worth the price he had to pay for it. We cannot sit around worrying about whether we could withstand a trial that might or might not take place: “What would I do if this or that happened?” God does not give grace and strength for a trial until we are in the trial. The truth is God has promised that, no matter what happens, nothing will separate us from His love.

And finally, as to whether we will emerge victorious, the answer is clear: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37). So let’s get on with the battle, and trust God with the results!

- David Campbell

The church’s future.

trinity — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 01:41:42 +0000

1 John 2:14: “I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him from has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

John says here that the strength of young men is in the Word of God and in their ability to overcome the enemy. This is an interesting statement. We tend to think that it would take as many years to come to know God’s Word and to have spiritual power to overcome the enemy as it would to gain the type of knowledge of God possessed only by the fathers who, John says, “know Him who has been from the beginning”. Yet such is not the case. It is true that some levels of understanding God’s Word take years to reach. But the problem lies in our over-emphasis on intellectual knowledge. While it make take years of advanced training to understand certain aspects of Scripture, or to be able to get up and teach the church about it, most of the Bible is pretty simple. Anyone can gain a sufficient grasp of it quickly enough to use it. A brand-new convert with only a small understanding of the Word can use it against the enemy to devastating effect. By the same token, an unbelieving or liberal-minded professor of theology may have accumulated a lifetime of facts about the Bible – many of them erroneous – but in truth understands it less than the new convert on fire for God. There is something in the spirit of a young man which takes the Bible as a sword and jumps at the chance of using it in battle. That’s what he’s talking about here.

The same thing is true for the second part of the statement. Young men are destined by God to overcome the enemy. You don’t have to have known God for years to enter into battle and triumph. After all, the armed forces usually recruit men under 25, not over 50! There is a raw strength of faith in young men which can be harnessed to achieve great things.

Satan’s strategy, therefore, is to neutralize the strength of the young men. The young men are the future fathers and leaders, and if he destroys them now, he destroys the future of the church. That’s why the fathers (who know God and equally know the enemy and his ways), are charged with safeguarding the young men and helping them to achieve their destiny. The generals, through their years of experience, know their enemy, know his tactics, and know the way to win. But it is the soldiers who will fight the battle. The job of the generals (like the fathers in the church) is to release the young men in such a way that their strength is employed most effectively.

All this leads us to ask the question: how many churches are making the raising up of young men their overriding pastoral focus? Food for thought!

- David Campbell

A City On A Hill.

trinity — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:15:56 +0000

Not only are we salt, according to Jesus (see our last blog), we are light. Again (as it was when Jesus talked about salt) the construction in the Greek is emphatic: “You, you alone and no others are the light of the world!” This should be no surprise, because Jesus said of Himself: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), and here He teaches us that we are meant to reflect this light in our own lives. Paul wrote that we are to “become … children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe…” (Phil. 2:15)., and that God has “shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6). The next thing Jesus says is this: “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” This statement seems to give a practical application or consequence to His declaration that we are the light of the world. What does Jesus mean by describing the church as a “city on a hill”? Clearly, it has something to do with visibility, but again a knowledge of the historical context comes in handy. In the Israel of Jesus’ day, houses were often built of white limestone. As such, they would gleam in the sun and could scarcely be hidden, particularly if set on a hill. At night, the light of hundreds or thousands of oil lamps would cast a glow over the hillside. Even as you would not build a city on a hill and try to hide it, neither would you light a lamp and set it under a bowl, verse 15 continues. A lamp is put on a lampstand to give light to everyone, and the church is set on a hill for the same purpose. Jesus was almost certainly thinking about the Old Testament prophecies concerning Jerusalem as a city of light lifted up before the nations who would come to it:
“In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it” (Is. 2:2).
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn” (Is. 60:1-3).

