Personal Politics

I'm reflecting on today's sermon and thinking about the personal and political implications of my faith.

In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus says, 'Come to Me, ALL who are weary and burdened, and I WILL GIVE YOU REST. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am gentle and humble, and you'll find refreshment for your soul'

How do we receive this gift that he offers?
Amid war and rumors of war, illness, financial crisis, persecution, discrimination and death, amid the perils of normality, where and how does one find true peace?

The preacher, a man from Bangladesh, talked about the Way.
There was a lot more, but this was the essence of his message, a loud echo of the words of Jesus:
Love by Example by Prayer and by Witnessing

Are you tired, in despair, hurt or angry? Love anyway. Set the example anyway. Pray anyway. Witness anyway. Whatever the cost may be, Jesus will make it worth your while.

My Story: God is the Healer

Lord have mercy on us!
Help us to wake to the Power of Prayer

Memories from childhood can have a life-long impact. When I was born, my parents were living in Loughborough, a small city in the English Midlands. The cold winters meant being given hot water bottles by our feet just to get to sleep. Back then most people didn’t have central heating. Our toes would be chilled to the point of pain in the mornings. My Dad used to get up and fetch the coal from the cellar to start the fire in the dining room. Many mornings he had to take a blowtorch to the outside loo to melt the layer of ice that had formed in the bowl. My mother told me the stories of Jesus. Even then, I heard the call to seek Him. I had a brother and sister, but I was the oldest, the one to set the example. There were toys and jigsaw puzzles to play with. We had radio, but no TV, not even a fridge. I was allowed to play records on an old manually cranked phonograph. We would walk to visit my Nana who lived near a large park which had a marvelous 47- bell- carillon which could be heard from quite a distance.



We visited my great grandparents almost every Sunday for afternoon tea. I used to play with a wooden alphabet set. Each block had an animal picture to go with its letter, A for antelope, and so on. I distinctly recall the moment I realized that letters could be put together to made words. Amazing! Before I started school I was reading simple nursery rhymes. Every November 5th, the skies were bright with fireworks shot into the air in many backyards to remember the infamous plot to blow up the House of Lords in London back in 1605. In early 1961, I remember being in a dimly lit church where I sensed the presence of 'God'. Jus over two years later, one morning my parents told us about the news over the radio that President Kennedy had been shot.

When I was seven and a half, my parents decided to bring us to Canada. In grade five, in Quebec, I memorized the 23rd Psalm for a poetry recital. When I stood up to speak, my teacher told me, ‘Sit down! That’s not poetry, that’s Scripture!’ In grade six, I got hold of a Gideons Centennial Edition of the New Testament. The book of Revelation and the Gospels caught my attention. I also read the Hardy Boys, Jules Verne, Von Daniken, Velikovsky, science, modern sci-fi, historical romance, … One day while recovering from chicken pox I was given a book all about ghosts, mind reading, astral travel and other strange ideas. One night I experienced a very real personal attack. I felt physically grabbed by someone or something not of this world.

Throughout high school I was very shy and always managed to avoid speaking in class. At university, I took honours Physics and Engineering. Friends kept giving me copies of the Bible, some containing strange books with titles like Bel and the Dragon, and the Wisdom of Sirach. I was challenged to seriously consider the story and claims of Jesus, and began to attend Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship, where, for the first time, I clearly heard the message of the cross: the good news that Jesus had died for me. I discovered that I needed to make a personal response to his sacrifice. I helped to distribute copies of the New Testament in the Student Union building.

In the middle of my senior year, just after Christmas, I experienced a turmoil that required hospitalization. I asked God in prayer to reveal Himself to me if he really was there. Shortly afterward, I experienced His loving presence in a powerful way. I was pretty excited, 'high on Jesus', and began talking to my friends at length, in the middle of the night! I asked my landlady if I could examine an old ceremonial sword, which hung in her living room. I took it up to my room and, later that night, baptized it in the bathtub. For me this was a powerful symbol of spiritual warfare. Fortunately a friend came by. If he hadn’t been there, I might have done something even sillier.

(Edmund Yu was a troubled medical student who, a few years ago, was killed by police on a TTC bus in Toronto, and all because they thought the little hammer he was carrying might have been a gun!)

