The Pastor’s Garage May 21, 2020
May 21, 2020
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Hi there, I was thinking this week instead of calling it the pastors garage
we may as well call this the pastors tractor cab!
I’ve had many hours in the last few weeks to listen to the good old
radio! One of my favourite stations is The Beach 750 AM out of Melfort. It
plays 80s and 90s rock, yeah I may have had what resembles a mullet at one
time! My favourite announcer spends a lot of time explaining what songs
were written about and it surprises me how many songs that I’ve listened
too for many years I had no idea what they were actually about. To give a
couple examples, the song “One night in Bangkok” by Murray Head, I always
thought it was about a night of partying in the city of Bangkok. The song
is actually about a chess tournament, who knew? The song “Born in the USA”
by Bruce Springsteen, I had always thought it was about being a patriotic
citizen of the US. It’s a actually about the deplorable way the US was
treating it’s returning veterans from Vietnam. The old adage remains true,
don’t judge a book by its cover.
Many many years ago some good friends of mine told me about this
popular Christian speaker that they were listening to named Ravi
Zacharias. To be honest with you I didn’t like the guy and it had nothing
to do with who he was. All I knew about him was his name. It sounded so
trendy, I was picturing some young upstart smooth talker, long-haired guy
dressed in preppy clothes. It was quite a number of years later that I
actually saw a video of him speaking, I couldn’t of been more wrong in my
preconceived notion‘s! He was anything but trendy, in fact quite the
opposite! In case you haven’t heard about him he was probably one of the
greatest Christian apologetics of our time. He just passed away this week
due to complications with cancer. The thing that impressed me the most
about him speaking was the fact that he didn’t judge a book by its cover!
Quite often someone would pose a question with the obvious intent to stir
the pot. He had the gift of looking through the divisive question to the
real heart of the matter. He was always very respectful to everyone he
debated about the many controversial areas that pit the Christian ideology
against the world standards. Even when those who opposed him were very
disrespectful he spoke with such grace and certainty that most times it
disarmed the conflict and he was able to get his point across. He will be
greatly missed!
This week as we encounter people who have ideologies and theology’s
that may be very different than our own deeply held beliefs, let us not be
tempted to judge a book by its cover. Let us always show respect to others
opinions even though they might be quite different than her own. I will
leave you with a couple verses that speak to Ravi’s life and how we should
live in our interaction with others. “If it is possible, as much as depends
on you, live peaceably with all men.” Romans 12:18 “But sanctify the
Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone
who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;”
I Peter 3:15
Love you and miss you all,
Pastor Mike