Jesus is reminding us that the church has taken the place of Jerusalem as the city of God in the same way that believers of Christ from every nation, Jew and Gentile alike, have taken the place of Israel as His covenant people. In the same way as a city on a hill gives out its light, day and night, God’s city will shine eternally: “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine upon you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory” (Is. 60:19). Jesus now commands us in verse 16 to let our light shine before the world, that everyone may see our good deeds and glorify God. The church is the most powerful solar energy device ever made. We are designed and created to take the light of the universe and reflect it into the world around us, imparting the energy by which that universe was created and by which Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Without us, the people and nations around us will descend into darkness. This incredible power and responsibility is ours.

- David Campbell

Salt Of The Earth.

trinity — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:26:17 +0000

“You yourselves and no other are the salt of the earth”. This is the best translation of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:13. Jesus envisions a role for us no one else can fulfill. If we are not prepared to be the salt of the earth, no one else will be. It is no use looking to governments, scientists, philosophers or military figures to save civilization – only the church of the living God can rise to the task. If the church fails, there is no Plan B. Jesus does not envision a world where humanists and people of various religions will join forces to establish peace and harmony. Jesus was so “narrow-minded” to insist that only His followers, empowered by His Spirit, would be able to do the job.

The most common use for salt in the ancient world, in places with a hot climate and no refrigeration, was as a preservative. A small amount of salt rubbed into the meat would slow its decay. So clear enough – we are to be a preservative. But how could Jesus speak of salt losing its saltiness? Anyone who has taken high school chemistry knows that salt, sodium chloride, is what chemists call a stable compound. In other words, it does not decay or become diluted in any way. Was Jesus a poor scientist? The answer is found in the fact that in the ancient world salt, rather than being mined or produced as the product of evaporation from salt water, was found in salt marshes. It therefore contained many impurities. Because the salt itself was more soluble than the impurities, it could wind up being drained or leached out in the process of being transported, stored or used, thereby leaving most of the impurities but only a little of the pure salt. The residue was so diluted it was of little worth for preserving purposes. This was described as salt which had lost its saltiness.

Jesus’ next statement, that such salt is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men. According to scholars, salt that had lost its saltiness was used for a specific purpose in the ancient near east. It was scattered on the soil which covered the flat roofs of houses. The nature of its chemical composition was such as to harden the soil and prevent leaks in the roof. In those times, roofs were used as playgrounds for children or as meeting places for adults (much as we use patios or decks). Consequently, they were continually being trodden under foot, and this process was used, along with the sprinkling of diluted salt, to keep the roofs hard and leak-proof. What is tasteless salt good for? Only to be thrown out (or cast around) and trodden under foot. That was the only practical use it had left.
You give and take away
The message is clear. In order to be the moral disinfectant, the agent of health and wholeness in a world of decay and death, Christians must retain the full strength of what Jesus has put within them. When we come to Christ, we are given the potential of living with Christ’s nature and the ability that comes with that to affect the world around us. But along with it, we also carry the baggage of our fallen human nature. As we take the purity of what God has given us in Christ and carry it through this fallen world, we are continually confronted with the possibility of compromise, of letting our standards fall, of choosing to live with one foot in the kingdom and one foot out of it. If this takes place, the purity and strength of what we have in Christ will gradually be leached away, and all we will be left with is a pale copy of the real original. There must be no compromise with worldly standards, no letting down of our guard. Otherwise, we will find ourselves thrown out of God’s purposes and trodden underfoot by the men, in such a way that, through our hypocrisy or inability to live up to the message we proclaim, we wind up contributing to the hardening of their hearts against God.