My friends contacted the local Anglican priest and my mother and brother, who together got me to see a local doctor, someone I already knew and trusted. He prescribed tranquilizers. But I was so hyper I was admitted to the local hospital for eight days. My Christian friends were all praying for me privately and in their churches. After spending two months at home with my family, I marked in my New Testament, March 9, 1978, as the date I chose to receive the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior. Three days later I was admitted to the Nova Scotia Psychiatric Hospital, where I languished for two months, pacing the hallways with increasing frustration. The rest of that year was a write-off. I had neither motivation nor energy to do anything. I struggled just to get up each morning.

The following year I took two summer courses in Religious Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island. In October I heard Billy Graham preach on the story of the Good Samaritan at the Halifax Metro Centre and I went forward as a public act of faith. I began to work with handicapped adults and later that year began shift work as a residential counselor caring for these folk. I also held a second job, 35 miles away, as a research assistant in St. F. X. University’s Spectroscopy lab.

In December, I received my Bachelor’s degree in Science, the two courses in the Christian faith having fulfilled my course requirements. During the next few years I spent five more months in hospital. I was often hyper, going from singing God’s praise in the halls to making an unruly nuisance of myself. One day I was placed, almost naked, in a locked ‘quiet room’. I felt like a caged lion. Someone had etched onto the wooden door the words, ‘Hello world!’ It seemed everyone was going crazy!

The enemy seeks to cloud our minds and steal our peace. I could have ended up another suicide statistic! When Jesus says, ‘Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I’ll restore you,’ He really means it! He’s ready to give His peace if we really want it and faithfully seek after Him.
I spent a year and a half living in a depressingly decrepit Rehab Centre where I learned to operate an offset printing press. My healing has come slowly and is entirely due to the love of our Lord Jesus, my wife and the rest of my family, my doctors, as well as the support and prayers of many Christian friends, known and unknown. I’ve known the torment of dreams that turn to nightmares that gradually turn to waking reality. There’s an ecstasy in believing that Christ will surely come today and severe depression in enduring another day without seeing his face.

In the worst circumstance, there’s really no need to remain isolated and depressed. An Anglican minister and his wife helped me, through the ministry of the Order of St. Luke, to experience a measure of healing.

Demons are real. Mental illness is real. Connections between these two concepts are difficult to establish. Surely we can admit that most mental illness probably has little or no demonic component. 

Can we not also admit that some conditions cannot be explained unless we accept the existence of ungodly, wicked spiritual forces? Joy Vassal’s book, Demons are Real, gives vivid testimony of the negative spiritual impact of belief in voodoo and wizardry. Ron Armstrong, who was an Anglican missionary to parts of Latin America, talked about the power of prayer to bring healing to communities bewitched by so-called medicine men and witches. Many people have become followers of Jesus after finding that prayer in His name was the only effective way to receive help for their various afflictions. The occult practices of witch doctors usually only succeeded in temporary alleviation followed by worse problems later. Jesus gives freedom from entrapment to the lies that these people offer.

Too often in so-called advanced societies we believe a different lie, that formally trained medical practitioners, with their drugs and surgeries, can heal our diseases and we are released from the need to pray. Reliance on God becomes an option and only for those who already believe in Him. For me that early memory of hearing about Jesus was critical. Just as we were told as children to look for police if we were threatened or lost, so we must look to Our Lord, through the church, His people, for help with spiritual struggles.

O that our churches would respond to all illnesses with both prayer and medicine, referring both parishioners and enquirers to other qualified professionals if church members are not yet properly trained and qualified. Doctors and ministers must learn how to work together. This is a life and death issue. God is able. O that men and women and children would come to know and praise the Lord for His wondrous doings. Amen!

Wake Up! Rise from the Dead

To the Anglican Church:
Don't let truth slip away.
Don't lose sight of Jesus.
If we let God arise, if we let His enemies be scattered, then
the Glory of the Lord will arise upon us;
...even though gross darkness will cover the land and the people.
Praise God for His glory!
His Holiness can burn away our sin, as we turn to Jesus and let ourselves be cleansed by His blood!

Jesus, the only hope

Faith in the Lord Jesus is ultimately the only way to amicably resolve questions of both national and personal identity.
The problem is that individuals, countries and even churches often tend to ignore or even disobey His teachings.

The Light of Jesus trancends culture and creed. In His Name alone there is power to defeat forces of evil. The main reason we languish in sin and sickness stems from the failure of our churches to properly teach as He taught.

When one member of the local body is sick all suffer, likewise when one segment of the larger church errs, all are affected. We must not rely on priest, minister or pastor to do the work. When we restrict praise and prayer in our worship, our life-blood is cut off.

We're called to walk in the spirit and to speak the truth in love. Jesus is at the Father's hand, praying for our unity, spiritual boldness and compassionate mercy. From Him flow springs of living water. When Christ dwells in us, the Hope of Glory is realized.

Scripture urges, 'Call upon the LORD while He may be found.' Jesus still says, 'Come to me...'
When these two calls meet, supernatural power is released.

O that people, nations and churches would make the connection!

LISTEN UP! Are you interested in mental health?

Is it OK to be mentally ill?
Going by the evidence most Canadians appear to believe it is.

The Globe and Mail, in its Breakdown series, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/breakdown did a fine job last week on highlighting the ongoing struggle many individuals and families face in dealing with the crushing realities of mental illness. In October, 1998, Scott Simmie wrote a similar, and award winning, series in the Toronto Star. His title 'Out of Mind' revealed the uncomfortable truth that the Canadian public has had little interest in compelling our leaders to act. In the intervening years, virtually nothing has changed on the front lines where most sufferers and helpers are fighting the battle for health and wellness.
We are still waiting for supportive housing, the crucial element in any plan to address this crisis.
The National Scandal of damaged people being shuffled from one government department to another, trying to find assistance, plays out like a tragic farce. Specifically, people are forced to travel back and forth between agencies providing 'social services' (money) and those providing health care, housing or shelter, food, clothing and sense of community, often while also dealing with more acceptable illnesses such as cancer and AIDS.

The Ministry of Health is not set up to work together with Provincial or Municipal Social Services Ministries. There is little or no coordination between these agencies for people who do not fit neatly into the medical model for physical illness.
Do we accuse a person with diabetes or epilepsy of being responsible for his or her illness?
Would we send blind people to three different branches of the CNIB?
Why is it acceptable tell a mentally incapacitated person to 'just get a job'?



People are a bit like buildings. Sometimes they look sad and forlorn, sometimes comical and fresh. Looking from the outside doesn't say much about the inside. What strengths, surprises, costs and depravities remain hidden? Agents and friends can help to find self-identity; enemies, mis-directed friends and enviromental pests attack both foundation and structure.

Last year Canada finally established a Mental Health Commission to attempt to address the lack of attention given to those Canadians who suffer cracks in their foundations, that 10% of us who are likely to experience severe, debilitating mental and spiritual distress at some point in our lives. The hope is that money will, at long last, be dedicated to research for treatment and cure for those things that afflict our minds and spirits. But throwing money around in the ivory towers of academia will not be enough. Certainly research must be done. Counselling heelps. The heart of the matter will begin to be addressed when we can discuss together and pray about the harsh realities which have been swept under the proverbial rug.

Why are our religious institutions largely silent on this issue? When have you heard a message about the spiritual resources available to bring to bear on this topic? Are there ever connections between mental illness and evil spirits? Do chaplains and medical professionals coordinate their efforts to heal? What would Jesus have Us do?
Thank God for the good work that is being done.
Much, much more is needed.

We, who have suffered schizophrenia, psychosis or depression will not tolerate society's stigma. The taboo is broken. Praise the Name of JESUS!
Lend us your ears!
Invite us to speak at your places of worship, community centers, schools, anywhere interested people will gather. Let us tell how God heals and delivers. Let us work and pray that no more of us, or our loved ones, suffer needlessly due to neglect and ignorance. Let's make good use of the quality programs that already exist and build together the healthy communities that we all need.
Let's free up funding, and other resources, and empower all Canadians to help each other!

Let us be rebuilders of the breach.
Mental illness should never be OK!

A Canadian Sunrise

Sunrise, Son Rise!
O Jesus, the descending King,
Seek your own to lead and quicken!
Away with abuse, brutal and treacherous,
that attacks sound minds,
freezing their song in fear!
And yet a melting into humble power is done
by The Helping Spirit One,
and we become deeply thoughtful,
concerned ones,
really no longer divided by the evil one.
Let the educators awake in time
and wonder at His plan
to accomplish all on sounding trumpet;
Come Lord Jesus, Come.