- David Campbell

Fixing broken relationships.

trinity — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 23:24:02 +0000

Young people today are tasting the bitter fruit of broken relationships. Many have been raised without any real father. God has created them with a longing to be fathered, whether they understand it or not. What we have to offer is powerful, provided we can back it up with a supply of real fathers. The church must become functional and properly ordered, a place of security and integrity in relationships. Young people are longing for the experience of relationship that postmodern culture denies them. Women have sacrificed family for career and are now living to regret it. Their assumption of leadership roles in business and government places them in a boxing ring where men, by nature, fight to win. Is it any wonder either that young women are now smoking more than young men or that women’s life expectancy is projected to come down eventually to the level of men’s for the first time? Extreme feminism is under attack — by women as much as by men. Men who have abdicated their roles are feeling the emptiness. Studies show “house husbands” develop more health problems than other men. Young people have lived with a generation of men who have abandoned their families in search of their own happiness and they are sick of it. They are looking for stability and commitment while believing a philosophy which teaches the opposite. No wonder they are confused and under stress! This is not a time to match what the culture is offering by trying to entertain people or make them feel good. It is a time to preach the loving, disciplining, directional care of the Father. It is a time to preach the cross and commitment to goals higher than ourselves. I believe there are millions of young people out there waiting to hear the call to this kind of discipleship — if we will preach it and live it ourselves.

- David Campbell

The Family of God.

trinity — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:09:46 +0000

The following sets out, in one paragraph, a summary of what we need to know ourselves and what we need to teach others as a foundation for people coming out of the kingdom of darkness:
God as Father is the foundation of every human family. The Bible states: “I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its name”(Eph. 3:14-15). Note that the NIV translation“from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth receives its name” is incorrect. God’s position as Father is the foundation of every human family, not just God’s family. God’s position as Father establishes order in the Trinity as well as in creation: “The head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor. 11:3). God’s order does not become tyranny or legalism because in His Kingdom, those in authority are commanded to lay down their lives for those under their care — Jesus Himself setting the example. Husbands lay down their lives for their wives, parents lay down their lives for their children and employers seek the good of their employees. Because God is Father, His kingdom becomes a kingdom of relationship. Relationship exists within the Trinity and flows out into creation. The kingdom of God should be the most relational place on earth, and the place where relationships operate the most effectively and for the benefit of all. True Biblical relationship, at whatever level, is found in people serving one another within the order established by God. Such relationships are characterized by words such as respect, honour, love and sacrifice. These relationships are deep and can withstand any strain or attack.

- David Campbell

Rights or responsibilities?

trinity — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:14:16 +0000

Our postmodern culture is focussed on rights and freedoms. We want to be able to do anything we can to further our own sense of purpose or happiness. But this often has bitter and unintended results. The conflict over male-female role distinctions illustrates this. Each gender desires the right or ability to do what he/she wants in order to fulfil their goals and achieve happiness, but in disregard of the good of the greater whole. Women feel they must somehow take hold of their rightful share of rulership which has been monopolized by men, while women have been kept in a subservient position. As Christians, indeed, we must acknowledge that men, Christian men included, have often wrongfully dominated and lorded it over women, seeking their own benefit while not being concerned for the woman. The solution, however, is to hold to the Bible’s view that men and women are equal in worth and value, though different in role and function. This relates to the breaking of the curse God placed on the relationship of Adam and Eve as a result of their disobedience. According to Gen. 3:16, the substance of this curse was that the man would “rule over” the woman and the woman would “desire” the man. In Genesis, the Hebrew word for “rule over” does not refer to the legitimate exercise of authority but to violent physical abuse. In Christ, while there is still legitimate authority in the marriage relationship, there is no room for any form of abuse. Rather, the husband shows his leadership in the marriage through the laying down of his life (Eph. 5:25). The other element of the curse – the woman’s “desire” for the man – does not refer in Hebrew to legitimate physical desire, but to an obsessive controlling manipulation of the man best personified in Scripture by Jezebel. Satan’s plan was for the man to rule abusively through force and power, and for the woman to respond defensively through control and manipulation. The effect of the curse, therefore, was to pervert Adam’s God-given authority into an abusive tyranny, whereas Eve’s role as a submissive co-worker was twisted as she attempted to achieve self-protection through controlling Adam in an obsessive focus on him rather than on God, thus resulting in a potent mixture of idolatry and control. Adam found “freedom” to govern outside of God and Eve found “freedom” to find security outside of God. This, Paul declares, is the curse now broken through the work of the cross.

- David Campbell